August 2017 - In This Issue

Hot Topic:
Computer Science Education Expands to Prepare Students for Jobs of the Future
 		 Client Solution:
Not All CTE Programs Offer a Competitive Edge in Today's Job Market
Teaching Trends:
Educator Confidence in Technology Increasing
 		 EdGate Services:
Tailoring and targeting your content with Metadata
Standards Update
What's new in the repository?
Top Stories
Wisconsin approves Computer Science Standards for K-12 education

Rural districts find it difficult to implement Common Core


Greetings everyone,       

Will you be attending EdNet?  EdGate will be attending the EdNet Conference in Scottsdale, AZ September 17-19th. Whether it's to discuss correlation of your curriculum to the latest standards or find out how improving your metadata might help users more readily find your content, we are anxious to meet with you.  Please contact us if you would like to schedule a meeting. 
 
As always, EdGate is your source for staying current with new developments in education and the impact of educational standards.
 
Regards,

Gina Faulk
EdGate General Manager 
 
 
HotTopicHot Topic

Computer Science Education Expands to Prepare Students for Jobs of the Future, including AI jobs
According to a 2016 presidential report, almost half of the jobs in the U.S. in the next 10-20 years will be related to Artificial Intelligence in which computers make decisions, recognize speech and perform other human tasks. Will students be prepared with the computer science backgrounds they need to really understand AI?  Computer science education varies widely across the U.S. with some states lacking well-defined computer science standards and others simply not including computer science as part of graduation requirements.

Fortunately, three states, Arkansas, Idaho and Rhode Island are expanding their computer science education.  Arkansas may have one of the best programs in the country.  State policy requires computer science to be included in the elementary curriculum, a five-week coding course in middle school and at least one computer science course offered in every public and charter high school.  In addition, at least one school district in the state has set up a partnership with working professionals so that high school students can work directly with employees of such big businesses as Tyson, Walmart and NanoMech.  To ensure that these programs will succeed the state has offered incentives to teachers to receive computer science endorsements and has offered provisional teaching licenses to experienced computer science professionals to meet the shortage of qualified teachers in this field.

Talk to your EdGate rep to learn more about the computer science standards in our repository.

By: Nancy Rubesch
 
ClientSolutionClient Solution

The Three Components of a High-Quality CTE Offering
Career and Technical Education (CTE) continues to grow in importance in the current educational climate, but as more states and districts move to build CTE programs within their schools and more organizations begin providing CTE content for educators to use, issues concerning access, funding, and the resulting quality of CTE programs are arising. As this article states, "the three components of a high-quality CTE offering include work-based learning in the form of internships or apprenticeships, student organizations and clubs that allow students to test their skills against peers, and an integrated, standards-aligned curriculum." We have added CTE standards from across the United States to our repository and are currently working to ready them for correlation; if you have CTE content you wish to have aligned to standards, we would like to hear from you.
 
By: Michael Walpole  
Project Manager
 
TeachingTrendsTeaching Trends

Educator Confidence in Technology Increasing    
The use of technology in the classroom has been an ongoing topic in education for years, but what do teachers think about implementing technology in the classroom? In the most recent survey commissioned by  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt   (HMH),  there are some truly positive signs. The survey found an increase in teacher confidence this year regarding the use of digital technology in their classrooms. Both the HMH and  Education Weeks 2017 Technology Counts  survey cited many of the same obstacles that have prevented technical integration reaching its full potential in the classroom. These include a lack of and inequities in funding, shortage of devices, not enough planning time for teachers and not nearly enough professional development time devoted to digital technology training. Some positive signs do point to an increase in confidence and willingness to expand technical use in the classroom. That combined with both an increased availability of technical devices and content for the classrooms with the expectations that students will be gaining technical skills should help improve these survey numbers in the coming years. For developers of educational content this offers both a challenge and opportunity to create imaginative and innovative content to spark student interest and success. As we review content we always enjoy seeing what our clients have to offer and what students will be learning from in the classrooms. 

For more information on this topic the following links are some interesting reads.


Project Manager  
 
EdgateServicesEdGate Services

Metadata: A "new'ish" word for an Old Concept
What is metadata and how does it affect your business?
 
In almost every industry where there is content and data to be managed, the word "metadata" is is surely part of the vocabulary. While there may be overlap in purpose, the functionality, design, and application are unique to each company or organization.
 
For those with library backgrounds, the content available on library card catalogs, contains metadata such as author name, title, publication city, year of publication, etc.
 
Let's dig in a little bit...Descriptive metadata describes a resource for purposes such as discovery and identification. It can include elements such as title, abstract, author, price, unique ID, and keywords. Administrative metadata provides information to help manage a resource, such as when and how it was created, file type and other technical information, and who can access it. By associating defined metadata with content, end users can locate individual or multiple resources when utilizing the metadata in searches. For example, a user could search for content on mammals by filtering down via taxonomy (see below). However if the user is looking for content specific to African Elephants, this granular of a search would be done through a key term in metadata.  
 
Regardless of whether you are looking for ways to classify or organize your content oror simply need assistance with developing specific types of metadata, our team is adept with the creation and organization of metadata.
 
For more information please  contact us  and one of our Account Executives will be happy to schedule an appointment with you.
 
Tracy_Olstad
Gina Faulk 
General Manager 
Tracy Olstad,  
Senior Account Executive  
Heather Hawthorne
Account Manager
 
standardsStandards Update

Updates to The EdGate Standards Repository include:
  • Alabama CTE - Transportation (2016 Grades 9-12)
  • Alaska Arts (2016 Grades K-12)
  • Australia - Australian Curriculum (ACARA) Technology (2016 Grades K-12)
  • Australia - Australian Curriculum Social Studies (2016 Grades K-12)
  • ISTE for Educators 2017 
  • Massachusetts - Language Arts (2017 Grades K-12) 
  • Massachusetts Mathematics (2017 Grades K-12)
  • Ohio Language Arts (2017 Grades K-12)
  • Ohio Mathematics (2017 Grades K-12)
  • Ohio Technology (2017 Grades K-12)
  • South Carolina Computer Science (2017 Grades K-8)
  • Tennessee CTE - Transportation, Distribution and Logistics (2016 Grades 9-12)
  • Utah CTE - Skilled and Technical Sciences (2016 Grades 10-12) 
  https://www.facebook.com/EdGateCorrelationServices/
 
topstories

Wisconsin approves Computer Science Standards for K-12 education

Wisconsin has become the 9th state to establish K-12 standards in computer science. The new standards were developed to meet the gap of qualified workers to fill the most in demand field in Wisconsin of 2017.
Rural districts find it difficult to implement Common Core

According to a study, in rural parts of California teachers are finding it difficult to implement Common Core standards due to limited resources.



aboutusAbout Us
EdGate Correlation Services works with over 250 content providers to increase the value of their products in a rapidly expanding digital world. EdGate uses its patented technology and highly skilled staff to assure client success. Employing its nearly two decades of innovation experience, EdGate has proven learning platforms, robust metadata tools and comprehensive correlation services to serve every clients unique needs.  

EdGate currently focuses on correlation consulting, content and metadata development and management, media segmentation and licensing of international educational standards. EdGate Correlation Services LLC is a division of EDmin, Inc., a learning management and instructional technology solutions company based in San Diego, California.