Ed Farm, a Birmingham-based nonprofit that equips educators with tools and strategies to increase opportunities for students, is seeing success.
The nonprofit is now working in four states: Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Waymond Jackson, CEO of Ed Farm said he is looking to expand across the Southeast, to Mississippi and other states.
"We've also had expansion throughout the state of Alabama, which has been a tremendous," Jackson said. "We're not only deepening the partnership that we have with Birmingham City Schools, but being able to expand to other areas such as Decatur City Schools and Montgomery. We're now looking at opportunities within the Black Belt to take the type of work that we're doing there."
Ed Farm is attempting to create change in three ways, including increasing educational equity, improving learning outcomes through technology and preparing the future workforce.
“I think over the past year we’ve really been able to hone in on, ‘how do we execute this idea of radically rethinking education, really creating digitally fluent leaders?’” Jackson said.
Ed Farm is gaining traction as Jackson works to execute that vision, reflected by the growth of its network of educators from two dozen in 2020 to 500, spanning 145 partner schools today. The nonprofit is working to consistently bring in new cohorts of teacher fellows to increase that number and create alumni.
“As we expanded that reach, bringing those educators into our fold, that’s also increased the number of students in those schools that are actively getting served,” Jackson said.
Ed Farm has multiple programs and initiatives in place to serve educators and students.
The nonprofit takes a holistic approach to workforce development. It focuses on education for adult learners as well as traditional students. Over the past year, Jackson said Ed Farm has served about 300 adult learners through its Pathways program, which works with adult learners in the greater Birmingham area, and through an 11-week course to build digital skills, increase confidence with coding and promote attaining post-secondary credentials.
Going forward, Jackson said he intends to deepen Ed Farm’s partnerships with Shipt and Birmingham City Schools.
In the long term, Jackson hopes Ed Farm can impact 1.8 million students over the course of the next decade.
Ultimately, Birmingham is at the center of Ed Farm’s vision.
“We’re holding true to the idea of Birmingham changing the world,” Jackson said, “and that’s really what we sit at the center of Ed Farm.”
Jackson said he wants it to be a model city for creating a hub around educators and students and connecting it to the industry to meet the needs of the future workforce.
Ed Farm recently held its second Future of Learning Summit in the Magic City, which grew from 100-150 educators to 300 educators this year.
AI
Continuing to innovate technology in classrooms is a challenge, he said, but a challenge that Ed Farm is ready to tackle.
And as a nonprofit focused on education, it is impossible to ignore how artificial intelligence is a growing presence in classrooms, both traditional and nontraditional.
“(AI) is here,” Jackson said. “And fortunately, Ed Farm was created to be at the forefront of this conversation. Our vision has been to give people access to the tools they need to fill or create the jobs of the future. ... It is very important for the work that we’re doing with educators that we’re able to expose them to, and not only expose them to, but provide them with the professional training and upskilling so that they can impact the students in the classroom. What we’re seeing is that students are becoming the creators of technology.”
Jackson said students who are part of the Ed Farm ecosystem are gaining early access to AI and machine learning so they can understand the intricacies of what it takes to be a creator of that technology and make a career out of it.
“We want to make sure that we become responsible users of technology so that technology does not handicap our thinking, ... but also that we are equipped enough with it, especially in areas of Birmingham and all areas across the state, so these students grow up and can become creators and can influence how it operates in a positive manner,” Jackson said.
Summer program
This summer, Ed Farm is also running its App Academy in-person at its office for 20 high school students. The students will be exposed to coding principles, early awareness of the local career and technology ecosystem and how to create apps over a six-week period.
Last year, Ed Farm rolled out Spaces, a customized, turnkey program that creates learning spaces in schools. An Ed Farm Space is made to adapt to the learners and communities it serves.
“We go in and basically flip a media center, flip a library or classroom and infuse it with emerging technologies and innovation that teachers in the school and students can all learn from,” Jackson said.
Two Spaces were rolled out in Montgomery and Birmingham in May and one was added at Decatur City Schools earlier this year.
“What students are now experiencing in that Space is the ability to learn artificial intelligence or create virtual reality,” Jackson said. “They’re learning to code robots and machines in there as well. They get exposed to 3-D printing opportunities, and one of the things that’s been most exciting for students has been the idea of a podcast.”
