We know that our students (and their families) are actively using social-media in their everyday lives. They use it to connect with friends and family, but they also use websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, etc. to gain information that helps them make decisions about both the here-and-now as well as their futures. As school counselors, how do we use that technology to enhance and better communicate with our students and families about college planning, financial aid, and career development?
Please join me, courtesy of College Week Live, on Thursday, October 17th from 3-4 p.m. Eastern Time as I share some thoughts and ideas about harnessing technology to support our work as school counselors with regards to College and Career Readiness. I will discuss:
Developing a framework for using social-media to enhance and support your work
The basics of setting up a school counseling department Facebook page and/or Twitter account
Survey results about how high-school counselors currently use Facebook, Twitter, and blogs
Blogging for your department or exploring blogs for your own professional development
You can sign up here for this free webinar. CEU's will be awarded at the end of the presentation. We will be using the hashtag #CWLCEU for those of you on Twitter and Facebook if you want to follow along with the conversation threads. I will also be tweeting out information using that hashtag during the presentation. How, you might ask? Magic, and maybe some information I'll share with you during the presentation.
"Thank you" to those of you that took the time to complete the survey. The survey is now closed. Your responses directly support the content of this professional development opportunity.
Hope to see you all on the 17th!
Editors note: This post was edited on October 14th to reflect that the social-media survey was now closed. The survey that was originally posted here was also removed.
This week From the Counselor's Office was recognized as one of the top 100 resources for counselors on the web by the website, Masters in Counseling. I am honored to have been included with so many other excellent, informative, and inspiring school-counselor blogs!
I guess it was only inevitable when one has a brother currently majoring in astronomy and physics, a father with a doctorate in American History (we'll gloss over the current obsession with squirrels), and a mother whose work on her master's thesis was about communication styles between the "athletes" of the World Wrestling Federation.
I am a nerd, and an ecclectic one, at that.
Other people listen to techno-music or jock-jams when they are sweating on the stairmaster. I get my excercise groove on by listening to NPR's Planet Money podcast. This is a podcast that discusses economics--how money and commodoties play out in the United States and abroad. I enjoy it because the journalists are able to make complex theories and ideas simple and relatable to everyday life. One of the more recent ones caught my eye (or ear, as the case was) in that it discussed the changes that have occured in manufacturing jobs in the last several decades.
In a two-part series, the journalists visit Greeneville County, South Carolina, a place that used to be home to a plethora of manufacturers. People were able to make good, living wages with very little education. Oftentimes, men and women would drop out of high-school and start working in the factories at 16 or 17 years old, because there was little use for staying in school when they could live comfortably off of their stable company job. The jobs would often involve heavy labor, but workers could even get by without knowing how to read.
Flash forward to today. In the story, the journalist talks about Ralph and Maddie Neither has anything beyond a high-school education. Maddie still does hands-on assembly line work, placing parts in machines and pressing buttons. Ralph, however, works with microscopes and highly technical computer tools:
"Ralph is the future of manufacturing. He has adapted to the new technology on the factory floor. But for Maddie, the pace of change has been bewildering. She is still adjusting, and she will have to keep adjusting as the machines grow more sophisticated and the work less physical." (source: www.npr.org/blogs/money/)
In modern manufacturing and assembly-line work, it is all about technology, computers, math and science. There are still plenty of machines, but they are very complicated, expensive machines that take a great deal of expertise and knowledge to operate. In fact, in a more humorous moment in the story, the journalist is told that he would not even be considered for hiring, even though he has a bachelor's degree and some decent computer knowledge. The skill set for these manufacturing jobs is that specific:
"To become like Ralph, I'd have to learn the machine's computer language. I'd have to learn the strengths of various metals and their resistance to various blades. And then there's something I don't believe I'd ever be able to achieve: the ability to picture dozens of moving parts in my head. Half the people Tony (Ralph's boss) has trained over the years just never were able to get that skill.
And if you don't get that skill, a mistake on this machine can be catastrophic. All the work that's done here happens on a scale of microns. One micron is four-hundred-thousandths of an inch. A human hair, for example, is 70 microns thick. Here, you cannot be off by one-tenth the thickness of a hair.
'A 7- or 8-micron wrong adjustment in this machine cost us a $25,000 workhead spindle,' Young says. 'Two seconds, we could lose $25,000.'" (source: www.npr.org/blogs/money/)
The story back to Maddie, the worker who has high-school skills but not much technical training. She is working on a machine that is more "old-school" than some of the newer, more highly complex machines. Right now she has a job because to design and manufacture a machine that could do her job would cost more than her annual salary. However, looming over her and all the other workers in her position is the fear that could change--that at some point it could be cheaper to have a machine than a worker. Without more extensive technical training, she could someday be out of a job. (source: www.npr.org/blogs/money/)
In a previous post, I talked about the rise and focus of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) careers. I have also written about the emerging mission and focus of school counselors, that of preparing students for college and career readiness and helping them to build 21st century skills. If we look at this new trend in manufacturing, how do we, as school counselors, steer some of our students in a direction that will help them to find stable and meaningful work? I always tell my students that you do not necessarily need to go to a four-year college after high-school, but you do need some plan, some training, beyond graduation in order to find a job in the modern era. For many of these manufacturing-tech jobs, you do not need a bachelor's degree or even an associate's.
Interestingly enough, there are organizations out there looking at the amount of money one earns depending on various post-secondary education options. According to an article through American Radio Works, there are a wide variety of license and certificate programs that can lead to stable careers in a variety of fields. Licenses and certificates are often shorter programs than an associates degree and only focus on the classes needed to learn a particular skill, whether that is information technology, HVAC, or dental workers. Further, according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, 43% of those with licenses and certificates make more than those with associates degrees, and 27% make more than those with bachelor's degrees. 31% of those with associates degrees make more than those with bachelor's degrees.
What does this tell us? It tells us that a four-year degree is not necessarily the only path to a stable career and success. For some of our students, they will find themselves to be just as successful if not more successful if they simply graduate from high school and then receive specialized training in a specific field. We have students who have struggled with academic coursework their entire time in school. We have students who prefer to be hands-on with their work--they want to be directly engaged with wires or metal. We have students who love to be able to be in motion the entire day. We have students who are not quite ready for a two or four year academic degree at this stage in their lives, but who want and need to get a few more skills to enter the workforce. These license and certificate programs are a strong option.
Mike Rowe, the producer and host of the television show, Dirty Jobs, lobbied congress for more information and recruiting of skilled labor--labor that is trained in license and certificate programs.
Where can you get more information about these types of programs? First, I would recommend looking into your local community-college. For us here in the Northern Virginia area, we have NOVA, and the list of degrees and certificate programs is quite extensive, everything from radiology certificates to multimedia design certificates. Another trend to be on the look-out for in the next couple of years are emerging "free-college" online schools. As of now, these schools, such as University of the People, are not accredited, but that could be changing, and they are teaching valuable skills in areas like information systems and technology.
We may have to broaden our definition of "college" when we discuss "college and career readiness." For me, I believe it is some structured program after high-school that earns a student a credential of some kind. Licenses and certificates fit the bill, in my book, and could be the best pathway possible for some students to find success and satisfaction in the work they end up doing every day.
I would imagine that most school counselors have seen online education options increase for their students over the last ten years. Certainly I have seen this in my own school district--an ever growing number of courses offered, some taught by teachers within the system, some contracted to outside sources. As I have watched this educational medium expand, I have continuously asked myself questions: What type of student is right for online classes? What oversight is there of these online classes? Who pays for these courses? Is this, in 50 years, going to be how more and more students learn versus being in a traditional classroom?
"...virtual education has evolved into an alternative to traditional public schools for an increasingly wide range of students--high-achievers, strugglers, dropouts, teenage parents and victims of bullying among them." (source: Layton and Brown, www.washingtonpost.com)
As the authors discuss, there is quite a range of students between high-achievers and dropouts. Does an educational medium that is traditionally self-paced and that requires a great deal of independent motivation and work the best choice for all of these different populations? While many students may access an online class or two here or there, the article seems to be mainly discussing students who enroll full-time at these public online schools, meaning they are never in a traditional classroom. Additionally, in the article the results for online education are decidedly mixed:
"We have no real evidence one way or another, said Tom Loveless, a brookings Institution scholar who served as a paid consultant to K12 in its early years." (source: Layton and Brown, www.washingtonpost.com)
"On measures widely used to judge all public schools, such as state test scores and graduation rates, virtual schools--often run as charter schools--tend to perform worse than their brick-and-mortar counterparts" (source: Layton and Brown, www.washingtonpost.com)
The article goes on to give examples of the graduation rates of virtual schools in Colorado and Ohio, both run by K12, the nations leading provider of online education. These rates are 12 percent in Colorado as compared with 72 percent for the state overall, and 30 percent in Ohio as compared to 78 percent for the state overall. (source: Layton and Brown, www.washingtonpost.com) If those of us in traditional public schools had the same graduation rates as these online schools, we would face serious consequences under No Child Left Behind.
Further explained in the article is the funding of these programs. K12 has been able to set up virtual schools in states in large part due to heavy political lobbying as well as contributing a great deal of money to various political campaigns in these states. In Virginia, the Virtual Virginia Academy is run by K12 (note the web address for Virtual Virginia) and is based in Carroll County. Students in Caroll County receive $5,421 per pupil in state funding. Here in Fairfax, students receive $2,716 per pupil in state funding. However, when a student in Fairfax County enrolls in Virtual Virginia, K12 receives the compensation for that student based on Carroll County's numbers, thus making more money. It should be noted that K12 is a private company, made $522 million dollars last year with a net income of $12.8 million, with its CEO making $2.6 million dollars (source: Layton and Brown, www.washingtonpost.com)
This topic is important for school counselors for several reasons:
Know which students would truly benefit from online instruction. Not every student will be successful in an online class or online school. Remember that this instruction tends to be independently done and independently paced. Thus, high-achieving students who perhaps want additional classes or higher level classes that are not available in some way through your school or school district might be strong candidates. Other strong candidates might be seniors who need just a few classes to graduate, who are fairly self-motivated, and who have a clear plan for what they will do with the extra time, whether it would be to start college classes or to work at a job. However, students who struggle or drop-out may not be as successful--in fact, these are the types of students who generally need more contact time with teachers, school counselors, mentors, supportive peers, etc. in order to achieve. My students that are successful with online classes are typically those who are electing to take one or two classes online as part of their overall traditional curriculum.
Think and talk through all of the pros and cons, educational options, and short and long term goals with students and families before deciding to enroll in an online school full-time. In the Washington Post article, there is discussion of students who are bullied benefiting from full-time online school enrollment. Every individual situation is different, and there may indeed be some students who ultimately benefit from an independent program of study. However, is there not a way for the school counselor to mobilize the school community to better support that student within the school? Again, every situation is different, and online education may be an option, but there is also a lot of value in safely working through that situation with the students involved and helping the community to build strong empathy and coping skills. Further, sometimes school anxiety is a reason that is brought up for enrolling students in online campuses on a full-time basis. Again, every individual situation is different and this may indeed by a strong option for some students, but therapeutically the ultimate goal would be to work with the student, therapist, and school staff to help that student transition back into a school environment, perhaps starting on a part-time basis but hopefully working back up to a full-day. If the online instruction does not work, what options does that student and their family have to return to a traditional school? Given state standards and curriculum, there may be a risk of that student losing credits for the full year of the online school option does not prove effective.
21st century skills include problem solving, collaboration, communication, and social and cross-cultural abilities. In the November/December issue of School Counselor Magazine, there is an article, A Critical Combination, written by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills that discusses the need for these highly-social skills in order for students to be college and career ready for the up-and-coming job market. While online learning certainly has interactive components, it is highly unlikley that a full-time online education can replace the day-to-day social education of a school. How do you work with someone you may not particularly like? How do you interact with people from multiple cultures and find common ground? Where do you learn the importance of showing up to work on time, confronting difficult situations in productive ways, and being flexible when everything does not go according to plan? Thus, online education for part of a student's academic career may be useful, but there may be some significant educational gaps for students that are in full-time online programs.
Know where the online education is coming from, the effectiveness of the program, local school regulations, and the funding source. The first place to consult is your school system--what are their policies with regards to students being in online programs? If statistics are available, it is important to make sure that you are aware of them in order to make sure that students and families have all the information so that they can make an informed choice about their education future and options. Is the program being run by your own school system? Is it outsourced to a private educational company? Does the family have to pay for the program? The school system? Can that student still graduate from your school even if they are doing some or all of their education online?
Online courses and schools, for better or for worse, are going to continue to be a part of the conversation about the future of education, and it needs to be, as for some students and situations it really is an option that can help students be successful and reach their goals. We, as school counselors, need to make sure that we continue to stay abreast of these discussions, both in order to better assist our students and their families in planning a course to be career and college ready for the new 21st century models as well as to be part of the conversations as policies are developed around this medium.
The following work cited is available to members of ASCA at www.schoolcounselor.org: The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2011). A Critical Combination: School counselors play a vital role in integrating 21st-century skills and training into the school environment. School Counselor (November/December 2011).
