Why Jesus’ parables stand out — from the BibleGateway.com
Excerpt:
The NT Blog came across an interesting short video of two scholars discussing the significance and distinctiveness of Jesus’ parables…
It’s a nice introduction to Jesus’ teaching style…
On 04/06/2011,
in change, dangers of the status quo, education, education reform, education technology, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, love of learning, passions, pedagogy, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
Some presentations:
From DSC:
A couple of my take-aways from Will’s presentation:
We need life prep, not test prep.
We need a “different” system vs striving to make the current system “better”.
Also see:
Also see the TEDxNYED Speaker Lineup:
- Don Buckley, Co-Host
- Sylvia Martinez, Co-Host
- Rinat Aruh
- Steve Bergen
- Patrick Carman
- Luyen Chou
- Brian Crosby
- Maria Fico and John Ellrodt
- Lucy Gray
- Heidi Hayes Jacobs
- Dennis Littky
- Morley
- Stacey Murphy
- Will Richardson
- Alan November
- Gary S. Stager
- Samona Tait
- Homa Tavangar
On 04/05/2011,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, business, change, collaboration, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, digital video, future, innovation, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, marketing/social marketing, marketplaces, online learning, online tutoring, teaching online, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Swedish Online Store Features Live, Interactive Salespeople [VIDEO] — from Mashable.com
Excerpt:
Swedish telecom company 3 Sweden has bridged the gap between Internet commerce and brick and mortar with 3LiveShop. The new site features employees interacting with customers, live, over videoscreens. As the video above shows, the Chatroulette-like site was made possible with custom-built touchscreens that look like they’re right out of The Minority Report. Using the screens, the online salespeople are able to bring up images of phones the company sells and field questions about them.
Questions/reflections from DSC:
If this does turn out to be the case:
- Should students have a solid comfort level with technology in order to be marketable in the future?
- What changes do we need to make to our curriculums — at all levels — to insure their success in this type of world?
- Will this setup be similar for the online teachers/professors out there?
- Will this type of setup lead to incredible levels of individualized attention? Or will such services only be for people who can afford this level of personalized attention?
- What changes will the corporate world need to make to incorporate this type of channel?
- Will this offer 24x7x365 access, with certain call centers either online 24 hours a day, or different call centers spread throughout the world coming online and offline in synch w/ each other?
On 03/31/2011,
in business side of he, change, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, journalism, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, organizational change,
by Daniel Christian
The newsonomics of oblivion — from the Nieman Journalism Lab by Ken Doctor
Excerpt:
The threat of oblivion should be a powerful motivator, and we now see — finally — after a decade of decline, its specter moving us away from incremental, “experimental” tests to a fundamental restructuring of the business of news.
From DSC:
(I don’t mean to be full of doom and gloom here. However, a healthy respect of the disruption being caused by technology is warranted here I believe.)
I couldn’t help but think of higher education as an industry when I reviewed this particular blog posting. Those of us working within higher education need to be highly aware of how other industries are dealing with the disruptions being caused by the Internet and other technologies. Why? Because the disruption has already begun within higher education.
On 03/29/2011,
in 21st century, business, career development, change, corporate / business world, disruption, game-changing environment, higher education, professional development, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
When the invincible become “vincible” — from HBR.org by Ron Ashkenas
Excerpt that caught my eye:
We now live in a world in which that sense of security can disappear in a heartbeat — whether your company falls off the cliff, or makes significant changes to avoid the cliff. Like an investment disclaimer for individuals, past performance is no guarantee of future success. So to keep on your guard, ask yourself these questions:
- What would you do if your job was suddenly eliminated, outsourced, or relocated?
- How are you preparing yourself today to compete in tomorrow’s global economy?
- How can I reapply my skills to other areas if my industry no longer has opportunities?
You may not need answers to these types of questions today. But better to address them now — instead of the moment when you’re falling off the cliff.
On 03/25/2011,
in business, corporate / business world, disruption, leadership, strategy, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
Disrupt – Think the Unthinkable: A Book Review — from Gartner by Mark McDonald
There are many books that say you need to ‘disrupt’ your business to remain competitive. There are almost no books that describe how you create disruption in a clear, concise and step-by-step manner. Luke Williams’s book Disrupt – think the unthinkable to spark transformation is exactly this type of book.
It’s rare that a book discusses a complex issue, one with such potential for consulting jargon and confusion, and produces a clear, concise and actionable set of advice. Rather than try to cloud the issue, Williams tackles it head on by giving you the tools and discussion how you think differently and turn that thought into action. In a way this approach is disruptive in itself and that is a good thing.
Highly recommended as a useful and valuable book that takes the idea of disruption and gives you a way to think through it and put it into practice. In less than 200 tightly written pages, Williams provides clear and compelling tools that you can use to help identify, classify, and find the opportunities for disruption in your products, services and organization.
On 03/23/2011,
in change, changing business models, cost of getting a degree, digital learning, digital textbooks, disruption, e-books, e-readers, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, publishing, textbooks,
by Daniel Christian
Pearson & McGraw-Hill make multi-million dollar investment in Inkling — from Kirsten Winkler
It seems as if the latest study from Xplana in which they predict that the tipping point for digital textbooks is as near as 2015 has opened up the wallets of two major publishers for an undisclosed “multi million Dollar” investment.
Inkling, the maker of the iPad application and platform which delivers enhanced and engaging textbooks, leaving the “flat, PDF-based digital textbooks” behind is the beneficiary and it could give the startup a competitive edge over the well funded competitor the Kno.
But as money is not everything Inkling, Pearson and McGraw-Hill also made some significant content commitments, boosting the number of titles available on the Inkling platform…
Also see:
- Publishers Invest in Inkling, Producer of Digital Textbooks — from The Chronicle by Josh Keller
- Digitizing an Industry
Matt MacInnis — Founder and CEO, Inkling
On 03/23/2011,
in 21st century, change, changing business models, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, leadership, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, pace of change, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
Blockbuster’s largest shareholder calls Blockbuster worst investment ever made — from FastCompany.com by Austin Carr
.
After years as Blockbuster’s largest shareholder, Carl Icahn, who at one point amassed some 17 million shares of the now-bankrupt company, has called Blockbuster “the worst investment I ever made.”
In a candid piece written for the Harvard Business Review, Icahn opens up about the rental giant’s struggles and failures in an ever-changing industry.
“[Blockbuster] failed because of too much debt and changes in the industry. It had too many stores, Netflix created a better business model, and then Redbox kiosks and the whole digital phenomenon eliminated the need for consumers to go to a separate DVD store,” Icahn wrote. “Maybe the board did make a mistake in picking Jim Keyes as [John] Antioco’s successor—Keyes knows retailing and did an excellent job with the stores, but he isn’t a digital guy.”
From DSC:
I write about Blockbuster — and I emphasize the items above — because Blockbuster did not respond to the changes that were occurring around them.
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What about those of us in higher education?
How’s our response(s) coming along?
.
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5/2/11 addendum:
4/7/11 addendum:
On 03/22/2011,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accreditation, active learning, career development, change, changing business models, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, digital learning, disruption, education reform, education technology, engagement / engaging students, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, higher education, informal learning, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, more voice more choice more control, motivation, new business models, participation, personalized/customized learning, presentations, professional development, relationships, social learning / networks, staying relevant, strategy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, technology (general), traditional / tradition, trends, web-based collaboration, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
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From DSC:
For those of us in more traditional institutions of higher education, if this is where things are heading — or even if pieces of Anya’s presentation come to fruition — what is our response? Strategy?
On 03/21/2011,
in change, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, leadership, learning theories, legislatures / government / legal, organizational change, pedagogy, policy, strategy, tools, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
In my recent class at Capella University, one of the last discussion board questions asked:
- Do you think learning theory should be more explicit in official discussions of policy?
What a great question! My answer was yes, as it makes sense to me to guide educational reform by what is best for the students…for learning. Hopefully, we can make informed decisions. Though I’ve learned that there is no silver bullet when it comes to learning theories, each learning theory seems to be a piece of the puzzle for how we learn. Graphically speaking:
If viewing the above graphic on the Learning Ecosystems blog (vs. in an RSS feed/reader):
You may need to right-click on the above image and save it, then open it.
Such theories should have a place when policies are drafted, when changes are made. But I don’t often hear reference to the work of Thorndike, Bandura, Vygotsky, Gagne, Kolb, etc. when legislative bodies/school boards/or other forms of educational leadership are exploring future changes, directions, strategies. What is it that these people were trying to relay to us? What value can we gleam from them when we form our visions of the future? How does their work inform our selection of pedagogies, tools, organizational changes?
On 03/18/2011,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, adult learning, career development, change, collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital textbooks, distance education, informal learning, instructional design, learning ecosystem, learning theories, lifelong learning, microlearning, online learning, online media, pace of change, professional development, publishing, RSS, social learning / networks, social media, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, textbooks, training / L&D, ubiquitous learning, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
After looking at some items concerning Connectivism*, I’ve been reflecting upon the following questions:
- What’s the best way for us to dip our feet into the constantly moving streams of content?
(No matter the topic or discipline, the streams continue to flow.) - What’s the optimal setup for K-12 based “courses”?
- What’s the optimal setup for “courses” within higher education?
- How should L&D departments deal with this phenomenon?
- How do publishers and textbook authors want to address this situation?
Thinking of Gonzalez (2004; as cited in Siemens (2005)) description of the challenges of rapidly diminishing knowledge life:
“One of the most persuasive factors is the shrinking half-life of knowledge. The “half-life of knowledge” is the time span from when knowledge is gained to when it becomes obsolete. Half of what is known today was not known 10 years ago. The amount of knowledge in the world has doubled in the past 10 years and is doubling every 18 months according to the American Society of Training and Documentation (ASTD). To combat the shrinking half-life of knowledge, organizations have been forced to develop new methods of deploying instruction.”
Stephen Downes addresses this and points to a possible solution to this phenomenon in his presentation from 3/15/11 entitled “Educational Projection: Supporting Distributed Learning Online.”
Excerpt/slides:
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I need to put more thought into this, but wanted to throw this question out there…more later…
* From DSC: Some of the items I looked at regarding Connectivism — some directly related, others indirectly-related — were:
Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm.
Downes, S. (2005). An introduction to connective knowledge. Retrieved from http://www. downes. ca/post/33034. Downes noted that this was published in Hug, Theo (ed. ) (2007): Media, knowledge & education – exploring new spaces, relations and dynamics in digital media ecologies. Proceedings of the International Conference held on June 25-26, 2007. November 27, 2007.
Kop, R. & Hill, A. (2008). Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestige of the past? International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, v9 n3 p1-13 Oct 2008.
Tracey, R. (2009). Instructivism, constructivism or connectivism? Training & Development in Australia, December, 2009. p08-09, 2p. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. ISSN 0310-4664.
Kerr, B. (2007). A challenge to connectivism. Retrieved at http://learningevolves. wikispaces. com/kerr.
Sims, R. (2008). Rethinking (e)learning: A manifesto for connected generations. Distance Education Vol. 29, No. 2, August 2008, 153–164. ISSN 0158-7919 print/ISSN 1475-0198 online. DOI: 10. 1080/01587910802154954
Lisa Dawley. (2009). Social network knowledge construction: emerging virtual world pedagogy. On the Horizon, 17(2), 109-121. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1880656431).
Hargadon, S. (2011). Ugh. Classic politics now extends to social networking in education. Retrieved from http://www. stevehargadon. com/2011/03/ugh-classic-politics-now-extends-to. html.
Cross, J. (2001). Crowd-inspired innovation. Retrieved from http://www.internettime.com/2011/03/crowd-inspired-innovation.
Rogers-Estable, M.. (2009). Web 2.0 and distance education: Tools and techniques. Distance Learning, 6(4), 55-60. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2017059921).
Marrotte-Newman, S.. (2009). Why virtual schools exist and understanding their culture. Distance Learning, 6(4), 31-35. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2017059881).
Hilton, J., Graham, C., Rich, P., & Wiley, D. (2010). Using online technologies to extend a classroom to learners at a distance. Distance Education, 31(1), 77-92. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2074810921).
Attwell, G. (2010). Personal learning environments and Vygotsky. Retrieved from http://www.pontydysgu.org/2010/04/personal-learning-environments-and-vygotsky.
On 03/17/2011,
in change, elearning, generational differences, learning theories, online learning, teaching & learning,
by Daniel Christian
Quote/excerpt from Sims (2008) paper entitled, “Rethinking (e)learning: A manifesto for connected generations”:
Advances in theories of human memory parallel, and perhaps depend on, advances in technology… The information processing approach has been an important source of models and ideas, but the fate of its predecessors should serve to keep us humble concerning its eventual success… Unless today’s technology has somehow reached its ultimate development, and we can be certain it has not, then we have not reached the ultimate metaphor for the human mind either. (Roediger, 1980, p. 244 as cited in Sims, 2008)
Roediger’s remarks remind us that, not only are we in a constant state of change and development, but also that there are inherent risks in arguing that we know what there is to know about teaching, learning, and e-learning. Therefore, without undermining the importance of understanding the dynamics of human learning, this article adopts the position that it is untimely to let the e of e-learning disappear, because without that e we might lose sight of the value digital technology provides, especially through social networks, to emergent forms of learning and knowledge construction.
Emergent forms of learning cannot easily be addressed by current instructional design methodologies (Kays & Francis, 2004), which are often teacher-centered. New models and strategies embracing the roles and skills of the teacher, the learner, and the design team are required to address such developments (Sims & Koszalka, 2008). Recent reports by Oblinger (2004), Irlbeck, Kays, Jones, and Sims (2006), and Siemens (2007) posit that these emergent technologies and interactions have opened doorways to new ways of learning and that these deserve new models of thinking about the very essence of the teaching and learning dynamic. While this article accepts that e is becoming more mainstream and part of the infrastructure of developed nations, the real question is whether the models we use to create learning environments and measure outcomes retain their relevance in a generation in which technology is the medium of communication for many.
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Sims, R. (2008). Rethinking (e)learning: a manifesto for connected generations. Distance Education (29) 2. August 2008, 153–164.
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Also see:
- New PEW report: the state of media. Read this. Now. — from MediaFuturist by Gerd Leonhard
- State of the News Media 2011: New revenues have not arrived, but new challenges have – Poynter.org