Canadian eLearning Technology Holds its Own

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This past month I’ve been conducting a learning management system (LMS) evaluation for a client, in collaboration with Bryan Chapman. We used the Brandon-Hall LMS knowledge base to gather data and I was amazed at how comprehensive it is, with 78 systems listed [I do not receive any benefits for recommending this knowledge base]. I also remarked at how many Canadian LMS are listed – twenty! For a nation 1/10 the size of the US, we’re doing quite well with our technology development. I guess that’s obvious when the largest academic LMS in the US sues its Canadian competitor.

We’re doing OK, and it may be because of the generous support that government agencies, like the NRC, provide the information technology sector. I wasn’t asked by the government to say this, but I think it needs to be said in public.

Worker Networks

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I’ve been reading The Future of Management, recommended by Jay, and would say that it’s one of the better management books I’ve read in several years. The book’s major premise is that industrial command and control organisations no longer work and explains why they don’t work, as well as giving examples of companies that refute parts of the established industrial models – Google, W.L. Gore, Best Buy, Semco.

The authors show how innovation at the operational, product & service and strategic levels only yield incremental results, but Management Innovation has the potential for much greater change. Henry Ford’s management innovations created the successful 20th Century automobile industry.

As I sit on the sidelines of corporatism, having some as clients but not as employers, I see an increasing wave of adventurers jumping ship and becoming free-agents. As much as working as an independent may be exciting and liberating, it doesn’t scale up very well. With an increasing number of free-agents, I think that one area of future management innovation will be the creation of models (and laws and regulations to support them) for networks of independents. It took a while for The Corporation to become the dominant model and the network appears to be the next logical step. Independents now have access to knowledge as well as the same information productivity tools as corporations. They lack easy legal tools to do the equivalent of incorporating, as was necessary in order to get limited liability and access to investment for physical capital. As cooperatives and credit unions changed banking, worker networks may change capitalism.

Remixing Cities

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Another excellent paper from CEO’s for Cities is Remixing Cities (PDF), which has lessons pertinent to many large organizations as well as smaller towns. The report has a strong focus on learning:

The current offer is that education is schooling—a special activity that takes place in special places at special times, in a system where most of the goals and curriculum are set for the student, not by the student. Attainment against those standards leads to a system of grading that has a huge bearing on life chances.

The new learning platform would offer learning all over, all the time, in a wide variety of settings, from a wide range of people. Pupils would have more say and more choice over what they could learn, how, where and when, from teachers, other adults and their peers. Learning would be collaborative and experiential, encouraging self-evaluation and self-motivation as the norms.

The principles and ideas developed for the redesign of education and learning city-wide could also apply to policing, crime and safety, health and well being, care for the elderly, carbon usage reduction and sustainability, and culture and creativity:

There is some solid advice in this report, not just generalizations, with an underlying theme of using social web approaches to address key issues. The “egg and plate” metaphor is one that I’ll probably use in the future. All in all, a good document to pass on to local municipal leaders.

Stop Bullying – Wear Pink

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Update: All of the bully poems are now available online.

Tomorrow (27 Feb) is wear pink day, and according to Christy Clark:

Bullying is a major problem in our schools, workplaces, homes, and over the Internet … on February 27th I encourage all of you to wear something pink to symbolize that we as a society will not tolerate bullying anywhere. I wish I could take credit for this idea but it comes from two incredible Nova Scotia high school students … [more on Christy’s website]

Andrea, my wife, was involved in anti-bullying program development for several years, and unfortunately not enough has been done to really address the issues. One of her sources of inspiration was Barbara Coloroso, author of The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander. A few years back, Andrea wrote a series of thirteen poems on the theme of bullying and then developed discussion topics and suggested learning activities for each one. She never published these, [update: more of Andrea’s poems now at BullyPoems] but I have convinced her to let me post one on my blog for today:

Belinda Bates

Belinda Bates is a bully
A bossy, belligerent bully.
Though a beauty and bright,
She’s so full of spite
But adults don’t know she’s a bully.

“Oh please let me help, Miss O’Neil”
“What a lovely tie, Mister Beal”
She’s as sweet as canned spinach
A fake to the finish,
Yet, grown-ups are sure she’s for real.

But …

If they’d walk out on the playground
On any given day
They’d see Miss Bates in action,
And much to their dismay,
They’d see …

A shy girl is shunned and she’s teased,
Her brother is kicked in the knees,
Another called “Fatso”
Her clique?
They all laughed so.
Such pain she inflicts with great ease.

But …

I can see it happen.
And I know it isn’t right.
I can tell a teacher,
And refuse to watch a fight
I can help save the shy girl.
Lift her brother to his feet.
Call Fatso by his real name,
And refuse to join the clique.

I can even be nice to Belinda,
For I’m sure there is something wrong.
I think that she is really unhappy.
Let’s see if we can’t get along.

Topics for Discussion:

  • Why are adults often not aware of a bully’s behaviour and how does a bully manage to pass undetected?
  • Describe different types of bullying: physical; verbal; relational; or scoial. How do they manifest themselves.
  • What are cliques? When do cliques become a problem?
  • What roles can an onlooker play?
  • When should you intervene, and how?
  • What might be the underlying cause of bullying behaviour?

Learning Activities:

  • Using the first stanza as an example, practise using alliteration to write a stanza about bullying.
  • Using the phrase “She’s as sweet as canned spinach” as an example, write other similes to describe bullies.
  • Explore empathy by finding possible explanations (not justifications) for Belinda’s behaviour.
  • Try methods of intervening by role-playing.

Knowledge Artisans

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artisans.jpg

I noticed this piece on The App Gap which mentioned “knowledge artisans”, and it reminded me of a business plan I did about three years ago:

Next-gen knowledge artisans are amplified versions of their pre-industrial counterparts. Equipped with and augmented by technology, they rely on their human capital and skill to solve complex problems and develop new ideas, products and services. Highly productive, knowledge artisans are capable individually and in small groups of producing goods and services that used to take substantially larger teams and resources. In addition to redefining how work is done, knowledge artisans are creating new organizational structures and business models.

Here’s what I had written as part of the business model:

Open Source Artisans*
We are a small company with several years of development experience who have embraced open source as a way to reduce customer costs, ensure long-term stability of our software and focus on what we do best — custom development. As part of a larger global development community, we can stay small and nimble and quickly react to market and technology changes. We openly partner with other like-minded companies and share in the risks of software development, implementation, maintenance and service. We are true to our partners and our customers because we offer Old World service for the long term, by staying on-time and on-budget for the short-term.

* An artisan (craftsperson) is a skilled manual worker in a particular craft, using specialized tools and machinery. Artisans were the dominant producers of goods before the Industrial Revolution. ABC Co. are the Artisans of the post-Industrial era, retrieving old world care and attention to detail, but using the latest tools and processes. To ensure that we stay current, we are members of various Open Source Guilds, such as the Drupal development community.

The business plan was written in 2005 and I’ve stripped out all of the location-specific details and attached it as a PDF if anyone is interested. For reasons not linked to this plan, the company decided not to continue this effort, so it wasn’t implemented. If you find that it’s of some use, please post a comment.

ABC Business Plan

Business Consulting for Beginners

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Mark is from the UK and asked for my advice about getting into business consulting. He’s 24 years old, is completing a Master’s in International Relations and has some work experience teaching in Asia.

My own suggestion would be that when you lack experience in consulting, your should first try working for a larger organisation. With a Master’s degree you might qualify for entry-level work with one of the larger consultancies (e.g. PwC, Ernst & Young) . These are great places to learn from others and in larger companies you’ll see all aspects of business and management. These companies also offer training and development. Another option, especially for Canadians, is the Public Service, which is looking to rejuvenate its workforce and has a Post-secondary recruitment campaign,.

Two blogs that I would recommend are:

Brazen Careerist

Consultant Journal

Any other suggestions? [Mark – feel free to join in]

Who’s Your Town?

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Richard Florida may be coming out with Who’s Your City? but some of us prefer towns. I know that Florida is positive on the potential for small towns, as this comment in the Telegraph Journal shows;

But Florida told reporters at a reception after his speech that it’s not just big cities that are creative. He said people in big cities are looking to get away to “cosmopolitan country towns” like Sackville.

“There’s a study in the United States that shows that certain rural areas actually have higher levels of creative economy than urban centres like Manhattan,” he said, sipping a glass of red wine.

“My students in Toronto” are complaining about the erosion of natural amenities in Toronto: no parks, no place to get to the water, it takes four hours to drive to the lake. People are looking for places that they can go and work and chill,” he said. “What I see here is a place that’s at the cutting edge. It has a fabulous university that’s top-class. It has great natural amenities and has, for its size, outstanding cultural amenities.”

Being a small town means that you don’t have to be attractive to thousands of “creatives”. A few people can make a big difference in a small town. I just read that Hugh MacLeod, of GapingVoid fame, is considering Alpine, Texas (pop. 6,000) as his home base in the US:

5. It’s not official, and I’m just going to play it by ear, but I’m thinking of making Alpine my permanent US base. A lot depends on how many gigs I get this side of the Atlantic in 2008.

6. If I ever end up living permanently in the US again, it’ll be here. Nowhere else.

The best marketing strategy for small towns who don’t want to be left out of the creative economy is to have one-on-one conversations with potential residents. Everyone is miscellaneous and everyone wants to be special, so a broad-based marketing campaign just won’t work. It will take individual relationships and the right circumstances on a case by case basis. On top of that, each newcomer could have a significant impact on the town, so the rules change with each addition. Imagine getting Peter Jackson to move to your town. One person has the potential to create a social and economic tipping point.

Update: Hugh goes on in a subsequent post to show the key to success for small towns:

10. Though this part of the world went into economic decline after the World War Two [like every other ranching culture in North America], I can already see it coming back, I can already seeing green shoots springing up. Sick and burned out of big-city life, people are starting to move to places like here, more and more. And they’re bringing what they learned in the big city and applying it to a place more suited to their individual needs. Hence the trattoria’s, the microbreweries, the coffee roasters, the art galleries and yes, the internet cartoonists turning up. And the internet and the global microbrand make all this even more viable, even more exciting. Alpine, Texas is no longer in the middle of nowhere; Alpine, Texas is in the middle of EVERYWHERE, if it wants to be. Rock on.

Creating our future

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Last night I attended our town’s Business Retention & Expansion briefing, which reported on findings from a study conducted last year. One of the findings was that the local business priority is to attract industry to the town. Key issues for local businesses were cost of leasing space; municipal taxes; availability of zoned land and land costs. The local economic development agency stated that it would help businesses in the area through training, mentorship and supporting tourism. The town’s strategy will be a “build it and they will come” approach, focusing on a few key sectors and attempting to attract businesses in those areas.

I contrast this with Richard Florida’s presentation in Sackville two weeks ago. First of all, I noted that 64% of total employment in the town is in what Florida calls the creative economy [I added up – Health & Education; Professional & Information; Finance & Insurance; Other services]. According to Florida, “People don’t move to the jobs – the jobs move to the people“. He also said that we are currently going through a fundamental economic transformation and that the key to economic success will be to stoke the creative furnace of each and every citizen. However, no one asked how Sackville could grow its three T’s (technology, talent and tolerance). For example, municipal wi-fi was not seen as a business need; supporting arts & culture is not a business priority and attracting immigrants did not even get discussed. As I walked home, I was thinking that there is a significant difference between asking people their needs and doing what’s needed.

Last night’s discussion was about supporting existing businesses and I likened it to a similar discussion that could have taken place 100 years ago, with concerned business leaders trying to determine how best to support the local carriage factory. Balancing current demands while looking to the future and preparing for a changing world will be a major challenge for all communities in North America. For instance, how will tourism change with a US economy in recession and fossil fuel prices continuing to increase? Would improved broadband access and capability be a better investment than an industrial park? I don’t have the answers, but I know that business as usual is not the solution.

The Attention Crisis in Learning

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Tony Karrer has an excellent post on the implications of the long tail on organisational learning and compares training organisations to publishers. The challenge is not having enough stuff to distribute, it’s getting attention at the receiving end. He finishes by asking these questions:

  • How do we get into the attention economy business?
  • How do we dramatically lower production and delivery costs?
  • How do we support self-service learning and user generated content?
  • How do we foster knowledge worker skills?
  • What are the new metrics?
  • What does this mean for our current learning systems?
  • How do we aggregate content?
  • What are the legal and compliance issues?
  • What are the new roles that must be created to go after this?
  • Where do our skills fit? What new skills do we need?

Some of these questions are dependent on how we respond to others.

I think that the first step in gaining attention is figuring out 1) how to support self-service learning and user generated content which in turn fosters empowerment.

With user-generated content as the norm, then we have already established 2) how to get into the attention economy business as well as 3) how to dramatically lower production and delivery costs through participatory teaching & learning.

With user-generated content as the norm we can also establish 4) the new metrics [participation] and have at the same time provided a medium for 5) how to foster knowledge worker skills [through participation].

6) What does this mean for our current learning systems? Probably that many people may need to find other employment.

7) How do we aggregate content? That’s just a technical question that is being addressed in several venues.

8 ) What are the legal and compliance issues? Probably less difficult then the lawyers would lead us to believe, especially if empowerment and participation are what we really want.

9) What are the new roles that must be created to go after this? The roles will be as different as when a dictatorship becomes a democracy, such as the abolition of the Ministry of Information.
10) Where do our skills fit? What new skills do we need? We will have to become learners ourselves.

A participatory learning ecology gets rid of the intermediaries but puts more responsibility on all members of the network. Each node must contribute or risk exclusion from the network. I can’t see any way of making this work other than through empowerment of every individual and opening the channels for communication and collaboration.

Bilingual education for all?

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It seems that bilingual education may finally become the norm in Canada’s only officially bilingual province, according to CanadaEast:

“We have immersion for people who like bilingualism, and for those who don’t like bilingualism there is Core French, and don’t worry, your child won’t really be learning French in Core French,” said Lamrock [NB Minister of Education] with an ironic tone.

“Maybe bilingualism isn’t accepted with unanimity, but we have a resolution: bilingualism is here to stay and maybe it is time to say bilingualism is a competence that everyone must have in New Brunswick.”

The official announcement should occur in a couple of weeks and then we can get on with other important issues in public education.