California Economic Summit: 9.19.2013 by Matthew Grant Anson
If you pull out your iPhone
and ask Siri if a dog can jump over a house, chances are it’s just going to
direct you to a kennel. So says a new paper from economists Frank Levy and
Richard Murnane entitled “Dancing with Robots: Human Skills for ComputerizedWork.”
The general consensus has been that the rise of technology and globalization has hollowed out the middle class as the jobs they’ve historically relied upon increasingly employ computers over humans. But all is not lost. While computers have certainly taken the reins in some respects, Levy and Murnane both stress the fact that computers still don’t match up with humans when it comes to problem solving abilities, as shown by their iPhone example. Humans still come with abilities that computers, at least right now, can’t measure up against – but these skills need to be coaxed out of people by tweeking our education system.
“The most important skill is to learn how to learn efficiently,” Murnane said recently in a webinar on their paper presented by the Hewlett Foundation. “Very few of us are going to be able to earn a decent living doing the same thing decade after decade. The world of work is changing rapidly, and people are going to have to learn.”
Most importantly, people are going to need to learn a new kind of literacy. “Back in 1965 if you learned to read well enough to follow directions, there were a great many jobs in the U.S. that paid a reasonable wage,” Murnane said. “Those are the easiest kinds of jobs to compertize or to send to lower wage countries. Reading is still important, but the definitions for literacy have dramatically increased.”
Not only does literacy now include being able to read directions, says Murnane, but one must also be able to do a web search and be able to make sense of the millions of responses to a query. READ MORE !
#CSEdWeek promotes the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, and is expected to engage millions of students in hands-on computer programming and coding activities.
Computer science is where the jobs are. More than 50% of all jobs in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) are computing jobs. Some other stats:
• Computer science is one of the
highest-paid college degree for new graduates.
• Computer programming jobs are growing at
two times the national average -- but there aren’t enough graduates to fill
these jobs.• Nine out of 10 K-12 schools do not offer computer programming classes.
• In 35 out of 50 states, computer science does not even count toward high school graduation
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