Episode # 61
Teachers and Digital Transformation with Elizabeth Generas
November 12, 2024
About This Episode
On this week’s episode, we are joined by Elizabeth Generas, Lead Program Manager in the Department of Workforce Development at Sinclair College, to learn about what Digital Transformation is and what it means for teachers.
Guests
Elizabeth Generas
Elizabeth has spent 18 years in diverse educational settings, ranging from middle and high schools to community colleges and universities. Currently serving as Lead Program Manager in the Department of Workforce Development at Sinclair College, she leads a team focused on Digital Transformation, funded by the Department of Defense to develop and implement training programs in critical Industry 4.0 areas, including the Digital Thread and Artificial Intelligence.
Transcript
Kara 0:01
Hey,
is this thing on?
Are we recording?
Can I get a tech person?
Caryn 0:09
Oh, for the love of Ed, tech
Kara 0:14
Joining us today is Elizabeth Generas, lead program manager in the Department of Workforce Development at Sinclair College. Hey, Elizabeth,
Elizabeth 0:24
Hello,
Kara 0:26
yeah, thank you for chatting with me today. I’m the lone ranger. So can you just start off by telling us how you got into education and what led you to your current role?
Elizabeth 0:39
Yes, and I went back and I listened to your first podcast to get an idea of what your show was about. Yeah, one of you described it as a zigzag path, and I identify with that. Definitely it was not a straight line to get to where I am. So to start, I am not from Ohio. I’m from Western New York, and yeah, so
the path to get here, I went to college. I liked chemistry, so I majored in chemistry, and then I married a military member, and we started to move around. So as a military spouse, yeah, it’s tough to find a new job when you go to different spaces. So our third duty station was overseas, and I had my degree in chemistry and had no idea what to do with it in a foreign country, so I started to substitute teach at the school on base. Oh, interesting, yeah. And I thought, you know, I kind of liked teaching. It wasn’t anything I had considered before. So actually, being kind of forced to do it because I needed a job, I found that I liked it, and I got my master’s while I was over there in educationand started teaching middle school, high school science, and our fourth duty station was here in Ohio. So that’s how I ended up here in Ohio, okay, and
It was 2009 so economic downturn, and I had trouble finding a job when we moved here. So my first job coming back here was at Sinclair in higher education, teaching math. Okay, so, yeah, you pivoted a little bit a lot. Yeah, I didn’t expect to to teach that wasn’t really in my plan, but here we are. So entering higher education, and I started working at other universities, other schools in the area, and mostly in staff roles. That’s how I kind of transitioned into being where I am now, which is still related to education, but it’s the workforce side, so I don’t teach in a classroom. I work for Sinclair workforce, which does training, as opposed to academic for credit teaching.
Kara 3:11
Oh, okay,
Elizabeth 3:12
yeah. So if you needed a skill in your toolbox, Sinclair workforce could offer a training for that skill.
Kara 3:24
Oh, okay, yeah, which yeah makes sense, yeah,
Elizabeth 3:29
not a direct line at all. But it’s really
Kara 3:31
no Yeah, and that’s really cool that you kind of like stumbled into teaching, yeah,yeah. Yeah, that’s wild, but it’s kind of neat too, that you like, had never considered it and then actually enjoyeddoing it.
Elizabeth 3:49
Yes, it definitely was not I didn’t know what to do when we moved overseas. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I graduated college to begin with. So then to be in a foreign country.I wasn’t sure what to do with myself, so it worked out really nicely.
Kara 4:06
Yeah, for sure, that’s really wild. Can I ask what country you were in? We were in Japan. Oh, wow, yeah.
Elizabeth 4:12
So not only the barrier of you’re in a foreign country, but I did not speak any Japanese, so there was,
Kara 4:16
yeah,
Elizabeth 4:17
there was no chance of me taking my degree and working out in the economy,
Kara 4:21
wow. Okay, well, can you tell me, because I’m actually curious about what is digital transformation?
Elizabeth 4:32
Yes. So it on this path of of life, I ended up in workforce, and my job in workforce is managing federal grants and contracts related to digital transformation. So it was kind of born from the Air Force. The Air Force wantedstudents and industry to start to think about digital transformation. It’s huge topic, huge.Uh, really broad topic, and I think of it, and we think of it like this.
So you had the first industrial revolution. I don’t know if you remember school back in the day when you learned about the industrial revolutions. First industrial revolution with steam and water power.
Kara 5:22
Okay,
Elizabeth 5:23
So transforming the way that people worked in in factories and bringing in power. Second revolution brought in electricity. So transforming you could work at night now you didn’t need to rely on candles because you had electricity. Third revolution, robots came into the picture.And so now we’re in what’s termed the fourth revolution, the fourth industrial revolution, and that’s where digital transformation comes into play. So when you think about all of the technology that surrounds us now, everything from the internet of things, the way that your house is getting smarter,augmented and virtual reality, big data, digital thread, the way that everything is connected. When you order something that order, you know where it is like are they creating right now? Have they mailed it? Is it in the post office? Is it coming on the way to your house, that, that connected piece, all of that is is considered part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, industry 4.0 and that’s that digital transformation. So that’s where we’re at, is ushering in that technological shift.
Kara 6:41
Why should teachers so why should teachers know about this concept or be familiar with it?
Elizabeth 6:51
There’s a couple reasons. Some, I think, maybe more clear than others. I think you don’t want students to be unaware of what’s happening in the world. We want students to understand the data that they’re producing. Social media is a great example of all of the data that we’re producing and who’s using that data. So that’s a part of industry. 4.0 is big data, all of the all of the ways that we’re recording everything now, all of the ways that we’re connecting and liking things. What data is that producing and who’s who has access to it. So being really smart with cyber security and data is certainly a part of this. The other big piece is artificial intelligence. So it’s kind of some people, I think, cringe when you say it, yeah, use the terminology.
It’s here, right? And it just in the past couple years with generative AI, we have to think about using it correctly. And I know a lot of teachers are in the camp of this is just for cheating, and we’re not even going to engage with this. But it’s here. It’s it exists. Students are using it. So we think that taking it and having students use it for good, so maybe it can be a tool rather than an answer,
Kara 8:22
what are the benefits for the students in this realm of the digital transformation and development for the workforce and then being prepared to go out and be involved in these workplaces that are evolving.
Elizabeth 8:45
I think they’ll be able to go out into the workforce and be ready for whatever is happening. We’re seeing a lot of what we call up skilling, where people that are already in the workforce don’t have the correct skills, so that’s where workforce comes in and does a training in something things is as simple as Excel.
We do Excel trainings for people because they never worked with Excel when they were going through school. So having that technological abilities and understanding some of the technology coming out into the workforce just gives them the ability to start and make really good decisions,
Kara 9:30
Even probably like, feel confident.
Elizabeth 9:33
Yes,
Kara 9:34
You know, because we talk about this all the time, about how we make lots of assumptions that students knowhow to do a lot of tech things, because they’re always on a device,
Elizabeth 9:46
right
Kara 9:46
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they know, like the logistical pieces of how something works, or how to make it do something specific, or, you know, there’s a lot of tapping, yeah. You know, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that there are, like the skills of just like with Excel, like putting in formulas to for it, to calculate data, or, you know, yeah, all those things like students may or may not know or have exposure to,
Elizabeth 10:19
right
Kara 10:19
So I am curious, with this whole program, who can get involved is the program called digital transformations.
Elizabeth 10:30
There’s a couple things that we’re doing, at Sinclair digital threads, is a really specific application of industry, 4.0 it’s one of the pieces that that tracing data through. It’s through a life cycle. So we do have a series a certificate, an academic certificate, on digital thread that walks through the logistics there’s a logistics course, a data course, there’s a manufacturing course,
missing one a cyber security course. So there is an academic component that we’ve built for this. There’s also the non epic, non academic side, where we’re offering trainings in this. So there’s a digital transformation training that is modular.
And so, okay, yeah, if you, if you’re really only interested in the cyber security piece, we could take out the cyber security piece and do a training on the workforce side. So it it’s really the best of both worlds, where, if you want to come in academically and get a certificate for this, or if you just need some skills, you just want to learn about it, then there’s the other workforce side.
Kara 11:45
Oh, okay. And so, I mean, do you have, can high schoolers participate? Or, I guess is there a certain range?
Elizabeth 11:54
There really isn’t.
Kara 11:55
okay.
Elizabeth 11:56
I mean, CCP the college credit, plus students can, can always take Sinclair classes, a lot of them do, and get their associate’s degree in high school, which is mind blowing to me.
Kara 12:10
Oh, I know,
Elizabeth 12:11
yeah,
Kara 12:12
I’m like, What a cool opportunity to, like, take advantage of really,
Elizabeth 12:16
Yeah. So, so yes, high school students. And then we really don’t have any restriction on on our workshops, so absolutely they would be interested. If they were interested, they could take one of them.
Kara 12:31
Okay, yeah. And then teachers?
Elizabeth 12:33
and teachers, we’re gonna, yeah, we’re gonna stand up a teacher training on this. Okay, we work really closely with other community colleges around Ohio, and one of them is Lorain County Community College. They’ve done a lot in automation and robotics, so we’re using we’re taking their idea for a teacher training and modifying it for digital transformation. So that’ll be,
Kara 13:00
oh, cool,
Elizabeth 13:01
yeah, probably by the end of this year we’ll have some information out about teacher training.
Kara 13:07
Okay, well, and is the, the the program? Is it something that is, well, I guess, because it’s coming, it’s tied to the workforce development. So it is like, in, at least in Ohio, is it looked at as, like, maybe, I guess the word is recognized credential?
Elizabeth 13:31
Yeah, if you went through all of the courses and took them as academic courses, then you would walk away with a certificate, like a short term technical certificate from Sinclair.
Kara 13:42
Okay, okay,
Elizabeth 13:43
If you went the other way and just did some of the skills, just picked out the skills that maybe you wanted to attend a workforce training, then there really isn’t currently a credential related to it, mostly because it is still fairly poorly understood.
Kara 14:01
Yeah,
Elizabeth 14:02
We are working on that. It is a big push right now to have credentials, even as a workforce training, to have something to show for it at the end. So we are working on that.
Kara 14:15
Teachers, you can now earn contact hours toward grad credit for listening to the podcast.
Caryn 14:20
Visit, for the love of Ed tech.org, for more information.
Elizabeth 14:24
The only additional thing to think about is the the future of work, especially right here in this in this region, and if we, if we go a little bit further into state, Columbus, the changes we’re going to see in the next few years with advanced Air Mobility, with Joby aviation, flying cars, and then Intel in the big chip manufacturing progress that will be just to the east of us students are going to come out of high school and need some additional skills to walk into those positions. There’s going to be what, 1000s of positions in these technical fields, and I guess we don’t know yet really like what, what it will look like, but
Kara 15:17
Yeah,
Elizabeth 15:18
The landscape for work is changing Definitely.
Kara 15:22
Thank you very much for talking to me.
Elizabeth 15:24
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Caryn 15:25
Thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope you found our discussion interesting and insightful. Don’t forget to check out the show notes on our website, where you’ll find more information about today’s guest resources we mentioned, and information on earning contact hours for listening.
Kara 15:40
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it with your network and check us out at for the love of edtech.org, this podcast is produced by SOITA, the Southwestern Ohio Instructional Technology Association, inpartnership with ThinkTV and CET, the local PBS stations in Dayton and Cincinnati. Until next time, keep exploring new ways to empower your students through tech, and we’ll catch you in the next episode.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai