Work is learning. Learning is the work. Without AI.
Skills needed by the current generation of students when they enter the workforce:
Because at the end of the day, the future belongs to those who can tell a great story, demonstrate passionate interest combined with the ability to problem solve and ‘figure it out’ on the fly, and who have the audacious ability to care enough to ‘go after it.’
Are we helping them prepare?
From Christian Long, Think:Lab – who hasn’t stopped blogging yet ;-)
Mr. McNamar, a teacher with a blog – The Daily Grind, has just read an excellent essay from one of his students and thinks that it is of a quality to be published, but he doesn’t know who to contact. Can you help him?
“I read an essay, the likes of which I have never read in a Pre-College class. This essay has a future, should it find its way into the right hands. It is an essay that, when I finished reading, I felt like I had just finished reading an essay in a respected magazine or anthology. I once had a professor tell me a sermon I wrote for a Homiletics class could be published, but he never helped me. I want to help this kid. If you know of a way to get work published, please let me know. Here are some excerpts:”
Black community–grammatical error, or bad combination of words?
“Imagine taking a one thousand piece jigsaw puzzle nearing its completion, and wiping it clear off the table, sending the pieces scattering–in other words, imagine the Black community. A group of people who once shared, participated, and had fellowship, now kill the memebers of their own communit at extreme rates–the Black community is imploding. Once a group that would fight against all odds, they now will fight anyone who doesn’t wear their colors. During the Slavery Era, these traits could breathe, create beautiful music, and throw a knockout punch; it acted as a true community.”
With the Web and blogs, this student has a better chance of getting exposure than in the days of mass media control of the electronic medium. That’s a good thing :-)
Just about a month ago I changed from Drupal to WordPress; partially at the request of my service provider and partially as a result of all of the spam that was getting through. So far I like WordPress but it doesn’t give me all of the extras on formatting and presentation that Drupal did. The move has greatly reduced what I thought was my readership though.
I used to think that all of those lists of subscribers in Bloglines and other aggregators were people who actually read my blog. It seems that most readers haven’t noticed that there have been no new posts on the old RSS feed since I announced the move to WP. The old RSS feeds do not work, but almost nobody noticed. Oh well, I’ll just keep posting for myself and using my blog as a personal knowledge management system – its main purpose. I do appreciate the comments from the few who do read my “new & improved blog” though – thanks.
BTW – the new feeds for this blog are: http://jarche.com/?feed=rss2 and http://jarche.com/?feed=atom
The Future of Work [link broken] refers to a CBS TV report on how people work in this 24/7 world, with computers, cell phones, and all those other gadgets. Jim Ware states that:
A world of “any time/any place” work may be wonderful for those of us doing the work, but it’s sure as heck going to complicate the world of management (final point: in spite of those complications, I think it’s well worth it).
I would go a step further and say that in a ubiquitously connected and pervasively proximate world, we need less management, not more. If organisations become more transparent in their requirements, such as clear deliverables or outputs, then less management is required.
My advice – give workers a job worth doing, the tools to do it, recognition of a job well done and then let them manage themselves.
Jay Cross recently sent everyone in his Informl Unworkshop (thanks, Jay) a copy of Naked Conversations – how blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers. I didn’t find a lot that was new, but this is the kind of book to pass on to others who want to know more about this “blogging thing”. The authors are evangelists but they give a fairly balanced point of view.
I found that the section on culture, comparing blogging in France, Germany and China had some interesting insights. My favourite parts were the anecdotes about specific people blogging, especially in non-Internet fields, like the tailor at English Cut. I’ve been keeping my own list of small business bloggers, but I haven’t come across many new ones lately.
The book is a fast read, which appears to be how it was written and published, and will be a review for any dedicated blogger. You may want to purchase it as a record of where we were in 2005.
The main message I found in this book was that, if hyperlinks subvert hierarchy then blogs subvert corporate business as usual.
When the sales rep is giving you the specs on the steel pipes or the consulting services, challenge him. Ask hard questions. Figure out what he knows. If it’s worth you having him come over, it’s worth discovering what he knows.
When the sales call is over, tell the truth. Don’t say, “we’ll get back to you,” unless you intend to. If you’re going to meet with your boss on Friday, tell him. If it’s not your decision, tell him.
So says Seth Godin on Going to Meetings. Just like Aretha sang, it’s about RESPECT.
Blogging is about being open, exposed, or naked, and so is any long term business relationship. To keep things open, I’ve used a form, built on the Performance Technologist’s code of ethics and guidelines in Strategic Planning for Success, to try to start business relationships on a common understanding of responsibilities. Sometimes it opens up conversations, other times I get blank stares and am told to stick to the company’s contracting guidelines.
Here they are, and feel free to modify them to your own circumstances.
My Responsibilities, as the consultant
The Client’s Responsibilities
I believe in local economic sustainability even in a flattened world where your competition may be in Asia. I think that you can have both – locally sustainable economies that are also connected to global networks of partners and customers. That’s why I’m involved with the Atlantic Wildlife Institute, which is developing a regional wildlife emergency response network to ensure good science-based common standards and practices. I’m also a member and supporter of our local Green energy investment cooperative, Renew Co-op.
At the same time, my clients are all across Canada and my long-term strategy is to grow my network outside the country. Most of my work is via the Internet so that my travel/energy footprint is relatively small. All of my revenue comes from outside of the region, so I would say that I add to the local economy, where I purchase most of my goods.
From the Dominion, I just found out that we have a local flour mill in western New Brunswick, one more piece of the economic sustainability puzzle:
The organic grains and cereals produced by Speerville Flour Mill in Speerville New Brunswick are not available outside the Maritimes. Although having more people in British Columbia or Ontario eating food produced in Atlantic Canada might increase Speerville’s profit margin, Grant does not see it a choice the Mill can justify.
The average meal travels 1500 miles from field to table. Almost one third of transport trucks on Canada’s highways are carrying food. Less than one per cent of the Atlantic region’s available cereals and flour are actually produced in the region.
Having a diverse local economy to meet our basic needs, while exporting value-added goods and services seems to be a rational, long-term economic strategy. Any economists have anything to add?
I’m currently developing an article for inclusion in a newsletter. As I go through the editing and re-write process, I have realised how limiting the print medium is, especially when transferring what was originally a series of blog posts to create the basis of the article. Added hyperlinks are now more natural to me than using the APA format, which I have used for many years, but I now view as a relic of a bygone era. What originally changed and flowed is now just a piece of static content. As a blog post, this article built on previous posts and was open to comments and additions. With this print article, it seems as if my learning process has been frozen in time.
A post in the Silicon Republic shows that Irish tiger has similar economic issues as many other Western nations, and that it cannot rest on its recent successes in information technology. The author states that the success of the IT sector stems from investments in education that were made in the 1960’s. Similar investments must be made now if the Irish economy is to remain competitive. He cites Seaghan Moriarty, “a former primary teacher who also works in the third-level sector and who has worked as webmaster for the Irish National Teachers Organisation and the Irish Primary Principals Network”:
“Not only should Irish pupils be learning technology but they also should be learning through technology. The Government is doing a huge disservice to the economy by having an ad hoc vision. The technology is here and the Irish are just not prepared,” Moriarty warned.
As I noted in my last post, it is obvious that agricultural work has tanked at below 2%, manufacturing work is decreasing and knowledge work is increasing. That means that knowledge workers will soon be the largest, and best paid, segment of our workforce. Local economic sustainability will be dependent on the presence of knowledge workers and almost all of these knowledge workers will use the Internet as an essential part of their business.
However, this Province and other regions are still graduating students without the necessary skills for the Internet Age. Schools still have outmoded computer labs, when no one in any workplace today goes to a lab to use a computer. Connected computers are essential for work today and should be an integrated part of all schools. If not, schools will continue their slide to irrelevance in the minds of most students and many parents.
Current initiatives, such as the New Brunswick government’s Quality Learning Agenda fail to address the critical issues of preparing our students for life and work in the Internet economy. Of the stated challenges to our education system, the report does not include the need for specific Internet Age skills, such as the ability to work in a virtual collaborative environment. Neither does the Department of Education intend to put a computer in the hands of every student. How then will our graduates be able to prosper in a flattened world without even the most basic of skills?
I’ll close with some words from Marshall Mcluhan, a Canadian who saw where our education system was going as print was being replaced by electronic media:
The school system, custodian of print culture, has no place for the rugged individual. It is, indeed, the homogenizing hopper into which we toss our integral tots for processing.
McLuhan also accurately described how, “We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror.“
Update: Just over the border in the State of Maine, they have announced the purchase of about 36,000 Apple iBooks for Grade 7 & 8 students, at a cost of $(US)289 each. One reason for the low cost is the use of open source software, such as the Mac version of OpenOffice, NeoOffice, as well as the Gimp image manipulation program. Looks like a sweet deal.
In 2004 I noted that Spikesource looked like a viable business model for open source development. The company now has a certified solutions program for 13 different open source applications.
“We have a few dozen paying customers today, which is in line with our business plan,” Halsey [VP] said. “It’s all about getting mass penetration and converting a percentage of those into paying customers.”
Of the applications listed, there is no learning application, but the time may be coming soon that this business model would work for a mix of Moodle, ATutor, Elgg, Drupal, etc.