The Problem

From our discussions with our education partners, it has become clear that project-based learning is the future of IT education. However, teachers are often ill-equipped to help foster their students in the cutting edge technologies that are common in industry that allow for the creation of projects that will really interest students. These teachers have voiced a strong need for industry participation to bring these amazing technologies into the classroom to engage their students. 

From our discussions with our industry partners, it has become apparent that there are many tech professionals who are interested in teaching/mentoring students about tech. However, they have limited time and most programs currently require a large time commitment. Many do not have the time to teach an entire class as they may only have a few hours a month they can commit to such activities. Thus, a streamlined platform that can help get professionals in contact with classrooms quickly and efficiently with both online and in-person options is vital for these industry professionals.

With both an industry and education needs, it is clear that a platform for connecting professionals to classrooms is quintessential to foster IT education.  

Our Solution

Streamlining Engagement: The Connecting Professionals to Classrooms platform aims to streamline the process of arranging various kinds of engagements between classrooms and industry professionals.  The platform will be flexible and work for a wide variety of engagement types, ranging from short engagements like guest speaker visits and career panels, to longer engagements such as acting as a regular mentor for a class. This is so that there are many opportunities to help out even if their availability is limited.

Project-Based Mentoring: Further cementing relationships between professionals and classrooms, there will also be a repository of projects created by us and industry professionals. Teachers browse this repository, and if they see a project that they or their class is interested in, then they can take on the project. The project is heavily documented such that even a teacher who does not have much familiarity can use it in their classroom. Mentors can create new projects in the repository or seek out classes working on projects they are interested in, then sign up to mentor that class. Potentially, teams of mentors can sign-up for the same projects, providing strong networking opportunities for mentors.

How It Works

In this platform, teachers create requests for a mentor to engage with their classroom. They write details such as what topic they would like talked about and what time and date they would like.

On the other end, mentors, who in most cases are industry professionals, set the terms of when they are available to engage with classrooms. They specify information such as what dates and times they are generally available, what topics they would be willing to talk about, and what kind of engagements they are open to doing.

Based on teachers’ requests and mentors’ availabilities, our system will recommend matches between the availabilities to the requests. This will greatly simplify the process of a teacher having to search for a very long time for a professional who is 1) willing to help out in a classroom setting and 2) available at the same time the teacher’s class is for 3) the topic the teacher wanted a professional in.

The Connecting Professionals to Classrooms platform is currently in development. If you are interested or have any questions, please feel free to contact us at info@computingforall.org.