First, when we hear discussion of job outsourcing to other countries, typically we think of unskilled manual labor: like sweatshop textile industry workers. The IT outsourcing to India and other locations is a very different phenomenon, however: these are the exact opposite of unskilled jobs. On the contrary, these are highly technical “IT” positions and roles which naive citizens uninformed about current employment trends might not expect to move offshore. The graphs that accompany the article for predicted future outsourcing in the next few years are remarkable. Those are not included apparently in the online version, just the print version. As futurists encourage us, we should take note of trend lines and plan accordingly. This seems like a case in point.
So many of our schools are almost wholly focused on mandated test preparation, that a current event like this will likely slip by unnoticed by school board members, parents, and administrators. It should not. We absolutely must be preparing students today for an uncertain future, that is NOT characterized predominantly by multiple choice problems which have single answers. That is what my TCEA 2004 presentation, “The School I Love,” was all about. We have an obligation to our children to prepare them for their future, and as this Wired article points out, a significant part of our future work in the US may depend on our continued abilities to innovate and think creatively.
Are the schools in your neighborhood schools that I would love?!
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On this day..
- Inspired by Ohio Student Interactive Scratch Games – 2018
- Publishing Student Videos with a Shared YouTube Account – 2016
- Join via Videoconference: Mapping Media Part 2 (Spring 2014) – 2014
- Online Petition: Oklahoma City Public Schools Must Adopt Balanced Internet Content Filtering Policies – 2012
- 5th Graders Develop Problem Solving Skills with Lego WeDo Robotics – 2012
- Set Up a Moderated Class Blog on Posterous – 2011
- Beware of Inappropriate Ads on Free Classroom Websites – 2011
- Favorite photos and videos from METC 2010 – 2010
- Planning outline for METC 2010 keynote – 2010
- Scan at higher resolutions with Preview on your Mac – 2010