Technology Education for Future Innovators

With the world fundamentally changing as a result of the new computer technologies that have become increasingly more prevalent in day-to-day life, public education systems must adapt to equip students with the skills and knowledge they will need to function in the future. The crossOver curriculum, presented to a local group of Tempe high school students, provides informative, accessible technology education lessons aimed at inspiring students, grades 9-12, to pursue computer knowledge, such as web development and mobile app design, independently in hopes that they might choose technology as a career path later in their educations. I designed this curriculum to be engaging by constantly incorporating hands-on activities where students were able to build and execute code based on concepts they learned during our weekly sessions. Each unit in the crossOver curriculum has accompanying resources that are comprehensive, requiring little to no background knowledge in the subjects they cover. Recognizing that many schools, especially ones in lower income areas, may not have the resources to provide effective technology education, I spent considerable effort providing instructional tools meant for educators to utilize. These resources will be made available for others to use in the future. I faced many early challenges in the learning process of developing lessons that were interesting to the group of approximately fifteen high schoolers attending regularly; nevertheless, the overall outcome was successful. This conclusion is based on the students’ feedback and the quality of work they were eventually able to produce using the programming tools covered in the crossOver curriculum.