communications

3 items re: necessary skills for the modern workplace

On 02/26/2015, in career development, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, education reform, entrepreneurship, innovation, new media literacies, play, professional development, social learning / networks, training / L&D, trends, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

digital workforce skills — from jarche.com by Harold Jarche

Excerpt:

Behaviour change comes through small, but consistent, changes in practice. So how do we move from responsibility, to creativity, and potentially to innovation? Play, explore, and converse. But first we need to build a space to practice. This is where management plays a key role: providing the space to ‘Do it Yourself’.

Our employer-employee marriages need counseling — from forbes.com by Dov Seidman

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Our Big Asks of employees have become so pervasive that they’re transforming into competencies. A report by Palo Alto-based non-profit research firm Institute for the Future identifies 10 increasingly important work skills. These include talents like: The ability to critically assess and develop content that uses new media forms, and to leverage these media for persuasive communication; cross-cultural competency; proficiency at thinking and coming up with solutions and responses beyond that which is rote or rules-based; and the ability to translate vast amounts of data into abstract concepts and to understand data-based reasoning.

Andrew McAfee: The Second Machine Age is approaching. Here’s how we can prepare. — from huffingtonpost.com by Dawn Nakagawa , EVP, Berggruen Institute

Excerpt:

Nakagawa: Inequality is already a problem. How much worse will inequality get in this new future?

McAfee: The stratospheric wealth of the 1 percent presents some challenges. But I think it’s largely a distraction from the more important challenge, which is not about the people at the top pulling away. It is about the 50th-percentile worker or the 25th-percentile worker. It is about the stagnation in the prospects and earnings of the middle class. We need to focus on how to improve the prospects for the middle and the bottom, people who are finding themselves stagnating or sliding backwards. It could well be that higher marginal tax rates on top levels of income and wealth are part of the solution, but we need to broaden the conversation to look for comprehensive solutions to a complex problem.

…

Nakagawa: How do we need to change the education system, not to address the labor force skills gap we see today but to prepare our younger generation for the economy that is coming?

McAfee: Our education system is in need of an overhaul. It is frustrating that our primary education system is doing a pretty good job at turning out the kinds of workers we needed 50 years ago. Basic skills, the ability to follow instructions, execute defined tasks with some level of consistency and reliability. Machines can do all those things better than we can. What they can’t do, at least not yet, are things like negotiate, provide loving and compassionate care, motivate a team of people, design a great experience, realize what people want or need, figure out the next problem to work on and how to solve it and so on. And not all the items on that list require advanced degrees. We’re going to need people with all kinds of skills and training for some time to come, so let’s rethink our education system so that it provides the required variety.

Combine these concepts into a multitouch, interactive “video wall” or Smart TV-related apps: Some incredible opportunities for collaborative learning!

On 02/16/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, business, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, distance education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, multi-touch, multimedia, online learning, online media, participation, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, project-based learning, second screen apps, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, streams of content, teaching online, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, training / L&D, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Check out some of the functionality in these solutions. Then imagine if these solutions were in the size of an entire wall in a classroom or in a corporate L&D facility. Whew!

Some serious opportunities for collaboration would arise for remote learners –as well as those located in the face-to-face setting
What new affordances would be present for those teaching in K-12, higher ed, or trainers working within the training/learning and development fields? Conversations/discussions would be recorded — to be picked up at the next session. In the meantime, learners could review the discussions at their own pace.
What if all of this were possible in your future Smart/Connected TV?
I’m also talking here about a vendor that could offer solutions that K-12 systems and institutions of higher ed could afford; some of the solutions below have much of what I’m envisioning here, but are out of the price range. Or the product is multitouch and fairly large, but it doesn’t offer the collaborative features of some of the other products here.

Ideum’s touch walls come close to what I’m talking about in this posting. If they could add some functionality for seeing/bringing in/collaborating with remote learners — as found in Mezzanine — then that would be great!

Also see:

Also see bluescape — but these excellent, innovative solutions are out of the price range for most K-12 and higher ed institutions:

Five Minute Film Festival: Video Boot Camp [Selak]

On 01/19/2015, in A/V -- audio/visual, attention, communications, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, elearning, engagement / engaging students, Google, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, by Daniel Christian

Five Minute Film Festival: Video Boot Camp — from edutopia.org by Bill Selak

Excerpt:

The rapid adoption of devices in the classroom has fundamentally changed the way we can create video. Every part of the creation process — writing, recording, editing, and distributing — is possible on the devices that can fit in our pocket. Vision is the most dominant of the five senses. Research shows that concepts are better remembered if they are taught visually. This is called the pictorial superiority effect, and it’s why video is such a powerful learning tool.

A video is created three times: when you write it, when you shoot it, and when you edit it. There are several formats that can be used to write a script for the classroom: a Google Doc, a dedicated app (ex: Storyboards), a Google Form, or a production organization document. Whichever format is used, emphasis should be placed on how it will be used in the classroom, and what the goal of the video is. When recording, it is important to incorporate basic rules of composition, such as the rule of thirds, into your video. Being aware of the environment (basic concepts like lighting and room tone) makes it easier to edit.

Curating content is another significant way to incorporate video into your classroom. If you don’t have the time or software to make a fancy video, odds are someone has already made it and shared it on YouTube. This Film Festival is equal parts curation and creation.

From DSC:
This is a nice collection of resources and tips to help you and your students further develop your new media literacy.

If a pair of 20-something lip-syncing comedians can have ~30 million subscribers, what might that mean for master teachers/professors/trainers in the future?

On 01/06/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, attention, communications, communities of practice, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital storytelling, education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, internet, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, lifelong learning, media/film, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, new business models, online learning, online media, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, web-based collaboration, youth, by Daniel Christian

YouTube’s Chief, Hitting a New ‘Play’ Button — from nytimes.com by Jonathan Mahler

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

At one point, the moderator asked Ms. Wojcicki if she thought cable television would still be around in 10 years. She paused for a moment before answering, with a bit of a sly smile, “Maybe.” The crowd laughed, even though just about everyone in the packed auditorium knew she was only half-joking.

If cable TV is gone in a decade, Ms. Wojcicki and the global digital video empire over which she presides will be one of the main causes. YouTube, founded in 2005 as a do-it-yourself platform for video hobbyists — its original motto was “Broadcast Yourself” — now produces more hit programming than any Hollywood studio.

Smosh, a pair of 20-something lip-syncing comedians, have roughly 30 million subscribers to their various YouTube channels. PewDiePie, a 24-year-old Swede who provides humorous commentary while he plays video games, has a following of similar size. The list goes on and on. For the sake of perspective, successful network television shows like “NCIS: New Orleans” or “The Big Bang Theory” average a little more than half that in weekly viewership. The 46-year-old Ms. Wojcicki — who will soon give birth to her fifth child — has quietly become one of the most powerful media executives in the world.

Also see:

Smart TV Alliance serves 58 million TV sets — from broadbandtvnews.com by by Robert Briel
Excerpt:
The Smart TV Alliance development platform is now compatible with one-third of the global smart TV market. App developers who use the Alliance’s common developer portal can reach 58 million smart TVs in a single, integrated process. The brands served include LG Electronics, Panasonic, TP Vision and Toshiba
.
Roku-Connected Televisions And The Future Of The Smart TV Wars — from fastcompany.com by Chris Gayomali
At CES, Roku announced new partnerships that will cram its platform inside more televisions. Built-in is the new box.
.
Netflix Launches Smart TV Seal of Approval Program — from variety.com by Todd Spangler
Sony, LG, Sharp, Vizo and makers of Roku TVs are expected to be first certified under ‘Netflix Recommended TV’ program
Excerpt:
Netflix — in a smart bid to get its brand affixed onto smart TVs — has announced the “Netflix Recommended TV” certification program under which it will give the thumbs up to Internet-connected television sets that deliver the best possible video-streaming experience for its service.

From DSC:
As you can see, BBBBBIIIIIGGGGG players are getting into this game. And there will be BBBBBIIIIIGGGGG opportunities that open up via what occurs in our living rooms. Such affordances won’t be limited to the future of entertainment only.

Skype real-time language translator goes live [Moscaritolo]

On 12/18/2014, in 21st century, collaboration, communications, languages and translation, technologies for your home, telecommunications, tools, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Skype real-time language translator goes live — from pcmag.com by Angela Moscaritolo
With Skype Translator, have a conversation with someone over the Internet who speaks a different language.

Excerpt:

The Microsoft-owned chat service on Monday launched the first phase of its Skype Translator preview program first announced back in May. Jointly developed by Microsoft researchers and Skype engineers, the new feature uses real-time speech translation technologies to let you have a conversation with someone over the Internet who speaks a different language.

This means you can have a conversation just like normal, and Skype will translate what you say into the other person’s language in “near real-time.” Then, when the other person says something, it will be translated back to your language.

————–

A college completion idea that’s so simple. Why aren’t we doing it? [Phillips]

On 12/03/2014, in collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, higher education, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, platforms, policy, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, universities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

A college completion idea that’s so simple. Why aren’t we doing it? — from huffingtonpost.com by Brad Phillips

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

This week’s White House “College Opportunity” summit will focus on an overlooked area with enormous potential for student success: K-12 and higher education working together to improve college completion. It sounds so simple and obvious. In fact many assume it’s already happening. After all both groups of educators share the same students, just at different points in their education careers. Why wouldn’t they share information about students and coordinate efforts to help students be successful?

…

The process of closely analyzing high school to college data is eye opening for both K-12 and college educators. Faculty discover that while they both may be calling a subject Algebra or English, what is taught and assigned can be very different, setting up students for a struggle.

In Southern California, high school teachers and college faculty members participating in English Curriculum Alignment Project (ECAP) shared years of transcript information Examining student performance over time, educators learned that what was taught in High School English did not align with what was expected in college English.

From DSC:
I’ll take that one step further and say that we need stronger continuums between K-12, higher ed, and the corporate/business world. We need more efforts, conversations, mechanisms, tools, communities of practice, and platforms to collaborate with each other. That’s what I try to at least scratch the surface on via this Learning Ecosystems blog — i.e., touching upon areas that involve the worlds of K-12, higher ed, and the corporate/business world. We need more collaborations/conversations along these lines.

learningnow.tv <-- An example of a significant piece of our future learning ecosystems? Quite possibly.

On 12/01/2014, in A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, communications, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital storytelling, education technology, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, lifelong learning, media/film, mobile learning, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, streams of content, tablets, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, UK, using teams, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From their website: (emphasis DSC)

LEARNING NOW tv is a live-streamed internet tv channel bringing you inspirational interviews, debates and round tables, and advice and guidance on real world issues to keep you up-to date in the world of learning and development.

Membership to the channel is FREE. You will be able to interact with us on our social channel during the live stream as well as having a resource of the recorded programmes to refer to throughout the year.

Learning Now tv is run and produced by some of the L&D world’s leading experts who have many years’ experience of reporting the real-world issues for today’s learning and development professionals.

I originally saw this at Clive Sheperd’s posting:
TV very much alive for learning professionals

Also see:

This new service makes me think of some related graphics:

Addendum on 12/2/14 — from Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie – December 2, 2014 | #857

Idea – Courses in the Air:
There were representatives from airlines, Aviation Authorities and even Panasonic – which makes the interactive movie and TV systems on long distance airplanes. So, I rolled out one of my “aha ideas” that I would love to see invented sometime: Courses in the Air.

What if a passenger could choose to take a mini-course on a 4 to 14 hour flight. It would be a MOOC in the Sky – with video, reading and interactive elements – and someday might even include a real time video chat function as well. The learner could strive to earn a “badge” or roll them up into a certificate or degree program – that they pursued over several years of flights. It would be an intriguing element to add to international travel.

Team-based content creation/delivery is pulling ahead of the pack!

On 11/04/2014, in A/V -- audio/visual, collaboration, communications, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, higher education, immersion, innovation, interactivity, learning ecosystem, love of learning, media/film, Michigan, multimedia, online learning, participation, play, psychology, real-world assignments, relationships, religion, social learning / networks, social media, society, sociology, story, storytelling, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, transmedia, universities, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Last week I attended the 20th Annual Online Learning Consortium International Conference. While there, I was inspired by an excellent presentation entitled, “A Disruptive Innovation: MSU’s Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse – Are You Ready to Survive a New Way of Learning?“ The four team members from Michigan State University included:

Glenn R. Stutzky | Course Instructor
Keesa V. Muhammad | Instructional Designer
Christopher Irvin | Instructional Designer
Hailey Mooney | Course Librarian

Check out the intro clip on the website about the course:

From the description for the presentation:

This session highlights MSU’s award winning, groundbreaking online course that fuses social theory, filmmaking, social media, and viral marketing while students survive an apocalyptic event. http://zombie.msu.edu/

MSU created and used powerful digital storytelling and multimedia to overlay real, experiential, immersive learning. Important content was relayed, but in a way that drew upon your emotions, your ability to solve problems and navigate in a world where you didn’t have all of the information, your ability to work with others, and more.

“This innovative course integrates current research and science on catastrophes and human behavior together with the idea of a zombie apocalypse. In doing so, we actively engage with students as they think about the nature, scope, and impact of catastrophic events on individuals, families, societies, civilizations, and the Earth itself.”

“Our innovative approach to teaching and learning features: students as active participants, the instructor becomes the facilitator, storytelling replaces lectures, zombies become the catalyst of teaching, a “zombrarian” (librarian) drives research, and the students emerge as digital storytellers as a way of assessing their own learning.”

Others outside MUS have found out about the course and have requested access to it. As a result of this, they’ve opened it up to non-credit seeking participants and now various people from police forces, Centers for Disease Control, and others are able to take the course. To make this learning experience even more accessible, the cost has been greatly reduced: from $1600+ to just $500. (So this talented team is not only offering powerful pedagogies, but also significant monetary contributions to the university as well.)

For me, the key thing here is that this course represents what I believe is the direction that’s starting to really pull ahead of the pack and, if done well, will likely crush most of the other directions/approaches. And that is the use of teams to create, deliver, teach, and assess content – i.e., team-based learning approaches.

So many of the sessions involved professional development for professors and teachers – and much of this is appropriate. However, in the majority of cases, individual efforts aren’t enough anymore. Few people can bring to the table what a talented, experienced group of specialists are able to bring. Individual efforts aren’t able to compete with team-based content creation and delivery anymore — and this is especially true online, whereby multiple disciplines are immediately invoked once content hits the digital realm.

In this case, the team was composed of:

The professor
Two Instructional Designers
and a librarian

The team:

Developed websites
Designed their own logo
Marketed the course w/ a zombie walking around campus w/ brochures and a walking billboard
Used a Twitter stream
Used a tool called Pensu for their students’ individual journals
Made extensive use of YouTube and digital storytelling
Coined a new acronym called MOLIE – multimedia online learning immersive experience
Used game-like features, such as the development of a code that was found which revealed key information (which was optional, but was very helpful to those who figured it out). The team made it so that the course ended differently for each group, depending upon what the teams’ decisions were through the weeks
Used some 3D apps to make movies more realistic and to create new environments
Continually presented new clues for students to investigate. Each team had a Team Leader that posted their team’s decisions on YouTube.

They encouraged us to:
THINK BIG! Get as creative as you can, and only pull back if the “suits” make you! Step outside the box! Take risks! “If an idea has life, water it. Others will check it out and get involved.”

In their case, the idea originated with an innovative, risk-taking professor willing to experiment – and who started the presentation with the following soliloquy:

Syllabi are EVIL

Syllabi are EVIL and they must die!
Listen to me closely and I’ll tell you why.
Just want students to know what is known?
See what’s been seen?
Go – where we’ve been going?
Then the Syllabus is your friend,
cuz you know exactly where you’ll end.
But if you want to go somewhere new,
see colors beyond Red, Green, and Blue.
Then take out your Syllabus and tear-it-in-half,
now uncertainty has become your path.
Be not afraid because you’ll find,
the most amazing things from Creative Minds,
who have been set free to FLY,
once untethered from the Syllabi.

Glenn Stutzky
Premiered at the 2014
Online Learning Consortium International Conference
October 29, 2014

“The number of infected in Michigan has reached critical mass.” CSM Quintero #sw290 pic.twitter.com/F6m8ZaoRyG

— MSU Zombie (@MSUZombies) June 19, 2014

They started with something that wasn’t polished, but it’s been an iterative approach over the semesters…and they continue to build on it.

I congratulated the team there — and do so again here. Excellent, wonderful work!

By the way, what would a creative movie-like trailer look like for your course?

My vision was right. My expectations re: timing were too optimistic. But this vision is now reality.

On 10/22/2014, in communications, corporate / business world, productivity / tips and tricks, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Daniel-Christian---20-plus-years-later-its-here-sm

From DSC:
In the early 1990’s I was working at Kraft Foods trying to get 66 plants & all HQ locations to use electronic mail. I remembering offering training sessions on PROFS & Microsoft Mail where I mentioned to the attendees that we would be using much more multimedia-based communications in the future. At that time, I was referring to the idea that voicemail & email systems would be more tightly integrated and that we would be receiving more audio & video-based messages directly within our email mailboxes.

20+ years later, I’m finally experiencing that! Excellent! It took longer than I thought it was going to take, but it’s here. (Others may have had access to integrated voicemail & email systems a while back, but this is a first for the organizations where I’ve worked.)

Which makes me wonder…where might our communication systems be 20 years from now?

iBeacons, sensors, & similar M2M communications: Connecting the physical world with the digital world

On 10/16/2014, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, blended learning, communications, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital storytelling, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, ideas, innovation, interactivity, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, library / librarians, machine-to-machine communications, mobile learning, mobile technologies, Near Field Communication (NFC), participation, pedagogy, platforms, play, second screen apps, smart classrooms, tablets, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, trends, ubiquitous learning, universities, user experience (UX), wearables, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
iBeacons, sensors, & similar machine-to-machine (M2M) communications: Connecting the physical world with the digital world while opening up enormous possibilities for education & training-related applications.

DanielChristian-Combining-Digital-Physical-Worlds-Oct2014

It’s Not Film. It’s Not TV. It’s Convergence. Here’s What It’s All About. [Bernstein]

On 09/28/2014, in art, communications, convergence, creativity, digital storytelling, innovation, media/film, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, platforms, play, story, storytelling, transmedia, by Daniel Christian

It’s Not Film. It’s Not TV. It’s Convergence. Here’s What It’s All About. –– from indiewire.com by Paula Bernstein
A new wave of creators is blurring the lines of storytelling to span multiple platforms. Here, a handful of those creators from this year’s New York Film Festival Convergence program explain what convergence means to them.

Comment from DSC:
If this trend continues, I would guess that it would affect education as well. That is, students no longer want to be passive consumers, but active participants. Hmmm…sounds very familiar to me. Aren’t we already there (i.e., active learning, project-based learning, makerspaces, and more)?

Also see:

YFF Convergence: What’s to Be Gained With Immersive Storytelling? — from by Kel O’Neill | Indiewire September 25, 2014 at 12:31PM
In this guest post, Kel O’Neill, an alumnus of the New York Film Festival’s Convergence section, who co-created “Empire” with Eline Jongsma, explains the benefits of immersive storytelling.

Check Out ‘The Empire Project:’ An Interactive Documentary Making Its World Premiere at the NYFF Convergence –– from indiewire.com by Paula Bernstein
“Empire,” the new project from the transatlantic filmmaking team of Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill, is a perfect example of true interactivity and transmedia storytelling.

[For students/recent grads especially] The Surprising Reason Why You’re Not Getting Hired [Danielle Setola Antes]

On 08/14/2014, in career development, communications, motivation, student-related, writing, by Daniel Christian

[For students/recent grads especially]
The Surprising Reason Why You’re Not Getting Hired — from good.co by Danielle Setola Antes

Excerpt:

Within the survey, employers and recruiters indicated two distinct areas where candidates were falling short: a lack of technical skills, and a lack of workplace competency skills (i.e. “soft skills”).

…

Soft Skills: 101
So what exactly are these “soft skills” that candidates are lacking, and how can you develop them? And more importantly, how can you showcase the soft skills you do possess to potential employers?

Communication Skills
You’re likely to find “strong communication skills” in the requirements section of almost any job description. Whether written or verbal, employers are looking for employees who can make a point quickly and effectively, understand how to explain subjects to a diverse audience, and keep their team in the loop.

Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking and problem solving are both skills that are essential for success in the workplace. You should be able to dissect problems and prioritize creative solutions using all of the resources available to you. Critical thinking also involves taking multiple perspectives into account and re-evaluating solutions in light of new evidence, which shows that you’re flexible and able to make the best decision for the team.

Motivation
The desire to learn, or motivation, is another soft skill that employers are looking for, especially in candidates who lack technical skills. Your ability to learn doesn’t necessarily have to be tied to your cognitive abilities – it’s ok if you’re not a quick learner.

Other Skills
There are a number of other soft skills employers will want to see – humility, confidence, attitude, and dependability, among many others – that may get your foot in the door for the perfect job.

From DSC:
I ran across Manish Mohan’s blog posting — Seven Survival Skills in Today’s World — which focused on Tony Wagner’s keynote address at the IFC’s International Private Education Conference: Rethinking Education, Shaping the Future.

So I read the blog posting and then I listened to Tony Wagner’s address. Below are my notes from his talk.

What’s the problem we need to solve in education?

Challenges

Education today has become a commodity. Knowledge is free; it’s like water or air. Educators once had the corner on the market. Knowledge had to come through the teacher. Not true today. You can acquire knowledge via the Internet. Teachers are no longer the gatekeepers. Where, then, is the value that teachers/schools are providing?
Work is being transformed around the world. Routine jobs being automated/replaced by computers or in other countries for far less $$. World cares about what you can DO with what you know. Not just acquiring knowledge. Skill and will are other legs of the stool (in addition to knowledge).
The longer students are in school (in the U.S.), the more bored they are. Less engaged as time goes on. The Internet is their preferred source of learning.

Tony focused on skill (adding value) and will in this keynote. Need to be a continuous learner.

Tony talked to senior executives — what skills do you need today? Where are the gaps?

7 survival skills/competencies a person needs before they reach the end of their secondary school:

Critical thinking and problem solving — how to ask the right questions
Collaboration across networks — how are we going to teach
Agility and adaptability
Initiative and entrepreneurship
Effective oral and written communication — need to be able to write with “voice” — own passion and perspective, to be convincing
Accessing and analyzing information
Curiosity and imagination

New achievement gap — these 7 survival skills vs what is being taught around the world.

Growing unemployment of college graduates compels us to look at goals of education. Academically adrift — communication skills not growing in college.

One person to Tony:
“I want young people who can ‘Just go figure it out.'”

Want graduates who have a sense of mission. Autonomy.

How do we prepare kids to “Just go figure it out.”

We need innovators — creative problem solvers. People who ask the right questions.

The teachers (of innovative individuals) who made the greatest difference were outliers in their respective institutional settings but were remarkably alike in their patterns of teaching and learning. The culture of schooling, as we continue to practice it, is fundamentally and radically at odds with the culture of learning to be an innovator in 5 respects:

Culture of schooling is about rewarding individual achievement vs being a team player
Compartmentalizing knowledge; innovations happens at the margins of academic disciplines, not within them; interdisciplinary courses needed
Passivity and consumption — students listen, consume information; only 1 expert. VS creating information. Teacher as coach who empowers students.
How failure is viewed — fear of failure creates risk aversion. But innovation requires risk and failure. Trial and error. Iteration — systematically reflecting on what worked and what didn’t.
Grades and what they represent in school. Often a motivational tool. Rely on extrinsic motivation. But intrinsic motivation is key amongst innovative individuals. They want to make a difference.

Parents and teachers of these innovative individuals emphasized 3 things:

Play
Passion
Purpose

Provided a buffet of opportunities to discover interests. But did not pigeonhole the person.

We have some responsibility to others — to give back — and to make a difference.

So much of our thinking revolves around delivery systems, but what about the GOALS of education? All too often assumed.

Need to be differently prepared vs. students/graduates of 50 years ago.

How do we motivate students to want to be continuous learners?

A merit badge approach to learning. Evidence. Digital portfolios.

In Finland and Singapore one can see the massive importance of — and investment in — teaching as a profession. Elite group of teachers. Trust through professionalism.

Collective human judgement is key. High stakes testing is completely distorting education system. What gets tested is what gets taught.

Preparation for citizenship is equally important (as skills development for earning a living).

Why not specifically teach about entrepreneurship?

Finland — much less homework, and far more opportunities to discover interests and to be entrepreneurial. Start-up like culture.

Learning Ecosystems

Five Minute Film Festival: Video Boot Camp [Selak]

Skype real-time language translator goes live [Moscaritolo]

My vision was right. My expectations re: timing were too optimistic. But this vision is now reality.

It’s Not Film. It’s Not TV. It’s Convergence. Here’s What It’s All About. [Bernstein]

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