What Can I do In an hour?
Just imagine … A student has entered kindergarten in a Florida public school last year. By the time she graduates high school in 2030, it is projected that 65% of the jobs that exist today will be gone! Florida is projected to have over 2 million new jobs, but these 2 million new jobs will be very different from those in existence today and will require students to have a different set of skills. Technology is driving change in the workplace as we know it today. The development of disruptive technologies is driving automation through robotics, 3D printing, digitalization, and furthering the advancement of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. The ability to access and analyze information, work with large sets of data, think critically, and apply knowledge to solve unique problems will be essential. How will we prepare our students to thrive in this future workplace? Who will teach them? It is critically important, for the continued economic development and the prosperity of Florida, that we can attract business and industry to our state and be responsive to the shifting landscape. To do so, we must assure the development of a pipeline filled with career - ready STEM graduates prepared to adapt to the needs of a dynamic and changing economy and workplace. Computer science is the literacy of the future economy. There are few sectors of the Florida economy that are not touched by computer science. Aerospace and aviation, health care and life sciences, advanced manufacturing, logistics, and distribution, as well as financial and professional services are five of Florida ’ s targeted industry clusters which are experiencing growth. To be successful in any of these industries, all students must have strong digital skills as well as solid communication, critical thinking, logic, analytical, and problem - solving abilities. But there is a problem. A senior leader of the Jacksonville CIO Council stated, “ I was surprised when the Dean of a local college of computer science told me about the fallout rate from Intro to Programming in freshman year. It is unacceptable to me that we lose IT workforce candidates in the 1 st year of college due to not having the basics of logic to pass an intro programing class". In many places, coding is not being introduced to students early enough, and most high schools still do not offer a full, robust pathway of computer science courses that lead beyond the basics to careers. Computational thinking skills, a critical foundation to computer and data science, are not being mastered at an early enough age. Let ’ s begin with just an hour … Let ’ s commit to an Hour of Code ™! 1
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