SJ3-Education

SJ3-Education Blog
Future Careers Need Technology Integration Now.

Preparing our students for workforce and career planning must include 21st Century Skills along with technology integration grounded in NETS Standards. Most career paths, current employment opportunities, and jobs that haven't yet been created do and will continue to require employees to have problem-solving skills, technology skills, and an approach to self-directed learning. Today's employment rate and the unpredictable future for new job growth places an even higher demand for students to acquire skills valued by future employers.

I want to take agriculture as an example (mainly because it often isn't thought of as highly technical). Farmers are using advanced types of technology everyday to be highly productive and to minimize unnecessary input costs. I'll use my husband's job as an example. He works in the agriculture industry to provide a product to farmers that will increase productivity while decreasing input costs. His company provides GPS auto-steering for tractors. Let me walk you through all the technology tools he frequently uses.

Google Earth:
When planning for tower locations that will transmit a satellite signal to tractors in fields, he uses Google Earth. The GPS signal will transmit a 12 mile radius. He plots all his tower locations on Google Earth along with their coverage area. By using layers and plotting points he can create an interactive map which displays current and future areas in which accuracy for automatic steering to the nearest inch will be available.

Word, Excel. PowerPoint, Adobe Elements, Outlook, Read Atlas, XMap
These list some of the common software he needs to be able to use. Wether communicating with his board and dealerships, presenting at conferences, creating multimedia of product demonstration, and working with several mapping software; he must be able to learn software and do technological trouble-shooting. Not everyone will have a team of technicians available to them, so 21st Century Skills are a must.

Wordpress & Blogging
His company website needs continuous updates of relevant information. He had to learn Wordpress to manipulate the website information. He also keeps a blog for updating on current events and tower construction.

Cloud computing & Digital Dropbox
The company my husband works with is a collaboration of three individual partners, so they do not share a common network. Cloud computing and utilizing services like Dropbox allow for secure document sharing that is easily accessible and editable by the parties involved.

Mobile Device (Droid Phone)
When he is traveling between rural tower locations or out in the middle of fields he still needs access to documents, contacts, email, and internet. He also updates his blog and website by using his Droid. He is able to take pictures of tower construction sites and upload directly to his blog. His mobile device increases productivity, communication, and allows for instant information flow.

GPS Equipment
Global Position System (GPS) is what the farmers' tractors use to communicate with the local towers and orbiting satellites. This technology allows the tractors to set a path and drive on autopilot. GPS is a technological advantage because the exact path can be repeated by the tractor. This will save on costs from seeding, fertilizer, chemical spray, to harvest because the farmer can be extremely accurate on application.

Portable tower with GPS signal
He also uses a portable tower that will reach up to 110 feet that will transmit a GPS signal in a range of 12 miles. This is used with other mobile GPS receivers to test possible permanent tower locations before a tower is even built.


All of these tools (with the exception of a portable 110 ft tower) are easily available for learning in the classroom. The knowledge of learning and utilizing all of these technological tools required quick learning and self-directed learning by my husband. He wasn't taught how to use every tool, but because he values digital technology for it's productivity and collaboration power he has successfully applied them to his work.

You will notice that the tools we teach our students are also tools that can be directly utilized in the workforce. As we use common terminology such as 21st Learning Skills and NETS Standards in our strategic planning. They do have a direct correlation with meeting the needs for our students beyond high school.