lifelong learning

This is likely the No. 1 thing affecting your job performance [Markman]

On 06/15/2019, in career development, corporate / business world, generational differences, ideas, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning theories, lifelong learning, memory, metacognition / metacognitive skills, microlearning, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

This is likely the No. 1 thing affecting your job performance — from fastcompany.com by Art Markman
Hint: It all starts with figuring out what you don’t know.

Excerpts:

Learning on the job is probably the single most important factor driving your performance at work. You won’t know everything you need to about your job when you’re hired, no matter how good your education is or how much experience you had in previous positions. The road to learning starts with a willingness to admit what you don’t know and an interest in learning new things.

The ability to know what you know and what you don’t know is called metacognition—that is, the process of thinking about your thinking. Your cognitive brain has a sophisticated ability to assess what you do and don’t know. You use several sources of information to make this judgment.
…
One important social aspect of the Dunning-Kruger effect is that it often leads to tension between younger employees and the firms they work for. People who don’t really understand what skills are required for success in a particular domain may overestimate their own abilities and minimize their perception of the gap between themselves and more senior members of a firm. As a result, they won’t understand why they aren’t being promoted faster and will quickly get frustrated in the early stages of their career. The more you appreciate everything involved in expert performance, the more patient you can be with your own development.

After you get the hang of a new position, be strategic about what you learn. You probably need a wider range of expertise than you think. Solving hard problems at work requires drawing not just on expertise from within the domain of your work, but also on knowledge about other areas that may not have seemed relevant at first.

Blockchain: The move from freedom to the rigid, dominant system in learning — from oeb.global by Inge de Waard
In this post Inge de Waard gives an overview of current Blockchain options from industry and looks at its impact on universities as well as philosophises on its future.

Excerpt:

I mentioned a couple of Blockchain certification options already, but an even more advanced blockchain in learning example has entered on my radar too. It is a Russian implementation called Disciplina. This platform combines education (including vocational training), recruiting (comparable with what LinkedIn is doing with its economic graph) and careers for professionals. All of this is combined into a blockchain solution that keeps track of all the learners’ journey. The platform includes not only online courses as we know it but also coaching. After each training, you get a certificate.

TeachMePlease, which is a partner of Disciplina, enables teachers and students to find each other for specific professional training as well as curriculum-related children’s schooling. Admittedly, these initiatives are still being rolled out in terms of courses, but it clearly shows where the next learning will be located: in an umbrella above all the universities and professional academies. At present, the university courses are being embedded into course offerings by corporations that roll out a layer post-university, or post-vocational schooling.

Europe embraces blockchain, as can be seen with their EU Blockchain observatory and forum. And in a more national action, Malta is storing their certifications in a blockchain nationwide as well. We cannot deny that blockchain is getting picked up by both companies and governments. Universities have been piloting several blockchain certification options, and they also harbour some of the leading voices in the debate on blockchain certification.

Also see:

7 blockchain mistakes and how to avoid them — from computerworld.com by Lucas Mearian
The blockchain industry is still something of a wild west, with many cloud service offerings and a large universe of platforms that can vary greatly in their capabilities. So enterprises should beware jumping to conclusions about the technology.

Going Beyond the Digital Diploma — from campustechnology.com by Sara Friedman

Excerpts:

“We see great opportunities with this platform to create a more streamlined approach to help with students transferring, receiving degrees, honoring requests to verify degrees and to admit new students and evaluate their transcripts,” said ECPI University CIO Jeff Arthur. “The ability to let someone hold all of their accomplishments on their phone and have them to share with anybody in a way that is secure and reliable — without having to chase down entities to verify — is attractive to us.”
…
College and university CIOs also hope that blockchain technology can help to streamline other administrative functions. For instance, the ability to transfer credits between institutions could be simplified, according to Arthur.

The next big leap for blockchain in the higher education space is likely to be the ability to put badges and certificates for technical skills on the chain.

“We want to create a lifelong learning approach where people who want to represent their skills and experience can do so through a blockchain-based app,” said Callahan.

“Belief in Learning Styles Myth May Be Detrimental” [APA] + 5 other items on the lack of support for learning styles

On 06/03/2019, in active learning, adjunct faculty, assessment, blended learning, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, higher education, ideas, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, learning preferences, learning theories, lifelong learning, love of learning, more voice more choice more control, motivation, multimedia, online learning, passions, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, psychology, research, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, training / L&D, universities, youth, by Daniel Christian

Belief in Learning Styles Myth May Be Detrimental — from apa.org
Many people believe learning styles predict academic and career success, study finds

Excerpts:

WASHINGTON — Many people, including educators, believe learning styles are set at birth and predict both academic and career success even though there is no scientific evidence to support this common myth, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
…
Previous surveys in the United States and other industrialized countries across the world have shown that 80% to 95% of people believe in learning styles. It’s difficult to say how that myth became so widespread, Nancekivell said.

Also see:

Maybe They’re Born With It, or Maybe It’s Experience: Toward a Deeper Understanding of the Learning Style Myth — from apa.org by Shaylene E. Nancekivell, Priti Shah, and Susan A. Gelman
.
Learning Styles are NOT an Effective Guide for Learning Design — from debunker.club
Excerpt:
The strength of evidence against the use of learning styles is very strong. To put it simply, using learning styles to design or deploy learning is not likely to lead to improved learning effectiveness. While it may be true that learners have different learning preferences, those preference are not likely to be a good guide for learning. The bottom line is that when we design learning, there are far better heuristics to use than learning styles.
.
Learning styles: Worth our time? — from Cathy Moore
.
Learning Styles Debunked: There is No Evidence Supporting Auditory and Visual Learning, Psychologists Say — from psychologicalscience.org
.
Learning Styles FAQ — by Daniel Willingham
Excerpt:
How can you not believe that that people learn differently? Isn’t it obvious?
People do learn differently, but I think it is very important to say exactly how they learn differently, and focus our attention on those differences that really matter. If learning styles were obviously right it would be easy to observe evidence for them in experiments. Yet there is no supporting evidence. There are differences among kids that both seem obvious to us and for which evidence is easily obtained in experiments, e.g., that people differ in their interests, that students vary in how much they think of schoolwork as part of their identity (“I’m the kind of kid who works hard in school”) and that kids differ in what they already know at the start of a lesson. All three of these have sizable, easily observed effects on learning. I think that often when people believe that they observe obvious evidence for learning styles, they are mistaking it for ability.

From DSC:
While I’ve heard and read through the years that there isn’t support for learning styles — and I’ve come to adopt that perspective as well due to what I’ve read, such as the items listed above — I do think that each of us has our learning preferences (as the debunker club mentioned as well). That is, how we prefer to learn about a new subject:

Some people like to read the manual.
Others never pick up the manual…they prefer to use the trial and error / hands-on method.
Some people prefer to listen to audio books.
Others prefer to watch videos.
Others like to read about a new topic.
Others like to study in a very quiet place — while others prefer some background noise.
Some people love to learn in a 100% online-based mode…some people hate it, and that delivery method doesn’t work as well for them.

Along these lines…in my mind, offering learning in multiple media and in multiple ways maximizes the enjoyment of learning by a group of people. And now that we’re all into lifelong learning, the enjoyment of learning has notched waaay up in importance in my book. The more we enjoy learning, the more we enjoy life (and vice versa).

In fact, I’m getting closer to the point of putting enjoyment of learning over grades in terms of importance. Grades are a way to compare people/school systems/colleges/universities/etcetera…they are the currency of our current systems…and they are used to “incentivize” students. But such systems and methods often produce game players, not learners.

Introduction: Leading the social enterprise—Reinvent with a human focus
2019 Global Human Capital Trends — from deloitte.com by Volini?, Schwartz? ?, Roy?, Hauptmann, Van Durme, Denny, and Bersin

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Learning in the flow of life. The number-one trend for 2019 is the need for organizations to change the way people learn; 86 percent of respondents cited this as an important or very important issue. It’s not hard to understand why. Evolving work demands and skills requirements are creating an enormous demand for new skills and capabilities, while a tight labor market is making it challenging for organizations to hire people from outside. Within this context, we see three broader trends in how learning is evolving: It is becoming more integrated with work; it is becoming more personal; and it is shifting—slowly—toward lifelong models. Effective reinvention along these lines requires a culture that supports continuous learning, incentives that motivate people to take advantage of learning opportunities, and a focus on helping individuals identify and develop new, needed skills.

Wouldn’t this be cool if we could do this? Perhaps this is a piece of our future learning ecosystems. [Christian]

On 05/13/2019, in assessment, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, law schools, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, marketplaces, memory, Michigan, Natural Language Processing (NLP), new business models, online learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, second screen apps, smart classrooms, society, streams of content, student-related, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, TVs, United States, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Re: the Learning from the Living [Class] Room vision of a next gen learning platform…

…wouldn’t it be cool if you could use your voice to ask your smart/connected “TV” type of device:

“Show me the test questions for Torts I from WMU-Cooley Law School. Cooley could then charge $0.99 for these questions.”

Then, the system knows how you did on answering those questions. The ones you got right, you don’t get asked to review as often as the ones you got wrong. As you get a question right more often, the less you are asked to answer it.

You sign up for such streams of content — and the system assesses you periodically. This helps a person keep certain topics/information fresh in their memory. This type of learning method would be incredibly helpful for students trying to pass the Bar or other types of large/summative tests — especially when a student has to be able to recall information that they learned over the last 3-5 years.

Come to think of it…this method could help all of us in learning new disciplines/topics throughout our lifetimes. Sign up for the streams of content that you want to learn more about…and drop the (no-longer relevant) subscriptions as needed..

We need to tap into streams of content in our next gen learning platform

This article discusses the serious amount of age discrimination going on out there!

On 05/11/2019, in business, career development, future, game-changing environment, higher education, lifelong learning, parents/guardians, professional development, psychology, society, training / L&D, trends, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

3 million older Americans can’t find high-paying jobs, and it has nothing to do with skills. Here’s the one barrier they face that no one’s addressing. — from businessinsider.com by Allana Akhtar

Excerpts (emphasis below by DSC):

The share of older workers in the US labor force is increasing rapidly, causing new discussions on how to train a 55-plus population for highly skilled jobs.
Much of the jobs older workers take come from low-wage industries. One solution to get older workers high-paying jobs is to train them in skills these industries need.
Still, activists say that without addressing ageism, older workers will not find high-paying work at the same rate younger workers do.

In light of the aging workforce, experts say getting an education at age 22 will not last if Americans work into their 80s.

Yet activists argue the biggest barrier to entry for older workers isn’t a lack of skills: ***it’s ageism.***

An investigation by ProPublica last year found more than half of US workers are pushed out of longtime jobs before they choose to retire. Seniors who want to work yet cannot find the opportunity to do so are often broke: the share of US workers who have suffered financially damaging, employer driven job separation after 50 increased from 10% in 1998 to 30% as of 2016, ProPublica found.

“Most older adults really have come to face that they are not going to make the same salaries,” Fisher said. “People who lose their jobs in their 50s are really in big trouble. It is very hard to get another job.”

Blockchain stats, facts, & trends in 2019 and beyond [Curtis]

On 05/03/2019, in 21st century, Asia, Blockchain, business, business side of he, change, colleges, community colleges, credentialing, education, emerging technologies, future, higher education, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, trends, United States, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Blockchain stats, facts, & trends in 2019 and beyond — from yourtechdiet.com by Brian Curtis

Blockchain Predictions for 2019 & Beyond

Market value projection of the blockchain industry will be $60 billion by 2020.
By the end of 2019, global spending on blockchain solutions is projected to reach about 2.9 billion U.S. dollars and also projected to reach 11.7 billion by 2022.
In 2022, the U.S’ expenditures on blockchain solutions is projected to reach 4.2 billion U.S. dollars, thus making it the largest spender.
Finance is the biggest Blockchain value sector with a market share of 60.5 percent.
The market value of blockchain in the food and agriculture market, globally, is projected to climb 1.4 billion U.S. dollars by 2028.
In a research, 30 percent of respondents considered China to be the territory leader in blockchain technology development from 2021-2023.
The blockchain spending of China is forecasted to grow to 1.42 billion U.S. dollars by 2022.
The blockchain market value in South Korea is forecasted to reach 356.2 billion by 2022.
It is projected that, by 2025, 55 percent of healthcare applications will adopt blockchain for commercial deployment.

Also see:

Is Blockchain Technology a Blessing in Disguise for Education? — from yourtechdiet.com by Brian Curtis
AWS Blockchain-as-a-Service: Blockchain-without-the-Overhead — from futurumresearch.com by Fred McClimans
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Smart contracts for financial, real estate or insurance, where digital contracts can evolve and change according to actions written to the blockchain (such as the transfer of an asset from one entity to another, which triggers an updated contract with new ownership and new follow-on actions, e.g. auto leaves the showroom floor triggering a financial transaction, an ownership change, and a new insurance contract).
9 Universities to Collaborate on Digital Credentials Initiative — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

What if the future of work starts with high school [McGowan]

On 05/03/2019, in 21st century, career development, education, future, heutagogy, ideas, K-12 related, lifelong learning, reinvent, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, technology (general), workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

What if the future of work starts with high school — from gettingsmart.com by Heather McGowan
The work of the future will require a robust system of lifelong learning and high school may just be the fulcrum in that system, best positioned to make the necessary profound changes across the system.

Excerpts:

Many have approached the challenge of rethinking high school and the imperative to do so continues to grow. There are a number of efforts now underway that look promising because they are not simply about what is taught but how. These efforts put the student at the center with the responsibility for his or her own learning.
…
Whatever we decide to call it, to thrive in this fourth industrial revolution, where technology can assume many of our routine cognitive tasks, we need a robust system of life-long learning that begins with a reimagined high school to establish a strong foundation of learning agility and adaptability.

From DSC:
Here’s a ~4 minute piece from CBS News re: student loan debt.

Here are two excerpts from that video:

From DSC to potential college students:
You need to know that the ramifications of this type of debt can last for decades! Do everything you possibly can to either not borrow anything or to minimize these types of loan amounts.

This is another reason why the United States desperately needs a ***next generation learning platform*** — one that’s convenient, very inexpensive, and one that can also help people quickly reinvent themselves! One that is highly social, features human Subject Matter Experts (SME’s), and is backed up by #AI – based apps/features as well.

Along these lines…no longer are we running sprints (i.e., get a 4-year degree and you’re done). We’re now all running marathons (i.e., we’re now into lifelong learning in order to stay relevant and employed).

Also, the following item was announced today:

Cengage and McGraw-Hill to Merge, Providing Students with More Affordable Access to Superior Course Materials and Platforms — from businesswire.com
Excerpt:
NEW YORK & BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–McGraw-Hill and Cengage today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine in an all-stock merger on equal terms. The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies, will bring together two premier learning companies that will deliver significant benefits for students, educators, professionals and institutions worldwide.“The new company will offer a broad range of best-in-class content – delivered through digital platforms at an affordable price,” said Michael E. Hansen, CEO of Cengage. “Together, we will usher in an era in which all students can afford the quality learning materials needed to succeed – regardless of their socioeconomic status or the institution they attend. Additionally, the combined company will have robust financial strength to invest in next-generation products, technology and services that create superior experiences and value for millions of students.”

Also see:

From DSC:
Along these lines, I don’t think Cengage/McGraw-Hill will be the largest company on the Internet by 2030 as predicted by Thomas Frey (a prediction I think he’s right on with…by the way). They were on watch when the prices of learning-related materials soared through the years. As such, they’ve likely burned through a great deal of good will…but we’ll see. They might be able to persuade myself and others that they’re the platform of choice for the future. Time will tell I guess.

Coursera raises $103 million to prepare online learners for the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ — from venturebeat.com by Paul Sawers

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Founded in 2012, Coursera is one of a number of well-funded MOOCs — massive open online courses — to emerge. Coursera partners with universities and other educational institutions to deliver online courses to 40 million students, covering subjects like technology, business, science, and even autonomous cars.
…
“The fourth industrial revolution, marked by advancements in automation and artificial intelligence, is dramatically reshaping our lives, businesses, and jobs,” noted Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda. “Coursera is at the forefront of preparing individuals, companies, and governments to meet that challenge head-on and turn this disruption into opportunity. The additional funding gives us the resources and flexibility to further expand internationally and to accelerate the development of a learning platform that currently serves 40 million learners, 1,800 businesses, and over 150 top universities.”

Minerva’s Innovative Platform Makes Quality Higher Ed Personal and Affordable [Vander Ark]

On 04/22/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, distance education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, ideas, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, lifelong learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, online learning, online tutoring, platforms, second screen apps, society, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, television, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, webinars, by Daniel Christian

Minerva’s Innovative Platform Makes Quality Higher Ed Personal and Affordable — from linkedin.com by Tom Vander Ark

Excerpt:

The first external partner, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), loved the course design and platform but told Nelson they couldn’t afford to teach 15 students at a time. The Minerva team realized that to be applicable at major universities, active learning needed to be scalable.

Starting this summer, a new version of Forum will be available for classes of up to 400 at a time. For students, it will still feel like a small seminar. They’ll see the professor, themselves, and a dozen other students. Forum will manage the movement of students from screen to screen. “Everybody thinks they are in the main room,” said Nelson.
…
Forum enables real-time polling and helps professors create and manage breakout groups.
…
Big Implications
With Forum, “For the first time you can deliver better than Ivy League education at absurdly low cost,” said Nelson.

Online courses and MOOCs just repackaged the same format and just offered it with less interaction. As new Forum partners will demonstrate, “It’s possible to deliver a year of undergraduate education that is vastly superior for under $5,000 per student,” added Nelson.

He’s excited to offer a turnkey university solution that, for partners like Oxford Teachers Academy, will allow new degree pathways for paraprofessionals that can work, learn, and earn a degree and certification.

Perhaps another piece of the puzzle is falling into place…

The Growing Profile of Non-Degree Credentials: Diving Deeper into ‘Education Credentials Come of Age’ [Gallagher]

On 04/17/2019, in 21st century, accreditation, assessment, career development, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, dangers of the status quo, digital learning, distance education, face-to-face, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, heutagogy, higher education, ideas, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, lifelong learning, Michigan, microlearning, Microsoft, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, new business models, online learning, platforms, student-related, technology (general), training / L&D, trends, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

The Growing Profile of Non-Degree Credentials: Diving Deeper into ‘Education Credentials Come of Age’ — from evolllution.com by Sean Gallagher
Higher education is entering a “golden age” of lifelong learning and that will mean a spike in demand for credentials. If postsecondary institutions want to compete in a crowded market, they need to change fast.

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

One of the first levels of opportunity is simply embedding the skills that are demanded in the job market into educational programs. Education certainly has its own merits independent of professional outcomes. But critics of higher education who suggest graduates aren’t prepared for the workforce have a point in terms of the opportunity for greater job market alignment, and less of an “ivory tower” mentality at many institutions. Importantly, this does not mean that there isn’t value in the liberal arts and in broader ways of thinking—problem solving, leadership, critical thinking, analysis, and writing are among the very top skills demanded by employers across all educational levels. These are foundational and independent of technical skills.

The second opportunity is building an ecosystem for better documentation and sharing of skills—in a sense what investor Ryan Craig has termed a “competency marketplace.” Employers’ reliance on college degrees as relatively blunt signals of skill and ability is partly driven by the fact that there aren’t many strong alternatives. Technology—and the growth of platforms like LinkedIn, ePortfolios and online assessments—is changing the game. One example is digital badges, which were originally often positioned as substitutes to degrees or certificates.

Instead, I believe digital badges are a supplement to degrees and we’re increasingly seeing badges—short microcredentials that discretely and digitally document competency—woven into degree programs, from the community college to the graduate degree level.

However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the market is demanding more “agile” and shorter-form approaches to education. Many institutions are making this a strategic priority, especially as we read the evolution of trends in the global job market and soon enter the 2020s.

Online education—which in all its forms continues to slowly and steadily grow its market share in terms of all higher ed instruction—is certainly an enabler of this vision, given what we know about pedagogy and the ability to digitally document outcomes.

In addition, 64 percent of the HR leaders we surveyed said that the need for ongoing lifelong learning will demand higher levels of education and more credentials in the future.

Along these lines of online-based collaboration and learning,
go to the 34 minute mark of this video:

From DSC:
The various pieces are coming together to build the next generation learning platform. Although no one has all of the pieces yet, the needs/trends/signals are definitely there.

Addendums on 4/20/19:

Community Colleges And Tech Companies Are Co-Branding Credentials To Solve The Skills Gap — from forbes.com by Allison Dulin Salisbury

DC: The larger 85” model could be interesting to use in smaller classrooms that bring face-to-face students on campus w/ remote students. https://t.co/c2lvG2VoM3

— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) April 19, 2019

Microsoft and OpenClassrooms to train students to fill high-demand AI jobs

On 04/15/2019, in 21st century, career development, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, Europe, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, Microsoft, online learning, society, student-related, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Microsoft and OpenClassrooms to train students to fill high-demand AI jobs — from news.microsoft.com

Excerpt:

Strategic partnership aims to address the talent gap in technology hiring
PARIS – April 3, 2019 – Microsoft Corp. and online education leader OpenClassrooms are announcing a new partnership to train and prepare students for artificial intelligence (AI) jobs in the workplace. The collaboration is designed to provide more students with access to education to learn in-demand skills and to qualify for high-tech jobs, while giving employers access to great talent to fill high-tech roles.
…
The demand for next-generation artificial intelligence skills has far outpaced the number of candidates in the job market. One estimate suggests that, by 2022, a talent shortage will leave as many as 30% of AI and data skills jobs open.

Students who complete the program are guaranteed a job within six months or they will receive a full refund from OpenClassrooms.

Also see:

Tesla START: Student Automotive Technician Program

Excerpt:

Tesla START is an intensive training program designed to provide students across North America with the skills necessary for a successful career with Tesla—at the forefront of the electric vehicle revolution. During the program, students will develop technical expertise and earn certifications through a blended approach of in-class theory, hands-on labs and self-paced learning.

We are partnering with colleges across the country to integrate Tesla START into automotive technician curriculums as a 12-week capstone—providing students with a smooth transition from college to full-time employment.

Reflections on “Five Principles for Thinking Like a Futurist” [Gorbis]

On 04/11/2019, in blogs / blogging / vlogging, business side of he, change, changing business models, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, credentialing, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, learning, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, microlearning, organizational change, pace of change, reinvent, RSS, society, sociology, staying relevant, streams of content, student-related, surviving, technology (general), tools, trends, universities, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Five Principles for Thinking Like a Futurist — from er.educause.edu by Marina Gorbis

Excerpt:

In 2018 we celebrated the fifty-year anniversary of the founding of the Institute for the Future (IFTF). No other futures organization has survived for this long; we’ve actually survived our own forecasts! In these five decades we learned a lot, and we still believe—even more strongly than before—that systematic thinking about the future is absolutely essential for helping people make better choices today, whether you are an individual or a member of an educational institution or government organization. We view short-termism as the greatest threat not only to organizations but to society as a whole.

In my twenty years at the Institute, I’ve developed five core principles for futures thinking:

Forget about predictions.
Focus on signals.*
Look back to see forward.
Uncover patterns.*
Create a community.

* From DSC:
I have a follow up thought regarding those bullet points about signals and patterns. With today’s exponential pace of technological change, I have asserted for several years now that our students — and all of us really — need to be skilled in pulse-checking the relevant landscapes around us. That’s why I’m a big fan of regularly tapping into — and contributing towards — streams of content. Subscribing to RSS feeds, following organizations and/or individuals on Twitter, connecting with people on LinkedIn, etc. Doing so will help us identify trends, patterns, and the signals that Marina talks about in her article.

It reminds me of the following graphic from January 2017:

Learning Ecosystems

This is likely the No. 1 thing affecting your job performance [Markman]

Blockchain and AI in learning and in education [de Waard]

This article discusses the serious amount of age discrimination going on out there!

Blockchain stats, facts, & trends in 2019 and beyond [Curtis]

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