Superintendent's Blog: March 11, 2008, Machine Learning

          There is a growing shortage of software engineers in the United States which is causing companies like Microsoft to look elsewhere to meet their needs.  Bill Gates announced that his company will be looking to developing countries like China to get the talent they need to stay competitive and even ahead of the curve. The IT giant taps into a global market for its technical talent by setting up development centers in multiple locations around the world.  This should be of great concern to us as educators.  It’s more important now than ever before that we continue to give our students the skills they need to be competitive in this new Age of Information.  We want these technical, well-paid jobs to go to our own kids.  

          We should be doing everything possible to make sure our students have what they need to go after one of these jobs if they so choose.  It’s one of the reasons why we continue to move forward with programs that rely more and more on technology, both to deliver instruction and to demand an understanding of its applications.  Our Mandarin Chinese program is delivered via video conferencing.  Several students in our high school are taking courses online through our new Virtual High School program.  Our teachers, throughout our K-12 program continue to emphasize thinking and making connections that go beyond the standard, basic curriculum.  Literacy (reading, math, computer skills) are emphasized throughout the school year.  

          The current shortage of IT high-tech workers needs to be reversed right now in our own schools.  At a recent speech at Carnegie Mellon University, Bill Gates encouraged the students there to pursue computer science and other related fields if they want to be part of the IT future.  “Researchers are dealing with so much information that…the need for machine learning to figure out what’s going on with that data is absolutely essential,” Gates said.  That “machine learning” can’t start at the university classrooms.  It has to start in our elementary schools.