Daniel S. Christian

From DSC:
My answer to the question “Is Accreditation a Barrier to Innovation?” would be “Yes, it is.” But admittedly, maybe that’s because I work for a law school these days…and in the legal education realm (as controlled by the American Bar Association), there is YET to be a fully 100% online-based Juris Doctor (JD) degree that I’m aware of. There are some schools that have applied for “variances,” but we’re talking 20+ years after institutions of higher education introduced online-based learning! Those programs who have applied for variances are under an incredible amount of scrutiny by the American Bar Association, that’s for sure. So the legal realm is NOT doing well with innovation.

But in regards to other areas of higher ed and its accrediting bodies…I’m sorry, but you can’t tell me that the run-up in the price of higher education over the last several decades had nothing to do with HE’s accrediting bodies and either their support of — or their lack of support of — those organizations who were trying to introduce something new.

But along these lines, I’d like to hear from folks like:

Burck Smith from Straighterline on his perspectives and his company’s experiences with the various accrediting bodies that Straighterline has had to deal with. His insights here would carry a significant impact/weight for me.
Or perhaps someone like James DeVaney from University of Michingan’s Center for Academic Innovation or Joshua Kim who writes about higher education and edtech/online learning
Or folks like Mary Grush or Rhea Kelly at CampusTechnology.com
Surveying organizations who could speak for a massive group of students/learners/employees
…and/or other folks who are either trying to innovate within the existing systems, have heard from both sides of the table here, and/or have tried and failed to innovate within the existing structures

We’ll see if institutions of traditional higher education can reinvent themselves in order to stay relevant and survive (especially colleges and universities…not so much the community colleges). The accreditation bodies will have a large part in whether this happens…or not.

Along these lines…let’s see what happens to the growth of alternatives to those types of institutions as well.

Reflections on “Defining the skills citizens will need in the future world of work” [McKinsey & Company]

On 09/17/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, communications, communities of practice, competency-based learning/education, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, creativity, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, education reform, entrepreneurship, future, global / globalization, heutagogy, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, online learning, platforms, policy, political science, reinvent, research, skills, smart/connected TV, society, staying relevant, streams of content, surviving, training / L&D, trends, United States, using teams, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Defining the skills citizens will need in the future world of work — from McKinsey & Company; with thanks to Ryan Craig for this resource

Excerpts:

Our findings help define the particular skills citizens are likely to require in the future world of work and suggest how proficiency in them can influence work-related outcomes, namely employment, income, and job satisfaction. This, in turn, suggests three actions governments may wish to take.

Reform education systems
Reform adult-training systems
Ensure affordability of lifelong education

Establish an AI aggregator of training programs to attract adult learners and encourage lifelong learning. AI algorithms could guide users on whether they need to upskill or reskill for a new profession and shortlist relevant training programs.

From DSC:
No one will have all 56 skills that McKinsey recommends here. So (HR) managers, please don’t load up your job postings with every single skill listed here. The search for purple unicorns can get tiring, old, and discouraging for those who are looking for work.

That said, much of what McKinsey’s research/data shows — and what their recommendations are — resonates with me. And that’s why I keep adding to the developments out at:

A powerful, global, next-generation learning platform — meant to help people reinvent themselves quickly, safely, cost-effectively, conveniently, & consistently!!!

Active Learning: 5 Tips for Implementing the Approach — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
Active learning provides ways to get your students engaged without needing to revamp how you teach.

Excerpts:

However, neither listening to a lecture or reading a textbook is the most efficient way to learn or what active learning is truly about. “What exactly do we mean by active learning?” Deslauriers says. “We mean that first, you have to be engaged. Obviously, that’s number one. Number two, you have to be engaged productively. And number three, the productivity has to be toward a goal that is deemed worthwhile*.”

— Louis Deslauriers, Director of Science Teaching and Learning
in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University

From DSC:
I appreciated seeing/reading this solid article. Just a couple of reflections and highlights here…

* But worthwhile for whom? For the faculty members? The teachers? The trainers? Or for the learners, the students, or the employees? Where is agency here? Where does more choice and control come into play here? Where’s the motivation for me to learn something if someone keeps telling me what’s important to THEM? What’s relevant to THEM? Why should I care about this topic? How is it relevant? How will it help me get a job and/or make a positive difference in this world? Can I choose how deep I want to dive in?

Later…Deslauriers goes on to make a great point when urging a pause for students to practice some metacognition:

Does this make sense to me?
How is this relevant? <– DSC: There it is.
Does it connect with something I already know? And if so, how do I integrate with what I already know?
What sort of questions do I have right now?
Can I repeat what the instructor just did? Or is it going to require a lot of practice?

“There’s no way you can undergo these mental processes when someone keeps talking,” Deslauriers says. But if educators pause during their lectures and encourage this type of focus, they can help their students learn more efficiently.

Instructors can hand out electronic clickers, use web-based tools such as Google forms, or even go completely low-tech by giving color-coded cards to students that correspond to different answers.

Also see:

Why Traditional Lectures Won’t End Anytime Soon in Higher Ed Despite Better Approaches Being Available — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
For years, research has shown that students learn more through active learning than from passive traditional lecture, but the old habit is hard to break.

Reflections on “5 Ways Higher Ed Will Be Upended” [Levine & Van Pelt]

On 08/27/2021, in business side of he, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, entrepreneurship, experimentation, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, ideas, innovation, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, liberal arts, lifelong learning, student-related, surviving, trends, ubiquitous learning, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

5 Ways Higher Ed Will Be Upended — from chronicle.com by Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt
Colleges will lose power, prices will go down, and credentials will multiply — among other jarring shifts.

Excerpt:

The dominance of degrees and “just in case” education will diminish; nondegree certifications and “just in time” education will increase in status and value.
…
In contrast, “just in time” education teaches students the skills and knowledge they need right now. They may need to learn a foreign language for an coming trip or business deal. They may need to learn an emerging technology. “Just in time” education comes in all shapes and sizes, but diverges from traditional academic time standards, uniform course lengths, and common credit measures. Only a small portion of such programs award degrees; most grant certificates, microcredentials, or badges.

From DSC:
Long-time readers of this blog and my old blog at Calvin (then College) will see no surprises here:

I published the idea of 50% off and more back in 2008

From DSC:
Speaking of learning-related platforms…

#learning #platforms #learningfromthelivingclassroom #onlinelearning #reinvent #education #lifelonglearning #vision #heutagogy #learningexperiencedesign

DC: Nice example of a learning ecosystem! pic.twitter.com/vOvZakjf59

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) August 22, 2021

How soon/long before #telelegal has its own category here as well? [Christian]

On 08/19/2021, in communications, Daniel S. Christian, ideas, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, society, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Interesting list re: #telehealth and #zoom –>https://t.co/cDDkTO9zSu

DC: How soon/long before #telelegal has its own category as well?#videoconferencing #communications #emergingtechnologies #Internet #telecommunications #platforms

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) August 19, 2021

What are the unintended consequences of #emergingtechnologies? [Christian]

On 08/18/2021, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Daniel S. Christian, law schools, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, pace of change, policy, society, the downsides of how people use tech, by Daniel Christian

DC: At times, I wonder…what are the unintended consequences of #emergingtechnologies? Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. That thought came to my mind when I saw this article: https://t.co/vngu9hs4Mb

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) August 18, 2021

From DSC:
Yet another example of the need for the legislative and legal realms to try and catch up here.

The legal realm needs to try and catch up with the exponential pace of technological change

Many Americans aren’t aware they’re being tracked with facial recognition while shopping — from techradar.com by Anthony Spadafora
You’re not just on camera, you’re also being tracked

Excerpt:

Despite consumer opposition to facial recognition, the technology is currently being used in retail stores throughout the US according to new research from Piplsay.

While San Francisco banned the police from using facial recognition back in 2019 and the EU called for a five year ban on the technology last year, several major retailers in the US including Lowe’s, Albertsons and Macy’s have been using it for both fraud and theft detection.

From DSC:
I’m not sure how prevalent this practice is…and that’s precisely the point. We don’t know what all of those cameras are actually doing in our stores, gas stations, supermarkets, etc. I put this in the categories of policy, law schools, legal, government, and others as the legislative and legal realm need to scramble to catch up to this Wild Wild West.

Along these lines, I was watching a portion of 60 minutes last night where they were doing a piece on autonomous trucks (reportedly to hit the roads without a person sometime later this year). When asked about oversight, there was some…but not much.

Readers of this blog will know that I have often wondered…”How does society weigh in on these things?”

Along these same lines, also see:

The NYPD Had a Secret Fund for Surveillance Tools — from wired.com by Sidney Fussell
Documents reveal that police bought facial-recognition software, vans equipped with x-ray machines, and “stingray” cell site simulators—with no public oversight.

Recording of “The Future of Education Collaborative for Higher Education” on 8/12/21

On 08/13/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accreditation, adult learning, Alternatives, Amazon, business side of he, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, career development, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, instructional design, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, student-related, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Recording of “The Future of Education Collaborative for Higher Education” on 8/12/21 — this event was sponsored by Instructure and AWS

From DSC:
One of the most interesting items for me in this was to hear how one university is allowing students to drive the Request For Proposal (RFP) process – giving students much more VOICE. Staff and faculty are consultants but students have the final say! Wow!

Also, I agree with the idea that the market will drive changes within higher education. But for that to occur more significantly:

Employers need to hire more people from a variety of backgrounds and that come into their interviews with a greater variety of credentials.
The accrediting agencies involved with higher ed are going to need to become more innovative and flexible.
And the elephant in the room for me is that faculty members are going to have to come to the realization that those organizations/courses of the future that will thrive and have the most impact will be much more team-based and will be based upon what the market needs (i.e., better alignment is needed between the corporate/business world and the world of higher education). For far too long, the faculty member has been the sole person at the table….the person holding the steering wheel…the person in control of everything that gets presented and how it gets presented….the person who decides what they want to teach (vs. what the market actually needs) and how they want to teach it.

Finally, I bet AWS and Zoom could have said a LOT more than they actually said.

#learningfromthelivingclassroom

Traveling down the road as a metaphor for the terms “learning objectives” & “learning outcomes” [Christian]

On 08/09/2021, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, education, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, Learning Experience Design, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, universities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
As I was traveling down one of the local roads the other day, the thought reoccurred to me …that driving along a road is such an apt metaphor for this idea of using the terms “learning objectives” and “learning outcomes.”

I’m going down the same road.

I can look ahead to see where I want to go. But that doesn’t mean that I’m for sure going to get there. That’s where I’m heading and I hope that I will get there, but several things will need to go right.

OR…I can look in the rearview mirror of my car and see where I’ve already been….what’s already taken place. I’ve already passed such and such a point (or points).

I can see where I've been by looking in the rearview mirror -- or I can look ahead to see what I'm traveling towards

That is, I can’t talk about learning outcomes if I’m just getting on the road. At that point, I can talk about where I hope to go (i.e., my learning objectives), but I can’t talk about my learning outcomes until I’ve been traveling for a while.

Where this gets muddy/tricky is when we discuss entire programs. Then the term “learning outcomes” is often used. I get that — it makes sense at that level of things. But if we are talking about an individual course as seen in Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard Learn, etc…then it makes more sense to me to continue to use the phrase “Learning Objectives.”

Some scripture to start the week

On 08/08/2021, in Daniel S. Christian, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, history, relationships, religion, by Daniel Christian

¹⁰Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

²⁰Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. ²²This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” ²³The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, ²⁴but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Psalm 91:4 NIV — from biblegateway.com

⁴He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

Under a canopy of love — photo by Sunil out at 500px

What doors does this type of real-time translation feature open up for learning? [Christian]

On 08/04/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, Africa, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, blended learning, bots, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, distance education, education, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, faculty, flipping -- inverted learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, Hyflex learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, Natural Language Processing (NLP), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, platforms, presentations, professional development, remote teaching and learning, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, UK, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

DC: What doors does this type of real-time translation feature open up for learning?https://t.co/beOXFjGZs9 #learningfromthelivingclassroom #education #K12 #highereducation #training #learning #lifelonglearning #globallearning #languages #translation https://t.co/TV5InkWHwn pic.twitter.com/MGblMzQbBL

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) August 4, 2021

From DSC:
For that matter, what does it open up for #JusticeTech? #Legaltech? #A2J? #Telehealth?

Will AR glasses provide this type of information in real-time? #AI, #NLP, smartclassrooms #edtech [Christian]

On 07/30/2021, in A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), communications, communities of practice, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, faculty, higher education, ideas, innovation, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, Natural Language Processing (NLP), online learning, participation, platforms, presentations, teaching & learning, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

Will AR glasses provide this type of information in real-time? #AI, #NLP, smartclassrooms #edtech [Christian]

Will AR glasses provide this type of information in real-time? AI, NLP, smartclassrooms edtech Christian

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DSC:Modified image which was originally from Minerva.com > Forum Learning Environment

Learning Ecosystems

Speaking of learning-related platforms…

DC: Nice example of a learning ecosystem!

How soon/long before #telelegal has its own category here as well? [Christian]

Many Americans aren’t aware they’re being tracked with facial recognition while shopping [Spadafora]

Some scripture to start the week

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