pace of change

From DSC:
Sometimes, the advice of the old economy no longer applies.

Growing up, our family had a wonderful neighbor named Dr. John Evans. He had worked for a large, successful company called Upjohn (in the pharmaceutical industry) for most, if not all, of his career. I used to mow his lawn. I remember him giving me some lemonade or pop on those hot summer days here in Michigan. On one such occasion, I recall him saying to me, “Danny…you just need to find a good company and hop on board. You can ride that train for a long time.”

That strategy worked very well for him. He had been with Upjohn for many years before retiring from that corporation. So that advice was spot on — for the economy and job market that he had known and participated in.

So, upon graduating from college, I tried to implement that strategy. My first job out of college was with a company called Baxter Healthcare (a large corporation that had just merged with American Hospital Supply and began laying off numerous people, as many jobs were then duplicated). Anyway, that employment lasted all of 4 years before all employees in our division of Baxter had to move to Florida or New York or lose their jobs. As I didn’t want to move at the time, I was forced to find another job. (I’m quite sure many people out there who were working in the U.S. in the 80’s and 90’s — the decades of some serious merger and acquisition activity — can relate to such experiences.)

Anyway, these memories came back to me when I recently read a sentence from Sarah Kendzior’s Nov 2013 piece entitled Surviving the post-employment economy. That sentence said, “If you are 35 or younger – and quite often, older – the advice of the old economy does not apply to you.”

Wow. That rang true with me. It surely resonated with my experience.

So, as the growth of contingent workers continues, I’d like to join many others in putting some new advice out there. My advice to folks — especially to you younger people — would be to take courses, subscribe to the RSS feeds of relevant blogs, follow people on Twitter, and build your personal learning network (at least in part) around the topics of:

Entrepreneurship
Running your own business
Creativity
Being able to adapt, pivot
Experimentation
Freelancing
Disruption
Learning how to learn
Lifelong learning
Identifying and following your passions
Futurism — and learning how to pulse check a variety of landscapes

That’s my 2 cents for now.

Major questions need to be asked — and addressed — due to these shifts [Christian]

On 03/17/2014, in 21st century, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, engineering, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, informal learning, K-12 related, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, marketplaces, new business models, pace of change, professional development, reinvent, robotics, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, the downsides of how people use tech, training / L&D, trends, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Excerpts:

If Daniel Nadler is right, a generation of college graduates with well-paid positions as junior researchers and analysts in the banking industry should be worried about their jobs. Very worried.

Mr Nadler’s start-up, staffed with ex-Google engineers and backed partly by money from Google’s venture capital arm, is trying to put them out of work.

…

The threat to jobs stretches beyond the white-collar world. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) also make possible more versatile robots capable of taking over many types of manual work. “It’s going to decimate jobs at the low end,” predicts Jerry Kaplan, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who teaches a class about AI at Stanford University. Like others working in the field, he says he is surprised by the speed at which the new technologies are moving out of the research labs.

From DSC:
After reading the above article — and seeing presentations about these trends (example) — I have some major questions to ask:

What changes do those of us working within higher education need to make due to these shifts? How should we modify our curricula? Which skills need to be reinforced/developed?
What changes do Learning & Development groups and Training Departments need to make within the corporate world?
How should we be developing our K-12 students to deal with such a volatile workplace?
What changes do adult learners need to make to stay marketable/employable? How can they reinvent themselves (and know what that reinvention should look like)?
How can each of us know if our job is next on the chopping block and if it is, what should we do about it?
What kind of future do we want?

These changes are for real. The work of Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee further addresses some of these trends and changes. See:

Addendum:

Also see:

Bill Gates: Yes, robots really are about to take your jobs — from bgr.com by Brad Reed

Bill Gates Interview Robots

Excerpt:

Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates isn’t going to sugarcoat things: The increasing power of automation technology is going to put a lot of people out of work. Business Insider reports that Gates gave a talk at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, DC this week and said that both governments and businesses need to start preparing for a future where lots of people will be put out of work by software and robots.

Also see:

Make Work More Human — from Harold Jarche

Items re: disruption in the workplace, freelancing, and futureproofing your career

On 02/22/2014, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, entrepreneurship, innovation, pace of change, professional development, robotics, student-related, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, workplace, by Daniel Christian

What jobs will the robots take? – from The Atlantic by Derek Thompson
Nearly half of American jobs today could be automated in “a decade or two,” according to new research. The question is: Which half?

Excerpt:

It is an invisible force that goes by many names. Computerization. Automation. Artificial intelligence. Technology. Innovation. And, everyone’s favorite, ROBOTS.

Whatever name you prefer, some form of it has been stoking progress and killing jobs—from seamstresses to paralegals—for centuries. But this time is different: Nearly half of American jobs today could be automated in “a decade or two,” according to a new paper by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne, discussed recently in The Economist. The question is: Which half?

A Guide to the Job Market in 2034 — from mashable.com by Todd Wasserman

Excerpt:

Whether you’re an aspiring lawyer, policeman or programmer, you should be aware that at some point — maybe a decade from now, maybe two, perhaps less — many jobs in those industries will be replaced by an algorithm.

That’s what many economists predict and in some cases it looks like it will happen very soon. For instance, algorithms currently perform some tasks previously executed by paralegals, patent attorneys and contract lawyers. In Doha, Sao Paulo and Beijing, municipal governments use cheap sensors on pipes, pumps and other water infrastructure components to watch out for water leaks, a practice that has led some to speculate that fewer law enforcement workers will be needed on patrol once more sensors are deployed. Even programming — once the epitome of a safe-as-milk job in the 21st century — could be taken over by the bots as machine learning lets algorithms make and optimize design choices in coding.

All told, some 47% of U.S. employment is at risk of being automated over the next two decades, according to a 2013 study by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne of the University of Oxford.

…

Feudalism 2.0?
Workplace automation, fewer jobs and an increasingly winner-take-all society do not necessarily bode well for democracy. In 2013, the top 85 individuals in the world owned more wealth than the bottom 50% of a planet of 7 billion. Conflate that with the 47% claim and for some you have the makings of Feudalism 2.0.

Online labour marketplaces: job insecurity gone viral? — from theconversation.com by Veronica Sheen, Research Associate, Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University

Excerpt:

Some of the newest enterprises online are those which link workers to anyone who wants a job done. They’re not concerned with employment or jobs but with “tasks”. These are small, one-off, discrete portions of work for completion within a short time frame at short notice.

They are different from employment websites like seek.com which have essentially substituted for newspapers in employment advertising.

Websites Airtasker, Ozlance and Sidekicker show what’s on offer: home help tasks like cleaning or painting and small administrative jobs (Airtasker); web based assignments that can be done online (Ozlance); or explicitly business oriented, (Sidekicker), offering helpers for office work, events, hospitality, and promotions. Others include Odesk, Freelancer and Elance mostly offering online work like programming, web design and translation.

Futureproofing Your Career Part II — from WorkStrong/weddles.com

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

As I mentioned in my last post, futureproofing is now a core competency of successful career activism for one simple reason: In today’s workplace, there is only one certainty – tomorrow will be different from today.

We’re now seeing more change more frequently than at any other time in the past 100 years or more. And that change is increasingly disruptive … to our jobs, occupational fields, industries and, as a consequence, our careers.

How do you implement futureproofing so that it works for you? It’s a five step process that should be repeated twice a year:

Entrepreneurs & freelancers: Add more value or find another job — from hongkiat.com

Excerpt:

Everything changes. Change is the only constant in this Universe said Heraclitus of Ephesus. It’s funny how something talked about 2,500 years ago still isn’t understood by the majority of people. If you’re trying to succeed in business, whether you’re a freelancer or an entrepreneur, your first objective is growth.

In place of text CVs, platform lets freelancers blog their work history — from springwise.com
From Germany, Somewhere is a visual blogging platform that enables freelancers and small teams to show potential employers and clients a more engaging story of their work.

alttext

Technology and jobs: Coming to an office near you
The effect of today’s technology on tomorrow’s jobs will be immense—and no country is ready for it — from economist.com by

Excerpts:

INNOVATION, the elixir of progress, has always cost people their jobs. In the Industrial Revolution artisan weavers were swept aside by the mechanical loom. Over the past 30 years the digital revolution has displaced many of the mid-skill jobs that underpinned 20th-century middle-class life. Typists, ticket agents, bank tellers and many production-line jobs have been dispensed with, just as the weavers were.

…

No time to be timid
If this analysis is halfway correct, the social effects will be huge. Many of the jobs most at risk are lower down the ladder (logistics, haulage), whereas the skills that are least vulnerable to automation (creativity, managerial expertise) tend to be higher up, so median wages are likely to remain stagnant for some time and income gaps are likely to widen.

Anger about rising inequality is bound to grow, but politicians will find it hard to address the problem. Shunning progress would be as futile now as the Luddites’ protests against mechanised looms were in the 1810s, because any country that tried to stop would be left behind by competitors eager to embrace new technology. The freedom to raise taxes on the rich to punitive levels will be similarly constrained by the mobility of capital and highly skilled labour.

The main way in which governments can help their people through this dislocation is through education systems. One of the reasons for the improvement in workers’ fortunes in the latter part of the Industrial Revolution was because schools were built to educate them—a dramatic change at the time. Now those schools themselves need to be changed, to foster the creativity that humans will need to set them apart from computers. There should be less rote-learning and more critical thinking. Technology itself will help, whether through MOOCs (massive open online courses) or even video games that simulate the skills needed for work.

A highly recommended presentation for anyone who is working in higher education!!! [Pres by Prof Steven Van Belleghem]

On 02/15/2014, in 21st century, business, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, new business models, organizational change, pace of change, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Reinvent the future –– an excellent presentation by Professor Steven Van Belleghem

From DSC:
Though this presentation is aimed at the corporate world, there are NUMEROUS lessons here for those of us working within the world of higher education.

Sample slides:

From DSC:
This type of presentation prompts me to ask why there isn’t more coursework being offered involving futurism…?

And within our current business offerings, are we applying enough emphasis on freelancing, entrepreneurship, innovation, and in pulse-checking a variety of landscapes?

Along these lines, see:

Need a job? Invent it — from nytimes.com by Thomas Friedman

Excerpts:

Every middle-class job today is being pulled up, out or down faster than ever. That is, it either requires more skill or can be done by more people around the world or is being buried — made obsolete — faster than ever. Which is why the goal of education today, argues Wagner, should not be to make every child “college ready” but “innovation ready” — ready to add value to whatever they do.

So what should be the focus of education reform today?
…
We need to focus more on teaching the skill and will to learn and to make a difference and bring the three most powerful ingredients of intrinsic motivation into the classroom: play, passion and purpose.”

A Cambrian moment — A special report from The Economist re: digital startups [Siegele]

On 02/03/2014, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, business, change, changing business models, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, entrepreneurship, higher education, innovation, new business models, pace of change, student-related, workplace, by Daniel Christian

A Cambrian moment — A special report from The Economist, by Ludwig Siegele
Cheap and ubiquitous building blocks for digital products and services have caused an explosion in startups. Ludwig Siegele weighs its significance.

Excerpt:

This special report will argue that something similar is now happening in the virtual realm: an entrepreneurial explosion. Digital startups are bubbling up in an astonishing variety of services and products, penetrating every nook and cranny of the economy. They are reshaping entire industries and even changing the very notion of the firm. “Software is eating the world,” says Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist.

This digital feeding frenzy has given rise to a global movement. Most big cities, from Berlin and London to Singapore and Amman, now have a sizeable startup colony (“ecosystem”). Between them they are home to hundreds of startup schools (“accelerators”) and thousands of co-working spaces where caffeinated folk in their 20s and 30s toil hunched over their laptops. All these ecosystems are highly interconnected, which explains why internet entrepreneurs are a global crowd. Like medieval journeymen, they travel from city to city, laptop not hammer in hand. A few of them spend a semester with “Unreasonable at Sea”, an accelerator on a boat which cruises the world while its passengers code. “Anyone who writes code can become an entrepreneur—anywhere in the world,” says Simon Levene, a venture capitalist in London.

Also see:

Required reading: The Economist’s Special Report on Tech Startups — from by Ryan Lawler
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
But where The Economist’s report could be useful is in helping those of us who follow this world every day to see the forest for the trees. In so doing, it we could possibly better understand the broader global impact that the spread of technology is having, how we’ve gotten here, and what the big trends are driving us forward. What it really means when software eats the world, as it were.

From DSC:

How might the explosion of digital startups affect curricula in higher education? What should those of us working in higher education learn from this?

A new world of work – 3 key thoughts from the new “A Life of Jobs” blog [Hart & Jarche]

On 12/12/2013, in 21st century, career development, change, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, heutagogy, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, pace of change, social learning / networks, social media, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

A new world of work – 3 key thoughts from the new “A Life of Jobs” blog — from alifeofjobs.com by Jane Hart & Harold Jarche

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

There’s no such thing as a “job for life”; it’s now a matter of “a life of jobs”.
.
Your current skills will be out of date in 5 years. What you learned yesterday is already the past.
.
Your employer will train you to do your existing job but is unlikely to develop you professionally, so that you are ready for the next job.

From DSC:
These 3 items support the notion that we are no longer running 440’s or 880’s — we are running marathons now (i.e. no more 4 years of college and then get a job for 30-40 years; we’re into lifelong learning now.) These thoughts also bring to my mind the idea of self-directed learning.

What’s the future of the Chief Information Officer?

On 12/10/2013, in analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, corporate / business world, data related items, leadership, organizational change, pace of change, strategy, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

What’s the future of the CIO? — from cioofthefuture.com by Peter Evans–Greenwood
CIOs have an opportunity to drive strategy and create business value, and not just reduce costs

From DSC:
The sections entitled “The demise of the Chief Infrastructure Officer” and “Technology is now central to how our organizations engage their market” seem especially appropriate.

The CIO of 2020: The future of the Chief Information Officer — from innovationexcellence.com by Paul Muller

CDOs are reaching new heights — and quickly — from sloanreview.mit.edu by Michael Fitzgerald
Is the chief digital officer position the new path to the chief executive title?

Gartner hype cycle for education 2013

On 12/03/2013, in education, IT in HE, new business models, pace of change, technology (general), by Daniel Christian

Gartner hype cycle for education 2013 — with thanks to Cammy Bean for pointing this resource out

A proposal for Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and any other company who wants to own the future living room [Christian]

On 11/18/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, analytics, animation, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), career development, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communications, 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, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, IBM, ideas, immersion, informal learning, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, media/film, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, motivation, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, pace of change, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, play, professional development, real-world assignments, reinvent, second screen apps, simulations, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, social media, society, staying relevant, STEAM-related, storytelling, strategy, streams of content, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, TVs, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

“The main obstacle to an Apple television set has been content. It has mostly failed to convince cable companies to make their programming available through an Apple device. And cable companies have sought to prevent individual networks from signing distribution deals with Apple.”

— Apple, closer to its vision for a TV set, wants
ESPN, HBO, Viacom, and others to come along
qz.com by Seward, Chon, & Delaney, 8/22/13

From DSC:
I wonder if this is because of the type of content that Apple is asking for. Instead of entertainment-oriented content, what if the content were more focused on engaging, interactive, learning materials? More on educational streams of content (whether we — as individuals — create and contribute that content or whether businesses do)?

Also see:

What the mobile “fourth wave” means for operators — from mportal.com by D.P. Venkatesh on November 12, 2013

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The communications landscape has historically taken the form of a tumultuous ocean of opportunities. Like rolling waves on a shore, these opportunities are often strong and powerful – yet ebb and flow with time.

Get ready, because the next great wave is upon us. And, like a tropical storm, it is likely to change the landscape around us.

As detailed by analyst Chetan Sharma, this particular wave is the one created by the popularity of over-the-top (OTT) solutions – apps that allow access to entertainment, communication and collaboration over the Internet from smartphones, tablets and laptops, rather than traditional telecommunications methods. Sharma has coined this the mobile “fourth wave” – the first three being voice, messaging (SMS) and data access, respectively – and it is rapidly washing over us.

Addendum on 11/25:

The Smart TV app revolution is coming: Here’s what you need to know — from businessinsider.com by Dan Frommer

[Many of] the 10 fastest-growing job titles are in tech [mashable.com]

On 11/16/2013, in 21st century, analytics, Apple, career development, data related items, Google, pace of change, professional development, user experience (UX), user interface design, by Daniel Christian

[Many of] the 10 fastest-growing job titles are in tech — from mashable.com

Excerpt:

Based on their data, the fastest-growing job titles between 2008 and 2013 were:

DevOps engineer
iOS developer
Data scientist
UX designer
Staff accountant
Paralegal
UI developer
Administrative assistant
Android developer
Business intelligence developer

From DSC:
Another sign that the pace of change has changed (emphasis mine):

Indicating a trend beyond employment, four of the seven fastest-growing technology jobs — DevOps engineer, iOS developer, data scientist and Android developer — did not even exist on TheLadders five years ago.

Study: Teachers love EdTech, they just don’t use it — from edudemic.com by Katie Lepi

Excerpt:

EdTech Is Essential!

86% of teachers think it is ‘important’ or ‘absolutely essential’ to use edtech in the classroom
965 say that edtech increases student engagement in learning
95% say that it enables personalized learning
89% say that it improves student outcomes
87% say that it helps students collaborate

However…

Only 19% use subject specific content tools weekly
Only 31% use information or reference tools weekly
Only 24% use teacher tools weekly
Only 14% use digital curricula weekly
Despite all the buzz about 1:1 classrooms, only about 1 in 9 are implementing a 1:1 or BYOD classroom
…

From DSC:
Looking at this solid posting from edudemic and Katie Lepi, I can’t help but ask:

What might this tell us about the model/approach that we are using?
Is that model/approach working?
Is that model/approach working fast enough to prepare our students for the futures they will inherit/experience?
Are there other approaches that would work better?

I’d like to add some potential factors to the list of why educational technologies might not be being implemented in certain situations:

We decided not to use teams; that is, we decided that our teachers (or professors or trainers) should continue to do everything — “it is their job after all”
A teacher (professor, trainer) may not be gifted in a particular area (such as creating digital audio or digital video, designing simulations, developing educational gaming, designing e-books, offering mobile learning, etc.)
A teacher (professor, trainer) may not be interested in a particular area (such as creating digital audio or digital video, designing simulations, developing educational gaming, designing e-books, offering mobile learning, etc.)
May view an area as totally irrelevant because that wasn’t part of that person’s background/experience (i.e. Who needs educational gaming? Why should that matter/help? I didn’t have that in my toolbox.)

With the rapid pace of change, time is no longer on our side. That is, it doesn’t serve our students well if it takes us 2-3 generations to get teachers, professors, and trainers ready to use all of the relevant technologies. That is a pipe dream and we need to abandon it asap. No one has all of the gifts that they need. We need to work with teams of specialists. It will take team-based efforts to create and deliver learning environments, products, and services that feature more choice and more control for our students. They — and all of us actually — are encountering a different world every single day that we wake up. Are we preparing them for it?

“Learning in the Living [Class] Room” — as explained by Daniel Christian [Campus Technology]

On 11/05/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, analytics, animation, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), 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, competency-based learning/education, computer science, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, creativity, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, expectations, experimentation, flipping -- inverted learning, formal learning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, IBM, ideas, immersion, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, love of learning, machine-to-machine communications, marketplaces, media/film, Michigan, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, motivation, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), neurodivergent/special needs, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, organizational change, pace of change, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, professional development, programming, real-world assignments, reinvent, second screen apps, simulations, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, social media, society, staying relevant, STEAM-related, story, storytelling, strategy, streams of content, student-related, surviving, tablets, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, television, transmedia, trends, TVs, ubiquitous learning, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Learning from the Living [Class] Room — from Campus Technology by Daniel Christian and Mary Grush; with a huge thanks also going out to Mr. Steven Niedzielski (@Marketing4pt0) and to Mr. Sam Beckett (@SamJohnBeck) for their assistance and some of the graphics used in making these videos.

From DSC:
These 4 short videos explain what I’m trying to relay with a vision I’m entitling, Learning from the Living [Class] Room. I’ve been pulse checking a variety of areas for years now, and the pieces of this vision continue to come into fruition. This is what I see Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) morphing into (though there may be other directions/offshoots that they go in as well).

After watching these videos, I think you will see why I think we must move to a team–based approach.

(It looks like the production folks for Campus Technology had to scale things way back in terms of video quality to insure an overall better performance for the digitally-based magazine.)

To watch these videos in a higher resolution, please use these links:

Alternatively, these videos can be found at:

.

A JPMorgan Ph.D.? — from InsideHigherEd.com by Ry Rivard

Excerpt:

JPMorgan Chase plans to give $17 million to start a doctoral program at the University of Delaware, an effort that may raise new questions about collaborations between colleges and donors.

As part of the plan, JPMorgan will renovate a building to house the program, put up money to pay program faculty and pay a full ride for students seeking a degree, according to an internal university plan. In addition, JPMorgan employees may sit on dissertation committees and advise the university on which faculty members should teach in the program, according to the planning document and a top university official.

From DSC:
I’ll add this partnership to the list:

AT&T, Udacity, and Georgia Tech.
Google and edX.
Microsoft and Degreed.
IBM sending Watson to school and partnering with 1000+ universities (see here and here).
JP Morgan and University of Delaware (see this addendum from 10/7/13)

Is there a new trend forming here? Will there be tighter integration between the corporate world and the world of higher education?

If so, my thoughts re: The Walmart of Education and Learning from the Living [Class] Room could be taking a giant step forward. I say this because such visions require some serious resources. It will take a handful of larger organizations with deep pockets — and or many smaller organizations pooling their resources — to enable these trends. But we are starting to see some organizations with deep pockets forming such partnerships out there.

Is this all a good thing? In some ways yes, in other ways, I’m not so sure. There are a variety of reasons to go to college; getting a job is just one of them. But given the price of education, things are now out of balance; students are now being forced into a more career-focused perspective for their college experience.

Also, given the pace of change, those in the corporate world have a decision to make — should they work with current institutions to enable change, create their own communities of practice, bring further training in house,…other?

Harvard plans to boldly go with ‘Spocs’ [Coughlan]

On 09/30/2013, in future of higher education, game-changing environment, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, pace of change, United States, by Daniel Christian

Harvard plans to boldly go with ‘Spocs’ — from bbc.co.uk by Sean Coughlan

Excerpts:

Harvard…is moving on to Spocs – which stands for small private online courses.

…

At Harvard, more people have signed up for Moocs in a single year than have attended the university in its entire 377-year history. That’s a great success story in opening up education, but what do you do with all those hungry minds?

Enter the Spoc. And the clue is in the “small, private” part of the name. These courses are still free and delivered through the internet, but access is restricted to much smaller numbers, tens or hundreds, rather than tens of thousands.

Learning Ecosystems

A highly recommended presentation for anyone who is working in higher education!!! [Pres by Prof Steven Van Belleghem]

Gartner hype cycle for education 2013

Reflections on “Study: Teachers love EdTech, they just don’t use it” [Lepi]

Harvard plans to boldly go with ‘Spocs’ [Coughlan]

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