The dizzying pace of technology evolution is a challenge for education, which has often struggled to keep pace. But it is critical that educators embrace technology and create opportunities for their students to do so as well.
During the recent tech & Learning Northeast event Regional Leadership Summit At Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, event host Dr. Adam Phyall, Director of Professional Learning and Leadership at All4Ed, discussed how to do this by shifting your approach to learning spaces to empower students with technology and help them genuinely prepare for the careers (and future) they will encounter.
“Preparing for the future doesn't work,” Phyall said, adding that technology is always evolving and while it's a challenge to keep up, educators should at least try.
Looking back but moving forward
Using vivid examples of video games, computers, and other technologies from attendees' childhoods (traditional phones and Commodore 64, anyone?), Phyall analyzed how each of those now-obsolete devices was an emerging technology at one point. He talked about being in high school in 1994, when the Internet was “becoming a thing” for the first time, pointing out all the jobs that didn't exist at the time but subsequently cascaded into existence. He then compared that to the radical change that ai and other innovations are driving today, and the related need to prepare students for similar jobs and innovations that are yet to be created.
Obviously, a key to effectively preparing students for the future is providing them with opportunities to explore these new technologies. “Do we have spaces in our schools where students can see emerging technology?” Phyall asked. “Or are we just teaching the Civil War?” While it is recognized that yes, history should be taught as part of a basic knowledge base, schools must go further. “Can you solve tomorrow's problem with yesterday's information?” he asked rhetorically, noting that providing hands-on opportunities with emerging technologies is critical to fostering student engagement and driving learning.
She also noted that not offering these opportunities perpetuates inequalities in schools, as students of color tend to fall behind when it comes to technology access and equity.
In addition to these hands-on opportunities, Phyall said it is also critical for educators to embrace and teach ai, particularly the ethics and best practices involved, because it is and will continue to be a big part of students' lives in the future. In that sense, he said that banning ai does not help anyone and added that one of his students told him: “Teachers think we don't have Internet at home.”
Real life inspiration
During his keynote speech, Phyall also shared part of his recent battle with gallbladder cancer. (He's now been clean for three months, wow!). He explained how this experience inspired his daughter to want to pursue a career that helps her create a cancer screening device so no one has to go through what he went through. He reiterated that exposure to real-life situations can provide unexpected opportunities.
“Kids are going to use these new tools in ways we don't know,” Phyall said. “Our call to action is to create spaces to empower students and give them the tools to thrive and solve the problems of tomorrow.”
