I shared the following thoughts with the Board of Education this evening.

 

Good evening, my name is Noelle Kreider, and I’m the District Technology Integration Coach and the parent of a Carter High School student. I’ve attended recent board meetings and what I’ve heard is we must focus on what is essential as we deal with the current economic challenges. We are in survival mode – what are the things we must have? Indeed, this question is being asked in many households throughout our community. But in education, survival thinking must also be proactive, forward thinking. We cannot forget that we are preparing students to graduate every year and face the challenges of this 21st Century world with the skills we have provided them. So, what do we deem to be essential for our students?

 

The historical response to that question has been reading, writing, and arithmetic. Indeed, the accountability measures we face from the district, state, and federal levels reinforce this. Yet, I would argue that these are no longer sufficient to prepare our students for today’s society, or their future. The US Department of Labor estimates that today’s learners will have 10 to 14 jobs by their 38th birthday. Half of today’s workers have been with their current employer less than 5 years. So, when we ask ourselves what is essential for our students, we must be very cognizant of how our own experiences differ from what is happening beyond our classrooms.

 

Technology plays an ever increasing role in every aspect of our society. Technology is no longer an option – it is the vehicle through which the skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic are used in today’s colleges and workforce. So we must ask ourselves, does the learning environment we provide our students reflect the learning and work environment they will face the day they step out our doors? The technology expenditures of our district have focused on tools that increase efficiency and effectiveness of our employees. At the classroom level, we’re equipping teachers with computers, projectors, document cameras and interactive whiteboards. Yet, if you ask students how they use technology on a daily basis in our schools, you’ll find the majority of responses are for programs like Accelerated Reader, Ticket to Read, etc. What is far less common is student use of technology for higher-order thinking skills as required by NCLB – research, productivity, and communication. These are the essential skills we must integrate into our students’ learning experiences on a daily basis. eChalk provides the tools to make this possible in the classroom. Nearly 700 people responded to our online survey requesting feedback on eChalk – 83% said they think it is a valuable tool for our district.

 

So I urge everyone to re-evaluate how you define what is essential for today’s students who must compete in a global, technological workforce. My daughter will be a 3rd generation Rialto Unified graduate. But unlike her mother and her grandfather, she will not be competing with students from Redlands, San Bernardino, and Fontana for her place in college and the workforce; she will be competing with students from around the world for many different jobs in her lifetime, most of which don’t exist yet. We must seize this opportunity to refine our vision of what is essential for our students and look to their future in doing so. Thank you.