Category: Education

Think back to the popularity of Smart Board use in the classroom. Technology provides a way to show students a wider range of opportunities. Today, 86% of educators – including teachers, principals, and more – believe students need to enhance their tech knowledge, and learn video capturing skills to succeed in order to succeed in their future workplace.

Why so? Using video maximizes classroom time. Education institutions have reported some interesting numbers, documenting that 91% of students experience satisfaction when learning by video. Not only is the student more satisfied, but their achievements improve by 82%, as well.

Benefits of The Flipped Classroom

A flipped classroom flips the traditional approach to learning and it results in reapable benefits.  With flipped focus, students learn new content outside of class, through video and tech. A flipped classroom proves beneficial because the focus is 80% student-centered, and students discuss and explore applications in-class.

On the other hand, traditional teaching only centers 35% of instruction on the student. Teachers review homework and present new content in class, while students are left to do homework and practice what they’ve learned after school hours have concluded.

The benefits of a flipped classroom are endless. Primarily, a flipped classroom increases student engagement, allows learning to be more collaborative, and guides students to self-discovery.

Of course, there are challenges in any instance. Pointing this out, a flipped classroom can easily become active, noisy, and distracting for those who struggle to work in the aforementioned conditions.

Furthermore, flipped instruction must be strategically executed for reapable benefits to be available as students may have trouble focusing in a flipped learning environment.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

In order to improve the educational experience on behalf of the student, more artificial intelligence will be implemented into the classroom. The same goes for embracing new technologies for learning, such as virtual reality.  Educators are also using chatbots to provide self-paced learning for the student, track performance, provide immediate feedback, score assignments and tests, and communicate with parents.

By leveraging a chatbot, educators can create personalized and interactive learning experiences that cater to the individual needs of each student, fostering a more efficient and effective educational journey. Furthermore, the use of chatbots in education can free up valuable time for teachers, allowing them to focus on more personalized instruction and mentorship.

AI tools are also being used to provide voice overs for explainer videos. With their advanced speech synthesis capabilities, these AI-powered tools enable the creation of high-quality and natural-sounding voices that seamlessly integrate with visual content. This breakthrough technology not only saves time and resources but also provides a versatile range of voice options. AI models can accurately mimic human speech patterns, intonations, and emotions, allowing creators to tailor the narration to their specific needs. ions, and emotions. 

Evolving Education

The future of education is becoming as technologized as every other industry. From 2014 to 2019, educators increased their use of video for capturing campus events, flipped instruction, providing assignment feedback, and many more tasks. Even so, 98% of educators believe video will play an important role in the personalization of education, and 89% are interested in VR/AR/360 video.

Today, 9 in 10 educators are interested in the benefits of tech to improve the learning experience for students, both inside and outside of the classoom. To learn more about how education will look for future generations, check out the accompanying graphic.  It explores the use of AI and Video, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of the flipped classroom.

Additional Reading: How does virtual reality help in education?

It’s an interesting time to be a student in America. The action behind asking our children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” may have more influence than we know. Turns out, Gen Z – those born from 1995 to 2012 – is obsessed with learning. In fact, it’s common for Gen Z students to spend their extra free time on homework and volunteering.

Today, the typical Gen Z student dedicates 6.48 hours per work to homework and 2.66 hours per work to volunteering. Due to a plethora of similar habits, Gen Z is on course to become the most educated and most entrepreneurial generation.

Job Availability

Yet, nearly 9 in 10 Gen Z college grads considered job availability before selecting a major. With unemployment at its lowest since 1969 – three generations before Gen Z’s time – why is our youngest generation alive so curious about their future employability?

To put it lightly, they’re ahead of the game.

Rising student debt has made Gen Z wary, and most want to know they’ll be getting their money’s worth before researching and enrolling into college. Schools are getting involved, as well, encouraging students to take Advanced Planet (AP), dual credit, and the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program courses and exams. Today, nearly half of Gen Z high school students have already earned college credits.

Don’t fret- students are curious, not worried. 2 in 3 Gen Z students are confident they’ll receive a job offer soon after graduation. For some majors, it’s even higher. Even more, 60% of our youngest generation on the planet impressively plans to start a business one day, and 92% expect to work for less than six employees in their lifetime – Gen Z doesn’t even bother with summer gigs.

Working for Scholarships

Most teens prioritize studying to earn future scholarships over working a job. This is the main way Gen Z is reshaping how we “do” college as a society. Nearly half of American workers are living on less than $18,000 a year, and Gen Z is privy to this, so 82% think college is the way to get there. In the meantime to graduating high school, most are most focused on earning grants and receiving financial aid to afford college.

Interestingly enough, one in three 15-year-olds plan to pursue one of the top 10 most popular occupations, regardless of whether or not their desired career will still be in-demand by the time they’ll be eligible for hire. Gen Z is ahead of its time – it’s all about employment for them. As we witness our very own children reshape the college years, continue to ask them, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Infographic:  Reshaping College Years

Read how Industry 4.0 will impact students.

It’s customary to ask our kids, “What do you want to be when you grow up,” before they can truly conceptualize what “work” is; however, it’s unequally customary to provide our children with the guidance they need to achieve their adolescent goals.

Take our economical state into account- success is more obtainable after receiving your college degree. As often as we ask our children about their desired future and career motives, are we encouraging them to visit their guidance counselor, helping them search for internships, and network? The hiring market is up in the air, but we can still help our kids find their way to a successful future.

Career Choices

If your child is a science, tech, engineering, or math guru, you’ll be happy to know that 8 in 10 of the fastest growing jobs for college graduates are STEM-related.

Don’t fret- there’s also a giant market for students with other skill sets. In fact, 93% of employers agree that having soft skills are more important than completing “majors,” and believe a liberal arts education instills skills to help our children succeed in the workplace. These skills include problem solving, communication, and critical thinking. This is why 4 in 5 employers want hires with a broad knowledge of liberal arts and alternative sciences.

College to Career

In short, preparing our children for success in a career means preparing them for college. Find what your child is interested in, and career-build from there. Be sure not to wait – 54% of new graduates considered themselves underemployed and struggled to find the right job or internship in 2017. More unfortunately, graduates have faced difficulties finding successful internships from 2014-2018, and steady unemployment/underemployment has only risen from 2000-2018.

Infographic Guide to Careers

Allowing our children to be left behind is not an option. Gain more information on preparing your child for college and career.

Reading Resources

• Learn how to grow your child’s entrepreneurial spirit.
• How to guide your child to a successful career.

Familiar to those in education, STEM is an acronym for curriculum revolving around Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. In other words, students in STEM programs focus on these subjects more than others- taking their knowledge in science, technology, engineering, and math to higher levels than perhaps English, Arts, and more.

The initialism was developed in 2001 by Judith Ramaley, the Asst. Director of Education & Family Resource at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Since Ramaley’s finding, STEM-focused curricula have spread around the world. In fact, today’s high school graduates are some of the first to go through all of K-12 education with a focus on STEM.

Career Building Skills

At any age, it’s important for parents and educators to begin teaching kids about their career building skills even in general terms.  Despite the specific interest in STEM, just 15% of Americans pursue natural science degrees once reaching higher education. This is far less than in other nations. For example, 67% of Singaporeans pursue natural science undergraduate degrees, 50% of Chinese do the same, 47% of the French, and 38% of South Koreans.

More interestingly, America has seen nearly 2 million new STEM jobs created over the last decade. 86% of Americans believe that increasing STEM-trained workers is vital to maintaining the nation’s place in the global economy. While this is true, our students’ math and science scores continue to lag behind other nations. However, Americans students improved their international standing – according to PISA – from 2015 to 2018. In 2015, America’s 10th-grade students ranked 35th in math and 17th in science.

Stem in Schools – Infographic: 

As technology grows, specific skills become obsolete. 2.4 million STEM-related positions went unfilled in 2018. Continue reading for more information on the rise of STEM in schools.

Explore how to give kids a head start in higher education by teaching computational thinking.