On 07/20/2022,
in digital learning, education, lifelong learning, project-based learning, real-world assignments, skills, vocational / trades, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Taking construction education into a new age — from highereddive.com by Jonathan Arnholz
Excerpt:
In 2021, the sixth edition of our top textbook, Core: Introduction to Basic Construction Skills was released in collaboration with our publishing partner Pearson. In addition to the standard updates to the content, this new edition introduced QR codes to our textbooks, directing students to digital resources to reinforce the material found in the book. In conjunction with the release of the printed book came a new Core eText and a fully re-imagined NCCERconnect online course with integrated augmented reality lessons, dozens of videos on performance tasks, construction math and employability skills, dynamic presentations to support classroom engagement, project-based learning assignments and more.
Addendum on 7/21/22:
Skilled Trades Labor Scarcity: Workforce Aging as Fewer Recruits Enter Trades — from finance.yahoo.com
Excerpt:
TACOMA, Wash., July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The skilled trades industry is proving to be one of the hardest hit by worker scarcity. According to a new analysis by PeopleReady Skilled Trades, a specialized division of staffing giant PeopleReady, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a skilled labor shortage that companies are still struggling with today. In the period from March 2020 to December 2021, four million jobs were open in key skilled trades industries like construction—more than double the amount of vacancies pre-pandemic.
On 07/14/2022,
in adjunct faculty, adult learning, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, culture, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, face-to-face, faculty/staff, higher education, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, learning theories, library / librarians, lifelong learning, love of learning, metacognition / metacognitive skills, more voice more choice more control, motivation, online learning, parents/guardians, pedagogy, research, social media, society, strategy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, United States, universities, using teams, vision/possibilities, youth,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Below are several observations re: our learning ecosystems — and some ideas on how we can continue to improve them.
It takes years to build up the knowledge and skills in order to be a solid teacher, faculty member, instructional designer, and/or trainer. It takes a lot of studying to effectively research how the brain works and how we learn. Then we retire…and the knowledge is often lost or not passed along. And the wheel gets reinvented all over again. And again. And again.
Along these lines — and though we’re making progress in this area — too often we separate the research from the practical application of that research. So we have folks working primarily in learning science, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and related fields. But their research doesn’t always get practically applied within our learning spaces. We have researchers…and then we have practitioners. So I greatly appreciate the likes of Pooja Agarwal and Patrice Bain out at RetrievalPractice.org, Daniel Willingham, Eva Keiffenheim, The Learning Scientists, James Lang, and several others who bridge this gap.
Perhaps more researchers, faculty members, teachers, trainers, instructional designers, principals, provosts, etc. could blog or be active out on social media.
***
Along these lines, we need to spend more time helping people know how best to study and to learn.
If that type of thing is ever to be learned, it seems like it’s often learned or discussed in the mid- to later years of one’s life…often after one’s primary and secondary days are long gone.
Instead, we should consider putting these easy-to-understand posters from the Learning Scientists in every K-12 school, college, and university in the nation — or something like them.
***
To provide the most effective engaging learning experiences, we should consider using more team-based approaches. As appropriate, that could include the students themselves.
***
We put way too much emphasis on grades — which produces gameplayers who seek only to do the minimum amount of work necessary to get the A’s. Doing so creates systems whereby learning is not the goal — getting a 4.0+ is.
***
As we are now required to be lifelong learners, our quality of life as a whole goes waaaay up if we actually enjoy learning. Many people discover later in life that they like to learn…they just didn’t like school. Perhaps we could place greater emphasis within K-16 on whether students enjoyed their learning experiences or not. And if not, what might have made that topic more enjoyable to them? Or what other topics would they like to dive into (that weren’t’ on the original learning menu)?
This could also apply in the corporate training/L&D space as well. Such efforts could go a long way in helping establish stronger learning cultures.
***
We don’t provide enough choice to our students. We need to do a better job of turning over more control to them in their learning journey. We turn students off to learning because we try to cram information that they don’t care about down their throats. So then we have to use the currency of grades to force them into doing the work that they could care less about doing. Their experience with learning/school can easily get soured.
We need to be more responsive with our curricula. And we need to explain how the information we’re trying to relay is relevant in the real world and will be relevant in their futures.
***
So those are some ideas that I wanted to relay. Thanks for your time and for your shared interests here!
On 07/05/2022,
in 21st century, Alternatives, career development, change, entrepreneurship, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, heutagogy, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, skills, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Will a “Google PhD” become as good as a university-granted PhD? — from rossdawson.com by Ross Dawson
Excerpt:
A fundamental issue now is the degree to which employers care about the piece of paper as against the knowledge and capability. That is rapidly shifting as companies realize they will often miss out on exceptionally talented people if they insist on formal qualifications.
Entrepreneurs of course only care whether they have the knowledge to do what they’re undertaking.
It is a shifting landscape. Traditional advanced degrees have their place and will not disappear.
But “Google PhDs” will in some cases be as good, if they result in an equivalent level of expertise.
On 06/29/2022,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Blockchain, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, formal learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, informal learning, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, marketplaces, Metaverse, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, skills, society, training / L&D, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
DC: In our future learning ecosystems there will be the opportunity to view and access a variety of learning-related resources— similar to this service for entertainment-related items.#learningecosystems #learningfromthelivingclassroom #future #learning pic.twitter.com/9ZD9FbnOvR
— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) June 27, 2022
From DSC:
An AI-backed platform will constantly search all job postings and present the most desired skills in the marketplace and then how to get those skills. The providers will be individuals, organizations, training providers, traditional institutions of higher education, vendors and more.
Depending upon what happens with blockchain — and if a much more energy-efficient/environmentally-friendly solution can be implemented — blockchain may be a part of that equation.
On 06/23/2022,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, Canada, career development, change, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, credentialing, dangers of the status quo, Design Thinking, economics, education, education reform, education technology, emerging technologies, ethics, Europe, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, health, higher education, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, morals/values, Natural Language Processing (NLP), pace of change, reinvent, skills, society, sociology, staying relevant, surviving, technology (general), training / L&D, trends, universities, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
The Future of Education | By Futurist Gerd Leonhard | A Video for EduCanada — from futuristgerd.com
Per Gerd:
Recently, I was invited by the Embassy of Canada in Switzerland to create this special presentation and promotional video discussing the Future of Education and to explore how Canada might be leading the way. Here are some of the key points I spoke about in the video. Watch the whole thing here: the Future of Education.
…because by 2030, I believe, the traditional way of learning — just in case — you know storing, downloading information will be replaced by learning just in time, on-demand, learning to learn, unlearning, relearning, and the importance of being the right person. Character skills, personality skills, traits, they may very well rival the value of having the right degree.
…
If you learn like a robot…you’ll never have a job to begin with.
Gerd Leonhard
Also relevant/see:
The Next 10 Years: Rethinking Work and Revolutionising Education (Gerd Leonhard’s keynote in Riga) — from futuristgerd.com
On 06/14/2022,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), Blockchain, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, communications, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, distance education, ethics, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, internet, IT in HE, languages and translation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, Metaverse, Natural Language Processing (NLP), online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, society, technology (general), telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, tools, training / L&D, trends, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, Web3, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
Will Learning Move into the Metaverse? — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Pamela Hogle
Excerpt:
In its 2022 Tech Trends report, the Future Today Institute predicts that, “The future of work will become more digitally immersive as companies deploy virtual meeting platforms, digital experiences, and mixed reality worlds.”
Learning leaders are likely to spearhead the integration of their organizations’ workers into a metaverse, whether by providing training in using the tools that make a metaverse possible or through developing training and performance support resources that learners will use in an immersive environment.
Advantages of moving some workplace collaboration and learning into a metaverse include ease of scaling and globalization. The Tech Trends report mentions personalization at scale and easy multilingual translation as advantages of “synthetic media”—algorithmically generated digital content, which could proliferate in metaverses.
Also see:
Also from learningsolutionsmag.com, see:
Manage Diverse Learning Ecosystems with Federated Governance
Excerpt:
So, over time, the L&D departments eventually go back to calling their own shots.
What does this mean for the learning ecosystem? If each L&D team chooses its own learning platforms, maintenance and support will be a nightmare. Each L&D department may be happy with the autonomy but learners have no patience for navigating multiple LMSs or going to several systems to get their training records.
Creating common infrastructure among dispersed groups
Here you have the problem: How can groups that have no accountability to each other share a common infrastructure?