Technology & Innovation

Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Policy & Reform

Why schools need to introduce computing in all subjects

Uri Wilensky, Northwestern University

In his recent State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said schools need to offer every student hands-on computer science classes to be better prepared for the workforce.

President Obama is right: the next generation of learners will require a high level of fluency with modes of thinking in which computers act as interactive partners.

The question is: how best to make sure they acquire that thinking? Are computing classes the only way to do this?

More computer classes

There is widespread agreement that computing should play a more prominent role throughout our education system. For this reason, there have been more concerted efforts to increase computing classes in the K-12 grade levels.

The STEM Education Act of 2015 was recently passed into law, expanding the definition of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) to include computer science and encouraging more STEM education efforts.

Seven of the nation’s largest school districts are adding more computer science classes. The Chicago Public School District, for example, plans to have computer science classes at all levels of education and make it a requirement of high school graduation by 2018. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently said the city will ensure there is computer science (CS) instruction in every public school by 2025.

I have been researching efforts to bring computing to schools and have participated in national efforts to design CS classes, train CS teachers and implement CS curriculum at a variety of grade levels.

I know that efforts to implement CS courses have encountered many challenges, particularly in teacher preparation and retention.

In contrast, efforts to train teachers to meaningfully employ computing in their own disciplines, for example, in biology or history classes, have met with significantly fewer difficulties.

So while I believe these efforts to add CS courses are good and necessary, they are not enough.

Shortage of students

The fact is that the success of such initiatives depends heavily on schools’ ability to hire and retain qualified teachers, and on students’ ability to make room for new coursework in their already-packed schedules.

Here’s what the current picture looks like:

Currently less than one high school student per 1,000 takes Advanced Placement computer science, which is the standard course for CS education for high schools.

In fact, according to Code.org, a leading nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science, the number of high school computer science classes – both introductory and AP – has significantly dropped in the past decade. Since 2005, introductory classes have dropped by 17 percent and AP classes by 33 percent. Only 25 percent of high schools have any offering at all in CS, and less than 5 percent have an AP CS course.

Even in the best financial environments, not all schools offer or plan to offer courses in computing. In most of the schools that do, the courses are elective-only and reach a small percentage of students.

According to the College Board, which tracks AP exams, only 20,414 students took the AP computer science exam in 2014. By comparison, about 263,000 took U.S. history, and 438,500 students took English language. Of those who did take the computer science exam, only 18 percent were girls. And only 3 percent were African American.

There is a shortage of teachers for computer science.
Berkeley Lab, CC BY-NC-ND

Lack of qualified teachers

In addition, there is an acute shortage of teachers qualified to teach computing courses.

In 2010, the National Science Foundation launched the CS10K project, with a goal to train 10,000 CS teachers by 2015. However, at a recent meeting, the NSF reported that they were able to train only between 200-600 teachers per year, which is approximately 2,000 teachers, and vastly short of the goal.

There are other issues as well with the training: the project has not ascertained how many of the trained teachers are still teaching CS. We do know that the trainee population has shifted from mostly senior teachers to mostly younger teachers, meaning that the project could be training teachers, who are more likely to leave for industry and less likely to stay.

In addition, most states do not have certification for computer science, and among most of those that do, the certification is weak and doesn’t make them qualified for teaching high school CS.

All this makes the task more daunting.

What can schools do?

So a preferable strategy is to incorporate computing into every school subject.

Recent studies from my lab and at a few other university labs in the past 10 years show that it is much easier to train subject area teachers in computational thinking in their subject areas – such as chemistry or history – than to train and retain full-time computing teachers.

In this way, teachers learn the computing in the context of materials they already know and see the value added of the computing. Furthermore, since this strategy involves all subject areas, it ensures that all high school students, including traditionally underrepresented groups, will have access.

Using this strategy, a host of studies have found that a range of students – not just the “geeks” – can not only learn these computational skills, but they can learn them quite easily compared to print or mathematics literacy. And these skills can help them improve their learning in other areas.

Why does this matter?

Students who are exposed to computation think more deeply about their subject areas and are able to deal with complex content at significantly younger ages.

For example, computer modeling allows middle schoolers to understand many complex patterns of the world.

Computational thinking can make kids smarter.
hackNY.org, CC BY-SA

Students engaged in computer modeling can understand the fluctuations of populations of predators and prey in an ecosystem. For example, more than 50 years of data on moose and wolves in Isle Royale Michigan show fluctuating population levels. When there are a lot of wolves, there are fewer moose, and when there are a lot of moose, there are fewer wolves.

Such phenomena are usually studied at university level, using advanced mathematics of calculus and differential equations. Using computer modeling enables much younger students to have access to the ideas and calculations without needing to master the advanced mathematics.

At the Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling (CCL) at Northwestern University, we have done extensive research with children and adults, asking them to explain complex patterns in the world such as traffic jams, changes in the fauna and flora in a habitat, the flocking of birds or the housing segregation patterns of cities.
The overwhelming majority did not understand the causes of these phenomena.

In the CCL’s work developing computer-modeling-based curriculum, we have found that computationally literate students can use their computational thinking to make sense of complex patterns and understand the role of randomness in generating complexity.

Understanding the constructive role of randomness enables us to harness it, for example using computer algorithms to let self-driving cars react to changing traffic patterns to prevent congestion, or enabling groups of robots to “swarm” together to accomplish a goal.

Some may argue that we can’t afford the resources to transform subject-wide curriculum so extensively, and some others may feel schools first need to improve reading and mathematics skills, before adding yet another literacy.

I certainly agree there are always competing priorities, but we cannot ignore computing, especially in our increasingly complex world. These are the skills students will need to thrive as adults, and moreover, these skills help students with their other subject areas. By integrating computing across all classes, we can make it a true literacy.

The Conversation

Uri Wilensky, Professor of Learning Sciences, Computer Science and Complex Systems, Northwestern University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch, Teachers

Cloud Computing and K-12 Classrooms

Cloud computing has taken the business world by storm. Climate controlled rooms full of servers are quickly being replaced by remote storage technology, whimsically referred to as “the cloud.” Over half of U.S. businesses use some form of cloud computing to back up their important data and improve productivity. Instead of trying to find the capital to pay for a secure server structure, businesses are subscribing to cloud services and paying for more storage as their needs grow. The practical uses of cloud computing technology also translate to K-12 classrooms. Simply put, cloud storage saves space, money and time for teachers, parents, students and administrators.

A report by CDW Government found that over 40 percent of schools use cloud applications to store their data and by 2016, schools are expected to spend 35 percent of IT budgets on the cloud. The savings add up though. Right now K-12 schools report that their cloud initiatives are saving them an average of 20 percent on IT costs. By 2016, those savings are expected to reach 27 percent.

So how exactly are K-12 schools using cloud computing and what are the benefits? Let’s take a look:

Stronger communication through access. Through K-12 cloud platforms like Edline, teachers have better communication with parents and students regarding assignments, tests and projects. Parents can log in from anywhere (including their phones or tablets) and instantly know how their kids are progressing. Teachers can post important messages and keep an archive of completed work in one spot. Depending on the school, cloud forums may even allow parents and students to contribute in the application for a two-way dialogue.

Disaster planning. Schools collect a lot of information on their students and that data impacts decisions and the well-being of the kids. It takes a lot of time to build student databases and maintain them. If a man-made or natural disaster threatened the physical location of school records, whether hard copies or stored on servers, it could mean a catastrophe when it comes to student information. Using cloud computing ensures that student records are secure and accessible, no matter what happens to the physical school building.

One-stop shopping. Cloud platforms are able to bring together data pools that were previously unconnected so that educators and administrators have everything they need in one spot. Since there is no physical equipment that schools must purchase to get started with cloud computing, there is also a pay-as-you-go mentality. Schools do not need to pay upfront for infrastructure and can add cloud storage as their needs increase. It saves money, space, time and other resources.

Fast recovery of data. If you’ve ever experienced a server crash on a personal or professional level, it can be a long time while you wait for your information to come back. Cloud-based businesses recover data quickly and often handle any technical issues that might arise in a “crash” situation. A word that is often associated with all cloud applications is “redundancy” because the technology eliminates any chance of single-point failure.

Some peripheral benefits of cloud computing are decreased energy costs and high security features to ensure protection and privacy of student information. As K-12 schools move toward cloud computing, student information will be better preserved and shared content more accessible. While use of the cloud does not have a large direct impact on classroom activities it does improve teaching efficiency overall. It also has long-term savings attached which is always a bonus when it comes to K-12 technology spending.

Does your school use the cloud yet? If so, how has it improved your school efficiency?

 

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation

Technology and Multisensory Learning: A New Twist to an Old Application

Technology in K-12 classrooms is evolving at a rapid pace. Of K-12 teachers, 86 percent think that education technology is an essential in the classroom, and 96 percent say that the technology improves student engagement levels. Despite teacher support, only 14 percent use digital curricula and 31 percent use other technology resources. The disconnection between what teachers really want and actually have is a matter of access, money and time resource

In addition, any technology that is considered “cutting edge” often comes with some red tape. Getting new equipment approved takes more than just funding – it often takes convincing on the part of the teachers that it really is necessary, and that it will make a difference in their teaching outcomes.

I recently became acquainted with the company Peerless-AV and a wireless projector system that it believes is the key to overcoming technology obstacles in K-12 classrooms. Its Short Throw Projector AV System (projector not included) applies a modern take on the classroom technology of projection that has been around for a few decades. The projector system comes with a built-in wireless receiver and streams sound and HD content (up to 1080 pixels) from up to 131 feet. Teachers can connect up to five audiovisual input devices (all wirelessly) including their computers, tablets, DVD players, MP3 players and even VHS tapes. Instead of having to switch between media devices, and deal with all of the cords that accompany it, teachers have a streamlined way to project their content from many device sources. Teachers are also able to stream their own audio in real-time through a microphone, even with their backs to the class and audio playing from the source – making it possible for students to hear teachers over any audio being played.

Peerless-AV gave away one of its high-tech projector systems through a contest that saw 27 entries from teachers across the country. The winner was a special education teacher from Ludlow, Kentucky named Kristen Goodpaster. She reports that both retention and engagement of her students has risen after implementing the Wireless Short Throw Projector AV System and its audio-visual features. Goodpaster’s district saw just 72 percent of its high school graduates from 2011 pursue a college degree, something that she feels could be remedied with the right technology implementation in K-12 classrooms.

“For teachers looking to incorporate more technology into the classroom, my advice would be not to fear the change. For each lesson or chapter in the textbook, I would recommend thinking of the most effective way of displaying this information for students that learn best through physical activity or visual stimulation, whether it may be a video, an interactive game, an infographic or an image, and to work at least one of these elements into the classroom each day,” Goodpaster said.

To me, the Peerless-AV Wireless Short Throw Projector AV System is a smart way to blend all of the available audio-visual technology at a teacher’s disposal. Not only does it streamline many parts into one process, but it improves the engagement levels of students exposed to it. Research has found that the brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text alone, and that visual learning aids in classrooms improve learning comprehension by as much as 400 percent. It’s also widely accepted that students learn best through multisensory approaches to subjects. Simply reading about something on a page has a smaller impact than seeing the same information presented with visuals and sound. When possible, employing multisensory learning is an effective way to teach that taps into the best of how each student comprehends materials.

I like the idea of products that implement collective learning through technology. There is a big push to get an iPad or other tablet device into the hands of every individual student, and while I support this for some reasons, I also think too much segmentation of the learning process eliminates the inherent benefits of the classroom. If every student spends his or her classroom hours on a customized, individual learning track then why be in a classroom setting at all? Students could feasibly get all of the learning they need on their own, if the technology were right, but something becomes lost in that accomplishment: the ability to learn from others around you and receive other educational perspectives to enhance your own.

A product like this Peerless-AV Wireless Short Throw Projector AV System takes the best of available technology and multisensory learning and combines those things with a communal learning process. It allows for teachers to speed up or slow down lessons if needed but keep the attention of the class in the process. It is easy to use and cuts out the clunkiness of multiple audio-visual systems and their wires.

As more classroom technology is developed, I would encourage companies to look for ways to make the jobs of teachers easier. Instead of introducing something brand new, figure out how to simplify the technology that teachers already use – and streamline multisensory learning.

What technology makes teaching easier for you?

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch

More Time for Educating: Technology and Teaching Efficiency

The hours an educator spends in active teaching pursuits are just a small piece of the overall workload puzzle. Between developing lesson plans, reporting on student performance and keeping parents informed of student progress, a teacher’s job spills over into the hours when there are no students sitting at the desks.
Technology has been both a blessing and a curse when it comes to the teaching profession. On one hand, electronic reporting tools streamline some of the processes that go along with teaching; on the other hand, more work has been handed off to teachers because the technology exists to make it so. It seems that with each passing school year, another responsibility is placed on the shoulders of teachers who already have more than enough on their plates.

Overworked and Still Behind

A report published on TeachingQuality.org states that nearly 70 percent of teachers say that they simply do not have enough time to address all of their states’ curriculum frameworks, despite the fact that teachers work an average of 50 hours per week. Teacher surveys have also found that a reduction in teacher workload would increase retention, particularly in the first five years of a teaching career. Not only would teachers be happier if they had more time, but they are struggling to fit in their current requirements as it is.

The primary role of teachers is educate their students, yet they are often so bogged down in the paper-pushing that accompanies the job that their very purpose is compromised. So how can educators take advantage of existing technology to streamline their professions – and save themselves time in the process?

Alma: Free Student Information and Learning Systems

New technologies are emerging to combat these frustrations. Alma, a student information and learning management system, combines a wide range of reporting features that are typically only available in several fragmented systems – instead of a central location. Alma brings together lesson planning and curriculum management with student and classroom management to give teachers all the tools they need in one place and with one login – so they no longer have to master a dozen different tools to do their jobs.

Alma has clever shortcuts and time-savers throughout the system, so tasks that might take several clicks in other products can be done in one or two clicks in Alma. Built-in messaging and collaboration tools make easier and cut down on the time it takes for teachers to connect with parents, students and other educators. And Alma is cloud-based, which means it can be used from any internet-enabled device – cutting down on late nights in the classroom.

Alma is a “freemium” product, so its core services are offered for free, including school management, student records, backward curriculum development and gradebooks. Schools can upgrade the core package for a fee to include extras that may be helpful to their operations, like on-site support and emergency notifications. There is optional support for schools who would like the hands-on help, but it is not a requirement for schools that have the staff and ability to handle it on their own. Most schools will be able to set up the system in a day or less.

Alma’s customers include schools in 20 states and four countries.

The Teaching Benefits of Time-Saving Technology

As a former public school teacher, I wish I had access to the type of technology and reporting that Alma offers. I still remember thinking of the school bell at the end of my day as the signal of my “lunch break” and that there were still many hours of work ahead of me. Like other teachers, I did my work without complaint and did my best to ensure my students were learning what they needed to know before exiting my classroom doors for good. Still – between planning, reporting, communication with parents and actual teaching, it was nearly impossible to get it all done. So I feel the pain of today’s teachers, asked to do even more in an already-tight schedule.

Any tools that can free up teachers’ time to dedicate to actual teaching are ones that schools should seek out. There is no reason that the profession of teaching shouldn’t improve its efficiency as the technology becomes available, and Alma is a frontrunner in making this happen in K-12 schools across the country.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Education Leadership, Matthew Lynch

Beyond Principals: Leadership Assessment Tools for All Educators

As the end of the school year approaches, plans are already being made for the fall in schools throughout the nation. Much-needed summer improvements will take place, along with retiring teachers cleaning out their classrooms and new ones coming in. For areas that observe the traditional “summers off” school calendar, those months are still busy ones on schools grounds. Along with the physical maintenance of schools during the time when students aren’t on the premises, what if schools did some non-physical improvements too?

Two education college professors from The University of Wisconsin-Madison and a consultant from the Wisconsin Center for Educational Products and Services have developed a survey-based system that calculates areas of strengths and weaknesses in schools, and creates an action plan for improvement. The Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning, or CALL, does not single any particular educators but rather takes a snapshot of what is happening as a whole entity. It is a smart assessment tool to implement at the end of the year and then brainstorm actionable steps on improvement when school is back in session.

The survey and results-delivery system were born of necessity. More than ever, schools are in need of transformational leadership that creates learning opportunities for students but also prepares them for the real-world economy. The pressure has never been greater, particularly as Common Core Standards and other state-based ones heighten accountability for teachers, administrators and other instructional staff. The belief used to be that principals were responsible for all the leadership roles within a particular school but that theory is starting to fade. While principals certainly need solid leadership traits, distributing those responsibilities can actually lead to stronger school systems that are able to better support student bodies.

The problem with existing leadership assessment tools is that they only evaluate people on an individual basis, instead of looking at how school personnel can work together to achieve maximum effectiveness. CALL was developed with funds from the U.S. Department of Education and tested in more than 150 schools containing thousands of educators. The survey itself has over 100 questions and takes around 40 minutes to complete and is thorough in its approach, thereby making it more of an “activity” than a “survey.” It has five main areas of concentration, including:

  • Focus on learning. Essentially, this portion looks at the way school leaders practice what they preach. Do school leaders do classroom visits, and engage with students? Do they participate in the team-building and leadership programs that they design for others? Collaboration and staff buy-in to school learning initiatives is an integral part of this portion of the survey.
  • Monitoring teaching and learning. School leaders should be able to not only make sense of their student performance, but know how to communicate it to teachers. Monitoring of school successes does not need to mean constant micromanagement; rather, leaders should understand the scope of their students’ strengths and weaknesses and know how to empower improvements.
  • Building nested learning communities. While educators are ultimately responsible for their own teaching successes, school leaders must provide the support and resources to make effective teaching possible. Leaders should have ways to measure teacher/student performance and be willing to put improvement plans in place.
  • Acquiring and allocating resources. Time spent on whole-school, grade-level and subject-matter reflection is just one aspect analyzed in this part of the survey. If external leaders are part of a school’s leadership and decision-making process, then they are asked to give input on this section. The school’s communication with its community through things like social media, and email, are also assessed in this portion. How are schools making the best use of their resources?
  • Maintaining a safe and effective learning environment. Above all, schools must be safe places for students, teachers and administrators. This starts with the basics, like cleanliness, and extends to factors like schools as safe havens for the students who may be struggling. The safety of students and their perception of being in a “safe” place do make a difference in learning effectiveness and this portion of the survey analyzes ways in which schools can maximize that fact.

It really is true that “it takes a village” and understanding how each educator in a school can best contribute to its success leads to stronger student outcomes, and stronger schools. By implementing the in-depth CALL survey, schools can see exactly HOW to get where need to be when it comes to school leaders.

If you are interested in learning more, you can register to join a free webinar on CALL. The webinar will discuss the theory behind CALL as well as provide a demonstration of the CALL automated data feedback report system.

This is a great opportunity for schools to obtain data on leadership effectiveness in order to support school leaders’ professional growth and school improvement.

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Matthew Lynch published in Matthew Lynch, Policy & Reform

The Role of Public Schools in the Advancement of the Communities

Public schools can play a significant role in the general improvement of their respective communities, and can operate as a major platform for enhancing child welfare in the community. Social reformers, politicians, and educational leaders have utilized various initiatives in the past to strengthen the relationship between schools and communities to achieve the common purpose of improving child welfare, and learning conditions for all children.

These initiatives suffer obstructions similar to those experienced by schools when they are focused on the work of educating. Detrimental poverty, racial and ethnic differences, socioeconomic differences, inactive families, low or no parental involvement, and insufficient political willingness and support for improvement all impact the efforts to advance the welfare of children. Any of these factors may obstruct the learning process of a child, and also may make it difficult to enhance the child’s overall well-being.

Historically, schools have played a significant role in helping communities evaluate issues concerning child welfare and eliminating situations that impede children’s progress. During the Great Migration of 1880–1924, a huge number of impoverished children moved into the schools of American cities. The majority of immigrants were poor and undereducated.

Social reformers and policy makers pressured public schools to work toward improving children’s lives. Many schools devoted themselves not only to educating poor children, but also to providing them with proper nutrition and other amenities required for healthy living. Teachers devoted their time to teaching English to immigrant students. Many schools offered non-academic services, including school nurses, gyms, playgrounds, and mid-time meals or lunches for poor students.

Some schools also started offering night classes for parents to help them learn English and other important parental skills that could assist them in caring for their children. Many schools encouraged teachers to improve school-parental ties by visiting students’ homes and instructing parents on how to offer a better learning environment for children at home. However, such initiatives faced a certain degree of opposition from parents who were not ready to leave their ethnic and racial identities.

A major hurdle was the economic impracticability of sustaining such child welfare activities. Most of these initiatives were criticized as “socialistic,” but many children enjoyed the benefits of programs intended to improve the overall situations of children and their families. Children not only experienced better living conditions; they also gained many opportunities to rise out of poverty. As a result, more immigrant children started coming to school regularly.

Ever-increasing fiscal burdens on schools created by child well-being initiatives caused political opposition and social criticism. In order to reduce costs, many state governments withdrew funding for social services offered by public schools. As a result, the upsurge of underprivileged children in the late 1980s and early 1990s was met with reduced and nonexistent services emanating from schools.

The depressed socioeconomic conditions of underprivileged families were responsible for undermining the learning process and academic achievement of many children. Teachers again tried to find innovative ways to help students and tried to support their local public school systems by assisting in improving social conditions and creating better learning opportunities.

Social reformers began making better use of schools to improve socioeconomic situations in different communities. Many full-service school programs were introduced to bolster the relationship between schools and communities, with the main objective to improve situations and provide better environments for children, their parents, and the community overall.

Most of these experimental policies for child welfare and social reform suggested that the efficiency of school-community relationships and their positive impact could be maximized by increasing parental involvement in schools. By encouraging parents to take an active role in the education system, policymakers tried to improve school services by making schools more accessible to parents. This also helped schools improve their relationship with parents, and helped them improve students’ performance.

Many researchers set out to substantiate analytically that parental involvement strengthened the school-community relationship by improving social conditions of students. Educational researchers suggested that parental involvement could positively improve the academic achievement of children. Studies revealed that those students whose parents were involved with their learning process were performing better, attended classes more regularly, and scored higher on school examinations than students who were lacking parental support and involvement in their learning.

Studies also suggested that low-performing schools could help failing students by trying to engage parents in the educational process of students. Researchers confirmed that schools could help students who have learning disabilities, or who belong to families from low socioeconomic backgrounds by interacting with and training their parents how to help these students with their learning and schooling processes.

In order to increase parental involvement, many schools use strategies such as inviting parents for open meetings with other parents, arranging social programs, asking parents to volunteer during school social and sports events,  issuing regular newsletters, connecting with parents through phone calls, and arranging for parent and teacher conferences.  These strategies may seem manipulative, and often fail to involve parents in the educational system. Still, school administrators and teachers may use these types of initiatives to increase parental involvement, while excluding parents from serious decision-making processes.

Often school administrations do not allow parents to raise their concerns about ineffective administrative policies, substandard teaching, and faulty grading systems. Regulated initiatives by schools to involve parents in the learning process of their kids often remain lopsided and ineffective because such activities restrict parents from interacting with the education system in a meaningful way.

School administrators and teachers often exploit regular parent-school collaboration methods by providing limited and biased information. They rely on parents being unquestioning and passive, and believe that only education professionals can truly improve student learning. Often they ignore the rights and abilities of parents to make decisions, as well as the ability of parents to contribute information and suggestions for improving the schooling process. Additionally, some administrators are unwilling to make accommodations for parents unable to take part in regular parent-teacher meetings and similar activities because of their work schedules.

Many schools do not engage in unprincipled measures to restrict parental involvement. Most genuinely value the input parents potentially provide. In order to improve parent-teacher collaboration, many have experimented with innovative ideas and have open door policies which allow individuals to observe school processes. Parents can visit at any time to scrutinize teaching methods, and how their children perform within the school structure. Such initiatives demand a flexible structural bureaucracy that allows parents to play a meaningful part in the decision-making process.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch

Life Skills, Cloud Technology and Branding: K-12 Trends for 2014 — Part I

Even though the traditional K-12 calendar is over, the summer is a time for reflection and goal-setting for educators. The year 2013 has certainly seen a lot of advancement in pedagogy and technology in the classroom, but 2014 is poised for even more changes. While every district, school and individual classroom operates in its own way, these are some sweeping trends that will impact K-12 education across the board.

Today I look at three of those trend in the first part of this three-part series. I’m interested to hear your thoughts on these trends in the comment section as well.

Life skills. Public schools have always been more than places for book learning and have been a socializing agent too. Now even the most elite, expensive school systems are recognizing the need for training students beyond academics. It is no longer assumed that parents in middle- or high-class homes will bridge the gap between academics and real-world applications – schools are expected to shoulder that responsibility.

As a result, it seems that educators everywhere are placing greater focus on “life skills” and how they relate to well-rounded students. From the public Eugene School District in Oregon to the $26,000-per year progressive, private Wildwood School in Los Angeles, a rise in emphasis is obvious in areas like integrity, curiosity, problem-solving and interpersonal skills. Schools are not just teaching the skills out of social responsibility; parents have come to expect them as a normal part of the K-12 learning experience.

Movement to the cloud. As technology becomes more customized within classrooms, educators will continue to look for ways to access vital classroom information outside its walls. Cloud computing and storage make it possible for everyday lessons to be revisited from home, for parents to follow along more easily and for teachers to access their files away from their desks. The convenience offered through cloud applications mean that every member of the educational team can work seamlessly toward the same goals without boundaries or having to wait on each other.

Schools are just one industry jumping on the cloud bandwagon. Experts predict that by the end of 2015, the cloud market will be globally worth $180 billion, with 50 million physical servers in the world. Unlike technology developed specifically for classroom use, cloud applications are facing mass adoption in 2014, making it a more affordable and convenient technology for K-12 use.

School branding. There is a lot of talk of “school choice” these days. With more than 2 million students enrolled in charter schools and 16 states with private school choice programs, the days of settling on school because of geography (or paying a hefty premium to avoid it) are past. As a result, competition for students is on the rise and a type of branding is taking place, even at public schools. Consider it school team spirit – on steroids. It is not enough to simply claim education in vague terms as a reason to attend a particular school. Schools must “prove” their worth in the broader educational marketplace.

Expect educators to band together and come up with niches or specialties that set their schools apart in some way. In the case of magnet schools, a specialty is often already established – but there is still room for even more customization of a particular school’s brand or identity in its area. Schools will continue to flock to social media as tools for outreach and will become more invested in community events that feature that particular school as an integral part.

Are you seeing these trends take shape at your own schools?

 

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