The tech sector in Washington accounts for 22% of the state economy and ranks first…
Weekly News Roundup: January 30, 2015
Five Ways Mobile Technology is Transforming Education
TechRadar | Raj Vali | Jan. 29
- Tablets change how we perceive computing – Students of all ages generally find learning on a tablet more personal and accessible…They also respond well to animation-driven apps, which make lessons more interactive and entertaining.
- Education is gamified – Learning becomes less an abstract, theoretical exercise and more of an emotional and highly engaging activity. The result is higher motivation levels.
- Real-time feedback – students expect feedback in real time. Research shows student performance significantly improves when feedback is given immediately.
- Communication becomes truncated – some students are losing the ability to articulate ideas in longer form. Additionally, they have fewer opportunities to engage in face-to-face communication.
- Hands-on learning – Mobile technology makes the learning process more interactive and engaging.
Bellwether Companies are Buying Startups to Grab Tech and Talent
CIO | Kim S. Nash | Jan. 29
“Maybe it’s time to buy a startup. You have a mandate to innovate as you transform your company to a digital enterprise, whatever that entails. Yet 74 percent of CIOs find it challenging to balance business innovation and operational excellence, according to our 2015 State of the CIO research. Maybe an injection of entrepreneurs and their inventive new technology can help. You may also be having trouble finding talent in analytics, mobile development and social media. This year will bring shortages of those key skills, our research finds. Buy a startup, though, and you get a whole team instantly. Even some of those brilliant ‘data scientists’ you’ve read about. Problem solved, perhaps. Aetna, Capital One, Home Depot, Wal-Mart Stores and several other non-IT companies have made such acquisitions recently, pursuing startups for their technology and talent. That type of activity has been especially brisk for the past two years. And there’s no slowdown in sight.”
The Highest-Paying Cities for Tech Jobs
Forbes | Susan Adams | Jan. 28
http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2015/01/28/the-highest-paying-cities-for-tech-jobs-4/
“Silicon Valley is on top yet again. For 10 years Dice, a 24-year-old site that specializes in technology jobs, has rated the metro area that stretches from San Jose to San Francisco as the top-paying spot in the country for tech jobs…In second place: Seattle, where tech salaries are up 4.6% to an average of $99,400. Aside from established companies like Amazon and Microsoft, in the last couple of years big players like Google, Facebook and Twitter have all opened offices in the area. Seattle-based online real estate database company Zillow is also in hiring mode. ‘There are incubators moving into Seattle as well and the cost of living is low compared to Silicon Valley,’ says Shravan Goli [president of Dice.com]…tech workers are more confident than ever (67%) that they can find a good new job in the year ahead. Some 37% said they anticipated changing jobs in 2015. The greatest share by far, 70%, said they would be seeking higher compensation while 44% hope to improve their working conditions and 33% want more responsibility.”
The Mysteries of Seattle’s New-to-Town Tech Workers
The Stranger | Brendan Kiley | Jan. 28
“We don’t know much about Seattle’s tech newcomers beyond three basic facts: They’re here, they’re reshaping the city in ways we didn’t exactly prepare for, and they’re going to keep coming… A few months ago, local economist Matthew Gardner analyzed recent Amazon real-estate purchases and estimated they would bring between 10,000 and 20,000 new workers to the city. That was in May…’You could argue that 10,000 is likely conservative,” Gardner said a few weeks ago. “Ultimately, they might actually have 40,000 people here.’…Scott Bailey, a regional economist for the Washington Employment Security Department, ran some numbers and found that in 2013 there were 112,127 full-time jobs in the tech industry in King County. Twenty-one percent of those jobs—23,547—were held by people with no work history in the state between 2007 and 2010… Amazon spokesperson Teal Pennebaker says the company currently employs “around 20,000 people in Seattle,” 15 percent of whom live in the same zip code as Amazon’s headquarters and 20 percent of whom walk to work. If Gardner’s estimates are correct, we’re only halfway to Amazon’s high-water mark—and the full effects of the economic immigration… And for every job Amazon adds, Gardner says, 2.9 other jobs are created in the local economy. ‘Economically speaking,’ he said, ‘growth is good and can be good as long as it is responsible growth.’ ”
More Students Earning STEM Degrees, Report Shows
U.S. News | Allie Bidwell | Jan. 27
“Driven by a growth in the ‘hard sciences’– such as computer science, engineering, and physical and biological sciences – the prevalence of STEM degrees increased between 2004 and 2014 at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels, according to a report from the National Student Clearinghouse. At the same time, the proportion of students majoring in social sciences and psychology held steady or decreased in all categories. ‘This data demonstrates the importance of tracking science and engineering degree attainment at different levels and within specific fields of study,’ Doug Shapiro, executive research director of the clearinghouse’s research center, said in a statement. ‘Both men and women are increasingly choosing STEM degrees, particularly in the hard sciences.’… At the bachelor’s degree level, though, women are losing ground, according to the report. Between 2004 and 2014, the share of STEM-related bachelor’s degrees earned by women decreased in all seven discipline areas…The biggest decrease was in computer science, where women now earn less than 20 percent of bachelor’s degrees (18 percent).”
Can You Count to $2 billion? Education Technology Investment Hits New Record
GeekWire | Frank Catalano | Jan. 25
http://www.geekwire.com/2015/can-count-2-billion-education-technology-investment-hits-new-record/
“It’s an industry that has entirely different approaches for sales to K-12 schools, to higher education institutions, to corporations for training and to individuals for lifelong learning. It’s an industry that can’t agree on whether it should be abbreviated as ‘edtech,’ ‘ed-tech,’ ‘edu-tech’ or ‘Ed Tech.’ One of its fastest-growing events, the five-year-old SXSWedu conference, is held every March in the city of ‘Keep Austin Weird’ fame…For those who haven’t been around a classroom since the turn of the century, the term edtech can cover everything from custom-designed hardware for education…to software and apps used for instruction…to tools and platforms to support course delivery and administration…Yet despite all the records and excitement, edtech investment is, well, relatively lame. Uber alone raised $2.4B last year – more than the entire, most optimistic, worldwide education technology investment figure for all of 2014…So edtech, at least in terms of investment, is a little weird. But in that charming, awkward kindergartener kind of way, like someone who — with or without epic funding numbers — may still grow up to be a Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.”
Not Just Lattes and Expresso Anymore: Starbucks Is Becoming a Tech Company
Puget Sound Business Journal | Rachel Lerman | Jan. 23
“The newest executive to burst onto the Seattle-area retail scene knows a lot about tech. And that’s a good thing for one of Seattle’s fastest growing tech companies: Starbucks. Starbucks’ appointment of a long-time tech leader as the company’s new No. 2 officer underscores how important technology has become for the coffee company….Starbucks is seen as a frontrunner in the push for retailers to go digital, and has a successful mobile ecosystem already. The company’s mobile apps are used by 13 million customers. Bringing on a seasoned tech leader at a time when mobile is seen as a core strategy for Starbucks emphasizes the company’s focus. The retail industry is facing a “seismic” shift, CEO Howard Schultz said in the company’s first quarter earnings call. Starbucks announced more than 9 million customers use its My Starbucks Rewards cards, and analysts say Starbucks will leverage that base to grow mobile users… Starbucks is planning on expanding its mobile ordering system nationally this year, which Schultz said continues to drive incremental traffic and add loyalty members.”
Tech Industry May Gain from Obama’s Free Tuition Plan
ComputerWorld | Patrick Thibodeau | Jan. 22
“President Barack Obama’s focus in his State of Union speech Tuesday was on improving the skills of U.S. workers, mainly through free tuition at community colleges for students who maintain a 2.5 grade-point average. ‘In a 21st century economy that rewards knowledge like never before, we need to do more,’ said Obama, in calling for free tuition…A leading tech industry group, CompTIA, is supporting the community college tuition initiative, and believes it will help IT firms. ‘Many IT companies don’t require a BS degree for their entry-level jobs,’ said Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of CompTIA. So the IT degrees that are offered through community colleges ‘are increasingly meaningful for employment in IT’…Obama offered the free tuition in the framework of ‘middle-class economics,’ and while free tuition may help the middle class, it will also help tech firms that have links to community colleges.”
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