What the EdTech?
What the EdTech?
WSU Applied Learning Partnership
Welcome to the What the EdTech podcast, where we delve into the world of learning and explore innovative approaches to education. Today, we're honored to be joined by Tonya Witherspoon from Wichita State University and Tiffany Bonfiglio from Wichita Public Schools to discuss the exciting applied learning opportunities available to students in the district. We have formed a unique partnership that provides students with hands-on, real-world experiences and prepares them for successful careers in a variety of industries. We'll hear from experts on how this partnership is making a positive impact and how it's helping students to not only gain valuable knowledge, but also the skills and confidence they need to succeed in the workforce. So sit back, relax, and join us for a conversation about the importance of applied learning in education.
Info on Freedom Forge: https://www.amazon.com/Freedoms-Forge-American-Business-Produced/dp/0812982045
Welcome, everybody, to our next episode of the podcast. I'm super excited today we've got some super friends here smoke, how are you doing? It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood. And I'm excited. We're gonna be talking about some future kinds of things today and some, you know, some great ideas of concepts that we're actually already implementing. I'm jazz. How about you, Rob, I'm so pumped. This is so much about learning by doing and it really hits all the fields and the areas of learning that I love. And we got some great super brands here today. Tip one che traduce
Tiffany Bonfiglio:I'm Tiffany Bonfiglio Supervisor of yourself. Production Control here at Wichita Public Schools.
Rob Dickson:And we have an amazing super friend here. This is who I'm super excited about. We have Tonya Witherspoon here from Wichita State University tiny once you introduce yourself.
Tonya Witherspoon:Good morning, friends and I love talking to you guys. We've been doing this for years and moving the needle on education. I love it. I'm currently at Wichita State University, Associate Vice President of industry engagement and applied learning,
Rob Dickson:Tonya, and still a ways back like it's been a couple of decades, I hate to say like couple decades because that, you know, I was thinking the other day, I was like, man, you know, I will have my points and about 10 years and 10 years sounds like a small amount of time compared to even the time we've known each other in education. So it's such an interesting time to be in for sure, especially post pandemic. And when I think about how we're looking at the future of learning today. When I look at service learning models and other things, this applied learning is such an interesting topic. And we utilize it here in Wichita public schools, many industries use it. But how did that start? Tanya?
Tonya Witherspoon:How did it start? It's interesting because we've put a, you know, really on fire over the last six or seven years, but it started a couple of decades ago as well. Okay. Absolutely started a couple of decades ago with our aerospace engineering industry here in Wichita. And if you really want to take it back, we weren't calling it applied learning but it started back in World War Two. And we've got some great stories and you know, we're Wichita is actually in some great books freedom Forge, Kansas is chapter 17. How did the cheat How did Kansas Workforce help us win the war? You know, why our men went to work right? And we still had to build aircraft. And so our women stepped it up. Rosie the Riveter is Wichita, Kansas, his story is we had to learn on the fly, you know, we had to apply the knowledge that we already had, get in there, you know, learn it, figure out how to take care of business and make something happen. So this is not a new concept. Okay? And has all kinds of different different titles, apprenticeship internship, Earn and Learn service learning, right? You know, but the idea that you learn while doing and, and, you know, there's some really, really great educators that have coined these, you know, phrases into, you know, real learning things. I mean, Seymour Papert, who's the father of logo and love it, you know, turtle and he has a version of, you know, learning called constructivism, which means you really build like with your hands as you're building those neural networks, you're building something physical, and that's, you know, required. You know, they're there. David Kolb, has Kolb has his you know, version of applied learning, you know, that we all know, and it's experiential learning. And you know, it's another brand of this. So I mean, there's flavors of this, every educator knows that, you know, you have to do more than just read about something. And that's, that's what applied learning is, it's really that you have to have experienced, it failed. That's another big part of applied learning. You learn most when you fail, right? I mean, every educators nightmare is when kids say, Why do I need to know this? Well, when you fail, that's when you need to know this, right? Yeah. You know, all of that is background. We've been doing it for a long time.
Rob Dickson:I love that aspect of failure, because in our esports program, in simulation, those kids are learning and they're able to fail until they get to a point and it's such a safety net to allow kids to fail. There's so many different aspects of a person's learning that happens when they do it by doing I think some of those we call those soft skills. I even hate to use the term soft skills but like we interview these kids before they come into the working area. And and so much of that I think about where kids have anxiety today. It builds their confidence in that learning environment. So how do you guys think about what areas you want to expand applied learning into because I think of the areas that we're looking at today in the IT realm and data science and cybersecurity, all those are high need areas? How does Wichita State focus on those,
Tonya Witherspoon:we focus on what the talent need is what the talent pipelines, you know, are needed. In our region. That's how we focus I mean, we follow the need, we don't we don't, you know, make make decisions we follow that need when you can't find you know, talent or, or there's a big, you know, need a talent. That's where we focus on what we do first is, you know, we really talk about the fact that you can't assume that a college graduate, okay, I need cybersecurity professionals. So I need to make sure that the universities all have a cybersecurity degree so that I can hire those graduates and then my need is met. That is what we're trying to trying to, you know, wipe, wipe clean, and it's not out of any fault of anywhere. Okay, that is not that that's the beginning strand. Yes. Does does our education system have training in that area? Right, and education? Okay, that's one box, right? But the second thing is how do we give those students that are learning at whatever level that's why we work with Wichita public school system, because this training can and education can't start freshman in college, and it doesn't end senior in college. Right? It begins much, much earlier with attitudes and knowledge and awareness of what's coming. And how can I build all this and practice that practice that experience and failure? Right, so we help those companies say, Okay, I need a cybersecurity expert. Is there education and training? Yes. Okay, good. So of those students that have already chosen to be in that field or that pipeline, what kind of experiences awareness and touch points, can we provide them right now? What can they do, you know, to get some experience in this area? And you know, what, let's take, you know, the work, and let's pull it apart? And what are some of the, the very redundant over and over highly defined pieces of that work, that can build muscle memory, and can you know, people can practice on them, and we've got all kinds of cushion around them, so they can fail, right? There's, there's all kinds of next steps, so we can catch that failure. Right, but also elevate the goodness that comes with that work. So there's real value created, there has to be real, real value, right, created. But again, you know, some some springboards to catch that failure and, you know, leap up, you know, the rest so that, that answer?
Rob Dickson:Absolutely. Smoke. What do you think?
Dyane Smokorowski:Well, you know, I, I have to say that what really this boils down to is students finding relevance in what they're doing in school. And we all know that if things are not relevant to us, personally, we're not going to buy in, not with not with all arms wide open anyway, right. But if I find that what I am doing matters to other people, because a lot of applied learning involves partnerships with other entities outside of our own classrooms. So I'm doing work not just for me, but for others. If that work allows me to be experiential, in the fact that not only am I learning by doing, but I can test things out if it doesn't work, you've already talked about that the embracing of failure. I as a parent of a student who just graduated, graduated out of college, I'd much rather see my son, try things in a safety net that doesn't go well, versus him being in a high risk area that if things don't go well, there's a lot of, you know, maybe troubles that come along with that. This is a safe place to say, Hey, did it work, did it not? What did you learn? What would you do differently? How does this help our partners also grow in their work they're doing with us. So those pieces are huge. And finally, when I'm doing something that I'm part of a larger, say mission driven experience, I'm more willing to make Make sure that my input matters for the success of everyone. So there's all those levels that we really want to see students have on the other end. Plus, I've learned some really cool stuff for real career. And Tiffany, we're already doing some of that right here in your neighborhood. How's that going?
Tiffany Bonfiglio:Yeah, are, we have five students that we have brought on from agreement within a bar, they are supporting nine of our district buildings. And our hope is, is one we're addressing some of our talent shortages. But also, the hope is that we'll keep some of them around once they're done, because we have some really fantastic kids with us right now. But there, we have some in hardware support, we have one currently, who's just started with us in cybersecurity, who's doing really well. And we're really excited about that to get off the ground.
Tonya Witherspoon:Yeah, and to be there in a VR is an Applied Learning Institute at Wichita State University. It's one of you know, several, and really focuses on emerging technologies,
Tiffany Bonfiglio:we have had a fantastic experience in that consistent flow, students coming in that have already had some training come to us, and then we can just expand on that training and give them some experience within school district.
Tonya Witherspoon:Yeah, and that training is really important. That's a big part of applied learning. The first part is identifying a value creation, you know, that the students can do immediately, you know, and Diane, you, you hit it, it has to be valuable, it has to be meaningful. So creating value is very, very important. This isn't getting coffee, you know, and just being part of the team to observe this is creating value every minute. So the first step is working with you. And Tiffany, we work together to find out how could those students create value that you actually valued? Right a lot with the with the skills that we identified immediately, but we're always looking at the gap. What else do you need them to? Do? You know, and we're individually working with those students, what do they know now? And what do they expect to know, with with their education plans? And you know, whatever they already have, you know, lined up? And what's the gap? What other training do we need to put fit in there? What other experiences? What mentor? What do you know, I mean, there's all kinds of things to fill that gap. But that gap analysis that continued gap analysis, is a critical part of applied learning. And I'll tell you learning to do that is part of applied learning, what we hope are those students that go through this program, have several skills, and one is they are always looking to create value, they're always cognizant of whether they are creating value or not right, for themselves and for who they're working, you know, with, and that as they look to obtain and deliver more value, they're looking at what they need, what's in the gap of their skill and knowledge that right in order to do that. So you know, those two things are, you know, if you call them again, Rob Scott soft skills, you know, but they're, they're a piece of the applied learning, you know, continuum that are really, really important. And we hope that the students that go through this program, have better, you know, better careers and lives because of this, this experience of looking for value, filling the gap always trying to create more value, right, and fill in their learning gaps themselves looking for what do they need to do or not filling them, identifying them? Right, identifying those gaps.
Dyane Smokorowski:And what's interesting for these students, our high school students involved in this particular program is they're getting paid a very decent wage to not only learn by doing but making an impact, as well as when they leave us and move into higher ed or go into the workforce or military wherever they want to go. They now have skill sets that most other people their age do not have, what sets them on a trajectory for advancement much quicker than their peers. You
Tonya Witherspoon:are right and that that wage goes to value, right. That's how we measure right value is you know how much we're willing, you know, to pay for it. But it also is the grease to help you know those students keep on and see that it's meaningful, so it's important and to that point, our numbers last from last year just came out and our shocker career accelerator program at Wichita State created over 8000 job opportunities, applied learning job opportunities, that earned students $28.5 million last year, okay, it was over whether Over 600 employers. So this has real value on both sides. So it's a win win, right? So we we tell students, you can come to college and be part of, you know, the Applied Learning Program, you can graduate with a diploma, and a resume, contacts all of that debt free on a full ride scholarship called A J. O. B.
Rob Dickson:I love it. I love it. And when I think about high tech jobs, there's so many different opportunities coming to Wichita. I mean, I think about the Integra thing coming in Wichita, very soon. There are just so many different companies that are looking at Wichita as an area of the United States to plant and
Tonya Witherspoon:right. And, and that's because that we you know, because we can, you know, create this talent. But again, it's it's not just recent years that we've done this, this is multiple decades, and it spans all the way back to World War Two does tell you I mean, again, we are we have decades long experience at producing the right kind of talent to solve our community, our nation, you know, and our industry has problems. We're problem solvers. You know, and talent generators.
Rob Dickson:How big? Do you see applied learning being at Wichita State University?
Tonya Witherspoon:It I mean, it's required for all of our students, it's a piece of every one of our students experience. So it's, you know, it's big, but, you know, this is this was part of education everywhere. I mean, every week, we have several universities visiting us every, every single week. I mean, just in the last, you know, couple weeks, couple of weeks, we've had, I mean, Howard University, was here, you know, looking at how we're doing this, we've won a couple of, you know, awards for this nationally, at UEFA, the University Economic Development Association, you know, we we won an award for this, but lots of universities are, you know, realizing this is how to deliver, you know, deliver talent, right, is tighter connections to what are the problems that need to be solved? This is what research universities have built, you know, their, their whole portfolio again, for decades, right? is solving problems, right? Bringing those problems into the educational experience, allowing students to participate, right, in that creation of new knowledge, new skills, you know, new ideas, and then operationalizing that into a talent stream and a real value creation engine, right for our community, that that's what, that's what all of this is about. So it's just bringing that to the forefront, I think, the digital transformation environment we're going through.
Rob Dickson:We are we are well, Tonya, thank you so much for this time, I appreciate our partnership that we have with which public schools smoke, you want to end us out here.
Dyane Smokorowski:I would just say the best part of all of this is it's possible for every student who is curious to try something like this. It's just a matter of I didn't know what I didn't know. But there are several avenues here in which top heavy schools for students to jump into applied learning everything from healthcare to it to hopefully culinary down the road. We have options and a kids just need to discover what's possible. So thanks for joining us today, everyone. Thank you
