Ohio University Zanesville is hosting its third seminar in a four-part series for community members, business owners, school personnel and others dedicated to bettering the local workforce.

The upcoming summit will feature keynote speaker Jamie Casap, Chief Education Evangelist at Google, who will focus the discussion on how technology is reshaping education.

“The goal of the summits overall is to bring all sectors of our community together to talk about our future over the next decade or so but specifically how educational institutions, so Ohio University, Zane State and Muskingum University, along with Mid-East and other high school public institutions at the lower level can come together to help us achieve our goals when it comes to workforce, the economy those future issues over the next ten years,” Ohio University Zanesville Dean Jeremy Webster said.

While the summit on Feb. 21 will focus on technology, Webster said Casap will focus on the ways technology is changing learning styles, creating expectations in education and how access to technology can bridge certain educational gaps.

Webster added at Casap is interested in challenges that rural populations, first generation student populations, immigrants and children of immigrants face and how technology can be viewed as a solution to some of those barriers. 

The summit will be held on Friday, Feb. 21 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Ohio University-Zane State Campus Center.

The third summit will build upon the last two summits to continue discussions surrounding the topic of how to prepare Muskingum County for a changing workforce.

In the previous summits, Webster said the first speaker, David Delong, began the series with national trends that are affecting the workforce across the country, including ways to bridge the gap between new hires with little experience taking over for retirees with a lifetime of experience.

During that event, attendees were asked to write down aspects they felt presented challenges to the local workforce. Some of those comments were discussed at the next summit.

The second summit then took the national trends and data and narrowed the workforce topic down to regional trends and topics with a speaker from Columbus who talked about trends in agriculture and the way technology was evolving farming.

Following the third summit, the final event will move on to address 10 topics that are real needs in the community and how to address those challenges in the future.

Anyone that is interested in the topic is invited to the summit. The event is free, although limit space is available and those looking to attend are asked to register online at http://bit.ly/fowesummit or by contacting Holly Voltz at voltz@ohio.edu.