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Google Exec Urges Educational System to Evolve with New 'Techweb' Generation

Google Global Education Evangelist Jaime Casap explains how schools are preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet in the new knowledge economy, and encourages educators to start rethinking how children are taught.

Google Global Education Evangelist Jaime Casap pulled out his 3-day-old smartphone and held it up in front of a crowd of educators, business leaders and students gathered at Walsh University.

That phone, equipped with the most cutting-edge technology available, will be the worst technology that a 5-year-old child ever sees, he said Wednesday.

“That’s the generation that’s starting in our schools this year,” he said.

Casap, 46, served as the keynote speaker at the third annual Intelligent Community Forum Global Symposium.

He urged educators to start rethinking how kids are taught and even how classrooms are designed for the new “techweb” generation.

Casap, who grew up in the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York City, noted that schools are teaching students for jobs that don’t exist yet in the new knowledge economy.

In his 45-minute speech, he raised plenty of questions, many with a humorous bent.

Why can’t students collaborate on tests when collaboration is a valued skill and encouraged in the workplace?

Why do classrooms today still look like classrooms from 300 years ago?

Why are more high school kids taking Advanced Placement history and not computer science?

Instead of asking students about what career they want to pursue, he said, the educational system should be asking kids what problems they want to solve.

Casap, who promotes Google’s educational apps and programs, offered no specific solutions, adding that there’s no silver bullet to fix the system. Instead, he talked about encouraging problem-solving and critical thinking.

Afterward, when asked about his specific recommendations, he said it’s up to schools and communities on how they evolve — he eschews the word “change.”

But he would like to see standardized tests disappear, replaced by performance-based goals.

He also stressed that technology will never replace quality teachers.

Walsh sophomore Jerad Kitzler, 20, an accounting major from Columbus, said he thought one of Casap’s strongest suggestions was building an educational system that focuses on and promotes qualified teachers.

Senior Dean Miller, 22, a business management major from Canton, welcomed Casap’s stance on educators embracing technology.

“Everything is technologically based now,” he said.

©2014 the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)