Guest Authors Stories

Laura Gilchrist Silicon Valley education

Laura Gilchrist: What KC can learn from Silicon Valley education

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. A few weeks ago, several of my fellow educators and I toured five innovative Bay Area schools. Being in the heart of Silicon Valley, it’s no surprise that educators there understand the importance of finding new ways to engage and educate kids in…

Coty Beasley artificial intelligence

Coty Beasley consoles dystopic critics of artificial intelligence

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Artificial intelligence has a lot of misconceptions. The first images that come to mind are the dystopian classics: Hal locking Dave out of the airlock, terminators shooting machine guns into a crowd, or (one of my favorites) V’ger taking pot-shots at the Federation….

STEM

New STEM leader Martha McCabe wants to prioritize diversity

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Kansas City cannot continue to grow as a tech hub without first establishing a vibrant — and diverse — local STEM talent pipeline. As a community, we’ve put the wheels in motion. For example, about half of metro school districts now offer the…

digital divide

Connecting For Good CEO analyzes the area digital divide

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. After my first four months as CEO of Connecting For Good, I’m compelled to share a viewpoint on what the Kansas City digital divide looks like. Knowing the answer to this question is only the first step to tackling digital inclusion efforts, but…

competitive advantage kool-aid

Gooding: Stop drinking the ‘competitive advantage’ kool-aid

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Check out more from Grant Gooding here. Your competitive advantage doesn’t exist anymore. Not only is this true but the whole concept of “competitive advantage” as you understand it likely doesn’t exist either. What’s taken its place is a cool new thing called…