such as through her work as founder of Student
Voice, a student-run nonprofit catalyzing
education equity, and by studying abroad in
Shanghai, where she’s currently finishing out
the semester.
“What I’ve learned from my experience is
that it’s less about the actual structure of the
program, and more about what you do with it.
It’s more about what you want to get out of
your education and whether or not you put in
the effort to achieve that—whatever setting
you’re in,” she says. “In my opinion, I’ve gotten
the best of both worlds.”
LEARNING HOW TO LEARN
While reimagining education to adopt more of
a disposition- or credentials-based approach
may sound intuitive, it’s also a process tightly
bound in red tape. Unless the U.S. education
system undergoes significant reform, at least
part of the onus will be on students to hone
practical skills, such as coding and familiarity
with emerging technologies like blockchain.
Luckily, technology is making it easier for
kids to develop these skills. Learning doesn’t
have to mean poring over dry, dense material.
It might, for instance, be rooted in something
that many Gen Z students are already intimately
acquainted with: gaming.
“This generation has probably logged more
computer game hours than any previous
generation,” says John Kolb, the vice president
for information services and technology
and chief information officer at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute (RPI). According to
2017 Nielsen data, almost three-quarters (73
percent) of people aged 2 to 20 have video
game consoles.
“That may be a hint to how we do workforce
development, workforce training, and
other career-related things going forward,”
Kolb reinforces. “That may be a piece of the
secret sauce: How do you combine those two
elements?”
Resources that range from language-learning
platforms to coding communities are
already employing gamification as a tool to
retain information. And in the workplace,
gamified training programs are seeing early
successes: One 2017 National Institute for
Health study found that nursing administrators
displayed higher rates of knowledge
retention when they went through a gamified
orientation process versus traditional classroom
lectures.
Online courses, too, will prove useful
aids for modular self-education. There is no
shortage of digital resources for students to
explore in this space, from online schools
like Code Academy to comprehensive learning
communities like Khan Academy and
Coursera.
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“ This generation has probably logged more computer game hours
than any previous generation. That may be a hint to how we do
workforce development, workforce training, and other career-related
things going forward.” —John Kolb, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute