By Vali Mitsakis
A briefing organized by Department of Public Information of the United Nations
This briefing focused on the use of technology in order to enhance teaching methods and student experiences in primary and secondary school classrooms. It is almost impossible to contemplate the changes that have occurred since I attended primary and secondary schools ten years or so ago (we we only taught how to use Word and Internet Explorer). However, if we consider the fact that Ms. Lahiri, the Associate Director of the Innovation Center at Rutgers Preparatory School, mentioned “65% of students today will enter jobs that do not even exist yet” it is not at all surprising that schools are trying to encourage students to prepare for their technologically advanced future from a young age.
Having this fact in mind, two speakers that caught my attention: Alefiya Bhatia, CEO of MAD-learn and Neesha Rahim, co-founder of Level Up Village. MAD-learn is a program that brings the concepts and tools of app development to students as soon as 3rd grade by enabling them to build mobile apps. In the link below, you can listen to students talk about their experiences using MAD-Learn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM78Oyv6KiM
Level Up Village is an organization that connects students in the US with students globally, empowering them to use design thinking and STEM skills to solve real life problems together. They also communicate through weekly videos, in which they talk about their projects and try to learn more about each other. In the link below, you can see sample global exchange programs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxS6uULNWtk
This briefing was a perfect example of how youth are learning about the world and preparing for the future from a very young age.