<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:geo="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/"> <channel> <title>EdSurge Articles</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/</link> <description>A nonprofit newsroom reporting on the powerful forces, fascinating people and innovative practices shaping teaching and learning.</description> <copyright>Copyright 2011-2019, EdSurge Inc.</copyright> <language>en</language> <atom:link href="https://www.edsurge.com/articles_rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/> <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> <lastBuildDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 09:14:52 +0000</lastBuildDate> <pubDate>Fri, 22 Nov 2024 03:00:00 -0800</pubDate> <image> <url>https://www.edsurge.com/assets/EdSurgeBoltIconSquare-fcbc09a7554de1b6d9b5e4b21fcc2b7c64eba0736181def4be06ae4e13533e25.png</url> <title>EdSurge Articles</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/</link> </image> <item> <title>Researchers Try Using AI Chatbots to Conduct Interviews for Social Science Studies</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-22-researchers-try-using-ai-chatbots-to-conduct-interviews-for-social-science-studies</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-22-researchers-try-using-ai-chatbots-to-conduct-interviews-for-social-science-studies#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Jeffrey R. Young</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Artificial Intelligence</category> <category>Higher Education</category> <pubDate>Fri, 22 Nov 2024 03:00:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-231fd760 </guid> <description>A new effort uses AI chatbots to conduct interviews with human subjects, which proponents say will revolutionize measuring public opinion in a variety ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;As the legislative election in France approached this summer, a research team decided to reach out to hundreds of citizens to interview them about their views on key issues. But the interviewer asking the questions wasn’t a human researcher — it was an AI chatbot.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To prepare ChatGPT to take on this role, the researchers started by prompting the AI bot to behave as it has observed professors communicating in its training data. The specific prompt, according to &lt;a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4974382" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;a paper published by the researchers&lt;/a&gt;, was: “You are a professor at one of the world’s leading research universities, specializing in qualitative research methods with a focus on conducting interviews. In the following, you will conduct an interview with a human respondent to find out the participant’s motivations and reasoning regarding their voting choice during the legislative elections on June 30, 2024, in France, a few days after the interview.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The human subjects, meanwhile, were told that a chatbot would be doing the online interview rather than a person, and they were identified to participate using a system called Prolific, which is commonly used by researchers to find survey participants. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Part of the research question for the project was whether the participants would be game to share their views with a bot, and whether ChatGPT would stay on topic and, well, act professional enough to solicit useful answers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The chatbot interviewer is part of an experiment by two professors at the London School of Economics, who argue that AI could change the game when it comes to measuring public opinion in a variety of fields.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It could really accelerate the pace of research,” says Xavier Jaravel, one of the professors leading the experiment. He noted that AI is already being used in the physical sciences to &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-09-26-should-ai-bots-do-science" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;automate parts of the experimental process&lt;/a&gt;. For example, this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry went to &lt;a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03214-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;scholars who used AI to predict protein folds&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And Jaravel hopes that AI interviewers could allow more researchers in more fields to sample public views than is feasible and cost-effective with human interviewers. That could end up causing big changes for professors around the country, adding sampling public opinion and experience as part of the playbook for many more academics.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But other researchers question whether AI bots should stand in for researchers in the deeply human task of assessing the opinions and feelings of people.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;'“It could really accelerate the pace of research."&lt;/blockquote&gt;— Xavier Jaravel&lt;p&gt;“It's a very quantitative perspective to think that just having more participants automatically makes the study better — and that's not necessarily true,” says Andrew Gillen, an assistant teaching professor in the first-year engineering program at Northeastern University. He argues that in many cases, “in-depth interviews with a select group is generally more meaningful” — and that those should be done by humans.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;No Judgment&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the experiment with French voters, and with another trial that used the approach to ask about what gives life meaning, many participants said in a post-survey assessment that they preferred the chatbot when it came to sharing their views on highly personal topics.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Half of the respondents said they would rather take the interview again, or do a similar interview again, with an AI,” says Jaravel. “And the reason is that they feel like the AI is a non-judgmental entity. That they could freely share their thoughts, and they wouldn't be judged. And they thought with a human, they would feel judged, potentially.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Get EdSurge journalism delivered free to your inbox. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/newsletters" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Sign up for our newsletters&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;About 15 percent of participants said they would prefer a human interviewer, and about 35 percent said they were indifferent to chatbot or human.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The researchers also gave transcripts of the chatbot interviews to trained sociologists to check the quality of the interviews, and the experts determined that the AI interviewer was comparable to an “average human expert interviewer,” Jaravel says. A &lt;a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4974382" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;paper on their study&lt;/a&gt; points out, however, that “the AI-led interviews never match the best human experts.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The researchers are encouraged by the findings, and they have released &lt;a href="https://github.com/friedrichgeiecke/interviews" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;their interviewing platform&lt;/a&gt; free for any other researcher to try out themselves. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jaravel agrees that in-depth interviews that are more typical in ethnographic research are far superior to anything their chatbot system could do. But he argues that the chatbot interviewer can collect far richer information than the kind of static online surveys that are typical when researchers want to sample large populations. “So we think that what we can do with the tool here is really advancing that type of research because you can get much more detail,” he tells EdSurge.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gillen, the researcher at Northeastern, argues that there is something important that no chatbot will ever be able to do that is important even when administering surveys — something he called “&lt;a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/career-advice/2024/03/22/five-reasons-include-positionality-statements-your-writing-opinion" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;positionality&lt;/a&gt;.” The AI chatbot has nothing at stake and can’t understand what or why it is asking questions, and that in itself will change the responses, he argues. “You're changing the intervention by having it be a bot and not a person,” he adds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gillen says that once when he was going through the interview process to apply for a faculty job, a college asked him to record answers on video to a series of set questions, in what was referred to as a “one-way interview.” And he says he found the format alienating.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Technically it's the same” as answering questions on a Zoom call with humans, he says, “and yet it felt so much worse.” While that experience didn’t involve AI, he says that he imagines that a chatbot interviewing him would have felt similarly impersonal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Bringing in Voices&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;For Jaravel, though, the hope is that the approach could help fields that don’t currently ask for public input start doing so.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“In economics we rarely talk to people,” he says, noting that researchers in the field more often look to large datasets of economic indicators as the key research source.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The next step for the researchers is to try to add voice capabilities to their platform, so that the bot can ask the questions verbally rather than in text chat.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So what did the research involving French voters reveal?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Based on chatbot interviews with 422 French voters, the researchers found that participants focused on very different issues depending on their political leaning. “Respondents on the left are driven by the desire to reduce inequality and promote the green transition through various policies,” the researchers concluded in their paper. “In contrast, respondents in the center highlight the importance of ensuring the continuity of ongoing policies and economic stability, i.e. preserving the agenda and legacy of the President. Finally, far right voters highlight immigration (77 percent), insecurity and crime (47 percent) and policies favoring French citizens over foreigners (30 percent) as their key reasons for support.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The researchers argue that the findings “shed new light on these questions, illustrating that our simple tool can be deployed very fast to investigate changes in the political environment in real time.”&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16093/robot_interviewing_human-1732249416.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16093/robot_interviewing_human-1732249416.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Researchers Try Using AI Chatbots to Conduct Interviews for Social Science Studies</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Drawlab19 / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>How Digital Credentials Can Elevate Existing Programs</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-22-how-digital-credentials-can-elevate-existing-programs</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-22-how-digital-credentials-can-elevate-existing-programs#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Rob Coyle</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Career Readiness</category> <category>Workforce Training</category> <category>Alternative Pathways</category> <category>Competency-Based Learning</category> <pubDate>Fri, 22 Nov 2024 01:55:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-cf8e0b32 </guid> <description>As interest in skills-based hiring increases, more and more companies and states are eliminating degree requirements. In response, some higher ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;As interest in skills-based hiring increases, more and more companies and states are eliminating degree requirements. In response, some higher education institutions are creating microcredential programs that positively impact student success, but you don’t have to create an entirely new program to show your institution’s value.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Skills-based credentials are valuable because they state specific skills in which a learner achieved or displayed competence. Digital credentials, which adhere to open interoperability standards, provide a machine and human-readable way to showcase those skills and make it easier for potential employers to verify those claims.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just as microcredentials can represent specific job skills, they can also demonstrate durable skills learners gain at any learning institution, setting them apart from other applicants. A Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) and other types of Learning and Employment Records (LERs) can help package those various achievements in one place for learners to share over their lifetimes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two 1EdTech Consortium members created programs that did not redo how they educate students but repackaged how they communicate that learning to bring transparency to the knowledge, skills and abilities they are already gaining through CLRs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The University of Georgia’s (UGA) CLR is a digital credential that combines a student’s academic courses and outside activities to highlight achievements and competencies, allowing students to effectively communicate their stories. They do this by mapping courses and activities to institutional competencies: critical thinking, analytical thinking, communication, social awareness and responsibility, creativity and innovation, and leadership and collaboration.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“We know that we already produce graduates with these valuable competencies,” said Marisa Anne Pagnattaro, UGA’s Vice President for Instruction and Senior Vice Provost for academic planning. “But we wanted to help students better articulate them. The CLR will highlight the durable skills students are learning both in and out of the classroom during their time at the University of Georgia, and this final digital credential will make it easier to explain their value to potential employers.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the University of Central Oklahoma, the Student Transformative Learning Record (STLR) serves as a second transcript that, like UGA’s CLR, helps students track growth in core areas that resonate with employers and graduate schools. The experiences focus on global and cultural competencies, health and wellness, leadership, research, creative and scholarly activities, and service learning and civic engagement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h5 class="aside-heading"&gt;Recommended Resources:&lt;/h5&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.1edtech.org/event/dc/summit/2025" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;1EdTech Digital Credentials Summit 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://web.cvent.com/event/2813bf9a-1231-4a65-9a3f-97e1fe604213/websitePage:b02ad9d9-260b-4530-bdd2-b863dbc3921f?session=290699c3-bc4f-43ab-8ab1-94371c7cf5d2&amp;amp;shareLink=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Blueprint for Developing a Comprehensive Learner Record&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://web.cvent.com/event/2813bf9a-1231-4a65-9a3f-97e1fe604213/websitePage:b02ad9d9-260b-4530-bdd2-b863dbc3921f?session=7c67897b-ba14-41a8-8679-9c0ab80f2b48&amp;amp;shareLink=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Intentional Collaboration: Designing Credentials Processes with SMEs in Mind&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://instruction.uga.edu/initiatives/the-comprehensive-learner-record/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;University of Georgia CLR&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://sites.uco.edu/academic-affairs/stlr/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;University of Central Oklahoma STLR&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.1edtech.org/blog/ai-in-hiring-a-double-edged-sword-for-resumes-and-the-future-of-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;AI in Hiring: A Double-Edged Sword for Resumes and the Future of Work&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.1edtech.org/blog/increasing-the-value-of-digital-credentials-the-challenges-facing-higher-ed-and-edtech-leaders" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Increasing the Value of Digital Credentials: The Challenges Facing Higher Ed and EdTech Leaders&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.1edtech.org/blog/building-a-bridge-of-trust-three-pillars-of-the-1edtech-digital-credentials-ecosystem" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Building a Bridge of Trust: Three Pillars of the 1EdTech Digital Credentials Ecosystem&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Packaging our offerings this way, we empower our students with a deeper understanding of their learning journey and what they need to do to achieve the skills they need for their next steps,” said Sonya Watkins, University of Central Oklahoma CIO. “Employers no longer assume passing a course equals preparedness. Our STLR gives both faculty and students the language to translate their knowledge and experiences in a way that is relevant to the real world.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Communication is vital to creating a successful program. Camille Farrell, Assistant Director of STLR at the University of Central Oklahoma, says, “It’s important to build a culture of faculty buy-in so conversations at the heart of teaching and learning begin to shift for students — the paradigm shift away from the idea that learning is about making an abstract grade, to learning is about preparing for life beyond the grade. Faculty need tools and ways to do so. STLR gives them the method, structure, assessment tool and resources to more directly get at what is the evidence that a student is prepared in these core areas and at what level. However, higher education cannot continue to assume that it knows what employers want and need. We have to do the work to stay connected to how the world shifts and changes. Partnering with subject matter experts allows you to build rapport with employers, grow awareness of your programs and empower your students to demonstrate their value in the workforce.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another thing to consider is making your digital credentials interoperable by ensuring the platform or supplier you use is certified with Open Badges 3.0 and CLR Standard 2.0. These 1EdTech technical standards comply with the W3C’s Verifiable Credentials standard and make it easier for your credentials to move between platforms, institutions and industries, giving credential earners more control over who they share their credentials with and how. As Verifiable Credentials, Open Badges and CLRs can be shared and stored in learner-controlled wallets, giving the earner control over their data.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“We have incredible students who are so much more than what their GPA or transcript can show,” said Fiona Liken, University of Georgia’s Associate Vice President for Instruction. “The CLR helps to paint that bigger picture, and by following interoperability standards, we make those credentials even more valuable to those students.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;1EdTech Consortium members meet throughout the year to expand the use and value of microcredentials, share real-world examples of how they work, and improve standards and frameworks to better meet the needs of all stakeholders. You can see&lt;a href="https://www.1edtech.org/events" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt; all the events&lt;/a&gt; the 1EdTech staff hosts and attends, including the annual &lt;a href="https://www.1edtech.org/event/dc/summit/2025" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;1EdTech Digital Credentials Summit&lt;/a&gt;, as well as learn more about&lt;a href="https://www.1edtech.org/workstream/credentials" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt; the organization’s work in digital credentials&lt;/a&gt; at&lt;a href="http://1edtech.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt; 1edtech.org&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16080/Shutterstock_1958164306-1730661026.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16080/Shutterstock_1958164306-1730661026.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">How Digital Credentials Can Elevate Existing Programs</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Image Credit: Chinnapong / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>What Bilingual Education Reveals About Race in the U.S. </title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-21-what-bilingual-education-reveals-about-race-in-the-u-s</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-21-what-bilingual-education-reveals-about-race-in-the-u-s#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Nadia Tamez-Robledo</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Identity Development</category> <category>Diversity and Equity</category> <category>Student Engagement</category> <category>English Language Learning</category> <pubDate>Thu, 21 Nov 2024 13:40:32 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-88ec18dd </guid> <description>Dual language programs are considered the gold standard for bilingual education. Newcomers learn English, English-speakers learn a second language, ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Looking back at her youth growing up in Douglas, Arizona — nestled up snugly against its Mexican sister city of Agua Prieta, Sonora — Laura C. Chávez-Moreno wishes she’d had the chance to partake in bilingual education classes. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She has had plenty of opportunities since then, including as a researcher who spent years sitting in on classes and interviewing students and teachers who were part of a dual language program in the Midwest. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was structured in what some might consider the optimal way to teach language. Starting in elementary school, roughly half of the program’s students would be native Spanish speakers and the other half native English speakers. They would all buddy up while learning to speak, read and write in both languages, and they would graduate bilingual — a necessity for children whose first language was Spanish, and a prized opportunity for children whose first language was English. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During her time visiting schools in the district, Chávez-Moreno was interested in observing how the program was delivering a culturally relevant education to the Latino students who comprised the native Spanish speakers — after all, she says, the dual language model is rooted in the &lt;a href="https://www.governing.com/context/the-student-protest-that-heralded-the-chicano-movement" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Chicano movement’s push for bilingual education&lt;/a&gt;. Chávez-Moreno is an assistant professor in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But she saw contradictions, as well, like how students seemed almost bored of the program’s lessons on race and equality by the time they were in high school. Or how its structure got in the way of Latino students earning the coveted “biliterate” endorsement on their diplomas while white, non-Latino students seemingly breezed through. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The program shows how schools play a role in reinforcing disparities between racial groups, Chávez-Moreno posits in her recent book, &lt;a href="https://hep.gse.harvard.edu/9781682539224/how-schools-make-race/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;“How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Racialization in America.&lt;/a&gt;” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;EdSurge talked to Chávez-Moreno about what why she feels it’s important for educators to look critically at how programs meant to help Latino students, even with the best of intentions, can fall short — and what’s needed to course correct. (Chávez-Moreno used the term “Latinx” rather than “Latino” throughout the interview.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EdSurge: I thought the premise of your book, which includes some critique of how dual language programs are operated, was interesting, because they’re typically talked about as this gold standard in language education, especially compared to more typical English as a second language programs. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Laura Chávez-Moreno: &lt;/strong&gt;The reason [English as a second language] is called subtractive is because it subtracts the home language of the student in order for them to just replace it with English. That has been the more traditional way of dealing with this ‘problem’ of there being students in our classrooms who are not English speakers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So the reason bilingual education is really used by communities in order to counter that is because these programs are what's called additive programs. They want you to, yes, learn English because we are in the U.S., and that is the dominant language. But they also want you to maintain the language that you grew up with, and that your family speaks, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That's why bilingual education programs are really the best type of programs for students to receive from schools. In fact, my schooling was in Arizona, and as a student, I didn't have the option of bilingual education. I wish I would have. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is something that communities really have to fight for, and because of that there has to be this type of narrative of them being very good for students, right? Like kind of idolizing them, or like how you've mentioned before, putting them as a gold standard, and really they are. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The issue is that there has also been this disconnecting of bilingual education from ethnic studies roots. The Chicano movement also demanded, for example, bilingual education, and then this race-radical idea that students have to be affirmed in terms of their cultures and their families, etc. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The issue is that bilingual education sometimes is just thought of just purely as a language education program, where that they just really are just teaching Spanish, for example, or they're just really teaching English, or they're, for example, sometimes even like, ‘Oh, well, they're also teaching about the culture and trying to make sure that they are affirming different cultures.’&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But that's not that's still not even going far enough, I argue in the book.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I think we talk about race as something that outside society defines, and then schools serve students whatever their race or background may be — it’s something that happens outside of the school walls. How are schools part of defining race or racial groups? &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Schools make race because race is not something that's just inherent in society. So how does our society make [race]? It makes it through our institutions, and schools are really important institutions in our society. So schools contribute to making ideas about what is race and what are the racialized groups in our society.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Why does it matter how we look at the Latinx group — is it an ethnicity, or is it a race? That's also an important question. One of the things that I argue in the book and in other work is that it matters because it shows us how we're thinking about the concept of race itself. And sometimes we think about it as if it is an inherent category in our society instead of a social construction.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The way that we think about the Latinx group, and how it is in relation to the concept of race, also tells us about how we're thinking about the process of how racial categories are made.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is all important for two things: It's important because we need to disrupt ideas about race being an inherent category in our society. Why is it that certain groups, for example, experience certain material conditions different from others, and why are they not given the resources that are needed now or historically?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then it's also important in terms of the Latinx group itself, because students are interested in this question. Students had questions, and they noticed some contradictions. One of the things that I think good educators should do is follow students’ questions about how our society works and what's going on in our society.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You write about teachers having conversations about what defines race and noticing that they stopped at physical characteristics. Latinos were also thought of as immigrants, rather than including students who were born here. Are there any examples that stick out to you about how the schools played a role in defining race or ethnicity?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of the things that I noticed throughout the program is that there were some individual teachers who took it upon themselves, who really self-initiated, being able to teach about race in their classroom.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But then it was also really striking that, unfortunately, sometimes it was really just the individual teachers doing that type of work instead of it being structured throughout the program. It was the case that, for example, the students kept learning about racist histories, but there was not really any teaching about race itself as a construct.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In one case, you write about a teacher calling the Black students in the dual language program ‘the cream of the crop’ and feeling that created a division among those students. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A racial category exists because it's put in relation or in comparison to others. There has to be others that are also put in relation or compared to. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It's important to talk about that because, for one, that's how race is made, in terms of distributing resources differently to different racialized groups. But then also the discourse of how you're talking about these groups and forming them and making them separate through the discourses. In terms of the idea of how the Latinx group was formed, I noticed that it really pointed a lot toward Latin America more so than, for example, examining the experiences of folks from here from the U.S.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think that one of the reasons that that was done is just because of the lack of materials in Spanish of the Latinx community here in the U.S. In terms of its history. The Chicano movement's history is mostly in English. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;At the program you were observing, it was surprising to read that the test for native Spanish speakers to prove their English fluency was more difficult than the test for English speakers to prove their Spanish fluency. And that the students who were native Spanish speakers didn’t have as good academic outcomes as those who entered the program as English-speakers. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is how race is made in the U.S. It's distributing this resource differently to students, because in the end the racial distribution of who was able to obtain the scores needed was very determined based on racial lines.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In terms of the academic outcomes, we know that there are a lot of things that still need to be done in education and in communities in order for students who have been traditionally underserved by schools to improve their academic outcomes. We know that that's actually not just the school. It's also part of the community or the city and the state and higher levels. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When we're still following these logics of schools that are based on faulty ideas of what is intelligence, for example, and then measuring people based on that, it makes sense that you're still going to have these academic outcomes be different. You're still applying the same ways that have traditionally been applied in order to show that a specific community is not doing as well. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is also the case that currently the measures that are used in order to test academic achievements are really thought of and are really designed in a way to maintain certain communities’ dominance.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In your view, do schools or teachers see themselves as having a role in this kind of critical thinking about race and how they shape it? Especially given that you observed this program during Trump’s first presidential term, which was a time of a lot of racial turmoil, and it’s been published as we head into his second. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I was in the schools that week when Trump won the first election, and it was devastating. But there were a lot of teachers who spoke with the students about it and helped them process, answered questions, and told them, ‘I don't know.’ Sometimes just being able to dialogue about certain things and to validate people's feelings and fears is a good thing for teachers to be able to do. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of the teachers that I really admired shared with me something that I added in the back at the end of the book. When she was a young teacher, she was really scared of doing things that she didn't really know the answers to, or how it was going to go.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And she said that now that she was a more seasoned teacher, had more experience, that she recognized that it's OK for her to say, ‘You know, I don't know,’ and then to learn along with the students, and for them to explore together a certain thing that the students had questions about. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think that that's something that teachers need to be supported in doing and for them to feel confident about. That's really the best way for teachers to engage in teaching.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16092/identity-1732222550.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16092/identity-1732222550.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">What Bilingual Education Reveals About Race in the U.S. </media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Liana Nagieva / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Why Soft Skills Matter More Than Ever</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-20-why-soft-skills-matter-more-than-ever</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-20-why-soft-skills-matter-more-than-ever#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Abbie Misha</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Student Success</category> <category>Career Readiness</category> <pubDate>Wed, 20 Nov 2024 09:55:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-7937d17c </guid> <description>In our tech-driven world, the value of human connection can’t be overstated. While mastering technical skills is essential, students must also develop ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;In our tech-driven world, the value of human connection can’t be overstated. While mastering technical skills is essential, students must also develop soft skills like communication, collaboration and critical thinking to thrive beyond the classroom. But as pressures to deliver future-focused curricula grow, how can educators ensure that students build these important life skills alongside their technical expertise?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To explore the role of soft skills in student success and how they can be nurtured in schools, EdSurge sat down with &lt;a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachk23/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Patrick Keeney&lt;/a&gt;, Senior Director of Product Management and Partnerships for Career and Technical Education (CTE) at &lt;a href="https://www.mheducation.com/prek-12/home-guest.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;McGraw Hill School&lt;/a&gt;. As the workforce continues to shift, Keeney argues, equipping students with soft skills that can adapt to any career path is more important than ever.&lt;/p&gt;Patrick Keeney&lt;br&gt;Senior Director of Product Management and Partnerships for CTE, McGraw Hill School&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EdSurge: How do you define soft skills? Are there established standards for soft skills in education?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keeney&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;:&lt;/strong&gt; People take pride in their technical skills and like to showcase them as competitive differentiators in our careers. In contrast, soft skills are not specialized; they are the everyday skills we need to be successful and contribute to our communities, such as communication, problem-solving, collaboration and empathy — all important.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We see soft skills mentioned in national and state standards related to career education, as well as in typical school district policies. For instance, students are expected to show up on time and behave appropriately — these are soft skills.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While soft skills are addressed on a cursory level, they’re not emphasized as critically important for students’ future roles and identities, especially compared to technical skills. Social and emotional learning, a near cousin to soft skills, is critical but not necessarily career-related. The two skill sets intersect but aren’t identical.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a result, there’s a significant gap between students’ soft skill attainment as they leave high school and what’s needed to be successful in the workforce and as happy contributors to society.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why is Career and Technical Education particularly well-suited for developing soft skills?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the United States, addressing socioeconomic challenges is critical, and one of the most valuable solutions is ensuring that every high school graduate has a sense of their next step, whether it’s college, the workforce or military service. Millions of medium and high-paying jobs go unfilled due to a lack of properly skilled workers, while people living in poverty could potentially fill these roles. The increased emphasis on and funding for career education to address these challenges is perhaps the most important academic movement we can undertake.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;There’s a significant gap between students’ soft skill attainment as they leave high school and what’s needed to be successful in the workforce and as happy contributors to society.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Patrick Keeney&lt;p&gt;Career education is a place where soft skills are &lt;em&gt;practically&lt;/em&gt; important. Being punctual in a career setting is crucial, as is how you present yourself. Students are generally unfamiliar with the concept of personal branding, and their online presence can be inconsistent with their future goals. These skills are not inherently known but can be taught, practiced and mastered.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are some effective strategies for integrating soft skills into curriculum and instruction?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we begin with the end in mind and envision what our students should look like as high school students, college graduates or in their third year of a professional job right out of high school, we can imagine how the curriculum would need to change. Our focus groups with teachers have shown that having a separate soft skills class isn’t the answer. Instead, we approach soft skills in CTE by infusing practice into daily, weekly and monthly student activities. For example, our middle school program &lt;a href="https://www.mheducation.com/prek-12/explore/whats-new/career-explorations.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqp3n0fK7cIQ0gMqXhUS8wlswnCJox9ndXLGry2dLOYLOaC2sYE" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Career Explorations&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; has embedded real-world, industry-specific soft skill exercises, including applied math, graphics literacy and reading comprehension.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.ctsos.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Career Technical Student Organizations&lt;/a&gt; (CTSOs) like &lt;a href="https://www.ffa.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;FFA&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://nths.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;NTHS&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://hosa.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;HOSA&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://www.skillsusa.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;SkillsUSA&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="https://www.deca.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;DECA&lt;/a&gt; involve hundreds of thousands of students annually. Their national conferences and competitions, such as the SkillsUSA event in Atlanta with 10,000 students competing in about 100 different areas, provide tangible examples of what students with well-developed soft skills look like. These events repeat several times a year across different organizations. These organizations and the students who benefit from them can serve as models for what we aim to achieve if we keep the end goal in mind.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How does project-based learning support the development of soft skills?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Project-based learning (PBL) inherently infuses soft skills into its DNA and can be an effective methodology for teachers and students in any classroom, not just career education. PBL can be seen as projects tied to learning or as a method where students solve real-world problems. In both cases, students must use soft skills like communication, collaboration and presentation. Not every student will excel in every soft skill, which is where collaboration becomes crucial. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h5 class="aside-heading"&gt;Recommended Resources:&lt;/h5&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.mheducation.com/prek-12/explore/whats-new/career-explorations.html?srsltid=AfmBOoqp3n0fK7cIQ0gMqXhUS8wlswnCJox9ndXLGry2dLOYLOaC2sYE" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Career Explorations for Middle School CTE&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://medium.com/inspired-ideas-prek-12/cte/home" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;CTE Stories and Resources&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Compared to isolated multiple-choice tests, project-based learning offers authentic opportunities that mirror real-life experiences. It addresses the common student question “Where will I ever use this?” by demonstrating practical applications of knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What resources and support do teachers need to effectively incorporate soft skills instruction into their classrooms?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the case of project-based learning, providing teachers with rubrics that assess not just the project outcome but also the quality of student interactions during the project is a small but important tweak. In addition, building a curriculum that includes significant reflection and feedback is crucial, as this is fertile ground for developing soft skills. Providing role models, examples and simulations can support this process.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Assessment could take various forms, including [evaluations in] project-based learning, simulations and scenario-based tests. At McGraw Hill, team members are dedicated to incorporating soft skills activities into our career education courses and providing CTE educators — who often have unique and varied backgrounds — with robust support materials. For example, the digital teaching guide for &lt;em&gt;Career Explorations&lt;/em&gt; features presentation materials, discussion prompts, pre-made assessments, question banks and project-based learning resources for teachers to deliver the content in a pedagogically sound manner.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As curriculum providers, we have more work to do to support teachers with soft skills. In an ideal world, there would be a technological environment with a hierarchy of standards reflecting skills. Someday, I hope to see a system that helps all teachers, everywhere, measure and track student growth in these areas and respond to that data with appropriate supports.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16079/Shutterstock_756314371-1730580043.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16079/Shutterstock_756314371-1730580043.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Why Soft Skills Matter More Than Ever</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Image Credit: SpeedKingz / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>How Mentorship Has Kept Me in the Classroom</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-20-how-mentorship-has-kept-me-in-the-classroom</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-20-how-mentorship-has-kept-me-in-the-classroom#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Edgar Miguel Grajeda</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Education Workforce </category> <category>Leadership</category> <pubDate>Wed, 20 Nov 2024 01:00:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-ee5df2fa </guid> <description>“As a more seasoned educator, I find myself mentoring others, offering guidance to first-year teachers who remind me of my early struggles. At the same ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I began my teaching career as a Teach For America (TFA) Corps member in Jacksonville, Florida. I was part of a cohort of about 100 first-year educators, all united by a common mission: to serve under-resourced and underserved schools. Entering the classroom for the first time, I was filled with hope and passion, believing I could make a positive difference. But very quickly, I learned that teaching in a Title I school, &lt;a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=158" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;where a high percentage of low-income students face significant educational gaps&lt;/a&gt;, was far more challenging than I had anticipated. By the end of that first semester, 10 of my colleagues had already left the program. By the time our two-year commitment ended, only 64 of us remained.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The challenges for new educators are numerous: low pay, lack of experience, overwhelming demands and a constant risk of burnout. However, despite such difficulties, I’ve managed to stay in this profession for over a decade, working primarily in underserved schools across multiple states. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Reflecting on what has kept me going when so many others have left, I realize that it is the relationships I’ve built with other teachers that have sustained me. While the importance of teacher-student relationships is often emphasized, it is the bonds I’ve formed with fellow educators that have sustained my commitment to teaching. These teacher-to-teacher relationships—through mentorship, collegial support, and friendship—have kept me grounded and motivated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The Importance of Teacher-to-Teacher Relationships&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;For me, the relationships I’ve built with fellow teachers have transcended the professional realm. Some of these bonds have grown into deep friendships, and others have turned into formal or informal mentorships. These relationships have not only provided practical guidance and feedback on my teaching but have also given me emotional support during difficult times. In contrast, during periods when I felt isolated from other educators, I considered leaving the school or even the profession altogether. Yet, the power of teacher-to-teacher relationships is undeniable, and my journey from Florida to Taiwan and back are proof of that.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Early Mentorship in Jacksonville&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a new teacher in Jacksonville, I faced a steep learning curve. I entered the classroom through an &lt;a href="https://www.teachersoftomorrow.org/blog/insights/alternative-teaching-certification/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;alternative certification program&lt;/a&gt;, which meant I hadn’t received the same level of preparation as teachers who came through traditional teacher training routes. I struggled with classroom management, curriculum design and the pressures of working in a high-poverty school. The weight of making decisions that could affect my students’ academic and social-emotional development was immense, and at times, I felt overwhelmed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Fortunately, I wasn’t alone. One particularly meaningful relationship was with Ms. Hoover, a fellow first-grade teacher who had also moved to Jacksonville for the job. Neither of us had family in the city, which helped us form an immediate bond. Ms. Hoover, who had more teaching experience, became someone I could turn to for advice, and we often brainstormed solutions to the challenges we faced in the classroom. Her support helped me grow as a teacher and gave me the confidence to keep going.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I also found mentorship through identity-based connections. Ms. Flores-Santos, another first-year teacher in TFA, shared a similar background as a first-generation Mexican-American. Together, we navigated the cultural shock of teaching in Jacksonville, a city with a small Latino population compared to the communities we had grown up in. Our shared values and commitment to social justice fueled us during some of our toughest moments. Even when we felt inadequate or exhausted, we found solace in knowing we weren’t alone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Without the support of Ms. Hoover and Ms. Flores-Santos, I might have been one of the many teachers who left the profession early. Instead, these relationships kept me grounded and allowed me to persist, even as I eventually decided to move on from Jacksonville.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Growth and Community in South LA&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;After completing my two-year commitment with TFA, I returned to Los Angeles to earn my master’s in education while working full-time as a visual arts teacher at KIPP Vida Academy. By this point, I had two years of teaching experience and developed a better understanding of what it took to be an effective educator. Yet, I still had much to learn, especially about the diverse needs of the multi-language learners and immigrant students I served.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At KIPP Vida, I found a community of educators who believed in the potential of every student, and this environment was instrumental in my growth. One of the most impactful relationships I formed was with Ms. Stephen, a Black dance educator who had grown up in Inglewood. Her deep understanding of the cultural needs of our students constantly pushed me to reflect on my teaching practices. Another key relationship was with Ms. Ralph-Forton, a fellow TFA alum who shared my passion for education reform and creativity. Together, we dreamed about the possibilities of creating lasting change in underserved communities. These relationships not only inspired me to become a better teacher but also helped me feel connected to the community I was serving.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;When the Mentored Becomes the Mentor&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;By the time I received my Fulbright grant to teach in Taiwan, I had over five years of experience in the classroom compared to many of my colleagues who were early in their careers. &lt;a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/Teacher_Exodus_Infographic.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Beginner teachers with little or no preparation are 2.5 times more likely to leave the classroom&lt;/a&gt;. As the grantee with the most experience in my cohort, I was given the opportunity to transition into a teacher trainer position; I found myself stepping into a new role as a mentor and coach to 14 first-year English teaching assistants. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Helping these new educators navigate their first year of teaching was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. I saw myself in their struggles with classroom management and lesson planning, and I was eager to share the strategies that had helped me. Watching them grow as teachers and having a hand in their success reignited my passion for teaching.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Today, I continue to teach in a Title I school, Truesdell Elementary, in Washington, DC, where turnover remains a significant issue. Last year, our school lost over 10 teachers. Yet, I remain committed to staying and attribute this to the relationships I’ve built with new and experienced teachers. As a more seasoned educator, I find myself mentoring others, offering guidance to first-year teachers who remind me of my early struggles. At the same time, I continue to seek support and advice from colleagues, and these relationships keep me motivated to grow as an educator.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Carrying the Torch&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Strong relationships among teachers are critical for personal and professional growth, and they play a significant role in the decision to stay or leave the profession. Teachers who feel connected to their colleagues are &lt;a href="https://ggie.berkeley.edu/school-relationships/positive-staff-relationships/#:~:text=Positive%20collegial%20relationships%20increase%20teachers,that%20school%20in%20the%20future." target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;more likely to remain at their school&lt;/a&gt; because they have a sense of belonging. These positive relationships also contribute to the overall effectiveness of the school. When teachers trust and support each other, they collaborate more willingly, finding solutions to challenges together, directly impacting student achievement. A strong sense of community among teachers helps to build a positive school culture, &lt;a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042812014115" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;one that benefits both &lt;/a&gt;educators and students.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Throughout my career, teacher-to-teacher relationships have been the driving force behind my decision to stay in the profession. From my first days as a teacher in Jacksonville to my current role in Washington, DC, the mentorship and support I’ve received from colleagues have sustained me through the many challenges of working in high-poverty schools. Today, as I take on the role of mentor and guide for new teachers, I am reminded of the importance of these relationships, not only for my growth but for the growth of the profession. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mentorship, both as a recipient and as a mentor, has been the key to my staying power in education, and it will continue to shape my journey as I work towards creating a more equitable and just educational system for all.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16084/shutterstock_686343829-1731075510.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16084/shutterstock_686343829-1731075510.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">How Mentorship Has Kept Me in the Classroom</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Andrey_Popov / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Want to Find Highly Engaged Students at 4-Year Colleges? Look at Transfer Students</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-19-want-to-find-highly-engaged-students-at-4-year-colleges-look-at-transfer-students</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-19-want-to-find-highly-engaged-students-at-4-year-colleges-look-at-transfer-students#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Jeffrey R. Young</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>EdSurge Podcast</category> <category>Student Engagement</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Higher Education</category> <pubDate>Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:16:28 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-cb6c030a </guid> <description>Students who transfer from community colleges to four-year universities are often more motivated and engaged in the classroom than students who arrive ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/the-edsurge-on-air-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tim Lum is one of millions of students who returned to college as an adult, getting a two-year degree at his local community college. And this year, at the age of 36, he's one of &lt;a href="https://www.studentclearinghouse.org/news/college-transfer-enrollment-grew-by-5-3-in-the-fall-of-2023/#:~:text=Transfer%20enrollment%20represents%2013.2%20percent,lateral%20transfers%20grew%204.3%20percent." target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;13 percent of the nation's college students&lt;/a&gt; who transferred institutions in fall of 2023.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/7hIFhwWIWyWhznJzFkpgJH" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/want-to-find-engaged-students-at-4-year-colleges-look/id972239500?i=1000677523966" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;He describes the shift from a two-year college to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, which has about 20,000 students, as one of culture shock. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It feels like Disneyland, in a sense — large buildings, lots of people, crowds, lines,” he says. And in the classroom, especially since much of his community college had been online during the pandemic, he worried about whether he would be prepared for the coursework: “It was feeling like I'm not smart enough — like that slight feeling of inadequacy.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lum arrived on campus excited to be there, and eager to dive into class assignments, join student clubs and get involved. To his surprise, though, many other students appear more disengaged.&lt;/p&gt;Tim Lum&lt;p&gt;“I've talked to a lot of other students who went the traditional or conventional path — that came to the university right after high school — and 99 percent of them, I feel like they don’t appreciate it, or they don't realize how many resources are available to them,” he says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Research shows that he’s not alone — that often transfer students tend to be &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-06-02-want-to-hire-an-innovative-college-graduate-choose-a-transfer-student" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;more motivated and engaged &lt;/a&gt;than students who come to college straight from high school. And that might be more pronounced coming out of the pandemic, when professors around the country say students are &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/attention-please-professors-battle-student-disengagement" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;more likely to skip classes or be watching TikTok or be preoccupied by other distractions during class&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We first talked to Lum two years ago, back when he was in community college and adjusting to college life after years of working restaurant jobs and feeling directionless, as part of our &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/second-acts-podcast-series" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Second Acts podcast series&lt;/a&gt; about returning adult college students.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Get EdSurge journalism delivered free to your inbox. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/newsletters" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Sign up for our newsletters&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;For this week’s EdSurge Podcast, we tell the story of Lum’s adjustment to university life, and also hear from a professor who has studied transfer students, Benjamin Selznick, an associate professor in the College of Business at James Madison University.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Listen to the episode on &lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/7hIFhwWIWyWhznJzFkpgJH" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Spotify&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/want-to-find-engaged-students-at-4-year-colleges-look/id972239500?i=1000677523966" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Apple Podcasts&lt;/a&gt; or on the player below.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16090/U_of_Hawaii_transfer_student-1732049633.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16090/U_of_Hawaii_transfer_student-1732049633.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Want to Find Highly Engaged Students at 4-Year Colleges? Look at Transfer Students</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">U. of Hawaii</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Are We Assessing What Really Matters in Education?</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-18-are-we-assessing-what-really-matters-in-education</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-18-are-we-assessing-what-really-matters-in-education#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Abbie Misha</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Assessments</category> <pubDate>Mon, 18 Nov 2024 09:55:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-6a66428b </guid> <description>Assessments have the power to shape educational outcomes, but are we truly measuring what matters? Ensuring that assessments are fair, inclusive and ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Assessments have the power to shape educational outcomes, but are we truly measuring what matters? Ensuring that assessments are fair, inclusive and meaningful for all students is a growing priority for educators. Bias, whether systemic or unintentional, can affect accuracy, disadvantaging students from diverse backgrounds. This requires a critical look at both what and how we assess, ensuring the most important skills and knowledge are prioritized.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Educational leaders are addressing these concerns by creating assessments that are not only standardized but also equitable and relevant. Bringing together diverse stakeholders, including assessment creators, teachers and students, can help design tools that provide a more complete picture of learning.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Recently, EdSurge webinar host Matthew Joseph discussed with education experts the need for assessments to measure what truly matters and power human progress. Webinar panelists included Patrick Kyllonen from &lt;a href="https://www.ets.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;ETS&lt;/a&gt;, Candace Thille from &lt;a href="https://ed.stanford.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Stanford Graduate School of Education&lt;/a&gt;, Eugene So from &lt;a href="https://www.jff.org/work/jff-labs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;JFFLabs&lt;/a&gt; and Temple Lovelace from &lt;a href="https://aerdf.org/programs/assessment-for-good/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Assessment for Good&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;Patrick Kyllonen&lt;br&gt;Distinguished Presidential Appointee, ETS&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EdSurge:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt; How can schools and educational institutions ensure that assessments are equitable and inclusive for all students?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So: &lt;/strong&gt;Participation is key. At &lt;a href="https://www.jff.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;JFF&lt;/a&gt;, we focus on coalition development. When discussing consensus and assessment goals, it’s important to consider who is at the table validating skills. A more diverse cadre of stakeholders collaborating around the table improves goal-setting processes and outcomes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lovelace:&lt;/strong&gt; One group I’d like to add to this discussion about equity and inclusivity in assessments is the assessment creators themselves. We need to consider these issues from the very inception of the assessment tool.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At Assessment for Good, we review our tools multiple times, asking if the wording captures diverse experiences. We use collaborative design to ensure equity and inclusivity by understanding students’ current experiences and co-creating tools with educators and students that match those experiences.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kyllonen:&lt;/strong&gt; Equity has a lot to do with opportunities, and assessments can uniquely provide opportunities to learn. Assessment feedback is key to showing performance and areas for improvement.&lt;/p&gt;Candace Thille&lt;br&gt;Associate Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Education&lt;p&gt;Students must know what is being assessed. There should be no confusion! Otherwise, we are not assessing properly. Students can’t demonstrate their skills if they don’t know what’s being assessed. These issues are addressed in length in &lt;a href="https://www.ets.org/research/charting-the-future-of-assessment.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Charting the Future of Assessments&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What role does assessment play in personalized learning, and how can it be used to tailor educational experiences to individual student needs?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thille:&lt;/strong&gt; Personalized learning involves individualizing experiences to support learners’ goals. We must consider not just the learner but all human actors in the system and the decisions they need to make to support that learner’s journey. These actors include mentors and assessment creators. They need to be aligned on the goal and have insight into the learner’s current state relative to that goal. This is where assessment is key, providing real-time insights into the learner’s changing state throughout the learning process.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As learners engage, these activities provide evidence for assessment. The resulting insights can then be shared with all actors — instructors, mentors and learners — enabling them to make informed decisions about the learner’s next steps toward their goal.&lt;/p&gt;Eugene So&lt;br&gt;Managing Director, Lifelong Learning, JFFLabs&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So:&lt;/strong&gt; As we compound learning, we’re moving away from a two-dimensional view based on transcripts or degrees. Instead, we capture unique experiences that provide a more holistic view of what we’re assessing and toward what goal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Often, students see assessments as punitive — failing a test can be damaging — rather than performative. In industries like fitness, assessments gauge progress toward goals. How can we use this performative-based assessment approach in education? Other sectors’ assessment practices can inform new approaches in education.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://info.iste.org/unleashing-the-untapped-potential-of-assessment?hs_preview=sIjxqhbf-177067553193" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Watch the full “Unleashing the Untapped Potential of Assessment to Power Human Progress” webinar on-demand now.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How can educators implement innovative assessment practices to enhance student learning?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lovelace:&lt;/strong&gt; We often ask learners to pause learning to be assessed. Ideally, we should think about how to assess them while they &lt;em&gt;continue&lt;/em&gt; learning, whether individually, in groups or in their community.&lt;/p&gt;Temple Lovelace&lt;br&gt;Executive Director, Assessment for Good, AERDF&lt;p&gt;In our work, we’re also looking at “power skills” — skills that power the learning process. Knowing fractions is important, but believing you’re a math learner is equally as powerful. We need to consider what we assess along with how we assess to provide more complete data to educators.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The speed of assessment is also important. As an educator, getting scores back after summer break wasn’t helpful. We should innovate to leverage emerging technology, getting data back at nearly the speed of teaching and learning. This allows everyone, including the learner, to make the best data-based decisions possible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How can assessment data effectively inform instructional decisions and support professional development for educators?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kyllonen:&lt;/strong&gt; We can now go beyond traditional methods with rich process data, including student conversation data. Communication and relationship building have always been in the background, but technology allows us to bring them to the foreground. We can analyze conversations and actions in interactive simulations to understand students’ thinking.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As technology improves, we’ll be flooded with classroom information. We need to develop process analysis models to understand these conversations and interactions. Facial expressions, for example, can indicate whether a student is understanding, frustrated or happy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This rich data will enhance our understanding of classroom dynamics. It’s up to us to capitalize on this and develop systems that can inform teacher professional development and improve student instruction.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;We have an opportunity as practitioners and innovators to view assessment tools as nonpunitive. This shift allows us to build on individuals’ strengths and support their growth.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Eugene So&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thille:&lt;/strong&gt; This means disambiguating the signal-to-noise ratio. We faced challenges extracting meaning from early clickstream data due to low signal-to-noise ratios.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An advantage of new technologies is the ability to collect more data. However, this creates bigger challenges in identifying patterns within the data that truly represent the signal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is not just data that educators want — it’s insights. And we need to deliver the insight in a way that is actionable.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lovelace:&lt;/strong&gt; While we can gather richer data from educational experiences, we need to do more to make it truly meaningful for educators, families and learners. We must communicate this data in an understandable way.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Educators don’t want more disparate data; they want to understand its immediate importance, how it relates to what they’ve just taught and possibly receive recommendations for next steps based on their chosen curriculum or current unit. It’s great to have technologies providing more data, but if we can’t understand it at the point of teaching and learning, we have more work to do to embed it into daily educational practice.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are some of the most common misconceptions about assessment?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So:&lt;/strong&gt; One misconception is that assessment is punitive. We have an opportunity as practitioners and innovators to view assessment tools as nonpunitive. Instead of seeing them as penalties, we can use them to uncover human potential and identify pathways to opportunities. This shift allows us to build on individuals’ strengths and support their growth.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kyllonen:&lt;/strong&gt; Another misconception is that assessments take time away from learning. Tests can be part of the learning experience, just as games and recitals are. In cognitive psychology, we know this as the testing effect. Taking a test can be more powerful for learning than recitation or memorization. This puts assessment in a different light. We must use assessment opportunities to take advantage of developing methods, procedures and technologies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;We need to rethink our approach to assessment. The goal is to use these tools to increase the diversity of voices, not standardize.&lt;br&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Candace Thille&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What future trends do you see emerging in the assessment field, and how should educators prepare for them?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Thille:&lt;/strong&gt; This isn’t just about AI in assessment, which we’ve used for decades. It’s about new forms of AI, particularly generative AI. We’re seeing that generative AI can score well on traditional assessments, and now that learners have direct access to these tools, we need to rethink our approach to assessment.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We can’t simply tell learners not to use these performance support tools; it’s like saying, “You can’t use a calculator.” Instead, we should focus on helping people build skills with these available tools. This shifts what we’re trying to assess.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The big challenge now is figuring out how to use these new capabilities to create interesting assessments and assess things that matter. The goal is to use these tools to increase the diversity of voices, not standardize, and provide evidence about what works for whom under what conditions to support human learning.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16060/Shutterstock_1446860474-1729363161.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16060/Shutterstock_1446860474-1729363161.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Are We Assessing What Really Matters in Education?</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Image Credit: Mind Pro Studio / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>This School Nurse Explains How Her Work Goes Beyond ‘Band-Aids, Boo-Boos and Head Lice’</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-18-this-school-nurse-explains-how-her-work-goes-beyond-band-aids-boo-boos-and-head-lice</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-18-this-school-nurse-explains-how-her-work-goes-beyond-band-aids-boo-boos-and-head-lice#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Emily Tate Sullivan</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Basic Needs</category> <category>Education Workforce </category> <category>Well-Being</category> <category>Family Engagement</category> <pubDate>Mon, 18 Nov 2024 02:14:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-68222609 </guid> <description>“School nursing is an opportunity to meet families where they are and help them get the care that they need.”</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Many people think of school nurses as the people in a school building responsible for patching up a scraped knee, confirming a fever and checking students for lice. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It’s not that they don’t do those things. It’s that those tasks are only a very small part of what Eva Stone views as a significant role within a school. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Stone, manager of district health at Jefferson County Public Schools, a large district in Louisville, Kentucky, with about 100,000 students, has served as a school nurse for more than two decades, after working in a hospital setting and in public health.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;School nurses, she notes, have more access to children — seven or eight hours a day — and their families than really any other health care professional. It’s unique, and it’s also full of opportunity. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In a large, diverse district, she works with children and families who face significant barriers to health care — be it because of language, education, time or money. The school often can step in and help. “We have the opportunity to take them out of poverty, to change the course of what the rest of their lives will look like,” she says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Stone knows that health is not only critical to a person’s well-being, it’s essential to their learning and academic success too. That’s why school nurses, she says, are key to helping students get — and stay — “classroom-ready.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For our Role Call series, we feature individuals in traditional school roles that are often misunderstood or overlooked, pulling back the curtain on what their work looks like and how they help shape the day for kids. In this installment, we talk with Eva Stone about school nursing. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The following interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;a href="https://nursing.uky.edu/people/eva-stone" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Name&lt;/strong&gt;: Eva Stone &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Age&lt;/strong&gt;: 56&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Location&lt;/strong&gt;: Louisville, Kentucky &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Role&lt;/strong&gt;: Manage health services for the district&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current age group&lt;/strong&gt;: All ages, including staff &lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;Years in the field&lt;/strong&gt;: 24&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EdSurge: How did you get here? What brought you to your role?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Eva Stone&lt;/strong&gt;: When I first got out of college, I worked in an &lt;a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/intensive-care-unit" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;ICU&lt;/a&gt; for a while, and I decided I wanted to be doing something that was more on the proactive side. I wanted to help prevent people from ending up in ICU and with the chronic conditions that they had. That's what led me to public health. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Way back when my children were small, I was supervising health services for a health department, and a school nursing job came open in the neighboring county. I wanted some more time in the summer with my kids, and so I moved into that role. That’s what started it, and then I just fell in love with it. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;My mom is a retired nurse and my dad is a retired principal, so it was kind of the best of both professions. I used to spend summers helping my dad deliver things to classrooms when all the orders came in, and so I guess that's where I developed a love. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[After I became a school nurse], I went back to school and became a nurse practitioner. I didn't know that I would stay working in school health, but the role, it just kind of worked. So I started doing more. I worked in a fairly small district at the time. We had 10 schools, and I was able to do more with staff, do bus driver physicals and those things, and be part of the administrative team for the district. I just fell in love with school health and the opportunities that we have to impact students.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I worked in that district for a number of years, then worked in a neighboring county, worked between both of the counties and got my doctorate degree, and then landed this position in Louisville. We didn't live in the Louisville area, but two people reached out to me about applying for that position. And so I thought, ‘Maybe that is a sign that I need to check it out,’ and ended up coming to Jefferson County Public Schools. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course that was before the pandemic, so it's been an interesting ride. But there's just such incredible opportunity in schools that no other entity in the health field gets to see. And that is, you're in an environment where you see the family — or you don't see the family, which is telling — and you see the child throughout the whole day. You just have access to things that health care providers in clinical settings outside of schools really don't have. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There's just such an incredible opportunity, first and foremost, to help children succeed educationally, which is the most important thing we can do for their long-term health. But then to help teach them self-management of chronic illnesses, to help identify mental health conditions early, so many ways that we can touch children's lives and their families’ lives. Again, in our field, it's all boiling down to helping a child get through school successfully.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So you feel like part of the allure and the reward of being in the school setting, for nursing, is just being more proactive than reactive? &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes, but it's also helping families to navigate health care. Our health care system is very complex, and the more technologically advanced we've become, the more we've left a lot of families behind. If I have to call a clinician, I'm calling a central number and they ask me 10 questions to get me to the right person. If I have a language barrier, if I have an education barrier, if I have a poverty barrier, meaning I only have so many minutes on my phone, all of those things make it challenging to access the health care system as it's become in the United States. School nursing is an opportunity to meet families where they are and help them get the care that they need.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When people outside of school ask you what you do, how do you describe your work?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I tell them that I work in school nursing, and if it's in the summer, they always say, ‘Oh, well you have the summers off then,’ or, ‘What do you do in the summers?’ I chuckle when I say that because a lot of people think school nurses just have an easy job. School nursing is a unique type of nursing. It's very specialized, and people just don't realize that. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So I tell people what I do is I get to make a difference in the lives of children and families and help work toward setting a trajectory of their lives, that we have the opportunity to take them out of poverty, to change the course of what the rest of their lives will look like. And that school nursing is very important work.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you wish you could say to them?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;School nursing is so much more than just the Band-Aids and boo-boos and head lice that people, for a long time, have perceived school nursing to be.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Eva Stone&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;What I would like to say is, ‘Does your child have a nurse at their school? And do those nurses get to practice to the full scope of their practice? And does your district have children that aren't succeeding academically?’ Because if that's the case, then there's an underlying reason, and there need to be people involved in that work. School nursing is so much more than just the Band-Aids and boo-boos and head lice that people, for a long time, have perceived school nursing to be.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do you feel like the role has evolved to be more expansive now? Or has there always been that misconception?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think there's always been that misconception. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When school nursing was developed — which was in New York, by &lt;a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/lillian-wald" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Lillian Wald&lt;/a&gt;, who was a public health nurse that made a big difference in schools — it was not designed to be Band-Aids and boo-boos. It was communicable disease. It was preventive care. It was making sure that children were in school. It was doing something about attendance when kids weren't in school. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That is what school nursing has always been designed to be, but school nursing is often led by educators in districts. And I have the utmost respect for educators, but they're not nurses. So there are times when a school nurse’s role has been defined as Band-Aids, booboos and head lice. But if they're limiting the work of their school nurses to those things, they are greatly underutilizing an incredible resource in their schools.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You've mentioned, a few times, the opportunity to take families out of poverty and change the course of their lives. Could you maybe say a little bit more about how, through nursing, you might be able to do that for a child or their family?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Say you have a child who is missing a lot of school. I'll use &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/solving-america-s-student-absenteeism-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;chronic absenteeism&lt;/a&gt; because that's such a significant issue at this point in time. So the child comes to school every day and is coughing, coughing, coughing, coughing. I've actually had teachers tell me, ‘Oh yeah, he's been doing that for a while now.’ Well, the nurse assesses the student and says, ‘This child's not breathing real well.’ So that leads to a phone call with the parent. And in talking to the parent, there's all sorts of things that you find out. You find out they don't have health insurance, which in this day and age should never be a barrier, but it's an incredible barrier for families. It might be that this family has grown up with everybody coughing like that, so they don't recognize that as abnormal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And so when the nurse gets involved and starts working with the family and developing those trusting relationships, what you end up discovering is the child has asthma. He's missing school all the time because he's ‘sick,’ but really he has asthma. If I'm a child living in poverty and I'm living in poor housing conditions where there's cockroaches, for example, that's a significant trigger for asthma. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then you start this whole cascade of resources and working with the family and educating the parents on management of a chronic disease that has significantly been impacting their learning. Now you have the chance to change that child's school attendance, and then you have the chance to ensure that the child's at school and classroom-ready, which at the end of the day is what every child needs to be successful. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another example: During a recent year, we had over 9,000 elementary students who failed their vision screenings at school, who had nowhere to go. We have no referral sources in the city for kids who don't have insurance, or don't have means to have a vision screening or a vision exam or can't navigate that system. So we partnered with a local foundation, some eye doctors, and we brought vision clinics to the schools. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the very first clinic that we had in a school, the doctors were completely blown away because these children's prescriptions were so severe, and they'd never had glasses. Well, if you aren't reading by third grade — there are states that predict the number of prison cells they will need based on third grade reading levels. They're at a disadvantage from there on out. So is it significant that kids can see when they start school and they start to learn to read? It's incredibly significant, and it can make a difference in their education for the rest of their school years.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lots of states have laws that require these things. They require families, for example, in Kentucky, to have a vision exam before they start school for the first time. But if I don't have the resources to have a vision exam, then I can't go. The intent of the laws are great, but until you have the mechanisms in place to ensure that every child has equal opportunity to access the services that we all know are necessary, then every child living in poverty is at a disadvantage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does a hard day in your role look like?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When we came back to in-person learning during COVID, the district used ESSER funds to put a nurse in every school. Now that ESSER funds are gone, our administration decided to continue that anyway. They're funding a nurse in every school, and we're actually going to have 15 nurse practitioners out in the schools moving forward, providing physical health services for students because there's such a gap. So a very hard day for me is trying to make sure that the health needs are being met in 155-plus schools. When we have nurses who are out sick and we have all these dynamics going on, that makes for a really hard day.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the boots-on-the-ground level of that is just hearing and meeting kids, knowing what they're going home to every day — or not going home to every day — and having to recognize that I'm limited in what I can do. I don't like it, but that is the way it is. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;We're in the 21st century, and we're a resource-rich country. The fact that we have so many children going without basic needs — and that includes food — is just mind-boggling to me.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Eva Stone&lt;p&gt;To give you an example from last year, we have a lot of international families, children who are new to the United States, in our district. We have about 20,000 kids who are multilingual learners. When you hear the stories — kids just will look at you and tell you in a matter-of-fact voice what they've been through in their life and that they've spent most of their years in a refugee camp — when you see families that have made these very difficult journeys to get their children here so their children have a better chance, and they come and the child has diabetes and they're rationing insulin, meaning the child's not treated appropriately because they don't have enough medicine to treat the child appropriately and trying to figure out how to navigate those things. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I mean, it's just hard. It really can wear on you after a while because we're in the 21st century, and we're a resource-rich country. The fact that we have so many children going without basic needs — and that includes food — is just mind-boggling to me.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does a really good day look like? &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A really good day looks like finally getting somebody in the community to listen and engage when you talk about the issues that students are facing that you just can't get any help with. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here’s an example. So our medical director, when he first started at the local health department, he wanted to meet. I sat down with him, and he wanted to know: What do you see as issues for children in Louisville, Kentucky, that attend Jefferson County Schools? So the vision exams — kids needing glasses — is what we talked about. He said, ‘I think I can do something about that.’ His background is as an ophthalmologist, so he rallied volunteers, and we worked together and we planned this first clinic.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So they came in, and like I mentioned, the eye doctors were blown away by the level of need. But then we scheduled a day to come back and hand children their glasses — I'm going to get emotional. They put on their glasses, and they could see things they've never seen before. You leave at the end of the day thinking, ‘Yeah, there's a lot more work to do, but we're going to take this win because it's a pretty big one.’ &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What's an unexpected way that your role shapes the day for kids?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I tell the nurses this all the time: You're going to have students who come into your office because they need your pat [on the back]. You're a nurse, and there is a respect that is associated with nurses — &lt;a href="https://nursing.yale.edu/news/gallup-nurses-are-most-trusted-profession-20th-straight-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;America's most trusted professional&lt;/a&gt; for over 20 years. We tell them all the time, ‘Your interaction with children has the ability to shape their day. And so you are the pat that they need.’ They'll just come in and really all they need is just somebody to say ‘Hello,’ and ‘How is your morning going?’ And get them off to class. But maybe they're not getting that need met elsewhere. Maybe they're not getting that hug or that smile elsewhere. Nurses — that’s really what we try and emphasize — make a difference for every child.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you wish you could change about your school district or the education system today?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What I would change is really the recognition that nurses are health care professionals and that health care is not separate. Health is not separate from a child's academic success. So what I would change about the education system in general is to make health foundational, not ancillary, for education. Until every child is classroom-ready every day, then that child's not going to reach their full potential. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your role gives you unique access and insight to today's youth. What's one thing you've learned about young people through your work?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No matter what is happening, I never leave a school after being around children that I don't feel recharged and rejuvenated. They're resilient, they're brilliant, they're passionate, and they give me such hope for the future because I see a wisdom, particularly in our young adults, that maybe they've not always seen in the world around them. We can talk a lot about young people and worry — there are a lot of issues and challenges this generation of kids is facing — but we're the adults. We're supposed to live in a world where we value our children and put all their needs first. And I don't see kids giving up in that hope. I see kids engaging, and I'm just always astounded by their resiliency and their smiles and their hugs. It's why I do what I do. They have a joy that hasn't been snuffed out, and we need to make them a world where they can continue to be happy and healthy.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16075/school_nurse-1730474440.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16075/school_nurse-1730474440.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">This School Nurse Explains How Her Work Goes Beyond ‘Band-Aids, Boo-Boos and Head Lice’</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Bibadash / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Is There a Problem With ‘Mathbots’?</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-15-is-there-a-problem-with-mathbots</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-15-is-there-a-problem-with-mathbots#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Daniel Mollenkamp</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Artificial Intelligence</category> <category>Tutoring</category> <pubDate>Fri, 15 Nov 2024 18:04:51 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-01e5e92b </guid> <description>Why has AI been relatively mute in math classrooms around the country? And is it a broader failure that could hinder the tools&amp;#39; impact on learning?</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;When GPT-3 burst on the education scene, it caused a flood of reactions, ranging from gleeful to apocalyptic. But more than that, &lt;a href="https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/who-profits-the-most-from-generative-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;it unlocked&lt;/a&gt; money. In 2023, generative AI businesses in the U.S. and Canada claimed almost &lt;a href="https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/private-equity-backed-investment-surge-in-generative-ai-defies-2023-deal-slump-80625128#:~:text=Deal%20trends,11%20deals%20aggregating%20$974.9%20million." target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;45 percent&lt;/a&gt; of all private equity-backed investments, by one estimate, with an eye-popping value of $2.18 billion when much of the rest of the deals in that world were declining. Even so, some investor notes issued caution about whether the flow of dollars was a “&lt;a href="https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/private-equity-backed-investment-surge-in-generative-ai-defies-2023-deal-slump-80625128#:~:text=Deal%20trends,11%20deals%20aggregating%20$974.9%20million." target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;a gold rush&lt;/a&gt;.” And they had examples they could have called to mind, such as the metaverse, a high-tech concept for a virtual world that promised to revolutionize education &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-06-15-the-metaverse-hype-died-down-where-does-that-leave-colleges-that-invested-in-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;before calming expectations&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Much of the initial reaction around AI focused on its ability to spit out prose on command, which &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-08-12-college-writing-centers-worry-ai-could-replace-them" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;threatened traditional writing instruction&lt;/a&gt;. But the tools were also targeted at math teaching. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yet so far these tools have not really affected K-12 math classrooms. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A &lt;a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA956-21.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;survey from the nonpartisan research organization RAND&lt;/a&gt;, for instance, using a nationally representative sample of teachers, noted that only 18 percent of K-12 teachers were using AI in the classroom as of fall 2023, with an additional 15 percent having tried it out. Most of those teachers taught English or social studies, where the applications of chatbots are more obvious.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These tools have not penetrated math classrooms to the degree that their marketing might suggest, says Dan Meyer, vice president of user growth for Amplify and the producer of Mathworlds, a popular math learning newsletter. Meyer speculates that may be because they use text-based interfaces. In math classes before digital technology, he says, it was actually rare to write out how you think about a problem at length. Instead, math classes involve sketching a lot of graphs and shorthand. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Further, when Meyer talks with math teachers who are using AI, he says they seem to be using the tools to write emails to parents or to generate the first draft of a quiz. It’s not “transformative usage,” Meyer says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; When advertising for AI is at an all-time high, it’s often assumed that chatbots will be transformational to education. But while chatbots have upended writing instruction, it’s unclear whether they really double as mathbots. So now that companies are investing in them, what might they mean for math education?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Being Realistic&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tech evangelists praise the promise of these chatbots to improve education by allowing for students to have personal instruction. For instance, Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy — which built the AI tool Khanmigo — &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJP5GqnTrNo" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;argues that&lt;/a&gt; the tools represent “probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen.” Artificial intelligence will supply every student on the planet a talented personal tutor and every teacher an amazing teaching assistant, Khan has said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the moment, though, precisely what that looks like differs. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Take AI tutoring service Thetawise, which estimates that it is used by nearly 143,000 students. “Conquer your math class with Thetawise, the most accurate AI tutor,” the company &lt;a href="https://thetawise.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;website&lt;/a&gt; advertises. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;James Grom, the founder and CEO of Thetawise, told EdSurge that the company focuses on college students on a subscription model. The technology isn’t necessarily there to serve young kids, Grom says. Younger students are stickier because the tools really have to address their motivation more, Grom says. Younger students also tend to anthropomorphize the bots, he adds. So instead, the company has chosen to focus on college math, where the cost of tutoring is higher and there are fewer options.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Get EdSurge journalism delivered free to your inbox. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/newsletters" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Sign up for our newsletters&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;How students are using these tools is really important, Grom says. If you were tutoring a student through a computer and could only communicate through the keyboard, there is so much information you would be missing, like the context of facial expressions and how long it takes the student to move from one part of the question to the next. And that’s precisely how these bots interact.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, ultimately, these tools will meet the proficiency of human tutors, especially with the proliferation of tablets, Grom argues. That’s because, he says, “real-time tutoring” — such as GPT-4 Omni, which was &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvXZCocyU_M&amp;amp;ab_channel=KhanAcademy" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;demoed by Sal Khan and his son earlier this year&lt;/a&gt; — allows for interaction via voice, which makes people more likely to engage with tools in a tutoring manner, rather than only through typing. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The advertising for Grom’s own product stresses the ability to draw, speak or paste images of math problems into the bot. And he says that more than 40 percent of Thetawise users use “tutoring mode,” the version designed not to give students the answer. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For now, outside of schools, the products aimed directly at students are there and will continue to be used, Grom says. For products that are designed for use in schools, it’s more complicated, he says. There are a lot of social problems, including how AI bots affect student motivation, or whether they grow or shrink disparities within classrooms. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There have also been &lt;a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2021/11/05/hope-for-profit-from-instant-answers-to-your-math-homework/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;concerns about rampant cheating&lt;/a&gt; with products of both kinds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Flawed Theory of Learning?&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;But some question whether these tools really could be such excellent math tutors. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chatbots are best understood as an evolution in personal learning, Meyer, of Mathworlds, says. That means they are in line with students watching videos on a laptop by themselves, he adds. But students have lots of math knowledge, Meyer argues, since even those who are behind in class will understand patterns in the world and have some informal language to describe complex phenomena. The difference is in the ability to unlock that knowledge: Human teachers can draw that out of students and use it, Meyer says. Chatbots cannot do that unless the student types in an enormous amount of information.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Others share in the skepticism. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In math, people can be hesitant to get help, says Nick Hershman, a teacher on special assignment who’s based in Beaverton, near the Portland metro area in Oregon. A good teacher — or tutor — relies on personal and emotional connection, he argues. Overcoming initial resistance from a student can require an instructor to build a relationship with the child. But when interacting with a chatbot, the little moments that build trust between tutor and student can feel inauthentic, he says. “No inhuman chatbot is going to help me feel good,” Hershman says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Meyer suggests that these tools’ lack of that human touch may explain why they have been slow to overtake math classrooms.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For Meyer, that lag identifies part of the problem with these tools. Human teachers will be able to look at a sketch, ask for a couple words about a part of it, and then respond, using the context of the classroom, Meyer says. For a chatbot to have comparable knowledge would require a student to type pages and pages to try to communicate in words what they communicate so effectively and simply with multimedia, Meyer adds. Plus, even then, the human teacher could have incorporated facial cues from the student as clues to their understanding, which would have eluded a chatbot. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Does It Add Up?&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;So what does this matter?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The biggest consequence of investing time, attention and capital into a false trail that doesn’t pay off on its claim of being transformational is that it will cost years of support for students and teachers who need it, Meyer says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Post-pandemic, students are already struggling with lost learning, and teachers feel like they are drowning, he says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Instead of investing in &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-22-leaders-asked-for-more-tutors-and-schools-got-them-is-that-enough" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;high-dose tutoring&lt;/a&gt; — which has shown some promise in helping students — or in lifting teacher salaries and shrinking class sizes, the education system is counting on generative AI to address resource challenges, he says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But it’s shown no signs so far of being able to meet those needs, and schools are losing time, and people, he adds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It’s not that the promise of these tools is lost on skeptics. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“You balance skepticism and some version of hope that maybe this time it's different. You know, maybe this tool is different,” says Hershman, the teacher from Beaverton. “Because we all wish we had magical tools to make [teaching] easier.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the broken promises of earlier tech to revolutionize education weigh heavily. Plus, with dwindling funds thanks to enrollment declines and the sunsetting of federal relief dollars, these schools also have to &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-08-28-as-federal-dollars-vanish-districts-weigh-which-edtech-tools-to-drop" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;be more circumspect about purchases&lt;/a&gt;. The tech enthusiasm can feel increasingly hollow, more like a sales pitch than a “disruption.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So to rouse Hershman from his skepticism, he says he’d need to believe that this technology is meaningfully improving outcomes for students, especially those from marginalized backgrounds. But his doubt is reinforced by the realities of limited resources and training opportunities that districts face. There are always stories of any educational resource helping individual students, often the most motivated and easiest to support, Hershman says. But it doesn’t feel like enough to overcome the current obstacles in front of schools.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16088/shutterstock_2036186228-1731716602.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16088/shutterstock_2036186228-1731716602.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Is There a Problem With ‘Mathbots’?</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Photo By Ground Picture/ Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Revolutionizing How Educators Find Tech Solutions</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-13-revolutionizing-how-educators-find-tech-solutions</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-13-revolutionizing-how-educators-find-tech-solutions#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Nina Berler</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Innovative Tools</category> <category>Digital Learning</category> <category>Solutions</category> <pubDate>Wed, 13 Nov 2024 09:55:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-d600bfa1 </guid> <description>With a new school year now in full swing, educators are in a bind. They want to implement innovative edtech tools in the classroom but don’t ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;With a new school year now in full swing, educators are in a bind. They want to implement innovative edtech tools in the classroom but don’t necessarily have the time to research and evaluate solutions before procurement and classroom implementation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Enter the concept of curated online marketplaces — a potential game-changer in the edtech landscape. These platforms aim to streamline the discovery and evaluation process, putting efficient search capabilities at educators’ fingertips.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To explore this further, EdSurge spoke with &lt;a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannie-yeoh/?trk=public_post_comment_actor-name" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Shannie Yeoh&lt;/a&gt;, Senior Manager, EdTech Partnerships, Worldwide Public Sector, at &lt;a href="https://aws.amazon.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Amazon Web Services (AWS)&lt;/a&gt;. After leading business strategy transformation efforts for systems integrators, Yeoh joined AWS two years ago and now manages go-to-market strategies for edtech partners, helping them drive both growth and revenue. Yeoh shares her excitement about enabling educators to have easy access to tools they need to simplify their day-to-day tasks while creating a stimulating learning environment.&lt;/p&gt;Shannie Yeoh&lt;br&gt;Senior Manager, EdTech Partnerships, AWS&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EdSurge: What challenges do you think educators face when they’re researching, evaluating and procuring the right edtech tools?&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yeoh:&lt;/strong&gt; Finding the right edtech tools, especially in the current environment, is never easy. A &lt;a href="https://www.instructure.com/resources/research-reports/edtech-top-40-look-k-12-edtech-engagement-during-2023-24-school-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;recent study from LearnPlatform by Instructure&lt;/a&gt; found that school districts access an average of 2,739 distinct tech tools annually. On top of that, an &lt;a href="https://mdreducation.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;MDR&lt;/a&gt; study also shows that teachers are spending an average of seven hours per week just looking for instructional resources to use in classrooms! &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There are three main challenges we hear from educators today. One is &lt;em&gt;the rapid pace of innovation&lt;/em&gt; in this space. &lt;em&gt;Security and privacy concerns&lt;/em&gt; are also a major hurdle since tools must protect the student data and comply with the relevant regulations. Then, obviously, &lt;em&gt;the budget&lt;/em&gt; is always a top concern. Finding high-quality, cost-effective solutions that demonstrate clear evidence of their impact is also very crucial. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How are online marketplaces changing the way that educators can discover and access edtech resources? &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the past, educators often had to rely on word of mouth, conferences and their own extensive research to even learn about the new edtech tools; it was a very scattered and fragmented process. But now, with centralized online marketplaces, educators can actually browse and explore a vast catalog of vetted, curated resources in one place. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On top of that, the ability for educators to read the reviews, comparing the different options side by side, has been incredibly valuable. It allows them to make much more informed decisions about what will work best for their students. The fact that many of these platforms, including the &lt;a href="https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;AWS Marketplace&lt;/a&gt;, also handle procurement and deployment makes the whole process so much easier.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What resources are available to help educators stay informed about emerging edtech trends, and how can those educators maximize their use?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;At the end of the day, staying informed and engaged with a tech landscape is vital, but it’s not just about keeping up. It’s about embracing these innovations and figuring out how to leverage them to drive meaningful, transformative change in education.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Shannie Yeoh&lt;p&gt;First, I recommend tapping into information and insights available through online communities and professional organizations like &lt;a href="https://iste.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;ISTE&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="https://www.cosn.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;CoSN&lt;/a&gt;. We at AWS have worked closely with CoSN and the &lt;a href="https://www.cgcs.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Council of Great City Schools&lt;/a&gt; to develop the generative AI readiness checklists. For higher education institutions, we have partnered with &lt;a href="https://net.educause.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;EDUCAUSE&lt;/a&gt; to create a similar checklist specific to colleges and universities. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I also encourage educators to use the &lt;a href="https://index.edsurge.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;EdTech Index&lt;/a&gt; in various ways. Teachers can check the Index before requesting products through the district approval process to identify trusted third-party validators. A district-level edtech specialist can use the “My List” feature to compare existing tools with teacher-requested ones that offer similar functionality, providing side-by-side comparisons of critical edtech information.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the end of the day, staying informed and engaged with a tech landscape is vital, but it’s not just about keeping up. It’s about embracing these innovations and figuring out how to leverage them to drive meaningful, transformative change in education. I think that’s where all the true impact lies. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What emerging technologies or trends do you see as having the greatest potential to transform edtech in the next five years?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think the first one would be &lt;em&gt;personalized learning powered by generative AI&lt;/em&gt;. The ability to leverage AI-driven recommendations and seamless integrations with classroom management systems will allow us to create a truly personalized experience. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I’m also really bullish on the continued evolution of &lt;em&gt;data-driven decision-making&lt;/em&gt;, empowering educators to make much more informed, evidence-based choices about the tools and approaches they use. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I’m also excited about the &lt;em&gt;continued advancement of immersive technologies&lt;/em&gt; like augmented and virtual realities. These platforms have become more accessible and user-friendly, and I think the potential to create a truly engaging, contextualized educational experience will skyrocket. Imagine being able to explore the surface of Mars or witness historical events firsthand! That level of interactivity and depth of learning is unparalleled. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think underpinning all this is the &lt;em&gt;growing emphasis on accessibility, equity and inclusivity&lt;/em&gt; in edtech. I believe that we’ll see a much stronger focus on designing the products and platforms that serve the needs of &lt;em&gt;all&lt;/em&gt; learners regardless of their background and ability. Accessibility can no longer be an afterthought; it has to be a core design principle. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How does AWS gather information about the impact of edtech tools and trends in the education sector, and how does that inform your approach to supporting the edtech industry?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h5 class="aside-heading"&gt;Recommended Resources:&lt;/h5&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.chronicle.com/featured/digital-higher-ed/ed-tech-trends-top-five?utm_campaign=che-ci-cnt-ci-aws-edtech&amp;amp;utm_medium=l-spn&amp;amp;utm_source=ext-w&amp;amp;utm_content=24-09-04" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Top 5 Trends in EdTech&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/publicsector/whose-contract-is-it-anyway-how-aws-marketplace-works/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;How AWS Marketplace Works&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;We place a huge emphasis on measuring the real-world impact of the edtech tools and solutions available on our platforms. Areas like chronic absenteeism, staffing shortages and mental health are the three key themes that we have been hearing about, and not just from our own customer base. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We also collaborate extensively with a wide range of industry partners to get a more holistic understanding of the tech landscape. We host regular CEO roundtables and community forums where we can learn directly from education leaders and industry stakeholders about the challenges they are facing and the emerging trends they are seeing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Groups like &lt;a href="https://www.holoniq.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;HolonIQ&lt;/a&gt; provide us with invaluable market research and data that we use to inform our decisions. This comprehensive impact data are then fed directly back into edtech future offerings, allowing us to identify the most effective and transformative tech solutions and double down on what’s working or fix what’s not — really filling in the gaps in this marketplace. Our goal is to continuously evolve and expand our ed tech ecosystem to ensure educators have access to the cutting-edge resources they need to drive student success.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16051/Shutterstock_2175850117-1728581161.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16051/Shutterstock_2175850117-1728581161.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Revolutionizing How Educators Find Tech Solutions</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Image Credit: Miha Creative / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Students Need Learning Opportunities Beyond Core Subjects. Here's Why.</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-13-students-need-learning-opportunities-beyond-core-subjects-here-s-why</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-13-students-need-learning-opportunities-beyond-core-subjects-here-s-why#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Hind Haddad</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <pubDate>Wed, 13 Nov 2024 01:00:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-46c4f449 </guid> <description>“This issue is deeply personal to me, not just as an educator but also as a mother who wants her children to grow up in a school system that values all ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Last year, I presented a paper on using technology in my Arabic class at the &lt;a href="https://ofla.wildapricot.org/event-5255671" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Ohio Foreign Language Association&lt;/a&gt; summer conference. At the end of my session, a Spanish language teacher opened the discussion by talking about students dismissing her work because it is not &lt;a href="https://nwef.org/2022/04/25/what-are-the-essential-school-subjects/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;an essential subject&lt;/a&gt; in the state. This hurt her teaching time, and she wanted to know if I experienced the same phenomenon in my teaching career; without hesitation, I admitted to facing the same problem. As attendees from various languages that Ohio schools shared their experiences, we vented about how often we had to stand up to colleagues to prevent them from pulling students out of our classes and how that devalued our teaching.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In my fifth year of teaching Arabic as a second language, I often reflect on how frequently my subject is undervalued. Sitting at my desk at the end of the day, I recall numerous instances where colleagues said my work was either easy or unimportant because it wasn't a state-tested subject or &lt;a href="https://www.unlockyourfuture.org/_files/ugd/4a4a00_454fd82931954b2dba5b81f6a359e483.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;graduation requirement&lt;/a&gt;. They see my class as a convenient time for students to be pulled out for extra assignments in core subjects like math and science. This perception undermines my efforts and sends a troubling message to my students—that learning Arabic, or any subject outside traditional school disciplines, is less meaningful to their learning experience. This also reflects a broader issue that sends a damaging message to students about what’s truly important in their education.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When we devalue the subject areas on the margins of our state-mandated curriculum, we fail to recognize the full range of skills students need for a well-rounded education.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The Struggle for Recognition and Its Impact on Student Identity&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;In my school, untested and non-mandated subjects face specific constraints and limitations. For example, after reading through the &lt;a href="https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/OLS-Graphic-Sections/Learning-Standards" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Ohio Department of Education standards&lt;/a&gt;, I noticed disparities in budget allocations that limit the availability of Arabic textbooks and materials. This forced me to find creative solutions to provide quality education with limited resources, especially considering that the standards determined by the state of Ohio &lt;a href="https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/World-Languages-and-Cultures/Ohio-s-Learning-Standards-for-World-Languages-and" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;are united for all the world languages&lt;/a&gt;, although each language has its characteristics. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This neglect affects both my teaching and the opportunities available to my students, of which a large majority identify with Arabic heritage or Muslim faith. Because of their identities, parents are motivated to enroll their kids in our school because we offer an Arabic language program; they see the value in learning Arabic to understand their holy scriptures, the Quran and Hadith.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This lack of recognition extends to subjects not tested by the state, like Arabic, which are often undervalued compared to core subjects. In this case, devaluing untested subjects like Arabic in favor of core subjects confuses students about the importance of their heritage and identity. This dismissal can lead students to internalize that their cultural background and language are less valuable, causing a ripple effect on their self-esteem and engagement in school. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despite all the challenges of teaching Arabic as a subject not tested by the state, I never lose faith in its value for my students. The importance of learning Arabic extends far beyond just language skills; it connects students with their cultural roots, enhances their global awareness and opens doors to opportunities that might otherwise be closed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The Importance of Learning World Languages&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;When I first started teaching Arabic, I was so excited about the professional benefits that learning a world language could bring to my students. It wasn't just about them getting a better grade or future job prospects, though that's certainly a big part. As someone who is also bilingual, I’ve experienced firsthand how being fluent in multiple languages can open doors to diverse career opportunities. Speaking Arabic and English has allowed me to connect with people from various backgrounds, enhancing my professional network and expanding my job prospects. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One time, about six years into my teaching career, a former student reached out to share wonderful news. I taught him Arabic in high school, and he had since been admitted to medical school after graduating college. While looking for a side job, he was offered a position in patient outreach — and the reason he stood out among other candidates was his ability to speak both Arabic and English. His bilingual skills made him an asset to the healthcare team, allowing him to connect with and assist a broader range of patients, especially those who spoke Arabic. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This experience not only highlights the personal benefits of learning a world language but the critical role these skills play in real-world scenarios. For him, knowing Arabic wasn’t just an academic achievement; it became a key factor in his professional growth and his ability to serve his community.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Beyond their future careers after high school, I want my students to experience the educational benefits of learning a new language. I've seen how it can enhance &lt;a href="https://potomac.edu/benefits-of-learning-a-second-language/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;cognitive skills, boost cultural awareness, and improve critical thinking&lt;/a&gt;. These crucial skills help students become well-rounded individuals, capable of navigating our multicultural world with ease and empathy. When I see my students engage in learning Arabic, they gain not only language skills but also a deeper understanding of their cultural heritage, which is essential for their identity and academic motivation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The focus on core subjects only means that students miss out on exploring diverse fields of knowledge, limiting their future career options and cultural understanding. The missed opportunities are significant, and it's frustrating to see them when I know how enriching learning a new language can be.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Embracing and Valuing Every Subject Equally&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Recognizing and valuing the benefits of learning subjects not tested by the state, such as Arabic, is crucial for creating an enriching educational environment. My personal experience as a bilingual educator highlights how vital it is to support all subjects, including those that are not a part of state testing requirements. To address this issue, we need a shift toward a more holistic educational approach that values all subjects equally. This means advocating for policies that provide resources and recognition for untested subjects, ensuring they are treated with the same importance and resources as core subjects. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Administrators should champion this change by promoting the significance of these subjects and integrating them more fully into the curriculum. Schools could develop initiatives to highlight the value of untested subjects, ensuring they are given adequate time and resources, which would help students and teachers alike appreciate their worth.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This issue is deeply personal to me, not just as an educator but also as a mother who wants her children to grow up in a school system that values all subjects equally, not just those deemed worthy by state standards. I want my children and all students to experience an education where every subject is given the importance it deserves, allowing them to develop a well-rounded understanding of the world. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By embracing and supporting all subjects, we can bridge the gap between students' diverse needs and the rigid academic priorities often set by the system. This is not just about education—it's about shaping students who feel seen, respected and empowered in their learning journey.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16077/shutterstock_345187850-1730483011.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16077/shutterstock_345187850-1730483011.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Students Need Learning Opportunities Beyond Core Subjects. Here's Why.</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Maxx Studio / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Here Are Some Models of Recovery for Early Care and Learning After Hurricane Helene</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-12-here-are-some-models-of-recovery-for-early-care-and-learning-after-hurricane-helene</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-12-here-are-some-models-of-recovery-for-early-care-and-learning-after-hurricane-helene#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Liz Bell, EdNC.org</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Early Learning</category> <category>Policy and Government</category> <category>Well-Being</category> <pubDate>Tue, 12 Nov 2024 13:31:44 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-e0c2062d </guid> <description>This story was originally published by EdNC.org. Unlike North Carolina’s K-12 schools or community colleges, child care programs aren’t consolidated ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This story was originally published by &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.ednc.org/10-28-2024-recovery-models-early-care-child-learning-north-carolina-hurricane-helene/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;em&gt;EdNC.org&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Unlike North Carolina’s K-12 schools or community colleges, child care programs aren’t consolidated under a public system. That makes it harder for early childhood programs to acquire funding and coordinate recovery from disasters such as Hurricane Helene, creating short- and long-term effects on children, families and communities. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The longer it takes for young learners to return to their early care and learning settings, the longer it takes for their families to resume regular working schedules. Young children thrive on that regularity, and &lt;a href="https://www.ednc.org/how-babies-brains-develop-adult-connection-care-trust-support-serve-return/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;their healthy development&lt;/a&gt; depends on trusted and caring relationships with caregivers and educators during this critical period. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Without a unified public system for early care and learning, local, state and national organizations — as well as individuals in communities across Western North Carolina — are providing resources and ways to address short-term needs and long-term recovery of the early childhood community.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here are some of the models, strategies and resources supporting the recovery of young children, families and child care programs in Western North Carolina.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Reopening Without Water, Usual Requirements&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The state has loosened child care licensing requirements for affected counties, both through &lt;a href="https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2023/hb149" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;relief legislation&lt;/a&gt; and Gov. Roy Cooper’s Oct. 9 &lt;a href="https://governor.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2024/10/11/governor-cooper-issues-executive-order-support-child-care-and-health-care-needs-during-hurricane" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;executive order&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Programs that sustained damage or lack access to services are working with &lt;a href="https://ncchildcare.ncdhhs.gov/Portals/0/documents/pdf/D/DCDEE_Regulatory_Services_Section_Teams_Listing.pdf?ver=96e_EzJLjnJR7ktzQYPuOQ==" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;licensed child care consultants&lt;/a&gt; from the Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE) to create emergency plans to reopen without meeting usual requirements but still maintain safety for children.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Buncombe County, programs have been navigating how to open without access to drinking water. In larger centers with large kitchens, boiling water has been an option. For smaller centers and home-based programs, providers are using bottled water for hand-washing and drinking. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And starting at the end of October, FEMA and the National Guard are delivering potable water to licensed programs in the county, said Jenny Vial, director of child care resources at &lt;a href="https://buncombepfc.org/?gad_source=1&amp;amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwg-24BhB_EiwA1ZOx8uanRye62p3Lm7DD-wwJAw1l8onwlknbD6g3zwil76gJJqSGzBj1nhoC15gQAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Buncombe Partnership for Children&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;About a third of programs in the county have reopened, Vial said. Another third were planning to open by the end of October. Programs are creating emergency plans that are reviewed by local environmental health staff. If a plan is approved, child care consultants have allowed programs to reopen, Vial said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“We’re seeing lots of creative solutions,” Vial said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; Water has come in donations of pallets from community members and businesses. One center figured out how to connect large containers of water to their plumbing so they could use their sinks. Most have been dumping water bottles into dispensers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She said resources for future emergencies, including plans to ensure child care can reopen after disasters, are needed so families can rebuild.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Early childhood education is an essential part of infrastructure,” Vial said. “As much as we want to be considered educators, and we are educators, we are also a basic service.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Reopening in School Buildings&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hurricane Helene destroyed Burke County’s two largest child care centers, displacing about 250 children from their learning environments and impeding parents from working. In the weeks after Helene, Burke County Public Schools was able to &lt;a href="https://www.ednc.org/10-17-2024-burke-county-elementary-schools-child-care-programs-devastated-helene/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;provide classroom space&lt;/a&gt; for about 170 of those students on the campuses of Salem Elementary and Oak Hill Elementary. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One reason &lt;a href="https://www.ednc.org/district/burke/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Burke County Public Schools&lt;/a&gt; could help so quickly was the strength of the district’s relationship with &lt;a href="https://www.smartstartkids.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Burke County Smart Start&lt;/a&gt;, a nonprofit that supports licensed child care programs and early childhood development.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Working with a DCDEE licensing consultant, Burke County Smart Start determined that the school setting didn’t meet the criteria for serving infants and toddlers, but could accommodate children 3 years and older under temporary licenses without some of the usual regulatory requirements. A local church plans to provide classroom space for displaced infants and toddlers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The child care programs signed memorandums of understanding with the district for 90 days, during which the district will not charge for rent or utilities. The programs are buying food from the district for children to eat at the cafeteria through the federal &lt;a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/cep" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Community Eligibility Provision&lt;/a&gt; program.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Emergency Child Care Sending Volunteers&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://emergencychildcare.org/services/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The National Emergency Child Care Network&lt;/a&gt; is a corps of volunteers who are vetted and trained to respond to child care emergencies. The network is sending volunteers to Western North Carolina to respond to short-term child care needs for families. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“We want to be the 911 for child care,” said Silke Knebel, founder and CEO of the organization, who lives in Durham and is building the model in North Carolina for everyday emergencies before expanding it across the country. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The network is deploying volunteers to help with such short-term needs as a few hours of care for displaced families as they navigate paperwork, jobs or clean-up, or extra support for child care programs, schools and other organizations as they reopen without their usual staff.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;State Assistance via Smart Start&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The legislature &lt;a href="https://www.ednc.org/10-24-2024-general-assembly-passes-second-helene-relief-bill/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;allocated&lt;/a&gt; $10 million for child care recovery in its second Helene relief package released on Oct. 24. The funds are allocated to the Department of Health and Human Services to be disbursed through the local Smart Start partnerships for affected child care centers and family child care homes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="https://webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewNewsFile/93/S743CCS_CommitteeReport_2024_10_24" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;committee report&lt;/a&gt; says the funds should be used “to provide assistance in reopening and maintaining operations, including, but not limited to, cleaning, repairs, and relocating.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“We are deeply grateful for the $10 million from the NC General Assembly to the western Smart Start local partnerships to provide crucial support to the unsung heroes, our dedicated providers and teachers at child care centers and family child care homes affected by Hurricane Helene,” said Amy Cubbage, president of the &lt;a href="https://www.smartstart.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC)&lt;/a&gt;, in an emailed statement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The bill directs NCPC, Smart Start’s statewide umbrella organization, to give the funding to the local partnerships in affected communities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“This funding is critical to restore services and ensure that children and families can return to stable early care and education environments,” Cubbage said. “Together, with many others in the private and public sectors, we can rebuild and strengthen our communities.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Gov. Roy Cooper’s relief &lt;a href="https://www.osbm.nc.gov/hurricane-helene-dna-slides/download?attachment" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;package&lt;/a&gt;, released one day before the state’s bill, &lt;a href="https://www.ednc.org/10-23-2024-whats-in-gov-coopers-3-9-billion-helene-relief-proposal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;included&lt;/a&gt; $36 million for child care relief. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Smart Start partnerships throughout the region have coordinated to assess needs, distribute donations, and connect providers with funding and temporary locations. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.iredellsmartstart.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Iredell County Partnership for Young Children&lt;/a&gt; has received donations from across the state and is using its mobile resource van to deliver materials, equipment,and furniture to child care programs. The organization is coordinating with &lt;a href="https://www.wilkeschildren.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Wilkes Community Partnership for Children&lt;/a&gt; to assess needs and deliver supplies across the region. &lt;a href="https://harnettsmartstart.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Harnett County Partnership for Children&lt;/a&gt; is serving as the hub for donations in the eastern part of the state, and it delivers the donations to Iredell’s partnership. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Local Chamber Covering Tuition&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the beginning of October, the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation &lt;a href="https://www.ednc.org/boone-area-chamber-of-commerce-foundation-allocates-125000-to-early-childhood-centers-in-watauga/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;allocated $125,000&lt;/a&gt; to go toward tuition payments for licensed child care programs in Watauga County. The funds are being distributed to centers and family child care homes by the Children’s Council of Watauga County, the local Smart Start partner. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Our foundation board felt this was a direct way to ensure stability in the critical early childhood industry, while also freeing up cash for families to cover other storm-related expenses,” said David Jackson, president and CEO of the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Disaster Relief Grants and Funds&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Child care nonprofits, including Smart Start partnerships, are eligible to apply for grants from the &lt;a href="https://cfwnc.org/grants/emergency-and-disaster-response-fund" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Emergency and Disaster Response Fund&lt;/a&gt; (EDRF) being administered by the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina (CFWNC). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These $25,000 grants are being awarded on a rolling basis and should be for “frontline human service needs,” according to the CFWNC website. That includes nonprofit early care and learning programs. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is also specific funding support available to home-based providers. &lt;a href="https://homegrownchildcare.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Home Grown&lt;/a&gt;, a national collaborative of funders committed to improving the quality of and access to home-based child care, has seeded a fund with $150,000 to make direct payments of $800 to $1,500 to home-based educators who were operating or offering care as of mid-September. Eligible caregivers include:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Licensed family child care homes.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Licensed centers in residence.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Family, friend and neighbor caregivers.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Grandparents who provide regular child care.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Providers and caregivers can access support via an invitation and application link from a partnering child care network, including Smart Start of Transylvania County, El Telar, and the Family Childcare and Center Enrichment Foundation (which is is also conducting a &lt;a href="https://fccef.org/disaster-relief-resources" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;needs assessment&lt;/a&gt; for home-based providers in Western North Carolina). For more information about the Home Grown fund, email: &lt;a href="mailto:EmergencyFund@homegrownchildcare.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;EmergencyFund@homegrownchildcare.org&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Save the Children Funding, Training on Child Care Recovery&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Save the Children, a global humanitarian aid nonprofit, has specialized in early childhood disaster recovery since Hurricane Katrina. The organization is &lt;a href="https://www.savethechildren.org/us/what-we-do/disaster-relief-in-america/hurricane-relief" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;raising funds&lt;/a&gt; and providing support to families, child care providers and local early childhood organizations in the region.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Our North Star is really to mitigate that learning loss,” said Militza Mezquita, senior adviser for education in emergencies at the organization. “Kids from Hurricane Katrina; they did a longitudinal study, and they just never recovered educationally.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The nonprofit has disbursed $25,000 to &lt;a href="https://projectcamp.co/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Project Camp&lt;/a&gt; for emergency child care, $20,000 to &lt;a href="https://cldisasterrelief.org/about-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Child Life Disaster Relief&lt;/a&gt; for psychosocial programming in shelters and $15,000 to &lt;a href="https://www.horizonsatcarolinaday.org/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Horizons at Carolina Day School&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mezquita said the organization is assessing hundreds of programs across the region with varying needs. The organization provides a train-the-trainer program to early childhood leaders like licensing consultants to help child care programs through the recovery process, including &lt;a href="https://www.ednc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Childcare-Funding-Guide-for-Fema-Assistance.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;how to determine relief&lt;/a&gt; funding eligibility and access funds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Their priority is for-profit centers and home-based providers that are ineligible for FEMA assistance and often don’t have consistent funding streams.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Ten to 15 percent of child care providers after a disaster will close forever, and then you’re talking about kids that don’t have seats, kids that are now without quality care, and it just creates a downward spiral, economically and educationally for these kids,” Mezquita said. “Our for-profit child care centers are the most vulnerable in a disaster because they don’t have as many resources as one would think, and so we really work with them to understand where to go.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In addition, the organization provides trainings that support providers and early childhood leaders in psychosocial recovery, and how best to support the children they serve in the months and years ahead. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“What we do know is that we’re going to be there for the long term,” Mezquita said.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16086/shutterstock_2523297147-1731446499.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16086/shutterstock_2523297147-1731446499.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Here Are Some Models of Recovery for Early Care and Learning After Hurricane Helene</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">audrey.buff / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Should Students Chat With AI Versions of Historical Figures?</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-12-should-students-chat-with-ai-versions-of-historical-figures</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-12-should-students-chat-with-ai-versions-of-historical-figures#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Jeffrey R. Young</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>EdSurge Podcast</category> <category>Artificial Intelligence</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Diversity and Equity</category> <pubDate>Tue, 12 Nov 2024 13:29:28 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-73a17b6b </guid> <description>Can a filmmaker’s AI chatbot version of Sacagawea bring the historical figure who guided the Lewis and Clark expedition alive for students, or are ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/the-edsurge-on-air-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Veteran multimedia producer and professor Lynn Rogoff has long experimented with ways to bring history alive for young people. So as she saw the rise of AI tools, she was quick to try them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/edsurge-podcast/id972239500" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;In her latest film, “Bird Woman: Sacagawea,” viewers not only watch the story of Sacagawea — the young woman from the Soshone tribe who helped guide the Lewis and Clark Expedition back in 1804 — they can chat with her and ask questions about her life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At least, they can chat with an animated version of Sacagawea, as well as a series of other historical figures depicted. The film, which began as an audio documentary, is also animated with AI-generated characters. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The animation style is meant to look like something that might be in the latest consumer video game. “We wanted to go where the kids are, where they are on the computers with their games or on their PlayStations,” Rogoff told EdSurge. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rogoff argues that just like in a video game, viewers will be more engaged when they are given the chance to interact with the animated versions themselves rather than just sit back and watch. “That's why gaming became such a big genre, is because you're in it. It's an interactive experience,” she adds. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the film and chatbots also raise questions about whether AI chatbots are ready for the classroom, or whether they risk perpetuating stereotypes or stating incorrect facts due to the tendency for the technology to “hallucinate.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And some educators worry that as more companies offer chatbot stand-ins for historical figures, students will spend less time diving into the raw materials of history themselves to draw their own conclusions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I want to see people looking at primary resources. I don't want to see it going through a filter,” says Jared Ten Brink, a doctoral student in education at the University of Michigan and a member of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi. “If this is for a high school audience, I definitely want them reading journals and looking at primary resources more, and not engaging through the filter of a chatbot.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For Rogoff, though, the goal is to inspire young people to get interested enough in the subject matter to want to engage with primary materials.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The &lt;a href="https://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Lewis and Clark journals&lt;/a&gt; are not easy reading,” she says, noting that the language can feel stilted or out of context to today’s readers. “If you can capture a student’s imagination, and for them to be interested in discovering the stories of American history or any other history, then I think you have a lifelong learner.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hear more from both Rogoff and Ten Brink on the pros and cons of chatbots in teaching on this week’s EdSurge Podcast.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Listen to the episode on &lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/06MKQZg7EheWumHNck4tAO" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Spotify&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-effects-of-smartwatches-on-kids-schools-and-families/id972239500?i=1000675808817" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Apple Podcasts&lt;/a&gt; or on the player below.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16087/AI_chatbots_bird_woman-1731446286.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16087/AI_chatbots_bird_woman-1731446286.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Should Students Chat With AI Versions of Historical Figures?</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">stills from Bird Woman AI chatbots</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>5 Essential Questions Educators Have About AI</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-11-5-essential-questions-educators-have-about-ai</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-11-5-essential-questions-educators-have-about-ai#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Annie Ning</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Digital Learning</category> <category>Artificial Intelligence</category> <pubDate>Mon, 11 Nov 2024 09:55:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-e139dc66 </guid> <description>Walberto FloresEdTech Coordinator, Highlands International School San SalvadorArtificial intelligence has entered our classrooms — sometimes invited ...</description> <content:encoded>Walberto Flores&lt;br&gt;EdTech Coordinator, Highlands International School San Salvador&lt;p&gt;Artificial intelligence has entered our classrooms — sometimes invited and other times not — leaving educators to ask essential questions about its implementation and impact. Teachers are exploring how AI can be used to redefine learning experiences, strengthen student-teacher relationships and support students as ethical AI users and creators.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Recently, I spoke with several teachers regarding their primary questions and reflections on using &lt;a href="https://iste.org/ai" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;AI in teaching and learning&lt;/a&gt;. Their thought-provoking responses challenge us to consider not only what AI can do but what it means for meaningful and equitable learning environments. Keeping in mind these reflections, we can better understand how we move forward toward meaningful AI integration in education.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Walberto Flores: How might we redefine teaching and learning?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The real question is not just about what tasks AI can help us do faster or more easily, but rather, what educators &lt;em&gt;should&lt;/em&gt; be doing — and how AI can assist us in achieving those goals.&lt;/p&gt;Ann David&lt;br&gt;Associate Professor, University of the Incarnate Word, Teacher Education Program&lt;p&gt;Using AI is not about repeating what we already do but about challenging ourselves to do what we should. It’s not about doing things faster but about doing the essentials and doing them well. The innovation AI offers isn’t found in the technology itself but in how much better it can help us become as educators.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We should be asking how AI can help us provide more meaningful time for our students, foster authentic relationships and serve as role models for them to become better people.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ann David: What about teacher and student relationships? &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Whatever the next/newest technology, from paper to AI, the relationship between students and teachers has always been central to learning. As AI begins to take on more tasks, like lesson plans, worksheets and emails to parents, this is an opportunity to refocus on what AI can’t replicate: the rapport between a teacher and student that is essential for learning.&lt;/p&gt;Hue-An Wren&lt;br&gt;Teacher, Garden Grove Unified School District&lt;p&gt;New technologies often pull teachers, administrators and schools away from that focus. I piloted a smart board in the early 2000s. Did it do more than my chalkboard? Yes, but I still needed to know my students. Relationships are often the solution to real challenges. If AI can make more space for teacher-student relationships in the learning process, that’s an unquestionable good.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hue-An Wren: How can we use AI to create student-centered practices?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This technology gives us the opportunity to shift away from outdated teaching practices that no longer serve today’s students and better prepare them for the future. Student-centered learning allows us to guide all learners at the pace they need and want, and AI can help us overcome existing hurdles so that we can move toward a more personalized learning experience.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;AI tools have already proven useful for improving teacher productivity and fostering student creativity. We need to encourage more conversations about these benefits in ways that are not intimidating. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-11-09-5-steps-to-integrate-ai-into-your-curriculum-infographic" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;ISTE’s infographic on using AI in the classroom&lt;/a&gt; can be a handy resource to facilitate discussion among educators.&lt;/p&gt;Pattie Morales&lt;br&gt;Instructional Technology Specialist, Indian Community School&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pattie Morales: How can we empower students to use AI ethically within and beyond the classroom?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To ensure that students are empowered not only to ethically use AI but also to understand how it’s made, we have to start with a focus on creating a progression of skills from Kindergarten to 12th grade that covers understanding and exploring machine learning and key concepts around student AI use, such as ethics and data privacy. This progression should also include real-world scenarios and design thinking projects where students build AI tools using code.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hannah Davis Ketteman:&lt;/strong&gt; As we dive head-first into a future where generative AI answers our questions, our students — though tech-savvy — often overlook what happens behind the scenes, such as where their data goes and who owns it. While AI is useful, it’s important to remember that these interactions are driven by data and lack empathy, compassion and human understanding. As information increasingly becomes currency, we must stay mindful of our humanity, knowing that our values and connections truly make us whole.&lt;/p&gt;Hannah Davis Ketteman&lt;br&gt;Digital Learning Coach, Temple ISD&lt;p&gt;Schools need to create intentional, acceptable use policies and explicitly teach students about data privacy, digital citizenship, technology biases and the power of critical thinking. If we can address these questions, I think we are really doing our jobs: engaging students in real-world experiences while guiding them through difficult issues.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Betzabe Orenos: How can students make the case for AI use in the classroom?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It’s a valid question that even my high school students ask. They observe teachers using AI for lesson planning, providing feedback and generating project ideas. This raises a question of fairness: If teachers rely on AI, why can’t students? It prompts educators to personalize AI-generated content and foster an open dialogue on AI use. It’s exciting to see students eager to engage in these conversations. They want to advocate for AI in the classroom but also understand how to use it ethically, responsibly and productively.&lt;/p&gt;Betzabe Orenos&lt;br&gt;High School Technology Teacher and Instructional Coach, Colegio Decroly Americano&lt;p&gt;Mentoring both teachers and students in ethical and responsible AI use is key. Teachers need to model best practices and allow students to explore AI’s potential and ethical implications. Without this space, AI might continue to be seen as just a cheating tool rather than an opportunity for students to learn and innovate under guidance.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Empowering the Next Generation With Responsible AI Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As teachers and students explore the world of AI together, how we handle this technology in classrooms today will have a lasting impact on society. By encouraging ethical use, responsible choices and a focus on relationships, we’re preparing students to interact thoughtfully with AI, both now and in the future.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h5 class="aside-heading"&gt;Resources Recommended by the Interviewees:&lt;/h5&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://iste.org/ai" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The ISTE-GM hands-on AI guides&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-11-09-5-steps-to-integrate-ai-into-your-curriculum-infographic" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;ISTE’s infographic on using AI in the classroom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://iste.org/courses/artificial-intelligence-explorations-for-educators" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;ISTE Artificial Intelligence Explorations for Educators&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://machinelearningforkids.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Machine Learning for Kids&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Google’s Teachable Machine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Teachers play a key role in showing how AI can be used in learning while still keeping fairness, empathy and ethics at the center. As students start advocating for AI in their education, they’re also learning to think about its broader impact. Through these classroom experiences, we can make sure AI is used for good — helping not just individuals but entire communities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The discussions we’re having with students today will empower them to create a future where AI improves learning, encourages creativity and supports responsible digital habits. By embracing AI in thoughtful ways, both teachers and students are laying the foundation for a more equitable and compassionate technological world.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16052/Shutterstock_2221896207-1728585761.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16052/Shutterstock_2221896207-1728585761.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">5 Essential Questions Educators Have About AI</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Image Credit: Hero Images Inc / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>What If Finding Child Care Online Were as Easy as Making a Dinner Reservation?</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-11-what-if-finding-child-care-online-were-as-easy-as-making-a-dinner-reservation</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-11-what-if-finding-child-care-online-were-as-easy-as-making-a-dinner-reservation#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Emily Tate Sullivan</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Policy and Government</category> <category>Solutions</category> <category>Affordability</category> <category>Child Care</category> <pubDate>Mon, 11 Nov 2024 02:33:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-3d398321 </guid> <description>Some states are betting that better search tools can connect families with child care options.</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;In 2024, if you want to make a dinner reservation, you’re very likely to open an app on your phone, input a few details and then filter your results to see which restaurants have availability for your party size, date and time. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you want to find child care, on the other hand, good luck. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In most states, you can visit a website and see a map of providers in your area, along with some basic information about them — ages served, operating hours, quality rating — but details about their enrollment availability is often either not listed or long out-of-date. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A quick search on &lt;a href="https://www.coloradoshines.com/search" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Colorado’s state-run child care dashboard&lt;/a&gt;, for example, populates a number of quality-rated providers who accept infants within five miles of this author’s home address. Yet some of those providers haven’t updated their openings since June 2023, or even August 2022. The infants who were enrolled, when that availability was posted, are not even infants anymore. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That’s about as useful as perusing Google Maps to find a restaurant that, fingers crossed, may take a reservation for a party of four next Friday night at 7 p.m. It’s one thing to know that a restaurant exists; it’s another for that restaurant to be able to accommodate you when and how you need it. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is a trend that many in early care and education have noted and admonished. Today, people can buy a car online. They can find their next house on Zillow. But they can’t search for available child care near them. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;Why is it a fist fight to find child care? It shouldn’t be that hard. Technology should make this easier.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Amy Smigielski&lt;p&gt;“Why is it a fist fight to find child care?” asks Amy Smigielski, early care and education manager at Resultant, a data analytics firm that recently led a major overhaul of Iowa’s child care search function. “It shouldn’t be that hard. Technology should make this easier.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In August, after $5 million and a couple of years of behind-the-scenes development, Iowa launched &lt;a href="https://search.iachildcareconnect.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Child Care Connect&lt;/a&gt; (C3), a free tool that offers families “near-real-time” insight into child care providers’ availability. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The goal was to create a dashboard that is about as simple and effective as Resy or OpenTable — but for families seeking child care, explains Smigielski. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Iowa’s new system is a recent and sophisticated example of what modern technology can do to improve families’ experience of finding child care. It’s far from the only one, though. Maryland, Arizona and a handful of other states have also invested in refreshes of their child care search systems, making for a smoother user experience for families. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But even better, according to those involved, is that these new systems, on the backend, give local and state officials more insight into the true supply-side challenges and realities of the early care and education sector. They’re able to drill down and determine if a certain community lacks, say, any licensed programs at all, or has a severe shortage of infant care but a surplus of toddler slots. State and business leaders hope that, with this information, they can make more targeted investments in the field.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Making Connections&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Iowa’s old search system could tell families where early care and education programs were. That wasn’t the issue, says Ryan Page, director of child care for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. The problem was families couldn’t see availability. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I can give you a list of 20 providers, but if 19 don’t have slots, that’s time off you as a parent,” she says, meaning that parents were having to call and check in with all 20 providers only to find that most didn’t have openings.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The idea to create a better statewide platform to aid families in finding care came out of &lt;a href="https://governor.iowa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/IGOV_ChildcareTF_Report_112021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;recommendations released in fall 2021&lt;/a&gt; from a task force created by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, according to Page.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The platform would also benefit providers, adds Tami Foley, a policy program manager at Iowa’s HHS who has overseen the C3 project. Child care programs suffer when they have prolonged vacancies. And sometimes that’s just an information gap. There may be families seeking care and providers seeking children to fill empty slots, but they just aren’t finding each other. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“If they don’t have every seat or slot available filled,” Foley says of providers, “that really impacts their bottom line.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Iowa HHS began working with Resultant and Iowa State University to build out a solution. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The magic of all of this,” Smigielski of Resultant says, “was all of this information exists already. The secret was connecting everybody.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many early care and education providers were already using child care management systems (CCMSs) for tasks such as tracking enrollment, keeping up with daily attendance and submitting invoices. Leaders in Iowa decided to build pathways (mostly through application programming interfaces, or APIs) to two major CCMS vendors, which would in turn allow the state to receive aggregate information about how many seats are available in a given program each day. It was the state’s solution to integrating public and private systems and getting them to share information with one another, but without placing an additional burden on providers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The data refreshes every night and is immediately reflected on the C3 website, giving families insights into which programs can accommodate them right now.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For providers who use a different CCMS or none at all, the state sends out a digital form every month asking them to update their availability. (Iowa is also working on building data bridges to more CCMS vendors, to increase provider participation, Page says.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Paige Smothers, the owner and director of Sprouts Early Learning Academy in Carlisle, Iowa, has been filling out the vacancy form every month since May, she says. When she opens the form, it shows her her answers from last month’s check-in and asks if the information is still accurate, with responses broken down by children’s ages. If the answer is yes, she says so and submits the form. If the answer is no, it directs her to update the numbers, based on ages and full-time/part-time status. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It probably takes me three to five minutes to do,” she says. “It’s very, very user-friendly.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Smothers’ program, in Carlisle, is about 10 minutes outside of Des Moines by car and less than a mile off the main highway. Child Care Connect allows families to search for care along their route to work — which, for many, includes going from a suburb into the city. That function helps families look for care in a larger geographic area, without adding time to their commute. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It’s also quite helpful for programs like Sprouts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“This opens up a lot of opportunities for us as a business,” says Smothers. “[Families] are able to see smaller communities like Carlisle where there may be more vacancy for their child. … They can literally make a two-minute pit stop, hop back on the highway and get to work.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href="https://search.iachildcareconnect.org/Map" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;With Iowa Child Care Connect, families can search for early care and education programs nearby and along their route to work. &lt;br&gt;&lt;h2&gt;‘Momentum Is Growing’&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because Iowa’s Child Care Connect just launched, it’s still early to know how parents are using and benefiting from the platform. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Maryland, however, a refreshed child care portal has been up and running for about two years. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Maryland Family Network, a statewide nonprofit that provides resources to families during a child’s first five years, &lt;a href="https://allupfront.com/mfn-case-study" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;partnered with technology platform Upfront&lt;/a&gt; to update the state’s child care search tool, called LOCATE.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Today, &lt;a href="https://locatesearch.marylandfamilynetwork.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;LOCATE&lt;/a&gt; looks like a child care search function built for the modern age. As of February, Upfront has been requesting vacancy data once a month from the more than 6,000 providers who are listed on the platform. Their responses are integrated into what families see. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kaitlyn Wilson, a mother of six living in Rosedale, Maryland, just outside of Baltimore, used LOCATE at the end of the summer to find child care for her two youngest, ages 2 and 4. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She had a few criteria in her search, so she set filters accordingly: her children’s ages, within a certain distance from her home, and accepting state child care subsidies. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The results populated, and she could see in the preview, marked by a green icon next to “Open Spots,” which programs had current availability. (Providers who have not responded to the latest monthly vacancy prompt will not show “Open Spots,” to keep data as up-to-date as possible, according to Upfront founder and CEO Dana Levin-Robinson.) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href="https://locatesearch.marylandfamilynetwork.org/city/rosedale-md" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Earlier this year, Upfront began collecting vacancy data from more than 6,000 Maryland child care providers. It allows families to see which programs have "open spots" during their search.&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wilson describes the platform as “super easy to use.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She contacted a few of the programs that fit her needs, and just a few weeks ago, her children started preschool at one of the options she found through LOCATE. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I really, really love it,” she says. “Their teachers are wonderful. The facility is great.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Upfront has also been working with Arizona, whose new child care search will launch in November, and a state on the East Coast that is not yet named publicly, says Levin-Robinson. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Resultant, too, is working with two other states at the moment — a midwestern state and one in New England, Smigielski says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;If you think about how much easier it is to do things the way it’s always been done, versus changing and trying new things, the fact that this is happening in all these different states is awesome.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Mia Pritts&lt;p&gt;That’s on top of a number of other companies that offer similar early care and education services and are working with a handful of other states right now, says Mia Pritts, an early childhood consultant working with Opportunities Exchange, an organization that is helping to drive this work forward.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Momentum is growing,” says Pritts. “If you think about how much easier it is to do things the way it’s always been done, versus changing and trying new things, the fact that this is happening in all these different states is awesome.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Benefits of Better Data&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The public-facing side of these efforts is all about creating a smoother experience for families seeking out child care. But the work behind the scenes, those involved say, is arguably even more important and promising. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;All of the information funneling through these new backend data systems, like Upfront and Resultant, is helping state leaders better understand the gaps in their child care systems. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“One of the biggest deficits we have in addressing the child care shortage is an utter lack of information about what we need,” says Smigielski of Resultant. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maps showing child care shortages — or the popularly termed “child care deserts” — are based on old census data, Smigielski and others explain. They are rough estimates, at best. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pritts predicts that what states will find, from these data-driven views into their state care capacities, is that some communities dubbed “child care deserts” are far from it, and others that have been overlooked may finally get some attention. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In just the first couple of months after Upfront began collecting vacancy data from providers, Levin-Robinson says, the company identified 2,000 child care slots the state had not previously known existed. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I jokingly call us a supply optimizer,” she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These systems could also, Smigielski points out, help state leaders make an argument to the federal government that they need more funding. And they could help states distribute the funds they get every year from the federal government in a more intentional way, making sure that dollars are flowing in the direction of need. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“This is a tool for lawmakers [and] communities to look and say, ‘My gosh, we need 100 infant slots in our community,’” explains Page of Iowa HHS. It can also drive decision-making in the case of an employer who is, say, looking to open a new branch in a different part of the state, she adds. Because labor participation and child care are so intertwined, it’s helpful for employers to be able to ask and answer, If I plan to hire 200 employees in this mid-sized town, will there be enough child care slots to accommodate all of them? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sheri Penney, employer engagement director at the Iowa Women’s Foundation, says the new database is able to “get into the weeds” in a way that wasn’t possible previously. “It gives us this more accurate picture.” In the short time that the data has been available, Penney has been introducing it to community leaders, saying it’s her “first stop” now in every meeting. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some of this supply-side work is still somewhat theoretical — these projects are in their infancy, after all — but there’s plenty of potential. And in the meantime, families and providers are already benefiting from the new front-facing experience. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In fact, says Smigielski, for families in Iowa, now finding available child care is almost as easy as making a dinner reservation. &lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16059/Shutterstock_2447908167-1729272046.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16059/Shutterstock_2447908167-1729272046.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">What If Finding Child Care Online Were as Easy as Making a Dinner Reservation?</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">gpointstudio / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>New AI Tools Are Promoted as Study Aids for Students. Are They Doing More Harm Than Good?</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-08-new-ai-tools-are-promoted-as-study-aids-for-students-are-they-doing-more-harm-than-good</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-08-new-ai-tools-are-promoted-as-study-aids-for-students-are-they-doing-more-harm-than-good#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Jeffrey R. Young</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Artificial Intelligence</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Diversity and Equity</category> <category>Higher Education</category> <pubDate>Fri, 08 Nov 2024 03:00:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-6544c2c6 </guid> <description>As more AI tools hit the market aimed at helping students study, some teaching experts raise concerns, as well as point to benefits for neurodivergent ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Once upon a time, educators worried about the dangers of CliffsNotes — study guides that rendered great works of literature as a series of bullet points that many students used as a replacement for actually doing the reading.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Today, that sure seems quaint.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Suddenly, new consumer AI tools have hit the market that can take any piece of text, audio or video and provide that same kind of simplified summary. And those summaries aren’t just a series of quippy text in bullet points. These days students can have tools like Google’s NotebookLM &lt;a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/11/24242138/google-notebook-llm-ai-fake-podcasts-research" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;turn their lecture notes into a podcast&lt;/a&gt;, where sunny-sounding AI bots banter and riff on key points. Most of the tools are free, and do their work in seconds with the click of a button.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Naturally, all this is causing concern among some educators, who see students off-loading the hard work of synthesizing information to AI at a pace never before possible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91224589/are-ai-study-aids-cheating" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;This article &lt;a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91224589/are-ai-study-aids-cheating" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;also appeared&lt;/a&gt; in Fast Company.&lt;p&gt;But the overall picture is more complicated, especially as these tools become more mainstream and their use starts to become standard in business and other contexts beyond the classroom.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And the tools serve as a particular lifeline for neurodivergent students, who suddenly have access to services that can help them get organized and support their reading comprehension, teaching experts say.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“There’s no universal answer,” says Alexis Peirce Caudell, a lecturer in informatics at Indiana University at Bloomington who recently did an assignment where many students shared their experience and concerns about AI tools. “Students in biology are going to be using it in one way, chemistry students are going to be using it in another. My students are all using it in different ways.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It’s not as simple as assuming that students are all cheaters, the instructor stresses. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Some students were concerned about pressure to engage with tools — if all of their peers were doing it that they should be doing it even if they felt it was getting in the way of their authentically learning,” she says. They are asking themselves questions like, “Is this helping me get through this specific assignment or this specific test because I’m trying to navigate five classes and applications for internships” — but at the cost of learning?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It all adds new challenges to schools and colleges as they attempt to set boundaries and policies for AI use in their classrooms.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Need for ‘Friction’&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;It seems like just about every week -— or even every day — tech companies announce new features that students are adopting in their studies. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just last week, for instance, Apple released Apple Intelligence features for iPhones, and one of the features &lt;a href="https://qz.com/apple-intelligence-ai-iphone-beta-features-siri-users-1851684957?utm_source=quartz_newsletter_breaking&amp;amp;utm_medium=email&amp;amp;utm_campaign=2024-10-30_breaking" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;can recraft any piece of text to different tones&lt;/a&gt;, such as casual or professional. And last month ChatGPT-maker OpenAI released a feature called &lt;a href="https://openai.com/index/introducing-canvas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Canvas&lt;/a&gt; that includes slider bars for users to instantly change the reading level of a text. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Marc Watkins, a lecturer of writing and rhetoric at the University of Mississippi, says he is worried that students are lured by the time-saving promises of these tools and may not realize that using them can mean skipping the actual work it takes to internalize and remember the material.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Get EdSurge journalism delivered free to your inbox. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/newsletters" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Sign up for our newsletters&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;“From a teaching, learning standpoint, that's pretty concerning to me,” he says. “Because we want our students to struggle a little bit, to have a little bit of friction, because that's important for their learning.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And he says new features are making it harder for teachers to encourage students to use AI in helpful ways — like teaching them how to craft prompts to change the writing level of something: “It removes that last level of desirable difficulty when they can just button mash and get a final draft and get feedback on the final draft, too.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even professors and colleges that have adopted AI policies may need to rethink them in light of these new types of capabilities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As two professors put it in &lt;a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2024/10/22/your-ai-policy-already-obsolete-opinion" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;a recent op-ed&lt;/a&gt;, “Your AI Policy Is Already Obsolete.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“A student who reads an article you uploaded, but who cannot remember a key point, uses the AI assistant to summarize or remind them where they read something. Has this person used AI when there was a ban in the class?” ask the authors, Zach Justus, director of faculty development at California State University, Chico, and Nik Janos, a professor of sociology there. They note that popular tools like Adobe Acrobat now have “AI assistant” features that can summarize documents with the push of a button. “Even when we are evaluating our colleagues in tenure and promotion files,” the professors write, “do you need to promise not to hit the button when you are plowing through hundreds of pages of student evaluations of teaching?”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Instead of drafting and redrafting AI policies, the professors argue that educators should work out broad frameworks for what is acceptable help from chatbots.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;“It is very good at making two-dimensional bureaucracy more approachable."&lt;br&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt;— Bonni Stachowiak&lt;p&gt;But Watkins calls on the makers of AI tools to do more to mitigate the misuse of their systems in academic settings, or as he put it when EdSurge talked with him, “to make sure that this tool that is being used so prominently by students [is] actually effective for their learning and not just as a tool to offload it.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Uneven Accuracy&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;These new AI tools raise a host of new challenges beyond those at play when printed CliffsNotes were the study tool du jour.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One is that AI summarizing tools don’t always provide accurate information, due to a phenomenon of large language models known as “hallucinations,” when chatbots guess at facts but present them to users as sure things.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When Bonni Stachowiak first tried the podcast feature on Google’s NotebookLM, for instance, she said she was blown away by how lifelike the robot voices sounded and how well they seemed to summarize the documents she fed it. Stachowiak is the host of the long-running podcast, &lt;a href="https://teachinginhighered.com/episodes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Teaching in Higher Ed&lt;/a&gt;, and dean of teaching and learning at Vanguard University of Southern California, and she regularly experiments with new AI tools in her teaching.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But as she tried the tool more, and put in documents on complex subjects that she knew well, she noticed occasional errors or misunderstandings. “It just flattens it — it misses all of this nuance,” she says. “It sounds so intimate because it’s a voice and audio is such an intimate medium. But as soon as it was something that you knew a lot about it’s going to fall flat.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even so, she says she has found the podcasting feature of NotebookLM useful in helping her understand and communicate bureaucratic issues at her university — such as turning part of the faculty handbook into a podcast summary. When she checked it with colleagues who knew the policies well, she says they felt it did a “perfectly good job.” “It is very good at making two-dimensional bureaucracy more approachable,” she says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Peirce Caudell, of Indiana University, says her students have raised ethical issues with using AI tools as well.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Some say they’re really concerned about the environmental costs of generative AI and the usage,” she says, noting that ChatGPT and other AI models &lt;a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ais-climate-impact-goes-beyond-its-emissions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;require large amounts of computing power and electricity&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Others, she adds, worry about how much data users end up giving AI companies, especially when students use free versions of the tools. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“We're not having that conversation,” she says. “We're not having conversations about what does it mean to actively resist the use of generative AI?”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even so, the instructor is seeing positive impacts for students, such as when they use a tool to help make flashcards to study.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And she heard about a student with ADHD who had always found reading a large text “overwhelming,” but was using ChatGPT “to get over the hurdle of that initial engagement with the reading and then they were checking their understanding with the use of ChatGPT.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And Stachowiak says she has heard of other AI tools that students with intellectual disabilities are using, such as &lt;a href="https://goblin.tools/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;one&lt;/a&gt; that helps users break down large tasks into smaller, more manageable sub-tasks. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“This is not cheating,” she stresses. “It’s breaking things down and estimating how long something is going to take. That is not something that comes naturally for a lot of people.”&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16083/ai_generate_tool_for_education-1731069649.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16083/ai_generate_tool_for_education-1731069649.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">New AI Tools Are Promoted as Study Aids for Students. Are They Doing More Harm Than Good?</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">art.em.po / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>For Teens Online, Conspiracy Theories Are Commonplace. Media Literacy Is Not. </title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-07-for-teens-online-conspiracy-theories-are-commonplace-media-literacy-is-not</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-07-for-teens-online-conspiracy-theories-are-commonplace-media-literacy-is-not#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Nadia Tamez-Robledo</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Youth Culture </category> <category>Social Media </category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Media Literacy</category> <pubDate>Thu, 07 Nov 2024 01:00:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-1a6ca671 </guid> <description>Teens who use social media see conspiracy theories come across their feed at least once per week, according to a new study from the News Literacy ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;How often do you come in contact with a conspiracy theory? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maybe on occasion, when you flip through TV channels and land on an episode of “Ancient Aliens.” Or perhaps when a friend from high school shares a questionable meme on Facebook. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;How confident are you in your ability to tell fact from fiction? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you’re a teen, you could be exposed to conspiracy theories and a host of other pieces of misinformation as frequently as every day while scrolling through your social media feeds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91224580/teens-are-discovering-conspiracy-theories-on-social-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;This article &lt;a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91224580/teens-are-discovering-conspiracy-theories-on-social-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;also appeared&lt;/a&gt; in Fast Company.&lt;p&gt;That’s according to a &lt;a href="https://newslit.org/news-literacy-in-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;new study&lt;/a&gt; by the News Literacy Project, which also found that teens struggle with identifying false information online. This comes at a time when media literacy education isn’t available to most students, the report finds, and their ability to distinguish between objective and biased information sources is weak. The findings are based on responses from more than 1,000 teens ages 13 to 18.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“News literacy is fundamental to preparing students to become active, critically thinking members of our civic life — which should be one of the primary goals of a public education,” Kim Bowman, News Literacy Project senior research manager and author of the report, said in an email interview. “If we don’t teach young people the skills they need to evaluate information, they will be left at a civic and personal disadvantage their entire lives. News literacy instruction is as important as core subjects like reading and math.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Telling Fact from Fiction&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;About 80 percent of teens who use social media say they see content about conspiracy theories in their online feeds, with 20 percent seeing conspiracy content every day. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“They include narratives such as the Earth being flat, the 2020 election being rigged or stolen, and COVID-19 vaccines being dangerous,” the News Literacy Project’s report found. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While teens don’t believe every conspiracy theory they see, 81 percent who see such content online said they believe one or more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Get EdSurge journalism delivered free to your inbox. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/newsletters" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Sign up for our newsletters&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bowman noted, “As dangerous or harmful as they can be, these narratives are designed to be engaging and satisfy deep psychological needs, such as the need for community and understanding. Being a conspiracy theorist or believing in a conspiracy theory can become a part of someone’s identity. It’s not necessarily a label an individual is going to shy away from sharing with others.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At the same time, the report found that the bar for offering media literacy is low. Just six states have guidelines for how to teach media literacy, and only three make it a requirement in public schools.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Less than 40 percent of teens surveyed reported having any media literacy instruction during the 2023-24 school year, according to the analysis. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Credible Sources&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;As part of gathering data for the report, teens were asked to try their hand at distinguishing between different types of information they might encounter online. They were also challenged to identify real or fake photos and judge whether an information source is credible. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study asked participants to identify a series of articles as advertisements, opinion or news pieces. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;More than half of teens failed to identify branded content — a newsy-looking piece on plant-based meat in the Washington Post news app — as an advertisement. About the same amount didn’t realize that an article with “commentary” in the headline was about the author’s opinion. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They did better at recognizing Google’s “sponsored” results as ads, but about 40 percent of teens said they thought it meant those results were popular or of high quality. Only 18 percent of teens correctly categorized the information in all three examples. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In another exercise, teens were asked to identify which of two pieces of content about Coca-Cola’s plastic waste was more credible: a press release from Coca-Cola or an article from Reuters. The results were too close for comfort for the report, with only 56 percent of teens choosing the Reuters article as more trustworthy. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brand recognition could have played a role in teens’ decision to choose Coca-Cola over Reuters, Bowman says, a feeling that a more-recognizable company was more credible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Whatever the reason, I do think news organizations engaging young people on social media and building up trust and recognition there could have the potential to move the needle on a question like this in the future,” Bowman said. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Checking the Facts&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Where teens did feel confident spotting hoaxes was with visuals. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two-thirds of study participants said they could do a reverse Google image search to find the original source of an image. About 70 percent of teens could correctly distinguish between an AI-generated image and a real photograph. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To test teens’ ability to spot misinformation, they were asked whether a social media photo of a melting traffic light was “strong evidence that hot temperatures in Texas melted traffic lights in July 2023.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most teens answered correctly, but about one-third still believed the photo alone was strong evidence that the claim about melting traffic lights was true. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bowman said that the fact that there was no difference in students’ performance when results were analyzed by their age leaves her wondering if teens “of all ages have received the message that they can’t always believe their eyes when it comes to the images they see online.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Their radars seem to be up when it comes to identifying manipulated, misrepresented, or completely fabricated images,” Bowman continued. “Especially with the recent advancements and availability of generative AI technologies, I wonder if it may be harder to convince them of the authenticity of a photo that is actually real and verified than to convince them that an image is false in some way.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When it came to sharing on social media, teens expressed a strong desire to make sure their posts contained correct information. So how are they fact-checking themselves, given a minority of teens actively follow news or have taken media literacy classes?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Among teens who said they verify news before sharing, Bowman said they’re engaged in lateral reading, which she described as “a quick internet search to investigate the post’s source” and a method employed by professional fact-checkers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Given a random group of teens, Bowman posited they would most likely use much less effective ways of judging a source’s credibility, based on factors like a website’s design or URL. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“In other words, previous research shows that young people tend to rely on outdated techniques or surface-level criteria to determine a source’s credibility,” Bowman explained. “If schools across the country implemented high-quality news literacy instruction, I am confident we can debunk old notions of how to determine credibility that are no longer effective in today’s information landscape and, instead, teach young people research-backed verification techniques that we know work.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Actively Staying Informed&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;While conspiracy theories surface commonly for teens, they’re not necessarily arming themselves with information to stave them off. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Teens are split on whether they trust the news. Just over half of teens said that journalists do more to protect society than to harm it. Nearly 70 percent said news organizations are biased, and 80 percent believe news organizations are either more biased or about the same as other online content creators. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A minority of teens — just 15 percent — actively seek out news to stay informed. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study also asked teens to list news sources they trusted to provide accurate and fair information. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;CNN and Fox News received the most endorsements, with 178 and 133 mentions respectively. TMZ, NPR and the Associated Press were equally matched with 12 mentions each. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Local TV news was the most trusted news medium, followed by TikTok. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Teens agree on at least one thing: A whopping 94 percent said schools should be required to offer some degree of media literacy. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Young people know better than anyone how much they are expected to learn before graduation so, for so many teens to say they would welcome yet another requirement to their already overfull plate, is a huge deal and a big endorsement for the importance of a media literacy education,” Bowman said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Throughout the study, students who had any amount of media literacy education did better on the study’s test questions than their peers. They were more likely to be active news seekers, trust news outlets and feel more confident in their ability to fact-check what they see online.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And, in a strange twist, students who get media literacy in school report seeing more conspiracy theories on social media — perhaps precisely because they have sharper media literacy skills.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Teens with at least some media literacy instruction, who keep up with news, and who have high trust in news media are all more likely to report seeing conspiracy theory posts on social media at least once a week,” according to the report. “These differences could indicate that teens in these subgroups are more adept at spotting these kinds of posts or that their social media algorithms are more likely to serve them these kinds of posts, or both.”&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16078/media_literacy-1730486816.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16078/media_literacy-1730486816.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">For Teens Online, Conspiracy Theories Are Commonplace. Media Literacy Is Not. </media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Liana Nagieva / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Why Well-Behaved Teachers Rarely Make Systemic Change in Schools</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-06-why-well-behaved-teachers-rarely-make-systemic-change-in-schools</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-06-why-well-behaved-teachers-rarely-make-systemic-change-in-schools#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Ryan Burns</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Leadership</category> <pubDate>Wed, 06 Nov 2024 01:00:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-207d2e9d </guid> <description>“My story is part of a larger narrative unfolding in schools across the country. Teachers are increasingly expected to conform to rigid scripts, losing ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;When I came out to my family during my first year of college in the early 2000s, my mom’s immediate concern extended beyond my safety and happiness to my future as an educator. She asked, “But what about your career?” as though living authentically meant I’d have to hide my queerness to succeed in teaching. In that moment, even before I entered my teacher preparation program, I confronted a troubling reality: in education, there would always be scripts I’d be expected to follow. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a beginning teacher, however, it wasn’t my sexuality that initially cast a shadow over my work - it was the expectations embedded in yet another script. My undergraduate education, grounded in social justice and critical literacy, energized me to create equitable opportunities in my classroom. However, &lt;a href="https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/the-problems-with-the-common-core/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;the realities of the neoliberal education landscape&lt;/a&gt;, shaped by policies like &lt;a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;No Child Left Behind&lt;/a&gt; and the rise of &lt;a href="https://corestandards.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Common Core State Standards&lt;/a&gt;, contradicted this vision. These policies prioritized standardization and testing, turning schools into spaces of conformity and compliance. The script was clear: fidelity to the status quo took priority over meaningful change. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This tension was palpable in my daily work. While I envisioned teaching that challenged students to question and connect their learning to larger social issues, the expectations placed on me as an educator were quite different. When I incorporated units on racial injustice, criticism and pushback were immediate. Colleagues often self-censored, &lt;a href="https://slate.com/life/2024/09/banned-books-week-schools-censorship.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;deeming certain texts and topics “too controversial”&lt;/a&gt; for our school community. I still remember a parent emailing and asking me, “Why can’t you just teach English?” This sentiment reflected an expectation to adhere to the traditional script of teaching English Language Arts. For me, “just teaching English” means centering the very inequities and critical questions that my teacher preparation program trained me to address in the literature classroom. The dissonance was impossible to ignore. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Recent curriculum legislation and implementation have left little room for my students’ voices and lived experiences. The expectation is to stick to the “high quality” curriculum and sideline genuine engagement, treating students as blank slates rather than whole individuals. Each of these constraints felt suffocating. I longed to grow as an educator, but nothing felt more constricting than the expectation to be the “well-behaved teacher” who never questions authority. This narrow role was exhausting and disingenuous. I found myself dialing down my teacher self, showing up in ways that neither reflected nor respected my commitment to teaching and learning. These moments of silence and compliance were painful.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The Final Straw&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I prepared to start my eighteenth year in education, a series of events eroded my trust in the system. I decided to break away from the script entirely: I said no to disrespect and bullying by removing myself from a toxic work environment to accept a new role in a different school district. It wasn’t a decision I made lightly, as I had been led to believe that no one would hire a top-notch teacher like me. However, staying meant continuing to work in a system that silenced my voice. By leaving, I chose my integrity over the false comfort of remaining in a situation that no longer served me.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;My resignation — coming after eleven years in the same school district — wasn’t impulsive. I witnessed the erosion of trust as administrators dismissed teacher concerns and stifled open dialogue. I found myself slipping into the “well-behaved-teacher” role, expected to comply with every decision that was made for me and my students, regardless of how damaging or dismissive it felt. The breaking point came when a superintendent’s bullying revealed that teachers were viewed as tools for compliance, not as partners in education. After that, I knew I couldn’t continue in the district. My resignation was an act of reclaiming my self-regard and professional agency.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Before my resignation, in a brief passing conversation with the superintendent, they shared a final comment that solidified my decision: “I hope you know I hold no ill will.” These words, toxic yet final, confirmed their lack of leadership. I walked away, realizing I had outgrown the script they wanted me to follow. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Seeing is Believing&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;When I first joined the district in 2013, I believed it was the right place to foster my growth as a teacher. However, constant turnover created instability. Teachers’ voices were silenced, and our concerns dismissed. My questions about retention and morale - questions aimed at fostering open dialogue rather than assigning blame - were brushed aside with disrespect. The gaslighting that followed: “I’m surprised by you” and “You know better than anyone,” were designed to make me question my own judgment, shifting the blame onto me instead of addressing the real issues at hand. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I felt like a pawn, easily managed rather than a trusted partner within the community. My growing resentment stemmed not only from a lack of answers but also from the expectation to play the role of the “well-behaved teacher”. When disrespect from district administrators becomes the norm, it signals a serious issue.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Despite having what many would consider an English teacher’s dream schedule, I was left unfulfilled. I had the freedom to design &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-07-31-how-books-became-a-mirror-to-see-myself-and-a-window-to-learning-for-my-students" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;meaningful learning experiences&lt;/a&gt; and the security of tenure, but none of that could outweigh the minimizing of my dignity. The disrespect from district leadership overshadowed my professional achievement. By invalidating my concerns, they were also silencing my colleagues, perpetuating a system that prioritized control and compliance over the community. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Breaking Free from the Script&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;As summer ended, I realized I had lost faith in district leadership’s ability to foster civility. Leaving was not just about escaping a hostile environment; it was about protecting my dignity and refusing to compromise my values for a system that no longer valued me or my colleagues. I value my integrity more than my role as an educator. When those in power resort to fear and bullying to control and manipulate rather than offer support, the entire community suffers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What I didn’t realize, though, was that this situation presented an opportunity to rebuild and explore new paths. I still believe in the power and potential of education and the possibilities of community collaboration. In hindsight, I see my resignation as a defeat but a stepping stone for something greater. The challenges became a launching pad for possibilities that once seemed out of reach.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;My story reflects a larger narrative in schools across the country. Teachers are increasingly expected to conform to rigid scripts, losing trust in leadership that disregards our agency. Many are walking away from a profession they once loved. When leaders prioritize control over collaboration, they undermine the heart and soul of teaching and learning. &lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16070/shutterstock_2293504017-1729888220.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16070/shutterstock_2293504017-1729888220.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Why Well-Behaved Teachers Rarely Make Systemic Change in Schools</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">ptgregus / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Diving Deeper Into the Effects of Smartwatches on Kids, Schools and Families</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-05-diving-deeper-into-the-effects-of-smartwatches-on-kids-schools-and-families</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-05-diving-deeper-into-the-effects-of-smartwatches-on-kids-schools-and-families#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Emily Tate Sullivan</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>EdSurge Podcast</category> <category>Social Media </category> <category>Technology Trends</category> <category>Well-Being</category> <pubDate>Tue, 05 Nov 2024 11:28:41 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-a6224c06 </guid> <description>On the EdSurge Podcast this week, we dive into the question of whether kids should be given smartwatches, talking to an EdSurge reporter who spent ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/the-edsurge-on-air-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;With all the talk of the downsides of smartphones for teenagers, parents have looked to smartwatches as a way to stay in contact with their young children while avoiding the full internet and social media access of a phone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-effects-of-smartwatches-on-kids-schools-and-families/id972239500?i=1000675808817" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/06MKQZg7EheWumHNck4tAO" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;At least that was the narrative a couple of years ago. But more recently, more companies have been marketing smartwatches to kids as young as 4 and 5 years old. And at younger ages, it’s not the kids asking for the devices, but parents looking to keep tabs on their children out of concern for their safety.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That’s what EdSurge senior reporter Emily Tate Sullivan found when she spent months researching the recent boom in smartwatches for kids, for &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-29-what-the-boom-in-kids-smartwatches-reveals-about-modern-parenting" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;a feature story&lt;/a&gt; that EdSurge co-published with WIRED magazine last week.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Get EdSurge journalism delivered free to your inbox. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/newsletters" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Sign up for our newsletters&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The worst case scenario in the minds of the parents I talked to is just always looming,” she says. “These parents think, ‘If there's a school shooting, if there's a lockdown, I want to be able to communicate with my child in that locked down classroom. If they are abducted, I want to be able to know exactly where they are. Maybe there's still a watch on their wrist and I can track them.’ I mean, these are things that are so improbable, but it doesn't really matter. The fear is pervasive. It's a really powerful force.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But while parents focus on physical safety as they hand kids smartwatches, they may not be considering the downsides of starting a digital life so early, according to digital media experts. And schools are increasingly seeing the devices as a distraction — sometimes from parents texting their kids during the school day. Yet watches are often not included in school bans on smartphones, and they’re not always mentioned in the conversation about the effects of digital devices on children.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For this week’s EdSurge Podcast, we go behind the story with an interview with Tate Sullivan, including details that she wasn’t able to fit into the final piece. And in the second half of the episode, the author reads the full article, so you can catch this story in podcast form.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Listen to the episode on &lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/06MKQZg7EheWumHNck4tAO" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Spotify&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-effects-of-smartwatches-on-kids-schools-and-families/id972239500?i=1000675808817" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Apple Podcasts&lt;/a&gt; or on the player below.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16082/kid_on_smartwatch_still-1730831986.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16082/kid_on_smartwatch_still-1730831986.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Diving Deeper Into the Effects of Smartwatches on Kids, Schools and Families</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Z U M R U T / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>How a New Approach to Early Childhood Could Avert a ‘Public Policy Catastrophe’</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-05-how-a-new-approach-to-early-childhood-could-avert-a-public-policy-catastrophe</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-05-how-a-new-approach-to-early-childhood-could-avert-a-public-policy-catastrophe#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Emily Tate Sullivan</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Policy and Government</category> <category>Education Workforce </category> <category>Early Learning</category> <pubDate>Tue, 05 Nov 2024 02:19:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-2f8b9e06 </guid> <description>The biggest crisis in early childhood education is a crisis of understanding, Dan Wuori argues in his new book, “The Daycare Myth.”</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;In the United States, young children attend programs that most refer to as “daycares” or “child cares,” staffed by people that many think of as “workers.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That has to change, argues author Dan Wuori in his new book, “&lt;a href="https://www.tcpress.com/the-daycare-myth-9780807786482" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Daycare Myth: What We Get Wrong About Early Care and Education (and What We Should Do About It).&lt;/a&gt;” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We ought to eliminate those terms from our lexicon and, instead, think of those programs as schools and the adults employed there as teachers, Wuori writes. Those are two totally free and “simple changes” he proposes to the field. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A bigger change the field requires? “Significant, transformative public investment,” he writes. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wuori’s arguments throughout the concise, 101-page book are premised on what he calls “The Three Simple Truths of Early Development”:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt;Learning begins in utero and never stops.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;The period from prenatal to age 3 is a uniquely consequential window of human development during which the fundamental architecture of the brain is “wired.”&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Optimal brain development is dependent on stable, nurturing relationships with highly engaged adults.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;He frames his points in such a way that everyone — conservative, liberal and anywhere in between — can find something to like and support about this proposed new way forward, in which children’s early years are regarded as sacred, families are supported and given options, and early childhood educators are compensated in a way that reflects the true value of their work.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;EdSurge recently had a chance to speak with Wuori, a longtime early childhood policy expert and former kindergarten teacher and school district administrator, about the book, which was published Sept. 27. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The following conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EdSurge: Can you start by explaining what “the daycare myth” is — and why semantics are so important to this conversation?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dan Wuori&lt;/strong&gt;: We talk about how we're in this crisis or that crisis — there's an access crisis, there's a compensation crisis, there's an affordability crisis [in early childhood education]. But looking out at the landscape, I really feel that at the heart of all of this is just a crisis of understanding. We have, for the better part of a century now, allowed this idea to take hold that our young children simply require care and that it’s the slightly older children that get involved in learning and education. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The Daycare Myth” title really refers to that sort of conceptualization — that what young children need is just sort of custodial caretaking while older children are learning. And the reason for that is we know better than ever that not only are children learning from day one, but increasingly we’re uncovering ways in which they may begin learning in utero. There are these important kinds of early forms of language learning. For example, infants are not only recognizing the tone of their mother's own voice but beginning to sort of structure their cognition around the rhythms and the patterns of their mother's native language as evidenced just hours after their birth.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That's a very different proposition from, ‘I need someplace to just keep my baby safe and warm while I go to work.’ And so the underlying message of the book, I think, for parents is that these are environments that have to be chosen very thoughtfully and choices that have to be made with real consideration. Because you're not selecting a babysitter, you are selecting the adults who will help co-construct your child's brain. And that's very different from, ‘Is this someone who can help to change diapers and make sure their physical safety is ensured for eight hours while I'm at work?’&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Relatedly, one of the points you make in the book is the idea that learning begins in kindergarten is baseless. Where did that misconception come from? And why, in spite of the decades of brain science we now have, is it still so deeply held?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It's a great question. I mean, the only thing I can point to there is just sort of the history of our K-12 system. Not terribly long ago, even kindergarten wasn't a part of many public education systems. Children would begin school in the first grade. And so it is a beginning, I guess, of our public education system. But the idea that we need to build our policy around the idea that we hope that children will come to kindergarten ‘ready to learn,’ as if kindergarten is where learning actually begins, is really contradicted by decades of brain science at this point.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the book you also point out that, you know, inertia is powerful.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No question. And even though I don't want to allow this to be used as a cop out, we've had good indications of the brain science now for decades, but some of what I think we're learning even about this learning in utero is still very much emerging. And so our systems were created, in many cases, before the science was well entrenched. Changing it potentially is costly and a big change to the structure. And so I definitely agree that inertia is part of the equation here.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It’s been said that this issue doesn’t have great political valence because families only experience the acute hardships of our broken early childhood system for a handful of years. It’s painful, but it’s temporary. Do you think that’s an accurate assessment? Why do you think that isn’t enough to create change?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yeah, I mean, honestly, I find it puzzling. Yes, you're right, that for families that have a single child, maybe it's a four- to five-year proposition, but I can tell you in my household, with two young children decades ago, for more than 10 years we paid more for child care than we paid for our mortgage each month. I think it ought to create more single-issue voters around this topic, as difficult as it is. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here, we've got a majority of the country who are paying more for infant care than for in-state college tuition at this point. When you think about having a baby, one of the first things that you're advised is to begin a college savings account, because it's so costly that even 17 years worth of savings for many families doesn't come close to covering the cost of higher education. And yet we spend very little time talking about the fact that really all families with young children incur that cost instantly, whether it's a cost literally out of pocket to an early childhood program or whether it's an opportunity cost potentially for a parent who is going to stay home and lose that income. But no question, it's very costly to be the parent of a newborn and up. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You argue that, like the &lt;a href="https://www.tastingtable.com/1023664/how-the-food-pyramid-has-changed-over-time/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;food pyramid of the early ’90s&lt;/a&gt;, our early childhood system needs to be, literally, flipped on its head. Can you describe what an inverted system would look like? And if it’s accessible, what does an existing one look like in the U.S.?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;If you were challenged to create some diabolical plan that would be counter to what we know about the science of early development, you'd be hard-pressed to come up with a system that is worse than the one that parents have to navigate every day.&lt;br&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Dan Wuori&lt;p&gt;Yeah, so I use the example of the food pyramid of the early ’90s to frame up the case that we have, in the past, had widely accepted public policy that in hindsight has turned out to look foolish, that the recommendations of the food pyramid from the early ’90s are such that no credible nutritionist would suggest in the year 2024 that the way to manage your weight is six to 11 servings of pasta a day. And so I use that just as sort of a framing device in the opening of the book to ask the question around, ‘What else are we getting really boldly and catastrophically wrong?’ And in my estimation, our nation's approach to young children and families — and also very much to the professionals who serve them — is the same sort of public policy catastrophe. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In fact, I think I say in the book, if you were challenged to create some diabolical plan that would be counter to what we know about the science of early development, you'd be hard-pressed to come up with a system that is worse than the one that parents have to navigate every day. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During the most critical weeks and months needed for secure attachment, for example, 1 in 4 mothers has to return to the workforce within two weeks [of giving birth]. We've got early childhood professionals who are literally charged with building the brains of young children who make not only less, but in some cases substantially less, than what we pay people to hand french fries through a window. We have a system that is balanced on the backs of low-income women, primarily women of color, who are literally subsidizing the affordability of child care for millions of American families. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The consequence, I guess, to taxpayers is that each and every one of us — whether we have a young child in our lives currently, whether our own children, our grandchild, or if you don't have young children at this stage in your life — every taxpayer in this country is paying for the results of our failure to get things right in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So in the book, I sort of suggest that in the same way that the &lt;a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Harvard-Dietary-Pyramid-7-Copyright-C-2008-For-more-information-about-The-Healthy_fig2_349979686" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;food pyramid was inverted subsequently in 2008&lt;/a&gt;, that we really need to rethink how we are approaching policy for kids. And I think the base of that new pyramid is a widespread understanding that this is the single most critical period in all of human development, that we’re respecting families' needs and choices during this time, that we are compensating the people who work in this field at a professional level commensurate with the responsibility that they actually have, and that ultimately this is an opportunity for decades. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our two major political parties have gone back and forth about the size of government. And to me this is a slam dunk case for how we shrink the size of government. So much of that back-and-forth, historically, has revolved around making these drastic cuts to services that people need, and there's a second path here, which is just to get things right in a way that mitigates against all of these costly services later in life that improves health outcomes, that improves education outcomes, that improves the number of interactions that we have with the criminal justice system. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So I definitely think we need to invert our policy. And I do think that there are some encouraging signs. To your question about, are there states or examples? No question. &lt;a href="https://earlylearningnation.com/2022/05/new-mexico-just-became-the-first-state-to-make-child-care-free-for-nearly-all-families/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;New Mexico&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-21-what-happens-when-a-state-brings-deep-discounts-to-child-care" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Vermont&lt;/a&gt; have gone very far here in the past couple of years toward making child care much more affordable and accessible, not just for our most low-income families, but really for the bulk of the population of those states. I don't think they have it all figured out, but compared to the rest of the nation, I think they are absolutely models.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One starting point you mention, for how to create a system that better supports all families, is paid parental leave. Can you walk me through how paid parental leave can help to establish a strong foundation for families, and especially for developing babies?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Among the most important developmental outcomes, really, of the first 12 months of life is attachment, right? And so what we aspire to is a secure attachment between infants and their loving adult caregivers that demonstrates that these are adults who are reliable and that the world is safe. And this attachment that is formed between infants and their primary caregivers during the earliest months of life goes on to undergird our long-term mental health. To me, that alone is a really compelling case for why we ought to be looking at more robust family leave policies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The other piece of that equation is all of this learning. Obviously language learning is a big, big outcome of the first 12 months, the motor development, all of these things. Young children have very specific needs, and chief among them is these stable, nurturing relationships with really highly engaged adults. So the book stays a little bit agnostic as to how that happens, but really makes the case to parents that whether this is happening exclusively in your home or in combination with an out-of-home early childhood provider, that young children need these high-quality interactions for the development of the major neural pathways in the brain. And so the choice of an early childhood setting or the choice to have some extra time that you're staying home with that newborn is terrifically important.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You highlight a number of promising practices in the states near the end of the book (&lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-01-30-one-state-rolled-out-a-promising-child-care-model-now-others-are-replicating-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;several&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-03-05-massachusetts-is-investing-big-in-early-care-and-education-it-s-paying-off" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;of which&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-06-11-home-visiting-programs-aren-t-just-for-families-they-can-support-child-care-providers-too" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;have been featured&lt;/a&gt; in EdSurge). Do those changes make you hopeful about the future of early childhood in this country, or how do you see these local- and state-level policy changes as fitting into the bigger picture?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;For us to have an equitable country, an equitable set of policies for young children, this is something that ought to be taken on at the federal level, so that whether you're raising a young child in Texas or Idaho or Vermont, you've got access to some of the same sorts of services.&lt;br&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Dan Wuori&lt;p&gt;Yeah, I'd say a couple of things. I think of the book as sort of, in terms of where we go next, laying out two big cases. The first and unquestionably the most important is that we need transformative public investment in children and families. And the good news is we truly are already paying for the system that we need. We're just doing it in all the wrong ways. We seem content to be paying for incarceration and worse health outcomes and greater reliance on social services, for example, in adulthood, than making a more tactical investment in getting kids off on the right foot. So I want to talk about the states, but I also don't think that what the states are doing is enough. I think for us to have an equitable country, an equitable set of policies for young children, this is something that ought to be taken on at the federal level, so that whether you're raising a young child in Texas or Idaho or Vermont, you've got access to some of the same sorts of services.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So I feel really strongly that this is a job for Congress to take on at the federal level. It is frustrating, in recent years, to see in a divided Congress so little get done. And I also have worked enough with elected leaders and understand the process well enough to know that really transformative changes in our system don't happen quickly. They don't typically happen kind of all in one fell swoop. So I don't want to miss out on the opportunity to say we need this transformative federal approach. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That said, I'm very optimistic. I mean, one of the great lessons of the past six or so years now that I've been really focused on work with state policymakers around the country is just how much bipartisanship there is around this issue. It's easy to look at Congress and think, ‘Oh gosh, our politics is so dysfunctional.’ But at the state level, it is thrilling to me to see such strong leadership from the reddest of the red states and the bluest of the blue and everywhere in between. This is an issue that voters overwhelmingly agree on. And my hope has been, in writing the book, that the book was bipartisan to an extent that no matter who you are, that you can pick this book up and find a thread that sort of resonates with your political philosophy. If you're an economic fiscal conservative, then there's a case for you to be made in this book. If you're a social conservative interested in the strength of the nuclear family, then there's a case to be made here. So I think all of that is important.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The innovations at the state level, though, I think are awfully important. One, in the short term, in the absence of action by Congress, I think it's great that the states are moving some of these things forward, but they also can be laboratories for demonstrating what works. And so I'm definitely encouraged there, but maybe more than anything just encouraged that this is happening across the political spectrum.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16068/shutterstock_2242594187-1729867119.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16068/shutterstock_2242594187-1729867119.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">How a New Approach to Early Childhood Could Avert a ‘Public Policy Catastrophe’</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Chekyravaa / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>5 Strategies to Ensure Your Edtech Tools Deliver on Their Promises [Infographic]</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-04-5-strategies-to-ensure-your-edtech-tools-deliver-on-their-promises</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-04-5-strategies-to-ensure-your-edtech-tools-deliver-on-their-promises#comments</comments> <dc:creator></dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Digital Learning</category> <pubDate>Mon, 04 Nov 2024 09:55:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-c67ecd36 </guid> <description>Evaluating and validating tech tools takes time and energy — resources that are always in short supply. An overwhelming variety of tools are available, ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Evaluating and validating tech tools takes time and energy — resources that are always in short supply. An overwhelming variety of tools are available, each claiming to improve student outcomes in different ways, making it difficult to discern which will have the most meaningful impact. Added layers of complexity about compatibility, security and cost can lead to decision fatigue. These five strategies can ensure your tech does what it promises to help streamline your evaluations.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h5 class="aside-heading"&gt;Additional Resources&lt;/h5&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.smarttech.com/en/lumio/why-lumio/science-of-lumio" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The science of Lumio&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.smarttech.com/en/lumio/why-lumio/how-lumio-works" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;How Lumio works&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;a href="https://d3btwko586hcvj.cloudfront.net/uploads/pdf/file/545/Smart_Technologies_IG_Banner-1729805746.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="https://d3btwko586hcvj.cloudfront.net/uploads/pdf/file/545/Smart_Technologies_IG_Banner-1729805746.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Click here to see the full infographic&lt;/a&gt;.</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16066/Smart_Tech_Hero_Image-1729806321.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16066/Smart_Tech_Hero_Image-1729806321.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">5 Strategies to Ensure Your Edtech Tools Deliver on Their Promises [Infographic]</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Graphic design by Erin Horlacher</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>In Time of Campus Turmoil, More Colleges Try Teaching Civil Discourse</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-04-in-time-of-campus-turmoil-more-colleges-try-teaching-civil-discourse</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-04-in-time-of-campus-turmoil-more-colleges-try-teaching-civil-discourse#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Maggie Hicks</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Higher Education</category> <category>Diversity and Equity</category> <category>Civics</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <pubDate>Mon, 04 Nov 2024 03:00:00 -0800</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-2ecececb </guid> <description>During this contentious presidential election season, more colleges are setting up programs and events to encourage students to have meaningful ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;As Alexandra Delano prepared to moderate a civil discourse event for fellow students at Providence College in anticipation of the presidential election, some people quipped “good luck with that” or “you’re brave for that.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They predicted that the event, whose blue and red flier read “There’s an election in two weeks? Let’s talk about it!,” would be tense. It was sponsored by the college’s Dialogue, Inclusion and Democracy Lab, where Delano is a student fellow.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the audience of around 30 students entered the large lecture classroom in Moore Hall, where the college houses its Center for Inclusive Excellence, Delano greeted them with a slide show explaining how the afternoon would go. The audience was split into four groups, each assigned a question on topics like the role of social media in politics or how to navigate emotions that may come up post-election. Participants could move from table to table, discussing the questions with other members of each group. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Delano also had the whole group make a community agreement, or a list of rules for everyone to follow to ensure they were remaining respectful. Some of the rules included using the word “I” instead of “we or us” and bringing lessons learned outside of the room, but not sharing anyone’s personal information. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As she wrapped up her introductory remarks, Delano decided to leave the group with one final note before they started: “This may be tense, but that’s OK,” she said. “Let’s be comfortable with the uncomfortable. Let’s work through it together.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Constructive dialogue” has become a buzzword in higher education in recent years, especially since protests over the Israel-Hamas war have shaken campuses across the country. Colleges host speaker sessions, bring in experts and create events, seemingly desperate to have students talk to — instead of scream at — each other. Many even created special offices or programs in the hopes of teaching students how to talk with people they may disagree with.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;“This may be tense, but that’s ok. Let’s be comfortable with the uncomfortable. Let’s work through it together.”&lt;br&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt;— Alexandra Delano&lt;p&gt;Now, that programming is being put to the test as colleges gear up for the turmoil that this week’s presidential election could bring. Events like the one Delano moderated are a way to encourage students to have meaningful conversations with one another and listen despite their differences, experts say. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While it’s not yet clear how much difference a few training sessions or discussion events can make, organizers hope they will leave students better prepared to enter a world that has only become more polarized. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;What Does Good Dialogue Look Like?&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Colleges have gradually increased their efforts to promote civic dialogue in the past several years, as partisanship has grown. But a new push has happened in higher ed after conflict erupted in the Middle East &lt;a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/29/the-middle-east-in-crisis-7-october-the-day-that-changed-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;on October 7, 2023&lt;/a&gt;, along with &lt;a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/a-look-at-the-protests-of-the-war-in-gaza-that-have-emerged-at-us-colleges" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;campus protests&lt;/a&gt; — college administrators have realized that they can’t provide a quality education in a chaotic environment, says Michael Murray, the president and chief executive officer of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, which has funded several campus dialogue projects. Students need stability and a way to handle tense situations in order to succeed in and outside of the classroom, he says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many colleges have sought that help from nonprofit organizations, such as Interfaith America or Braver Angels, he says. They provide toolkits, strategies and training to help administrators grow their programs. They also offer colleges resources on the best practices in constructive dialogue or suggest specific types of events, such as the round table strategy at Providence.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Constructive Dialogue Institute, for instance, offers a series of videos and online lessons for students to work through at their own pace, training for faculty and staff and a yearly program to help campus administrators learn more about constructive dialogue. Last year, the organization worked with 30 colleges. This year, that number has grown to 122 campuses, says Mylien Duong, senior director of research at the institute. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the past, encouraging productive dialogue “didn't feel urgent,” Duong says, “people understood that those are important skills to have, they could see that our national discourse was deteriorating and that that was showing up on college campuses, but it felt like there was always something that was more important than investing in this wholesale.”&lt;/p&gt;Organizers of a recent event at Providence College hope that students can be the most effective in getting their own peers to engage.&lt;p&gt;Now, Murray says, some colleges even see constructive dialogue as a way to help students entering the workforce after graduation. Companies will look for students who have problem solving and conversation skills, he says, especially after seeing the turmoil that erupted last year. Murray points to Spring Arbor University, a small private methodist college in Michigan, that is rolling out a certificate program in constructive dialogue. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Employers “are reporting that one thing they're looking for in new hires is graduates who internalize these skills,” Murray says. “They know how to get along with people that they disagree with.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Encouraging students to transfer those skills out of the classroom or a campus event can be tough, though, says Nicholas Longo, co-director of Providence’s DID Lab. Classrooms or workshops are often safe spaces, Longo says, but students need to bring their skills to conversations with friends, social media or the workplace. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Posie Millett, a senior at Dartmouth College, has noticed that students mainly have conversations about politics in structured settings, such as at a speaker event. They rarely talk about politics over lunch or during a random conversation with friends, she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Millet is involved in the Dartmouth Dialogue Project, a program the college launched earlier this year that offers workshops and uses the Constructive Dialogue Institute’s online materials to help students learn to have productive conversations. Creating a safe space where students can learn conversation skills and talk about sensitive topics will help them navigate difficult situations day-to-day, Millet says. They can use those strategies to talk about mental health or conflicts between friends, she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The ways in which you learn how to confidently and also respectfully express yourself and your opinion I think aids in a lot of different aspects of life,” she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many colleges have also begun offering faculty workshops so instructors can learn to model constructive dialogue in the classroom, Longo says. Faculty will participate in simulation exercises so they’ll be better prepared during the school year when something comes up, he says. Through the DID Lab, Longo also brings a group of faculty together each month to discuss having conversations in the classroom that are out of their expertise. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“If you're a chemist or if you're a biology professor, you have disciplinary expertise,” Longo says, “but you might not have much experience or feel comfortable having a conversation about climate change with folks who might not believe in climate change.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;How Effective Is It?&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;People in the civil dialogue space are still looking for ways to measure how successful these programs have been.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At Dartmouth, staff in the Dialogue Project have been conducting individual assessments of the impact each event has on students, says Kristi Clemens, executive director of the program. The goal is for students to have less of what is called &lt;a href="https://www.amazon.com/High-Conflict-Why-Get-Trapped/dp/1982128569" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;high conflict&lt;/a&gt; with one another, Clemens says, and engage in more productive ways. The group is also looking to lower the amount of cancel culture on campus, such as students attacking one another online, she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To do that, though, students need to practice civil discourse skills and experience them on a daily basis, says Elizabeth Smith, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences at Dartmouth. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It's really about thinking about how it just becomes part of the culture,” Smith says. Engaging in civil dialogue should feel “natural, it's not a ‘oh my gosh, one more thing I have to do,’ but it becomes a natural part of our community life here at Dartmouth.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Delano has been working on ways to assess the impact of the DID Lab as well. Anecdotally, she says she’s heard from students after certain events that they feel like they can apply what they’ve learned later on, which is encouraging. Still, she says it can be difficult to persuade students to get involved and really engage when many don’t even know what constructive dialogue means. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“A lot of people seem to be turned off by the idea of civil discourse in a lot of different ways,” she says, “whether it's that they don't know what it is or they've never really had an experience with it.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It can be especially challenging to engage students who may not be eager to sign up for a dialogue session, says Timothy Shaffer, the director of the SNF Ithaca Initiative, a civil dialogue program at the University of Delaware. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some colleges have found ways to build incentives into learning about dialogue. At Dartmouth, students can receive a wellness credit for attending campus dialogue workshops. Many faculty at Providence offered students extra credit to attend the DID Lab’s election event. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Still, colleges need to integrate the skills into everyday life on campus so, say, a student athlete or a person in the business school can benefit, Shaffer says. Dialogue skills could be embedded into orientation programs or through residence life, he suggests. Resident advisors can host fun events, like pumpkin carving, but they should also be responsible for teaching incoming students how to have constructive conversations, Shaffer says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a biology student hoping to become a pediatric oncologist, Delano plans to use the skills she’s learned from the DID Lab to connect with patients who may not have the same background or opinions as her. Last year, she worked on encouraging science students to get involved in the DID Lab. She helped incorporate dialogue skills into a physics course curriculum and created a “DID Wall” for the science building, which asked students insightful questions, such as “how can you be a better ally to the LGBTQ community?” Students were encouraged to leave their responses on the wall as a way to spark conversation. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Students might not come with the skills equipped to take on these hard conversations per se, but the second they sit down at one of our events or they have a conversation with one of the fellows, they see that it's not rocket science,” Delano says. “It's more so just being open to ways of looking at different viewpoints and figuring out based on our community agreement how they can be the best version of themselves in that moment.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To Delano, students are often the most effective in getting their own peers to engage. During the election event, she says she felt the room relax when she acknowledged how tense the space might become. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Once students began their discussions, she watched as they talked about topics like how to detect when an image is generated by artificial intelligence. Students were respectful, Delano says, and were able to talk through their disagreements. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many students left feeling calmer about the election, she adds. The event helped people realize how important it will be to lean on each other regardless of the outcome or how one may feel about it, Delano says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It's OK to not have all the answers right in front of you,” Delano says. “Knowing that there's people in your corner, even if they don't believe the same things as you politically, you do have those core shared values that can help you see that there is someone who can still support you.”&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16074/Critical_Dialogues_event-1730407774.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16074/Critical_Dialogues_event-1730407774.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">In Time of Campus Turmoil, More Colleges Try Teaching Civil Discourse</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Photo courtesy of Alexandra Delano</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Students Call for Hands-On Civic Education to Prepare Them for Democracy </title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-01-students-call-for-hands-on-civic-education-to-prepare-them-for-democracy</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-11-01-students-call-for-hands-on-civic-education-to-prepare-them-for-democracy#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Daniel Mollenkamp</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Civics</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Policy and Government</category> <category>Youth Culture </category> <pubDate>Fri, 01 Nov 2024 09:22:18 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-80ecd874 </guid> <description>Compared to the rest of the world, the young don’t vote or seem to get involved with civic life in the U.S. Some think it’s because schools are bad at ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;The victory was bittersweet. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Khoa Ta, then a sophomore at Owensboro High School from Daviess County in Western Kentucky, was elected as a student board member for the local board of education last May. It was a role Ta was eager to build on, having helped to write and lobby for &lt;a href="https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/24rs/hb381.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;a statewide bill&lt;/a&gt; that sought to put a student board member in each Kentucky school district. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After the pandemic, school boards became a political battleground. Since they enact policies that affect students, Ta says, it seemed like students should have a voice in the decisions they were making. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the happiness of winning the election was soon tampered with a sense of frustration and incompleteness. The position felt “superficial,” because it does not hold voting power, Ta says. While Ta can explain how students think about an issue to the board, they can also blithely ignore it. So embedded in the victory was also the next struggle. Having a voice is one step in trying to create change in your community, Ta says, adding that the ultimate goal is to prove that students can hold the exact same power and agency as adults.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Unlike many students in the country, Ta is politically engaged. Among long-standing democracies, American youth aren’t all that politically active. When it comes to voting, countries such as Australia make it compulsory and even fine those who don’t vote, with the number of young Australians enrolled to vote hovering around 90 percent, according to &lt;a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/Enrolling_to_vote/Enrolment_stats/performance/national-youth.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;the Australian Electoral Commission&lt;/a&gt;. In comparison, young American voter registration &lt;a href="https://youngamericans.berkeley.edu/2024/04/voter-registration-rates-by-generation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;is much lower&lt;/a&gt; and participation spiked in 2018 — &lt;a href="https://circle.tufts.edu/2022-election-center" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;when 28 percent voted&lt;/a&gt;, a record percentage — though it’s dipped since then. So perhaps it’s not so surprising that American politics can skew old, with the average age of House lawmakers &lt;a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/01/30/house-gets-younger-senate-gets-older-a-look-at-the-age-and-generation-of-lawmakers-in-the-118th-congress/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;a youthful 58&lt;/a&gt;, and the average age of those in the Senate more than 65 years old.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But some states seem to want younger people involved. In recent years, a number of states have passed civics testing mandates to pressure students to become more civically active. But can you really force young and student voters to take part? And how useful is civic education for those who chose to get involved?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Challenging the Gentrocacy&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Compared to test scores and academic performance, people often forget about how vital civic development is, says Jilli Jung, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University. Schools have the potential to foster really effective citizens, Jung says. But while there’s broad agreement that education should be the main way young people learn to become good citizens, it’s often forgotten about because schools don’t seem to be doing a good job and the United States seems worse at this than other democracies, she says. There isn’t much empirical evidence at how good the education system is at turning these students into active citizens either, she adds. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One idea that’s taken root is forcing students to take a civics test as a requirement for high school graduation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; Last year, Jung &lt;a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/01623737231195887" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;co-authored a report&lt;/a&gt; investigating the Civics Education Initiative, the standardized civics test that at least 18 states now require in the hopes it will leave students with a “bare minimum” of civics knowledge, preparing them to become active in shaping their communities. But Jung and her co-authors found that the mandates did not increase voter participation. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While civic education could help to introduce some students to political engagement, the effect of these mandates is less positive. Schools don’t devote much time to civic education, usually only one class per week and now that time is going toward preparing students for the test, Jung says. It’s possible that this means that students from marginalized communities — for example, immigrant communities — may not have any place to learn about civic education and politics and no place to talk about meaningful political issues, Jung speculates. However, the evidence for this from her study was weak. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In general, when it comes to lifting student participation rates broadly, it’s a common misconception that youth aren’t motivated, Jung says. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-10-13-young-people-care-about-elections-they-just-don-t-always-show-up-to-vote-here-s-how-education-can-help" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Youth are motivated to participate&lt;/a&gt;, she says. But it’s hard to overcome barriers, such as registering to vote. Other countries are less restrictive in that way, she says, and have higher participation rates. So giving students practical guidance is useful, she argues. For example, she says, the civics exam asks a question about what the longest river in the U.S. is. That’s less likely to help students than showing them how to register to vote, taking them to visit legislators or holding mock elections, she argues. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kentucky, where the students interviewed for this article attend public school, has a version of the civics test policy, which the state passed in 2018. It requires students to score &lt;a href="https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/24rs/hb535.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;70 percent&lt;/a&gt; on a standardized civics test or to take a one-half credit civics course. The questions mostly probe facts, including the names of one of the state’s senators and the length of a presidential term. For some politically active students who have taken it, the civics test the state mandates was, “in every conceivable way, surface level”: memorize the answers, take the test, never think about it again. It also didn’t move them to get involved in their communities. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Incentivizing Change&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some hope to reinforce civics in other ways.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, doesn’t think the civics mandates will make students engaged. But it is a sort of minimum effort that districts should be doing. It’s not enough, though. Social media in particular has served as a rumor mill, exaggerating distrust and polarization, Khan says. In reality, he adds, Americans are more aligned than they seem and there’s a hunger for high-quality civic instruction. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Khan’s company &lt;a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/education/constitution-101-curriculum/constitution-101-with-khan-academy" rel="noopener" target="_blank"&gt;offers civic instruction&lt;/a&gt; that he hopes will promote mastery of civics material. But another priority for Khan is to facilitate discourse, he says. In its work with university admissions, a nonprofit that Khan founded, called Schoolhouse.world, is launching the “Dialogue Project,” a series of facilitated Zoom conversations about hot-button topics that he hopes will help with constructive conversations. Students who participate in the sessions will get “an Uber[-style] rating” about how well they can make others feel heard and whether they take part in constructive conversations. That will then be passed on to admissions officers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Khan says that he hopes it will motivate students to become engaged. It will be a “carrot and not a stick,” he says. If a student takes part in 30 of these conversations and has a good score, then adding it to their application could give them a bump, because it’s a value these universities say that they want. The versions of this that colleges tend to offer already don’t scale well, Khan says. The project has been &lt;a href="https://schoolhouse.world/blog/dialogues-manifesto" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;announced&lt;/a&gt;, though the full list of colleges planning to use this haven’t been named yet. Khan says that he hopes it will be mainstream by the next admissions cycle. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Khan says he has no illusions that this will serve as a “silver bullet” to the problems of the country. However, it is perhaps a necessary part of the growing pains of a democracy. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I think we all sometimes want to crave a benevolent dictatorship, like Singapore, where they're generally doing good stuff for the people, and it's all orderly, and no one's yelling at each other and there's a high degree of trust in the government,” Khan says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But maybe American-style debate and discourse is just an inevitable consequence of having more information out there, and being in a democracy means confronting that. These are genuinely new problems brought on by the expansion of democratic participation, he argues: “To some degree, the more people participate in democracy, the messier it looks, which isn't a bad thing, right?”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The mess is precisely what pulled in some of the students from Kentucky.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Joining In&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Peter Jefferson, a senior at Henry Clay High School, a public school in Lexington, Kentucky, is active in politics, especially for someone who is not yet 18 years old. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Last year, Jefferson joined the legislative policy arm of the Kentucky Student Voice Team. There, he tried to give people information about important education-related bills, including the bill that introduced Amendment 2, which would overturn the state’s constitutional restriction that prohibits using public funds for private and charter schools. The amendment is &lt;a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/election/article294705284.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;up for a vote this election&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jefferson was struck by how much of an impact this could have on K-12 schools in Kentucky. So he’s been trying to spread awareness about what he says is the student perspective on the bill, that it will decrease education funding for public schools. Jefferson says that means fewer opportunities for students with disabilities, or for students in rural areas or who want to work in public schools one day. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After the 2016 election, Jefferson started to become more politically aware. Then in fourth or fifth grade, he started reading the news every day, and trying to bone up on political issues. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most of his education came through AP courses, Jefferson says. Since the information was being filtered through history and politics lessons, it meant he was learning about how an amendment changed women’s right to vote or how Andrew Jackson was able to mobilize the popular vote in the 19th century. It meant there wasn’t really a practical emphasis on how to register to vote today, he says. The knowledge was useful for inspiring more thoughtful social media discourse. It also left him with an understanding of the value of protest, which is motivating. But it wasn’t a “catalyst” for him getting involved in politics, Jefferson says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;His first serious engagement with politics, he says, occurred in seventh grade when a town he was living in was looking to put in a new steel recycling plan. Jefferson spent hours pouring over the public environmental impact reports. He was moved to circulate a petition among his friends — which got about 50 signatures, he recalls — and that was the first time he felt as though he was part of the process. Nobody ever explicitly told him that he could get civically involved, by say, canvassing or registering to vote. But over time, he says, he noticed more opportunities passed along by his high school government teacher. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even some who feel lucky question how handy their education was for real civic life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ta, the student board member, feels like their district does better than most in civic education. “I myself have kind of been more fortunate in a lot of standpoints, because I feel like the public education system itself really does do the minimum,” Ta says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While Ta is too young to vote in this election, they are highly engaged in politics. Still, the path was winding and not limited to school. When Ta was in middle school — when the country was embroiled in the 2020 presidential election and reeling from COVID-19 — political questions seemed suddenly relevant for them. Controversy over those issues meant that they were barred from really discussing them in school, almost like there was a stigma, Ta recalls. But for the first time, Ta found the news interesting. While the controversy pushed some people away, Ta found they enjoyed having critical conversations. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Later on, Ta opened an email from their school that mentioned the Kentucky Student Voice Team, a state-level group that was started in 2012 to bring students into the advocacy process. It seemed like good resume padding, Ta says. It was an “almost selfish thought,” they add. From there, now a freshman in high school, Ta joined the team as a student journalist, where they tried to put a “human touch” on complex issues. For instance, when the state legislature banned gender-affirming care — overriding a governor’s veto to do it — it also censored a lot of queer content, Ta says. For Ta, the care is potentially life-saving for those who might be struggling with suicidal thoughts, including their friends. “And a lot of people that I knew that are queer, like, were genuinely afraid,” Ta says. So being able to bring a voice to that felt powerful.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It also convinced Ta that elections are important. When the Young Democrats started canvassing for Kentucky’s 2023 gubernatorial election, Ta joined. In all, they went out five times, volunteering in spare moments on the weekends. Ta’s candidate won re-election, and has since banned conversion therapy in the state via executive order.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Practical Practice&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;So what was useful for those students who did get involved?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ta says the biggest opportunity their school gave them at an early age was when social studies teachers began class by turning on the daily news. It pulled them in, revealing that there was a big world out there. School also taught Ta to conduct research, which was helpful. Plus, outside of school, Ta’s city had civic programs such as The Wendell H. Ford Government Education Center — a development program meant to turn students into “leaders who practice civility, cooperation and compromise” — that gave them an opportunity to research and understand candidates for office. There was also the National Honor Society, which stresses community service. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jefferson, also with the Student Voice Team, says that making students in middle school and high school get involved with their local government in some way would help. That creates more personal connection and investment into what's going on, he says. That’s how he got involved.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But there’s a problem with how schools and civic groups try to reach out to students, Ta says. They happened to see the email about the group, prompting their own participation there. But more often than not, students don’t check their emails, they add. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It would be more useful, Ta argues, if schools were more direct about teaching how to practically apply civic knowledge so students can make themselves agents of change in their communities. Without that, it seems like schools don’t necessarily promote engaging with the broader community, Ta says. Perhaps schools should make community service mandatory, Ta suggests.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16076/shutterstock_2521593125-1730476393.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16076/shutterstock_2521593125-1730476393.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Students Call for Hands-On Civic Education to Prepare Them for Democracy </media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Photo By Alan Mazzocco/ Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>What the Data Tells Us About How ESSER Spending Did and Didn’t Help Schools Recover</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-31-what-the-data-tells-us-about-how-esser-spending-did-and-didn-t-help-schools-recover</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-31-what-the-data-tells-us-about-how-esser-spending-did-and-didn-t-help-schools-recover#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Nadia Tamez-Robledo</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Policy and Government</category> <category>Solutions</category> <category>Student Success</category> <category>Coronavirus</category> <category>Efficacy</category> <pubDate>Thu, 31 Oct 2024 01:00:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-de95d0b0 </guid> <description>Did billions in federal emergency funds make a difference in helping students recover academically from school time lost during the early years of the ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;What difference did $190 billion make for student success coming out of the COVID-19 health crisis?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not as much as you might think. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An &lt;a href="https://www.educationnext.org/no-silver-school-spending-bullets-five-lessons-190-billion-esser-investment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;ESSER spending analysis&lt;/a&gt; by Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University found some puzzling instances where funneling more money into a pandemic-worsened problem didn’t help schools recover. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The data ultimately points to no “silver bullet” in spending aimed at improving students’ academic performance since the pandemic, says Marguerite Roza, director of Edunomics Lab. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Return on Investment&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;A crunch of the numbers found that states varied widely when it came to the return on investment of their ESSER dollars. Both reading and math scores increased in districts in states like Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee, where the rate of ESSER spending per student was relatively high (over $1,000) from 2022 to 2023.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;States like Nevada, California and South Dakota were also high spenders, but they saw some of the lowest gains in reading and math during the same time period. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Analysts said the difference likely came down to leadership in some states being “simply more effective at steering districts to focus on student learning” in the face of vague spending guidelines from the federal government. Leaders in Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee focused on setting clear goals and checking progress for reading and math performance. &lt;/p&gt;Each chart shows the ESSER funds each district spent per student during the 2022-23 school year compared to the average years of learning gains or losses in reading and math. Source: Edunomics Lab.</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16073/esser_study-1730320309.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16073/esser_study-1730320309.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">What the Data Tells Us About How ESSER Spending Did and Didn’t Help Schools Recover</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Alphavector / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>How I Became Invisible as a Teacher of Color in the Classroom</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-30-how-i-became-invisible-as-a-teacher-of-color-in-the-classroom</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-30-how-i-became-invisible-as-a-teacher-of-color-in-the-classroom#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Gene Fashaw </dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Leadership</category> <category>Diversity and Equity</category> <pubDate>Wed, 30 Oct 2024 01:00:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-608976db </guid> <description>“I hope that making my story of invisibility visible to those who may understand my struggle will help fellow educators of color feel seen, heard, ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;It is the weekend before my students arrive for the new school year. I am in my classroom listening to Lofi beats, pondering what has been and what is to come. All around my room are reminders of my identity as a 6’2, 280-pound Black and Puerto Rican man, husband, father, math teacher and basketball coach. I have come to find solace here; yes, these are part of my identity, which I hold dear to my heart — but as I have grown older, I have learned that few people ever see beyond them, including those who I call colleagues and peers in this education system.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In these moments, I frequently return to my favorite book, “&lt;a href="https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Man-Ralph-Ellison/dp/0679732764" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Invisible Man&lt;/a&gt;” by Ralph Ellison. The novel’s exploration of invisibility, identity and the struggle for recognition resonates deeply with my experiences in education. Much like Ellison’s protagonist, I feel I have only been viewed as other people's definition of who I am supposed to be. When my students arrive, I feel I am expected to perform certain duties outside my job description simply because of my identity. My ability as a leader is hardly recognized. The struggles of being a husband and father are ignored. My existence as a person feels like an afterthought. These are the challenges I’ve faced. I want to feel seen for the many contributions I make in my classroom, school and community. This work is not easy, and feeling invisible at the same time is exhausting.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ellison’s “Invisible Man” resonates deeply with my experiences and those of many teachers of color face in education. The novel’s themes of invisibility and identity crisis mirror the struggles I have faced in a system that frequently fails to properly acknowledge my presence and contributions. I hope that making my story of invisibility visible to those who may understand my struggle will help fellow educators of color feel seen, heard, valued, and, more importantly, retained in the classroom. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Who Am I in Education? &lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;My career in teaching began in the fall of 2017, right after I completed the first summer semester of my graduate program. Soon after, I began my first summer professional development at a school in the neighborhood I grew up in. One of the first things I noticed was that all the students had to abide by a strict uniform policy, including shoes, belts and school colors, and middle school-aged children were walking in straight lines through silent hallways. I don’t remember middle school ever being like this, and the fact that it was mostly students of color gave me pause. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After my first three months as a teaching resident, the master teacher I shadowed went on maternity leave and never returned. Our principal also left a couple of months into the year, which prompted a takeover by central office leadership — all of whom were unfamiliar white faces in a school full of Black and Latino children. Before I knew it, I was teaching a seventh grade math class with little support on a tiny salary and barely any teaching experience. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Needless to say, I was not prepared for the unrealized stress. I quickly learned that teachers needed to play many different roles, wear numerous hats and complete far too many additional duties. I would be pulled from teaching almost routinely to address students with whom leadership in the building could not reach; that is when I earned the nickname child whisperer. Instead of a badge of honor, it felt like another &lt;a href="https://wordinblack.com/2022/09/invisible-tax-black-teachers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;invisible tax&lt;/a&gt; associated with being a Black teacher. It felt like my value was dependent on my ability to maintain order. From fist fights to classroom struggles, I felt limited and held within a box of preconceived notions about my role as the enforcer of system norms, the very things I despise about discipline-first school systems. It was as though I was a puppet and Geppetto at the same time. I felt like I was upholding a lie, having my students believe this is how things should be. I questioned my place inside the school, wondering what role I was really playing in students' lives. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I pressed on, hoping to still unlock our children's brilliance. Still, the beginning of my teaching career indicated that sometimes you need more than hope to make it in this profession as a person of color and education leader. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt; The Journey to Inspire Change&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the last five years of my career, the pandemic put a spotlight on the needs of our schools, teachers and students as conversations around what and how our children deserve to learn became divisive and critical race theory, and DEI became the debates of the time. Motivated to change this conversation and influence &lt;a href="https://teachplus.org/resource/culturally-sustaining-schools-recommendations-from-teach-plus-colorado-policy-fellows-for-retaining-teachers-of-color/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;policy at the state&lt;/a&gt; and local levels, I ran &lt;a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/colorado/2021/10/18/22726763/gene-fashaw-denver-school-board-candidate-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;for school board in 2021. &lt;/a&gt;It seemed like a great opportunity to try and create true change for our children while also creating an identity for myself in education that didn’t just center on how I enforce school policy for children who look like me. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Before I decided to run, I spoke with a few close advisors and the amount of immediate support was validating; however, I quickly learned that politics are not for the faint of heart. Narratives about my values and who I was were being established by everyone else. I was being accused of becoming Puerto Rican for the sake of the campaign, completely ignoring my upbringing and familial ties. The feeling I had when my wife was cropped out of an advertisement outside my campaign was infuriating. The lies about my allegiances and intentions were draining. It did not take very long for me to feel like I was just a name and face — and everyone created their idea of who I was behind it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The campaign became draining for my family and tested the values that I chose to uphold and run on. Still, I hoped that being the only teacher on the ballot and having a commitment to my community through service would push me to victory, regardless. Unfortunately, it was not enough, and I would lose the race by a very slim margin. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A crushing defeat in many ways that made me feel like a failure. Watching others — white men, in particular — get the same opportunity after achieving less than me made me not only question my ability but also further reinforced the role the system wants me to uphold. At that moment, it all made sense. People see me how they want to see me. They prefer to keep me in a box. So, I choose to stay in the box that I’m most comfortable in —my classroom. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Making Peace with Reality&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is here in my classroom that I contemplate how to fight against a system that upholds injustice, a system that fights against the brilliance of diversity. This system does not allow everyone a seat at the table. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nearly a decade in education, and I still wonder if I’ve truly existed. Does anyone see past my physical appearance? Do my titles of husband, father, teacher or coach even matter? Have I left an impact on anyone or anything? Am I invisible? I just maybe, and over the years, I’ve become ok with that feeling of invisibility. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Like the protagonist in Invisible Man, I may have been “looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer.” It took me a long time and a painful adjustment of my expectations to realize that I am nobody but myself. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I do not need your eyes in order to be seen, and I do not need your validation to continue fighting for what I believe. I am everything and nothing of what you think I am, and I will move as I see fit. &lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16062/shutterstock_1733086187-1729789711.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16062/shutterstock_1733086187-1729789711.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">How I Became Invisible as a Teacher of Color in the Classroom</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Overearth / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>What Can AI Chatbots Teach Us About How Humans Learn?</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-29-what-can-ai-chatbots-teach-us-about-how-humans-learn</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-29-what-can-ai-chatbots-teach-us-about-how-humans-learn#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Jeffrey R. Young</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Higher Education</category> <category>Artificial Intelligence</category> <category>EdSurge Podcast</category> <pubDate>Tue, 29 Oct 2024 13:29:28 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-6f89f716 </guid> <description>The answer to whether chatbots like ChatGPT can think and reason like humans will have a big impact on education and for all aspects of society, argues ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/the-edsurge-on-air-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do new AI tools like ChatGPT actually understand language the same way that humans do? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/36U5oPMQ16bd4GQh2O3at5" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-can-ai-chatbots-teach-us-about-how-humans-learn/id972239500?i=1000674910815" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;It turns out that even the inventors of these new large language models are debating that very question — and the answer will have huge implications for education and for all aspects of society if this technology can get to a point where it achieves what is known as Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A new book by one of those AI pioneers digs into the origins of ChatGPT and the intersection of research on how the brain works and building new large language models for AI. It’s called “&lt;a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049252/chatgpt-and-the-future-of-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;ChatGPT and the Future of AI,&lt;/a&gt;” and the author is Terrence Sejnowski, a professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego, where he co-directs the Institute for Neural Computation and the NSF Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center. He is also the Francis Crick Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Get EdSurge journalism delivered free to your inbox. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/newsletters" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Sign up for our newsletters&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sejnowski started out as a physicist working on the origins of black holes, but early in his career he says he realized that it would be decades before new instruments could be built that could adequately measure the kinds of gravitational waves he was studying. So he switched to neuroscience, hoping to “pop the hood” on the human brain to better understand how it works.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It seemed to me that the brain was just as mysterious as the cosmos,” he tells EdSurge. “And the advantage is you can do experiments in your own lab, and you don’t have to have a satellite.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;“What has really been revealed is that we don't understand what ‘understanding’ is,”&lt;br&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt;— Terrence Sejnowski&lt;p&gt;For decades, Sejnowski has focused on applying findings from brain science to building computer models, working closely at times with the two researchers who just won the Nobel Prize this year for their work on AI, John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These days, computing power and algorithms have advanced to the level where neuroscience and AI are helping to inform each other, and even challenge our traditional understanding of what thinking is all about, he says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“What has really been revealed is that we don't understand what ‘understanding’ is,” says Sejnowski. “We use the word, and we think we understand what it means, but we don't know how the brain understands something. We can record from neurons, but that doesn't really tell you how it functions and what’s really going on when you’re thinking.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He says that new chatbots have the potential to revolutionize learning if they can deliver on the promise of being personal tutors to students. One drawback of the current approach, he says, is that LLMs focus on only one aspect of how the human brain organizes information, whereas “there are a hundred brain parts that are left out that are important for survival, autonomy for being able to maintain activity and awareness.” And it’s possible that those other parts of what makes us human may need to be simulated as well for something like tutoring to be most effective, he suggests. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The researcher warns that there are likely to be negative unintended consequences to ChatGPT and other technologies, just as social media led to the rise of misinformation and other challenges. He says there will need to be regulation, but that “we won't really know what to regulate until it really is out there and it's being used and we see what the impact is, how it's used.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But he predicts that soon most of us will no longer use keyboards to interact with computers, instead using voice commands to have dialogues with all kinds of devices in our lives. “You’ll be able to go into your car and talk to the car and say, ‘How are you feeling today?’ [and it might say,] ‘Well, we're running low on gas.’ Oh, OK, where's the nearest gas station? Here, let me take you there.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Listen to our conversation with Sejnowski on this week’s EdSurge Podcast, where he describes research to more fully simulate human brains. He also talks about his previous project in education, a free online course he co-teaches called “&lt;a href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Learning How to Learn,&lt;/a&gt;” which is one of the most popular courses ever made, with more than 4 million students signed up over the past 10 years. &lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16071/digital_brain-1730233403.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16071/digital_brain-1730233403.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">What Can AI Chatbots Teach Us About How Humans Learn?</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">K illustrator Photo / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>What the Boom in Kids’ Smartwatches Reveals About Modern Parenting</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-29-what-the-boom-in-kids-smartwatches-reveals-about-modern-parenting</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-29-what-the-boom-in-kids-smartwatches-reveals-about-modern-parenting#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Emily Tate Sullivan</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Social Media </category> <category>Technology Trends</category> <category>Well-Being</category> <pubDate>Tue, 29 Oct 2024 02:55:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-ff6d4398 </guid> <description>To stave off smartphones, parents buy their kids smartwatches instead. Is it a good idea?</description> <content:encoded>&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;As Jennifer Hill’s eldest child was heading into fifth grade, she began to wonder how she would communicate with him in the hour between his school bus drop-off and her arrival home from work in downtown Cleveland.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This story also appeared in &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.wired.com/story/schools-ban-phones-but-kids-arrive-with-smartwatches-edsurge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;WIRED&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;p&gt;“There’s no phone in this house if something goes wrong,” she remembers thinking. “It’s not safe.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When Hill was a kid, there were no cellphones, sure, but there were landlines. And friendly neighbors keeping an eye out. And close-knit communities where everyone knew each other. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It’s not the way it is anymore,” she says. “I can’t imagine my kid walking up to somebody’s house, knocking on a door, and saying, ‘My friend fell off his bike. Can I use your phone?’ We teach kids not to do that anymore.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She wasn’t ready to get her 10-year-old a smartphone, not by a long shot. Nor did she intend to install a home phone. She wanted her son to be able to ride his bike around the neighborhood in the afternoons, too—not just be cooped up in their house. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She quickly whittled her options down to just one: a smartwatch. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hill knew of another family that had just purchased their child one of these high-tech wearables. Back then, in 2018, the kid-focused options were fairly limited, as were their capabilities. Hill got her son a Verizon Gizmo watch, which, at the time, had only rudimentary features, storing up to 10 parent-approved phone numbers and allowing the user to send only a handful of preset text messages (think: “Where are you?” and “Call me”). The smartwatch also had some simple location-tracking capabilities. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Fast-forward six years, and Hill’s two oldest children, now high schoolers, both have graduated to smartphones. Her youngest, a 10-year-old daughter, wears a Gizmo watch, only hers comes with all the technological advancements and upgrades accumulated over the prior years: photo and video capture, video calling, access to a full keyboard for texting, voice messaging, group chats, geofencing, and up to 20 parent-approved phone numbers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Today, says George Koroneos, a spokesperson for Verizon, the smartwatch is “truly a phone replacement on their wrist.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And the product category is booming. A decade ago, only a few tech companies made smartwatches for kids. Today, the market is bloated with players, new and veteran, vying for kids’ and parents’ loyalty—and advertising smartwatches to children as young as 5. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;[Smartwatches] are becoming a child's first device.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Kris Perry&lt;p&gt;“They are becoming increasingly popular,” says Kris Perry, executive director of Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development. “They are becoming a child’s first device.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Families are noticing, too—after all, they’re the ones driving this “explosion,” as Shelley Pasnik, former director of the Center for Children and Technology, describes it. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hill has seen the evolution since her first watch purchase. When her sons were younger, she says, only a handful of their friends and classmates had smartwatches. Now, the devices are “huge” in her affluent suburban community of Westlake, Ohio.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“With my daughter, everyone’s got them. They’re as popular as &lt;a href="https://www.stanley1913.com/collections/tumblers" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Stanleys&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="https://owalalife.com/products/freesip?variant=45421650575519" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Owalas&lt;/a&gt;,” she says, referring to the colorful, reusable water bottles that children have helped popularize. “All the little girls have watches.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kids clamoring for their first digital device are easily winning over adults who, let’s face it, aren’t putting up much of a fight in the first place, when always-on communication and precise location-tracking are part of the package that comes with modern parenting. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In fact, parent fears may be the real force propelling smartwatch proliferation. &lt;/p&gt;The T-Mobile SyncUp is a kid-focused smartwatch that first launched in 2020. The company targets children ages 5 through 12 for the device. Photo courtesy of T-Mobile.&lt;p&gt;T-Mobile, which makes the SyncUp watch, conducted a consumer insights study and found that 92 percent of parents of children ages 4 through 12 felt it was important to “always know where their child was,” says Clint Patterson, senior vice president of product marketing at T-Mobile.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Today’s tools make such tracking possible. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The way that parents monitor their kids has changed dramatically in just a generation or two,” says Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association. “Parents are monitoring their kids far more closely, really wanting to be aware of their location [and] concerned about their safety.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This heightened surveillance has trade-offs. The trend has seeped into schools, where teachers and leaders have grown frustrated by the introduction of yet another digital distraction to students’ learning, even as more districts enact cellphone bans. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;It’s possible there are ways in which smartwatches are creating an electronic umbilical cord. That has possible risks as well.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Mitch Prinstein&lt;p&gt;Yet no one really knows where these gadgets fit into the larger conversation around children and screens. Research on kids and smartwatches is thin. Even data about adoption and use is lacking. This has left digital media and child development experts to extrapolate and hypothesize about the possible pitfalls and benefits. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“If this is a way of parents or kids achieving their goals and delaying their kids on social media, this might not be such a bad thing,” says Prinstein, who codirects the Winston National Center on Technology Use, Brain, and Psychological Development and whose research focuses on adolescents and younger children. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“On the other hand,” Prinstein adds, “we don’t have a lot of research yet. It’s possible there are ways in which smartwatches are creating an electronic umbilical cord. That has possible risks as well.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Technology ‘Training Wheels’&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;When the Apple Watch was released in 2015, it was seen—and priced—as a luxury good, notes Girard Kelly, the head of privacy at Common Sense Media.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was also, back then, marketed to adults. But as new generations of the Apple Watch came out, some parents handed down older models to their children, says Pasnik of the Center for Children and Technology. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Naturally, kids like to do things adults are doing,” says Jon Watkins, senior product manager for Bounce, a kid-focused smartwatch made by Garmin. “There’s a natural tendency for kids to want a watch like they see Mom and Dad wearing.” &lt;/p&gt;Garmin makes a smartwatch for kids called Bounce. "Let kids be kids," an online promotion for the device says. "Save the smartphone, and let them explore the world with the Bounce kids smartwatch." Photo courtesy of Garmin.&lt;p&gt;Noting the trend—and in some cases, helping to grow it—other companies began to release kid-specific smartwatches with more limitations than an adult device. Apple, too, released a version, the Apple Watch SE, in 2020, with restricted features and a lower price. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Around that time, demand for kids’ smartwatches &lt;a href="https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/kids-smartwatch-market-8309" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;spiked&lt;/a&gt;, says Perry of Children and Screens. Educators, too, note a bump in adoption around the pandemic—one that has been sustained in the years since. The smartwatch market for kids is estimated to be worth &lt;a href="https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/kids-smartwatch-market-8309" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;more than $1 billion&lt;/a&gt; in 2024—and it’s &lt;a href="https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/kids-smartwatch-market" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;growing&lt;/a&gt; rapidly, Perry adds. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A typical kids’ smartwatch today costs around $150 up front, plus an ongoing monthly subscription fee of $10 to $15. That’s certainly no pack of bubble gum, but it does put the device within reach for many families, particularly those who view the product as one that enhances their child’s safety, says Kelly of Common Sense. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;Parents are, like, halfway in between giving their child or teen a phone, and the watch makes sense. It’s cheaper.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Girard Kelly&lt;p&gt;“Parents are, like, halfway in between giving their child or teen a phone, and the watch makes sense,” he says. “It’s cheaper.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To adults feeling pressure to introduce their kids to technology, a smartwatch may feel like a safer starting point than a cellphone that grants exposure to the entire internet, argues Kelly’s colleague Laura Ordoñez, executive editor and head of digital media family advice at Common Sense. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“What is the low-hanging fruit that doesn’t feel like it’s doing the most damage?” Ordoñez asks. “I believe that’s what’s motivating these parents.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Numerous people cited social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s new book, “&lt;a href="https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/book" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;The Anxious Generation&lt;/a&gt;,” in interviews, noting the harm that &lt;a href="https://www.vox.com/24127431/smartphones-young-kids-children-parenting-social-media-teen-mental-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;smartphones and social media&lt;/a&gt; may be causing young people. Most smartwatches don’t have web browsers or social media applications. That in itself gives many parents an enormous sense of relief. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Parents are increasingly aware of the problematic designs of smartphones and the troubling data on social media apps,” says Perry. “They want the connection, but they don’t want their child scrolling and online constantly.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As the price of kids’ smartwatches has come down, though, it may have muddled how the wearable fits into a family’s overall technology goals. What started as a consolation prize offered to an older preteen or young teenager who craves technology, communication, and social inclusion has evolved into a sort of gateway device. Like bowling with bumpers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It’s a great way to ease into tech,” says Hill, the Ohio parent. “You can learn to take care of the technology in a small way before you are given it in a bigger way.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That seems to be how the smartwatch makers view it, too. In interviews with executives at Verizon, Garmin, and T-Mobile, they describe their target users as ages 5 to 12, with the core customer base as parents of 8- to 10-year-olds. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“This is a very safe way to have a means of communication with a child,” claims Watkins of Garmin. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Patterson, at T-Mobile, describes kids’ smartwatches as “training wheels in the adoption of technology.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Just like you wouldn’t throw your kid on a bicycle, you don’t throw them at a smartphone or tablet with unfettered access,” Patterson adds. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What exactly are these training wheels preparing kids for? The bicycle metaphor suggests that someday, children will be allowed to zoom off on their own, liberated from their parents’ purview. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yet untethering is not the trajectory families seem to have in mind when they buy their young kids entry-level digital tools. It’s not why Tim Huber, principal at Harris Creek Elementary School, part of North Carolina’s Wake County Public School System, is seeing more and more children in the early grades show up to school wearing smartwatches. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It has been just a steady increase of kids, at younger grade levels, all the way down to kindergarten,” Huber notes. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To be sure, the reason that 5- and 6-year-olds—children who may not even be literate—have smartwatches is not to delay the purchase of their first smartphone or to ward off social media. For them, the watches are serving another purpose entirely. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;‘Better Be Safe Than Sorry’&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;When Kristi Calderon’s daughter was in fifth grade, one of her classmates made a bomb threat. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I rushed to them,” says Calderon, referring to her three school-age kids. “It was very scary.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She saw only one of her children walk out of the building as the school was evacuated. In those next moments, she did not know where two of her children were or if they were OK. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“That’s what, like, killed me,” says Calderon, who lives in Long Beach, California. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The experience rattled her. Ever since, she says, she has ignored school policies around devices. She would rather know where her kids are and be able to communicate with them, to know that they are safe, than to be left to wonder and worry. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The youngest of her four children, now an 8-year-old in third grade, wears a smartwatch. He’s had one since he was in first grade. &lt;/p&gt;Kristi Calderon with her family. The youngest of her four children, an 8-year-old, has worn a smartwatch since first grade. Photo courtesy of Calderon.&lt;p&gt;Experiences like Calderon’s—and the seemingly ever-present possibility of children encountering violence in schools—have driven parents to seek out location-tracking devices for their kids. Some settle for a simple &lt;a href="https://www.apple.com/airtag/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;AirTag&lt;/a&gt; fastened to a child’s backpack, but many also want the ability to communicate with their child, as Calderon does with her son during and outside of school hours. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Tina Laudando, a parent of two in Park Ridge, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, says she got her older son a smartwatch when he was 11 “so we could stay in touch with him and give him a little bit more freedom.”&lt;/p&gt;Tina Laudando with her 12-year-old son. He was 11 when he got a smartwatch. Photo courtesy of Laudando.&lt;p&gt;His friends were getting together at the park, and she wanted him to be able to join them. And at his age, she didn’t want him to have to come with her every time she needed to make a trip to the grocery store. The watch, she figured, would allow him to stay home alone or meet his friends and communicate with his parents in case of an emergency. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Did she ever consider letting him join his friends at the park without a communication device? No, she says. That was never an option in her mind. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The idea of him going to the park alone, going for a bike ride with his friends, without adult supervision, I think for me as an adult is scary,” Laudando says. “Being able to just, for myself, have that comfort level, knowing he’s OK, it gives me peace of mind.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It’s a win-win, Laudando believes. Her son gets the feeling of more freedom and independence, and his parents feel confident giving that to him. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Laudando, like most of the parents interviewed for this story, grew up during a time when many kids would leave home on their bikes and be gone, unreachable, for hours, returning only for dinner. That was normal. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It’s kind of sad, right? Because we lived without technology for so many years, and as I’m explaining this, I’m like, I don’t know what we would do without it,” Laudando says. “We’ve become reliant on it.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Laudando feels the world her children inhabit today is less safe than the one she was raised in. &lt;/p&gt;Tina Laudando's older son, Nico, on his 12th birthday. He wears a smartwatch so his parents are comfortable letting him join his friends at the park and stay home alone. Photo courtesy of Laudando.&lt;p&gt;Tara Riggs, a parent of two in Livonia, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, can relate. She sees videos on social media, hears stories from friends, reads the news. She feels “inundated” with negative information. It wears her down, she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I’m constantly worrying,” Riggs admits. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, the internet—and social media in particular—can leave many with the sense that the physical world is more dangerous today than ever, when in fact, &lt;a href="https://letgrow.org/crime-statistics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;by&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://ncvs.bjs.ojp.gov/multi-year-trends/crimeType" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;a&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/04/24/what-the-data-says-about-crime-in-the-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;number&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2024/crime-rate-up-or-down-united-states/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;of&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/14/theres-never-been-a-safer-time-to-be-a-kid-in-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;measures&lt;/a&gt;, it is notably safer. (What has gotten worse, in the past few decades, is child and adolescent psychological and emotional well-being. Some researchers and leaders, &lt;a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/17/opinion/social-media-health-warning.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;including the US surgeon general&lt;/a&gt;, attribute this shift to high use of technology and social media among youth. Others cite &lt;a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/05/childhood-in-an-anxious-age/609079/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;intensive parenting practices&lt;/a&gt; that, ironically, seem to undermine the normal development of resilience in kids.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The perception of danger versus the actual danger is a distinction that’s probably important here,” says Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association. “The perception of danger is heightened for a lot of parents.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It’s a consequence of how much more connected our society is than it was a few decades ago, he adds. People can find out, in real time, about violent or disturbing events that happened many communities away. It leaves them with a sense that trouble—no matter how remote the possibility nor how many miles separate their families and the latest crisis making headlines—is looming. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Perhaps no tragedy feels more present and pernicious to a parent than a school shooting. One can take place on the other end of the United States, yet parents everywhere are reminded, viscerally, that their child, too, is at risk. It may have happened elsewhere, in Georgia, or Florida, or Texas, but the next one could be at their kid’s school. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The psychology of fear—it’s extremely powerful,” says Huber, the elementary school principal. “We face that constantly. We are asking hundreds and hundreds of families every day to trust us with the safety and wellness of their child for seven to eight hours.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Katie Joseph, assistant superintendent of Regional School Unit 1 in Bath, Maine, understands that school safety is a palpable concern for many families. Yet she urges those in her school community not to be overtaken by it. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;I try to remind parents what I always tell myself: There is what is possible, and there is what is probable. Probably, all the things you’re worried about are not actually the things you should be worried about. You should be worried about the [device] in your child’s hand.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Katie Joseph&lt;p&gt;“I try to remind parents what I always tell myself: There is what is possible, and there is what is probable. Probably, all the things you’re worried about are not actually the things you should be worried about. You should be worried about the [device] in your child’s hand.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Joseph believes the kind of “independence” a child attains by donning a smartwatch only runs skin deep. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a child’s parent is constantly monitoring them, in touch with their every move, then really they are not developing a strong sense of responsibility, she says. Everyday situations that might allow for a child to experience and overcome challenges, to take risks and build resilience, become virtually frictionless when their parents are just one tap away. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“If my child is riding his bike and something happens, he needs to be able to figure out, ‘What am I supposed to do in this situation?’” says Joseph, who has an 8-year-old. “The first thing we should want our kids to do is not to call us and have us do the thinking for them.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Because of the relative affordability of the smartwatch, and its limitations, many families may not be asking themselves how likely it is that their child would be caught up in a violent event, Prinstein notes. Rather, they may be thinking, “Will I feel regret if I spend that 200 bucks on Starbucks versus just getting the device, just in case?” he says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I think the calculus there is a little bit like, ‘Better be safe than sorry,’ even though logic might follow that it’s not truly necessary,” he adds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yet Hill, the parent in Ohio, believes that her decision, years ago, to buy her kid a smartwatch as a safety precaution has been vindicated. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One afternoon, riding his bicycle home from swim practice, her oldest son was hit by a car. He wasn’t run over, Hill says, but the driver sideswiped him and he landed hard, with his bike toppling over him. With a few taps of his watch, he was able to make a quick call to his parents. Hill’s husband drove the mile to reach him and took him to the hospital. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“If that hadn’t been there,” Hill says of the watch, “I don’t know that he would have had the wherewithal to give my number to somebody with him. He was scared. He was 13. He was by himself. As much as we drill it into him, that’s a lot to ask of a kid.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The smartwatch, in that moment, was a “resounding success,” she adds. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;‘Opening Pandora’s Box’&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Late last summer, Riggs, the parent who lives near Detroit, began to research smartwatches. She was considering buying one for her then 10-year-old daughter. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Riggs and her husband had recently caught their daughter disobeying them. One afternoon, their daughter was supposed to be at a friend’s house around the corner from their own, a block away. But when Riggs’ husband passed that friend’s house on his way home from work, he noticed their daughter’s bike wasn’t in the yard. Riggs sprang into action. She got in her car and drove around the neighborhood, going up and down each street until she found her daughter at another house. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I didn’t like that feeling—that panicked feeling,” she says. “Where did they go? Did they cross the main road like they’re not supposed to? What are they getting up to?”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Her impulse was to prevent a similar situation by putting a tracker on her daughter. She spent months researching different smartwatch models, consulting other parents, scouring tech-focused parenting groups for insights. “I rabbit-holed that,” she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then it occurred to her that maybe she was trying to solve the wrong problem. Riggs didn’t need a better strategy for monitoring her daughter. Rather, she needed to teach her child not to break the rules in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Get EdSurge journalism delivered free to your inbox. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/newsletters" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Sign up for our newsletters&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It seemed like I was opening Pandora’s box, when it wasn’t absolutely necessary,” she says of purchasing a smartwatch. (Still, she didn’t forswear technology entirely. Her daughter now bikes with a Wi-Fi–only tablet, connects it to the internet when she arrives at a friend’s house, and sends her mom a message on Facebook Messenger Kids letting her know she arrived safely.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The possible drawbacks of smartwatch use extend beyond stunting character growth. Even though smartwatches are virtually unexplored in academic research and will require further study before anyone can say, conclusively, how they may affect kids and childhood, it’s clear that screens, in general, can cause children harm, Perry of Children and Screens argues. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“They interfere with so many aspects of child development,” she says, rattling off some examples: cognitive development, language development, social emotional and behavioral development, mental health. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;True, the screen of a smartwatch is much smaller than that of a phone. Its functionalities are more limited. Some of the “irresistible” qualities of other devices are missing from smartwatches, Perry concedes. And even though most kids’ smartwatches come with games, they can be difficult to use and may deter kids from playing for long, or at all. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Still, that doesn’t make smartwatches safe from some of the addictive, distracting tendencies of phones, experts say. Watches vibrate, chime, and ping with notifications. They, like other devices, are built with persuasive design. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The evidence is really clear that the notifications—the visual cues to look at your watch—those things are really disruptive and provide a real distraction from something else the child should be doing,” Perry says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Teachers and school leaders would vouch for that. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;They’re disruptive, distracting. It all just gets in the way of what teachers are trying to do.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Katie Joseph&lt;p&gt;“They’re disruptive, distracting,” says Joseph, the district leader in Maine. “It all just gets in the way of what teachers are trying to do.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She doesn’t see watches and phones as being wholly different from one another, especially in middle and high school settings where, increasingly, students have both devices with them during the school day. A phone may be put away, out of sight, but the watch on a student’s wrist will still be buzzing with news alerts, incoming text messages and photos, social media notifications, and the like. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Joseph’s school district, RSU 1, encompassing a small coastal region of Maine, &lt;a href="https://www.rsu1.org/article/1657206" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;updated its device policy&lt;/a&gt; over the summer, at a time when many schools and districts opted to &lt;a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/11/technology/school-phone-bans-indiana-louisiana.html?unlocked_article_code=1.IE4.xFK3.xctA6hYOpzSo&amp;amp;smid=url-share" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;do the same&lt;/a&gt;. Except, unlike RSU 1, most districts are narrowly focused on the potential harms of smartphones, multiple people shared in interviews. Their revised policies may not even mention smartwatches, creating a loophole for those devices. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For leaders at RSU 1, whose school board voted to “eliminate” both smartphones and smartwatches in grades six to 12, it was an attempt to increase student connection—real-life, in-person connection—and by extension improve their mental health. They’ll enforce this by collecting all watches and phones at the start of the school day, placing them in &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-08-29-the-surprisingly-low-tech-way-schools-are-keeping-students-off-tech" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;lockable Yondr pouches&lt;/a&gt;, and distributing them at dismissal. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Huber, the elementary school principal in North Carolina, also recently wrote smartwatches into his school’s &lt;a href="https://www.wcpss.net/domain/21874" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;device policy&lt;/a&gt;, requiring that they be in airplane mode—functioning only as a watch, not as a connected device—during the school day. “The watch is considered a cellphone UNLESS airplane mode is activated,” the policy reads. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He would take the policy a step further if he felt he could. Airplane mode can be disabled with one touch, and truthfully he’d rather not see the devices in his elementary school at all.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“There has not been one time I have ever heard from anybody, ‘I’m so glad this kid had a smartwatch,’” he says. “I can’t think of any scenario where there is a need or benefit to having it.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Still, he’s not sure how much additional harm they could be causing for a generation of children who “have already been raised on tablets,” glued to parents’ smartphones at the dinner table. What’s one more screen?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Perry invites parents and families to think about it another way. Once a child is given their own personal device, their digital life begins. The child’s data is collected. Algorithms are built around their preferences and practices. An online profile is developed. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That can seem relatively innocuous—it’s just a watch, right?—but what people may not realize is that smartwatches collect &lt;a href="https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/privacy-and-security-evaluation-of-the-apple-watch" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;thousands of data points&lt;/a&gt;, “easily,” per day, per user, according to Kelly of Common Sense. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The younger you’re connecting your child to that world, the more risk there is to them than if you didn’t,” Perry says. “That’s a tough calculation as a parent.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it better to stay out of touch with a child, trusting that they’ll be safe enough as they move about the physical world? Or to invest in a tool that enables constant monitoring and communication, albeit through the shadows of the emerging digital world? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The big question today’s parents must wrestle with, Perry says, is, “Which risks can I tolerate?” &lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16069/gear_kids_smart_watch_tech-1730128534.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16069/gear_kids_smart_watch_tech-1730128534.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">What the Boom in Kids’ Smartwatches Reveals About Modern Parenting</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Illustration: Jacqui VanLiew, Reference Images: Getty Images</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>What Federal Data Tells Us About Challenges Finding Teachers</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-25-what-federal-data-tells-us-about-challenges-finding-teachers</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-25-what-federal-data-tells-us-about-challenges-finding-teachers#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Nadia Tamez-Robledo</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Policy and Government</category> <category>Diversity and Equity</category> <category>Teacher Preparation</category> <category>Education Workforce </category> <pubDate>Fri, 25 Oct 2024 01:00:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-ec6b74eb </guid> <description>New federal data shows that schools had a slightly easier time finding fully certified teachers to hire in the fall, but one of the most common ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;New federal survey data on the education workforce shows that a majority of schools had a tough time filling at least one fully certified teaching position this fall. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parsing education data into snack-sized servings.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;p&gt;Public schools reported having six teacher vacancies on average in August, based on responses to the &lt;a href="https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/spp/results.asp" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;School Pulse Panel&lt;/a&gt; by the National Center for Education Statistics. About 20 percent of those positions remained unfilled when the school year started. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The two most common challenges schools said they faced in hiring were a lack of qualified candidates and too few applicants. Special education, physical science and English as a second language were some of the most difficult areas to fill. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr said in a news release that while the percentage of schools saying it was difficult to fill positions decreased — down 5 percentage points from 79 percent last year — “there’s still room for improvement.” Nearly 1,400 public K-12 schools from across the country responded to the survey. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While the comparison to previous years suggests that hiring is getting a bit easier, &lt;a href="https://www.sreb.org/profile/megan-boren" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Megan Boren&lt;/a&gt; of the Southern Regional Education Board says the country is still mired in a teacher shortage. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;Get EdSurge journalism delivered free to your inbox. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/newsletters" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Sign up for our newsletters&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.sreb.org/profile/megan-boren" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Boren&lt;/a&gt;, who leads the organization’s teacher workforce data and policy work, says it would be a mistake to think of teacher shortages only in terms of positions filled versus vacant. Other factors to consider include the geographic regions of schools, academic subjects and student age groups where shortages are prevalent. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The organization also takes into account teacher demographics, the number of candidates graduating from teacher prep programs, alternative certification programs and their level of preparedness. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“When we think of it as merely a body count, we are not looking at the whole entire problem and to be honest, we're doing a disservice to our students and our educators themselves,” &lt;a href="https://www.sreb.org/profile/megan-boren" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Boren&lt;/a&gt; says. “Of the utmost importance is the quality and the preparedness with which we are filling some of these vacancies, or that we have leading our classrooms, and the distribution of that talent.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.sreb.org/profile/megan-boren" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Boren&lt;/a&gt; expressed concern over schools turning to &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-04-04-these-states-have-the-most-underqualified-teachers-stepping-in-to-fill-open-positions" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;uncertified teachers&lt;/a&gt; to fill the staffing gaps, be they candidates with emergency certifications or long-term substitute teachers. Their inexperience can put strain on the more experienced teachers and administrators who support them, she explains, at a time when both administrators and traditional teacher prep graduates say even new fully certified teachers feel less prepared than those in years past. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Schools in high-poverty neighborhoods or with a student body that is mostly — 75 percent or more — students of color filled a lower percentage of their vacancies with fully certified teachers, according to the NCES data. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It's a firestorm where folks are going, ‘What can we do to put out the fire and then rebuild?’” Boren says, “and unfortunately, we're seeing in some cases that the measures and strategies being taken to put out the fire are actually making it worse, and causing an exacerbation of the issues for our educators and leaders.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She says there’s no single factor that has led to teacher shortages, but rather interplaying issues that include pandemic-related mental health strain, the pressure of filling in for vacant staff positions, and &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-03-16-one-idea-to-keep-teachers-from-quitting-end-the-teacher-time-crunch" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;a lack of time for collaboration and planning&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Teacher shortages didn’t start with the pandemic, &lt;a href="https://www.sreb.org/profile/megan-boren" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Boren&lt;/a&gt; explains, as her organization tracked a teacher turnover rate that hovered between 7 percent and 9 percent prior to 2020. But she says the pandemic did accelerate turnover, with some regions of the South now experiencing 18 percent turnover among teachers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Certain regions of states started to stem the tide, but by and large the turnover is increasing,” Boren says.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16067/panel-1729807641.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16067/panel-1729807641.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">What Federal Data Tells Us About Challenges Finding Teachers</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Net Vector / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>College ‘Deserts’ Disproportionately Deter Black and Hispanic Students from Higher Ed</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-24-college-deserts-disproportionately-deter-black-and-hispanic-students-from-higher-ed</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-24-college-deserts-disproportionately-deter-black-and-hispanic-students-from-higher-ed#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Jeffrey R. Young</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Higher Education</category> <category>Affordability</category> <category>College Admissions</category> <category>Diversity and Equity</category> <pubDate>Thu, 24 Oct 2024 03:00:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-ab8649d0 </guid> <description>Living in a ‘college desert’ — meaning more than a 30-minute drive from a campus — has different consequences depending on race and class, according to ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;In recent years, a growing body of research has looked at the impact of college ‘deserts’ — sometimes defined as an area where people live more than a 30-minute drive to a campus — and found that those residing close to a college are more likely to attend. But a new study shows that these higher education deserts affect some groups of students much differently than others.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="https://edworkingpapers.com/ai24-1055" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;study&lt;/a&gt;, which looked at a rich set of high school and college data in Texas, found that Black and Hispanic students and those in low-income families who lived more than 30 miles from a public two-year college were significantly less likely to attend college. But white and Asian students in those same communities were slightly more likely than other students in the state to complete four-year degrees, meaning that the lack of a nearby two-year option seemed to increase the likelihood of moving away to attend college.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“While all students who live in a community college desert are less likely to complete an associate’s degree, their alternative enrollment and degree completion outcomes vary sharply by race-ethnicity and [socioeconomic status],” the study finds. In other words, for low-income and underrepresented minority groups, living near a community college can be a crucial way to gain access to any higher education. Meanwhile, such proximity might lead students in other groups to attend two-year college rather than pursue a four-year degree.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The results are particularly important at a time when &lt;a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/15/more-colleges-set-to-close-in-2025-while-ivy-plus-schools-thrive.html#:~:text=At%20least%2020%20colleges%20closed,separate%20report%20by%20Best%20Colleges." target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;more colleges are struggling to remain open&lt;/a&gt;, says Riley Acton, an assistant professor of economics at Miami University in Ohio and one of the researchers who worked on the new study.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;“If you don't have a car in rural Texas, that's going to be a very hard barrier to overcome” without some sort of help.&lt;/blockquote&gt;— Riley Acton, an assistant professor of economics at Miami University in Ohio&lt;p&gt;“If a public institution in particular, let's say a public community college, is thinking about closing, or is thinking about merging, or is thinking about opening a new campus or consolidating campuses,” she says, “they should be mindful about who the students are that live near those different campuses.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The researchers also suggest that colleges should consider providing transportation options or credits to students living in college deserts. “If you don't have a car in rural Texas, that's going to be a very hard barrier to overcome” without some sort of help, Acton notes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Novel Finding&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, Black and Hispanic students are more likely than those in other groups to live in a college desert, according to &lt;a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24751621" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;research by Nicholas Hillman&lt;/a&gt;, a professor of educational policy at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who was one of the first researchers to draw attention to the effects of college location on educational attainment, back in 2016.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In an interview with EdSurge, Hillman says that the implications of Acton’s new study are “really interesting,” adding that it is probably the largest quantitative study to take on the question of how college deserts affect different groups differently.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It makes clear that, ‘Wait a minute, distance is different for different groups of students,’” Hillman says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One takeaway for Hillman is the importance of making the transfer process from two-year colleges to four-year institutions &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-11-09-facing-pressure-on-enrollment-will-colleges-support-more-transfer-students" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;more frictionless&lt;/a&gt;, so that students who live near two-year colleges who are more likely to start there have ample opportunity to go on to get a four-year degree.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hillman says that he began looking at geography out of frustration with an emphasis during the Obama administration on providing consumer information about higher education as a solution to college access. For instance, one major initiative started during that time was the &lt;a href="https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;College Scorecard&lt;/a&gt;, which provides information on college options based on various government datasets. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The dominant narrative was, ‘If students just have better info about where to go to college, more would go,’” he says. “I said, ‘This is bananas. This is not how it works.’” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He grew up in northern Indiana, where the nearest college is 40 miles away. For people he knew there, information about college was not what was keeping them from enrolling. “If you don’t have a job, you’re not going to be spending all this money on gas to go to college,” he says.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16063/desert_landscape-1729689629.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16063/desert_landscape-1729689629.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">College ‘Deserts’ Disproportionately Deter Black and Hispanic Students from Higher Ed</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">NayaDadara / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>SEL Can Thrive in Schools, But We Need Time to Discuss What Matters Most</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-23-sel-can-thrive-in-schools-but-we-need-time-to-discuss-what-matters-most</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-23-sel-can-thrive-in-schools-but-we-need-time-to-discuss-what-matters-most#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Lauren Snelling</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Diversity and Equity</category> <category>Social-Emotional Learning</category> <pubDate>Wed, 23 Oct 2024 01:00:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-39ae48a6 </guid> <description>“SEL is and should always be a part of our work as educators. However, to have a positive and lasting effect on our students&amp;#39; lives and relationships, ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Social-emotional learning (SEL) has become a primary focus in many school’s strategic plans. Fortunately, there is a long list of literature, articles and research that outline the &lt;a href="https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-does-the-research-say/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;importance&lt;/a&gt; of SEL and the positive impact that it can have on student development. Knowing this, teachers try to fit these lessons into their morning meetings, projects, special classes, birthday celebrations, snack times and lunch hours. They are attempting to adapt to both learn about and create space for SEL, but SEL requires more time and consistency, with a heavy emphasis on time. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As an early childhood counselor and educator, I work with children in their beginning years of development and the families that care for them. Knowing that SEL is valuable and requires dedicated time, my school has taken the approach of allowing me and my colleagues to stay with the same caseload of children for five years, which is a rare opportunity for counselors and educators to have in this field. During this time, it takes students about two years to understand my role as a “feelings teacher.” They go from asking me, “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” to telling me about their feelings the moment I step into their classroom. By the time they are in kindergarten, they are fully accustomed to my presence. Some of them introduce me to caregivers I have yet to meet, while others greet me with a hug as they enter the building on their own or hand in hand with friends. They have grown physically, but also emotionally as they are able to notice and deal with their emotions more readily.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I’ve built these foundational skills with my students, my school has also given me enough time to build an expectation that students discuss their identities as a valuable component within the SEL curriculum. My teachers and administrators understand that this is imperative to the work that I do in creating systemic change and in building relationships with my students where they can feel comfortable discussing identity in an authentic, holistic and vulnerable way. The time I have been given to incorporate identity into SEL has allowed me to explore, experiment, and, most importantly, give my students new tools to navigate the world and their identities and grow and mature in their learning.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Bringing Identity to the Forefront&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;In her book “&lt;a href="https://shop.scholastic.com/teachers-ecommerce/teacher/books/unearthing-joy-9781338856606.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Unearthing Joy&lt;/a&gt;,” author Gholdy Muhammad speaks on the importance and impact of taking the time to get to know your students deeply. Specifically, Muhammad says, “It is important to get to know children in authentic, loving, and meaningful ways so that you learn who they are, who they’re not, and who they are destined to become on this earth.” I have learned that it is important to center identity as I learn more about my students. Acknowledging and affirming their identities creates opportunities to teach SEL on a deeper and more impactful level.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Although I work in a predominantly white institution, I work to focus on uplifting each child’s experience in the world while simultaneously acknowledging the role of prejudice, racism and oppression in our schools. My experiences over the years, when I have had the time to work with and collaborate with a diverse group of teachers, have taught me that teaching SEL without discussing these topics is often the easier and quicker route to take, but it also creates more opportunities for &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-05-15-dena-simmons-without-context-social-emotional-learning-can-backfire" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;harm&lt;/a&gt;. Instead of settling for this, I challenge myself and my colleagues to lean into discomfort and expand our understanding of SEL. In doing so, I find joy in the incremental and marginal change we have created within our school because it creates an opportunity for continued growth. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I enter first grade with my students, I notice that as much as I have learned about them, they have learned about me. They expect to hear my jokes and know that as a &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-08-07-the-most-important-lesson-i-ve-learned-as-a-trauma-psychotherapist-turned-school-counselor" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Black woman&lt;/a&gt;, my hair will look different almost every time they see me. We have developed a consistent and trusting relationship where they are holistically seen and valued, and it shows in their engagement with SEL lessons and their ability to problem-solve and express themselves.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One day, during our fourth year together, I was preparing to read the book &lt;a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28863341-what-do-you-do-with-a-problem" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;"What Do You Do With a Problem?&lt;/a&gt;” for my SEL lesson, and I began by asking, “What problems do you see in your world?” Students began speaking about gun violence, robberies and people being treated unfairly. When one student spoke, another would add to their idea and tell the story from their perspective. Students also spoke about their families in India, experiencing harm and the effects of racism in America. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One child expressed grave concern that “Black and white people would always fight.” This became a focus of the conversation for a while until one of my students noted that &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-06-02-what-asian-american-educator-stories-reveal-about-racial-nuances-within-people-of-color" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;the injustices Asian Americans experience&lt;/a&gt; are rarely discussed. He challenged me directly, telling me that we don’t talk about these things enough. Instead of reacting negatively or quickly moving on as we ran well over time, I listened, made time and space for the student to discuss his experience, and respectfully validated him as this conversation continued. I was unprepared for this conversation and looked to my teacher colleagues for help; they stayed present for the conversation, which went on for 45 minutes. We never even read the book.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The True Power of SEL&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I left that conversation, I felt many emotions. Mainly, I was proud of them for being capable of a conversation that was so dynamic and important. Using their self-advocacy skills, they were able to speak up and challenge me, centering experiences that matter the most to them and their families. In learning their personalities over the years, I created a safe space where they knew their voices would be heard, valued and amplified. I could get to know my students for who they are as individuals, and they understood that not only did I know them, but I also had a relationship with their teachers, which created a village of care they could lean on when needed. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Giving SEL the time and space it deserves allows children to become more self-aware and connected to their peers and adults in the school setting. This feeling of safety allows for learning environments that encourage challenging and expansive conversations and community building that values and respects the identity of all students. Doing this while also building consistent and real relationships with students creates the foundation for a uniquely safe educational environment. It creates opportunities for students to learn to be better citizens to one another. When our students are regulated, able to think critically, and encouraged to speak up about the things that are important to them, educators can better navigate students' concerns while honoring the identities and feelings that come along with them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;SEL is and should always be a part of our work as educators. However, to have a positive and lasting effect on our students' lives and relationships, we must create environments where more purposeful and intentional time is dedicated to SEL and understanding the role of identity. &lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16057/shutterstock_2453065993-1729018622.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16057/shutterstock_2453065993-1729018622.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">SEL Can Thrive in Schools, But We Need Time to Discuss What Matters Most</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Jacob Lund / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Leaders Asked for More Tutors, and Schools Got Them. Is That Enough?</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-22-leaders-asked-for-more-tutors-and-schools-got-them-is-that-enough</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-22-leaders-asked-for-more-tutors-and-schools-got-them-is-that-enough#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Daniel Mollenkamp</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Tutoring</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <pubDate>Tue, 22 Oct 2024 17:04:31 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-6ee2421d </guid> <description>IT’S THE SMALL THINGS: The White House won a small victory by inspiring volunteers to flock to tutoring, mentoring and coaching programs over the last ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Coming out of the pandemic, students had a hard time returning to in-person classes, and they found themselves struggling to tread water academically as declining test scores made many in the country worry that students were drowning. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For school districts desperate to find a life vest for students, one response was to rely on tutoring services. These services — particularly high-dose tutoring, an evidence-backed form of small group, intensive tutoring — had been identified as a way to fight against declining student performance. But at first, in the rush to jump-start tutoring programs, schools plunked federal relief dollars down on &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2022-06-24-some-money-pouring-into-high-dose-tutoring-is-going-to-less-researched-models-is-that-a-problem" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;less-researched tutoring models&lt;/a&gt; and created a cash-grab for companies in the tutoring space. Since then, educators have reputedly gotten more sophisticated when evaluating tutoring programs, focusing their attention on evidence-backed options like high-dose services. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yet, it’s also unclear that the ample spending of federal funds on tutors has &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-06-07-high-dose-tutoring-boosts-student-scores-will-it-also-work-online" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;effectively countered learning declines&lt;/a&gt;. Plus, schools have had to turn to alternative funding sources to pay for tutors as relief funding fizzles out. Some programs, for instance, have started &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-05-06-schools-are-desperate-for-tutors-can-college-students-help" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;creatively using federal work placement dollars&lt;/a&gt; to grow their tutoring forces, even conscripting college students in the hopes that it would both bolster the outcomes for K-12 students and create the next generation of teachers from today’s college cohort at the same time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Get EdSurge journalism delivered free to your inbox. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/newsletters" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Sign up for our newsletters&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some hoped that presidential involvement would help. During the &lt;a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;2022 State of the Union address&lt;/a&gt;, President Joe Biden called for hundreds of thousands of new tutors, coaches and mentors for programs around the country. And seemingly, this use of the bully pulpit was a success. Now, two years later, &lt;a href="https://www.partnershipstudentsuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2023-24-NPSS-RAND-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;an analysis from Johns Hopkins and the RAND Corporation&lt;/a&gt; suggests that schools and organizations around the country have surpassed that goal a year early. The Biden plea asked for an additional 250,000 tutors by the summer of 2025. In all, around 323,000 new tutors, mentors or coaches have already joined. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At an &lt;a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/biden-harris-administration-exceeds-goal-of-recruiting-250000-new-tutors" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;event for the White House&lt;/a&gt; this month — only weeks before an election where education has seemed a relatively quiet campaign issue — the administration pitched it as a coup for their “laser-focus” on student success. Student support organizations also took it as an encouraging sign for students. “The surpassing of President Biden’s call is a clear indicator of the strength of the American spirit and our collective dedication to the future of our youth,” said Michael D. Smith, CEO of AmeriCorps, one of the organizations involved, in a &lt;a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/biden-harris-administration-exceeds-goal-of-recruiting-250000-new-tutors" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;written statement&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those volunteers will provide extra muscle for districts trying to support students. But given slumping test scores and vanishing federal relief dollars, is a surge in volunteers enough to stabilize learning?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;A Small Victory?&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The administration was able to steer a lot of volunteers to tutoring organizations, says Antonio Gutierrez, co-founder of Saga Education, a nonprofit organization focused on high-dose tutoring. It’s a big part of meeting the urgent need of schools post-pandemic and it’s encouraging, he adds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But what have been the outcomes?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Johns Hopkins report notes that 12,700 schools increased high-intensity tutoring, suggesting that the administration’s plea helped. Thousands of schools also reported an increase in other support for students. What’s more, 34 percent of principals surveyed reported that more students had access to tutoring in 2023-2024 than in the previous year. Relatedly, 24 percent reported that more students had access to mentors.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; But how much of a dent does that actually make in the country? It’s hard to say, according to Gutierrez. But there has been recent evidence concerning “high-impact” tutoring in general, which he thinks might speak to how useful this approach could be for supporting students. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For instance: &lt;a href="https://educationlab.uchicago.edu/resources/realizing-the-promise-of-high-dosage-tutoring-at-scale-preliminary-evidence-for-the-field/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Preliminary findings&lt;/a&gt; from the University of Chicago “Personalized Learning Initiative,” meant to stimulate attempts to expand tutoring in the country, found that high-dose tutoring is effective. According to the study, which inspected a couple thousand K-12 students in Chicago and Fulton County, these tutoring programs inspired gains in math learning. The study was meant to assess how effective tutoring programs are when schools design them on their own, in Gutierrez’s summary. Gutierrez’s organization, Saga Education, has tried to support schools in those efforts by spelling out the best practices districts should follow. The study also found that making sure tutoring occurs during the school day, rather than “on demand” after school or on weekends, was important for getting large increases in student performance.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But there are reasons to slightly tamper that enthusiasm. A &lt;a href="https://edworkingpapers.com/ai24-1031" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;meta-analysis&lt;/a&gt; from Brown University’s Annenberg Institute looked at 265 randomized controlled trials and found that as tutoring programs get larger, they get notably less effective. While they still helped lift student learning, the benefits of tutoring appeared smaller in large-scale programs, according to this study. To Gutierrez, who notes that the study still noted a positive effect, that’s not really surprising. In other words, because schools are experimenting with these programs themselves, how well any particular program boosts student achievement will vary. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For the movement to make personalized learning a permanent feature of American education, there have been other developments as well.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The most flashy has been AI. This year, the Los Angeles School District, the second largest in the country, &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-05-02-los-angeles-school-district-launched-a-splashy-ai-chatbot-what-exactly-does-it-do" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;launched a high-profile $6 million chatbot&lt;/a&gt; called “Ed,” a talking sun that was supposed to boost personalized instruction. But the company behind that chatbot &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-07-15-an-education-chatbot-company-collapsed-where-did-the-student-data-go" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;collapsed this summer&lt;/a&gt;, raising concerns about what would happen to the student data it collected. Some have suggested the project had been simply too ambitious, and the company has become a cautionary tale.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That’s a good example of what not to do with these programs, according to observers like Gutierrez. But more promising, he says, are efforts like &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-06-04-should-chatbots-tutor-dissecting-that-viral-ai-demo-with-sal-khan-and-his-son" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Khanmigo&lt;/a&gt;, the personalized instruction tool from Sal Khan, and other chat-based tutoring programs. Those sorts of chatbots should be developed because they could add value, Gutierrez says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They likely won’t replace human tutors, Gutierrez says. Because of how students learn, tutoring is highly reliant on the relationship between tutor and student, he adds. That’s how tutors can nudge students in the right direction, pushing them to learn. Still, these tech products hold the promise of translating into any language and also fine-tuning to a district’s needs, though there are questions about engagement from students with these tools, he says. But so long as districts don’t depend entirely on these technologies for personalized instruction, it’s probably useful to explore how human and bot tutors can work together to assist students, Gutierrez says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ultimately, the drove of tutors from the Biden-Harris administration push was a step in the right direction, but there’s a lot more work ahead, Gutierrez admits.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16065/shutterstock_2449854405-1729635001.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16065/shutterstock_2449854405-1729635001.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Leaders Asked for More Tutors, and Schools Got Them. Is That Enough?</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Photo By fast-stock/Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>How Are School Smartphone Bans Going?</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-22-how-are-school-smartphone-bans-going</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-22-how-are-school-smartphone-bans-going#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Jeffrey R. Young</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>EdSurge Podcast</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Well-Being</category> <category>Social Media </category> <pubDate>Tue, 22 Oct 2024 13:46:06 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-7a4b67a2 </guid> <description>Schools across the country have enacted new restrictions on smartphones in classrooms, in the name of increasing student engagement and limiting the ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/the-edsurge-on-air-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Angela Fleck says this was the typical scene last year in the sixth grade social studies classes she teaches at Glover Middle School in Spokane, Washington: Nearly every student had a smartphone, and many of them would regularly sneak glances at the devices, which they kept tucked behind a book or just under their desks.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-are-school-smartphone-bans-going/id972239500?i=1000674053946" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/7iXzZDTuXOhSLFH06dqFYi" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;“They're pretty sneaky, so you wouldn't always know that that was the reason,” says Fleck. “But over time, I'd realize no matter how engaging my lesson was, when it was time to turn and do the group activity or the assignment — something that wasn't totally me directing the class — there would be a large number of students that had no idea what we were doing.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What students were doing with their phones, she says, was most often using Snapchat or other social media or texting with students in other classrooms, which she described as creating drama: “And then it would just spread rapid-fire, whatever the situation was, and it would sometimes result in altercations — meeting up at a certain place, and they'd arrange it all day on the phone.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Get EdSurge journalism delivered free to your inbox. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/newsletters" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Sign up for our newsletters&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;This year, though, the vibe has changed. Spokane Public Schools issued a new districtwide policy that bans the use of smartphones or smartwatches in classrooms during instructional time. So now students in elementary and middle schools have to keep devices off and put away during the school day, though high school students can use their smartphones or watches between classes and at lunch.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, she says, she feels like she has most students’ attention during classes since she no longer has to compete with buzzing devices. “In general, students are ready to learn,” she says. “As a teacher, I need to make sure that I have an engaging lesson that will keep their attention and help them to learn and help them to continue to want to be engaged.” And she says there are fewer fights at the school, too.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The district is &lt;a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/08/27/cell-phone-school-bans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;one of many across the country&lt;/a&gt; that have instituted new smartphone bans this year, in the name of increasing student engagement and counteracting the negative effects that social media has on youth mental health. And at least four states — Indiana, Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida — have enacted statewide bans limiting school smartphone access.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For this week’s EdSurge Podcast, we set out to get a sense of how the bans are going. To do that, we talked with Fleck, as well as a high school teacher in Indiana, where a new statewide law bans smartphones and other wireless devices in schools during instructional time. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Fleck is a fan of the ban, and says she hopes the school never goes back to the old approach. But she admits that she misses some aspects of having phones available to integrate in a lesson when needed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the past, for instance, she allowed students to take pictures with their phones of the slides she was showing. And she would often designate a student as a researcher during lessons who could look up related material online and share with the group. Now she’s finding ways to adapt to keep those positive aspects of online access, she says, such as having student researchers use a computer in the classroom, or to make more use of the school-issued laptops for some lessons.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Adam Swinyard, the superintendent of Spokane Public Schools, acknowledges that there are trade-offs to the new ban when it comes to the use of tech in instruction.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“We absolutely have lost some power of the opportunity that those devices provide, whether that's, ‘I can really quickly look something up,’ or ‘I can quickly participate in a class poll’ or ‘I can tune my music instrument,’” he told EdSurge. “But I think where we landed in our community, for our schools and for our kids, is what we gain in their level of engagement and ability to focus far outweighs what we're losing in a device being a powerful pedagogical tool inside of the classroom. But I think it's important to acknowledge.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What they end up teaching students, he argues, is more important. The mantra for the district is that there is a “time and place” for smartphone use, says Swinyard, and that a classroom is not the right setting or occasion, just as he wouldn’t pull out his phone and write a text while he was being interviewed for this article, or sitting in an important meeting.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some schools with new bans have faced pushback from students, especially where there has been a zero-tolerance for phones even during social time. At a Jasper High School in Plano, Texas, for instance, more than 250 people &lt;a href="https://www.change.org/p/revert-cellphone-ban-at-jasper-hs-in-plano-isd" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;signed a petition&lt;/a&gt; calling on the principal to revise a new ban on smartphones, which forbids use of devices all day, even during lunch and in the halls between classes. “Before the restricted use of cellphones was prohibited, they were a social link, connecting students during lunch and hallway breaks,” the petition reads. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And some &lt;a href="https://www.k12dive.com/news/safety-concerns-school-cell-phone-bans-mental-health/726668/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;parents have complained&lt;/a&gt; about the new bans, out of concerns that they would not be able to reach their children in the event of an emergency, such as a school shooting. A &lt;a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/10/14/most-americans-back-cellphone-bans-during-class-but-fewer-support-all-day-restrictions/?utm_content=buffer8eac9&amp;amp;utm_medium=social&amp;amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;amp;utm_campaign=buffer-pew" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;new survey&lt;/a&gt; by the Pew Research Center found that about 7 in 10 Americans support cellphone bans during class, while only about a third favor an all-day ban.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So one takeaway is that how schools design their smartphone restrictions — and how they communicate the policies to students and parents — are important for how well they work in practice.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hear more about the pros and cons of new smartphone bans on this week’s EdSurge Podcast on &lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5Omg7s9kRYFgt4jEynpdoL?si=rfUzBmV6QS6VsHTUqYKdHA&amp;amp;nd=1&amp;amp;dlsi=5e435274babc45d1" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Spotify&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/edsurge-podcast/id972239500" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Apple Podcasts&lt;/a&gt;, or on the player below.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16064/c0c178ca-1729628896.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16064/c0c178ca-1729628896.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">How Are School Smartphone Bans Going?</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Spokane Public Schools website</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>What Happens When a State Brings Deep Discounts to Child Care? </title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-21-what-happens-when-a-state-brings-deep-discounts-to-child-care</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-21-what-happens-when-a-state-brings-deep-discounts-to-child-care#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Rebecca Gale</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Child Care</category> <category>Affordability</category> <pubDate>Mon, 21 Oct 2024 01:19:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-614762f6 </guid> <description>Teigue Linch recalls the email she got from Pine Forest, her daughters’ child care center in Burlington, Vermont, encouraging families to take ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Teigue Linch recalls the email she got from Pine Forest, her daughters’ child care center in Burlington, Vermont, encouraging families to take advantage of the new state law that allows more people to qualify for child care assistance. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Linch, who works full time as an office manager for an engineering company, has twin 17-month-old toddlers, a long to-do list and the heavy mental load shared by all parents of young children. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“So I kind of ignored it for a while and didn’t really look at the information to see if it was worth applying,” she said. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Linch and her partner, who works in car insurance, make a combined household income of $120,000, which, at $10,000 per month, is &lt;a href="https://outside.vermont.gov/dept/DCF/Shared%20Documents/Benefits/CCFAP-Income-Guidelines.pdf?_gl=1*ubr9oa*_ga*OTQyNDA1NzMyLjE3MTkyNDU4NDk.*_ga_V9WQH77KLW*MTcyODQxNDI0OS4xMy4wLjE3Mjg0MTQyNTUuMC4wLjA" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;400 percent of the federal poverty level&lt;/a&gt; for a family of four — an amount that would usually be considered far too high to receive any sort of meaningful government subsidy. This is especially true for child care subsidies, which only about &lt;a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/private/pdf/260361/CY2015ChildCareSubsidyEligibility.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;one in seven eligible families&lt;/a&gt; in the U.S. actually receive. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But then one of Linch’s co-workers started looking into the Vermont-specific child care changes, brought about by &lt;a href="https://dcf.vermont.gov/cdd/laws-rules/h.217" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Act 76&lt;/a&gt;, which passed with a bipartisan veto override to become law in June 2023. He suggested that, even with Linch’s six-figure household income, she should apply. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Linch went online and downloaded the application, which she described as “easy to fill out,” and sent it in. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What happened next was a huge surprise. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Within 48 hours I had heard back and learned that I qualified,” Linch said. Instead of paying $3,068 each month for child care for her twin girls, she would now be responsible for $1,000, with no additional changes or paperwork on her end. “I didn't believe it,” Linch said. “It just didn’t seem real to me.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The way the state breaks it down &lt;a href="https://outside.vermont.gov/dept/DCF/Shared%20Documents/Benefits/CCFAP-Income-Guidelines.pdf?_gl=1*ubr9oa*_ga*OTQyNDA1NzMyLjE3MTkyNDU4NDk.*_ga_V9WQH77KLW*MTcyODQxNDI0OS4xMy4wLjE3Mjg0MTQyNTUuMC4wLjA" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;in this handy chart&lt;/a&gt;, if Linch’s household income is $10,000 per month for a family of four, their weekly family share for child care is capped at $250. Previously, nearly all of Linch’s take-home salary went to child care for her daughters. She was paid hourly, so if she had to miss work because one girl was sick or Pine Forest was closed for a day, her income would dip. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But now she would have an additional $2,000 each month. What will she do with it? “We finally have the ability to save — period. We had gotten to a point where we were watching our checking account get lower and lower each month,” Linch said. “It’s still too early on to know how it will impact us, but it will be much better.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vermont’s Act 76 hit its one-year mark of implementation this summer. The law, paid for with &lt;a href="https://tax.vermont.gov/business/child-care-contribution" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;a new payroll tax&lt;/a&gt;, is designed so that families who have more than one child in care, like Linch with her twins, will save more. It’s important that the cost savings grow dramatically at two children; the high cost of care for a second kid is the tipping point for many families, where it may make more financial sense for one parent to leave the workforce, explained Erin Roche, director of First Children’s Finance in Vermont, a group that is assisting with implementation of Act 76.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Under the state’s old system, Vermont provided child care subsidies to families earning up to 350 percent of the federal poverty level, though many families receiving assistance had to pay a higher co-pay. As of Oct. 7, Vermont’s child care subsidies will be available to families making 575 percent of the federal poverty line. For a family of four, this rate is close to an adjusted gross household income of $180,000. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For people who study child care policy, such a generous jump is unheard of. Advocates and policy experts will be closely watching how it plays out. Roche estimates that the eligibility leap will make subsidies available to 80 to 90 percent of all Vermont families with young children. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But it’s not just parents like Linch who benefit from the program. Under Act 76, Pine Forest, Linch’s child care center, will also see an increase in the amount it collects, because it will be reimbursed for the true cost of care, rather than just what families can afford. Instead of receiving $3,068 per month to take care of Linch’s two toddlers, the center now receives $3,768 — a $700 jump. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vermont has also narrowed the gap in reimbursement levels for home-based child care and child care centers, since centers are traditionally reimbursed for care at higher rates. Doing so has made home-based child care more profitable and sustainable, and as a result more than 1,000 new child care slots have been created in Vermont in just a year’s time. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Roche credits the small size of Vermont and the prowess of state agencies with moving quickly to get these systems up and running to support Act 76. One obstacle, she notes, was ensuring the state IT system could get the online application system ready. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Each of the changes from Act 76 required that a state agency create a system, or change a system. They literally had less than two weeks to make the first changes,” Roche said.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Not every family will see the immediate jump in benefits like Linch’s, but Roche estimates that many will, especially those that have two parents working full time. Families with a parent or guardian at home and not working are not eligible, but the state recently changed its policy so parents in grad school or training programs are now eligible. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Having access to reliable child care is one way to shore up parents participating in the workforce. And it may have the effect of shifting people’s minds about the costs and burdens associated with having more children, when &lt;a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/2024-cost-of-raising-children-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;studies show&lt;/a&gt; that many families who are opting out of having kids cite cost as a major factor. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Linch said that she and her partner had initially intended to have only one child, “but then we got lucky with twins,” she said with a smile. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Does having additional financial support for child care change her outlook on having more kids in the future? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I don’t know how to answer,” she said. “But it would make it more feasible, that is for sure.”&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16056/shutterstock_1502478416-1729028637.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16056/shutterstock_1502478416-1729028637.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">What Happens When a State Brings Deep Discounts to Child Care? </media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Oksana Kuzmina / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>For Girls to Succeed in STEM, Confidence Matters as Much as Competence</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-17-for-girls-to-succeed-in-stem-confidence-matters-as-much-as-competence</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-17-for-girls-to-succeed-in-stem-confidence-matters-as-much-as-competence#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Nadia Tamez-Robledo</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Diversity and Equity</category> <category>Student Success</category> <category>STEM</category> <pubDate>Thu, 17 Oct 2024 01:00:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-178c8d90 </guid> <description>Girls are doing better academically than their male peers in many respects. They’re more likely to graduate on time and get a bachelor’s degree. So why ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;One of Shane Woods’ favorite memories as executive director of Girlstart, a nonprofit that aims to empower girls in the sciences, was as a participant taking her own goddaughter to the organization’s back-to-school extravaganza. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Parsing education data into snack-sized servings.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;p&gt;They zipped through activities with rockets and robots, and Woods asked her goddaughter — named Sailor — what she thought of it all when they were heading home. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“She said, ‘I always liked science. Now I know I can do science,’” Woods recalls. “Unprompted — I didn't ask about careers. For her to have that connection lets us know that her perception is already there of, ‘I can do it.’”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The question for the adults who care about girls like Sailor, Woods says, then becomes: How do we sustain that interest? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That is one of the questions and challenges at the center of a &lt;a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62f55ec3c3784d0f3ec88011/t/6706dd173ba9602cadfbc819/1728503064420/The+Girls'+Index%E2%84%A2+Girls+&amp;amp;+STEM+Impact+Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;recently released report&lt;/a&gt; based on the Girls’ Index, a survey of 17,500 girls in fifth through 12th grades that includes questions about their goals for the future and perception of science, technology, engineering and mathematics as potential careers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While women are not just outpacing men in degrees — girls are &lt;a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/boys-left-behind-education-gender-gaps-across-the-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;doing better academically&lt;/a&gt; and completing high school on time more frequently than boys — the push for parity has been moving at a glacial pace in STEM. Though on the rise, women are still underrepresented in both degrees and employment in the sciences and technology. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ruling Our Experiences — a nonprofit that studies the aspirations, behaviors and opinions of girls — compares results from the 2023 survey to those similarly gleaned in 2017. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Their researchers found that while girls who say they’re interested in STEM grew by 10 percentage points to 55 percent, compared to survey results five years prior, the number of girls who describe themselves as confident or smart enough to earn their dream job has plummeted. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I want everybody who has a girl in their sphere of influence to be aware of this data, because I think that we all have a role in creating a generation of more confident, competent, and capable girls,” Lisa Hinkelman, founder and CEO of Ruling Our Experiences, says, “whether it's in the STEM arena, or in other spaces where girls’ voices and opinions are needed.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;High Interest, Lower Participation&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Girls are interested in science and math. More than half of girls in every age group surveyed said they were considering a STEM career, according to the report, and overall interest is up by 10 percent since 2017 — something that holds steady among grade levels, income levels and ethnicities. Interest increased the most among the youngest girls, those in fifth and sixth grade, by 20 percent. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That doesn’t mean that girls are ready to dive into the field. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The report found a myriad of outside factors and social pressures that may be keeping girls from taking STEM classes or seeing themselves in science jobs. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The share of girls who say they are good at math and science fell sharply from 73 percent in 2017 to 59 percent in 2023, and that includes girls whose grades show they excel in those subjects. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I think that should be especially concerning when we're thinking about the need to ensure that girls have increased representation in the STEM field, in that it's more than just exposing them to STEM opportunities,” Hinkelman says. “We also have to be simultaneously &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-06-04-girls-in-science-olympiad-shrink-the-stem-gap" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;addressing these confidence challenges&lt;/a&gt; and their perceptions of their abilities that are simultaneously impacting what they might do next.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Researchers also expressed concern that gender stereotypes and misconceptions about math and science could be deterring girls from taking those classes as they advance through school. About 28 percent of high school girls reported that they avoid classes with low female enrollment. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Overall, 56 percent of girls say they have felt excluded from an activity because of their gender, and the majority report feeling “pressured to fit into the specific stereotypes that are thought to be appropriate and expected for girls and women.” About the same amount said they avoided taking on leadership roles for fear of being seen as bossy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In Girlstart’s work introducing girls in 24 school districts across three states to the world of STEM, which includes after-school programs, summer camps and an annual conference, Woods says that the organization strives to both provide role models and foster kinship. Girls already hear the message that there aren’t enough women in science and technology, she adds, and being the first or only girl in a science class isn’t necessarily attractive to them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Our girls like community, our girls like relationships, so what Girlstart does is provide that support network of peers who are like-minded,” Woods says. “You may be the only girl in your physics class at that high school, but hopefully through us you know of other girls in physics classes throughout the city, that you all have a network of support, that you are not doing this alone.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;STEM fields also have a messaging problem.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;About 89 percent of girls said they want a career where they can help others, but they don’t necessarily see that happening in the sciences. Less than half of girls responded that they wanted both a service career and a STEM career. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“This gap may exist partly because of the stereotype that women are natural caregivers, steering girls towards traditional helping professions,” the report states. “However, STEM fields offer numerous ways to make a positive impact — from developing new medicines to solving environmental issues. By showing girls how STEM careers align with their desire to help, more diverse talent could be attracted to these fields.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Crisis of Confidence&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The data shows a troubling trend when it comes to how girls reported feeling about their abilities and potential. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The percentage of girls who consider themselves confident in 2023 dipped for nearly every grade level compared to 2017, with the largest drop among fifth and sixth graders. The share of girls who say they are not sure if they are smart enough for their dream career increased in every age group. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The confidence issues girls face extend beyond their perceptions of math and science. About 57 percent said they don’t feel cared for at school, and only 39 percent said they feel a sense of belonging at school. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hinkelman says she was surprised by the particularly sharp drop in confidence reported by girls in fifth through seventh grades. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I think girls are internalizing a lot of messages from the world that are telling them that they're not good enough, or they're not smart enough, or that there's certain kinds of jobs or careers that aren't really for them,” Hinkelman says. “For many girls, they have an overall low opinion of themselves and their opportunities and their abilities. I think we see that reflected when it comes to their perceptions of their abilities in STEM-specific areas as well.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The education system on the whole needs to start building confidence in the sciences at the same time students are gaining competence in STEM subjects, she adds. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Woods says that in a digital world built on a system of “likes,” girls need environments where they know where they don’t have to be perfect so long as they are proud of what they’re doing. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The numbers support what Woods sees in her work. The study found that confident girls were 20 percent more likely than their peers to say they wanted a STEM career. The report found among girls who feel supported and accepted at school also showed more interest in STEM — 50 percent more than their peers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Girls need to know “that they can take risks in that space, that it is safe to learn from one another, to fail in front of each other to get back up and take it as a lesson or a success,” Woods explains. “That is really what's critical in changing how girls see themselves in these careers and what they can do, so we have to reinforce that STEM will allow them to change the world.”&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16058/stem_girls-1729119120.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16058/stem_girls-1729119120.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">For Girls to Succeed in STEM, Confidence Matters as Much as Competence</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">VectorMine / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Teaching Feels Like a Dead-End Job. Here’s How Schools Can Change That.</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-16-teaching-feels-like-a-dead-end-job-here-s-how-schools-can-change-that</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-16-teaching-feels-like-a-dead-end-job-here-s-how-schools-can-change-that#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Rachel Herrera</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Professional Development</category> <category>Education Workforce </category> <pubDate>Wed, 16 Oct 2024 01:00:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-40bae097 </guid> <description>“Teachers lack the structure and career development of other industry and professional jobs, and this is important because it is one major factor in ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;On the spectrum of professional experience for K-12 teachers, I am decidedly on the greener side. Although I knew I had a passion for teaching before entering college, I always had this idea in my head that teaching K-12 education &lt;a href="https://edworkingpapers.com/ai22-679" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;wasn’t a real or appropriate profession&lt;/a&gt; for an Ivy League, engineering graduate like myself. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Instead of industry or academia, however, I joined the stream of my peers entering the world of business management consulting. I stayed in this role for only three years before going back to school to teach, but my short stint in the corporate world carried me to the classroom with a perspective that allowed me to see all the ways teaching is treated as a calling rather than a career, and how that impacts school teachers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Teachers lack the structure and career development of other industry and professional jobs and this is important because it is one major factor in creating a broken public education system. Compared to what I experienced myself and have learned from colleagues and ex-classmates in consulting, finance and tech industries, it feels like this lack of opportunity for career progression within K-12 education disincentivizes a talented, driven and diverse workforce, which in turn inhibits the long term success of the education system.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Put more pointedly, teachers being perceived as saints and martyrs due to the realities of their working conditions, instead of serious professionals, is one of the more glaring issues facing K-12 education in the United States.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;We’re Not in Consulting Anymore, Toto…&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;In my short time in the consulting world, I got a glimpse behind the curtain of how different industries operate. I learned about the massive scale of labor, human capital and strategic investment that go into making a successful organization. As a new college grad, I was lucky to work at a company that held an &lt;a href="https://www.myconsultingoffer.org/case-study-interview-prep/up-or-out-policy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;“up or out” culture&lt;/a&gt; and provided clear structures and routines for continuous professional feedback, networking and skill development. I also had great mentors who pushed me to think about what I wanted in a career and shared their experiences and advice to foster my professional growth. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Within public education, growth options are almost entirely outside the classroom, either through administration, teacher education or curriculum development. One common path that some teachers will take to advance is to go back to school and pursue an administrative credential to become a principal or vice principal, but it is a significant pivot and career change. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While I also have incredible mentors in teaching, when I asked my closest mentor for constructive professional feedback before she went on a sabbatical, the only thing she did was implore me not to get pulled away from the classroom and into leadership, most likely due to the aforementioned ways teachers attempt to advance and move through the field of education. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Clearly, there is very little formal growth inherent or possible within teaching, which I believe impacts the retention of a highly skilled and diverse educational workforce. Bringing my perspective as a young professional to a high school, I have been endlessly frustrated with the disparity between what I want and am inspired to accomplish and what the system allows me to reasonably get out of any effort I put in. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Feeling Stuck&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another thing I’ve found difficult about this issue is that simply being a teacher doesn’t really say much about your job description; it doesn’t give any information about your particular working conditions, responsibilities, expectations or compensation because these vary so much from school to school, not to mention across the country. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Though I’ve only worked at one school, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with math and science teachers nationwide. From the poorest rural schools to the most elite boarding schools, I have become increasingly vexed by the lack of incentive structure or clear avenues of professional growth within the teaching profession that I could verbalize in a meaningful way in a resume or cover letter.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Other fields offer structured opportunities for career growth in several ways, including but not limited to some sort of organizational hierarchy in which promotions lead to increased compensation and different responsibilities. While this sort of promoting-from-within and workforce investment and development is not the case for every corporation or industry, in the teaching career, it is practically nonexistent. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Public school teachers are often limited geographically by pensions, so moving across state lines means forfeiting your hard-earned retirement benefits. In some states, there are &lt;a href="https://www.nctq.org/blog/Performance-Pay:-How-Teacher-Evaluations-Impact-Compensation" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;required portfolios or observations&lt;/a&gt; teachers must complete to receive tenure, but pay bumps are not always a guarantee. Once you have taught for a certain number of years, eager teachers can work incredibly hard for at least a full year to receive &lt;a href="https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&amp;amp;ai=DChcSEwjntrmhgM2IAxWkMggFHVBrAK8YABAAGgJtZA&amp;amp;co=1&amp;amp;ase=2&amp;amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjw9Km3BhDjARIsAGUb4ny7N_Iw4xHh03uM40RgDYz2xXPLaP7KndRuQ1HaxS2q4KwLoME3wBcaAgUoEALw_wcB&amp;amp;ohost=www.google.com&amp;amp;cid=CAESVeD2RWUO6hADlGQqyXk91oji8m7pd_yzJ0Eb8IcYPJwCvgF199HF4OK9NU59cWwg_qyJjhq9EzkNBhI12mG3g6fki7Umxr21AgjBEG5wqz1eaKHmBvw&amp;amp;sig=AOD64_1LCb5N9yZ39SNlsKSqvd_FQ6NXuw&amp;amp;q&amp;amp;nis=4&amp;amp;adurl&amp;amp;ved=2ahUKEwjR5rKhgM2IAxUXhIkEHQb5DyEQ0Qx6BAgXEAE" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;National Boards Certification&lt;/a&gt;, but first, they have to pass the test — and, yet again, the reward may differ by state. &lt;a href="https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/profile.asp?id=5832#:~:text=The%20CA%20National%20Board%20Certified,installments%20for%20five%20consecutive%20years." target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;California has a stipend&lt;/a&gt; for those who achieve this distinction but not an actual raise; in many states, it is a purely symbolic title with no financial compensation. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, in my previous job industry, many of my colleagues were able to seek out a more supportive environment where they could be competitively compensated and grow in their careers. Clearly, not all companies or other jobs have these opportunities, but even the ability to switch employers for upward career mobility is complicated for teachers. All of these hidden factors baked into the decentralized educational system can prevent teachers from the same level of fluid movement between schools and districts that their similarly educated peers in professional industries are used to. Ultimately, this hinders educators' ability to navigate an employment landscape in a way that promotes their overall career growth and professional development. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Putting Your Money Where Your Labor Is&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many industries operate on the basic principles of rewarding talent for positive, sustained performance. In the many fractured systems that make up the overall U.S. education system, talent and effort often only lead to heartwarming notes, the occasional staff pizza party and more responsibilities with an ever-shrinking margin of effective compensation. With the lack of growth opportunities in this career, is it any wonder that recruiting and maintaining a diverse teaching workforce is an issue for our schools today?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is no one-size-fits-all approach to addressing this issue. Districts and schools, whether public, private or charter, are all funded differently and have different methods for allocating their budgets. But in considering how to fix schools or taking stock of the current state and future of public education in the US, policymakers and stakeholders with any ability to make a change in their schools or districts should not discount the effect of developing a stronger route of professional advancement for teachers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If we don't build a better system, one that rewards extra labor and additional roles that come with being a teacher, we risk further creating the feeling that being a teacher feels like a dead-end job, and while some educators have come to this conclusion and left the field, I hope myself and other colleagues can feel the growth and necessary support we need in our careers to stay in the classroom.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16002/shutterstock_2480862361-1726778607.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16002/shutterstock_2480862361-1726778607.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Teaching Feels Like a Dead-End Job. Here’s How Schools Can Change That.</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Matej Kastelic / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>As the Job Market Changes, Is a College Degree Less of a ‘Meal Ticket’ Than in the Past?</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-15-as-the-job-market-changes-is-a-college-degree-less-of-a-meal-ticket-than-in-the-past</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-15-as-the-job-market-changes-is-a-college-degree-less-of-a-meal-ticket-than-in-the-past#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Jeffrey R. Young</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>EdSurge Podcast</category> <category>Workforce Training</category> <category>Adult Learning</category> <category>Higher Education</category> <pubDate>Tue, 15 Oct 2024 14:11:47 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-4219bf3e </guid> <description>When Gina Petersen decided to go back to college part time to get her degree, she hoped it would help her the next time she switched jobs. After a ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/the-edsurge-on-air-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;When Gina Petersen graduated with her associate degree from Kirkwood Community College two years ago, she described it as “the biggest accomplishment I have ever done.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5Omg7s9kRYFgt4jEynpdoL?si=rfUzBmV6QS6VsHTUqYKdHA&amp;amp;nd=1&amp;amp;dlsi=0f356671032a4b8e" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-the-job-market-has-changed-for-college-grads/id972239500?i=1000673201529" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a returning adult college student, she had struggled to fit her studies in part time, online, while working as a trainer for a tech company. She had gotten that job through connections, and she hoped that a college degree would be a big help if she ever needed to find a new job in the future.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We told the story of Petersen’s college journey — which took her more than seven years and a couple of false starts to complete — as part of a three-part podcast series we did in 2022 called &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/second-acts-podcast-series" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Second Acts&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Get EdSurge news delivered free to your inbox. &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/newsletters" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Sign up for our newsletters&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;For this week’s episode of the EdSurge Podcast, we checked back in with Petersen to see what the degree has meant for her professional and personal life. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And we found that the credential has not opened as many doors as she had hoped.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A few months after we last talked to Gina, she got laid off from her training job after 10 years at the company. And at first she quickly found a project manager position through her networks. But she felt the job wasn’t a good fit, so she quit after a little more than a year, hoping she’d quickly find another position.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What she encountered, however, was a job market that suddenly felt much more daunting.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I’ve sent my resume to, I’d say, 150 different places for 150 different roles, and yet, nothing,” she says, even after getting professional help crafting her resume. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What’s worse, she says, she has been ghosted by employers when she does get initial interest. “I’ve had two people reach out for phone interviews and say, ‘Yes’ and confirm, and then I literally don’t get called,” she says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Petersen is not alone, according to labor market experts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Guy Berger, director of economic research at the Burning Glass Institute, notes that because it has become easier to apply for jobs, thanks to one-click applications on company websites and the growth of platforms like Linkedin, job seekers have more opportunities than ever. But they also have to work harder to find the right fit as a result. Whereas once it might be common to apply to 15 jobs, now it’s not unusual to have to apply to more than 150, he says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Now, you’re applying to a lot more things – you’re getting more cracks at the bat — but you’re just getting a lot more rejections,” Berger says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That can feel demoralizing to job candidates, he adds, while also hard for employers as they struggle to sift through a flood of applicants.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, Berger says that the number of jobs for recent graduates has fallen in recent years, and just having a degree is not as guaranteed a “meal ticket” as in the past.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“College graduates still get generally better-paying jobs than people who don’t have a college degree, and there’s a wider range of opportunities available to them when they’re looking for a job,” he says. “But if you’re looking at how much of a boost it provides, probably it’s smaller than it was in the past.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even so, Petersen says she is glad she got her degree, as she learned valuable skills in college that she put to use in her job. But she isn’t looking to go back for more higher education at this point.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hear more about Petersen’s search, trends in hiring and what colleges can do to respond to this changing landscape on this week’s EdSurge Podcast.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out the episode on &lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5Omg7s9kRYFgt4jEynpdoL?si=rfUzBmV6QS6VsHTUqYKdHA&amp;amp;nd=1&amp;amp;dlsi=5e435274babc45d1" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Spotify&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/edsurge-podcast/id972239500" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Apple Podcasts&lt;/a&gt;, or on the player below.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16055/frustrated_job_seeker-1729025652.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16055/frustrated_job_seeker-1729025652.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">As the Job Market Changes, Is a College Degree Less of a ‘Meal Ticket’ Than in the Past?</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">GoodStudio / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Despite Historic Funding, Early Childhood Educators Continue to Struggle, Report Finds</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-15-despite-historic-funding-early-childhood-educators-continue-to-struggle-report-finds</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-15-despite-historic-funding-early-childhood-educators-continue-to-struggle-report-finds#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Emily Tate Sullivan</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Early Learning</category> <category>Child Care</category> <category>Education Workforce </category> <pubDate>Tue, 15 Oct 2024 02:01:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-5e01d1a3 </guid> <description>Early childhood educators earn, on average, about $13 per hour, a wage that puts them in the bottom 3 percent of workers nationally. But what about all ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Despite the historic funding that was funneled into the field in the wake of the pandemic, early care and education continues to be one of the most beleaguered occupations in the United States. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Early childhood educators earn, on average, $13.07 per hour, a wage that puts them in the bottom 3 percent of workers nationally. (Elementary and middle school teachers, by comparison, earn an average of $31.80 per hour, and U.S. workers, across occupations, earn about $23 an hour.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That’s according to findings from the &lt;a href="https://cscce.berkeley.edu/workforce-index-2024/executive-summary/key-findings/#" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;2024 Early Childhood Workforce Index&lt;/a&gt;, a report that typically comes out every two years and is produced and authored by a team of researchers at the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) at the University of California, Berkeley. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The U.S. early care and education system was broken long before the pandemic, thanks to a dynamic where families can’t afford to pay more while providers can’t afford to charge less. Those costs are, in effect, subsidized by the paltry wages earned by early childhood educators — the teachers and staff in these programs, about 98 percent of whom are women and half of whom are women of color — even though they are entrusted with one of the most important jobs that exists, said Caitlin McLean, lead author of the report and director of multi-state programs at CSCCE. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Our child care workforce — the majority of whom have some higher education — are building our children’s brains in the most critical period of their development,” McLean said during a press call last week. “[Yet] early educators are paid so little that many worry where their next meal will come from.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In early care and education programs, employer-sponsored benefits such as health insurance and &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-02-13-why-many-early-childhood-educators-can-t-afford-to-retire" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;retirement plans&lt;/a&gt; are rare. Close to half (43 percent) of early educators rely on public assistance, such as Medicaid and food stamps, to make ends meet, which the report estimates is costing taxpayers $4.7 billion a year. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The billions of federal dollars pumped into the field in recent years — including &lt;a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/occ/news/american-rescue-plan-arp-act-child-care-stabilization-funds-frequently-asked-questions" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;$39 billion&lt;/a&gt; from the American Rescue Plan Act — are widely seen as having been successful in &lt;a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-american-rescue-plan-shored-up-child-care-but-a-long-term-solution-is-necessary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;helping stabilize programs&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/wysiwyg/user-98/naeyc_ece_field_survey_february2022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;prevent massive waves of closures&lt;/a&gt;. However, most of those dollars expired in September 2023, while the remainder expired about two weeks ago.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Absent ongoing funding and a more permanent solution for the field, ARPA dollars seem not to have meaningfully moved the needle. New data in the Workforce Index underscores that reality. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The funding was not about making the ideal child care system,” McLean said. “It was about preventing the utter collapse of the system we had.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Corrine Hendrickson’s situation illustrates why the funding stopped short of transforming the field and the lives of those who work in it. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;Right now, it does not feel like a sustainable career, and it really isn’t.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Corrine Hendrickson&lt;p&gt;Direct-to-provider payments from ARPA allowed Hendrickson to make changes to her licensed home-based child care program in rural Wisconsin and spend money that she’d never had. She hired an employee for the first time, allowing her to step away for personal appointments. She made repairs and improvements to the building. She increased her own wages from $8 an hour to $12, which she said gave her enough extra money to buy her own kids clothes and pay monthly bills on time. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Without the ARPA funding, I would’ve closed and never reopened,” she said, adding that as a home-based provider, “if I closed, I would’ve lost my home.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But then ARPA funding expired last year, and she was forced to make hard decisions just to maintain her new hourly rate of $12. She has raised tuition rates on families three times in the past year, she shared, for a total increase of $70 per week. Some families, she added, have reached out to inquire about her program but then backed off when they learn she charges $259 to $281 per week, depending on the child’s age. It’s just too expensive, they tell her. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Right now, it does not feel like a sustainable career,” Hendrickson said, “and it really isn’t.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nationally, wages for early childhood educators have increased by 4.6 percent in the last few years, after adjusting for inflation, according to the Index. That’s still less than the overall workforce, whose wages have increased by an average of 4.9 percent, as well as those of fast food workers (5.2 percent) and retail workers (6.8 percent). The latter two occupations are relevant because &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-02-09-the-pandemic-has-compounded-the-turnover-problem-in-early-childhood-education" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;many educators have left their positions&lt;/a&gt; in recent years for jobs in food and retail, where wages are similar or higher and stress is much lower. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The national average, though, is just an average. About a dozen states have stepped in with their own investments in early care and education since ARPA dollars expired, helping programs and staff to avoid the &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-11-30-child-care-programs-see-closures-resignations-and-tuition-hikes-after-federal-funding-expires" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;so-called “child care cliff”&lt;/a&gt; that &lt;a href="https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/our-work/public-policy-advocacy/feb_2024_brief_wearenotok_final_1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;others have endured&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some states have seen much bigger wage increases for early educators; in nine states, plus Washington, D.C., early educators experienced wage increases of more than 10 percent. The highest gains were in D.C., with an average 27.1 percent wage increase for educators. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;‘This Is a Serious Job’&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lida Barthol is an infant and toddler teacher in Washington, D.C., where her salary has soared in the last few years. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Barthol entered the field in 2016, when she was earning about $11 an hour. Now a lead teacher with a bachelor’s degree, and with help from the District of Columbia’s targeted compensation program for early childhood educators, she is making the equivalent of about $36 an hour. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In 2021, after the DC Council approved a tax increase on the city’s highest-income residents, the District launched the &lt;a href="https://osse.dc.gov/fy24ecepayequity" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Pay Equity Fund&lt;/a&gt;, an effort to increase the compensation of early childhood educators so that it better aligned with that of K-12 teachers with similar qualifications and experience. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Which is insane,” Barthol said. “It’s unheard of.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the program’s first year, educators received one-time payments of up to $14,000. Barthol remembers calling her friend, another early childhood educator, in disbelief over the state of her bank account. “We just sat there and cried,” she said. “It was a really big moment.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, the District funnels Barthol’s wage supplement through her employer, so it is reflected in her regular paychecks. The program — which has &lt;a href="https://www.mathematica.org/blogs/washington-dcs-early-childhood-educator-pay-equity-fund-supports-workforce" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;led to higher recruitment and retention&lt;/a&gt; in the field — shows what is possible if early childhood educators are paid a livable wage. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It really changed everything about my life,” Barthol said. It gave her and her partner of seven years the financial security to get engaged and plan a small wedding, which is set to take place next month. It’s a “cultural milestone,” she said, that she didn’t feel stable enough to have before. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It has also made her feel that her work — her career path — is valued. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I used to say, ‘There’s no reason to get a master’s degree in early education because you’ll never earn that money back.’ But really, I love this field. I love learning. I love thinking deeply about the work I’m doing,” said Barthol, who graduated in the spring with her master’s degree in human development. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It gave me the confidence to be like, ‘This is a serious job,’” she said. “You don’t need a degree to do an amazing job, but it is just that affirmation that this is serious work, and [with] young children, there’s complexity there.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With federal pandemic relief now gone and a new presidential administration set to begin in a few months, the field is at a “crossroads,” the authors of the report wrote. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Barthol has been attuned to the candidates this election cycle, she said. The nominees of both major parties have mentioned child care at a number of campaign events and even during the recent vice presidential debate. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They’re not always getting it right, Barthol noted. She cited a &lt;a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/1831500812897677597" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;recent interview&lt;/a&gt; with Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, who argued that the solution to sky-high child care costs for families was, first, to lean more on “grandma and grandpa” for care, and then, if that option isn’t available, to reduce regulations and lower qualifications for entering the workforce. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Vance suggested that the problem with the field is that the barrier to entry is too high, Barthol said, and that plenty of people want to work in early childhood education but can’t get a degree. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“What barrier to entry? You don’t need a degree,” Barthol said. “The issue is the pay being so low and the unpredictability of benefits.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She’s seen many young people enter the field, enthusiastic about working with kids, only to realize how “physically, mentally and emotionally demanding it is,” then receive that first paycheck and decide, nope, this isn’t going to work for them. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It’s not that the barrier to entry is so high,” Barthol reiterated. “It’s that the system is not built to support young families and the people who care for their children.”&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16053/Shutterstock_447228703-1728666429.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16053/Shutterstock_447228703-1728666429.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Despite Historic Funding, Early Childhood Educators Continue to Struggle, Report Finds</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">DGLimages / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Phenomena-Based Learning and 3D Science: Inspiring Curiosity and Making Sense of the World</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-14-phenomena-based-learning-and-3d-science-inspiring-curiosity-and-making-sense-of-the-world</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-14-phenomena-based-learning-and-3d-science-inspiring-curiosity-and-making-sense-of-the-world#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Steven Smithwhite</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Digital Learning</category> <category>STEM</category> <pubDate>Mon, 14 Oct 2024 09:55:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-9af1c74f </guid> <description>On a bright, sunny day, a group of first-graders eagerly begins a science investigation called “Shadow Town.” The teacher gathers them in a circle and ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;On a bright, sunny day, a group of first-graders eagerly begins a science investigation called “Shadow Town.” The teacher gathers them in a circle and asks, “What causes shadows?” It’s a good question. The students are all familiar with shadows, have had fun with them and no doubt played shadow puppets, but that’s different from being able to explain them. Many suggestions are shouted out as students’ imaginations get fired up by the mystery of light and darkness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The teacher takes the students outside to test their ideas. “Can I run away from my shadow?” one student wonders. Another asks, “Can I trick my shadow into disappearing?” As they experiment with shadows, predict their movements, explore how light interacts with different materials, and discuss what they see with their partners, the students learn not just about the mechanics of shadows but also about the scientific process of inquiry and investigation. Through this exploration, they begin to apply their newfound knowledge to solve a real-world problem: why the town of Rjukan, Norway, spends much of the year in shadow and how different solutions could work.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;Combining phenomena-based learning with 3D science standards helps students see science as a way to make sense of the world around them. They become more motivated to learn and more capable of thinking critically about the challenges they will face in the future.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Shadow Town,” a module in the K-8 curriculum &lt;a href="https://www.imaginelearning.com/products/science/twig-science/?utm_campaign=twig-science-edsurge-2024&amp;amp;utm_source=edsurge&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Twig Science&lt;/a&gt;, is an example of &lt;a href="https://www.imaginelearning.com/products/science/twig-science/phenomena-the-ultimate-guide/?utm_campaign=twig-science-edsurge-2024&amp;amp;utm_source=edsurge&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;phenomena-based learning&lt;/a&gt; in action, an approach that taps into students' natural curiosity to make sense of the world around them. In this context, phenomena are simply observable events or situations. They play a crucial role in science education because they provide students with concrete, engaging examples of scientific concepts in the real world. They provide great opportunities to develop student inquiry — students see something happening, ask questions about it and conduct research to learn more about it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;In "Shadow Town," students investigate why the town of Rjukan, Norway, spends much of the year in shadow.&lt;br&gt;Image credit: Imagine Learning&lt;br&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Phenomena in the Context of 3D Science&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Phenomena-based learning also aligns with the &lt;a href="https://www.nextgenscience.org/standards" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)&lt;/a&gt; and other &lt;a href="https://www.nextgenscience.org/three-dimensional-learning" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;three-dimensional (3D) science standards&lt;/a&gt; that emphasize a comprehensive, integrated understanding of science. These standards were designed to move science education away from rote memorization and toward engaging students in practices real scientists use to explore and model the world, fostering deeper understanding of scientific concepts and developing skills like critical thinking, collaboration and communication.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The NGSS and other 3D science standards are structured around three dimensions of science learning:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs):&lt;/strong&gt; These involve the skills and behaviors that scientists and engineers engage in, such as asking questions, developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, and constructing explanations.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs):&lt;/strong&gt; These overarching concepts bridge disciplinary boundaries, such as patterns, cause and effect, energy and matter, structure and function, and stability and change.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs):&lt;/strong&gt; These are fundamental ideas in science that students should understand, divided into four domains — physical sciences, life sciences, Earth and space sciences, and engineering, technology and applications of science.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;The integration of these three dimensions helps students develop a holistic understanding of science, moving beyond memorizing isolated facts to actively engaging in scientific practices and understanding the broader concepts that connect different areas of science.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;3D Learning with Twig Science&lt;hr&gt;&lt;h2&gt;A Motivation to Engage&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Phenomena-based learning and 3D science standards naturally complement each other. Phenomena-based learning provides the context and motivation for students to engage in the practices, concepts and core ideas outlined in the standards. For example, in investigating “Shadow Town,” students engage in Science and Engineering Practices by asking questions and planning investigations to understand why shadows change. They use the Crosscutting Concept of “patterns” to observe how shadows behave at different times of the day and the Disciplinary Core Idea of Earth’s movements to explain these patterns. Through this process, they’re not just learning scientific facts but experiencing science as a dynamic, integrated discipline that helps them make sense of the world.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h5 class="aside-heading"&gt;Recommended Resources:&lt;/h5&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Twig Science: A &lt;a href="https://www.imaginelearning.com/products/science/twig-science/?utm_campaign=twig-science-edsurge-2024&amp;amp;utm_source=edsurge&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;comprehensive, NGSS-aligned science program&lt;/a&gt; full of exciting, real-world STEM challenges that spark student engagement and a long-lasting love of science.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Unlocking Success with Phenomena-Based Science Instruction: In Twig Science, students &lt;a href="https://www.imaginelearning.com/blog/unlocking-success-with-phenomena-based-instruction/?utm_campaign=twig-science-edsurge-2024&amp;amp;utm_source=edsurge&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;investigate and make sense of phenomena through multiple modalities&lt;/a&gt;, empowering them to connect with science in the world around them.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;The Ultimate Guide to Three-Dimensional Learning: &lt;a href="https://www.imaginelearning.com/products/science/twig-science/the-ultimate-guide-to-three-dimensional-learning/?utm_campaign=twig-science-edsurge-2024&amp;amp;utm_source=edsurge&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Teach real-world skills with 3D science&lt;/a&gt; and find resources including practical approaches, printable posters and a podcast episode.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;The Ultimate Guide to Phenomena: A guide to &lt;a href="https://www.imaginelearning.com/products/science/twig-science/phenomena-the-ultimate-guide/?utm_campaign=twig-science-edsurge-2024&amp;amp;utm_source=edsurge&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;sparking student inquiry and discovery&lt;/a&gt;, including a podcast episode, a breakdown of anchor phenomena in Twig Science, and downloadable phenomena trackers.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Open Any Door with &lt;a href="https://www.imaginelearning.com/blog/open-any-door-with-critical-thinking/?utm_campaign=twig-science-edsurge-2024&amp;amp;utm_source=edsurge&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Critical Thinking&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://www.imaginelearning.com/blog/open-any-door-with-collaboration/?utm_campaign=twig-science-edsurge-2024&amp;amp;utm_source=edsurge&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Collaboration&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://www.imaginelearning.com/blog/open-any-door-with-communication/?utm_campaign=twig-science-edsurge-2024&amp;amp;utm_source=edsurge&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Communication&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href="https://www.imaginelearning.com/blog/open-any-door-with-creativity/?utm_campaign=twig-science-edsurge-2024&amp;amp;utm_source=edsurge&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Creativity&lt;/a&gt;: A series of blog posts exploring the 4Cs of STEM.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Practical Approaches to 3D Science: A &lt;a href="https://www.imaginelearning.com/pdf-viewer/?file=https://www.imaginelearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1447967781-Twig-Science-Practical-Approaches-to-3D-Science-Refresh-July24_DIGITAL.pdf&amp;amp;utm_campaign=twig-science-edsurge-2024&amp;amp;utm_source=edsurge&amp;amp;utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;foundations paper exploring Crosscutting Concepts, Science and Engineering Practices, and Disciplinary Core Ideas&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;hr&gt;Multimedia resources in Twig Science bring phenomena to life that students might not otherwise have access to.&lt;br&gt;Image credit: Imagine Learning&lt;br&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;Creating opportunities for such investigations requires thoughtful design and alignment with educational standards. In designing &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-07-10-why-do-high-quality-instructional-materials-matter" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;high-quality instructional materials&lt;/a&gt; and even entire curricula that support phenomena-based learning, several key areas demand attention:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Rich, real-world phenomena:&lt;/strong&gt; Across grades K-8, effective curricula feature carefully chosen phenomena — such as the passing of the seasons, light reflecting in a mirror or the erosion of mountains — that are relevant, observable and meaningful to students. They’re complex enough to require students to engage deeply with the dimensions of science but accessible enough to be explored through student-led inquiry and investigation.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;strong&gt;High-quality multimedia resources:&lt;/strong&gt; Videos, interactive simulations and virtual labs bring phenomena to life that students might not otherwise have access to, providing dynamic, visual experiences that enhance understanding.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Engaging and clear learning materials:&lt;/strong&gt; Learning materials should be engaging and aligned to 3D science standards. They should guide students through the inquiry process, provide opportunities for reflection and discussion, and scaffold learning to include all students in investigations.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;strong&gt;An innovative assessment system:&lt;/strong&gt; Assessment systems should help teachers evaluate student understanding of the three dimensions of the NGSS. These systems include a range of assessment strategies, from pre-exploration activities that gauge prior knowledge to formative and summative tasks, plus built-in data-reporting tools to help track student progress throughout their learning journeys.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Combining phenomena-based learning with 3D science standards helps students see science as a way to make sense of the world around them. They become more motivated to learn and more capable of thinking critically about the challenges they will face in the future. As students engage with real-world phenomena, they not only learn about science but also begin to think and act like scientists, developing a lifelong sense of wonder and inquiry that will help them deal with all kinds of challenges they will face throughout their lives, in education and beyond.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16044/IL-1727531656.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16044/IL-1727531656.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Phenomena-Based Learning and 3D Science: Inspiring Curiosity and Making Sense of the World</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Image Credit: Imagine Learning</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>How Much Does Family Income Matter for Student Outcomes?</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-14-how-much-does-family-income-matter-for-student-outcomes</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-14-how-much-does-family-income-matter-for-student-outcomes#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Daniel Mollenkamp</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Child Care</category> <category>Affordability</category> <category>Diversity and Equity</category> <pubDate>Mon, 14 Oct 2024 01:00:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-319f284b </guid> <description>What’s driving educational achievement gaps? According to a recent report, it’s how many chances students get to learn. For students from low-income ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;When Eve, a mother in Colorado, received a legal settlement, she found herself suddenly flush. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She drove over to the office of Eric Dearing, who was working with her as a family advocate for Head Start, and she gave him a shirt. Even though the shirt wasn’t his style, and he never wore it, he kept it in the closet. That was one of the few times that he’d seen a family, through “pure luck,” get a spike in income. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The change in Eve, when she went from receiving help to giving gifts, was palpable. “She was so excited and proud and suddenly full of this hope,” says Dearing, who is now a professor at Boston College. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Moments like that are rare these days. Social mobility in the U.S. &lt;a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/stuck-on-the-ladder-wealth-mobility-is-low-and-decreases-with-age/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;is stagnant&lt;/a&gt;, with income inequality rising. Plus, the ability of people to move up in the world seems to decline with age, as their status gets set. It can cast doubt on the idea that schools prepare students to have good lives and raise questions about whether the country is a poverty-sustaining machine. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This may be getting worse, according to one researcher, whose recent study found that what matters for student outcomes isn’t so much money itself, but the number of supportive learning chances that a person gets.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But rare or not, that experience with Eve stuck with Dearing like it was pinned somewhere in his brain. How much does it matter when families gain income if they've been living in poverty, Dearing wondered. And why do all the high-quality programs out there seem to make such a little dent in boosting education achievement for students from low-income backgrounds? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;It Adds Up&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Years later, Dearing tried to tackle these questions. His answer? Some students just receive much fewer chances to thrive. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That’s what &lt;a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/stoken/default+domain/EWAUPF9GNMG9GY8RZZIQ/full" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;a new study,&lt;/a&gt; published in the journal Educational Researcher, suggests. The study aimed to figure out how access to opportunities accrued over time for students, and whether they explain the link between how much money their parents made — when the students were in early childhood — and how their lives turned out. To do this, the researchers pulled federal data that followed 814 students from birth until the age of 26. Those students lived in 10 cities from around the U.S. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What did they find? It’s about “opportunity gaps.” For example, from birth through the end of high school, children from high-income families had six-to-seven times as many chances to learn than those from low-income families. Middle-income families had four times as many chances as low-income families.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to an author of the study, that means family income is indirectly related to how far a student pursues education or how much money they make in their mid-20s. What really matters is access to “educational opportunities,” or how often they find themselves in supportive learning environments, whether that’s in high-quality child care when they are young, in a home that has toys, puzzles and caregivers to support learning, or in high-quality school and after-school programs. So income helps, but primarily because it leads to greater access to good learning opportunities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was descriptive, Dearing notes, so it can’t technically prove that the accumulation of opportunities “caused” higher educational achievement. But that story is consistent with their research, he adds. The paper also didn’t look into how the timing of learning opportunities — say, whether they occurred in early childhood or in high school — might make a difference. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But from the perspective of the researchers, what matters is the cumulative effect of those chances over time. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some children are experiencing opportunities throughout their lives, in each of the settings in which they're living and growing — at home, in child care, at the school — and other children are, if they're lucky, experiencing an opportunity to be in a highly enriching context in one of those settings, Dearing says. And that has tremendous implications for solving achievement differences between children growing up poor and children growing up in higher-income families, he adds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Given this, it shouldn’t be surprising that positively powerful programs such as high-quality preschool make only a small dent in how those children's lives turn out, Dearing says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Translating these insights into more chances for students to thrive is tough. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The inequity is extreme, and so it's going to take extreme measures to end that,” Dearing adds. And by extreme, he means structural. Success in education requires high-quality instruction, but that alone is not enough, he says. What matters when it comes to changing students’ lives is sustained quality. The sum is greater than the parts. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A consequence: Teachers alone, while crucial, can’t control all the factors here. The answer may lie more in support systems for students, Dearing says, pointing toward the community school model and support programs such as City Connects at Boston College. These models claim to &lt;a href="https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/lynch-school/sites/city-connects.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;support the “whole child”&lt;/a&gt; by building a network that can assist with needs outside of the classroom, such as connecting families to food banks when a child might be hungry or to a free eyeglasses clinic. In some sense, these models use the schools as “hubs” for supportive learning environments while letting teachers focus on the education component, Dearing says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The Land of Opportunity?&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Efforts to staunch inequality could also soon see a political push: Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has outlined &lt;a href="https://kamalaharris.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Policy_Book_Economic-Opportunity.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;a plan&lt;/a&gt; for “economic opportunity,” including expansions of earned income tax credits, which it argues will breathe new life into the American middle class.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But in the meantime, circumstances may be getting starker.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since 1991, when the students trailed by the study were born, the country has seen rising inequality and, in some sectors, stagnant wages. This may have accelerated or exaggerated the effects noted in the study. It’s entirely possible that we have underestimated how big the opportunity gaps are today, Dearing says. Had the children been born a decade later, it’s possible the students they studied would have had a wider chasm between opportunities, even between middle-class and upper-income families, he says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There have also been some positive developments, though. There’s more public preschool these days, and there’s been an increase in the earned income tax credit, he says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What’s more, there are still research questions to answer. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A &lt;a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35290668/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;previous study&lt;/a&gt; authored by Dearing showed that early childhood “opportunities” could compensate for poverty, lifting students’ educational attainment. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But if the research were being conducted today, Dearing says he would pay closer attention to cultural differences that might boost students’ life outcomes in the absence of money. For instance, in some Black communities caregiver roles often extend beyond the parents, with other family members like grandmothers playing a big role in childrens’ home lives and what learning opportunities they have there. But researchers have overfocused on “nuclear family” roles, and therefore may have a slightly misleading picture, Dearing says.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16054/shutterstock_2491116327-1728667495.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16054/shutterstock_2491116327-1728667495.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">How Much Does Family Income Matter for Student Outcomes?</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Photo By Rido/ Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>If Smart Glasses Are Coming, What Will That Mean for Classrooms?</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-10-if-smart-glasses-are-coming-what-will-that-mean-for-classrooms</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-10-if-smart-glasses-are-coming-what-will-that-mean-for-classrooms#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Jeffrey R. Young</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Augmented Reality</category> <category>Artificial Intelligence</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>From the Future</category> <category>Technology Trends</category> <pubDate>Thu, 10 Oct 2024 02:50:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-b66984aa </guid> <description>SMART GLASSES IN CLASS?: Meta recently announced its bet that smart glasses are the next big thing that will replace smartphones in a few years. With a ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;When Meta held its annual conference at the end of September, the tech giant announced it is betting that the next wave of computing will come in the form of smart eyeglasses.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mark Zuckberberg, Meta’s founder and CEO, held up what he described as the first working prototype of Orion, which lets wearers see both the physical world and a computer display hovering in the field of vision. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“They’re not a headset,” he said on stage as he announced the device, which looked like a set of unusually chunky eyeglasses. “This is the physical world with holograms overlaid on it.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For educators, this might not come as welcome news. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After all, one of the hottest topics in edtech these days is the growing practice of banning smartphones in schools, after teachers have reported that the devices distract students from classroom activities and socializing in person with others. And a growing body of research, popularized by the Jonathan Haidt book &lt;a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anxious-Generation-Rewiring-Childhood-Epidemic/dp/0593655036" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;“The Anxious Generation,”&lt;/a&gt; argues that smartphone and social media use harms the mental health of teenagers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When it’s proving hard enough to regulate the appropriate use of smartphones, what will it be like to manage a rush of kids wearing computers on their faces?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some edtech experts see upsides, though, when the technology is ready to be used for educational activities. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The idea of using VR headsets to enter an educational multiverse — the &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-10-29-as-facebook-changes-name-to-meta-education-is-part-of-new-vision" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;last big idea Meta was touting&lt;/a&gt; when it changed its corporate name three years ago from Facebook — hasn’t caught on widely, in part because getting a classroom full of students fitted with headsets and holding controllers can be difficult for teachers (not to mention expensive to obtain all that gear). But if smart glasses become cheap enough for a cart to be wheeled in with enough pairs for each student, so they can all do some activity together that blends the virtual world with in-person interactions, they could be a better fit.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Augmented reality allows for more sharing and collaborative work than VR,” says Maya Georgieva, who runs an innovation center for VR and AR at The New School in New York City. “Lots of these augmented reality applications build on the notion of active learning and experiential learning naturally.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And there is some initial research that has found that augmented reality experiences in education can lead to improvements in learning outcomes since, as &lt;a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949678023000223" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;one recent research paper&lt;/a&gt; put it, “they transform the learning process into a full-body experience.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Cheating Glasses?&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Orion glasses that Zuckerberg previewed last week are not ready for prime time — in fact the Meta CEO said they won’t be released to the general public until 2027.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(EdSurge receives philanthropic support from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, which is co-owned by Meta’s CEO. Learn more about EdSurge ethics and policies &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/operations-ethics-and-policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and supporters &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/supporters" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the company already sells smart eyeglasses through a partnership with sunglass-maker Ray-Ban, which are now retailing for around $300. And other companies &lt;a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a44067373/best-ar-smart-glasses/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;make similar products as well.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These gadgets, which have been on the market for a couple of years in some form, don’t have a display. But they do have a small built-in computer, a camera, a microphone and speakers. And recent advances in AI mean that newer models can serve as a talking version of a chatbot that users can access when they’re away from their computer or smartphone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While so far the number of students who own smart glasses appears low, there have already been some reports of students using smart glasses to try to cheat.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This year in Tokyo, for instance, an 18-year-old allegedly used smart glasses &lt;a href="https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/05/54c893fd85b8-man-suspected-of-using-smart-glasses-to-cheat-on-univ-entrance-exam.html#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;to try to cheat on a university entrance exam&lt;/a&gt;. He apparently took pictures of his exam questions, posted them online during the test, and users on X, formerly Twitter, gave him the answers (which he could presumably hear read to him on his smart glasses). He was detected and his test scores were invalidated.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, students are sharing videos on TikTok where they explain how to use smart glasses to cheat, even low-end models that have few “smart” features. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Using these blue light smart glasses on a test would be absolutely diabolical,” says &lt;a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@itzolay/video/7395270960850455850" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;one TikTok user’s video&lt;/a&gt;, describing a pair of glasses that can simply pair with a smartphone by bluetooth and cost only about $30. “They look like regular glasses, but they have speakers and microphones in them so you can cheat on a test. So just prerecord your test or your answers or watch a video while you're at the test and just listen to it and no one can tell that you’re looking or listening to anything.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On &lt;a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/comments/18wytst/aienabled_wearables_in_the_classroom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Reddit discussions&lt;/a&gt;, professors have been wondering whether this technology will make it even harder to know whether the work students are doing is their own, compounding the problems caused by ChatGPT and other new AI tools that have given students &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-03-21-inside-the-quest-to-detect-and-tame-chatgpt" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;new ways to cheat on homework that are difficult to detect&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One commenter even suggested just giving up on doing tests and assignments and trying to find new ways of assessing student knowledge. “I think we have too many assessments that have limited benefit and no one here wants to run a police state to check if students actually did what they say they did,” the user wrote. “I would appreciate if anyone has a functional viable alternative to the current standard. The old way will benefit the well off and dishonest, while the underprivileged and moral will suffer (not that this is new either).”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some of the school and state policies that ban smartphones might also apply to these new smart glasses. A state law in Florida, for instance, &lt;a href="https://www.newsweek.com/do-not-disturb-mobile-phone-ban-american-schools-1953348" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;restricts the use of “wireless communication devices,”&lt;/a&gt; which could include glasses, watches, or any new gadget that gets invented that connects electronically.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I would compare it very much to when smartphones really came on the scene and became a regular part of our everyday lives,” says Kyle Bowen, a longtime edtech expert who is now deputy chief information officer at Arizona State University, noting that these glasses might impact a range of activities if they catch on, including education. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There could be upsides in college classrooms, he predicts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The benefit he sees for smart glasses is the pairing of AI and the devices, so that students might be able to get real-time feedback about, say a lab exercise, by asking the chatbot to weigh in on what it sees through the camera of the glasses as students go about the task.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16049/Zuckerberg_Orion_demo-1728485578.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16049/Zuckerberg_Orion_demo-1728485578.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">If Smart Glasses Are Coming, What Will That Mean for Classrooms?</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Screenshot from Meta video</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>How Did School Infrastructure Get So ‘Dire’? </title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-10-how-did-school-infrastructure-get-so-dire</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-10-how-did-school-infrastructure-get-so-dire#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Nadia Tamez-Robledo</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Solutions</category> <category>Diversity and Equity</category> <category>Policy and Government</category> <pubDate>Thu, 10 Oct 2024 01:00:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-de13fbf7 </guid> <description>The federal government is offering schools millions of dollars to improve what it calls the “dire” state of its infrastructure — with the average age ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lewis Ferebee, chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools, stands at the top of a staircase at John Lewis Elementary when he’s approached by a couple of his constituents for handshakes. He has to reach down a bit — the third-grade boys only stand about waist-high to Ferebee. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The school got a face-lift three years ago. The renovations transformed the noisy, open-concept hallways — relics of the &lt;a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/03/27/520953343/open-schools-made-noise-in-the-70s-now-theyre-just-noisy" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Open Education Movement&lt;/a&gt; from the ’60s and ’70s — into individual classrooms. Teachers can now talk to their students without the distracting din of chatter from other classrooms, but the garage doors that double as windows can be opened when teachers want to do activities that involve getting students from multiple classrooms working together. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The work that went into John Lewis Elementary highlights something unique about DC Public Schools. Since &lt;a href="https://washdiplomat.com/huge-modernization-campaign-transforms-dc-school-system/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;2007&lt;/a&gt;, its Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization has kept and systematically worked through a schedule for upgrading schools. At the time, the district reportedly had a backlog of 20,000 work orders. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That level of overwhelm may sound familiar to educators at school districts nationwide who work in school buildings that are “in dire need of renovation,” as described in a &lt;a href="https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/2024/9/improving-school-infrastructure-benefits-students-the-economy-and-the-environment" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;recent brief&lt;/a&gt; from the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The average age of school buildings is 49 years — just shy of the end of their lifespan — according to the brief, and more than half have “never undergone any major renovations” since they were built around the time of the Vietnam War. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Biden administration has pumped a uniquely large amount of money into school infrastructure, according to experts who spoke with EdSurge, perhaps most well-known through ESSER funds in response to the pandemic. The issue of crumbling and outdated school buildings has generally been “orphaned” at the federal level, as one expert put it. &lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16050/infra1-1728523721.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16050/infra1-1728523721.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">How Did School Infrastructure Get So ‘Dire’? </media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">klyaksun / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>How Boredom Helped My Students Overcome Apathy and Build Executive Functioning</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-09-how-boredom-helped-my-students-overcome-apathy-and-build-executive-functioning</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-09-how-boredom-helped-my-students-overcome-apathy-and-build-executive-functioning#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Fatema Elbakoury</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <pubDate>Wed, 09 Oct 2024 01:00:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-090aa4be </guid> <description>We’re halfway through “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler, and we’ve arrived at a crucial turning point in the plot. The main character, Lauren ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;We’re halfway through “&lt;a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52397.Parable_of_the_Sower" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Parable of the Sower&lt;/a&gt;” by Octavia Butler, and we’ve arrived at a crucial turning point in the plot. The main character, Lauren Olamina, loses her family and home to an arson attack. I wanted my students to fully experience the severity of this loss, so instead of continuing with &lt;a href="https://www.unitsofstudy.com/framework" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;a workshop model&lt;/a&gt; I’d been using throughout the unit thus far, I decided to read to the class:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;I sat where I was for three weary, terrifying hours. Nothing happened to me, but I could see and hear things happening. There were people moving around the hills, sometimes silhouetting themselves against the sky as they ran or walked over the hills…I heard a lot of gunfire--individual shots and short bursts of automatic weapons fire…&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Why are we reading this?” a student interrupts. The class remains quiet. I look up to see most resting their hands against their heads. They look bored and glance up at me with their faces downcast. I see some of them begin to turn their phones over, and others reach into their pockets.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Because it’s important. This world isn’t that far off from ours,” I say.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Another student responds, “But it’s not that bad.” &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;“But what if one day it is?” I ask. “Don’t you think that matters to you?”&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Another student shrugs. Another stares at me blankly.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Parable of the Sower was written in 1993, yet some would argue Butler’s predictions are bone-chillingly accurate. Unfortunately, none of that matters if the only thing students want to do is go back to their phones. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For many of my students, reading is not a precursor to revolutionary action, but a cumbersome task that is always a preamble to another tedious assessment. Even if this is the case, &lt;a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3559433/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;reading has been shown&lt;/a&gt; to be a tool for building empathy. &lt;a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/empathy/definition" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Empathy&lt;/a&gt; is how we learn to care for people we will never meet. In this case, the expediency of technology has created a sense of immediate gratification that stands opposite to the empathy that reading can cultivate. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When I talk to my coworkers about the apathy I notice in my classroom, we realize that the large chunks of writing, the big words and the complexity of Butler’s ideas are all turnoffs for our students. When students are simply met with a page that has a lot of words on it, disinterest is immediate. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I recognize it is not my place to mirror their complacency but to model what it would look like to care. But how do I get them to care when I can’t even get them to see the value of a book that clearly shows us the effects of our collective negligence? It’s impossible to reach this empathy that reading can provide without first helping students gain tools to build the mental and emotional stamina to engage with complex texts. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Building Boredom and Executive Functioning&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;While people are not yet roaming the streets en masse scavenging for food and water, around the world, people are doing just that &lt;a href="https://www.nrc.no/perspectives/2024/sudan-crisis-people-are-dying-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;as I write this&lt;/a&gt;. In our country, &lt;a href="https://law.ucla.edu/academics/centers/safeguarding-democracy-project/can-american-democracy-survive-2024-elections" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;our democracy is at stake as well&lt;/a&gt;. Despite all this, &lt;a href="https://mccrindle.com.au/article/topic/generation-alpha/generation-alpha-defined/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Generation Alpha&lt;/a&gt; cares less and less. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lately, it appears that students are more interested in rapidly scrolling through their friends’ stories, checking their likes and direct messages and uploading stories with filters on social media apps. Their impulses are wired to do this and, in my opinion, focus too much on the self, the immediacy of tasks and the imminent gratification from likes — it does not allow students to sit deeply and meaningfully in someone else’s emotions and experiences. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Students will reach for their phones during transitions, in between reading passages, whole-group discussions and during moments of boredom. While taking phones away is a first step, this doesn’t address the problem — the immediate withdrawal in front of a dense, complex text. Reversing these trends requires students to lean into the practice of boredom.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Boredom, despite the negative connotations, is a discipline that frees the mind from the perceived need for constant activity, and &lt;a href="https://powerof0.org/the-power-of-boredom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;research shows that doing nothing can lead to inspiration, imagination and presence.&lt;/a&gt; Boredom is a feeling that students need to learn to befriend to tackle a complex text — because being bored should not be a reason to miss out on a thought-provoking reading experience, such as the one “Parable of the Sower” provides. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Boredom should be practiced daily and explicitly in classrooms. Set a timer and just sit there with your students. Put phones away and leave nothing on the desk. Sit there. Do nothing. This trains the mind to refuse any impulses and reach for distractions from the present moment. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In my classroom, I’ve implemented &lt;a href="https://www.education.ne.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/sustainedsilentreading.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;sustained silent reading&lt;/a&gt; (SSR) with no comprehension assessments to build &lt;a href="https://www.readingranch.com/reading-stamina/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;reading stamina&lt;/a&gt; and help students find a genuine love for reading. Like boredom, this practice also requires silence and presence. Although a student’s mind might wander during this time, the expectation that they are silent and interfacing with words demands self-regulation. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Boredom and SSR are also connected to &lt;a href="https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/executive-function/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;executive functioning&lt;/a&gt; because they demand that students be present, focused and control their impulses. When students are only allowed to sit in class and think about their thoughts or look at a book, it is a necessary first step to reading dense texts because reading requires focus. With time, the impulse to pull out a phone or withdraw from difficult tasks will hopefully be mitigated when students have learned that being bored or still is not such a bad thing. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Going Down Reading&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;To be honest, on most days, I feel helpless. Even when phones are away, the disconnect remains. And in a sense, the disconnect is incredibly valid: despite all the&lt;a href="https://apnews.com/article/democratic-national-convention-chicago-protests-5741113478d2ca454d6d6d7a6e7bd50f" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt; activism&lt;/a&gt;, there is little change that students can cling to. If a young person is looking at the gaps between social movements and the continued fracturing of our world, it makes sense to give up and focus on the self. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Some of my solutions have been to couple parts of “Parable of the Sower” with current and local events. In the Bay Area, &lt;a href="https://tippingpoint.org/research/poverty-solutions/analysis-2023-bay-area-poverty-line-trends/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;poverty rates are extremely high&lt;/a&gt; with the soaring cost of living. In San Francisco, &lt;a href="https://www.sf.gov/news/new-data-san-francisco-street-homelessness-hits-10-year-low" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;homelessness has long been a crisis&lt;/a&gt;. The wealth gap is immense and we’ve seen &lt;a href="https://www.energy.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2019-11/Reg_Report-SUM-CCCA4-2018-005_SanFranciscoBayArea_ADA.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;the effects of climate change&lt;/a&gt; with extreme heat in parts of the Bay. Through my efforts, I have gotten students to see the correlations between these harsh realities and the circumstances of Lauren’s world. But even then, the apathy remains. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“What’s the point? The world is going to end anyway,” they tell me. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And if it were true that the world would end, there would still be a period after the collapse of society where all we’ll have left is each other. Then, it’ll come down to empathy and community. When Lauren finally succeeds at building her community, she tells them:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;...If we’re willing to work, our chances are good here. I’ve got some seed in my pack…What we have to do at this point is more like gardening than farming. Everything will have to be done by hand--composting, watering, weeding, picking worms or slugs…We work together, we can defend ourselves, and we can protect the kids. A community’s first responsibility is to protect its children--the ones we have now and the one we will have…&lt;br&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Although the work of building community is daunting, as Lauren says, we must protect our children. They will bear the brunt of a broken world. We protect them by empowering them with the tools needed to survive. Empathy is the tool for survival in a world shaped by individualism, but empathy cannot be practiced with poor impulse control. Empathy requires discipline, and discipline comes from facing and befriending discomfort.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In my ideal classroom, students are present, reading the words and forming connections with themselves and the world. They push themselves to engage with dense paragraphs. They annotate. They may struggle, but they appreciate the long process of learning and understanding. They walk away thinking about the world with expanded horizons because they’ve just experienced a life that is not theirs. But the presence that leads to this empathy will only come if a student is self-regulated enough to manage the impulses that create disengagement. If a student thinks all answers should come immediately from a single tool in their hand — their phones — disengagement is inevitable.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But I know that as long as I am in the classroom, my duty as a teacher is to model care and empathy, regardless of my frustrations. I am still comforted by that one student who will see the value of reading a novel that tells us who we will become if we forget about each other, for if we do not have each other, we have nothing. &lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16001/shutterstock_328885178-1726618203.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16001/shutterstock_328885178-1726618203.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">How Boredom Helped My Students Overcome Apathy and Build Executive Functioning</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">PrinceOfLove / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Looking Back on the Long, Bumpy Rise of Online College Courses</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-08-looking-back-on-the-long-bumpy-rise-of-online-college-courses</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-08-looking-back-on-the-long-bumpy-rise-of-online-college-courses#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Jeffrey R. Young</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>EdSurge Podcast</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Higher Education</category> <category>Adult Learning</category> <category>Affordability</category> <category>Online Learning </category> <pubDate>Tue, 08 Oct 2024 14:47:12 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-83d7fae3 </guid> <description>The story of how higher ed went from a reluctant innovator to today — when more than half of American college students take at least one online course ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/the-edsurge-on-air-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;When Robert Ubell first applied for a job at a university's online program back in the late ’90s, he had no experience with online education. But then again, hardly anyone else did either.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/looking-back-on-the-long-bumpy-rise-of-online/id972239500?i=1000672265705" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/6gsEnwt7pxSA7W5vUoCNhk" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;First of all, the web was still relatively new back then (something like the way AI chatbots are new today), and only a few colleges and universities were even trying to deliver courses on it. Ubell’s experience was in academic publishing, and he had recently finished a stint as the American publisher of Nature magazine and was looking for something different. He happened to have some friends at Stanford University who had shown him what the university was doing using the web to train workers at local factories and high-tech businesses, and he was intrigued by the potential. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So when he saw that Stevens Institute of Technology had an opening to build online programs, he applied, citing the weekend he spent observing Stanford’s program.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“That was my only background, my only experience,” he says, “and I got the job.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And as at many college campuses at the time, Ubell faced resistance from the faculty.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Professors were totally opposed,” he says, fearing that the quality would never be as good as in-person teaching.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The story of how higher ed went from a reluctant innovator to today — when &lt;a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/teaching-learning/2024/01/30/online-college-enrollment-continues-post-pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;more than half of American college students take at least one online course&lt;/a&gt; — offers plenty of lessons for how to try to bring new teaching practices to colleges. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One big challenge that has long faced online learning is who will pay the costs of building something new, like a virtual campus. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ubell points to philanthropic foundations as key to helping many colleges, including Stevens, take their first steps into online offerings. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And it turns out that the most successful teachers in the new online format weren’t ones who were the best with computers or the most techy, says Frank Mayadas, who spent 17 years at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation giving out grants hoping to spark adoptions of online learning. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“It was the faculty who had a great conviction to be good teachers who were going to be good no matter how they did it,” says Mayadas. “If they were good in the classroom, they were usually good online.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We dig into the bumpy history of online higher education on this week’s EdSurge Podcast. And we hear what advice online pioneers have for those trying the latest classroom innovations.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check out the episode on &lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5Omg7s9kRYFgt4jEynpdoL?si=rfUzBmV6QS6VsHTUqYKdHA&amp;amp;nd=1&amp;amp;dlsi=5e435274babc45d1" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Spotify&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/edsurge-podcast/id972239500" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Apple Podcasts&lt;/a&gt;, or on the player below.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16048/bumpy_road-1728422457.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16048/bumpy_road-1728422457.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Looking Back on the Long, Bumpy Rise of Online College Courses</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">KELENY / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>How This District Tech Coach Still Makes Time to Teach — in a Multi-Sensory Immersive Room</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-08-how-this-district-tech-coach-still-makes-time-to-teach-in-a-multi-sensory-immersive-room</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-08-how-this-district-tech-coach-still-makes-time-to-teach-in-a-multi-sensory-immersive-room#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Emily Tate Sullivan</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Virtual Reality</category> <category>Education Workforce </category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <pubDate>Tue, 08 Oct 2024 01:35:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-1e994d9c </guid> <description>In our latest installment of the Role Call series, we feature a district technology coach who juggles regular job duties with teaching lessons in a 4D, ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Miguel Quinteros spent over a decade as something of a tech-savvy teacher — one not afraid to try new things in the classroom, in hopes that they would make learning more interesting, more intuitive and more engaging for his students. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He took that proclivity to the next level a few years ago, when he accepted a position as a K-12 technology coach in a small school district in western Michigan. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Quinteros loves the work he gets to do, trying to solve problems for teachers, students and administrators in his rural farming community, removing obstacles that come their way and generally continuing in his pursuit of looking for ways to make learning more fun and approachable to students.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And he hasn’t had to abandon teaching. In 2022, Quinteros’ district, Mason County Central School District, opened a first-of-its-kind immersive room that, with augmented and virtual reality advanced technology, allows students to deepen their learning with interactive, sensory-oriented lessons — from the World War I trenches to erupting volcanoes to ancient Greece. Quinteros manages the immersive room for the district and helps bring lessons to life for children of all ages. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I just get to do the fun part now: teach,” he shares. “I don't do the grading and the discipline anymore.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In any given school, a robust school staff is quietly working behind the scenes to help shape the day for kids. In our Role Call series, we spotlight staff members who sometimes go unnoticed, but whose work is integral in transforming a school into a lively community. For this installment, we’re featuring Miguel Quinteros.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The following interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Name&lt;/strong&gt;: Miguel Quinteros&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Age&lt;/strong&gt;: 51 &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Location&lt;/strong&gt;: Scottville, Michigan &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Role&lt;/strong&gt;: K-12 technology coach &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Years in the field&lt;/strong&gt;: Three in current role, after 11 as a teacher&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EdSurge: How did you get here? What brought you to your role as a technology coach?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Miguel Quinteros&lt;/strong&gt;: Well, I'm originally from El Salvador. I came when I was 25 for medical treatment, and then I had to stay in the country and find something to do. So I became a youth minister with the Catholic Church. Then I thought, ‘Oh, I like to work with young people,’ so I decided to become a teacher. When I was studying to become a teacher, I had to choose a major and a minor, and I picked social studies as my major and computer science as my minor. With my minor being computer science, I focused a lot on how to use technology in the classroom, how to do things that we would not be able to do otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Once I became a teacher, even though I was teaching Spanish, computer science and social studies to middle and high school students, I was always using technology in the classroom. It was a small town, and word got out. After the pandemic, I think a lot of school districts realized that teachers needed more support with technology, and a lot of tech coach positions came up. So then the district where I work now actually recruited me to come take this position. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When people outside of school ask you what you do, like at a social event, how do you describe your work to them?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most of the time, I don't like to tell people what I do. I feel like, especially being Hispanic, when people see me in social [settings], they assume that I work in the fields doing migrant work, agriculture. And the moment they know what I do, it’s almost like they give me more importance. I like people to see me for who I am as a person, not for what I do. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But if I meet somebody, and I can see that they genuinely accept me for who I am, then I open up more with them. Otherwise, I guess I'm kind of guarded with this topic. It's sad, but that's the reality, and I have to live in my skin every day.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Let’s say you met someone who was genuinely interested in you. How would you describe to them what your work entails, if you were feeling really talkative and generous that day?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I’d tell them I am a technology coach, and most people are like, ‘What is that?’ Because these are kind of new positions that have emerged. And then I explain that I go into classrooms and help teachers use technology, to make classrooms more engaging. I also order technology for the teachers and for the students — physical technology as well as learning apps. I provide teachers with training on how to use that technology. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And then they ask more questions. If they said, ‘So you don't teach kids anymore?’ then I tell them about what I do with teaching young kids, too. My position is really unique because we have, in our district,&lt;a href="https://mea.org/rural-michigan-students-travel-the-world-and-solar-system-in-immersive-room/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt; an AR/VR immersive room&lt;/a&gt;, which I run and I create content for when I have downtime. It’s the first of its kind in a K-12 building in the whole country, and it's open for our K-12 students. It’s this room with three big walls with projectors that become interactive to the touch and with surround sound. The floor is also interactive. It's like virtual reality without the goggles.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If I didn’t have that immersive room, I would probably miss being in the classroom, because I went to school to be a teacher. And I like that part, the teaching aspect. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When did the immersive room open in your district? And what are you teaching kids in that setting? What does that look like?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The immersive room was an initiative for the district right after the pandemic. They were brainstorming ideas on how to get kids to come back to school after such a long period of time away.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So far it has accomplished that goal. We’re a rural community. We don't have that much funding, and our kids come from very poor homes and backgrounds. A lot of children have never been to a museum, never been to cool places in the big city. With the immersive room, basically we can recreate any of that. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We can take a field trip to the deepest part of the ocean, for example. I have this one immersive experience that starts on the surface of the ocean and then lowers depending on what part of the ocean you want to visit. If you want to go to the part where the coral reefs are, or if you want to go to the deep part of the ocean where it's dark and no light gets through, you can do that. And then once we are there, in the ocean, the buttons are interactive in the walls and the children take turns touching those buttons, which gives them information about the specific aspect of the ocean. So the kids come and they get to touch the walls and interact and learn that way. And the room also has this four-dimensional aspect. If I want to bring a seashore scent into this experience, I can upload that so they can smell like they're right there in the ocean. And there's also fans that can activate and recreate different wind variance. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So that's what makes the lesson more interactive. We have other lessons to go to the moon, where we play with the gravity of the moon. There's bricks that they pull with their hands, and they fall and it simulates gravity. And then we talk about gravity. ‘What happens if we throw this brick right here on earth? How fast would that go? And look what happens if we throw this brick on the moon and how much slower it goes down.’ Then we’ll learn about the phases of the moon, how the moon interacts with the oceans and how that influences us and our daily lives on earth. This is what makes it really cool for the students. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;That sounds incredible. I've never heard of anything like that. And you’re saying you teach all grade levels in the immersive room?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes, right now, but the way it works is the teachers schedule time with me and they bring the kids. The teachers are there in the classroom with me also. When they sign up, they give me an idea of what they expect to see in the immersive room. And then when they come, I have the lesson ready and the moment they walk in, boom, they are immersed in the lesson. That's what I like about the system. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does a hard day look like in your role?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sometimes, I have to make sure that rostering is OK. That means I have to spend the whole day fixing data and correcting names of students and making sure that everything is properly entered in the system and that students have access to their devices. And I have literally spent days repetitively deleting duplicate students. I guess that would be a hard day, just the monotonous work. I like variety.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does a really good day look like?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A great day for me is when I get to do a little bit of everything: when I get to see the students, when I get to teach at least one class, when I get to interact with the teachers, helping them brainstorm ideas on how can we include students in this learning process with an app, and when I get to do some purchases too on that day, for some things that the teachers really need.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It just fills my heart when I am able to advocate for them because I tell them, ‘I like to do for you what nobody did for me when I was a teacher.’ Nobody will come and say, ‘What do you need? How are things going?’ I like to do that on a daily basis. If I find myself with the downtime, I don't stay here at my desk. I walk and I go to the other buildings, and it’s like, ‘Oh, Miguel, by the way,’ and then they need me for something. I get to interact with the principal. I get lots of hugs when I go to the lower elementary with the younger kids, like kindergarten to second grade. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So I guess a fulfilling day for me would be when I get to serve all of my clients — and in my job, my clients are students, teachers, admin, and anyone who is walking through this building — and when I get to make their lives better, a little bit lighter.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is an unexpected way that your role shapes the day for kids?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One way is all the educational apps that they use on a daily basis. If something goes wrong with it, they call me. But if everything is running smoothly, it’s because of the job I do. I guess that's where my job gets taken for granted, when everything is running smoothly, everything is in place. We use tons of different learning apps — from Google Classroom to Clever — and I'm the person responsible for rostering them and then training the teachers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you wish you could change about your school or the education system today?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I wish that the teaching profession would be more respected, that teachers would be able to get all the resources they need and the support that they need. I wish the politicians would put more money where their mouth is. Teachers are underappreciated. I wish that our society would realize that without teachers, there are no other careers. There's no doctors, there's no lawyers, there's no politicians — without teachers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also one of the things that I wish we could change is that we expect all students to have the same credits. In Michigan, if you want to graduate high school, you have to have three science credits, four social studies credits, four ELA. Everyone has to have the same. And I think that's seriously wrong because not all kids are the same. Everybody has different needs, everybody has different dreams, everybody has different backgrounds. We should provide students with a variety of choices. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Like OK, imagine this kid who is terrible at reading and he hates social studies, but he's a hands-on kind of kid and he likes to take things apart. Why not provide a path for this kid where he will get to graduate with a high school diploma and with skills on how to do the particular job that the kid wants? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your role gives you unique access and insight to today's young people. What's one thing you've learned about them through your work?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I’ve learned about how life is a lot simpler in a kid’s mind, and they know the joy of living day to day. When a kid comes and gives you a hug, they really mean it. When they give you a high five, it's because they want to do that. I am touched by the sincerity of the kids and how many times they teach us that life can be fun, life is fun. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Before I became a teacher, I was doing youth ministry and I was recruiting this kid, this young man, and I was like, ‘Hey, I have some fun programs at the church. Come and join us.’ He looked at me and said, ‘What kind of fun? Your kind of fun, or my kind of fun?’ I said, ‘That is an absolutely great question.’ &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That kid kind of changed my life because when I became a teacher, I always kept that in mind. Still to this day, that echoes in my head: ‘What kind of fun? Is it your kind of fun, or my kind of fun?’ Learning does not have to be boring. It should be fun. And that was my passion, to make learning fun for the students, to the point that they don't realize that they are learning because they're having too much fun. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That's what I like about students. Sometimes they can challenge you, they can ask you questions, and if you listen to them, we can learn a lot from young kids. I have learned a lot from them.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16046/Tech_Coach-1728052801.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16046/Tech_Coach-1728052801.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">How This District Tech Coach Still Makes Time to Teach — in a Multi-Sensory Immersive Room</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Bibadash / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>How Creative Technology Can Help Students Take on the Future</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-07-how-creative-technology-can-help-students-take-on-the-future</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-07-how-creative-technology-can-help-students-take-on-the-future#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Abbie Misha</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Digital Skills</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Artificial Intelligence</category> <category>21st Century Skills</category> <pubDate>Mon, 07 Oct 2024 09:55:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-bb2a2e04 </guid> <description>Today’s students will enter careers that haven’t even been imagined yet. With AI and automation reshaping entire industries, the skills employers once ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Today’s students will enter careers that haven’t even been imagined yet. With AI and automation reshaping entire industries, the skills employers once valued are being overtaken by the need for creativity, adaptability and technological fluency. But how can schools equip students with these essential competencies?&lt;/p&gt;Brian Johnsrud&lt;br&gt;Director of Education Learning and Advocacy, Adobe&lt;p&gt;To explore this challenge, EdSurge sat down with &lt;a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjohnsrud" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Brian Johnsrud&lt;/a&gt;, the director of education learning and advocacy at &lt;a href="https://www.adobe.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Adobe&lt;/a&gt;. He shares insights into how schools can leverage creative tools to equip students with the skills they’ll need to thrive in a world where the only constant is change. Adobe, known for its cutting-edge creative and digital literacy tools, is paving the way for a new approach to education — one that blends technical expertise with the soft skills that will define the workforce of tomorrow.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;EdSurge: How can educators prepare students for the future workforce and foster in-demand skills such as creativity and adaptability?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Johnsrud:&lt;/strong&gt; Educators can stay informed about future workforce trends, including emerging jobs and highly sought-after skills. School leaders are increasingly turning to organizations like the World Economic Forum and analyzing data on the most in-demand skills for the next five years. This allows them to prepare students for future needs, even if the current curriculum doesn't yet demand those skills.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;Employers increasingly recognize that, while hiring someone with the exact skills needed for a job today is great, those needs will change in a couple of years. The real question is whether the person is a lifelong learner — someone who can self-learn and adapt when the landscape shifts — and whether they possess the resilience, flexibility and agility to thrive in a world and industry that is constantly evolving.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Brian Johnsrud&lt;p&gt;The latest World Economic Forum Jobs Report highlights the &lt;a href="https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;top skills that will rise in importance by 2027&lt;/a&gt;. Creative thinking leads the list, followed by analytical or critical thinking. The third most important skill is technological literacy, which includes AI and other technologies. Interestingly, the fourth is curiosity and lifelong learning, and the fifth is resilience, flexibility and agility.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What does this shift in skill demands mean for employers and job seekers?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These skills really highlight the skilling revolution we’re facing. Employers increasingly recognize that, while hiring someone with the exact skills needed for a job today is great, those needs will change in a couple of years. The real question is whether the person is a lifelong learner — someone who can self-learn and adapt when the landscape shifts — and whether they possess the resilience, flexibility and agility to thrive in a world and industry that is constantly evolving.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How can creative tools help students develop both technical and soft skills needed for future careers?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One approach is training students on industry-standard tools to familiarize them with what they'll use in the workplace. It’s also important to equip them with professional-quality templates and assets so that the projects they’re creating actually look like professional outputs. Pedagogically, this approach is real-world, authentic, project-based learning. Instead of creating something that only makes sense in a classroom, let’s give them real, authentic projects to work on.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Collaboration is also the future of work, and any creative tool that has built-in collaboration features provides opportunities for students to not just create but to co-create with others, share feedback and exchange ideas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How can educators choose the right tools to foster creativity in the classroom?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Choose tools that offer both a low floor and a high ceiling, like &lt;a href="https://www.adobeforeducation.com/?sdid=TKZTL5GW&amp;amp;mv=partner" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Adobe Express for Education&lt;/a&gt;. This means providing entry points that allow anyone to begin creating, regardless of their starting point. The high ceiling comes into play as you move from Adobe Express all the way to Creative Cloud; you never outgrow our creative tools.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;It’s all about giving teachers the tools to teach effectively and students the means to show off their skills to colleges and employers. That’s what makes a creative tool truly valuable in education.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Johnsrud&lt;p&gt;Also, addressing creative confidence is essential, as it often poses a significant barrier for students. Many students think, “I’m not creative; I don’t know if I can design something that looks great.” The fear of the &lt;em&gt;blank canvas&lt;/em&gt; is real and can be daunting. Teachers can help by providing professional-looking templates that allow students to focus on content rather than starting from scratch.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What makes a tool truly valuable in education?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A tool’s real value in the classroom goes way beyond its features. It’s about having the right content, support and resources to help everyone use it effectively. Take &lt;a href="https://www.adobeforeducation.com/?sdid=TKZTL5GW&amp;amp;mv=partner" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Adobe Express for Education&lt;/a&gt;, for example. We’ve loaded it with free lesson plans and resources for teachers, plus a learn tab with videos and guided activities for students to practice on their own. And when it comes to proving what they’ve learned, students can take &lt;a href="https://certifiedprofessional.adobe.com/en/home?sdid=TPQVL1QV&amp;amp;mv=partner" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Adobe Certified Professional exams&lt;/a&gt; — we’ve been offering these for 17 years and have issued over 1.8 million certifications.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It’s all about giving teachers the tools to teach effectively and students the means to show off their skills to colleges and employers. That’s what makes a creative tool truly valuable in education.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How does AI factor into creative education?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;AI plays a significant role in enhancing this creativity. It can assist in brainstorming and rapid iteration, helping students quickly generate various ideas and alternatives. AI also helps students step back from routine tasks to see the bigger picture.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;Traditional education has often taught students to swim in a controlled pool. With AI, we’re teaching them to surf in an ever-changing ocean. It’s not just about repetition and efficiency; it’s about adapting to shifting conditions and engaging in creative thinking. AI acts as a surfboard, enabling students to navigate change and thrive in an unpredictable world.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br&gt;— Johnsrud&lt;p&gt;In this sense, traditional education has often taught students to swim in a controlled pool. With AI, we’re teaching them to surf in an ever-changing ocean. It’s not just about repetition and efficiency; it’s about adapting to shifting conditions and engaging in creative thinking. AI acts as a surfboard, enabling students to navigate change and thrive in an unpredictable world.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How is AI changing teaching and learning strategies?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Traditionally, education has focused on teaching students to perform specific tasks. However, as AI increasingly automates many of these tasks, our educational focus needs to shift. I believe the next focus should be on understanding context — knowing which tasks to perform, when to perform them and why.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As task execution becomes easier, grasping the broader context of these tasks will be increasingly valuable. Understanding context is a crucial human skill that is best taught through storytelling and real-world applications.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;English language arts and history teachers have long excelled at teaching context by helping students understand the background and culture surrounding texts or historical events. This broader perspective, while not commonly emphasized outside these subjects, is becoming essential across all disciplines. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By mastering storytelling and contextual understanding, students can see the bigger picture in complex situations, understand how individual tasks contribute to larger goals, develop creative solutions to multifaceted problems and adapt more readily to changing circumstances in their future careers.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/15997/Shutterstock_1470517580-1726422108.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/15997/Shutterstock_1470517580-1726422108.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">How Creative Technology Can Help Students Take on the Future</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Image Credit: ImageFlow / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>College Students Are Doing Less Homework. Should Instructors Change How They Assign It?</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-07-college-students-are-doing-less-homework-should-instructors-change-how-they-assign-it</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-07-college-students-are-doing-less-homework-should-instructors-change-how-they-assign-it#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Maggie Hicks</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Higher Education</category> <category>College Readiness</category> <pubDate>Mon, 07 Oct 2024 02:40:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-c1de5bb5 </guid> <description>Encouraging students to complete work outside of class has always been a struggle. But many college professors say it has gotten even harder in recent ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Encouraging students to complete work outside of class has always been a struggle. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But many college professors say it has gotten even harder in recent years as students prioritize their mental health, have trouble adhering to deadlines and are more skeptical of the purpose of homework.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One cause is the pandemic, and how it disrupted middle and high school for today’s traditional-aged college students. Students who spent formative years learning online may be too nervous to raise a hand in class or have trouble paying attention. With the flexibility that came with pandemic-era school, they’re not used to firm deadlines or strict grading. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Today’s students also report greater &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-02-19-why-schools-still-struggle-to-provide-enough-mental-health-resources-for-students" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;mental health struggles&lt;/a&gt;, which &lt;a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/archive/2024/03/smartphone-anxious-generation-mental-health/677817/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;some experts attribute to excessive social media use&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then there’s the sudden temptation of ChatGPT and other new AI tools, which can make cheating on assignments &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-01-24-chatgpt-has-colleges-in-emergency-mode-to-shield-academic-integrity" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;easy&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-03-21-inside-the-quest-to-detect-and-tame-chatgpt" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;often undetectable&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Together, these factors have brewed a “perfect storm” of &lt;a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/academics/2024/09/25/students-turn-ai-do-their-assigned-readings-them?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&amp;amp;utm_campaign=17335dc2b0-DNU_2021_COPY_02&amp;amp;utm_medium=email&amp;amp;utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-17335dc2b0-236539630&amp;amp;mc_cid=17335dc2b0&amp;amp;mc_eid=fec3cbdbb3" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;challenges&lt;/a&gt; keeping students from doing homework, says Jenae Cohn, the executive director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of California at Berkeley. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;blockquote class="pullquote"&gt;“Maybe 20 years ago or 15 years ago, students were kind of like, ‘Oh, yeah, I'm doing a thing because she told me to do it. I think there's less willingness to just do the thing because somebody told you to do it.”&lt;/blockquote&gt;— Sarah Z. Johnson, a writing instructor and chair of the writing center at Madison Colleg&lt;p&gt;“It all sort of feels bundled together,” Cohn says. “This is a sequence of events where learning and environments for learning just feel harder and harder to cultivate.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But complaining about students isn’t the answer, Cohn and other teaching experts say.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Instead, college instructors need to change how they assign and communicate their homework assignments. And they argue that teachers at the college level should now essentially teach the study skills that students might not have learned in school before arriving on campuses.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Teaching The Why&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sarah Z. Johnson, a writing instructor and chair of the writing center at Madison College, has noticed that many of her students have a much lower tolerance for routine assignments, some of which they see as busy work. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She often has to explain to students that her assignments will build the skills for the work they’ll do later in the year. She says that helps convince students that doing the work now will help them later. And if a student doesn’t think an assignment is worth doing, they’re much less likely to do it at all, she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Maybe 20 years ago or 15 years ago, students were kind of like, ‘Oh, yeah, I'm doing a thing because she told me to do it,’” Johnson says. “I think there's less willingness to just do the thing because somebody told you to do it.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As more students focus on prioritizing their mental health, they’re intentionally choosing not to complete work if it keeps them from taking care of themselves, says Jessie Beckett, the director of Radford University’s learning center, otherwise they won’t feel motivated to get it done. A student may think an assignment isn’t as important, and choose to get more sleep or spend time with friends instead, she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While Beckett is glad students are making their health a priority, she adds that they still need to learn to find a balance. Some students don’t understand how important assignments are, Beckett says. If an instructor doesn’t explain the outcomes of a homework task, many students will assume that it’s not as important, she argues, and miss out on learning a skill they’ll need later on. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“They don't necessarily understand what the value of something is, how it translates to a grade, how it translates to their success in that class, how it translates to a skill that will impact their success in future classes or in their major,” Beckett says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lily Martens, an undergraduate at Madison College, recalls an assignment in her environmental science class when students were asked to go to a park and take notes about the nature in the area. A few weeks later, the students went back to the same park and noted the difference in the animals and plant life. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That kind of assignment feels more purposeful than completing a worksheet or answering questions from a textbook, she says. “Not only was I learning about what species might be in the local area,” she adds, “but it was also teaching me how to record that and that was really awesome.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Instructors need to show their students how an assignment will help them grow, says Darren Minarik, an associate professor at Radford University focused on special education and social studies education. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In his classes, Minarik often teaches his students, who are studying to become K-12 educators, to model the purpose of an assignment in class. For instance, they could assign a quiz that allows students to use their homework to see how the skills they’re learning will translate into class objectives. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This will “show that there's a direct connection between the assignment that you're asking to do outside of class and then how they're going to be graded in class,” Minarik says. “So being open about ‘this is why I'm asking you to do it.’”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many professors don’t go through the same training in how to teach that K-12 classroom teachers get, Minarik says, so they don’t realize how important it is to explain to students the purpose of doing their work. In some cases college instructors assign multiple readings about the same idea, which can feel redundant to students. From the perspective of the faculty expert, it might all be fascinating, Cohn says, but to students it can feel gratuitous.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cohn encourages instructors to determine what skills they want their students to gain from a class and then review their assignments to consider how each one will help reach those goals. Often, instructors will realize that instead of assigning three long texts, they may only need to give students one key reading, she says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I've tried to help faculty think about, ‘What are you gonna have students do with this? Are they gonna need this assignment to be able to solve a problem down the road? Is it essential by the end of the term? Are they going to need to do this reading in order to write something later or conduct research later?’” Cohn says. Faculty need to clearly answer these questions in their syllabi so students will know, “here's what you do with this information and here's why it'll matter to you in your class,” she adds. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Bad Habits&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Aside from questioning the purpose of homework, many students also have more difficulty keeping up with deadlines. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the past, Amanda Flint, a math instructor at Madison College, assigned her students homework that would be due at the end of each week. But many students began waiting until the day it was due, and then they couldn’t get everything done on time, she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Students picked up those habits during the pandemic, when teachers tended to be more relaxed about deadlines, allowing students to have extensions or not enforcing them at all, says Beckett. When those students got to college, they assumed they’d be able to finish all of their work late without any consequences. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In many K-12 schools, “students have regular check-ins around how they're doing and opportunities to quickly submit all of the work before that grading period ends, even if that work was assigned or was considered due weeks prior,” Beckett says. While the effort to be more flexible has good intentions, making the switch to stricter rules is challenging for students when they get to college, she adds.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Martens, the Madison student, says the flexibility also makes assignments seem less important, leading students to feel less inclined to do them. Often routine textbook readings aren’t graded, she says, so a student likely won’t prioritize it. Even though she feels like this can put her behind in class, it’s difficult to be motivated to complete an assignment that feels like busy work and won’t impact her grade. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In high school, her teachers often graded students’ notes from the textbook to ensure they were doing the reading, Martens says. Now, her instructors “just give it to you and they're like you should be reading, but they're not checking,” she says. “I miss things I’ve noticed in some classes, especially where it’s hard to cover everything in class.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The issue seems especially pronounced at community colleges, where instructors may be teaching students who have to work multiple jobs and need to take up an extra shift instead of completing an assignment. Or, as the number of students in dual enrollment programs &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-08-14-a-fifth-of-students-at-community-college-are-still-in-high-school" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;skyrockets&lt;/a&gt;, some instructors, like Flint, find themselves teaching mainly high school students who haven’t experienced a college workload yet. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To encourage better time management, Flint has begun adding multiple deadlines throughout the week. Instead of expecting students to complete all of their work by Friday, she assigns two or three sub-deadlines on smaller pieces of the work to help them get everything done in time. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She also gives each student 100 “late passes” per semester, which averages out to about two per assignment. Each late pass extends the deadline by 24 hours, so a student could hand in an assignment up to two days after the due date, she says. Or, if students save their late passes they could get even longer extensions on certain assignments. Students are then able to choose when during the semester they may need more time without falling too far behind, she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Instead of assuming that the student's gonna do that scheduling on their own,” Flint says, “I turned it into the other direction, which is ‘You've got due dates, but you've got the wiggle room to move it if you need to.’”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Johnson has also noticed that students are more likely these days to simply give up on assignments they find difficult. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the past, she would assign works by Geoffrey Chaucer in her British literature classes. Now students would likely find his writing too difficult to understand on their own. “I think they figure if they're struggling this much, they must be doing it wrong,” Johnson adds. “So they quit.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since K-12 schools are required to follow standardized curriculums, Beckett says students start to think there is only one way to learn something, and if they aren’t good at it, they must not be good at that subject. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a writing instructor, “I saw a lot of students who would dread coming to a writing class and would put off their work for a writing class readily because they had so much fear or anxiety around being able to do it well,” she says. Those issues aren’t unique to the pandemic or this generation of students, though, Beckett says. “Any student who has had a negative experience around their abilities or confidence in a particular subject is going to be less likely to prioritize that subject,” she adds. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;College professors often don’t realize how complicated their assignments can be, Cohn says, or they don’t remember what it was like to first learn the material. Textbooks may use jargon that an expert in the field will understand, but a student new to the topic wouldn’t, she says. She encourages instructors to guide students through a reading by having them answer questions about specific concepts they most need to understand.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Minarik also teaches his students to craft lessons that will demonstrate how to be a good learner. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If a teacher expects students to take copious notes in class, they need to teach their students optimal note-taking practices, he says. They also need to teach how to study, and how to complete homework assignments, he says. They can’t expect students to know any of that right away, he adds. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“If you want an outcome, you need to model how to get to that outcome for your students,” he says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;From the student perspective, Martens says she has a tough time completing assignments when she starts them at home and realizes she didn’t understand what she learned in class as well as she thought. Offering multiple deadlines is helpful, she says — especially with essays — since she can get help on her rough draft and feel more confident about the final one. She also appreciates when a professor leaves time near the end of class for students to start their homework and ask questions if they need help.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The classes Martens is often most engaged in, though, are the ones where she can tell the professor cares deeply about a subject and is engaged with the class, she says. Despite not enjoying English much, when Martens took one of Johnson’s classes, she could tell how excited the professor was to teach the subject, something she says she saw less of in her high school classes after the pandemic.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“All of a sudden I was excited to write essays because Sarah was just like, so excited to talk about writing essays,” Martens says. “That was one of my favorite classes.”&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16047/college_student_struggling_with_homework-1728053025.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16047/college_student_struggling_with_homework-1728053025.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">College Students Are Doing Less Homework. Should Instructors Change How They Assign It?</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Tim Gouw, Unsplash</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>How To Make Someone Not Hate Math</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-03-how-to-make-someone-not-hate-math</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-03-how-to-make-someone-not-hate-math#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Daniel Mollenkamp</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Identity Development</category> <pubDate>Thu, 03 Oct 2024 03:00:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-5024cd46 </guid> <description>How did a popular math teacher’s terminal struggle with ALS impact his students’ interest in math, and whether they perceive themselves as capable in ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Steve Holifield’s breathing was labored. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A respected math teacher at a K-12 public charter school in Apple Valley, California, Holifield was in steep physical decline. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;His students had watched the effects of his disease creep across his body. At first, he stumbled and, his hands weak, relied entirely on teaching assistants to write equations on the board for him. Then, his voice became so feeble he could only be heard with a helpful boost from a microphone. It also amplified his strained breathing and its halting rhythm. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The biggest core memory for me from Holifield’s class is the sound of his heavy breathing, where he would just, like, stop for a good 10 seconds,” Christina Lynn Wallace, a student of his, says more than a decade later. “We just wouldn't hear him take a breath, and then he'd start again and [we’d] be like, ‘Holy shit. Is he gonna die in our classroom?’”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The school put on a festival to &lt;a href="https://www.vvdailypress.com/story/news/2011/05/13/honoring-mr-holifield/37108896007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;fundraise for medical bills&lt;/a&gt; resulting from his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. But within a short span, Holifield would be &lt;a href="https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/vvdailypress/name/steve-holifield-obituary?id=10133704" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;dead&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As the U.S. struggles with math instruction, there’s interest in cultural perceptions about who possesses strong math abilities. The concept that certain people are “bad at math” has come in for criticism as &lt;a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/being-bad-at-math-is-a-pervasive-concept-can-it-be-banished-from-schools/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;racist, sexist, classist, heritable and inaccurate&lt;/a&gt;. It’s of particular concern for reinforcing inequality in lucrative and vital science, technology, engineering and math careers, since the classification can knock students off the path to those positions. Of course, people also apply the label to themselves, too, thanks to both internal and external factors.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Holifield’s demise became a well-known tragedy in the High Desert, a patch of California desert about halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, where he taught at the Academy for Academic Excellence, in part because Holifield was esteemed as a devoted math teacher. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;More than a decade later, I tracked down several of his former students. The lesson I learned: A good teacher seems to make a big difference in how students view their math potential and whether they embrace the “not-mathy” label.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Bedtime Equations&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;I struck out to interview former students of Holifield after becoming EdSurge’s resident math reporter over the past several years. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Frequently, when I interviewed experts about why math students around the country are struggling, those experts would comment that part of the problem lay in the culture. It’s common for anyone, even teachers, to boast that they aren’t a “math person,” in a way that nobody would proudly proclaim about reading, sources explained. In my favorite phrasing of that view: It’s common for parents — no matter their level of education — to take pride in reading bedtime stories to their children. We don’t have to be convinced it’s important because we intuitively feel that it is. But how many parents are &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-08-30-young-kids-in-low-income-families-get-less-exposure-to-math-can-the-right-apps-help" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;performing bedtime equations&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For a long time, I would have said I wasn’t a math person either. Reflecting on my own self-identification, I had a vague sense it had something to do with Holifield’s Algebra II class, which I took in ninth grade. That year, the class watched as his body was ravaged by ALS, and he was replaced, in at least one class, by a substitute teacher who came out of retirement and who didn’t understand the math. I wasn’t particularly mathy before then, but after that, math and I had a no-contact policy that would only reverse late in my college career when I became interested in economics and statistics.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But in checking my memory against others as part of this reporting process, another narrative emerged. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Holifield’s ordeal had not seemed to push many students away from math. The opposite: Holifield himself seemed to have a talent for connecting with students, according to the half-dozen former students I interviewed. That was true even — or perhaps especially — when they didn’t think of themselves as “math people.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“He was a whole person,” says Natalie Snyder, a teacher’s assistant for Holifield shortly before his death. He was skilled at building relationships with students that pulled them into math, regardless of whether they identified as skilled in manipulating numbers, she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And even when Holifield was suddenly dying from ALS, that remained true, she adds. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For Wallace, who remembered his stuttering breaths, Holifield’s decline was upsetting. “I was friends with his daughter, Brianna, so I'm sitting here watching her dad die in front of me,” she says. But that upset didn’t necessarily transfer onto math. “It was traumatic, but not from a scholastic perspective,” she says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That self-perception was deeper and older. Wallace was a non-math person already by the time she took his class, she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wallace has a good memory for numbers, she says. She can recall her debit card number or the security code to a place she stayed a week back, showing that her brain isn’t allergic to numbers. But identifying as a “non-math” person gives her an out for when she feels insecure about solving a math equation. She’s slow with math, she adds, but she’s also a slow reader. While she’s never “felt convicted” about not liking math, she would feel embarrassed about not being a reader, she says.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So revisiting this episode, what most sticks out is that Holifield’s admiring students still felt pulled in by his magnetism. Their own feelings about math could be influenced by a teacher. But they came from somewhere deeper. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This appeared to be true of my own experience, once the memories were knocked loose. My math phobia was older, if originally more mild. Like in many other cases, it was born of a feedback loop. Debilitating anxiety and poor math performance &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-01-24-why-some-students-feel-like-they-can-t-excel-in-math" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;both obstruct learning&lt;/a&gt;, a pattern that was set by the time I reached Holifield’s class. In early middle school, by the time my parents struggled to assist with math homework, I began to compare myself to my maternal grandfather, Aladdin Perkins, a retired electrical engineer who had little patience for dullards. When I once asked him to explain a problem to me, I was in awe. It seemed as though the math poured out of him like a sieve. I figured I was slow in math, and I’d have to look elsewhere to flourish. Less attention to math meant average scores and more distaste for the subject, which never felt practical to me anyway. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the most common way to understand the phenomenon, worrying about math causes a student to avoid it and therefore slows down their improvement in math, &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-01-24-why-some-students-feel-like-they-can-t-excel-in-math" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;according to Colleen Ganley&lt;/a&gt;, an associate professor of developmental psychology at Florida State University. Meanwhile, poor performance feeds the developing anxiety. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So how does someone become a non-math person? People tend to get pushed away from math during adolescence or college, says Dana Miller-Cotto, an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Education. Until third or fourth grade most children see themselves as a math person, she says. Younger children tend to overestimate their ability, but by that time they start to compare themselves to others. That’s about the time that the “implicit messages” those students receive from parents and teachers — who may respond more favorably to some students than others by, say, calling on some more often, or who may express a distaste for math — tend to take hold, she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But in a sense, American culture values qualities it affiliates with math too much. For some reason, it’s a common belief that everyone who goes into fields such as math, economics or computer science is brilliant, probably in part because those fields are financially rewarding, Miller-Cotto says. Some students seem to pick up a misconception that math is a knack instead of a process, she adds. Those who go into these high-paying fields must be inherently smart. It goes along with a belief that being good at math means you get every answer correct, she says. It’s as if those people were born with a calculator in their head, rather than simply being engaged in performing math a lot.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ultimately, that seems to push away students — especially &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-01-26-encouraging-black-girls-to-bring-a-bold-voice-to-mathematics" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;women and Black students&lt;/a&gt; — by making them feel they don’t belong to the “math community,” Miller-Cotto says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But what about how students think about themselves? Some &lt;a href="https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cdev.12363" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;studies&lt;/a&gt; have suggested that how well a student does in math indirectly affects whether they see themselves as competent in it. What really matters, in this view, is how interested they are in math and how much external recognition they get. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Miller-Cotto suggests that teachers have a lot of influence. It’s important to ensure messages or opportunities to engage in math are equal for everyone they teach, she says. It’s not about telling every student they are a math person, she says, but in finding ways to engage students more. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Using this view, according to his former students, Holifield was an expert at generating interest and giving validation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But for his students, the shelf-life of that interest varied. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tracking Math Identities&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Snyder, Holifield’s former teaching assistant, says she identifies as a non-math person. By the time she reached fourth grade, she perceived herself as having “weak” math skills. Part of the problem was that she hadn’t memorized her times tables, which made her feel slow in math class. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That caused insecurity, she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Still, Holifield helped make math practical for her when she took Algebra II with him, she says. He explained how math was useful for real jobs, such as those who test the level of land for construction or create maps, and how as students they could already perform that math. It was fun, she recalls. But more than that, he was attentive and made her feel that math was valuable. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But a case of “senioritis” caused her to drop out of high school calculus. In college, she had limited exposure to math. She started studying organic chemistry but became overwhelmed, and she stopped out of higher ed altogether. She later picked up a degree in public administration from Chico State, a four-year university in California.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Felisha Cullum had a favorable view of her math talent. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cullum took Algebra II and trigonometry with Holifield, who even helped her to become a math tutor, one of her first jobs. She started calculus, but that was the “year he got really bad,” and the class was switched over part-way through to another teacher, once he was medically retired. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cullum dropped out of calculus after that semester. Eventually, she picked up a graduate degree in clinical mental health counseling from George Fox University, a private Christian college in Oregon, and now works as a play therapy program instructor.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another former teacher’s assistant, Kreddow Feskens, went further in her math journey. She describes herself as a “math brain.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Feskens actually declared herself a math major in college. She says that was because of Holifield’s influence. She had taken Algebra I, Algebra II and calculus with him. With the benefit of years of reflection, she says that her interest in math came not from her own innate talent with numbers but from his encouragement. She grew up in a strict household where performing your best was crucial, and Holifield was encouraging and lighthearted and always made her feel like she was her best self, she says. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the Holifield effect wore off, and Feskens switched her major from math to business, because she thought it would be more practical. These days, she’s a recruiter, and she no longer would describe herself as a math person per se. She thrives with algebra or calculus still, the classes she had Holifield for, but she can struggle with simpler math. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a former student of Holifield and now a journalist who covers math, I was hit by how responsive people’s beliefs about themselves seem to be. Without encouragement from a gifted teacher, even those who were prone to like math got pulled away from it. Once they were, the identity set in, making it harder to go back to learning math. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, they look back fondly on Holifield.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As an adult, Feskens says she hopes Holifield understood the depth of his impact. She helped organize the school's fundraising event when his disease became advanced, called “Holifalooza.” They didn’t raise much money — perhaps $100 or so — she recalls, but she hopes it left an impression on the man.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I wish more people were able to experience his teaching,” she says, “and I wish there were more teachers like him.”&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16010/Screenshot_2024-1727901668.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16010/Screenshot_2024-1727901668.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">How To Make Someone Not Hate Math</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Photo By ABB Photo/ Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>For Latino Students, the Fear of Being Left Behind in AI and STEM Jobs</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-02-for-latino-students-the-fear-of-being-left-behind-in-ai-and-stem-jobs</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-02-for-latino-students-the-fear-of-being-left-behind-in-ai-and-stem-jobs#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Nadia Tamez-Robledo</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Policy and Government</category> <category>STEM</category> <category>Workforce Training</category> <category>Diversity and Equity</category> <pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2024 01:00:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-49e3f13b </guid> <description>Latino students are one of the fast-growing demographics in K-12 education, but will that translate into them becoming leaders — or at least ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Latino children make up one of the fastest-growing demographics in K-12 education. Yet few are likely to grow up and establish careers in technology. For them, there’s obviously a leak somewhere in the school-to-jobs pipeline. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just &lt;a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91047942/latinos-still-only-account-for-1-in-10-tech-workers" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;one in 10&lt;/a&gt; tech workers are Latino, and while Latino college students are &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-04-16-what-can-colleges-do-better-to-help-latino-students-succeed" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;choosing STEM fields in college more frequently&lt;/a&gt;, they earn only about &lt;a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2021/04/01/stem-jobs-see-uneven-progress-in-increasing-gender-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/#:~:text=The%20share%20of%20Hispanic%20college,graduates%20(15%)%20in%202018." target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;12 percent&lt;/a&gt; of undergraduate degrees awarded in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Federal data shows that K-12 schools with high percentages of Hispanic students &lt;a href="https://www.k12dive.com/news/black-latino-access-stem-courses-civil-rights-data-collection/716794/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;offer fewer STEM courses&lt;/a&gt; than schools with lower proportions of Hispanic kids. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Reporter Nadia Tamez-Robledo recently moderated a panel of tech experts at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s annual conference to talk about why Latinos are still lagging in science education and what it’s going to take to make sure they don’t get left behind — particularly in the fast-growing AI industry. Read the top takeaways below. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Why Is Increasing Latinos in STEM Important? &lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Diana Logreira is web program manager at the NASA Science Mission Directorate, which studies Earth from space. She said the organization is trying to increase Latino interest in science through initiatives like a partnership with Arizona State University to create K-12 science activities, and the effort is part of their overall mission to drive innovation. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“We need to involve more underrepresented communities in our programs and missions and our research, so what we've been doing is trying to figure out how we can plug in our content into those communities,” Logreira said. “For us, innovation is a must, and there is a lot of research that shows that diversity is related and connected to the efficiency of innovation and scientific discovery.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maria Guedez is senior vice president of business development and technology at Denbury, an oil and gas company owned by Exxon Mobil. She said that with Latinos making up &lt;a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/10/07/hispanic-enrollment-reaches-new-high-at-four-year-colleges-in-the-u-s-but-affordability-remains-an-obstacle/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;20 percent&lt;/a&gt; of college students, they are the company’s future workforce. She believes they will help it both continue to be an energy provider and leverage technology to combat climate change. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“Making sure they understand, that they see themselves reflected in the space and in the possibilities of how they can play a role [is important],” Guedez said. “At Exxon Mobil, we've been committed for many years to feeding that pipeline.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She said that industry partnerships with schools will be “critical” to increasing the share of Latinos entering science and technology jobs, and one way her company does that is by sending its own scientists to do demonstrations in schools. Part of the goal is to broaden what types of careers students can pursue in the sciences. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“They think of it in a very narrow sense, and sometimes they don't have a reference point of what that looks like,” Guedez said. “They might not have anybody in their families or in their circle that have been in STEM careers, so [school partnerships are] bridging that representation and providing an opportunity for them to see what it actually means to take a career in engineering, math, science.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Noel Candelaria, secretary-treasurer of the National Education Association, pointed to statistics that show Latinos accounted for more than &lt;a href="https://www.latintimes.com/latinos-accounted-over-90-us-population-growth-since-beginning-pandemic-557448" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;90 percent&lt;/a&gt; of U.S. population growth since the start of the pandemic, and that they will make up &lt;a href="https://blog.dol.gov/2021/09/15/hispanics-in-the-labor-force-5-facts" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;78 percent&lt;/a&gt; of new workers by 2030. Those figures are reasons why Latino students need to be engaged in tech classes and career pathways, he explained. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“We want to make sure that the new workforce is in advanced technologies,” Candelaria said, “not just the service industry — [in] which we have been pigeonholed as a community for decades — but that we're actually the ones that are leading in this space.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;What Are the Challenges to Increasing Latinos in STEM? &lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Isabella Elvir-Ray, program management director at Salesforce, said one of the steps to advancing Latinos in technology is to change the way the community thinks about artificial intelligence.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“When we hear the word AI, most of us fear it,” Elvir-Ray said. “How do we remove that fear out of AI — the sense that it will replace humans?”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In her experience, young Latinos like her 14-year-old son are excited about AI and want opportunities to use it in school. That enthusiasm should be tapped. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I think that is the topic of this conversation: How do we merge technologies into our educational system for the underrepresented minorities?” Elvir-Ray said. “Especially [encouraging] our Latino community to embrace these technologies, because they have embraced these technologies at an early stage in their life.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Candelaria said the National Education Association has published &lt;a href="https://www.nea.org/resource-library/artificial-intelligence-education" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;guidance on its website&lt;/a&gt; about “equitably and justly bringing AI into our schools, into our classrooms.” Schools still need expertise from industry professionals in their communities on how to ensure their students get the most out of the fast-growing technology. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“One thing that our members kept telling us for the last couple of years is, ‘This is here and now, and we need help,’” Candelaria said of artificial intelligence. That means help “making sure that we're looking at how we're bringing AI into the classrooms, making sure that we're adequately funding our public schools to not only have the software and the hardware, but &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-08-03-how-schools-are-coaching-or-coaxing-teachers-to-use-chatgpt" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;the training that is needed by educators&lt;/a&gt;.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Beyond having a roadmap for teaching AI content, Candelaria said that infrastructure, internet connectivity and attracting tech-savvy teachers are also major needs for ensuring that Latino students have STEM education options. It’s difficult to retrofit schools that are 100 years old for modern classrooms, he added, and rural students in particular need help with &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-09-24-to-address-the-homework-gap-is-it-time-to-revamp-federal-connectivity-programs" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;access to the internet at home&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“We're seeing record numbers of Latino students coming into our rural communities, a lot of them who are immigrating to this country for the very first time and don't have the [internet] infrastructure,” Candelaria said. “It doesn't help if we're able to connect our schools [but] we're not able to connect them in the community. If we're not doing that, then we're gonna be leaving all of our students behind, especially in Latino communities, who overwhelmingly — 90-plus percent of them — attend our public schools.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;The Need for Mentorship&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another theme that emerged from the panel was how mentorship played a role in the panelists’ journey into tech careers. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Guedez said she had a relative who worked in the oil and gas industry, and who told her about the type of careers that pursuing engineering could bring her. She’s had mentors throughout her nearly two decades at Exxon Mobil, including access to nearly 2,000 members of the company’s Latino employee group. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Elvir-Ray said that, as an undergrad, she chose a degree in information management systems “because I had said to myself, ‘I'm not smart enough to do [computer] programming.’” It was an unexpected opportunity to do an IT internship at Fannie Mae that changed her mentality. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“From that moment, I was hooked because I understood that being in IT wasn't only about programming,” she said. “I thought, ‘I can't just be in a corner typing code.’ I'm a social person, and what this internship showed me was that there were other types of careers in IT where you can deal with customers, you can deal with people.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Logreira said she and other members of the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Hispanic employee group volunteer their time to join their HR colleagues at conferences and campus visits where Latino students are going to be as part of increasing the visibility of Latinos in tech. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“We are trying to create that mentality that, ‘We can do it,’” Logreira said. “The fact that I'm here today, I have to say, somebody at some point realized that I had something to bring to the table.” &lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16045/ai_students-1727820294.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16045/ai_students-1727820294.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">For Latino Students, the Fear of Being Left Behind in AI and STEM Jobs</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">GoodStudio / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>A Teaching Mentor Once Told Me: ‘Our Ancestors Want Us to Rest’</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-02-a-teaching-mentor-once-told-me-our-ancestors-want-us-to-rest</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-02-a-teaching-mentor-once-told-me-our-ancestors-want-us-to-rest#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Edgar Miguel Grajeda</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Identity Development</category> <category>Well-Being</category> <pubDate>Wed, 02 Oct 2024 01:00:00 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-60b131ab </guid> <description>“One of the greatest challenges I face as an educator is that the very qualities that drive me to succeed — my work ethic, my ambition, my desire to ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;My colleagues, friends and family often praise my relentless pursuit of excellence, especially in my teaching career. But what they don’t always see is the weight behind that drive — the pressure I feel to prove myself and the deep sense of responsibility I feel to create systemic change for my students. Even after surpassing many of my professional goals, an unsettling feeling lingers — a persistent voice telling me that it’s still not enough. That burden, I carry quietly, and often alone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;My journey into teaching was born from a deep-seated curiosity about the transformative power of education and a drive for social justice. To create the change I envisioned, I focused on becoming the best teacher I could be. From the start, I was never content with just meeting expectations — I was determined to surpass them. I’ve earned two master’s degrees, received a Fulbright scholarship and participated in several prestigious education fellowships. However, these achievements, while significant, never seem to quiet the internal voice that insists on pushing for the next big thing. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I’ve come to realize that this restlessness and the pressures I place on myself are not just personal quirks, but are deeply intertwined with my identity as a formerly undocumented student and now a first-generation Latinx professional. My identity, coupled with the ever-present &lt;a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-mar-12-ss-7996-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;shadow of negative stereotypes&lt;/a&gt; about Latino families not valuing education, has driven me to constantly prove, to others and to myself, that I am worthy of being a teacher and capable of helping my students thrive. This feeling has become consuming and has contributed to mounting anxiety and the early stages of burnout. Yet, this drive has been a double-edged sword. It has also led me to feel empowered and proud, knowing that I can make a meaningful difference in the lives of my students. Teaching brings me immense joy and a deep sense of purpose, reminding me why I chose this path in the first place. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This realization has left me wondering how I, as an educator of color, can navigate the pressure I feel to overachieve, while maintaining a healthy relationship with my identity, my work and my well-being?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Reflecting on the stress I feel, I am brought back to my own experiences navigating the American K-12 system as an immigrant student. My family immigrated to the United States from Guadalajara, Mexico when I was 11 years old, and my memories of schooling in America are colored by episodes of anxiety and shame. I was often made to feel inferior by peers and sometimes even teachers because of my parents' level of formal education, my struggles with language acquisition, and the reality that I came from a working-class family. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even more troubling were the instances of discrimination I faced from educators who lacked cultural competence — like the AP English teacher I had in my senior year of high school who told me I didn’t belong in his class because I had only been speaking English for a few years or the counselor who, when I confided in her about my undocumented status while seeking help with college applications, dismissed me outright, admitting she didn't know how to assist me and making no effort to find a solution.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These experiences left me feeling like a traveler on a dark road, with nothing to light the way. The lack of Latino male role models in my own K-12 education only compounded this sense of isolation. Despite attending high school in Los Angeles County, which has a &lt;a href="https://ctsi.ucla.edu/los-angeles-county-diversity" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;diverse population&lt;/a&gt; including 49 percent of residents who identify as Hispanic / Latino, I never had a Latino male teacher. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These formative experiences were pivotal in my decision to become a teacher. I entered the profession with a burning desire to counteract the negativity I had encountered, to help my students discover their potential, and to serve as a positive role model for them. Today, I teach at an elementary school where more than 65 percent of the students identify as Hispanic / Latino. Teaching them is an immense privilege, one that I do not take lightly. I am acutely aware that Latino students, who are so &lt;a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/latino-students-will-soon-be-30-of-all-public-school-enrollment-now-what/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;often underserved by the education system&lt;/a&gt;, deserve a teacher who goes above and beyond for them. This awareness contributes to the weight I feel — pressure to be the perfect teacher, to shatter &lt;a href="https://www.sjsu.edu/people/marcos.pizarro/courses/215/s0/ValenciaBlack.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;stereotypes&lt;/a&gt; and to prove that as an immigrant and an English language learner, I am good enough.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of the greatest challenges I face as an educator is that the very qualities that drive me to succeed — my work ethic, my ambition, my desire to create systemic change — are also the ones that have led me down a path of anxiety and burnout. Throughout my career, I have seen many teachers leave the profession, worn down by the demands of the job and the lack of recognition. I believed that the key to avoiding this fate was to focus on growth and impact. I set my sights on leadership roles. I sacrificed sleep, leisure, and, at times, my health, all in the name of becoming the best version of myself so I could serve my students and for the community I represent.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Recently, I found myself at a breaking point. The end of the last school year brought with it a wave of anxiety that I could no longer ignore. Despite the accolades and accomplishments, I still felt like an impostor, plagued by the thought that my success was due to luck rather than hard work. My ambitions began to feel like a checklist, devoid of the passion that had once fueled them. As the school year drew to a close, I realized that I needed to step back and reassess. I had been chasing the approval of others, trying to prove my worth, when in reality, I was responding to the deeply ingrained &lt;a href="https://www.colorado.edu/center/teaching-learning/inclusivity/stereotype-threat" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;stereotype threats&lt;/a&gt; that had followed me throughout my life.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Recognizing this turning point, I pressed pause and carved out some time to reflect. This summer, I allowed myself to rest — to step back from constantly trying to achieve and instead, created space to reconnect with myself. I traveled back to Mexico and spent my days journaling and meditating in nature. Reflecting on my journey, I remembered my "why" and my joy of teaching. I started to practice gratitude by acknowledging my efforts and accepting that it's okay to take a break sometimes. I reached out to friends, family, my partner and mentors, and talked to them about some of the stress I was feeling. Most importantly, I allowed myself to relax and have fun.&lt;/p&gt;Edgar Grajeda in Mexico. Courtesy of Edgar Grajeda.&lt;p&gt;When I got home, I thought a lot about the power of pressing pause and considered the lessons I’d learned. By giving myself permission to engage in joyful experiences myself, I felt better able to model the importance of joy for my students. By reconnecting with my passion for teaching, I felt well positioned to demonstrate a deep love of learning for them. And for myself, I began to understand that I did not need to prove my intelligence or worth to anyone. I have always been enough. My strength does not lie in the titles I hold or the awards I accumulate, but in my ability to practice &lt;a href="https://withinhealth.com/learn/articles/what-is-radical-self-love" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;radical self-love&lt;/a&gt; and acceptance. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As I started school this fall, I’ve carried these lessons with me. I’ve reminded myself that I am no longer an immigrant student struggling to prove his worth in the classroom. I am now a teacher who models for my students the importance of embracing their humanity, feeling confident in their identity, and celebrating their accomplishments without fear of judgment.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A mentor once shared with me a piece of wisdom that has stayed with me: “Our ancestors want us to rest.” These words resonated deeply, reminding me of the importance of balance in life. As educators, we often preach the value of work-life balance, yet we frequently fail to apply this wisdom to ourselves. We let our aspirations overshadow our need for self-care, but that is unsustainable. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On my trip, I had a moment when it all came together for me. As I sat on my hotel balcony, overlooking the mountains in Oaxaca as the sun set, I finally understood the importance of rest. I have achieved much, but my greatest area of growth has been learning to value myself, not for what I can accomplish, but for who I am. In doing so, I hope to inspire my students to do the same.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16004/korkeng_Shutterstock-1727190578.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16004/korkeng_Shutterstock-1727190578.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">A Teaching Mentor Once Told Me: ‘Our Ancestors Want Us to Rest’</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">korkeng / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> <item> <title>Inside an Effort to Build an AI Assistant for Designing Course Materials</title> <link>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-01-inside-an-effort-to-build-an-ai-assistant-for-designing-course-materials</link> <comments>https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-10-01-inside-an-effort-to-build-an-ai-assistant-for-designing-course-materials#comments</comments> <dc:creator>Jeffrey R. Young</dc:creator> <category>Education</category> <category>Technology</category> <category>EdSurge Podcast</category> <category>Teaching and Learning</category> <category>Technology Trends</category> <category>Instructional Trends</category> <pubDate>Tue, 01 Oct 2024 05:20:55 -0700</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false"> post-guid-075eb890 </guid> <description>AI INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER?: Over the past few months, a group of educators has been designing and testing a system that uses ChatGPT to serve as an ...</description> <content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;There’s a push among AI developers to &lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2024-06-04-should-chatbots-tutor-dissecting-that-viral-ai-demo-with-sal-khan-and-his-son" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;create an AI tutor&lt;/a&gt;, and some see that as a key use case for tools like ChatGPT. But one longtime edtech expert sees an even better fit for new AI chatbots in education: helping educators design course materials for their students.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/4tOVpjPhhHoGOKSCoIutBw" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-an-effort-to-build-an-ai-assistant-for/id972239500?i=1000671418334" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.edsurge.com/research/guides/the-edsurge-on-air-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;So all year Michael Feldstein has been leading a project to build an AI assistant that’s focused on learning design. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After all, these days colleges and other education institutions are hiring a growing number of human instructional designers to help create or improve teaching materials — especially as colleges have developed more online classes and programs. And people in those roles follow a playbook for helping subject-matter experts (the teachers they work with) organize their material into a series of compelling learning activities that will get students the required knowledge and skills on a given subject. Feldstein thinks new AI chatbots might be uniquely suited to guiding instructors through the early stages of that learning-design process.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He calls his system the AI Learning Design Assistant, or &lt;a href="https://eliterate.us/ai-learning-design-workshop-see-and-try-the-alda-rapid-prototype/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;ALDA&lt;/a&gt;. And for months he has been leading a series of workshops through which more than 70 educators have tried versions of the tool and given feedback. He says he’s built a new version of the system about every month for the past five months incorporating the input he’s received. He argues that if AI could serve as an effective instructional design assistant, it could help colleges significantly reduce the time it takes to create courses.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Feldstein is not completely convinced it will work, though, so he says he has invited plenty of people to test it who are skeptical of the idea. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The question is, can AI do that?” he says. “Can we create an AI learning design assistant that interviews the human educator, asks the questions and gathers the information that the educator has in their heads about the important elements of the teaching interaction and then generates a first draft?”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;EdSurge has been checking in with Feldstein over the past few months as he’s gone through this design process. And he’s shared what has gone well — and where early ideas fell flat. You can hear highlights of those conversations on this week’s EdSurge Podcast.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even if it turns out that AI isn’t a fit to help build courses, Feldstein says the project is yielding lessons about where generative AI tools can help educators do their jobs better. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Check it out on &lt;a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5Omg7s9kRYFgt4jEynpdoL?si=rfUzBmV6QS6VsHTUqYKdHA&amp;amp;nd=1&amp;amp;dlsi=5e435274babc45d1" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Spotify&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/edsurge-podcast/id972239500" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;Apple Podcasts&lt;/a&gt;, or on the player below.&lt;/p&gt;</content:encoded> <media:thumbnail url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16011/AI_learning_design-1727784149.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=400&amp;h=200&amp;fit=crop"/> <media:content url="https://edsurge.imgix.net/uploads/post/image/16011/AI_learning_design-1727784149.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1600&amp;h=800&amp;fit=crop" medium="image"> <media:description type="plain">Inside an Effort to Build an AI Assistant for Designing Course Materials</media:description> <media:credit role="author" scheme="urn:ebu">Nichcha / Shutterstock</media:credit> </media:content> </item> </channel> </rss>