Reports

The complexities of today's world require all people to be equipped with a new set of core knowledge and skills to solve difficult problems, gather and evaluate evidence, and make sense of information they receive from varied print and, increasingly, digital media. The learning and doing of STEM helps develop these skills and prepare students for a workforce where success results not just from what one knows, but what one is able to do with that knowledge.

Startups are important because in the vast majority of cases they locate in California, usually close to the founding faculty member’s campus or to the campus from which the founding entrepreneur/CEO graduated. They also tend to grow in the communities where they are founded, magnifying the importance of UC’s campuses to long-term job and business growth in the regions where they are located.

Governments, schools and systems as well as the philanthropic community have invested heavily in technology to keep up with the demands of 21st century learners. Even after years of huge public and private investments and the sheer number of technology-in-education initiatives (1:1 computing, e-Rate, P-TECH, STEM), one would think that students’ use of digital tools and technology for learning in K-12 settings would be ubiquitous. It is in fact the contrary.

The United States, Singapore, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Israel were among the top countries when it comes to adopting and adapting to new technologies, according to the Global Information Technology Report 2016 from the World Economic Forum. The Global Information Technology Report measures countries' success in “creating the conditions necessary for a transition to a digitalized economy and society,” according to WEF.