As educators we need to ensure that our students can perform well in the workplace by ensuring that all students reach their potential and are able to work well with others. I took a minute to research what employers look for in the hiring process. A reoccurring theme was clear in the articles I reviewed. The qualities employers look for in a person really have not changed with the advancement of technology. Employers want to hire people who show a high level of maturity. Employers look for candidates who demonstrate honesty and are sincere.

Determination, quickwit and proof of flexibility are listed as key qualities as well. An applicant’s education is definitely reviewed but is just one of many factors considered. Communications skills rank high on any list and are generally a must for any job.

We need to inform our students about the skills they will need and help them discover their strengths and weaknesses. Students need to be exposed to many different experiences and experiment with a variety of classes. Their dream should be their passion. If students understand how they learn and where their interests lie, they can follow their dream. Most students leave high school without a career goal because they have no experience or understanding of what types of jobs even exist. Many educators are not aware of what jobs will even look like in the next 10-15 years.

Our role is to assist students and give them as many opportunities as possible to fulfill their potential.  Web 2.0 tools provide a perfect venue to provide  the students with the qualities that employers are seeking. When teachers use these tools they must constantly stress the importance of honesty, integrity and emphasize collaboration with their peers. Students working on online projects are responsible for what they post as well as what they contribute to the assignment.

The school needs to ensure that the proper equipment is available as well as support the staff through professional developoment opportunities.

Sources:

Technology: A Catalyst for Teaching and Learning in the Classroom

10 Qualities Interviewers Look For

15 Key Qualities that Offset Job Experience Requirements

Before an assignment is underway, teachers need to advise students about vandalism in open source documents. They should review how to spot a valid source in Wikipedia as well as other websites. Andy Carvins’, article Turning Wikipedia into an Asset for Schools, writes “some entries will have a scrupulous list of sources cited and a detailed talk page on which Wikipedians debate the accuracy of information presented in order to improve it. Others, though, will have no sources cited and no active talk pages. To me, this presents teachers with an excellent authentic learning activity in which students can demonstrate their skills as scholars.” 

Educators should work toward making a free encyclopedia a worthwhile project. What does the average school spend each year on databases for their Library Media Center? Are the historical events published in these databases unbiased? Are the original sources used in the earlier volumes of encyclopedias stacked on library shelves any more reliable than the living sources who contribute to the open source communities? Perhaps we have accepted what is written in our earlier volumes of encyclopedias as gospel when in fact the reliability of these resources should be questioned as well. Wikipedia is new and still evolving; we need to give it a chance.

We had the same issues with Google images a few years back. Inappropriate images would often appear in a search. We had to decide whether to completely block Google images or educate students to use the tool in a school appropriate manner. As a staff we chose to educate our students on what to do when an inappropriate image was displayed.

Teachers who work in districts that filter everything need to have an open discussion with their administrators. Oftentimes the IT people make the decision to block the sites. The decision on what should and should not be blocked should be school based.

The teacher tantrum that students videoed on their cell phones was certainly disturbing, however, blocking YouTube would not have stopped the incident from taking place.

How students could use YouTube to embarrass teachers and students is drawing discussion at our faculty meetings. We produce a video for 8^th grade students at the end of the year. Students can buy the video and the profits are targeted for technology purchases in the LMC. The concern is that someone would post the video to YouTube. We are not sure how to work around this other than to stop the sale of the video.

This practice would help students think through the process they used to reach their final goal and reflect on what they learned.

I really do not see any hurdles if I take the advice of T.H.E. Journal article Content Delivery in the ‘Blogosphere which suggests that a teacher “spend several sessions introducing the concept of blogging, how it is done, why it is done, showing good and bad blogs, etc. Then, provide a set of strict rules for blogging such as frequency, length of posts, number of hyperlinks and staying on topic.” My principal and district administrators are very open to introducing Blogs and respect the educational value they provide. They are very excited about any teacher implementing this tool.