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Digital Skills Students Will Need for The Future of Work

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With the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there have been significant changes and disruptions to various industries. Additionally, technological advances in the past decade have transformed how we live, work and prioritize digital skills. 

While some jobs will disappear as they become automated, such as factory and administrative roles, new jobs will surface to meet the disruptions brought about by Industry 4.0. Moreover, by re-aligning our priorities to equip our children with the necessary digital skills, we can help them be future-ready.

Educators globally have been identifying essential digital skills for their curriculum to help make their students future-ready.

After seven years of working with schools worldwide to integrate technology education across all subjects, I’ve identified a list of three critical digital skills I believe will play a crucial role in student’s development and success as they enter the future of work. 

Complex Problem Solving Skills

Usually, problem-solving involves applying a standard set of steps and processes, including defining the problem, setting a goal, deciding on the best solution, and applying it. 

However, it’s important to note that these steps are largely insufficient for the complex issues ahead.

An exemplary process for developing complex problem-solving digital skills is the RATIO (Reflect, Analyze, Target, Implement, Observe) Problem Solving steps, which the CoThink Academy introduced. 

The RATIO process improves how we tackle complex issues and problems. Also, this process introduces a more profound critical thinking skill set into the process. This is accomplished by focusing on objectives and possible methods and tools to solve them. 

This helps students learn how to reflect and observe – allowing solutions to be iterated upon to match the ever-changing demands of the future workforce.

A great example of this process in the workforce is how the manufacturing industry used RATIO to tackle its bottling line. During the Observe phase, they identified issues that they had to cycle back and reflect upon.

Another example of a future complex problem will be maintaining privacy as our lives become increasingly digital. We know that the advancements of technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) collect and compile our data. The question is, how can we use this data to help reduce global waste?

Creative Thinking Skills

For more than half of the jobs we see today, 30% of tasks are automatable. As technology rapidly evolves, this is projected to increase. As a result, we will quickly forget the previously revered technological breakthroughs, and specialized skill sets become obsolete. Creative thinking allows us to be agnostic to technologies and think outside the box to tackle future challenges we will face.

An essential skill for the future workforce facing technologies like automation is creative thinking. Technologies like automation are simply tools that can be seen to augment us instead of replacing us. These tools heavily rely on our creative thinking to identify novel ways to use them to solve problems. 

For example, the retail sector is currently using automation to handle transactions now. Their goal is to provide the sales teams information on their customers to lead to a more personalized customer experience. 

To ensure a future workforce, we must be able to do what machines are unable to.

It is essential to invest in the growth of people who are creative and versatile. And who are eager to learn and will be flexible through each technological advance.

Social / Emotional Skills

Outside of the usual digital skills, it‘s essential to look at transferrable or soft skills that allow us to collaborate and communicate more effectively.

Social and emotional skills, like self-awareness, empathy, respect for other individuals, and the ability to communicate will be essential as classrooms and workplaces become more ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse.

Interaction in the workplace means collaborating as teams, people playing off each other’s strengths and adapting to changing circumstances. Such non-repetitive interaction is at the core of the human advantage over machines.

There are specific social-emotional skills, like visual processing, that schools can look to promote with their students. These skills allow students to practice solving logical problems visually to comprehend the information better.

Education fosters the types of attitudes and values, such as openness and respect for others as individuals. However, moving forwards, students need to be more inclusive and reflective of more diverse societies that they will find when they enter the future workforce. 

To back this up, research held by some leading industry experts identifies the importance of these digital skills. For example, the study maintained by Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends Survey showcases an increase in demand for digital skills. 

If you want to chat more about future-ready skills, feel free to email me at nk@bsd.education! 

What I Wish My Teachers And Parents Knew When I Was In School

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It’s been almost 5 years since I’ve left high school and 4 years into working with BSD Education. As we mainly focus on helping educators bring technology education into classrooms (as a way to further prepare kids for the future with digital skills), I’ve been able to work with numerous educators, parents, business leaders, as well as students and kids. This has not only given me insights about the Education industry, teaching and student learning and experiences, it has also opened my eyes and shown me aspects that could have helped enhance my experience or any students’ experiences at school.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

To be honest, I wasn’t very “good” at school. I would usually just have passing grades and wouldn’t pay much attention during classes, thinking what I was learning wouldn’t be used in the real world and that it would be irrelevant for my desired future career paths. I thought that especially in Math class, and failed almost every year. “When am I ever going to need to solve a bunch of equations finding x’s, y’s and using formulas like trigonometry ratios (SOH CAH TOA)?”.

Though I did excel in subjects in Humanities, like History and Languages. Yes, it is pretty ironic that I would think Math was of less use to the real world than History, but what helped me excel in it was that it was easier to imagine various scenarios that took place – through my History Teacher’s storytelling. He made us role play and reenact scenes to test our reactions or behaviors to find similarities and differences in how it had been during the Cold War for example. I loved and enjoyed it so much, History classes felt like playtime.

Math class was just not the same. The way our whole class was taught was that you had to remember a number of formulas to solve equations they gave, which looked a lot like this:

Image by IB Survival

(Wow, this still looks scary to me…)

Even though I didn’t think it would be helpful for me, like any other kid I wanted to “succeed” and do well for my future. I tried my best to revise as many formulas as I could, but I still failed most of the time. 

It was easy for me to compare myself to my classmates with our grades. I felt I lacked the intelligence they had. I was demotivated, disengaged and most of all, I felt hopeless. I started hating school.

 

Presented Opportunities

Once every school year, my parents would be invited to visit school to attend a 10-minute Parent-Teacher’s meeting. They would discuss my grades for each subject and my general behavior in classes (Hey – I was still a good kid!). 

My grades for Math and Sciences would often be highlighted as ( F ) for Failed, I couldn’t tell you how many times they told my parents that all I needed were to get more exercise books to practice more at home until I could get better at it, pay more attention during class and stop doodling on my homework. 

My parents would agree to my teacher’s recommendations, and on the way back home would remind me how I’ve always been weak at Math and that I needed to improve on it for my future.  They weren’t very involved or engaged in my education, but it was because they were also very busy with work trying to make ends meet, which I understood. Neither would I have wanted them to anyway because I was also scared of giving them reasons to be disappointed in me.

I then would turn to my eldest sister to help me as a last resort. I remember her spending nights trying to get me to understand basic algebra and most of the times, I just wouldn’t get it. As she wanted to give up on one of the nights, she decided to take out a sketchbook. 

She drew out a building with multiple “apartment windows” where parts of an equation laid and told a story on how the different numbers and letters were neighbors and siblings, and how they “lived” and solved problems together – and I actually got it! I felt great for being able to really understand the story and solve the other similar equations she gave. 

I don’t have an original copy of the sketch she drew, but it looked a lot like this:

I thought I would love Math from then on.

Missed Opportunities

Looking back at it now, that learning approach was a sign that I could learn easier with pictures and stories. Maybe I wasn’t necessarily bad at school, It was just that I had a different learning approach, like many of us. If we were to base it on the 4 main learning approaches, I was (and still am) a visual learner. This meant that it was easier for me to understand concepts that I could visualize and illustrate relationships between ideas.

Image by Prezi

I didn’t know there were various learning approaches, finding this out after high school blew my mind and helped make sense of many things I’ve gone through in life. 

I wish my Math teacher knew to help me in an approach that worked for me, I needed help. But I couldn’t blame them for not realizing this because they weren’t just teaching me, they were teaching a whole class of 30-40 students. They used what worked for most and it just wouldn’t be feasible to cater to each and every one of us.

My sister and I thought the stories were merely just another fun way of learning Math for me, so this finding was never communicated back to my parents or teachers. Plus what would my teachers also think or say If I was making random stories of equations at school?

I tried making more stories anyway, on my own, but still needed guidance in making sense out of them. So unfortunately, the learning method didn’t stick. I continued to struggle in school overall, and with other reasons and pursuits (we’ll visit these next time!) – I decided to drop out.

Finding the Power of Communication and Collaboration, and Taking it into Action

You might think it was pretty weird for me to decide to work with an Education company that mainly works with schools after hating my experience and dropping out. But to me, the hardship that I went through was great enough that I developed a passion for Education and have made it my life purpose to do what I can to continue improving and enhancing it – so more kids won’t have to go through what I did.

As I wrote this article and recalled my past experiences, I realized many points in my experience that could have been opportunities or ways to help me in my learning, particularly in the way parents and teachers can communicate and collaborate to build a solid, learning support system for kids and students, which studies prove.

So here are the main takeaways on what teachers, parents and guardians can do to help their kid’s learning experiences, from a perspective of a past student. It may sound obvious, but it’s those things that we usually take for granted and forget:

Re-Defining “Learning” and Roles

It isn’t emphasized enough that learning doesn’t just happen within the 4 walls of a classroom, for only 6-8 hours of kids’ days. Learning and “education” happens at almost every point in our lives, and anywhere – be it at school, home or even the supermarket. This is where parents’ involvement becomes essential to kids’ learning and growth.

Both parents and teachers share equal responsibility in helping their kids learn and meet their development goals. When parents are involved or engaged with their kids learning, kids are encouraged to not just talk about their experiences at school to help parents find areas of improvement, but also work with their parents to apply what they learn in school in a different context and environment – allowing them to further understand concepts and see how it is applied in the real world. This helps kids develop a love for lifelong, limitless learning.

More and Encouraged Communication

Teachers are the experts in teaching, parents or guardians are the experts of their kids. 

In my case, you could find a few gaps in the communication between my teachers, parents and me.

Because my parents weren’t as involved or engaged in my learning, they were limited in finding ways to help my teachers help me. They didn’t know of what my sister and I found as the most effective learning approach for me. So this led them just accepting my teacher’s recommendations on what they thought best, rather than opening a two-way discussion on how to best help me achieve my educational goals.

Parents can support teachers anyway by providing more insights of their kid’s interests or behaviors as a way for teachers to leverage when they explore ways to effectively engage students for a smoother learning experience.

Teachers can also help parents be more involved by providing tips on how they can do so; from just talking to their kids more about how their school days went and opening conversations on what they love about it or areas they are struggling in, to doing homework with them. Here’s a great list we love of resources educators can use to enhance communication and collaboration with parents.

A way that can also help parents and teachers help their kids’ learning is to encourage them to open up. We need to avoid seeing kids’ struggles as “failures” and reprimanding them for it. Kids want to make their parents and teachers proud, and if we don’t offer them a positive environment to learn, fail, and try again, they will only be inclined to keep their struggles to themselves – which doesn’t help anyone in the end.

Holistic, More Frequent Feedback

The 10-minute Parent-Teacher meetings once every school year is just not enough. A student’s learning journey cannot be summarized into 10 minutes, neither can it be fully expressed through a bunch of grades and numbers. It’s not the same for every school, but there are ways we can improve how these meetings are run and what they usually cover.

Now more than ever has it been much easier for teachers or parents to reach out to each other with Technology, be it via email, phone or any other channels they agree to use. Teachers can help make these meetings more productive and actionable for example by sending report cards before the meeting, and discussing the kids’ overall interests, behaviors and attitudes in person on top of where kids have performed well, why certain grades have been and how else to improve it. This encourages an open conversation about the overall learning and development of the kids.

EdTech Tools Educators Should Try This School Year

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Undoubtedly, the learning and development of digital skills is a big focus in Education this next decade. At BSD Education, we’re working to prepare students for a technology-driven future as an EdTech tool.

We aim to help them be consumers of technology and media and have the tools and skills to become innovators or creators. 

One of the best ways to slowly start bringing Technology into your classrooms is using fun EdTech tools that will help you or your students boost learning or teaching experiences. Check out the top 10 we thought you should try this year!

1. Formative

Formative is a great web-based app that allows you to give assignments to students and provide personalized and real-time feedback. You can use ready-made “formatives” or create your own to share with your students. You can then view student progress and answers in real-time and assess their learning and progress as they go.

To sum it up: an easy-to-use tool that simplifies assessment in your classroom.

2. Equity Maps

Equity Maps is a great iPad EdTech tool that enhances collaboration, helps you keep track of which of your students participate in class discussion and how much they are experiencing.

All you have to do is tap your students’ icons as they engage in the discussion. In the end, you’ll get summary analytics of how often each class member participated and how many were active participants. The instant feedback helps participants reflect and enables you to ensure that your classroom discussions are equitable and inclusive.

To sum it up: a tool to encourage honest dialogue and broader collaboration in your classroom.

3. Geoguessr

Geoguessr is a fun game that develops students’ global awareness, problem-solving, and research skills. The game starts by dropping the player into a random location on Google Street view. The player then has to figure out where they have been lowered to the closest possible point. Finally, students have to think about different types of information within the map that they can use to solve a problem, use initiative, and demonstrate perseverance.

To sum it up: an excellent EdTech tool that can be used as a class filler to develop a range of skills.

4. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid does what it says on the tin – it’s a tool that helps your students improve their writing assignments, but not just with spelling and grammar. This tool looks at everything from sentence variety to the use of cliché!

All you need to do is write directly on ProWritingAid or upload a document, and you’ll get a summary report giving the strengths and weaknesses of the piece. You can then discuss this with your students.

To sum it up: a handy tool to help you give in-depth and personalized feedback on your students’ writing.

5. Creaza

Creaza is a tool that can be used to create presentations, mind maps, cartoons, and videos. Students can collaborate on their projects in real-time.

6. Thunkable


Mobile Apps have been a rage for over a decade now, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Thunkable is a free and easy-to-use online tool for building mobile apps using a simple drag and drop code builder. As you create, you can test the app in real-time on an iOS or Android device and tweak it as you go. In addition, less experienced students can choose to “remix” an existing app instead of starting from scratch.

6. Roblox


Creating games is a great way to learn a wide range of real-world digital skills, like storytelling, art, design, programming, maths, etc. Roblox is an online platform for creating and playing multiplayer online games. As a teacher, you can take your students on a journey of creating their favorite online games. They can learn to develop games using Roblox Studio, test them with their peers, and publish them online for users to play on a computer, mobile device, or even Xbox. They can also choose to publish the game for free on the Roblox platform or charge them “Robux ”, the digital currency of Roblox. To support teachers, Roblox publishes resources like how to start guides and lessons.

7. Thinglink


Boost your classroom engagement by creating visual and interactive resources for your students. Thinglink makes it very easy for you to augment images, videos, and online tours with extra information using simple-to-use hyperlinks. Create an educational treasure hunt for students or mix it up and let them create visual learning journeys for their peers.

8. MindMeister


Mind maps are a tried and tested method for people to take notes or brainstorm ideas effectively. MindMeister is an excellent EdTech tool that takes this further by making mind mapping a collaborative exercise. Students can collaborate with peers in real-time in the classroom while a teacher explains concepts or works virtually from home when creating a group project.

9. Smiling Mind


Students (and all of us) can face a series of social and emotional challenges. To help them cope with these, they must be aware of their mental well-being and learn practical ways to be mindful. Smiling Mind is a free, not-for-profit app that encourages mindfulness and better mental being in schools. It is specifically built for students and teachers and breaks down activities for 7-9, 10-12, 13-15, 16-18, and adults. In addition, it comes with Professional Development training for teachers, classroom resources, and student workshops. 

10. Bonus – BSD Online


Of course, we would love it if you tried our online learning platform, BSD Online. Through scaffolded guided exercises, BSD Online makes the teaching and learning of digital skills and coding easy, fun, and engaging. We suggest our Hour of Code Project – Life Under Water if you’re wondering where to start.

We’d love to learn what other apps or EdTech tools you’d like to try this year!! Feel free to share by tweeting us at @Educationbsd or tagging us on Instagram at @BSDEducation. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Our Favorite Ways to Boost Student Engagement with Tech

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At BSD Education, we are always exploring new ideas to help boost students’ engagement in the classroom. It is important to boost engagement levels because engaged students are more curious and motivated in any given subject matter. With a growing sense of curiosity and motivation, this can greatly elevate and improve their overall learning achievements and experiences. 

Can we boost student engagement with technology initiatives at schools and districts – for example, with increased computer lab time, 1:1 device programs, etc.? Just by introducing tech tools like smart screens, online quizzes and games will only boost engagement for a little while. What we want is to establish sustainable engagement that has a meaningful impact. 

Technology in the classroom doesn’t have to be a  distraction and burden for teachers. Let’s explore ways to take advantage of our students’ interest in technology as a vehicle for better student engagement. Here are 3 of our favorite ways in boosting student engagement:

  • “What’s in it for me (as a student)?”

Our students want to know how and why the content they are presented with is relevant to them. This concept is not new and has long been associated with social psychology (Frymier and Shulman). As educators, we are on the lookout to connect with students to ensure that their learning is relevant to them. Consider introducing a simple tech project where students can gain practical skills in digital design and coding through online learning projects, such as creating a reading blog, or creating a dynamic adventure game to showcase their understanding instead of a traditional book report. Students will feel accomplished with a new skill that they have practiced and are able to apply in other areas of study.

  • Change it up

When students get familiar and in a routine in your classroom, you might feel that you have your classroom management secured and that your classroom is running like clockwork, but it is also important to try something different from time to time to keep your students interested. You can pique your students’ interests if you introduce a new concept through an interactive tech project (that they can also code and build) instead of a more traditional approach, such as showing them a documentary.

  • Give them choice

Allow students to make a choice in the projects that they do and how they want to learn. When students are given the opportunity to have an active role in their learning, they will feel more compelled to listen, engage themselves and take ownership in their learning. Technology projects may not be suitable or interesting to all students,  but we shouldn’t take away the opportunity for other students to thrive through tech projects. Promote student agency in your classroom by giving tech projects as an option of creative learning and output.

As educators, we should also ensure the content and learning objectives are presented clearly so that the chosen tech activities are meaningful and have immediate value to your students. When it is done right, technology can enhance student interest and understanding, as well as open opportunities for student agency and creativity.  

What strategies do you use to spark your students’ engagement and interest in their learning? Let us know by tagging us at @educationbsd on Twitter or find us on Linkedin.

The Biggest Trend in Tech Education This Past Decade Isn’t Even About Tech

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Looking back over the last ten years of trends and movements in K-12 Education, we have seen a rise in new technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Coding, Robotics, and Makerspaces, with a heavy emphasis on building student agency with tech skills. 

However, the trend that has evolved over the last ten years doesn’t even involve tech. Instead, it is Social-Emotional learning, empathy, and what many call “soft skills development.” You may have even seen a shift to social-emotional thinking in your schools with mindfulness programs, empathy-building projects, or school-wide behavior management programs that focus on restorative practices. 

This past December, we attended the Transforming Education Conference for Humanity at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development in India and heard from experts worldwide who were implementing and practicing ways to develop social-emotional learning for students and teachers.

One of the main takeaways from the conference was that by introducing social-emotional learning to students, many institutions had reported overall positive results. These included better academic performance, improved attitudes, behaviors, relationships with peers, a deeper connection to the school, fewer delinquent acts, and reduced emotional distress (student depression, anxiety, stress, and social withdrawal).  

While at the conference, we spoke to Dr. Tara Lynn Fraiser, who researches and develops K-12 social-emotional learning programs at Emory University in collaboration with the Dalai Lama. She described the importance of providing opportunities for social-emotional learning to be as vital as the development and acquisition of academic knowledge and skills. She also spoke about how social-emotional learning programs can help deter anxiety and stress in the classroom for both the teacher and the students.

A common theme that we heard at the conference was that teachers also need to develop these skills to help facilitate more profound connections. Many social-emotional programs like those set at Emory focus on developing the capacity for the teacher. Teachers, take note! Don’t feel bad about taking that extra time for yourself at the spa, gym, or lounge.  

While at the conference, we were able to see evidence of social-emotional learning at work by hearing students speak at various panel discussions, workshops, and poster sessions. We met three young engineering students from a school in Visakhapatnam (India) who had been working on a semester-long project to use empathy as a way to solve problems in their local community. They met with local farmers to learn about issues with irrigation and planting and then made prototypes of technologies like remote digital soil moisture monitors and robots that could help the farmers with seed propagation.

By focusing on understanding the farmers’ problems through empathy, the students could design solutions that effectively compassionately solved the issues. Developing empathy like this has been made famous in tech education through using the Design Thinking Method, which starts with empathy as a foundation for understanding the need of people along with a social or technical problem.

We at BSD believe in developing social-emotional capacity and feel that social-emotional learning should fit together with any skill development. Therefore, our team has designed all of our curriculum around our philosophy of CARE. We want to grow students to be:

Curious – always seeking to learn new things.

Adaptable  – never afraid to try something new.

Resilient – willing to start again and learn from challenges.

Empathetic – thoughtful about how their technology impacts the world.

The CARE philosophy baked into our curriculum helps students develop the right mindset to solve complex problems. We help students develop self-esteem, empathy, and skills they need to shape their futures by carefully designing lessons that require students to ask difficult questions, reflect on their learning and think about solving big problems. Our CARE philosophy also extends to teachers’ needs by providing comprehensive lesson notes, guided practice, and even professional development. However, you will have to get your spa package for that extra level of self-care.

We recommend this getting started guide if you are new to social-emotional learning or want to learn more. Feel free to create a chat with me at @BarkMarnett on Twitter or email me at mb@bsd.education to talk about Social Emotional learning or anything on Education!

The Evolution of Technology and Education – Full

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Technology has become ubiquitous and intrinsic to every aspect of life. However, rather than the demands of what we need to create, it is the impact of what has been created that is driving change. Automation is the singularly most defining influence of technology in the workforce moving forward over the next 50 years. In this article I am not going to further define the potential stages of automation and its relationship with the evolution of machine intelligence and beyond. Simply put, automation is the means through which roles traditionally undertaken by humans have the potential to be replaced by technology. In theory, we will have the technological capability to replace all roles, but this is diminished in terms of both time and realization when you simultaneously consider implementation and validation, economics, and socio-political considerations.

What we are seeing now and will continue to witness in the coming decade is that automation is replacing the most sequenceable and repetitive tasks and is therefore changing the relationship of the person doing that job with their industry. This means that if the person does not evolve their skill set, then their value to the economy is diminished.

At the same time, we are seeing that roles requiring significant managerial, judgement and interpretation capacities are furthest from the sphere of automation so in essence are becoming increasingly valued. The breadth of data interpretation and implementation of technology that has to be  overseen and led at a managerial level is, however, dramatically increasing the necessary digital skill set requirements of this group.

Existing roles in the workplace, having been pushed up and down have left behind a need for workers to take on enhanced roles with different skill sets. My illustrative situation here is a manual laborer, previously working on a production line whose manual role has been replaced by a robot. The laborer, however, has a wealth of experience as to how the production line works and how different issues that occur on the production line will have an interdependent effect on other areas of the production process. The laborer now oversees a group of machines that do his / her former role monitoring data and information, making adjustments to production and communicating with the humans in other parts of the process to be aware that all the machines are operating in the optimal fashion to facilitate production. 

Whilst the laborer’s work is still based upon the knowledge of production, the skills through which the laborer now works involve data analysis and interpretation, critical thinking, and communication and collaboration with coworkers. This example is deliberately simple in this situation in reference to a single laborer. As we progress up the scale of seniority in companies, we will find that the range of technical capabilities held by an individual or understood by and individual as being present within their broader team will become increasingly demanding.

Aligning to this, McKinsey’s study from May 2018 illustrated the effect that skill shifts will have in the way that people use skills during their working time.

So what does all of this mean for schools and broader educational institutions in their capacity as organisations that contribute pivotally in preparing people to join the world of work? It means that the development of social and emotional skills and technology skills is a critical part of learning for students. It is simply not possible to continue to consider that educational needs of people are being met where traditional systems of education are failing to prepare students with technology and social emotional readiness as a forefront consideration in the ongoing development of educational programs. 

Considering the real world implementation of these skill sets as illustrated above, where educational institutions focus on implementing educational technology and technology education programs across schools they should be doing it with the development of “digital skills” in mind. So what does this mean?

I see digital skills as a more broadly defined skill set than hard technology skills alone encompassing technical skills, soft skills and values in a combined model as below. The world of technology is colossal and evolving quickly and is therefore becoming exponentially more complex than an individual can grasp on an ongoing basis by themselves. The technical skills a student learns at schools won’t be the same required 20 years into their careers which is why it is important to focus on transferable skills and values. 

It is really important that educators allow a range of experiences for learners to find the area of technology that is their strength and their passion, something that they will have a willingness to follow, be curious about and learn resiliently for the rest of their lives as it continually evolves. At the same time, developing the empathy to recognise the strengths in others that students can collaborate with, and valuing where they cover the gaps in what students themselves lack will be critical to be adaptable to challenges that arise.

It is important to note here that there really isn’t a right answer when it comes to selecting particular technologies like programming languages or software a learner will be exposed to. There are always a number of technologies available, the merits of which can be argued for or against. What I have recognized in observing what students achieve and how they apply what they have learned around the world is that the ability to create content, understand design and user experience, and analyze and interpret data really become the key abilities that are most critical to nurture.

My final comment on the evolving role of technology education revolves around the planning of the learning journey. So much of digital skills education is implemented on a piecemeal basis – short activities off the shelf without progression or interdisciplinary relationships properly considered. This would not be the case in the teaching and learning of mathematics or science and so should not be the case for digital skills. It does pose a greater challenge to educators as an area of learning that is not as well understood as the learning of more traditional subjects and enquiries. However, given that the world of work will not wait, technology is evolving ever faster and not to become any simpler, the longer that such effort is delayed and addressed, the higher the mountain to climb will become.

Whether introducing a young child to learning with and about technology for the first time, or re-skilling an adult learner, you must initially build confidence and self-awareness. I refer to this as the “primary” phase, although it is age agnostic, as all learners are generally coming to the learning of digital skills for the first time. This is the phase to experiment and discover interests, as broad a range of applications of technology as possible and a tool kit of projects that the learner is confident and able to re-use regularly.

The second, “middle” phase is the time to deepen understanding of both the learner’s own skills and abilities that have become most refined and interesting, as well as those of the peer group around them. It is notable that for community based learners, the library commons movement is promoting the capability of library spaces as enablers of circulation of individuals within them. The practice of networking amongst people is an excellent key to communication.

The final phase, that I call the “higher” phase, is really the point in learning at which the portfolio of work begins to turn towards demonstrating capability in relation to real or fictitious scenarios of the world of work. 

As digital skills are largely uncertified and untested, they are most effectively demonstrated by sharing what you can create within a portfolio of work. This gives everyone an incredible opportunity to show their skills as value is placed on what you can do rather than where the skills were learned or how the person performed on one test. 

Technology is driving the changing state of the workforce and the skill shifts across industries that are accompanying this. The change is already here which should compel educational systems to robustly and immediately implement digital skills learning that will prepare people at all career stages to be successful because of change not incase of it. 

Whilst job automation might appear daunting, and will certainly require adaptation at all levels, it by no means tolls a deathly bell for humans in the workforce. Economically and socially, countries need the humans and the machines producing side by side.

The learning process for digital skills requires reflection on, understanding of, and empathy for others. The judgements, considerations and interactions that define us most strongly and clearly as humans are what will most enduringly be of greatest value to us in an automated world. So perhaps in light of all of this, the greatest impact of technology in both the world of work and of education will eventually simply be to make us focus on and value what it is that makes us most human after all.

How Schools Are Encouraging Students Be Career-Ready

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During the 2019-20 academic year, any high school will likely discuss students’ career-ready IT skills. Hundreds of teachers say connecting digital projects to real-world results and career-ready skills is an important rising trend in education.

As educators, we understand that real-world application is a key factor for engaging students with any course material. We‘ve observed that students who can demonstrate critical thinking and technical skills through real-world outcomes are more likely to succeed when applying to higher education or an important entry-level role within the workforce. 

So how can schools deliver real-world experiences to students in a classroom setting? Let’s take a look at some of the ways BSD’s partner schools are achieving this today.

Students as In-House Tech Support

Several school partners have revealed that student-led teams are presently servicing some of their IT needs this academic year. At Barringer STEAM Academy, a cohort of seniors are becoming career-ready in their free time. The self-proclaimed “Geek Squad” spend designated class periods updating printer drivers, troubleshooting Smart Boards, and administering tablets. As a result, these students gain real-world experience while freeing up their IT staff to focus on critical services.

To help reduce the IT department’s workload, one school set up a student-monitored online ticketing system for school employees. In addition, the BSD team is presently working with two more schools to create online ticketing systems using the BSD Online Platform. These projects empower students to use the technical skills they learn in class to solve real problems for others.

Business Partnerships

Another approach to this trend that has been gaining momentum is developing partnerships between schools and local businesses. Of course, these relationships can vary from school to school, but we’ve seen success in a couple of specific forms:

One method is to help students find new talent for internships and full-time careers by providing tools. For example, ask a medium to big technology companies nearby if they have a community service program for their employees. Employees can mentor high school students who may not be aware of local employment prospects.

An authentic collaboration between students and local businesses is a BSD partner school connecting students with local small businesses to offer essential digital services. For example, teams of students helped build and maintain basic websites for small businesses with limited resources to reach customers online. Not only are they solving a real problem for small businesses, but students are also building a portfolio of career-ready work for post-high-school success.

Students in Leadership Roles

A school-based leadership program can give chances for students who lack access to real-world corporate partnerships. For example, two of BSD’s partner schools, String Theory Schools and the Pathway School, operate student-run cafes. This teaches students business skills, from customer service to handling payment, sourcing the raw material, and managing the online presence.

Teachers at Downey High School in California have found a new way to provide seniors leadership experience. This year, they’ve launched a unique enrichment program. A team of seniors is empowered to teach coding skills to younger students through a Video Game Development course. This format put students in the teacher’s role and was a  great way to build confidence and communication skills that prepare them for life.

Directly Transferable Technology Skills

Finally, you can prepare students for career opportunities by teaching technology skills directly transferable to the workplace. BSD’s curriculum uses text-based coding languages from website developers and software engineers to data scientists and app designers. As a result, our students’ projects are based in the real world, and students can apply their conclusions to real-world challenges.

Are you a teacher or school administrator that would like to ensure that your students have the technology skills they need to be college and career-ready? Then, feel free to reach out to BSD Education. We’ll help you prepare your students for the ever-changing challenges of tomorrow and help them build digital portfolios that will follow them into their future ambitions.

Introducing Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom

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Growing up when sci-fi ruled the world with fictional narratives of intergalactic space travel, robots, and Artificial Intelligence; my 12 year old self would be disappointed that we can’t be served breakfast by AI robots in a biodome on Mars by now. While science hasn’t quite delivered those sci-fi dreams, the emergence of AI has definitely arrived and left us wondering, “what now?”  Artificial Intelligence is a booming field of study with lots of controversy and confusion; especially for educators and schools. Questions that we have heard from schools and educators are:

  • Should we even teach AI?
  • How do we get started with AI?
  • How can we install JavaScript libraries for neural networks (like ML5)?
  • How can we ensure security and privacy with AI deployments?

As you can tell from the questions, there are varying groups from users that know quite a bit about AI, to those that are just interested in learning more. Let’s break it down in an easy-to-understand way and answer these questions so you can make informed choices about implementing AI for your students and schools.

AI is here, whether we like it or not. Our philosophy at BSD Education is to empower learners with the skills and knowledge to make AI technology solutions that also respect users by reflecting on empathy and ethical concerns of AI development. We do this by providing students with real AI software to work with in guided projects that teach students how to, for example: install JavaScript libraries (like ML5) for Natural Language Processing or how to set up an AI system that can make predictive sounds with a drum machine. Lessons that we teach are coupled with classroom activities on topics about the critical issues of bias in AI algorithms, security, privacy, current research in the field of AI and more. 

We strongly feel that adding the ethical implications and empathy of understanding how AI is being used is vital to prepare students for the not-so-distant future of advanced AI robots and intergalactic space travel. This is a message that we purposefully weave into our curriculum because we value the teaching of empathy as a critical skill needed to prepare conscious global citizens who will be charged with building the future while using technologies like AI.

Don’t know where to start with AI at your school? That’s okay, it’s a complex subject that requires careful consideration and understanding. To answer the first question “should we even teach AI?”, I think that students should be taught about AI, and then, when ready, how to use AI and how to program using AI tools.

If you are looking for a great intro to AI and the ethics of AI, try this free and open-source resource from MIT that teaches middle school students about algorithms and how sites like YouTube, Spotify and Netflix use those algorithms to suggest new content to users. This could be a great starting point for a discussion about AI in your classrooms that can be easily implemented and taught.

If you want to dig deeper into the ethics of AI and current research on bias in algorithms, check out the work of the Algorithmic Justice League and start by watching this video about racial bias in AI facial recognition. It is important for students to understand the harmful side effects of some AI software that are currently in use.

Starting conversations with students about the social implications of AI leads to a better understanding of the subject and allows room for critical conversations about the future of technologies like AI.  By inviting students to explore ethical concerns and dilemmas, we are opening the door for conversations to be about humanity just as much as it is about the technology.

So whether you are just dipping your toes in the water with AI or you’re ready to start a project with AI libraries and pre-trained neural networks, it is best to approach the issue by painting the full picture of the technology and the social implications of AI by exploring these topics with fellow educators and students. Want to learn more and join the conversation? Join the #AIEthics chat on Twitter and catch up with what you have missed so far, here. 

If you are interested in learning more about our AI curriculum offerings from BSD Education, please reach out to us here or reach out to me at mb@bsd.education.

Inside The Professional Development Journey

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Professional Development (PD) training has played a key role in the rollout of Technology Education into schools across the world.

Since 2018, BSD Education has helped over 1000 teachers at 160 schools in 11 countries with our professional development.

When it comes to effectively integrating technology education into all classrooms, we have identified three hurdles that teachers normally face:

Confidence: Most teachers don’t usually have a background in technology, so can see it as risky and unfamiliar.

Content: Technology is constantly changing. which means that your curriculum can quickly become outdated and will require more time to redevelop.

Community: Teachers don’t have a large and accessible community of practice or peers to learn from and share ideas.

The objective of our PD training is to help teachers overcome these hurdles. Our trainings give teachers the skills and confidence they need to implement the TechEd curriculum seamlessly in their classrooms.

Our Foundation Professional Development training is six hours, delivered in person or virtually, and emphasizes the method of “learn by doing”. We apply this by having the training split across the school year to create a learn-apply-reflect-learn model.

After the first training, the teachers teach their first lesson and give their feedback and reflections to the instructor.

Not only does this guide the next PD lessons as we learn more about them and their methods, it also helps teachers identify the gaps in their knowledge and skills to specifically work on them.

After a few lessons, teachers can then focus on deepening the integration within their classroom without added stress.

Our journey with the teachers doesn’t end after PD lessons. We also communicate with our teachers throughout the year through offline events, online webinars, and regular coaching support.

After the PD training is done, our team works with the teachers one on one or in groups to learn more about their new approaches to the implementation of technology education in the classroom. This includes their successes and challenges.

Where there are challenges, we address them by providing support and further training if needed.

We share success stories with other teachers within the school and with other partner schools so they can be similarly inspired to tackle similar challenges they may face in their classrooms.

Through our professional development training, we aim to maintain a regular human connection with all our teachers across the world and help them bring exciting and new knowledge, skills, and technologies into their classrooms.

If you would like to learn more about our PD training or would love a sneak peek, please write to me at mq@bsd.education and I’d love to discuss it!

5 Tips We’ve Picked Up From Leading Virtual PD

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As more schools adopt BSD Technology Education programs, our team continues to innovate with high-quality virtual PD training for our teachers. Video conferencing enables our instructors to facilitate professional development sessions with teachers and accommodate busy schedules worldwide. However, virtual training comes with its own unique challenges. Here are some of the best tips that we’ve picked up after hundreds of sessions with thousands of teachers.

Welcome and Follow Up Emails

The communications that bookend virtual training are crucial opportunities to build trust and set expectations. Before every virtual session, BSD sends each teacher a welcome package, instructor bio, and a personalized PD agenda. Providing participants with the “who,” “what,” and “why” of training helps kick start solid relationships. These small gestures demonstrate that we respect teachers’ busy schedules and use our time together productively.

Once the virtual session is complete, a follow-up email is sent out containing a summary of the covered material. Follow-up communication is critical for verifying goals, reenforcing new knowledge, and outlining the next steps.

Show Face

One of the biggest challenges with virtual PD is creating a relationship between the instructor and participants. To be most effective, the instructor must use their camera in addition to audio, no exceptions! Our body language and expressions allow teachers to connect with instructors and more accurately interpret the lesson material.

Along with the camera, the instructor must be ready in the following aspects:

  • Attitude – The instructor is excited from start to finish and passionate about the material.
  • Environment – The instructor is in a setting with minimal background distractions, good lighting, where they will not be interrupted.
  • Wifi Connection – If the teacher cannot see or hear clearly, the training will not be effective.

Continuous Engagement

As a virtual instructor, it can sometimes feel like you’re playing in an empty room. However, our instructors keep teachers engaged throughout the session by asking questions that teachers will answer with confidence.

Ex. Prompting participants with directions such as “go ahead and click that button and let me know what happens.” Answering questions like these can build confidence for the teacher and help hold everyone accountable to follow along.

When leading 8+ participants, the chat log becomes an important tool as people are often hesitant to speak up when they know others are listening. For large webinar-style training with 20+ attendees, we recommend dedicating a second team member specifically to manage the chat.

Don’t underestimate the power of short breaks every 90 minutes to allow teachers to refuel and refocus!

Prepare Prepare Prepare

A successful virtual PD session is made in the days and hours before the live training begins. Even a slight hiccup can make the difference between an audience who is engaged or disconnected from your message.

We recommend pre-registering teachers for any accounts they may need before training and setting up those accounts with everything they’ll need before starting. At BSD, this means creating classrooms with demo students preloaded with relevant curriculum.  

Additionally, ensure that all browser tabs and supplementary documents you will need are on hand and organized. It’s also a good idea to ensure that your computer desktop is neutral and organized.

Record the Session

Professional development sessions are recorded to the cloud for two important reasons. First, it’s imperative to have an internal record of the session for training and quality control purposes. Second, recordings are a great resource for the teacher cohort to refer to when they want to review the material.

We use Zoom video conferences at BSD, which allows us to record to the cloud.

We want to know your thoughts on effective virtual PD. Have you run them yourself? What techniques have you come up with to connect with your attendees? Connect with us on social media or via email to share your virtual training experiences.