Southwest Virginia Blogs

I think there are some interesting new job opportunities that are going to emerge in the next ten years, and one would hope K12 schools and colleges start now with new and revised curriculums to meet demand.

The first hot job is going to language specialist. Linguists who can speak at least four languages and ideally six or more are going to be able to write their own ticket in the work world, and will be able to command high dollar salaries. As the world economy continues to heat up, more and more businesses are going to be able to grow only by expanding into international markets, where they will have to be able to speak languages other than English. If six languages sounds like a lot, it really is not. Once you get past three, it is pretty easy. Languages that are going to be important include Chinese, Japanese, and Russian, among others.

The other hot job is going to be information manager. Traditionally, "information management" has been relegated to IT departments, where geeks build complicated databases and systems that usually require users to cram information into often convoluted and rigid formats, because that is the way IT people think. The new information manager will NOT be part of an IT department, but will work alongside business managers, salespeople, and project team members to keep information flowing between team members and clients. The information manager will have a high degree of skill using a wide variety of information tools, and will be able to craft custom solutions for individual projects using lots of off the shelf applications and judicious (and limited) use of scripts and small amounts of programming. This job will be the antithesis of the IT department approach to information management.

How about your local schools? Are they looking ten to twenty years ahead and trying to identify where job demand is going to create opportunities and needs? If not, why not?

I think there are some interesting new job opportunities that are going to emerge in the next ten years, and one would hope K12 schools and colleges start now with new and revised curriculums to meet demand.

The first hot job is going to language specialist. Linguists who can speak at least four languages and ideally six or more are going to be able to write their own ticket in the work world, and will be able to command high dollar salaries. As the world economy continues to heat up, more and more businesses are going to be able to grow only by expanding into international markets, where they will have to be able to speak languages other than English. If six languages sounds like a lot, it really is not. Once you get past three, it is pretty easy. Languages that are going to be important include Chinese, Japanese, and Russian, among others.

The other hot job is going to be information manager. Traditionally, "information management" has been relegated to IT departments, where geeks build complicated databases and systems that usually require users to cram information into often convoluted and rigid formats, because that is the way IT people think. The new information manager will NOT be part of an IT department, but will work alongside business managers, salespeople, and project team members to keep information flowing between team members and clients. The information manager will have a high degree of skill using a wide variety of information tools, and will be able to craft custom solutions for individual projects using lots of off the shelf applications and judicious (and limited) use of scripts and small amounts of programming. This job will be the antithesis of the IT department approach to information management.

How about your local schools? Are they looking ten to twenty years ahead and trying to identify where job demand is going to create opportunities and needs? If not, why not?

I think there are some interesting new job opportunities that are going to emerge in the next ten years, and one would hope K12 schools and colleges start now with new and revised curriculums to meet demand.

The first hot job is going to language specialist. Linguists who can speak at least four languages and ideally six or more are going to be able to write their own ticket in the work world, and will be able to command high dollar salaries. As the world economy continues to heat up, more and more businesses are going to be able to grow only by expanding into international markets, where they will have to be able to speak languages other than English. If six languages sounds like a lot, it really is not. Once you get past three, it is pretty easy. Languages that are going to be important include Chinese, Japanese, and Russian, among others.

The other hot job is going to be information manager. Traditionally, "information management" has been relegated to IT departments, where geeks build complicated databases and systems that usually require users to cram information into often convoluted and rigid formats, because that is the way IT people think. The new information manager will NOT be part of an IT department, but will work alongside business managers, salespeople, and project team members to keep information flowing between team members and clients. The information manager will have a high degree of skill using a wide variety of information tools, and will be able to craft custom solutions for individual projects using lots of off the shelf applications and judicious (and limited) use of scripts and small amounts of programming. This job will be the antithesis of the IT department approach to information management.

How about your local schools? Are they looking ten to twenty years ahead and trying to identify where job demand is going to create opportunities and needs? If not, why not?

I think there are some interesting new job opportunities that are going to emerge in the next ten years, and one would hope K12 schools and colleges start now with new and revised curriculums to meet demand.

The first hot job is going to language specialist. Linguists who can speak at least four languages and ideally six or more are going to be able to write their own ticket in the work world, and will be able to command high dollar salaries. As the world economy continues to heat up, more and more businesses are going to be able to grow only by expanding into international markets, where they will have to be able to speak languages other than English. If six languages sounds like a lot, it really is not. Once you get past three, it is pretty easy. Languages that are going to be important include Chinese, Japanese, and Russian, among others.

The other hot job is going to be information manager. Traditionally, "information management" has been relegated to IT departments, where geeks build complicated databases and systems that usually require users to cram information into often convoluted and rigid formats, because that is the way IT people think. The new information manager will NOT be part of an IT department, but will work alongside business managers, salespeople, and project team members to keep information flowing between team members and clients. The information manager will have a high degree of skill using a wide variety of information tools, and will be able to craft custom solutions for individual projects using lots of off the shelf applications and judicious (and limited) use of scripts and small amounts of programming. This job will be the antithesis of the IT department approach to information management.

How about your local schools? Are they looking ten to twenty years ahead and trying to identify where job demand is going to create opportunities and needs? If not, why not?

I am attending the Rural Telecommunications Congress Annual Conference, and as usual, it is loaded with excellent speakers. The opening keynote was presented by two representatives of the EAST (Environmental and Spatial Technologies) education program. EAST may be the most innovative approach to K12 education in the country. Typically offered as a year long class in high school, EAST students are presented with real community problems and issues and are told to solve them.

To help them do this, a typical EAST classroom has $700,000 in hardware and software, purchased from participating vendors for about ten cents on the dollar. EAST students are given no training on any of these systems, because it is literally impossible to train teachers to be competent in such a wide array of systems. Instead, EAST students are expected to figure out how to use the systems themselves and to work together to use them as part of the class projects.

And indeed, it is expectations that sets the EAST program apart. Students are not given an option to drift along through the class. Instead, EAST sets high expectations in terms of time, commitment, and effort from day one. The EAST classroom more closely resembles a business work place, and has the kinds of software and systems used by businesses. The program focuses on students being in charge of their own learning and growth. EAST teachers are facilitators and managers. EAST teachers don't regard students as empty vessels into which to pour measured chunks of memorized "knowledge."

An EAST project described in the talk involved going out into rural Arkansas and conducting a door to door survey of households to assess broadband availability. Students then created sophisticated GIS maps to show the actual patterns of broadband availability and use, as opposed to the FCC method of simply saying a zip code area has broadband if an incumbent can deliver service to a single subscriber.

EAST programs are in 225 schools in five states, but the program started in Arkansas, where more than 145 schools use the EAST program. After hearing about EAST, I have only one question: "Why doesn't every school in America have an EAST program?"

I am attending the Rural Telecommunications Congress Annual Conference, and as usual, it is loaded with excellent speakers. The opening keynote was presented by two representatives of the EAST (Environmental and Spatial Technologies) education program. EAST may be the most innovative approach to K12 education in the country. Typically offered as a year long class in high school, EAST students are presented with real community problems and issues and are told to solve them.

To help them do this, a typical EAST classroom has $700,000 in hardware and software, purchased from participating vendors for about ten cents on the dollar. EAST students are given no training on any of these systems, because it is literally impossible to train teachers to be competent in such a wide array of systems. Instead, EAST students are expected to figure out how to use the systems themselves and to work together to use them as part of the class projects.

And indeed, it is expectations that sets the EAST program apart. Students are not given an option to drift along through the class. Instead, EAST sets high expectations in terms of time, commitment, and effort from day one. The EAST classroom more closely resembles a business work place, and has the kinds of software and systems used by businesses. The program focuses on students being in charge of their own learning and growth. EAST teachers are facilitators and managers. EAST teachers don't regard students as empty vessels into which to pour measured chunks of memorized "knowledge."

An EAST project described in the talk involved going out into rural Arkansas and conducting a door to door survey of households to assess broadband availability. Students then created sophisticated GIS maps to show the actual patterns of broadband availability and use, as opposed to the FCC method of simply saying a zip code area has broadband if an incumbent can deliver service to a single subscriber.

EAST programs are in 225 schools in five states, but the program started in Arkansas, where more than 145 schools use the EAST program. After hearing about EAST, I have only one question: "Why doesn't every school in America have an EAST program?"

I am attending the Rural Telecommunications Congress Annual Conference, and as usual, it is loaded with excellent speakers. The opening keynote was presented by two representatives of the EAST (Environmental and Spatial Technologies) education program. EAST may be the most innovative approach to K12 education in the country. Typically offered as a year long class in high school, EAST students are presented with real community problems and issues and are told to solve them.

To help them do this, a typical EAST classroom has $700,000 in hardware and software, purchased from participating vendors for about ten cents on the dollar. EAST students are given no training on any of these systems, because it is literally impossible to train teachers to be competent in such a wide array of systems. Instead, EAST students are expected to figure out how to use the systems themselves and to work together to use them as part of the class projects.

And indeed, it is expectations that sets the EAST program apart. Students are not given an option to drift along through the class. Instead, EAST sets high expectations in terms of time, commitment, and effort from day one. The EAST classroom more closely resembles a business work place, and has the kinds of software and systems used by businesses. The program focuses on students being in charge of their own learning and growth. EAST teachers are facilitators and managers. EAST teachers don't regard students as empty vessels into which to pour measured chunks of memorized "knowledge."

An EAST project described in the talk involved going out into rural Arkansas and conducting a door to door survey of households to assess broadband availability. Students then created sophisticated GIS maps to show the actual patterns of broadband availability and use, as opposed to the FCC method of simply saying a zip code area has broadband if an incumbent can deliver service to a single subscriber.

EAST programs are in 225 schools in five states, but the program started in Arkansas, where more than 145 schools use the EAST program. After hearing about EAST, I have only one question: "Why doesn't every school in America have an EAST program?"

Henrico County, Virginia, has garnered national attention for its program of giving laptops to kids once they reach sixth grade. But if the school system is not prepared to truly transform the teaching and learning process, the results may not be what we expect. In this article, at least one mother made her daughter give the laptop back because it had become a time waster for the girl and her grades had dropped.

It is easy to blame it on kids spending too much time chatting and goofing off on online Web sites, but those are only symptoms of the real problem. I can take some of the blame for all this, as the Blacksburg Electronic Village project helped our county schools become the first school system in the country to have broadband to every school and to become the first school system in the country to have broadband in every classroom. Since then I have worked on many other K12 technology projects--all with the best of intentions, but the results have been mixed at best.

Teaching kids is a complext process that requires years of experience, and you can't just drop a few computers into the middle of a centuries old way of doing things and expect magical results. I have learned that the hard way. In my experience, it is school administrators that are most often at fault. They are eager to win grants and push technology into the classroom; it looks good to parents and to elected leaders that decide school budgets.

But those same administrators are often much less enthusiastic about actually rolling up their sleeves, working side by side with teachers, and trying to figure out what changes need to be made to really leverage the promise of all this technology. And there is what I call the "five percent problem." Dump a bunch of technology into a school, and under any circumstances, you will have about five percent of teachers who are motivated to dig in and do amazing things with the stuff. Those "five percent" projects become the poster children for technology in the classroom. They are used to say, "See what great stuff all this is!"

But those five percenters are the exception, not the rule. Most teachers need a lot of help and support from the top down to get comparable results, and it usually is not there. So while computer manufacturers make money selling computers to schools, our kids are still learning the same old way. If your school district wants money for technology efforts, ask some hard questions about how administrators intend to support teachers with good tech support, appropriate learning resources, and assistance with curriculum changes.

This is just one of several stories I have seen recently about K12 students who have their own blogs and get censured by K12 school officials. Student blogs are now common, and school systems have failed to adapt to the new reality. It clearly unnerves some school administrators that students now have a public forum completely independent of the school system. In the old days, students with a bent for writing worked on the school paper, which was monitored by a faculty member.

But today, students have blogs on MySpace, Xanga, and hundreds of other blog services. To be fair, parents have not always kept up with the times either; students are often posting too much personal information on their blogs, making them vulnerable to stalkers, sex offenders, or just other kids with a grudge. But the problem the schools have is actually just a free speech issue. Kids are writing about their dissatisfaction with a teacher or administrator, and schools are overreacting by labeling such writing as "threats" and punishing the student by suspension or expulsion.

Often the writing seems relatively innocuous, as it does in the case I linked to above--a Chicago area student who felt harrassed about having a blog. The school system is now trying to expel him. However puerile the writing may be, school officials have little control over what students do outside of school hours. The tactic most schools seem to be using is to call the writing a "threat" to school safety, but in the absence of something specific, it is not a threat just to express one's dissatisfaction with school officials. These overreactions often end up as free speech lawsuits, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars, with the schools usually on the losing end. School administrators need to take a deep breath and think outside the box a little.

My suggestion: Integrate blogging into English and writing classes. Teach kids what is appropriate, teach them good blogging writing styles, and encourage kids to write using these new tools. How about your school system? Have they used blog tools to help teach writing?

This is just one of several stories I have seen recently about K12 students who have their own blogs and get censured by K12 school officials. Student blogs are now common, and school systems have failed to adapt to the new reality. It clearly unnerves some school administrators that students now have a public forum completely independent of the school system. In the old days, students with a bent for writing worked on the school paper, which was monitored by a faculty member.

But today, students have blogs on MySpace, Xanga, and hundreds of other blog services. To be fair, parents have not always kept up with the times either; students are often posting too much personal information on their blogs, making them vulnerable to stalkers, sex offenders, or just other kids with a grudge. But the problem the schools have is actually just a free speech issue. Kids are writing about their dissatisfaction with a teacher or administrator, and schools are overreacting by labeling such writing as "threats" and punishing the student by suspension or expulsion.

Often the writing seems relatively innocuous, as it does in the case I linked to above--a Chicago area student who felt harrassed about having a blog. The school system is now trying to expel him. However puerile the writing may be, school officials have little control over what students do outside of school hours. The tactic most schools seem to be using is to call the writing a "threat" to school safety, but in the absence of something specific, it is not a threat just to express one's dissatisfaction with school officials. These overreactions often end up as free speech lawsuits, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars, with the schools usually on the losing end. School administrators need to take a deep breath and think outside the box a little.

My suggestion: Integrate blogging into English and writing classes. Teach kids what is appropriate, teach them good blogging writing styles, and encourage kids to write using these new tools. How about your school system? Have they used blog tools to help teach writing?

According to this USA Today story, teachers are finding that WiFi and laptops in the classroom is a mixed bag of results.

Students are coming to class, flipping their laptop computers open, and going shopping, among other activities observed by teachers. They are also answering email, chatting, downloading music, and doing anything but learning.

We're raising the Distracted Generation....kids and young adults so fixated on a steady flow of distracting digital bits--music, conversation, video, text, images--that they are having trouble learning and working. Even the 2008 presidential candidates are dispensing advice on the topic, with Hillary Clinton chiding Generation Y members for being "lazy."

I think all this will sort itself out eventually, but we can't just hand our young people all these devices and then walk away. We have to provide some guidance and supervision as we learn how to use all our new tools appropriately.

This blog entry from the always excellent David Strom describes the tools that a video production company is using these days to produce reality-based TV shows.

The California firm is using relatively inexpensive, off the shelf video editing software and hardware that is well within the reach of virtually any high school. Our kids should have the option of taking a year of video editing and production, but few schools offer that. This is especially important in rural areas, where jobs are scarce and there are constant complaints that the workforce does not have the right skills.

And it does not mean that everyone has to move to southern California to make a living. Video production is slowly spreading out across the country as broadband makes it easier to farm this work out to lower cost regions.

This kind of training should also be available in community colleges. As workforce needs change, displaced workers need a shot at learning Knowledge Economy skills. Video is driving all kinds of business activity, and we should be offering this kind of training as one of several options to our youth and displaced workers.

Here is an article from an executive recruiter about what kinds of skills a business executive needs in the global economy. As we slowly dumb down our schools and universities to meet the demands of students who think school should fit their needs, we have reason to be worried. In particular, look at the need to be multilingual and to be comfortable in Europe, North America, and Asia. Many colleges have done away with a language requirement because students complain--just when the business world is demanding multilingual workers!

Here are some of the skills and abilities this recruiter is looking for:

• Able to work across at least three cultural backgrounds, including Europe, North America, and Asia
• Multilingual
• Able to create a flexible organization comprising individuals who can compete both within their country of origin and globally
• Having a deep understanding of and ties with local legal and regulatory authorities
• Able to work successfully in a flat global management organization
• Able to optimize strategic opportunities by grasping winning methods from one side of the planet and implementing them globally

How about the K12 schools in your region? Are they offering, as part of college prep track, classes that prepare our youth to have these skills and capacities?