Challenging ‘Bad’ Online Policies and Attitudes — from insidehighered.com by Susan D’Agostino
Academic and industry leaders spoke with conviction at the SXSW EDU conference this week about approaches that impede educational access to motivated, capable learners.
Excerpts:
“It’s driven by artificial intelligence,” Barnes said of IBM’s training and reskilling effort. “It’s a Netflix-like interface that pushes content. Or an employee can select content…
…
The leaders discussed the ways in which colleges, policymakers, and employers might work together to help more Americans find or advance in viable employment, while also addressing the workforce skills gap. But some “bad” policies and attitudes about online learning undermine their efforts to work together, expand access and deliver outcomes to motivated, capable learners.
“Employers were saying, ‘We have job openings we can’t fill, and we want to work with the education system, but it is so unbelievably frustrating because they’re very rigid, and they don’t want to customize to our needs,’” Hansen said. These employers sought workforce training that could produce a pipeline of learners-turned-employees, and Hansen said they told him, “If you can do that, I’ll pay you.”
What’s It Like to Leave the Classroom for a Job in Edtech? — from edsurge.com by Nadia Tamez-Robledo
Excerpt:
Our recent analysis of teacher representation in edtech leadership revealed that former educators held a variety of top roles in the companies we sampled, heading teams that handled pedagogy, curriculum, product, marketing and sales.
Former educators told us they had moved on to become UX designers, part of sales teams and founders of their own edtech companies.
Transitioning to edtech would have been much harder about five years ago, she believes, because there weren’t as many resources available to help teachers get started. Now job seekers can turn to podcasts or TikTok’s #transitioningteachers community for advice on approaching the edtech job search.
These 20 jobs are the most “exposed” to AI, ChatGPT, researchers say — from cbsnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org
Excerpt:
New research examining the effects of language modeling AI like ChatGPT on different occupations and industries finds that certain jobs, like telemarketers and teachers, are more “exposed” to the technology than others, such as psychologists and counselors.
Also relevant/see:
Must read: the 100 most cited AI papers in 2022 — from zeta-alpha.com by Sergi Castella i Sapé; with titles, citation counts, and affiliations.
How will Language Modelers like ChatGPT Affect Occupations and Industries? — from papers.ssrn.com by Edward W. Felten, Manav Raj, and Robert Seamans
K–12 teachers are quitting. What would make them stay? — by McKinsey & Company
Excerpts:
When school districts can’t attract and retain enough teachers, students suffer. And the COVID-19 pandemic has only compounded the nation’s education talent challenges. To improve our understanding of what makes K–12 teachers want to stay, leave, or return to their jobs, McKinsey surveyed more than 1,800 US educators, school leaders, and school mental health professionals at the end of the 2021–22 school year (see sidebar “About the research”). Approximately one-third of respondents said they planned to leave their role before the next school year began. That equates to roughly 900,000 teachers across the nation. Our research also revealed that this pending turnover could further exacerbate inequality, hampering efforts to create more resilient and equitable K–12 education systems.2 While this stated intention to leave has historically not panned out, it suggests an unhealthiness to the profession that administrators should be mindful of.
Teachers who are thinking of leaving cite compensation, unreasonable expectations, and an inability to protect their well-being as top motivators.
Industry insight: Blockchaining to track current and potential employees’ skills — from chieflearningofficer.com by Tanya Boyd
Excerpts:
A learner who is aware of their unique strengths and development needs, as well as their preferred approach for gaining new skills, is often able to find the learning opportunities that they need more effectively and efficiently.
A global language for skills
While we might be tempted to focus within, looking for ways to address our own company’s talent challenges in isolation, this common concern invites a more global solution. We would all be better off if we could build a global language for skills. It’s at least one step toward achieving global processes for evaluating and developing them.
…
The top three challenges with skills and skill-based practices, as cited by McKinsey’s 2021 state of hiring survey, are: the ability to validate skills, sourcing job seekers with the right skills and scaling this approach.
Having a validated “chain” of skills for an employee helps not only in the selection process, but also as L&D departments seek to personalize learning. Blockchain creates a more valid approach to personalizing learning based on each employee’s competencies and skills gathered across their career, rather than just the skills they are demonstrating in their current organization and role.
As Colleges Focus on Quality in Online Learning, Advocates Ask: What About In-Person Courses? — from chronicle.com by Taylor Swaak
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
As colleges’ online catalogs grow, so too has the push to develop standards of quality for those courses. But are in-person classes getting the same attention?
If you ask many online-education advocates, the answer is “no.” And the solution, many say, is for colleges to adopt standards and policies that set consistent expectations for quality across all courses, whether they’re remote or in a classroom.
While decades of research and the pandemic-spurred expansion of online learning have helped demystify it, and build confidence in its efficacy, these advocates say the misconception lingers that remote education is inherently lower in quality than instruction in the classroom. And that stigma, they say, puts a magnifying glass to online ed, while largely leaving in-person classes to business as usual.
The focus instead, Simunich said, should be on a big-picture question: Is this a high-quality learning experience for students?
From DSC:
These are great points. I find them to have been very true.
Reflections of a College Adjunct After 31 Years — from insidehighered.com by Stephen Werner
We’ve proven over and over that there’s enough work to give many of us full-time positions, writes Stephen Werner, but things are moving in the opposite direction.
Four Pieces of Advice (emphasis DSC)
In closing, I offer the following recommendations:
- See the big picture. We adjuncts are workers in the gig economy. We are part of the new normal where so many jobs are on-demand, temporary work, with few or no benefits and no long-term security. Even with our M.A.s and Ph.D.s, we have much in common with workers at all levels, including the lowest-skilled workers.
- Make a serious effort to meet and talk to other adjuncts. …
- Unionize! Organize with your fellow adjuncts! …
- Start saving for retirement. …
The fact is that college and universities are totally dependent on us. They know it. We adjuncts need to act like we know it, too. We need to overcome our isolation and work together to have a voice.
How Mega-Universities Manage to Teach Hundreds of Thousands of Students — from edsurge.com by Robert Ubell (Columnist)
Excerpt:
One key difference at SNHU is how it hires faculty, relying on an academic army of about 8,000 adjuncts who earn $2,000 per semester for teaching an undergrad course and $2,500 for a grad course. Reliance on adjuncts, especially in online instruction, is a national trend. Today, gig faculty occupy about three-quarters of all U.S. college instructors. But Southern New Hampshire and other online operations depend even more on contingent labor than most of their traditional peers.
For colleges to depend entirely on an Uber-style instructional workforce may be financially prudent, but I argue it’s academically risky, with little continuity and no permanent faculty. It’s also exploitative, with instructors ending up in precarious work arrangements without living wages and benefits.
First Person: Why college matters for people serving extreme sentences — from opencampusmedia.org by Rahsaan “New York” Thomas
Excerpt:
For incarcerated people, the quality or success of a college program is often measured by recidivism rates. By that standard, Mount Tamalpais, formerly the Prison University Project, is a success. Its students had a recidivism rate of 17 percent compared to the 65 percent recidivism rate for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as a whole, according to a 2011 program evaluation.
Personally, I see education as the key to my success from behind bars. After getting sentenced to a term beyond my life expectancy I needed a path to redemption in the eyes of my mother, my sons, and society that didn’t involve going home. I came up with becoming a writer because my voice was the one part of me that was still free.
The Surging World of Work — from gettingsmart.com by Norton Gusky
Key Points
- World of Work (WoW) is a career initiative that started in the Cajon Valley Union School District, San Diego CA.
- There are now districts across the United States who are using this model to prepare students in K-12 for their future directions.
Excerpt:
Philip Martell, the Superintendent of River Valley looks at the WoW movement from a Workforce Development perspective. According to Mr. Martell, Superintendent of River Valley, “The WoW framework makes a difference for learners because it cultivates career development and paths to gainful employment K-12. WoW gives our River Valley students exposure to career options at an early age. Students have the opportunity to learn about careers, receive hands-on experiences, meet professionals, and practice skills needed for that career. The goal is for our River Valley students to have a personalized career experience. We currently use the WoW/Beable framework along with the RIASEC model which allows students to explore different careers to see what their interests are so that we can build career opportunities within their learning path K-12.”
Employment of people with disabilities surges to a record high amid remote work policies — from thenationalnews.com; with thanks to Robert Gibson on LinkedIn for this resource
Employment among disabled people in the US rose to 21.3% in 2022
Excerpt:
Daily tasks such as commuting and navigating an office space can be difficult for people depending on their disabilities. As companies adopted remote and hybrid work arrangements, more disabled people applied for and landed jobs — sometimes for the first time in years.
The recent push by companies urging workers to return to the office may threaten the gains made by disabled people, who comprise about 12 per cent of the population, according to the bureau. A report by the consulting firm McKinsey and Company published last June estimated that 35 per cent of companies offered a fully remote option.
Overall, disabled people are still less likely to be employed than their counterparts who don’t have disabilities, and they are twice as likely to be employed part-time, the BLS report said. They’re also more likely to be self-employed.
Apprenticeship programs are becoming more popular as an alternative to college — from cnbc.com by Jessica Dickler
Key Points
- Daniel Swan started as an apprentice and now works full time as an HVAC technician in California.
- Apprenticeship programs are becoming more popular as an alternative to college.
- Over a decade, the number of registered apprentices rose 64%, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Eliminate a Degree of Difficulty: Hire for Skills, Not School — from bain.com by Joe Lischwe, Alex Noether, Maria Gordian, Andrea D’Arcy, and Jon Barfield; resource via GSV
Too many jobs require college degrees, locking out qualified Black talent. Skills-first hiring helps companies rethink what really matters.
At a Glance
- Black Americans are 30% less likely than white Americans to have jobs that pay family-sustaining wages—a key factor in the income and family wealth gaps between Black and white Americans.
- One key barrier to Black talent obtaining these jobs is that 70% to 80% require a four-year college degree, which 75% of Black Americans do not have.
- Requiring four-year degrees is not the only way to assess talent or identify the best candidates, and skills-first hiring can mitigate this credentials barrier, making the process fairer for all job applicants.
- The business case is strong: Skills-first hiring criteria are 5 times more predictive of future job performance than educational background and 2.5 times more predictive than work experience.
- While the transition to skills-first hiring—particularly the shift in culture and mindset it entails—is challenging, there are proven steps companies can take to make the switch successfully, as illustrated by the example of companies in the OneTen coalition such as Merck.
Team Teaching, Educator Retention and Education’s Next Workforce — from gettingsmart.com by
Key Points
- Team teaching models present an innovative solution to build high-quality teams of satisfied and empowered educators.
- The future of the nation depends on the quality of education provided to the next generation.
- Discovering, creating and retaining great teachers who are driven to support every K-12 learner is one of the most effective ways to change long-term outcomes for both students and their future communities.
Also from GettingSmart.com:
Why Teach Journalism When AI Writes Articles? — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark
Key Points
- Historically, journalism has been a valued and viable career path.
- However, the rise of the web, particularly social media, disrupted time-honored media business models.
- Good writing matters in careers and in a healthy democracy and journalism–the regular production of public content in newspapers, magazines, and websites–is a great way to teach it.