pace of change

From DSC:
Are we neglecting to ask some key questions within higher education? I’ll get to those questions in a moment, the ones that came to my mind after seeing the following posting:

The robots are coming for your job! Why digital literacy is so important for the jobs of the future — from theconversation.com

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

In a report released this week, the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) claims that up to 70% of young people are preparing for jobs that will no longer exist in the future. The report also raises concerns about decreasing entry-level occupations for school leavers and the impacts of automation.

In another recent report, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia predicts that:

almost five million Australian jobs – around 40% of the workforce – face the high probability of being replaced by computers in the next 10 to 15 years.

…

The FYA report also makes the case for increased emphasis on developing digital literacy and the implementation of a digital technologies curriculum in primary school.

Digital literacy includes skills such as coding, data synthesis and manipulation, as well as the design, use and management of computerised, digital and automated systems. Success in the new work order requires these skills alongside lateral thinking, innovation, problem-solving, collaboration and entrepreneurship. Add these to the traditional literacy skills of reading and writing and you have a very complex picture of what literacy is.

With automation a real threat to future jobs, school curricula have to keep up with the times.

From DSC:
The article raises an important point: “At the same time, the question of how we are preparing students in our schools for the new work order also bears serious consideration.”

I couldn’t agree more, as there are enormous ramifications to this topic/question: Are we, in fact, preparing our students for the future that they will inherit?

I suppose I could have also titled this posting, “More reasons to support the liberal arts,” as the liberal arts lay a strong foundation for many of the twists and turns that our students (and ourselves) will encounter down the road.

However, I fear that even within our liberal arts programs, we aren’t offering quite enough new courses that would help our students deal with a rapidly changing world. For example, I would like to see more courses on futurism offered — training students to look up and pulse check a variety of items that could impact them, their families, or their businesses in the future. Also, I don’t think they are going to know how to run their own businesses or to effectively freelance, something that 30-50% of them are going to need to do (depending upon which articles and reports one reads).

Also, why aren’t we offering more online-based opportunities for students to encounter learning opportunities and discussions that involve people from all over the globe? Won’t they be on project teams like that in the future? Isn’t that occurring already?

What do you think…how are we doing here? How are things in your city, state, or country?

What might our learning ecosystems look like by 2025? [Christian]

On 07/31/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, adult learning, analytics, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, business side of he, career development, changing business models, 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, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, digital storytelling, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, expectations, experimentation, formal learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, informal learning, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, liberal arts, lifelong learning, marketplaces, mobile learning, more voice more choice more control, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pace of change, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, reinvent, second screen apps, social learning / networks, staying relevant, streams of content, student-related, surviving, technologies for your home, technology (general), telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, TVs, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

This posting can also be seen out at evoLLLution.com (where LLL stands for lifelong learning):

From DSC:
What might our learning ecosystems look like by 2025?

In the future, learning “channels” will offer more choice, more control. They will be far more sophisticated than what we have today.

That said, what the most important aspects of online course design end up being 10 years from now depends upon what types of “channels” I think there will be and what might be offered via those channels. By channels, I mean forms, methods, and avenues of learning that a person could pursue and use. In 2015, some example channels might be:

Attending a community college, a college or a university to obtain a degree
Obtaining informal learning during an internship
Using social media such as Twitter or LinkedIn
Reading blogs, books, periodicals, etc.

In 2025, there will likely be new and powerful channels for learning that will be enabled by innovative forms of communications along with new software, hardware, technologies, and other advancements. For examples, one could easily imagine:

That the trajectory of deep learning and artificial intelligence will continue, opening up new methods of how we might learn in the future
That augmented and virtual reality will allow for mobile learning to the Nth degree
That the trend of Competency Based Education (CBE) and microcredentials may be catapulted into the mainstream via the use of big data-related affordances

Due to time and space limitations, I’ll focus here on the more formal learning channels that will likely be available online in 2025. In that environment, I think we’ll continue to see different needs and demands – thus we’ll still need a menu of options. However, the learning menu of 2025 will be more personalized, powerful, responsive, sophisticated, flexible, granular, modularized, and mobile.

Highly responsive, career-focused track

One part of the menu of options will focus on addressing the demand for more career-focused information and learning that is available online (24×7). Even in 2015, with the U.S. government saying that 40% of today’s workers now have ‘contingent’ jobs and others saying that percentage will continue climbing to 50% or more, people will be forced to learn quickly in order to stay marketable. Also, the 1/2 lives of information may not last very long, especially if we continue on our current trajectory of exponential change (vs. linear change).

However, keeping up with that pace of change is currently proving to be out of reach for most institutions of higher education, especially given the current state of accreditation and governance structures throughout higher education as well as how our current teaching and learning environment is set up (i.e., the use of credit hours, 4 year degrees, etc.). By 2025, accreditation will have been forced to change to allow for alternative forms of learning and for methods of obtaining credentials. Organizations that offer channels with a more vocational bent to them will need to be extremely responsive, as they attempt to offer up-to-date, highly-relevant information that will immediately help people be more employable and marketable. Being nimble will be the name of the game in this arena. Streams of content will be especially important here. There may not be enough time to merit creating formal, sophisticated courses on many career-focused topics.

With streams of content, the key value provided by institutions will be to curate the most relevant, effective, reliable, up-to-date content…so one doesn’t have to drink from the Internet’s firehose of information. Such streams of content will also offer constant potential, game-changing scenarios and will provide a pulse check on a variety of trends that could affect an industry. Social-based learning will be key here, as learners contribute to each other’s learning. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) will need to be knowledgeable facilitators of learning; but given the pace of change, true experts will be rare indeed.

Microcredentials, nanodegrees, competency-based education, and learning from one’s living room will be standard channels in 2025. Each person may have a web-based learner profile by then and the use of big data will keep that profile up-to-date regarding what any given individual has been learning about and what skills they have mastered.

For example, even currently in 2015, a company called StackUp creates their StackUp Report to add to one’s resume or grades, asserting that their services can give “employers and schools new metrics to evaluate your passion, interests, and intellectual curiosity.” Stackup captures, categorizes, and scores everything you read and study online. So they can track your engagement on a given website, for example, and then score the time spent doing so. This type of information can then provide insights into the time you spend learning.

Project teams and employers could create digital playlists that prospective employees or contractors will have to advance through; and such teams and employers will be watching to see how the learners perform in proving their competencies.

However, not all learning will be in the fast lane and many people won’t want all of their learning to be constantly in the high gears. In fact, the same learner could be pursuing avenues in multiple tracks, traveling through their learning-related journeys at multiple speeds.

The more traditional liberal arts track

To address these varied learning preferences, another part of the menu will focus on channels that don’t need to change as frequently. The focus here won’t be on quickly-moving streams of content, but the course designers in this track can take a bit more time to offer far more sophisticated options and activities that people will enjoy going through.

Along these lines, some areas of the liberal arts* will fit in nicely here.

*Speaking of the liberal arts, a brief but important tangent needs to be addressed, for strategic purposes. While the following statement will likely be highly controversial, I’m going to say it anyway. Online learning could be the very thing that saves the liberal arts.

Why do I say this? Because as the price of higher education continues to increase, the dynamics and expectations of learners continue to change. As the prices continue to increase, so do peoples’ expectations and perspectives. So it may turn out that people are willing to pay a dollar range that ends up being a fraction of today’s prices. But such greatly reduced prices won’t likely be available in face-to-face environments, as offering these types of learning environment is expensive. However, such discounted prices can and could be offered via online-based environments. So, much to the chagrin of many in academia, online learning could be the very thing that provides the type of learning, growth, and some of the experiences that liberal arts programs have been about for centuries. Online learning can offer a lifelong supply of the liberal arts.

But I digress…
By 2025, a Subject Matter Expert (SME) will be able to offer excellent, engaging courses chocked full of the use of:

Engaging story/narrative
Powerful collaboration and communication tools
Sophisticated tracking and reporting
Personalized learning, tech-enabled scaffolding, and digital learning playlists
Game elements or even, in some cases, multiplayer games
Highly interactive digital videos with built-in learning activities
Transmedia-based outlets and channels
Mobile-based learning using AR, VR, real-world assignments, objects, and events
…and more.

However, such courses won’t be able to be created by one person. Their sophistication will require a team of specialists – and likely a list of vendors, algorithms, and/or open source-based tools – to design and deliver this type of learning track.

Final reflections

The marketplaces involving education-related content and technologies will likely look different. There could be marketplaces for algorithms as well as for very granular learning modules. In fact, it could be that modularization will be huge by 2025, allowing digital learning playlists to be built by an SME, a Provost, and/or a Dean (in addition to the aforementioned employer or project team). Any assistance that may be required by a learner will be provided either via technology (likely via an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled resource) and/or via a SME.

We will likely either have moved away from using Learning Management Systems (LMSs) or those LMSs will allow for access to far larger, integrated learning ecosystems.

Functionality wise, collaboration tools will still be important, but they might be mind-blowing to us living in 2015. For example, holographic-based communications could easily be commonplace by 2025. Where tools like IBM’s Watson, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google’s Deepmind, and Apple’s Siri end up in our future learning ecosystems is hard to tell, but will likely be there. New forms of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) will likely be mainstream by 2025.

While the exact menu of learning options is unclear, what is clear is that change is here today and will likely be here tomorrow. Those willing to experiment, to adapt, and to change have a far greater likelihood of surviving and thriving in our future learning ecosystems.

Beyond Automation [Harvard Business Review; Davenport & Kirby]

On 07/17/2015, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, change, corporate / business world, economics, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, new business models, pace of change, robotics, society, staying relevant, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Beyond Automation — from hbr.org by Thomas Davenport & Julia Kirby

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

After hearing of a recent Oxford University study on advancing automation and its potential to displace workers, Yuh-Mei Hutt, of Tallahassee, Florida, wrote, “The idea that half of today’s jobs may vanish has changed my view of my children’s future.” Hutt was reacting not only as a mother; she heads a business and occasionally blogs about emerging technologies. Familiar as she is with the upside of computerization, the downside looms large. “How will they compete against AI?” she asked. “How will they compete against a much older and experienced workforce vying for even fewer positions?”

Suddenly, it seems, people in all walks of life are becoming very concerned about advancing automation. And they should be: Unless we find as many tasks to give humans as we find to take away from them, all the social and psychological ills of joblessness will grow, from economic recession to youth unemployment to individual crises of identity (*DC insert: See my footnote below). That’s especially true now that automation is coming to knowledge work, in the form of artificial intelligence. Knowledge work—which we’ll define loosely as work that is more mental than manual, involves consequential decision making, and has traditionally required a college education—accounts for a large proportion of jobs in today’s mature economies. It is the high ground to which humanity has retreated as machines have taken over less cognitively challenging work. But in the very foreseeable future, as the Gartner analyst Nigel Rayner says, “many of the things executives do today will be automated.”

From DSC:
* These are the types of concerns I was trying to get at when I asked the question: Which street do we care more about, Wall Street or Main Street?

If the we make decisions solely on the basis of the bottom lines and with an eye solely on shareholders, we could have some major issues to deal with. We must consider the effects of automation on Main Street, not just on Wall Street.

What Learners Really Want — from clomedia.com by Todd Tauber
Listen to your learners: They want speed, diversity and adaptability in internal development programs.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Everyone knows most learning happens beyond the classroom walls and outside learning management systems. But new research shows just how much — and the data are startling.

In the past year, learning technology company Degreed conducted two separate surveys that show workers spend four to five times more time on self-directed learning than on internal or external learning offerings. They invest more than 14 hours a month, on average, learning on their own but just two to three hours on employer-provided learning.

Those numbers should inform how and why development needs to evolve — urgently.
…
Learners want easier and faster access to answers. Degreed found almost 70 percent of workers say the first thing they do when they need to learn something for their jobs is Google it, then read or watch what they find. About 42 percent look for a live or online course, but they do it on their own. Fewer than 12 percent turn to their learning organization first.

Learning and development people do pretty much the same thing. They are “Googling it” too, and not just because it’s expedient. By a 3.5 to 1 margin, people believe self-directed learning is more effective in helping them succeed at work than taking part in company sponsored learning. These are mature adults. They have a good idea what they need.
…
Learners want to leverage the whole learning ecosystem. Informal learning initiatives should be valued because workers believe as much as 60 percent of the knowledge and skills they use on the job comes from informal learning.

From DSC:
I agree with Todd that this is where learning ecosystems come in. Employees are trying to use a variety of tools and methods to tap into streams of up-do-date content.

To me, the charter of those involved with corporate training/development should be to help employees learn about the current set of tools available to them and how to use such tools. Then do the necessary research to give employees a place to begin using those tools — such as whom should a particular group of employees should follow on Twitter or Scoop.It, which websites/blogs are especially well done and applicable to their particular positions and area of expertise, etc.

The pace of change has changed and at times, it’s moving too fast to create formal learning materials. We need to tap into streams of content. Perhaps those in corporate U’s could even be helping to curate and create the most beneficial streams of content for their employees in key strategic areas — and doing so using small, bite-sized chunks. They could recommend — and to some degree even provide — the platforms employees could use for self-directed learning. This self-directed learning wouldn’t be all alone though — each employee would be building and interacting with folks within their own Personal Learning Network (PLN); each person’s learning ecosystem would likely look different from others’ learning ecosystems.

Also relevant/see:

Heutagogy Community of Practice

From DSC:
Many times we don’t want to hear news that could be troubling in terms of our futures. But we need to deal with these trends now or face the destabilization that Harold Jarche mentions in his posting below.

The topics found in the following items should be discussed in courses involving economics, business, political science, psychology, futurism, engineering, religion*, robotics, marketing, the law/legal affairs and others throughout the world. These trends are massive and have enormous ramifications for our societies in the not-too-distant future.

* When I mention religion classes here, I’m thinking of questions such as :

What does God have in mind for the place of work in our lives?
Is it good for us? If so, why or why not?
How might these trends impact one’s vocation/calling?
…and I’m sure that professors who teach faith/
religion-related courses can think of other questions to pursue

turmoil and transition — from jarche.com by Harold Jarche

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

One of the greatest issues that will face Canada, and many developed countries in the next decade will be wealth distribution. While it does not currently appear to be a major problem, the disparity between rich and poor will increase. The main reason will be the emergence of a post-job economy. The ‘job’ was the way we redistributed wealth, making capitalists pay for the means of production and in return creating a middle class that could pay for mass produced goods. That period is almost over. From self-driving vehicles to algorithms replacing knowledge workers, employment is not keeping up with production. Value in the network era is accruing to the owners of the platforms, with companies such as Instagram reaching $1 billion valuations with only 13 employees.
…
The emerging economy of platform capitalism includes companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple. These giants combined do not employ as many people as General Motors did. But the money accrued by them is enormous and remains in a few hands. The rest of the labour market has to find ways to cobble together a living income. Hence we see many people willing to drive for a company like Uber in order to increase cash-flow. But drivers for Uber have no career track. The platform owners get richer, but the drivers are limited by finite time. They can only drive so many hours per day, and without benefits. At the same time, those self-driving cars are poised to replace all Uber drivers in the near future. Standardized work, like driving a vehicle, has little future in a world of nano-bio-cogno-techno progress.

Value in the network era is accruing to the owners of the platforms, with companies such as Instagram reaching $1 billion valuations with only 13 employees.

For the past century, the job was the way we redistributed wealth and protected workers from the negative aspects of early capitalism. As the knowledge economy disappears, we need to re-think our concepts of work, income, employment, and most importantly education. If we do not find ways to help citizens lead productive lives, our society will face increasing destabilization.

Also see:

Will artificial intelligence and robots take your marketing job? — from by markedu.com by
Technology will overtake jobs to an extent and at a rate we have not seen before. Artificial intelligence is threatening jobs even in service and knowledge intensive sectors. This begs the question: are robots threatening to take your marketing job?

Excerpt:

What exactly is a human job?
The benefits of artificial intelligence are obvious. Massive productivity gains while a new layer of personalized services from your computer – whether that is a burger robot or Dr. Watson. But artificial intelligence has a bias. Many jobs will be lost.

A few years ago a study from the University of Oxford got quite a bit of attention. The study said that 47 percent of the US labor market could be replaced by intelligent computers within the next 20 years.

The losers are a wide range of job categories within the administration, service, sales, transportation and manufacturing.

…

Before long we should – or must – redefine what exactly a human job is and the usefulness of it. How we as humans can best complement the extraordinary capabilities of artificial intelligence.

This development is expected to grow fast. There are different predictions about the timing, but by 2030 there will be very few tasks that only a human can solve.

IRIS.TV Finds Adaptive Video Personalization Increases Consumption by 50% — from appmarket.tv by Richard Kastelein

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

IRIS.TV, the leading in-player video recommendation engine, reports that its programmatic video delivery technology, Adaptive StreamTM, has increased video consumption by 50% across all its clients. The results of these findings just further solidifies that consumption of online video is significantly enhanced by a personalized user experience.

By integrating Adaptive StreamTM in their video players and mobile apps, IRIS.TV’s clients are able to deliver the most relevant streams of video to their viewers, just like TV. Yet unlike TV, viewers’ feedback is captured in real-time through interactive buttons, allowing the stream to dynamically adapt to the changing preferences.

Press Release: IRIS.TV Launches Personalized End-screen for Online Video with Kaltura — from iris.tv
IRIS.TV Partners with Kaltura to offer programmatic content delivery and in-player thumbnail recommendations

Excerpt:

Los Angeles, May 4, 2015 – IRIS.TV the leading programmatic content delivery system, today announced a new dynamic, personalized end-screen plugin for Kaltura, provider of the leading video technology platform.

IRIS.TV’s new plugin for Kaltura will offer clients of both a personalized and dynamic stream of video along with a personalized end-screen framework. Publishers can now provide users with both dynamic streams of video – powered by consumption and interaction – along with thumbnail choices specific to their real-time consumption habits. This new integration supplies publishers with additional tools to deliver a more personalized viewing experience in order to maximize viewer retention and video views. The partnership is aimed to help consumers discover relevant and engaging content while viewing across all connected devices.

From DSC:
Now imagine these same concepts of providing recommendation engines and personalized/dynamic/interactive streams of content, but this time apply those same concepts to delivering personalized, digital learning playlists on topics that you want to learn about. With the pace of change and a shrinking 1/2 life for many pieces of information, this could be a powerful way to keep abreast of any given topic. Team these concepts up with the idea of learning hubs — whereby some of the content is delivered electronically and some of the content is discussed/debated in a face-to-face manner — and you have some powerful, up-to-date opportunities for lifelong learning. Web-based learner profiles and services like Stack Up could continually populate one’s resume and list of skills — available to whomever you choose to make it available to.

Along these lines, also see:

Nearly 1 billion TV sets Internet connected by 2020 — from appmarket.tv
Excerpt:

The number of TV sets connected to the Internet will reach 965 million by 2020, up from 103 million at end-2010 and the 339 million expected at end-2014, according to a new report from Digital TV Research.Covering 51 countries, the Connected TV Forecasts report estimates that the proportion of TV sets connected to the Internet will rocket to 30.4% by 2020, up from only 4.2% at end-2010 and the 12.1% expected by end-2014. South Korea (52.7%) will have the highest proportion by 2020, followed by the UK (50.6%), Japan (48.6%) and the US (47.0%). – See more at: http://www.appmarket.tv/connected-tv/2572-nearly-1-billion-tv-sets-internet-connected-by-2020.html#sthash.BJWdCgbv.dpuf

McDonnell – HTML5 is the true Second Screen, Social TV winner — from appmarket.tv
Excerpt:
After years of evolution, the W3C has finally declared the HTML5 standard complete. When Steve Jobs “declared war on Flash” he gave HTML5 a fighting chance of dominance. In parallel, businesses started to recognise the potential of Social TV or “Second Screen” behaviour to re-invigorate old media and drive revenue to newer social platforms like Twitter. The ensuing debate centred on winners and losers, but with such a diverse global broadcasting market and no social network with dominance in all countries, could the web standard be the ultimate winner? I think it already is.

For the employment application for future jobs: Professional hoop jumpers need not apply!

From DSC:
The article below relates well to this graphic from sparks & honey.

NOTE:
Higher education is included in this discussion. If we think that we’re not included — and the other forces continue that are putting the heat in higher ed’s kitchen — it’s highly likely that other forms and channels of learning will fill the voids and gaps in what people are looking for and are willing to pay for.

ExponentialNotLinearSparksNHoney-Spring2013

How the new economy is changing the workplace, part II — from workdesign.com by Bob Fox; also see part I and part III

Excerpts:

Change is a constant, but when the speed of change increases it becomes a much different animal. Incremental business improvements are much easier to manage, and are a necessary part of all businesses. We tend to think linearly, so disruptive change is the real risk. The challenge with disruptive change is that it is often unpredictable and it generally conflicts with the core competency of a business. What’s more, it can come from other industries.
…
While disruptive change and innovation are likely the cause, it’s the inability of most businesses to deal with or react to those challenges over time that’s the death knell. We think tomorrow will be just like today, and we don’t have the workspaces to effectively share, question, and iterate ideas and leverage innovation to sustain our organizations through tough challenges.

There is a widespread human tendency, with which we are all of us familiar, that can be simply expressed as the “kink” in the curve where the past meets the future. The exponential line of human technological progress, long driven by information and for the past generation by the power of the chip, is kinked. It is kinked, inevitably, at the present. — Nigel Cameron

If I had told you 15 years ago that in the future you would have a device that you could carry in your pocket where you can get your mail, make a video call, carry thousands of your favorite songs, take pictures and videos and share them, check the stock market in real time, get the latest headlines immediately, get directions instantly to wherever you wanted to go, make a dinner or hotel reservation, invite your friends and that all of it would be essentially free, you would have thought I was some kind of nut. But look at us now.

From DSC:
For institutions of higher education, we need to be able to experiment…to fail…to succeed….to iterate until we find out what’s working and what’s not working. We need more innovative cultures. We need more Trimtab Groups.

For K-12 and higher education, we need to teach our kids how to run their own businesses…as it’s highly likely they will be a part of the contingent workforce at some point(s) in their lifetimes.

TheTrimtabInHigherEducation-DanielChristian

Also related/see:

The Digital Vortex, where disruption is constant and innovation rules — from blogs.cisco.com by Joseph Bradley
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Given the breakneck pace of technology change, business leaders can be forgiven for feeling as if they are living in a vortex. That’s because, in many ways, they are.In a real vortex, rotational forces draw everything to the center, where objects collide and combine in unpredictable ways. To me, that sounds like business as usual in the Internet of Everything (IoE) era.The Digital Vortex is the inevitable movement of industries toward a “digital center” in which business models, offerings, and value chains are digitized to the maximum extent possible. The result is “components” that can be readily combined to create new disruptions that blur the lines between industries.

The results help to clarify digital disruption and how business leaders view it. Here are some key findings:

Disruption Looms… Four of today’s top 10 incumbents (in terms of market share) in each industry will be displaced by digital disruption in the next five years. The threat extends not only to displacement of big companies, but also to the very existence of entire industries.
…As Executives “Wait and See.” Digital disruption has not received board-level attention in about 45 percent of companies (on average across industries). Moreover, 43 percent of companies either do not acknowledge the risk of digital disruption, or have not addressed it sufficiently. Nearly a third are taking a “wait and see” approach. Only 25 percent describe their response to digital disruption as proactive.
In the Digital Vortex, No Safe Haven. The industry that will experience the most digital disruption between now and 2020 is technology products and services. Pharmaceuticals, meanwhile, is likely to experience the least amount of digital disruption. However, all industries will see competitive upheavals as innovations become increasingly exponential.
Disrupt, or Be Disrupted. Based on their ranking and placement within the Digital Vortex, firms can evaluate the speed at which their industry will experience disruption. They then can choose to “disrupt themselves” or potentially be displaced by a new business model.

How do we prepare the students of today to be tomorrow’s digital leaders? [Google & The Economist Intelligence Unit]

On 06/09/2015, in 21st century, career development, education, education reform, future, pace of change, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, teachers, technology (general), workplace, by Daniel Christian

How do we prepare the students of today to be tomorrow’s digital leaders? — from Google and The Economist Intelligence Unit

Excerpt:

Editor’s note: To understand the extent to which the skills taught in education systems around the world are changing, and whether they meet the needs of employers and society more widely, Google commissioned research from The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The EIU surveyed senior business executives, teachers and students. The key findings of the survey and the main issues raised by educators and students were discussed by a diverse panel at the opening session of Education on Air, the free online conference from Google on May 8th. Read the full report here.

With rapidly evolving business needs, technological advances and new work structures, the skills that will be needed in the future are shifting. In response to these changes, policymakers, educators and experts around the world are rethinking their education systems.

During Education on Air a panel of education experts participated in a discussion aimed at understanding how to best adapt education systems to the skills needs of the future:

…

Problem solving, team working and communication are the skills that are currently most in demand in the workplace.

Institutions say this is the new priority in higher education — from ecampusnews.com by Ron Bethke; with a shout out to eduwire.com for their comments/posting on this
Survey reveals institutions, like UC Irvine, are putting greater effort into tracking graduates’ success and helping them continue learning through short-term programs.

Excerpt:

The days of warmly wishing graduates farewell and good luck after four years is not a sustaining strategy for colleges and universities, says a new report. Instead, offering online programs to keep graduates coming back to the institution for continuing career education is quickly becoming higher-ed’s newest must-offer.
…
Simply better understanding how graduates are doing isn’t the only way institutions are showing their commitment to lifelong career success. Though only 4 percent of respondents currently offer short-term alternative credentials such as digital badges and short-term certificates for graduates changing careers or looking to learn new skills, 50 percent of responding senior executives plan to add these customizable certificates to their portfolio in the next five years, with another 30 percent planning to offer digital badges in the same time frame.

“Universities and colleges want better ways to connect with alumni for years to come,” said EAB Practice Manager Carla Hickman. “This means offering not just surveys, but also new, intensive learning opportunities that support lifelong achievement and success of students.”

UC Irvine, for example, is currently working on setting up special communities for alumni taking various MOOCs on Coursera, in order to bring more graduates back to learn in more meaningful ways.
…
“[Millennials] are seeking short-format courses and credentials for ‘just-in-time’ and ‘just enough’ education.

From DSC:
Given the pace and far-reaching impact of today’s changes, lifelong learning is now a requirement. Learning new things, staying on top of trends, peering out into the future to see what’s coming down the pike — these are important actions that we all need to take to remain marketable. If we see robots, algorithms, and automation coming into the neighborhood of our particular jobs, then we had better be looking and preparing for something else. At that point, we’ll need to pivot…to adapt…to change.

Speaking of change, the article above reminds me of a potentially more utilized “distribution channel” — or model, if you will — that universities, colleges, and businesses could be moving towards in the future. And that is, that organizations could be moving towards providing streams of relevant, curated, dependable content to learning hubs around the globe. Hubs that feature blended learning where some of the content is beamed in from Subject Matter Experts (such as professors, teachers, trainers, and others) and some of the content is dealt with in a face-to-face manner. The beamed in content could be done synchronously and/or asynchronously. And as people often like to learn with others around a physical location, I could see this type of model taking off.

It would feature smaller, bite-sized chunks of content and investigations into a topic. But the model would have to allow for such a learning provider to be nimble and responsive — always up-to-date. That way they could provide such “just-in-time” and “just enough” learning.

Other words that come to my mind here — both as individuals and as institutions — are the following:

Reinvent
Staying relevant
Surviving
Being responsive

Will your job be replaced by a robot?

On 05/18/2015, in 21st century, business, change, engineering, future, pace of change, professional development, trends, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I had posted some of the articles below on a recent post, but the list kept growing — as much is being written these days about the topic of technology replacing people and jobs (via automation, robotics, algorithms/software, other). Though this is not a new topic, the pace at which jobs are disappearing seems to be picking up. So I’m posting the updated list of recent articles below:

14 Surprising Jobs That Robots Are Doing — from jobs.aol.com
Actors? Waiters? The next machine age is coming.

Robots threaten these 8 jobs — from money.cnn.com
Soon you could be competing with a robot for a job.

Humility: The No. 1 Job Skill Needed For The Smart Machine Age — from forbes.com
Excerpt:
I believe in the Smart Machine Age humility will be the #1 job skill because it is the gateway for the kind of human thinking and emotional engagement that technology will not be able to do as well as us for at least the near decades. Humility also will be a key cultural and behavioral attribute of organizations that create value through critical thinking, innovation, and entrepreneurship processes.
.

The top jobs in 10 years might not be what you expect – from fastcompany.com
We talked to three futurists to find out what the hot jobs of 2025 could be, and their answers may surprise you.
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
For decades, the U.S. Bureau of Labor’s Economic and Employment Projections have been the bellwether for predicting what the hottest jobs up to a decade out would be. But with the rapid pace of technological change disrupting industries faster than ever before (think: robotics, 3-D printing, the sharing economy), it’s becoming obvious to many futurists that past trends may no longer be a reliable indicator of future job prospects.

Is your job creative enough to resist robot automation? — from blogs.wsj.com by Amir Mizroch

How Machines Destroy (And Create!) Jobs, In 4 Graphs — from npr.org

Why isn’t the tech boom helping the economy? — from linkedin.com by Nishant Bhajaria

The near future of artificial intelligence and smart machines in community banking — from independentbanker.org by Elizabeth Judd

New machine could one day replace anesthesiologists — from washingtonpost.com Todd Frankel

We need new jobs as the machines do more of our work — from theconversation.com by David Tuffley

More STEM education won’t protect our jobs from robots — from phys.org by Toby Walsh

Bad news for IT: Robots and artificial intelligence will take jobs — from zdnet.com by Greg Nichols
In his new book, Rise of the Robots, Martin Ford argues that a bleak jobless future awaits if we don’t take action. Fortunately, he gives us a way forward.

Revolution in the Driver’s Seat: The Road to Autonomous Vehicles — Boston Consulting Group / bcgperspectives.com

Does Artificial Intelligence Pose a Threat? — from wsj.com by Ted Greenwald
A panel of experts discusses the prospect of machines capable of autonomous reasoning
Excerpt:

5 white-collar jobs robots already have taken – from fortune.com by Erik Sherman
Artificial intelligence, robotics and new disruptive technology are challenging white-collar professions that previously seemed invulnerable:
Financial and Sports Reporters
Online Marketers
Anesthesiologists, Surgeons, and Diagnosticians
E-Discovery Lawyers and Law Firm Associates
Financial Analysts and Advisors

.

The new bookkeeper is a robot — from by Vipal Monga
In corporate finance departments, software does tasks that once took armies of people

.

Automation replacing service, white-collar workers — from daytondailynews.com by Dave Larsen
Excerpt:
Robots and artificial intelligence are rapidly moving beyond the factory floor to new roles in service industries, which account for four out of five U.S. jobs. Many agricultural and manufacturing workers already have been replaced by machines that work faster and more efficiently, and other occupations, including some white-collar jobs, will soon follow, experts said.

Addendum on 5/21/15:

Yes, Robots Really Are Going To Take Your Job And End The American Dream — from fastcoexist.com by Ben Schiller
Now that machines can diagnose cancer, trade stocks, and write symphonies, they’re not just going to make humans more efficient as they have in the past—they are replacing them entirely and wrecking the economy along the way.

Addendums on 6/1/15:

Autonomous cars will destroy millions of jobs and reshape the US economy by 2025 — from qz.com by Zach Kanter
Robot revolution by 2020? Japan launches pro-robot campaign — from rt.com
New McDonald’s In Phoenix Run Entirely By Robots — from newsexaminer.net by Darius Rubics

Preparing for the Digital University: A review of the history & current state of distance, blended, & online learning [Siemens, Gasevic, Dawson]

On 04/30/2015, in 21st century, adjunct faculty, Australia, blended learning, Canada, change, distance education, education technology, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, history, hybrid learning, innovation, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, organizational change, pace of change, pedagogy, research, social learning / networks, strategy, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, technology (general), trends, UK, United States, user experience (UX), vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Excerpt:

It is our intent that these reports will serve to introduce academics, administrators, and students to the rich history of technology in education with a particular emphasis of the importance of the human factors: social interaction, well-designed learning experiences, participatory pedagogy, supportive teaching presence, and effective techniques for using technology to support learning.

The world is digitizing and higher education is not immune to this transition. The trend is well underway and seems to be accelerating as top universities create departments and senior leadership positions to explore processes of innovation within the academy. It is our somewhat axiomatic assessment that in order to understand how we should design and develop learning for the future, we need to first take a look at what we already know. Any scientific enterprise that runs forward on only new technology, ignoring the landscape of existing knowledge, will be sub-optimal and likely fail. To build a strong future of digital learning in the academy, we must first take stock of what we know and what has been well researched.

During the process of completing this report, it became clear to us that a society or academic organization is required to facilitate the advancement and adoption of digital learning research. Important areas in need of exploration include faculty development, organizational change, innovative practices and new institutional models, effectiveness of teaching and learning activities, the student experience, increasing success for all students, and state and provincial policies, strategies, and funding models. To address this need, we invite interested academics, administrators, government and industry to contact us to discuss the formation of an organization to advocate for a collaborative and research informed approach to digital learning.

February 2015
George Siemens
Dragan Gasevic
Shane Dawson

“Cash Monitoring List Unveiled” & “Increasing Transparency and Accountability for Students”

On 04/01/2015, in business side of he, change, future of higher education, game-changing environment, legislatures / government / legal, pace of change, reinvent, staying relevant, surviving, by Daniel Christian

Cash Monitoring List Unveiled — from insidehighered.com by Michael Stratford

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday, for the first time, named most of the hundreds of colleges whose federal aid it has restricted because of concerns about their finances or compliance with federal requirements.

The department released a partial list of the nearly 560 institutions that, as of March 1, were subject to the financial restrictions known as heightened cash monitoring. Most of the colleges — 487 institutions — were on the lower level of scrutiny, and 69 were subject to the higher, more stringent restrictions.

Increasing Transparency and Accountability for Students — from ed.gov

Excerpt:

Higher education remains the most important investment any person can make in their future. In the several months I’ve been at the U.S. Department of Education, I have had a number of conversations with students and families that have inspired me to double down on our commitment to making college more affordable and accessible. A big part of our work toward that goal has been to increase both the quantity and quality of information that students, families, borrowers and the public have about higher education.

[On 3/31/15] we are taking another step to increase transparency and accountability. We are releasing a list of colleges and universities that are on what we call Heightened Cash Monitoring. There were about 560 institutions on this list as of March 1. The list has been released to members of the press that requested it, and will be published on the Department website in the coming days and updated on a regular basis.

From DSC:
Most likely, these organizations will be in even bigger trouble as news of this list gets out — something the U.S. Department of Education knew all along and was the key reason they weren’t releasing it I’d wager. However, many people have been asking for this list to be made public; the recent closing of Briar College may have impacted the U.S. Department of Education’s decision here…I’m not sure.

But again, I’m going to ask, are those of us within higher education willing to change? To adapt? To respond to shifting landscapes, needs, economic pressures, etc.? If not, what’s it’s going to take? Perhaps if our/your institution’s name was on that list…would that do it? I don’t think we/you want that to happen. More of us had better take action well before that even becomes a remote possibility.

I’m attaching several categories to this posting, including:

Reinvent.
Surviving.
Staying relevant.
Business side of higher ed.
Change.
Pace of change.
Future of higher education.
Game-changing environment.

Top 10 IT Issues, 2015: Inflection Point [Grajek, Educause]

On 01/14/2015, in change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, higher education, innovation, IT in HE, leadership, mobile learning, mobile technologies, pace of change, reinvent, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

Top 10 IT Issues, 2015: Inflection Point — from educause.edu by Susan Grajek and the 2014–2015 EDUCAUSE IT Issues Panel
EDUCAUSE presents the top 10 IT issues facing higher education institutions this year. What is new about 2015? Nothing has changed. And everything has changed. Information technology has reached an inflection point. Visit the EDUCAUSE top 10 IT issues web page for additional resources.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Change continues to characterize the EDUCAUSE Top 10 IT Issues in 2015. The pace of change seems not to be slowing but, rather, is increasing and is happening on many fronts. There is reason to believe that higher education information technology has reached an inflection point—the point at which the trends that have dominated thought leadership and have motivated early adopters are now cascading into the mainstream. This inflection point is the biggest of three themes of change characterizing the 2015 EDUCAUSE Top 10 IT Issues.. A second dimension of change is the shifting focus of IT leaders and professionals from technical problems to business problems, along with the ensuing interdependence between the IT organization and business units. Underlying all this strategic change, the day-to-day work of the IT organization goes on. But change dominates even the day-to-day, where challenges are in some ways more complex than ever. This “new normal” is the third theme of change.

Andy Grove, Intel’s former CEO, described a strategic inflection point as “that which causes you to make a fundamental change in business strategy.”

Changing role of the CLO — from business-standard.com by Gurprriet Singh

Excerpt:

The ownership for keeping skills and competencies sharpened will move to the employee. With the emergence of MOOCs, social media enabled knowledge and connections, which facilitate you to identify and appoint mentors across dimensions and distance, the role of L&D as the provider of knowledge and provider of resource is soon becoming extinct. Individuals need to own their own development and leverage the resources available in social media. Just recently, IBM cut salaries by 10 per cent, of employees who had not kept their skills updated.

…

As Jack Welch said, “If the rate of change inside your organisation is slower than the rate of change outside, the end is near”. In such a scenario, the thinking and orientation must shift from being able to manage change TO being able to change on a dime which means Dynamism. The role of L&D thus becomes key in influencing the above cultural pillars. And to do so, is to select for the relevant traits, focus on interventions that help hone those traits. Traits and skills are honed by Experience. And that brings me to the 70:20:10.

From DSC:
I think Gurprriet is right when he says that there’s a shift in the ownership of our learning. We as individuals need to own our own development and leverage social media, MOOCs, online and/or F2F-based courses, other informal/on-the-job resources, our personal learning networks, and our Communities of Practice. Given the pace of change, each of us needs to be constantly building/expanding our own learning ecosystems. We need to be self-directed, lifelong learners (for me, this is where learning hubs and learning from our living rooms will also play a role in the future). One approach might be for those in L&D/corporate training-related functions to help employees know what’s out there — introduce them to the streams of content that are constantly flowing by. Encourage them to participate, teach them how to contribute, outline some of the elements of a solid learning ecosystem, create smaller learning hubs within a company.

Learning Ecosystems

How do we deal w/ an exponential pace of change (vs. a normal linear curve/steady pace)?

Will your job be replaced by a robot?

“Cash Monitoring List Unveiled” & “Increasing Transparency and Accountability for Students”

Top 10 IT Issues, 2015: Inflection Point [Grajek, Educause]

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