Lexington, KY - Are you concerned about the quality of applicants for open positions at your company? Wondering what our schools are doing to develop young people into productive employees who can keep your business competitive in a global marketplace? The University of Kentucky's Next Generation Leadership Academy, developed by the College of Education, is engaging educators in search of answers.
Jack Hayes, director of student achievement for Fayette County Public Schools, is passionate about the need for informed change in our schools.
"Job one is to get our leadership team using a common vocabulary," he said. "When we talk about 21st century skills now, we're all over the place. Does that mean technology? Does that mean networking? Does that mean collaboration and team focus? Does that mean our curriculum itself needs to be changed? Ö If this academy can help our team focus the conversation, our team can make a difference."
The point of the academy, which involves 60 school and district leaders from 14 districts, is to stir up conversations and provide tools that will lead to innovation. It also provides networking support, allowing participants to share ground-breaking ideas with one another throughout the year. The academy aims to bolster school leaders' capacity to adapt to change that arrives unsolicited, along with their capacity to implement innovative ideas at their own initiative.
Technology use is key
The academy also intends to help participants deploy technology in their schools in ways that will bring about higher levels of student engagement and learning, and graduates better equipped to contribute productively to today's global economy and society. Corporations go where skills are high and employment costs are low, and few are constrained by geography these days. As for college admission, the competition for scarce seats at highly sought-after institutions is international.
"If we continue to educate students as we always have, they will be at a huge disadvantage when entering a work world that is increasingly globalized and driven by technology," said Mary John O'Hair, UK College of Education dean.
According to Hayes, "technology will let our kids access curriculum at all hours of the day, from all points on the globe, and on any number of topics they either need or in which they have an interest. We'll be much more effective when we're able to tap into these opportunities to support the unique learning needs of every single kid. Ö Our kids are better at this than we are, so it's their voices we need to hear. I feel sure they can guide us if we'll let them give it a shot."
A Jedi Master on education
One of our nation's leading education visionaries and a Jedi Master (so dubbed by George Lucas), Milton Chen speaks frequently about his dream of an "Education Nation." He relishes sharing his personal definition of how to identify a great school: "Do the kids run in at the same rate they run out?"
Whether or not they run in quickly these days seems to have something to do with how effectively technology is woven into the fabric of instruction.
Alice Barr is instructional technology integrator for Yarmouth Public Schools in Maine, a district at the forefront of smart technology deployment. She was trained as a teacher and over the years found that her passion really sits at the intersection of teaching and technology use. She now helps teachers think about how to integrate technology into their courses, with the view that technology "helps promote the four Cs: creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking."
Barr is vehement about the need for technology in schools to be student-centric. And she says one of the great challenges is that "adults are learning at the same time kids are learning."
She's impressed that UK's College of Education recruited Scott McLeod, a professor considered on the cutting edge of technology in education.
"He'll make people uncomfortable," she said about his strong stands and his controversial choice to remain in Iowa after hired by UK, doing much of his work remotely. "What he models by not moving," she suggests, "is that excellent work can be done from anywhere. His choice also exemplifies the threat from global competition."
Change in our schools is job one
Marcia Carpenter, a Next Generation Leadership Academy participant from the Daviess County Public Schools, said, "Relevance is the most important benefit that students will derive from teacher involvement in the work of the Leadership Academy. Ö The classroom used to be relevant. The classroom is where all the knowledge was stored. That is no longer the case."
Carpenter added, "Technology fosters change by its mere existence. The school district that harnesses the most progressive technology engine will win the race."
It's easy to be overwhelmed by day-to-day life in a school setting, just as it is in a corporate setting, and to keep telling oneself that change will happen when time permits. And it's easy to think that if computers are in classrooms, then change is happening. But without creative use of technology, its mere presence doesn't lead to "21st century skills." If the Next Generation Leadership Academy can keep participants excited about productive change and technology integration in the classroom, then you can look forward to future
employees who will keep your business competitive.
Jane S. Shropshire guides students and families through the college search process and is Business Lexington's Higher Ed Matters columnist. Contact her at Jshrop@att.net.