August 13 2015

J-Day at BSU underway

Speakers are saying “yes,” ISJA Board Members are sending ideas, and tours are being designed for the Oct. 29 J-Day from the Idaho State Journalism Association.

Some highlights:

  • A bus may be chartered for Southeast Idaho students/advisers
  • Tours are available the day before the event
  • Keynote speakers are students and graduates of BSU who are using Social Media to develop businesses
    • Whitney Hansen coaches students on living their dreams (but within their budgets)
    • Dallas Crum and his partners want everyone in the world to have access to water (and to buy their water bottles)
  • Sessions cover all areas of journalism media
    • Newspaper
    • Web
    • Video Broadcasting
    • Yearbook

Stay posted to learn more!

July 30 2015

An ISJA Lunch Bunch formed at the Idaho Professional-Technical Summer Conference

ISJA Lunch Bunch

Idaho State Journalism Association members Sue Martin, Becky McGuyver, Courtney Morgan and I found a nice place under a gazebo to have our lunches during the 2015 PTE Summer Conference.

The result, in addition to what we brought back for our professional-technical journalism programs, is a list of to-do items for the group’s Oct. 29 BSU Learning Day.

Journalism students and advisers from throughout Idaho are invited to attend the October event at the BSU Student Union.

We will have a full day of sessions hosted by experts from all areas of journalism-related high school activites, such as newspaper, yearbook, news sites, and video production.  I’ll keep you posted!

 

July 20 2015

Hope, engagement, and well-being are most important indicators of student success

PTE Summer Conference Schedule-1

The future of education is rearing its beautifully ugly head in the Gem state.

The oxymoron might best be illustrated by the reduction of potato plants in Idaho.   J.R. Simplot is quoted as saying:  “We no longer run our potato plants with wrenches and rags–we run them with iPads.”

Jeffrey Sayer

Jeffrey Sayer is one of two keynote speakers at the 2015 Idaho State Professional-Technical Education Summer Conference, July 20 – 22.

According to Jeffrey Sayer, director of the Idaho Department of Commerce, J.R. Simplot Company reduced its potato plants from three to one, and decreased the number of workers it employs from 850 to around 250.

As keynote speaker to the Idaho state conference of professional technical educators today at the Riverside Hotel in Boise, Sayer discussed the state of Idaho’s

  • employment (95,000 deficit in the next 10 years for qualified labor),
  • education (“education is the last industry that hasn’t changed, hasn’t adapted”), and
  • automation (technical skills to run automation are needed more than manual labor).

A few paradigm shifts marked the occasion.

Quoting a Gallop Poll of 500,000 students, Sayer said that some students don’t go past high school for reasons most wouldn’t suspect.  For example, he told the audience the survey found that one student didn’t go on because she didn’t have a ride to school.  Another couldn’t afford to be away from income for extended periods of time.  Yet another had to choose work over post-secondary education because her parents were expecting her to get a job and pay rent.

Sayer said, “The presence of hope, engagement, and well-being is 30 times higher an indicator of future success than GPA and test scores.”

Because the immediate pressure of earning an income often exceeds the need for a degree, Sayer suggested a paradigm shift:  skills first and education second.

“If income pressure is so intense, why not certify skills to raise income of post high school students to $9 or $10 an hour?” he asked.

Part of the state’s target is to encourage a talent pipeline from high school to industry to resolve the shortage of talent that industry follows.

“Our future is in your classroom,” he said to the educators.