Knight Foundation supports the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) to prepare students from low-income communities for today’s technology landscape. Below, Julia Weincouff, a VISTA AmeriCorps member serving as NFTE’s volunteer coordinator, gives a snapshot of how NFTE is integrating technology into its curriculum.

Technology. Some of the most important conversations going on in boardrooms are about it. Many long-standing companies are crumbling because they can’t wrap their heads around it. New businesses that know how to effectively use it are emerging as leaders within every industry. And our students are growing up in a world that was never without it.

So how do we use technology to prepare the next generation of entrepreneurs? How do we prepare young people in low-income neighborhoods who are disconnected from school for the 21st century workplace? Like most other educational institutions, we are leveraging technology to more effectively teach and engage our students because learning how to calculate return on investment is not everyone’s idea of a good time.

We do know that our students love getting the chance to meet and learn from successful entrepreneurs and business leaders. We also know that these inspiring volunteers are busy people and Miami-Dade County is one of the most expansive counties in the country. This is where technology gets to shine its magnificent light – connecting students with volunteers virtually. It is instinctive. It is easy. And it’s pretty cool.

The two main ways we utilize technology are via WebEx, a videoconferencing service, and Edmodo, a social learning platform (think education-based Facebook). We’ve been able to host guest speakers, coaching sessions and business plan competitions on WebEx with great success. Our students get more exposure to the experts and our volunteers can use their time more efficiently.

One of our volunteers, Alex Nucci, a business development and marketing expert, believes that Edmodo is “very intuitive and useful” and that it offers the “right mix of project-management-platform and social-media-platform. [It] seems like the natural and easiest way to get the job done.” Jhonny Lopez from Homestead Senior High School agrees.  Edmodo gave him security and confidence in writing his business plan: “You know you’re not alone when creating your plan since you can get assistance from any of the mentors whenever you’re at a roadblock,” he says.

Along with making it more seamless to connect students with volunteers on an ongoing basis, we’ve also been able to teach our students how to use technology more strategically for their business plans. One of our first virtual guest speakers, Terri Griffin of Cisco, gave an outstanding presentation on digital etiquette. Another virtual speaker, Abdul Muhammad of rbb Public Relations, taught the students how to use Instagram as an effective marketing tool by using locations and hashtags.

Thanks to Knight Foundation funding, the digital classroom has enabled us to connect students more frequently with our volunteers and to broaden our curriculum to sync with growing business trends. At our core, we exist to engage low-income students by teaching them that they can create their own futures. Technology has only allowed us to further that mission. As Jhonny said, “NFTE helps you to see the opportunity that you have in this world.”

For more information about the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship and our alumni survey, visit www.nfte.com. To learn more about NFTE South Florida, email us at [email protected].