Preparing students for the future

In this post I wanted to discuss how technologies can effectively promote student learning now and for the future by reviewing an article that I found interesting, A Career Education Program That Gets Results by Margo Pierce.

Class Objectives that I met through this review are:


#2 - Evaluate and use a variety of current technologies to enhance content instruction and to
advance students' technological literacy.
#7 - Demonstrate an understanding of the use of adaptive technologies and other digital resources to personalize and differentiate learning activities for every student.
#8 - Evaluate, adapt and reflect upon emerging tools and trends by participating in local and global learning communities and by reviewing current research and professional literature



Volusia County Schools in Florida have found a way to get students involved in their career planning in high school so they can be better prepared for college. The Career and Technical Education program involves 10 high schools and the community. The following are some quick stats of this program:

• 4,500 Students enrolled in 33 career programs

• 95% Graduation Rate

• 2.94 Grade Point Average

•  85 percent of students have some kind of post-secondary education plans in place when they graduate

This program uses technological tools to help students figure out what they are passionate about so they can be placed in appropriate careers. One of these tools is Rocket21 which "serves as a virtual career fair that allows kids to explore professions in a multimedia environment. A public beta test that Rocket21 started in the summer of 2011 has signed up more than 2,000 kids from around the world as members who can then communicate with industry experts and their peers. The search function takes a member to a page populated with a list of professionals in a particular field--for instance, if a student has an interest in culinary arts, he or she might be connected with a chef--in addition to providing blogs, photos, documents, audio, and videos".

A large percentage of careers today requires the use of specific technological tools. The students in this program receive hands on training with these technological tools so they can be better trained in their chosen career. In today's economic crisis students need to be better prepared for careers. The prices for attending colleges/ universities have increased and the employment rate has decreased. Currently competition for jobs is high. Students need to focus on specialized career training which will increase their hire-ability. 

Volusia County Schools teach all basic curriculum courses in a way that helps students to apply learned knowledge and skills in their chosen careers. In my opinion this is an excellent method to help students become more engaged with their learning. I remember asking myself in high school "how is this going to help me in life or my career?" Nobody ever gave me a definitive answer and I became bored with subjects that I found useless. To coordinate subject topics, students and careers involves a lot of communication between teachers and the county has a blackboard website which allows the sharing of information between all the schools.

Most of us have heard  the saying, "it takes a village to raise a child". Many parents today have forgotten this and put to much pressure on schools to teach everything to their children. At the Volusia County Schools they have engaged the whole community in the children's learning. The community helps fund specific programs and businesses help teach students further with internships. To keep the community involved community partners or participants can easily check on the progress of the schools on their wiki page. 

The methods and tools used by these schools are important to me. I'm all about career focused curriculum because it lets students see that what they are learning does have a significance. Some of the tools mentioned are helpful in helping students find out what careers they are most interested in and I plan to use them in my current position. Also the tools used for community involvement is also useful because communication in business is vital and it shows students how to be effective communicators in an ever expanding world. Overall I enjoyed and learned a lot from this article.