Learning for Employability: Student Robotics Is Perfect!

Below, a very worthwhile post from EdWeek (see link at the bottom of this page)... In preparing today's students to be employable in the age of robots, Robotics itself is a perfect learning activity!It very strongly embraces and fosters all of the varieties of learning discussed in this article...

Ready for the Robots? Let's Prepare Every Student for the Future of Work

This post is by Rebecca E. Wolfe, an Associate Vice President at Jobs for the Future and a co-editor of Rethinking Readiness: Deeper Learning for College, Work, and Life, published in April by Harvard Education Press.

Could you be replaced by a robot? If not today, will automation claim your job--or your children's jobs--within several decades? As anxieties escalate about the "Future of Work," few things are certain but this: No one can predict exactly what the jobs of the future will be.


"But what about the skills of the future? Which abilities are most vital for young people to ...be able to navigate an ever-changing economy? Turns out that's something more and more people agree on, and it's not memorizing facts and reproducing content knowledge. Rather, as Andreas Schleicher, who oversees the international PISA tests that compare student performance around the world, puts it: "extrapolating from what we know and applying that knowledge to novel situations."

"... replace the narrow learning goals of the past 15 years with renewed efforts to ensure that all students attain the full range of intellectual, personal, and social skills valued in today's economy--and the economies of the future--in this rapidly changing world.... "employability skills"--mirror the deeper learning competencies... the ability to think critically and solve complex problems, work collaboratively, communicate effectively, learn how to learn, and develop a mindset for continuous learning and mastering content are the essence of deeper learning.... these are the skills that can keep students agile in the uncertain future of work."


How Can We Foster These Skills in All Students?

"...a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom is not the only, nor sometimes even the best place to teach skills for deeper learning..."


"There is no question automation and robots already are and will take on more work in the future. But it is also undeniable that the most capable people to thrive in new and changing environments will be those who are complex problem solvers, able collaborators, creative thinkers, and skilled communicators..." 

Read the full article at its source: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning_deeply/2017/05/ready_for_the_robots_lets_prepare_every_student_for_the_future_of_work.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news3