How Educators Prepare Students for Real-World Learning

Throughout the Ciena Solutions Challenge journey, Digital Promise hosts a series of educator panel discussions, led by previous Ciena Solutions Challenge educators who share insightful feedback based on their own experiences as facilitators for students. In “Preparing Students for Real-World Learning: Strategies and Insights from Educators,” Alesa Barron, a graphic design instructor (CTAE teacher) at Benjamin E. Mays High School in Atlanta, Georgia, and Lindsay-Darshaun Murray, Verizon Innovative Learning Coach with Kansas City Public Schools in Kansas City, Missouri, spoke about some of the skills and strategies teachers need to foster student creativity and innovation in addressing local issues and preparing them for real-world learning. Panelists also shared practical advice on how to integrate real-world learning by using the Challenge Based Learning framework in their daily lessons.

When students are addressing a local issue, it is important that teachers make these issues relevant to their students’ lives. “The CTE department is known as the career department. Everything that I do has to have some connection to the real world…This generation of students needs to know the relevance of what they are doing. In my classroom, I ask questions and know what the students are interested in,” Barron said.

“[As part of the challenge] I learned that if I make [the local issue] relevant to their life or something that they’re trying to do in the future, it brings more engagement. One of my favorite strategies [to engage students on the topic of eSports] was called a Problem Tree. The trunk of the tree represents the main problem, the roots represent the causes and the branches represent the effects. As an educator, this resource was very helpful to me when posing questions to my students. It gave me the ability to let go and the resource pulled responses out of my students,” Murray said.

“I have to ask students about how they get past barriers. The Ciena Solutions Challenge has a good structure around the creative design process but sometimes students miss checkpoints because of missing school or sometimes they can’t think of [a big idea to address]. When students find themselves stuck, I encourage students to stop and redo their strategy if needed because in the real world we need to make adjustments to ensure that what we’re producing is of quality,” Barron said.

Murray encourages educators to let students fail in a safe space. “Teachers must allow for students to fail in a safe space. If you see that they are doing something that won’t work out, don’t stop them. When it doesn’t work, you are there to ask students ‘What happened?’ As educators we have to let go of control. It is the students’ opportunity to show us what they know, what they can do and we can trust students to learn how to solve problems that we may never see coming,” Murray said.

• Watch the “Preparing Students for Real-World Learning: Strategies and Insights from Educators” video recording or listen to the podcast.
• Register for the Ciena Solutions Challenge: Educators can register now for the Ciena Solutions Challenge. Through March 6, 2025, educators can submit student projects and apply for a $3,000 Sustainability Award. Have questions? Email us at cienachallenge@digitalpromise.org.
• Showcase student work at the 2025 YouthMADE Festival: The 2025 YouthMADE Festival will be from May 5-18, 2025. Sign up for our newsletter on youthmade.org to receive updates about the upcoming YouthMADE Festival.