pace of change

Turn education into a lifelong experience — from clomedia.com by Caroline Mol and Nick Van Dam
MOOCs ensure development remains relevant. The future of work depends on people’s ability to build intellectual capital.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Most of the discussions about MOOCs focus on the experience and potential impact on higher education, which we will not discuss here. Rather, we will talk about their impact on the 21st century workforce and corporations. It is very exciting that, according to edX, more than 50 percent of enrollments in such courses are professionals from all over the world.

Looking at market dynamics, increasing globalization, rapid advancements in technology and the continuously changing business environment, it becomes increasingly important that people up their game and continue to invest in their development to stay relevant in the workforce.

…

In addition to employing people with the right skills, corporations are looking more and more for specialized expertise in the so-called human cloud — the virtual, on-demand workforce. Success for a 21st century workforce is leaders’ ability to predict which competencies will be valued in the future and to accelerate mastery of those competencies.

From DSC:
While I might take some different viewpoints on a couple of things in the article, the importance of reinventing oneself — i.e. staying relevant — is key; and what MOOCs morph into might be a key ingredient for the corporate world.

StayingRelevantDanielChristian-August2013

The New CTO: Chief Transformation Officer — from HBR.org by Daniel Burrus

Excerpt:

…the role of the CIO needs to shift from Chief Information Officer to a Chief Innovation Officer, due to the massive, rapid, multiple technology-driven transformations that are occurring today. And, just as the CIO’s role needs to change, so too does the CTO’s—from Chief Technology Officer to Chief Transformation Officer. This fundamental shift is necessary to elevate the position’s contribution and relevance.

While the CIO has historically been focused on the technology needed to run the company, the CTO has been responsible for the technology integral to products being sold to customers or clients. However, over the next five years every business process is going to undergo a major transformation. For example, IBM executives recently shared with me that over 40 percent of their profits are now coming from products and services that were impossible just a few short years ago. That reflects the transformative nature of business today as well as the speed of the transformation. This is just the beginning and someone has to lead that transformation.

From DSC:
What Daniel Burrus is saying here is what I’ve also been trying to get at when I say that technology needs to be used strategically. The organizations that will thrive in the future will have cultures that are willing to experiment and innovate. They realize that they will fail at times and succeed at other times. They also realize that batting a thousand is not an option — as there are too many targets moving far too quickly (and some targets appearing out of nowhere…while some disappear).

Also see:

Today’s CIO needs to be the Chief Innovation Officer –– from HRB.org by Daniel Burrus

8 exponential trends that will shape humanity [@sparksandhoney]

On 08/16/2013, in 21st century, change, emerging technologies, future, global / globalization, pace of change, trends, by Daniel Christian

SparksAndHoney-ChangeIsInevitable2013

How do we design learning spaces to keep up with this pace of change?

On 08/02/2013, in change, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital textbooks, education technology, elearning, learning spaces, pace of change, smart classrooms, tablets, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Upon seeing the item below, the educational technologist in me asks:

“How do we design learning spaces to keep up with this pace of change?”

Some off-the-top-of-the-head thoughts on this:

We need to be looking up and trying to see what’s coming down the pike (as much as possible)
We need to try to build in as much flexibility as possible for optimal longevity (though this is easier said than done at times)
Responsiveness; the provision of robust wireless infrastructures
Experimentation — we may need to hold things loosely
Plan for hybrid/blended learning situations as much as possible

How smartphones and tablets are changing higher education — from edtechmagazing.com by Jimmy Daly
Adobe’s recent study on mobile computing sheds light on mobile usage.

It only took three years for tablets to drive more traffic than smartphones.

‘Shake Up’ for Higher Ed — from insidehighered.com by Scott Jaschik

Excerpt:

President Obama vowed Wednesday that he would soon unveil a plan to promote significant reform in higher education — with an emphasis on controlling what colleges charge students and families.

“[I]n the coming months, I will lay out an aggressive strategy to shake up the system, tackle rising costs, and improve value for middle-class students and their families. It is critical that we make sure that college is affordable for every single American who’s willing to work for it,” said Obama, in a speech at Knox College.

…

“Families and taxpayers can’t just keep paying more and more and more into an undisciplined system where costs just keep on going up and up and up. We’ll never have enough loan money, we’ll never have enough grant money, to keep up with costs that are going up 5, 6, 7 percent a year. We’ve got to get more out of what we pay for,” Obama said.

From DSC:
At a $175 billion per year support for postsecondary education, if the Federal Government starts redirecting this flow of $$$…I’ll bet we’ll see some change…and rather quickly I might add.

The Walmart of Education (as predicted back in December 2008) is now here, but I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet. To what will we change? At least one major piece of the answer to that question is that we will see the continued — but increasing — use of teams of specialists that will be commissioned to create low-cost, highly-engaging content. Though expensive to create originally, such teams will more than make their money back because of the massive number of students such “courses” will serve.

From the Walmart of Education page on 4/11/09:

…I wanted to offer another idea that might help fund engaging, multimedia-based, online-based learning materials:
(NOTE: The figures I use are not accurate, but rather, they are used for illustration purposes only.)

Let’s reallocate funds towards course development, and then let’s leverage those learning materials throughout the world!

Reallocate funds to course development, and bring costs WAAAAYYYY down and ACCESS WAAAYYY UP!

For students: Bring costs waaaayyyyy down and access waaayyy up!

Plus, no more defaulted loans, students could experience richer content, students wouldn’t have to wait as much on financial aid decisions. There would be fewer financial aid headaches; and the resources devoted to figuring out & processing financial aid could be reduced. The issue will be how an institution can differentiate itself in such a new world…but that issue will have to be dealt with in the future anyway.

Alive in the Swamp — from nesta.org.uk by Michael Fullan and Katelyn Donnelly

Excerpt (emphasis and link below from DSC):

The authors argue that we should seek digital innovations that produce at least twice the learning outcome for half the cost of our current tools. To achieve this, three forces need to come together. One is technology, the other pedagogy, and the third is change knowledge, or how to secure transformation across an entire school system.

…

The breakthrough in Alive in the Swamp is the development of an Index that will be of practical assistance to those charged with making these kinds of decisions at school, local and system level. Building on Fullan’s previous work, Stratosphere, the Index sets out the questions policymakers need to ask themselves not just about the technology at any given moment but crucially also about how it can be combined with pedagogy and knowledge about system change. Similarly, the Index should help entrepreneurs and education technology developers to consider particular features to build into their products to drive increased learning and achieve systemic impact.

The future will belong not to those who focus on the technology alone but to those who place it in this wider context and see it as one element of a wider system transformation. Fullan and Donnelly show how this can be done in a practical way.

Also see:
.

Technological Advances Demand Adaptation from Public Higher Education [Bienen]

On 07/15/2013, in business side of he, change, changing business models, education technology, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, internet, online learning, pace of change, reinvent, strategy, surviving, universities, by Daniel Christian

Technological Advances Demand Adaptation from Public Higher Education — from evoLLLution.com by Henry Bienen | President Emeritus, Northwestern University

Excerpt:

Change is coming at a fast pace. Public institutions will need to behave more like private ones, ensuring they can finance themselves and deliver quality programs that benefit their students. Educational technologies will need to be employed for building new models of learning, ones that marshal expensive faculty time more productively and effectively, rather than relegating the majority of instruction to those outside the core faculty. Faculty will need to step up to their role in governance and demonstrate they can support change for the greater good. For-profit corporations will need to demonstrate their utility as partners in creating academic opportunities for students. Additionally, university and faculty leadership will need to mount a convincing argument for the centrality of the liberal arts as the lynchpin of what it means to be educated and what it takes to be successful.

Viewing some graphs from Mary Meeker’s “2012 KPCB Internet Trends Year-End Update” in a different way

On 05/08/2013, in change, Daniel S. Christian, expectations, pace of change, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
When I first saw the graphs (below) from Mary Meeker’s 2012 KPCB Internet Trends Year-End Update — as a technologist — my mind/focus went to the increasing pace of change/adoption of technologies. But another way to view these graphs would be to ask:

What does this say about society’s expectations? About society’s use of technology?
Are folks willing to wait around as long as they used to? Apparently, not as much these days.

Tagged with: change • Daniel S. Christian • pace of change • student expectations

Also, from Steve Wheeler’s Are you a meerkat or an ostrich?

Etienne Wenger recently declared: ‘If any institutions are going to help learners with the real challenges they face…(they) will have to shift their focus from imparting curriculum to supporting the negotiation of productive identities through landscapes of practice’ (Wenger, 2010).

We live in uncertain times, where we cannot be sure how the economy is going to perform today, let alone predict what kind of jobs there will be for students when they graduate in a few years time. How can we prepare students for a world of work that doesn’t yet exist? How can we help learners to ready themselves for employment that is shifting like the sand, and where many of the jobs they will be applying for when they leave university probably don’t exist yet? It’s a conundrum many faculty and lecturers are wrestling with, and one which many others are ignoring in the hope that the problem will simply go away. Whether we are meerkats, looking out and anticipating the challenges, or ostriches burying our heads in the sand, the challenge remains, and it is growing stronger.

Also see:

The Nature of the Future: The Socialstructed World — from nextberlin.eu by Marina Gorbis, Institute for the Future
Marina Gorbis, Executive Director of the Institute for the Future (iftf.org) discussed the evolution of communication and its consequences at NEXT13. She analyzed the perks and challenges of the new relationship-driven or “socialstructed” economy, stating that “humans and technology will team up”. Her new book ‘The Nature of the Future: Dispatches from the Socialstructed World’ was published in early 2013. Watch her inspiring talk on April 23, 2013 at NEXT13.

From DSC:
My best take on this at this point:

Give students more choice, more control of their learning
Help them discover their gifts, abilities, talents, passions
Help them develop their gifts, abilities, talents, passions
Provide content in as many ways as possible — and let the students work with what they prefer to work with
Implement story, emotion, creativity, and play as much as possible (providing plenty of chances for them to create what they want to create)
Utilize cross-disciplinary assignments and teams
Integrate real-world assignments/projects into the mix
Help them develop their own businesses while they are still in school — coach them along, provide mentors, relevant blogs/websites, etc.
Guide them as they create/develop their own “textbooks” and/or streams of content

Tagged with: adjunct faculty • change • curriculum • customized learning • dangers of the status quo • Daniel S. Christian • education reform • engaging students • future • future of higher education • hearts -- matters of the heart • higher education • homeschooling/homeschoolers • K-12 • Keeping students engaged • learning ecosystem • more choice more control • motivation • passions • personalized learning • real-world assignments • reinvent • staying relevant • student-related • teachers • teaching & learning

The IT conversation we should be having [Stikeleather]

On 04/25/2013, in corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, future of higher education, game-changing environment, innovation, IT in HE, leadership, organizational change, pace of change, strategy, technology (general), workplace, by Daniel Christian

The IT conversation we should be having — from HBR.org by Jim Stikeleather

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

It is a conversation about the increasing importance of information technology and the role it must assume in every enterprise, regardless of size, industry or geography.

…

Our observations:

CEOs are demanding more visible value from their CIOs, in terms of generating revenue, gaining new customers, and increasing customer satisfaction.
Increasingly, the CIO and IT must be seen less as developing and deploying technology, and more as a source of innovation and transformation that delivers business value, leveraging technology instead of directly delivering it.
The CIO must be responsible and accountable if technology enables, facilitates or accelerates competition that the C-suite didn’t see coming, or allows the enterprise to miss opportunities because the C-suite did not understand the possibilities technology offered.
CIOs today must adapt or risk being marginalized.

From DSC:
This is critical in the higher ed space as well!

The majority of the higher education industry still isn’t getting it — we are operating in a brand new ball game where technology must be used strategically. It’s not just about building and maintaining the infrastructure/plumbing anymore (though that is extremely important as well). It’s about the strategic, innovative use of IT that counts from here on out.

Tagged with: dangers of the status quo • Daniel S. Christian • future of higher education • game-changing environment • higher education • innovation • IT • leadership • organizational change • roles • strategy • technology (general) • workplace

My thoughts on the future of higher education [Christian]

On 03/25/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, change, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, marketplaces, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online tutoring, pace of change, personalized/customized learning, social learning / networks, streams of content, TVs, ubiquitous learning, virtual tutoring, by Daniel Christian

Also, the PDF file of this article is here.

From DSC:
Though the title of this article I wrote says 10 years, it may be more or less (and given the pace of change, I would lean towards sooner rather than later).

If you haven’t read Christensen’s/Horn’s/Johnson’s work re: disruption — such as Disrupting Class and/or The Innovator’s Dilemma — it would be worth your time to do so. They are right on the mark. What they have been asserting is happening within higher education. The article briefly addresses face-to-face learning and hybrid learning as well. Readers of this blog will know that I have been pressing for higher ed to reinvent itself in order to stay relevant. There is danger in the status quo, especially when the conversation continues to move away from traditional higher education.

See other perspectives out at evoLLLution.com as well.

Tagged with: 21st century • 24x7x365 • change • dangers of the status quo • Daniel S. Christian • educational technology • engagement • etmooc • exchanges • face-to-face • future of higher education • hybrid learning • learning ecosystem • learning from the living [class] room • Lifelong learning • machine-to-machine communications • marketplaces • Mobile learning • MOOCs • online learning • reinvent • second screen apps • staying relevant

Reflections on “10 ways the role of web designer is changing” [Kelly]

On 03/21/2013, in career development, pace of change, web design and production, by Daniel Christian

10 ways the role of web designer is changing — from creativebloq.comby Sush Kelly

From DSC:
In my experience, there are numerous demanding aspects to being or becoming a web designer, as you have to:

Purchase the necessary software and hardware as well as find the funding for a hosting service / Internet service provider in order to start gaining some serious experience (at least for a good share of us that was/is the case); this is an expensive proposition if you want to do things well these days
.
Constantly keep learning about new things — as the pace of change on the web is staggering
.
Design for an ever increasing amount of devices — though responsive design is changing this situation up quite a bit
.
Give up control at times (i.e. not like the print world)
.
Deal with extremely unrealistic expectations from clients, corporations, and hiring managers/personnel who often don’t know what’s actually involved; what they often ask for is a designer, a programmer, a project manager, an account manager and more all wrapped into one position (and forget about a well-laid out career track as in the golden corporate days of old. You have to make your own career and hope that you can survive the ever changing landscapes — as well as get through a fair amount of age-discrimination and people who don’t want to pay you for all the hard-earned experience you’ve gained.)

Tagged with: career development • pace of change • web design • web development

Game-changing reflections re: “College branding: The tipping point” [Dooley]

On 02/10/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business side of he, change, changing business models, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, consortiums, cost of getting a degree, creativity, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, disruption, education reform, education technology, elearning, experimentation, faculty/staff, funding / grants, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, marketplaces, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pace of change, reinvent, staying relevant, streams of content, surviving, universities, using teams, by Daniel Christian

College branding: The tipping point — from forbes.com by Roger Dooley

Excerpt:

Change is coming to this market. While there are multiple issues of increasing importance to schools, two stand out as major game-changers.

From DSC:
Important notes for the boards throughout higher education to consider:

Your institution can’t increase tuition by one dime next year. If you do, you will become more and more vulnerable to being disrupted. Instead, work very hard to go in the exact opposite direction. Find ways to discount tuition by 50% or more — that is, if you want to stay in business.

Sounds like the scene in Apollo 13, doesn’t it? It is. (i.e. as Tom Hanks character is trying to get back to Earth and has very little to do it with. The engineers back in the United States are called upon to “do the impossible.”)

Some possibilities:

Pick your business partners and begin pooling resources and forming stronger consortia. Aim to reduce operating expenses, share the production of high-quality/interactive online courses, and create new streams of income. Experimentation will be key.

Work with IBM, Apple, Knewton and the like to create/integrate artificial intelligence into your LMS/CMS in order to handle 80% of the questions/learning issues. (Most likely, the future of MOOCs involves this very sort of thing.)

Find ways to create shorter courses/modules and offer them via online-based exchanges/marketplaces. But something’s bothering me with this one..perhaps we won’t have the time to develop high-quality, interactive, multimedia-based courses…are things moving too fast?

Find ways to develop and offer subscription-based streams of content

Tagged with: 21st century • 24x7x365 • AI • analytics • business side of he • change • CMS/LMS • colleges • community college • consortiums • Content aggregration • content repositories • cost of getting an education • dangers of the status quo • Daniel S. Christian • data mining • digital learning • education reform • etmooc • faculty-staff • future of higher education • game-changing environment • higher education • intelligent systems • intelligent tutoring • Learning Agents • learning ecosystem • learning from the living [class] room • MOOCs • multimedia • new business models in he • online learning • online media • online tutoring • pace of change • perfect storm • pooling resources • reinvent • staying relevant • streams of content • surviving • universities • Using teams • Walmart of Education

Reflections on “How NOT to design a MOOC: The disaster at Coursera and how to fix it.” [Morrison]

On 02/03/2013, in Daniel S. Christian, education technology, experimentation, innovation, instructional design, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, pace of change, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

How NOT to design a MOOC: The disaster at Coursera and how to fix it — from onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com by Debbie Morrison

Excerpt/update:

Note: I’m also enrolled in Coursera’s E-learning and Digital Cultures, with University of Edinburgh, which is so far excellent. What I wrote in this post is exclusive to the course Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application. I also completed Introduction to Sociology, through Coursera last year which was quite good.

Update: This course is now ‘suspended’. Participants received this email February 2, at 4:17 pm (PST). “We want all students to have the highest quality learning experience. For this reason, we are temporarily suspending the “Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application” course in order to make improvements. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause. We will inform you when the course will be reoffered.”

From DSC:
There will be many more disasters I’m sure. But as with learning, failure is to be expected (some would say mandatory) and learning is messy. This is especially true when technological change and innovation are moving at ever-increasing speeds.

The questions that comes to my mind after reading this are:

We still need to experiment — but how do we experiment with MOOCs on a smaller scale?
How can we keep things manageable?
Can bloggers help in sharing what’s working and what’s not? (Like Debbie did.)

Tagged with: Daniel S. Christian • educational technology • etmooc • experimentation • innovation • instructional design • learning • MOOCs • pace of change • user experience

The coming automatic, freaky, contextual world and why we’re writing a book about it [Scoble]

On 01/22/2013, in change, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, innovation, internet, machine-to-machine communications, Near Field Communication (NFC), pace of change, trends, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The coming automatic, freaky, contextual world and why we’re writing a book about it — from scobleizer.comby Robert Scoble

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

First, the short version of today’s news. Shel Israel and I are collaborating on a book, titled, The Age of Context: How it Will Change Your Life and Work.

The long version:

A new world is coming. It’s scary. Freaky. Over the freaky line, if you will. But it is coming. Investors like Ron Conway and Marc Andreessen are investing in it. Companies from Google to startups you’ve never heard of, like Wovyn or Highlight, are building it. With more than a couple of new ones already on the way that you’ll hear about over the next six months.

First, the trends. We’re seeing something new happen because of:

Proliferation of always-connected sensors.
New kinds of cloud-based databases.
New kinds of contextual SDKs.
A maturing in social data that nearly everyone is participating in.
Wearable computers and sensors like the Nike FuelBand, FitBit, and soon the Google Glasses.

Also see:

4 technologies demonstrating the future of Internet of Things — from moxieinteractive.com by Jinah Kim
.

0117_InternetofThings_Feat

Also see:

Thriving in the Automated Economy –– from WFS.org by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
Two management experts show why labor’s race against automation will only be won if we partner with our machines. They advise government regulators not to stand in the way of human–machine innovation.
Entering the Shift Age: The End of the Information Age and the New Era of Transformation

Book Description
Release date: January 18, 2013

The Information Age? Think again.

Change is everywhere: how we communicate, what we do for a living, the values we hold, the way we raise our children, even the way we access information. Thanks to a global economy, the force of the Internet, and the explosion of mobile technology, we have—almost imperceptibly—been ushered into a new era, the Shift Age, in which change happens so quickly that it’s become the norm.

Man-made developments—such as tools, machines, and technology—defined previous ages, but the Shift Age will be defined by our own power of choice. In Entering the Shift Age, leading futurist David Houle argues that we are going through a major collapse of legacy thinking, eroding many of the thought structures that have defined the last two hundred years of humanity. Houle identifies and explains the new forces that will shape our lives—including remote workplaces, the cloud, “24/7” culture, speed-of-light connectivity, creativity, and the influence of Millenials and Digital Natives—for the next twenty years.

In this eye-opening book, Houle navigates this pivotal point in human history with clarity and anticipation, focusing on the power of human consciousness and the direct influence we can impart on everything from healthcare to media to education. According to Houle, we are more independent than ever before. We are in control.

There’s no “going back” to the way things were. Reality is changing ever faster, and ENTERING THE SHIFT AGE is your guide to keeping up.

From DSC:
Though I haven’t read the book, I would probably take a different angle/perspective on some things here. Yet, this work seems important in that it addresses the constant change — and pace of change — that we find ourselves and our world in.

Tagged with: change • emerging technologies • future • game-changing environment • innovation • internet • machine-to-machine communications • Near Field Communication (NFC) • pace of change • trends • workplace

Previous Entries Next Entries

Learning Ecosystems

Turn education into a lifelong experience [Mol & Van Dam]

Reflections on “The New CTO: Chief Transformation Officer ” [Burrus]

8 exponential trends that will shape humanity [@sparksandhoney]

How do we design learning spaces to keep up with this pace of change?

Reflections on ‘Shake Up’ for Higher Ed [Jaschik]

Technological Advances Demand Adaptation from Public Higher Education [Bienen]

Viewing some graphs from Mary Meeker’s “2012 KPCB Internet Trends Year-End Update” in a different way

The IT conversation we should be having [Stikeleather]

Reflections on “10 ways the role of web designer is changing” [Kelly]

Reflections on “How NOT to design a MOOC: The disaster at Coursera and how to fix it.” [Morrison]

The coming automatic, freaky, contextual world and why we’re writing a book about it [Scoble]

Categories

Tags