2. Technology fosters commitment and teamwork
When students designed the solar-powered lights for the Langabuya School, they had to work together to deliver a product on time that worked. They relied on collaboration and teamwork for the lights to be ready in time to be shipped to South Africa.
3. Students can develop their passions for helping others much earlier in life
Thanks to ubiquitous nature of technology and access to data and information, today’s students are no longer challenged to purely find the answer; they are being taught much more about framing the questions. As an authorized International Baccalaureate World School that focuses on cultivating international-mindedness through values and action, Schechter built its Innovation Lab as part of its transformational educational framework. This means there has been a shift away from content-based learning and recall to an ever-expanding learning environment that teaches students to draw up and synthesize a spectrum of information across all subject areas to help understand and empathize with the problems of others and come up with ways to help.
Teachers at Schechter are equipped with strategies and tools to help students identify the questions most important to them—and this ignites students’ academic, social, and emotional passions around learning.
4. Students see the world in a problem-and-solution model
Our new Popkin Innovation Lab was designed as a focal point for teaching students how to identify a problem and develop a real-world solution as they learn to work together as a team. This lays the groundwork for teaching “harder” skills such as programming, electronics, design, and computer-aided design, as well as “soft” skills such as how to work as a team, how to present and pitch a new idea and potential solutions, how to evaluate the proposed solutions of others, and how to learn from failure.
Given the rapidly changing job climate, students need both hard and soft skills to be able to solve problems and take it to the next level: developing empathy and compassion for others by devising solutions to problems in their communities and the greater world around them.
5) Technology allows for students to connect with others in developing countries
Technology gives students a window into the lives of others, often helping them recognize a range of issues. It helps provide them with tools to think beyond their immediate environment and empower them to dream of ways they can facilitate change. They begin to see that technology not only builds understanding, but also can be a powerful tool to help conquer real-world problems.
- The compliance trap waiting on the other side of Title II - September 11, 2026
- The everyday access control gaps schools overlook - September 10, 2026
- When practice becomes data: Helping teachers respond to student misconceptions - September 8, 2026