Oser Communications Group
AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION NOT AFFILIATED WITH TCEA
Maximizing Engagement in Robotics and Computer Science Programs
The coming decade will bring unprecedented changes within the workplace. From education to retail to hospitality and transportation, virtually all industries will be transformed by robotics and artificial intelligence. Millions of jobs will be eliminated by technology while millions of new jobs will be created. Still millions more jobs will be transformed and students that graduate from high schools with strong technical skills (including robotics and A.I. literacy) will be significantly advantaged. However, despite the increasing importance of robotics and computer science education, enrollment in these courses in the USA continues to lag behind many other countries. Within American high schools, enrollment averages less than 3% of boys and 0.3% of girls. To put those numbers into perspective, a school with 2,000 students will often have less than 30 boys and 3 girls in their robotics programs. This means that 1,967 students are missing out on a literacy that is rapidly becoming a key differentiator across a huge spectrum of jobs. Within middle schools, the results are marginally better with 5% to 15% of students typically enrolled – still tangibly below the needed levels. “It’s truly a crisis,” says Dennis Kambeitz, founder of Robots.Education. “Robotics and A.I. will impact all industries, but it’s only our most engineering-minded students who tend to take this type of education. The unfortunate truth is that the students who need this education the most are often the ones who are least likely to enroll.”
Dallas Wednesday, February 9, 2022
Lucid Technology Adapts to Your Ears
Every day each of us experiences an extraordinary variety of sound that is, in many ways, personal to us. The alarm tone that wakes us up, the conversations we have with people – each of these are uniquely experienced individually and personally. While we can’t individually manage all of our aural exposure, we certainly can have our preferences. Normal ears contain around 15,500 sensory hair cells that sit alongside a membrane that vibrates with each incoming sound. Each frequency of sound vibrates the hair cells in specific locations, which is why we are able to hear differences in sounds. While different sounds vibrate different parts of our membrane, louder sounds increase the amplitude of the vibration. When it comes to hearing loss, the majority is sensori-neural loss, where inner and outer hair cells have been damaged. This leads to an inability to hear soft sounds, while still being able to hear (and be sensitive) to loud sounds. So, while a person experiencing hearing loss can still have a dynamic range of hearing, it is a much smaller range than a person with normal hearing. The standard for today’s hearing aids and amplifiers is a technology called Wide Dynamic Range Compression (WDRC). WDRC logically amplifies softer sounds more than louder sounds, in an effort to balance what the user hears. It gives the most amplification to soft sounds, less to average sounds and even less to loud sounds. Ears that are experiencing hearing loss have a decreased range of what they can hear and WDRC attempts to generically boost the range of soft sounds.
BOOTH #1635 Continued on Page 5 Teaching Strategies Launches Panasonic and Olympian Katie Ledecky First-of-its-Kind Coaching App Partner to Inspire Student STEM Innovation
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To inspire student innovation in science, technology, engineering, and math (“STEM”), Panasonic Corporation of North America is partnering with 3-time Olympian, 15-time World Champion, 10-time Olympic medal-winning swimmer, and proud STEM advocate Katie Ledecky to launch the STEM Forward educational initiative and engaged Discovery Education to help make this educational program a reality. Announced during CES 2022, the initiative combines Katie Ledecky’s passion for STEM education and advocacy, Panasonic’s legacy of innovation, and Discovery Education’s worldwide leadership in education technology, STEM Forward connects students in grades 3-8 to the game-changing power of technology with standards-aligned resources for any learning environment at no cost. “As champions for progress at Panasonic, we’re focused on how we can move the world forward and commit ourselves to enhancing the well-being of people, communities, and society. Today’s students have a tremendous future ahead of them, one where technology is not only a tool but an inspiration,” said Megan Myungwon Lee, Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer of Panasonic Corporation of North America. “We’re proud to continue to partner with Katie Ledecky, who is an inspiration to young people around the world, and empowers students to reach their full potential and discover new ways to think about and apply STEM to build a better world.” Building on Katie’s ongoing work with Panasonic as a STEM leader and a member of Team Panasonic, STEM Forward provides students, educators, and families with dynamic digital resources that explore how technology improves lives and makes the world a better place. In addition, STEM Forward includes a special Virtual Field Trip appropriate for both in class use and at home exploration.
Teaching Strategies, a leading developer of early childhood curriculum, assessment, professional learning, and family engagement solutions, announced the acquisition of Noni Educational Solutions, a trauma-focused edtech start-up that has developed a groundbreaking, app-based resource designed to support preschool-5th grade teachers working with children who have been impacted by trauma. The solution, called noni™ for Teachers, was developed in partnership with Adventist HealthCare The Lourie Center for Children’s Social & Emotional Wellness, a pioneer in research on best practices for supporting children impacted by trauma and adverse childhood experiences. “Even prior to the pandemic, more than two-thirds of children had experienced at least one traumatic event by the age of 16,” said Jimmy Venza, Ph.D., child psychologist and executive director of the Lourie Center. “In the aftermath of these past two years and the resulting stresses placed on families and children, that statistic is only likely to worsen.” “Now more than ever, teachers need and deserve our support for trauma-informed instruction and coaching,” said Teaching Strategies CEO John Olsen. “We’re excited to welcome Noni Educational Solutions to the Teaching Strategies family. noni for Teachers fills a gap not met by any other solution in the market and gives educators the tools and support they need to care for children impacted by trauma and help them regulate behavior so they can learn.” noni for Teachers is an app-based digital coach and collection of classroom teaching resources that guide teachers through providing trauma-informed instruction. The app uses real-time responsive technology, serving up immediate guidance based on
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