Some of the Hidden Benefits of Technology Education
Sep 02, 2024
Our emphasis at the Excalibur Solutions STEM Academy is Technology and Engineering education. In the courses we teach and the lessons we design to guide students through completing various kinds of projects, we identify many tangible skills and concepts students will learn. However, there are numerous other valuable learning outcomes that are not listed on the syllabus
Consider the three classes we are teaching at our private school partners in the 2024-2025 school year -Scratch programming,Introduction to Web Development, and Robotics. Because these classes are remote, students must be able to use video conferencing tools like Zoom or Google Meet just to participate. At the very least, they must know how to sign in, mute and unmute themselves, share their screens, and interact through the chat.
Prior to 2020 and the global COVID-19 pandemic, teleworking was the exception. Since then, though, many employees are now fully remote or able to work in a hybrid environment where they are remote from their coworkers at least part of the time. There are many benefits of this arrangement to both the employee and the employer, but it has forced employees to learn to work effectively using the same tools and techniques students engaged in distance learning use for their classes.
Another element common to the modern workplace and distance learning is the need to use email effectively. Students who do not have the opportunity to pass their teachers in the hallway or stop by the classroom before or after school for a quick chat must use email to a greater degree than they might need to in a more traditional setting. However, many have little or no prior experience managing an inbox! Just like employees working from home or for a company with offices in many palces, they must develop the habit of checking for new messages frequently, triaging and responding to those that are important in a timely manner, and deleting or filing messages once they have been addressed.
For each of these courses, students also have accounts at external services like Scratch, CodeHS, Replit, and Tinkercad. They have to know how to login to these services with user credentials that are likely different from what they use to access their school email and learning management systems. For that, they need to develop effective methods for creating and remembering multiple usernames and passwords, something all of us do to use online banking, web-based email platforms, and even streaming television services.
In our robotics class, students have had to find ways to organize a large collection of robot parts. They are also learning to use tools like screwdrivers, nut drivers, and Allen wrenches. Even screwing a nut onto a screw or bolt may be something they are doing for the first time. These skills will serve them well when they need to change a fuse or taillight in their car, hang a picture or fix a leaky toilet in their house, or do something more ambitious like install a garage door opener.
While the syllabus for our courses may say "The student will learn to program a computer", our students are really learning to do so much more. In fact, these hidden benefits of technology education may ultimately be more important to them than what is listed in the syllabus. These are essential life skills they will use throughout their years beyond school both at home and on the job.
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