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Tech Grant Updates
I would like to begin with a big thank you for tuning in for the Digital ATDN Newsletters that were released every two weeks. Our goal was to provide resources and literature that tie to the free resources available, as well as to implement strategies in using the resources in different educational settings. Thank you!
Please see below the updates available from the tech grant:
Our last PD session for the school year will be on Wednesday, June 8, 2022 at 10:45 AM. The title of the session is Finding and Evaluating Online Resources that Connect with Content & Instructional Goals 2. Shelly Leduke will be presenting the PD. Click here to register
Tech Support Sessions ended on May 26 and will not resume until Fall 2022. We assisted agencies with different Tech Tools like Wakelet, Jamboard, Google Classroom, Nearpod, Excel and other programs. You can email me at jadorno@edadvance.org if you need any assistance over the summer.
The Past Recordings section will be available for you to sign up throughout the summer.
Today’s release marks the last newsletter for the 2021-2022 school year. I hope you have found these informative and useful in your professional development journey. Feel free to share your favorite resources from the newsletters below. Thank you again for your support!
We will be reviewing all the services available from the tech grant and making revisions over the summer to continue to tailor the services to the needs of the agencies.
How to Help Students Identify and Build College and Career Skills
One of the main challenges with technology today is to find resources that we need from an ever growing list of information that populates the Internet. I have had the opportunity to work with colleagues in Zoom through breakout rooms. One of the tasks has been doing research to locate information or resources. While we all begin on the main page, our research skills kick in and we end up with a list of different resources. This is an important skill that all of us have developed as professionals.
In order for us to be successful in our careers, we need to identify the skills needed to be able to perform to the expectations of the tasks required. Then, we match those skills to the ones we already have and we work on the ones that are low or you don’t have. Explaining this to students is difficult because we need the context to explain these however, there are two free websites that have comprehensive information on career and employment opportunities.
O*Net Online and CareerOneStop. Both websites offer a great deal of information and resources for students to find everything they need to know about careers and the skills they need to be successful. While there are numerous approaches on how to use these resources, I am focusing on one way where students can navigate websites, organize their findings and continue to build their research skills. It would be helpful to select one career and work with that career as a whole class to allow students to identify specific information, navigate between resources and share interesting finds.
Begin the My Next Move to find different careers and to walk a student through their Interest Profiler. Each career has a 1-2 page comprehensive overview of the career selected that includes information about the job, skills required, education, and more. Click here for an example.
You can find occupation-specific information by going to the O*Net link to that specific career located at the end of the career overview page selected. The page offers a list of required tasks specific to that career and are broken down by category and importance. Also, the technology skills section has a fire icon called “Hot Technology” that means it is a common request from employers when submitting job postings. Due to the amount of information found on this section, teachers can create questions to guide students and help navigate through the information. This is a great opportunity to show them the tips and tricks! As an example, clicking on the "Hot Technology" icon will pull up a list of careers where employers list that specific tech skill on their postings.
The CareerOneStop Video Library offers a wide list of videos that cover information regarding the different careers, job opportunities, skills and abilities.
You can use Wakelet to offer an outline for students to gather the relevant information they find on the websites. Students are able to copy and reuse the steps across different career paths. It is important that you first cover the skills needed to ensure students have the skills to navigate the websites and fill out the Wakelets. Click here to see the Wakelet example.
Here are a few additional resources that can be used to supplement the College and Career skills. Please note that there are more resources available in the websites listed, as well additional websites that are not included here. Feel free to comment and share the websites you use for College and Career in the comments!
AdultEdMed presents 5 students and their journey as the context on building a set of skills specific to their career goals. You can search the resources by topics, which include ESL, Workforce/Technology, Reading Language Arts and Math however, I find that going through the student profiles offer a contextualized perspective on how building the skills can help each learner get closer to achieving their goals.
Khan Academy has a Life Skills section where they cover different topics related to college and work related resources. Here are some courses that you can use:
The College Admissions cover the application process, financial aid and more assistance for students that are getting ready to go to college.
The Careers section offers a wide variety of tips and strategies like getting ready for an interview, networking through social media and knowing the responsibilities from different career paths.
The Personal Finance course includes tips and strategies on saving, budgeting, investment, taxes and more.
The Growth Mindset activities are designed to help students build growth mindsets and develop learning strategies.
GFC Global has several resources that can help in the transition. Some include:
Work Place Basics includes tutorials on completing I-9 and W4 forms, Workplace safety and more.
Job Success includes tips and strategies for succeeding in your job. They have an additional section that covers Workplace Communication skills.
Online Education has a section where they cover diploma mills, which are fake institutions offering fake diplomas or degrees.
This newsletter presents an overview of the programs included and how to use them. These programs can be tailored to meet the goals of the agencies interested in implementing the resources. Please email me at jadorno@edadvance.org if you would like assistance.
