It’s a situation I’m all too familiar with from my years working in the London start-up scene. It is a dog-eat-dog environment where it came to attracting, poaching, and holding on to talent.

In the U.S. an estimated 1 million computer programming jobs are expected to go unfilled by 2020
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At every company I worked for, I was constantly being offered cash incentives to refer candidates for the many roles that needed filling by yesterday if our roadmap had any hope of being adhered to – and this was before the whole Brexit mess and uncertainty started to make things even more difficult for everyone.

But in the U.S. the situation is, if anything, even more desperate, with an estimated 1 million computer programming jobs expected to go unfilled by 2020. Yet at the same time, there are many highly qualified foreign individuals who do want to move to, work and contribute to the economy of cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

At every start-up I ever worked for, I was constantly being offered cash incentives to refer candidates for the many roles that needed filling by yesterday if our roadmap had any hope of being adhered to
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So although the much-talked-about digital skills gap is certainly an issue, the problem isn’t limited to a simple mismatch between talent supply and demand. The artificial barriers that bureaucracy and politics put between willing and qualified workers and the jobs which will remain vacant if they are not there to fill them is the elephant in the proverbial room.

On the one hand, Silicon Valley boasts the highest salaries and best work culture which makes it a potentially attractive option for foreign engineers, yet these often overqualified and talented individuals face an almost impossible chicken-and-egg conundrum where employers are reluctant to hire workers without visas, but it is often impossible to obtain a visa without having first secured an employer’s sponsorship.

Although the much-talked-about digital skills gap is certainly an issue, the problem isn’t limited to a mismatch between talent supply and demand
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Furthermore, the U.S. immigration policy – and recent escalation of what is arguably an anti-immigrant rhetoric from the federal government are certainly factors that makes it harder for companies to realize and scale their vision, but so are considerations that anybody considering becoming an expat has to take into account, such as relocation costs.

Having applied for my husband’s Green Card not so long ago, I have nothing but sympathy and respect for anyone obtaining a visa, and knowing just how complicated that process can be, I wasn’t at all surprised to find out that an increasing number of tech companies over here are now engaging with services that work to make that transition a bit smoother and more seamless.

To be granted the rather amusing-sounding title of “Alien of Extraordinary Abilities” one must meet at least three criteria from a list of eigh
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One relatively little-known avenue that is a particularly good fit for the industry is the O-1 visa program which, contrary to popular belief, is not something reserved for Oscar-winning actors and Nobel laureates.

In order to be granted the rather amusing-sounding title of “Alien of Extraordinary Abilities,” one must meet at least three criteria from a list of eight which includes winning recognized prizes or awards in their area of expertise, authoring scholarly articles published in professional journals, earning a high salary in their country of origin in comparison to their peers, or judging the work of others in their professional field. Only about 1% of overall visa applicants qualify, but as you might expect, the technology industry’s demand for highly skilled jobs means that a lot of the candidates who are qualified to fill them also naturally happen to meet such criteria.

Employers are reluctant to hire workers without visas, but it is often impossible to obtain a visa without having first secured an employer’s sponsorship
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But although qualifying is already a major achievement, it is only the beginning of the journey, as the process of getting the O-1 visa costs around $13,000 and can take several months, all without a guarantee of success, since technicalities can often throw the process off-course or stop it altogether.

That is one reason why solutions such as Income Sharing Agreements (ISAs) – where the application process and upfront costs – as well as some of the inevitable and substantial relocation expenses associated with moving to a different country – are handled by companies such as LA-based PassRight and then recouped from the applicant’s salary once they settle into their new employment – are becoming increasingly popular

It is a dog-eat-dog environment where it came to attracting, poaching, and holding on to talent
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Last year alone, PassRight has helped 124 such extraordinary aliens obtain the O-1 Visa and start work in the U.S., and talent relocation expert Liran Rosenfeld believes that the adoption of solutions such as the ISAs facilitated by the Global Talent Fund will boost those numbers considerably going forward, as it will remove the risk factor that is putting off a lot of talented individuals from applying.

Last year alone, PassRight has helped 124 such extraordinary aliens obtain the O-1 Visa
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Overall this represents a very interesting trend which puts the rhetoric around immigration and freedom of movement in context. With passions running high, it is often easy to lose sight of the fact that migration is essential to economic growth, and that finding ways to connect talent and demand can make the difference between a thriving business and a failed one in the digital age.

It is often easy to lose sight of the fact that migration is essential to economic growth
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Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Aliens of extraordinary abilities appeared first on Tech Trends.

In a beautifully kitted out room in central Paris, Colin Fillaudeau is teaching a group of youngsters how to build in Mixed Reality.

Even though my French is far from perfect and I’m unfamiliar with the program he’s using, I’m able to follow along quite well, and the same is certainly true for the 14 year olds in the room, who have come here for the day from a deprived area on the outskirts of Paris.

This room – which resembles an open-plan tech start-up office with its multiple screens, robots, VR headsets and Minecraft plush toys and LEGO – and the 3D design concepts they are learning, literally represent a gateway into another world for these students.

This room represents a gateway into another world for these students #E2 #MicrosoftEDU
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It is often said that in order to address the world’s chronic digital skills problem we need to address an endemic gap in access and opportunity rather than talent or skills. The truth of that becomes abundantly clear when you observe the eagerness and engagement with which these students embrace the opportunity extended to them by such initiatives.

Microsoft's immersive classroom sits within the company’s French Headquarters in Paris #E2 #MicrosoftEDU
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Favreau is a Learning Consultant working with Microsoft, and this “immersive classroom” sits within the company’s French Headquarters. It is open for schools to experiment with incorporating digital tools in learning, and has facilitated the delivery of more than 60 free workshops for over 1000 students since opening in 2018.

These digital tools, they’re keen to emphasize, are not just the company’s own, as only about 20% of the tech in the room is Microsoft’s.

The class I was observing was called 3D conception & Mixed Reality, and it incorporates Paint 3D, HoloLens and other Mixed Reality headsets, and 3D printing. Other activities also explore coding and robotics using tools such as Minecraft and Artificial intelligence, where students get to build their own chatbot.

The immersive classroom is open for schools to experiment with incorporating digital tools in learning, and has facilitated the delivery of more than 60 free workshops for over 1000 students since opening in 2018 #E2 #MicrosoftEDU
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The class I was observing was called 3D conception & Mixed Reality #E2 #MicrosoftEDU
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As the market for immersive technology continues to grow in the coming years, the already existing issues around a shortage of creative and skilled tech talent is only going to be compounded unless we start building purposeful learning pipelines that start teaching students like the ones I met in Paris not only the relevant skills, but the right mindset.

What it comes down to is that it’s very much in the interest of companies like Microsoft to foster such initiatives, as they are reliant on building and expanding that talent pipeline for their future survival #E2 #MicrosoftEDU
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To create compelling content in a fast-evolving new medium such as Mixed Reality, you need what’s called a “growth mindset” that builds grit and a tolerance for failure. This does not mean ignoring your mistakes or being blind to shortcomings, but recognizing that success is incremental, and that iterating and improving your approach is an essential part of building a successful product. That means finding out what doesn’t work can be as (or more) valuable than finding out what does.

This broader trend is sometimes also referred to as Social Emotional Learning – an emphasis on the whole package of preparing a human being for work and society. Looking around at a room where young people who were handling these tools for the first time managed to produce interesting and workable content, it’s clear that the approach is one that is much more suitable for getting them ready to tackle the challenges of a modern workplace than traditional schooling.

To create compelling content in a fast-evolving new medium such as Mixed Reality, you need to cultivate a growth mindset #E2 #MicrosoftEDU
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What it comes down to is that it’s very much in the interest of companies like Microsoft to foster such initiatives, as they are reliant on building and expanding that talent pipeline for their future survival. But in doing so they can also help to address many of the issues around access and inequality that have long plagued the tech industry, even if it’s just because – as a CEO once told me at a conference – “there just aren’t enough white guys in the world to do all these jobs.”

This article originally appeared on The Next Web

Stepping into the immersive classroom https://t.co/j82tCZOPjF

— TNWRSS (@tnwrss) April 3, 2019

Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. You can follow @alicebonasio on Twitter, connect with her on LinkedIn or subscribe to her Inside VR/AR Newletter for all the latest curated immersive news.  

The post The Mixed Reality Classroom appeared first on Tech Trends.

These cool goodie boxes are a fun way for children to learn digital skills and have fun in the process.

Teaching children the skills they need to understand – and make – tech products (as opposed to just using them) is something I’m very passionate about. Even for kids who don’t go on to become programmers or anything along those lines, the knowledge of what goes on “under the hood” is always going to be valuable, as are the concepts of applied logic, persistence, and collaboration which come with building things with code.

The kits are developed so that you don’t need any previous coding experience of any sort to keep up
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Which is why I was keen for my niece and nephew to try Bitsbox, a subscription service which sends you everything needed to get the little ones started with cool coding projects.

Even for kids who don’t go on to become programmers or anything along those lines, the knowledge of what goes on “under the hood” is always going to be valuable
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Unlike platforms such as Scratch or code.org which they had already been using, Bitbox uses “real” coding. By which I mean that you have to get stuck into some proper typing rather than dragging and dropping blocks that visually represent the code. Both approaches have their own merits I find, and actually complement each other. The kits are developed so that you don’t need any previous coding experience of any sort to keep up though.

You have to do proper typing rather than dragging and dropping blocks
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After some predictable frustration when things didn’t initially work, they got the hang of it
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When you miss something out from your code, the platform gives you helpful debugging tips that hint at where the error is hiding
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One, called “Run Dodo Run” was particularly fun, as they could make said Dodo jump frantically higher and higher at ridiculous supersonic speeds. There is a playfulness to all these activities, and that helps sugar coat the hard work of paying attention to whether you remembered to close a bracket properly or add a comma in the right place.

“We got this for my 9 y.o. son’s birthday, we laminated the intro cards and his first actual box arrived yesterday. He loved the binder and has been coding constantly since it arrived. He said he felt “accomplished” when he coded his first game tonight. He has thanked me 2 dozen times and I saw him admiring his cards. Happy to see his screen time put to use with practice keyboarding and brainstorming!” Liz O’Neill Rich, Iowa

The kit is meant to appeal to a broad age range, and indeed the materials lived up to that promise. My seven-year-old guinea pig got stuck into a paint-by-stickers book (the concept is really the same as coding, in that you are following instructions to build up a bigger picture using blocks (much like they do in code.org or scratch) while my nephew, who’s 12, started creating an original app without using the activity cards.

With Bitsbox, children learn to program by creating fun apps that work on computers and gadgets like iPads and Android tablets
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The kit is meant to appeal to a broad age range, and indeed the materials lived up to that promise
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The Bitsbox platform has a large number of template assets you can use
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Bitsbox is a successful start-up that has been getting a lot of traction and attention (they were recently featured in Shark Tank) and it is a really well-thought-out concept and product which feels solid both from a pedagogical and entertainment perspective. It’s one of those things that makes me wish I was a kid again.

“I purchased this for my 7 year old who loves creating the apps from the codes supplied. It is a great way to introduce children to the world of coding and getting them to think about interactivity. I would recommend this to individuals and schools to use as part of the curriculum. In particular as coding has been placed on the national curriculum in the UK. This would be a great way to introduce this subject to children and assist teachers no doubt!” Gafin Morgan, UK

Parents wanting to try it out can subscribe to the service (monthly prices range from $16.95 for the digital-only version to $37.95 for a Deluxe version with extra goodies. You can also just buy a one-off kit with multiple units as a gift.

It is a great way to introduce children to the world of coding and getting them to think about interactivity
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With Bitsbox, children learn to program by creating fun apps that work on computers and gadgets like iPads and Android tablets. The Bitsbox.com website provides each child with a virtual tablet and a place to type their code.

The Bitsbox.com website provides each child with a virtual tablet and a place to type their code
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“So far we love it. I have a 7 year old daughter who wants to grow up and be a computer nerd. Thanks for helping make her dream come true!” Allison

The experience starts with lots of guidance, first showing learners exactly what to type, then quickly encouraging them to modify and expand their apps by typing in new commands.

“Wanted to give a big bouquet to you all for the excitement and enjoyment my 9 year old daughter got when she received her first Bitsbox yesterday in Middle Earth (New Zealand). Fantastic job with the design, love the recycled packaging, and the first impressions of the coding experience is thumbs up. Only problem now is that the 7 year old younger sister might have to be signed up too, to avoid WW3. Cheers!” Hassan Wong, New Zealand

Tech Trends readers can use the Promo Code TRENDY to get $20 off any 3 or 12 month subscription

• Kids look through the materials and pick an app.
• Every box comes with a mix of coding projects, ranging from simple to more advanced.
• Kids type the app into the Bitsbox website.
• Kids start with the code from the materials, then change it to make it their own.
• Kids use and share their apps on any mobile device.
• Bitsbox apps run on any computer, tablet, or phone with a web browser
• A new coding concept every month
• Perfect for curious kids 6 to 12 years old
• Kids’ apps work on real phones and tablets
• Unlimited email help with any subscription
• Free separate coding accounts for siblings

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Product Review: Bitsbox Coding Kits appeared first on Tech Trends.

How a coding coach in Idaho is helping to plug the digital skills gap, one knowledge token at a time.

Newton Antoniuk describes himself primarily as a coach (he goes by “Coach Newton” in fact) but his official title is Technology Education Ambassador. We met recently during a week-long summer class he was delivering at my local library in Boise, Idaho, to which I brought my nephew Logan (12) and niece Roxie (7).

When looking at the massive scale of the digital skills gap problem, it is easy to forget that the success or failure of such initiatives comes down to whether or not you manage to engage students
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While Logan had previously done various coding and programming activities, Roxie hadn’t, so she was quite unsure of herself as we walked into a room full of strangers and laptops. Yet within less than half an hour I watched her go from clinging onto me and mumbling that she “didn’t want to do this” to asking me with a beaming smile whether we could come back the next day, “and always.” Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Coach Newton strictly enforced dancing breaks every twenty minutes, but whatever it was, it certainly did the trick. She was hooked.

When looking at the massive scale of the digital skills gap problem, it is easy to forget that the success or failure of such initiatives comes down to whether or not you manage to engage students. In this case, attending the camp was not necessarily about how much coding knowledge the children could cram in a week (although it turned out to be quite a lot) but rather about showing kids like Roxie that this is something they can do – that learning coding is  fun and something they can be really proud of.

Learning that flexes a person’s creative muscles while engaging them in a fun, playful way delivers a lifelong benefit, independent of career choice
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And the peripheral skills they learn in the process are arguably just as important in this equation: The approach encourages them to navigate through problems using logic and persistence, to work as a team in helping others – or asking for help – and to enjoy the process of continuous learning. These are all invaluable life skills, whether or not they choose to become “coders” in the future.

“Any learning that flexes a person’s creative muscles while engaging them in a fun, playful way delivers a lifelong benefit, independent of a specific career choice,” agrees Newton, pointing to academic research that demonstrates how courses that provide an introduction to computer science have broad-reaching benefits such as building reasoning skills via lessons that teach computational thinking. This is also backed up by his own experience working in the consumer electronics industry:

“I was privileged to work with extremely bright and motivated people from many disciplines, not just engineering. My career exposure helped me to glean some of the fundamental traits that empowered these successful people and I found the elements of computational thinking to be foundational.”

After a decades-long Silicon Valley tech career, Newton started exploring ways to combine his expertise and passions with serving the local community, and in the fall of 2013, he came across code.org as Hadi Partovi and his team launched their first Hour of Code event.

My career exposure helped me to glean some of the fundamental traits that empowered successful people and I found the elements of computational thinking to be foundational
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After decades in Silicon Valley , Newton started exploring ways to combine his expertise and passions with serving the local community
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“As a technology geek, I was pleasantly surprised to find that almost all of the young learners, both girls and boys, embraced this great learning tool,” he explains. Working with Scratch – a visual programming language that uses a simple gamified, block-like interface to create flexible online projects – made him realize that the type of exposure to coding that he had only got once he was in college was now potentially within reach of all elementary, middle and high school learners – if only there was someone to show them.

Newton then quit his job earlier this year to launch Panucation, an Idaho-based non-profit that promotes STEM learning. He explains how worldwide – but specially in the U.S.) code.org and others have been enabling the scalable deployment of teacher training using a viral approach that empowers educators and spreads from state-to-state, school-to-school, right down to the individual student level. Panucation’s strategy is to leverage the grassroots power of the platform to impact many more students.

Coach Newton is committed to building Panucation as a non-profit, and is starting a pilot program in the fall with elementary schools in the Boise to complete the entire code.org curricula over the course of the next academic year
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It was interesting to see how diverse in terms of age, gender and ethnicity our coding group was. There are many worthy initiatives out there which encourage kids to engage with technology and coding in a hands-on way, but the advantage of this sort of program is that – as long as we keep funding places like libraries – they remain accessible to everyone. Everything we needed was provided during the session, which is a great equalizer, putting every attending student on an equal footing regardless of their background or economic status.

“Building a person’s confidence in learning technology at a young age has the ability to break down future barriers since their own vision of their capabilities can be transformed. Making these courses available to as many youth as possible helps to address the need for their success in the work place of the future,” adds Newton.

He’s now committed to building Panucation as a non-profit, and is starting a pilot program in the fall with two elementary schools in the Boise to complete the entire code.org curricula over the course of the next academic year. Yet their future focus is also going to be on building a range of government and commercial partnerships that will ensure the long-term sustainability of the program and allow it to reach a great many more students.

Building a person’s confidence in learning technology at a young age has the ability to break down future barriers
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The way that Coach Newton was able to teach students across a broad age range, with such different grades and level of coding proficiency, demonstrates how this can indeed be a scalable solution. A key part of this is the code.org curriculum, which gives the students a common platform which is customizable to their level and on which they can practice both during classes and at home.

The way that Coach Newton was able to teach students across a broad age range, with such different grades and level of coding proficiency, demonstrates how this can indeed be a scalable solution
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Giving girls (and boys) REAL career choices means making sure they get the chance to try out a range of skills in safe, comfortable and fun settings
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As I watched my niece speed through the modules (first thing she’d do in the evenings as we came home was ask for her pi-top so she could do extra exercises) and add to her growing pile of knowledge tokens, I thought about how easy it is to “call BS” on people such as James Damore, who insist there is an inescapable biological reason why we don’t see as many women as men working in tech.

Seeing her flutter between extremes of confidence and insecurity reminded me that giving girls (and boys) real future career choices means making sure they get the chance to try out a range of skills in safe, comfortable and fun settings. Only then can they truly decide which path suits them best. In the meantime, however, they can also have a whole lot of fun.

This article was originally published on IDG Connect

How a grassroots approach can tackle the digital skills gap, by @alicebonasio from @CIOonline https://t.co/ANea4BrhJW

— IDG Contributor Network (@IDGCN) July 30, 2018

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Dancing About Programming appeared first on Tech Trends.

Report by Deloitte shows that only 16% of executives believe their teams have the capabilities needed to deliver on their company’s digital strategy.

Despite a significant uptick in investment in emerging technologies in the past 12 months, UK executives lack confidence in their own digital skills. According to a survey recently published by Deloitte as part of its Digital Disruption Index, less than half (45 per cent) of executives are confident in their own digital skills and ability to lead their organisation in the digital economy, while just 16 per cent believe their talent pool has enough knowledge and expertise to deliver their digital strategy.

Despite a significant uptick in investment in emerging technologies in the past 12 months, UK executives lack confidence in their own digital skills
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The lack of confidence in digital leadership hasn’t stopped organisations from embracing new technologies
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One hundred and six executives responsible for digital technologies and ways of working from FTSE listed companies, large private companies and large UK public sector organisations participated in the survey. The combined market value of the 106 survey participants is £707.8 billion, which equates to approximately 27 per cent of the UK quoted equity market. This information, which was collected between February and March 2018, has been analysed in aggregate and forms the basis of this publication.

Confidence in digital skills is currently low, almost half (49 per cent) of executives plan to invest more than £10 million in digital technologies and ways of working by 2020. 35 per cent plan to invest more than £10 million in the 2018 alone. 38 per cent of executives who say their organisation will invest in three or more emerging technologies over the next two years say that they do not have a coherent strategy in place.

“The pace of technological change is accelerating, however in the rush to keep up many organisations are yet to develop a coherent strategy for investing in digital technologies. More efforts need to be made to align learning and development alongside strategy and investment,” Explains Oliver Vernon-Harcourt, partner at Deloitte and author of this year’s Digital Disruption Index. “End-to-end digital transformation is not just about advances in technology, but about changing the ways of doing business.”

Leap of faith in AI

The lack of confidence in digital leadership hasn’t stopped organisations from embracing new technologies. Two in five (41 per cent) businesses have invested in AI technology, up from one in five (22 per cent) who said they had in 2017. Overall, 10 per cent have already invested more than £5 million in AI technology, with 15 per cent planning to invest more than £5 million in the coming year.

Data scientists and analysts remain the most difficult to recruit and retain
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Despite significant investments having already been made in AI, less than one in four (23 per cent) say that their leadership team has a clear understanding of the technology and how it will impact their business.

Overall by 2020, 82 per cent of executives plan to invest in AI, while 70 per cent plan to invest in robotic and cognitive automation and 57 per cent in blockchain.

“Investment into AI has seen significant growth since 2017, with some organisations now moving into large-scale adoption. However, many leadership teams currently lack awareness of the technology and this could act as a significant barrier to the adoption and development of the technology. It also suggests a lack of preparedness among senior leadership for how AI will impact their workforce,” adds Vernon-Harcourt.

Urgent Need to address Digital skills gap

Only 12 per cent of leaders believe UK school leavers and graduates have the right digital skills, down from 20 per cent who said the same in 2017. Over three-quarters are experiencing challenges in recruiting employees with the relevant digital skills. Data scientists and analysts remain the most difficult roles to recruit and retain.

Despite significant investments having been made in AI, less than one in four say their leadership team has a clear understanding of the technology and how it will impact their business
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While executives continue to worry that not enough school-leavers and graduates have the right mix of digital skills, only 17 per cent believe that UK companies lead the way with digital.

“Digital is not just about technology. It is about what technology enables. It can fundamentally change how work gets done, how organisations interact with their customers and how decisions are made. To realise the potential of digital technologies and benefit from these, it is vital for businesses to join together in addressing the digital skills gap,” Vernon-Harcourt concludes.

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Report: We are Lacking the Skills Needed to Drive the Digital Economy appeared first on Tech Trends.

Technology is helping people with disabilities like never before, but they also have a lot to give back to tech

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to code blind? I, for one, find the whole thing baffling enough with all senses at my disposal, so I’m very much in awe of the Royal Society of Blind Children group which managed to do just that.

As part of a partnership between Salesforce.org, The Challenge (a UK charity promoting diversity through a broad range of projects) and #a11yhacks the students showcased their coding skills to coincide with Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

This was done to highlight the importance of businesses hiring apprentices with different disabilities; not only for the very worthy reason of making society more inclusive, but for the practical and commercial motivation of not letting valuable skills go to waste.

The event aimed to highlight the importance of businesses hiring people with disabilities
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The British Chambers of Commerce recently reported that more than 75% of businesses face a digital skills shortage, and 84% of firms think digital and IT skills are more important to their businesses than they were two years ago.  Initiatives like #a11yhacks and charities such as The Challenge are crucial in helping to tackle the skills shortage and encourage businesses to employ visually impaired apprentices. The win-win is so clear it makes you wonder why we haven’t been doing this all along.

“With the UK facing a critical skills shortage, programmes such as this are incredibly important to not only plug the skills gap but ensure we have a diverse and equal pool of talent to tap into,” agrees Charlotte Finn, VP, Programs-EMEA at Salesforce.org. “We donate one percent of our company’s technology, employee time and resources to giving back. Our recent project with The Challenge and RSBC has seen many of our employees volunteer at the coding club for visually impaired youth to teach them key technology and coding skills with a view to securing an apprenticeship.”

During the demo day, visually impaired coders offered attendees at the ExCel centre in London several demonstrations of how technology is being used to improve accessibility for blind and partially sighted people. Sighted people – including Cherie Blair – had the opportunity to experience what it’s like to experience sight loss in a specially designed simulation.

Technology is being used to improve visually impaired people's lives
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The fact that the children were looking at using the coding skills they learned to design a VR app as their showcase project also seems very appropriate, given Virtual Reality’s unique capacity to allow people to experience things from someone else’s perspective. This is particularly powerful in relation to disability and inclusion, as increasing an able-bodied person’s ability to truly empathise with the challenges that disability brings is important in ensuring that accessibility initiatives are prioritised and properly implemented.

“Our goal at The Challenge is to help create a society where people from different backgrounds come together to understand and appreciate each other’s differences,” says its Chief Executive Oliver Lee OBE. “I am delighted that we are now helping these young people into tech apprenticeships as part of our Step Forward apprenticeship programme.”

This was a partnership between Salesforce.org, The Challenge and #a11yhacks for Global Accessibility Awareness Day
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Where the huge popularity of the Paralympic games in London and Rio certainly helped do that, it’s important we continue to support on-going projects such as these to ensure momentum isn’t lost. Because it’s not even about charity, or feeling good about yourself (although if it helps, go ahead!) even from an entirely selfish perspective, a more inclusive society is more stable and prosperous for everyone, and disabled people have a whole lot to contribute to it. And it’s about time we enabled them to do so.

For companies looking to gain a competitive edge through technology, Tech Trends offers strategic Virtual Reality and Digital Transformation Consultancy services tailored to your brand.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Making Society More Inclusive and Plugging the Digital Skills Gap appeared first on Tech Trends.

Pi-top is a start-up making affordable, cool-looking computers for schools, which kids can build themselves while learning coding, electronics, and a whole lot more.

In my latest article for IDG Connect I explore how creative hacking and the Maker Movement have gained momentum in recent years as more people recognise there’s a skills crisis that has to be urgently tackled if we’re to not only cope, but thrive, in the digital economy.

The concept of Creative Hacking is something that a lot of technology startups have been exploring
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The concept of Creative Hacking is something that a lot of technology startups have been exploring in order to address the increasingly pressing issue of the widening digital skills gap. This essentially refers to the problem that not enough children are learning the skills they need at school to function in—and contribute to—the digital economy.

Pi-top is a start-up making affordable, cool-looking computers for schools
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This was, in fact, one of the hot topics of debate at the recent Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, where an initiative was launched to standardize that concept of “Digital Intelligence Quotient” and introduce it into the broader international curriculum.

There are moves to introduce a Digital Intelligence Quotient into the school curriculum
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One startup’s DIY laptop could have us all be makers, by @alicebonasio from @CIOonline https://t.co/VpbnFmOvOi

— Technology Experts (@IDGCN) May 3, 2017

This is part of a broader trend that recognises the importance of life-long learning and building of flexible skill sets, something that is embodied in the idea that technology is meant to be explored and played with, and that playing and learning are not just for children, but rather life-long activities. The Maker Movement and the proliferation of Makerspaces are prominent example of how this works in practice, as is the growing popularity of hackable hardware specifically geared towards education, such as the pi-top computers, which I recently had the opportunity to test firsthand.

This is part of a broader trend recognising the importance of life-long learning
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Pi-top is an EdTech startup that launched in October 2014 and sold over 11,000 units of its DIY laptops, working with more than 500 schools so far. They raised over $400,000 through crowdfunding and $4.3 million on a series A Round and were finalists for two BETT awards. 

Pi-top’s ambition is to provide schools with affordable coding hardware that is also flexible. The main issue with IT spend in education is that the hardware quickly becomes outdated, but this modular approach ensures that the devices remain easy to upgrade. They are also working to support this with a cloud ecosystem of resources where teachers can share and download lesson plans with one another building a collaborative, evolving coding curriculum.

The pi-top is, as the name suggests, a laptop powered by the Raspberry Pi. It runs on its own operating system—pi-topOS—which allows all the functions one might expect from an off-the-shelf laptop—such as web browsing, emailing, editing text documents and gaming, which makes it accessible at its $200 price point. But apart from the end product itself, its biggest selling point is the education-enabling potential it offers students. Through the process of building the device, children learn the about the basic architecture of the computer, then go on to customize its modular structure with add-ons to make it suit individual needs. It also makes upgrading a lot more affordable, as a new microprocessor can be installed for $30, much cheaper than buying a new device, especially considering how schools have to constantly upgrade multiple units.

Code clubs are using the devices to create computing lessons on its custom-made coding platform CEEDuniverse. It teaches those skills through gamification, encouraging children to “mine” for resources to progress throughout the game, solving visual programming puzzles to unlock the next levels. This teaches all the basic coding concepts in languages such as Python and Scratch in an engaging way, such as creatively composing music, for example. The coder interface also allows all Raspberry Pi resources and worksheets created by educators to be shared around the world.

So, how did I, a non-technical person, get on with building my very own laptop? I was able to not only do it, but enjoy the process:

Building

This was fantastic fun and the instructions were very clear, suitable for someone who has never build a computer before. I quickly got familiar with all the various circuit boards and cables and how they were supposed to come together. The screen is great quality and the keyboard is adequate, but the mouse pad is a little bit difficult to use, so it benefits from an external mouse, particularly when scrolling. The case is hard-wearing and a lovely bright shade of green that would appeal to children I’d imagine, although I really liked it too. The slide-out top section is amazingly effective, safely covering the internal components when you need and giving easy access to them for whenever you need to do some extra tinkering. The battery life is also very good, up to 12 hours depending on how many programs you have running, which beats my much more expensive MacBook by a long way. The only oddity there was the lack of a battery monitor on the dashboard.

Software

The pi-topOS comes installed on a micro SD card and booted up first time, connected to my W-Fi without issue and I was off and running. It comes preinstalled with essetials such as a chrome browser, basic office apps and of course a good selection of engaging learning tools. All these can be accessed on the attractive and familiar feeling desktop or through the pi-topDASHBOARD which is a neat smart phone style interface and a good starting point to begin exploring the pi-top’s capabilities. The only limitation is that it is very much meant to be used in a classroom context. It is perfectly possible to get a lot of learning and fun from it by yourself, but to get the full benefit of the learning tools, you do need the guidance of a teacher. The educational software is very diverse and offers everything from learning through gaming and game design to organized step-by-step coding tools where you can learn, test, debug and validate code.

Extras

The speaker is truly plug-and-play and allows the laptop to play media, while the pi-topPROTO is a great little breakout board, essential for physical computing lessons where you add and program lights, switches and circuits because the Raspberry Pi’s native GPIO header pins are used to run the pi-top. The PROTO duplicates these pins plus adds a load more possibilities for creative learning with well labelled connections for soldering on components and includes standard 5V, and 3.3V plus 18V power connections.

If we are to educate the next generation to understand technology and leverage digital skills creatively, then this is exactly the sort of tool that needs to be in every classroom. The good news is that startups like pi-top are making this not only possible, but much more affordable and rather fun. It sort of made me wish I were back at school, as I would have really enjoyed learning about computers if I had been allowed to play with them.

Article originally published on CIO Online

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Bringing the Maker Movement into EdTech appeared first on Tech Trends.

There’s no shortage of really tiny computers out there these days, but I was still struck by just how tiny the BBC micro:bit is. Not that the Raspberry Pi or the Arduino are big by any stretch of the imagination. If you want to remind yourself of what a big computer looks like, see below (that’s the Colossus in case you don’t recognise it). Or you can just watch a vintage episode of the X-Files from the 90s.

We’ve come a long way since the Colossus was first built in Bletchley Park
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This new breed of computers is not only tiny, but also really, really affordable. The Arduino and BBC micro:bit retail for about £15, and you can get a Raspberry Pi for about a fiver. Best of all, they’re made to be so flexible and hackable that there’s an infinite variety of things you can do with them.

This new breed of computers is not only tiny, but also really, really affordable
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The kit I tested out was by Kitronik, one of the 29 organisations that partnered with the BBC to create the micro:bit. It is a little bit more technical and meatier than the fun-looking kits you get from Technology Will Save Us or Sphero but it is aimed at a slightly older age group, and I really enjoyed the fact that it combined coding with hands-on electronics, so that you’re learning the hardware and software aspects in tandem.

Kitronik is one of the 29 organisations that partnered with the BBC to create the micro:bit
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Every Kitronik kit comes with a teaching resource pack that guides students through how to build it, but also on the principles of what actually makes it work. The resources section of their website contains a range of tutorials, datasheets, project ideas and interactive teaching aids which further supports that learning.

Many teachers are now keen to incorporate subjects such as coding in the curriculum
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With the importance of digital skills being increasingly recognized, many teachers are now keen to incorporate subjects such as coding in the curriculum, but it’s not always straightforward for them to do so. Which is why, as we’re starting a new academic year, they’re launching a range of teaching resources to specifically support the delivery of STEM-based lessons using the BBC micro:bit.

“We are already seeing all manner of projects being created by students up and down the country and there is undoubted enthusiasm for the device as a tool to support coding and integrated projects. Judging by the number of orders we have received, there is little doubt that teachers are keen to further develop the use of this resource,” says Kitronik Director and Co-Founder Kevin Spurr.

We are already seeing all manner of electronics projects being created by students
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His Co-Founder Geoff Hampson is also excited about micro:bit’s potential for creating a cross-curricular platform for the teaching and learning of digital skills, and transform students from passive end users into creators of technology, developing their capabilities not only in coding, but in digital creativity.

Geoff and Kevin started the company in 2005 with a mission to make electronics accessible to everyone, and sold over a million kits since then, including their Electro-Fashion range which allows you to add lights to fabrics by sewing the components together with specially designed conductive thread, requiring no soldering. They also supply over 3,000 secondary schools directly.

We’ve come a long way since the Colossus was first built in Bletchley Park. Most of us carry around supercomputers (also known as smartphones) in our pockets, and Alan Turing would probably be amazed – and delighted – to see how a Raspberry Pi costing $5 can outperform most computers which cost small fortunes a mere few decades ago.

The more technology advances the easier it is to take it for granted
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But the more technology advances, perhaps the easier it is to take it all for granted, which is precisely why we need to educate the next generation about what actually makes this stuff tick. In other words, we need to get serious about playing with technology, or that digital skills gap is only ever going to get wider.

The post Learning to Love Coding with BBC micro:bit New Inventor Kits appeared first on Tech Trends.

Not enough people are learning the skills required to drive the digital economy. I explore some solutions to this growing problem in this article for IDG Connect.

As anybody tasked with the challenge of recruiting IT talent knows, there is a severe and widespread digital skills shortage, which is impacting on businesses’ ability to compete in a technology-driven world. Education technology (EdTech) is central to tackling this. EdTech in this context refers not to the digital tools that help deliver traditional curriculum elements, but to facilitating a new system of education, where we learn about technology rather than just making use of it.

The term hacking used to have negative connotations, yet nowadays it is closely linked to this concept of playfulness in relation to technology.
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Teachers already acknowledge that technology is essential to the modern economy and plays a huge role in improving the quality of education. In the UK, coding has been part of the primary school curriculum since 2014, but in places like Estonia and Israel this has been happening for over a decade. Perhaps this is why the country was found to be lagging behind in terms of IT competence, with a recent report by Barclays showing that only 16 percent of workers in the UK would be comfortable building a website, compared to 39 percent in Brazil and 37 percent in India.

Many teachers lack the confidence to teach computer science at the higher levels required to address this problem. Bill Mitchell, head of the British Computing Society, says it could take another five years to up-skill the 14,000 teachers current ICT so that they can tackle more in-depth computing classes. The problem is made worse by the fact that math and computer science graduates are in high demand, making it harder to recruit them into teaching.

Many technology companies are so concerned about this issue that they started taking matters in their own hands. In addition to launching a program to help thousands of adults in the UK to improve their digital skills, Google invested £120,000 in a training initiative for primary school teachers in partnership with Code Club, a network of 2,500 after school clubs around the UK. The BBC micro:bit project also partnered up with companies such as Kitronik to provide teaching resources designed to deliver STEM-based lessons through their electronics coding kits.

A survey by the Varkey foundation found that 9 in 10 teachers would welcome involvement from companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Google to support student’s vocational training in schools
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In the U.S., IBM went a step further, setting up P-TECH (Pathways in Technology Early College High School) model schools, which give the option to ninth-graders to graduate six years later with both a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering. Rackspace even went as far as establishing its own training school, from which it hires two-thirds of the graduate output, with the remainder finding jobs in other companies.

This sort of corporate involvement is actually welcomed by teachers. A survey by the Varkey foundation — conducted in collaboration with the CBI and the Times Educational Supplement — recently found that 9 in 10 teachers would actively welcome closer involvement from companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Google to support student’s vocational training in schools. Marc Boxser, Chief Operating Officer of the Varkey Foundation — a not-for profit organization dedicated to promoting educational initiatives — says that such partnerships are crucial if we are to improve our digital skills base in the long term.

“In an age of disruptive innovation and digital advancement, those countries that prioritize greater understanding of digital skills will be the ones that thrive. If we continue to allow a generation of “computer illiterate” children to leave our schools, there could be grave consequences. As the growth of populism and anti-elite sentiment around the world shows, there is a divide between those “globalists” who have skills that the modern economy needs, and those whose jobs have been either downgraded or destroyed by technology.”

Indeed, a World Economic Forum report warns of a “Fourth Industrial Revolution” which will eradicate more than 7 million jobs as AI becomes ever more sophisticated and technology replaces humans. According to the WEF, 28 percent of the skills required in the UK will need to adapt before 2020 in order to meet the demands in new job sectors such as robotics and nanotechnology.

The greatest challenge we face in tackling the digital skills problem is not a lack of resources or creative solutions, nor a willingness from parents and teachers to embrace technology. The main issue we face is likely to be our outdated education system that restricts fluid and dynamic learning. There is a need to acknowledge — at a broader policy level — that the availability of information and the pace of change have rendered the concept of a fixed canon or permanent, universal curriculum grossly ineffective. A fit-for-purpose education proposition must be based around continuous learning and promote flexibility and curiosity.

In an age of disruptive innovation and digital advancement, countries that prioritize greater understanding of digital skills will be the ones that thrive
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The term “hacking” used to have negative connotations, yet nowadays it is closely linked to this concept of playfulness in relation to technology. Learning in this area happens through bold experimentation and iteration — and is as much a result of failure as it is of success. This is the fundamental shift that educators must embrace when incorporating technology into their teaching. There is no single solution to the digital skills gap problem. Rather, it requires a sustained collaboration between schools, parents and corporations in coming years. Technology is already an inevitable part of our lives, yet we must make a concerted effort to make it part of our education as well.

Read the full article on IDG Connect

How can we plug the widening digital skills gap? by @alicebonasio from @CIOonline – https://t.co/BLQ6ELTaw1

— Technology Experts (@IDGCN) September 1, 2016

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Plugging the Digital Skills Gap appeared first on Tech Trends.