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Why people secretly fear creative ideas [psyblog]

On 12/16/2011, in creativity, Europe, innovation, psychology, society, by Daniel Christian
Why creative ideas are often rejected in favour of conformity and uniformity.

 

Excerpt:

People don’t like to feel uncertain; it’s an aversive state that generally we try to escape from. Unfortunately creativity requires uncertainty by definition, because we’re trying to do something that hasn’t been done before.

People deal with the disconnect by saying one thing, “Creativity is good, we want more of it!” but actually rejecting creative ideas for being impractical.

And, the more uncertain people feel, the harder they find it to recognise a truly creative idea. So as a society we end up sticking our heads in the sand and carrying on doing the same old things we’ve been doing all along, just to avoid feeling uncertain.

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— Originally saw this at Innovation yes, but not here please
from The Corridor of Uncertainty by Alastair Creelman

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Matthew 2:4-6

On 12/13/2011, in faith, global / globalization, relationships, society, by Daniel Christian

Matthew 2:4-6 — from Bible Gateway’s Verse of the Day

“When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’””
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Christmas — a time of anticipation, waiting, wonder

On 12/12/2011, in faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, society, by Daniel Christian

Galatians 4:4-5
“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”

Isaiah 7:14
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

Deuteronomy 18:15
“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.”

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Young black males, learning, and video games [Burke]

On 12/02/2011, in active learning, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, real-world assignments, society, sociology, by Daniel Christian

Young Black Males, Learning, and Video Games — from dmlcentral.net by Whitney Burke

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U.S. Debt Clock — 11/20/11 vs. 8/24/11

On 11/20/2011, in change, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, disruption, economics, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, political science, real-world assignments, society, United States, by Daniel Christian

As of 11/20/11 (~2:00pm EST)

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As of 8/24/11:

usdebtclock.org

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From DSC:
With the increase in globalization — and from what I’ve seen happening in the financial systems (i.e. how what happens in Europe affects the financial systems in the U.S./Asia/other and vice versa) — it seems clear that we are all in this boat together.  If that’s true, what does that mean for:

  • Businesses and economies around the world?
  • The ability of families and individuals to afford the increasing cost of getting a degree?
  • Higher educational systems — and business models — around the world?
  • How do we resolve such massive problems?
  • What does all of this mean for how we should be educating our students?

 

Addendum on 11/21/11:

  • Debt committee: Why $1.2 trillion isn’t enough — from money.cnn.com by Jeanne Sahadi
    Excerpts:
    That’s because under the most likely scenario, reducing deficits by $1.2 trillion won’t stop the accumulated debt from growing faster than the economy.
    …
    Thus, to stabilize the debt, Congress would need to pass a debt-reduction plan worth $4 trillion to $6 trillion, budget experts say.
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Cloud Learning as Universal Primary Education [Arina]

On 11/15/2011, in assessment, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, education reform, global / globalization, higher education, innovation, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, mobile learning, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, society, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Cloud Learning as Universal Primary Education — from Teemu Arina

Excerpts:

The internet is lowering the transaction costs of learning. This leads to a situation where learning happens more and more in the open markets, in a distributed and decentralized manner. It is obvious that the primary interface will be based on mobile, cloud-based devices. Some principles…

…

There are effectively three levels of certification: 1st hand, 2nd hand and 3rd hand certification.

  • 1st hand certification is what you say you know.
    In the old world you would describe your skills in a resume and leave it to the employer to evaluate if that holds true. In the new world you can make your work and learning processes visible as it happens, demonstrating progress and increasing the believability of your 1st hand descriptions. A simple blog (a log of thoughts) makes reflection visible  and demonstrates the evolution and iteration of thinking as it happens.
  • 2nd hand certification is what others say about you.
    In the old world you would describe your references in a resume and leave it to the employer to call these references to evaluate if these people really value your work and learning. In the new world people accumulate links, likes and comments to the resources you produce on social networks. A Klout score on social media or a personal stock price based on social media activity on EmpireAvenue demonstrate your social capital through a simple metric. The question is, are you making an impact with your progress, enabling other people to build on top of your work through reflection and co-creation, or are you effectively invisible to others?
  • 3rd hand certification is what an authority says about you.
    In the old world you would get a certificate on hand to add in your resume that you have demonstrated the ability to pass a specific rat test (a school). This doesn’t necessarily mean you have mastered all the topics involved, but it demonstrates that you have been capable of passing such tests under the supervision of an authority. In the new world a single test in isolation is not enough but your ability to solve problems in connection with others.
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Globaia creates a ‘Cartography of the Anthropocene’ [Geere]

On 11/11/2011, in Africa, global / globalization, society, sociology, technology (general), by Daniel Christian

http://globaia.org/en/anthropocene/

 

Also see:

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If not now, when? [Sannier] Relates to the question “Will higher ed respond and stay relevant?” [DSC]

On 11/09/2011, in budgets, business side of he, change, changing business models, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, IT in HE, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, reinvent, society, staying relevant, by Daniel Christian

If not now, when? –– from Educause ReviewMagazine  by Adrian Sannier
Adrian Sannier is Digital Strategist and Senior Vice President of Product at Pearson eCollege and is Professor of Computing Studies at Arizona State University, where he was also the University Technology Officer prior to joining Pearson eCollege.

Excerpt:

Strong signs are indicating that higher education is finally on the verge of a long-awaited digital shift. Given that experts have been prophesying such a shift for more than forty years, with little if any real change, it’s reasonable to approach such a statement with healthy skepticism. Various factors—some cultural, some technological—have indeed retarded progress along this path to the future. Nevertheless, the unprecedented challenges facing the educational system, combined with higher education’s cultural success at solving daunting challenges through the widespread application of information technology, have created the conditions for rapid change. In the coming months, we will see major shifts in the role that technology plays in the creation, distribution, consumption, and improvement of learning experiences. And education will never be the same.

…

Beyond Textbooks, Beyond Bookstores, Beyond Learning Management Systems, Beyond School—the changes introduced by technology have already begun. The digital shift is upon us. If other industries and other fields are any guide, once the dominos begin to fall, progress will be swift and irreversible.

I, for one, can’t wait to be a part of it. If not now, when?

 

From DSC:
Readers of this blog will not be surprised at what I’m about to say…

Higher ed, if we are wise, will quickly wake up and heed the disruptive changes that have already occurred within other industries (i.e. those caused by a variety of technologies).  The following quote is especially relevant for those of us in higher education, because the conversation is no longer being controlled by those within the world of higher education. 

“For the first time, the tools to drive change and improve learning lie beyond the scope and the control of the academy, in the community which surrounds it. So, for the first time in our history, colleges and universities do not control either the conversation or the drive to innovate. As a consequence, also for the first time, if they stand still, they will be left behind, bobbing in the wake of rapid change.” — HEMG

The writing on the wall is coming into a bolder/stronger/clearer view:  Higher ed needs to respond to society’s needs and to its own customers…otherwise, it will become irrelevant. Much of this is due to what things often come down to — money.

The cost of education is one of the most potent forces acting as a catalyst to these changes — and the tidal waves of technological change will finish the job.


Staying Relevant

 


…and more forcefully illustrated:

 

From Daniel S. Christian

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IBM sends Watson supercomputer to business school [Smalley]

On 11/01/2011, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, change, changing business models, computer science, disruption, economics, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, human-computer interaction (HCI), MBA, new business models, programming, society, sociology, technology (general), trends, vendors, by Daniel Christian

IBM sends Watson supercomputer to business school – from wired.com by Eric Smalley

 

IBM's Watson takes on Harvard and MIT students.

Excerpt:

There have been four waves of technological innovation that disrupted the labor market over the last two and a half centuries starting with the Industrial Revolution, and we’re beginning the fifth, said IBM Chief Economist Martin Fleming. “We’re now beginning to enter into, in my view, a period where the economy is beginning to open up opportunities for the deployment of very significant innovation … We’re going to see many new industries get created, radical new technologies being deployed, but being deployed in the context of new business models,” he said.

“This will have significant implications from an income and income distribution point of view.”

The MIT economists generally agree that we’re at the beginning of a technology-driven shift in the economy and ultimately the labor market will adjust. But no one had any good news for workers in the middle of economy during the transition. “The future is already here in many ways, in terms of what technology can do,” Brynjolfsson said. “But right now the benefits are not very evenly distributed.”

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7 billion — iPad-based app from the National Geographic Society

On 10/31/2011, in change, future, generational differences, global / globalization, psychology, real-world assignments, society, sociology, by Daniel Christian

7 billion -- from the National Geographic Society

Also see:

 

 

 

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Questions for God from behind bars [Morford]

On 10/26/2011, in faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, society, by Daniel Christian

Questions for God from behind bars — from redletterchristians.org by Morf Morford

Excerpt:

What question would you ask God? I was naive enough to raise that question in my class at the county jail. These guys; felons, addicts, forty year old high school drop-outs, had some remarkable insights about who a believable god should be – and what He should be able to do – and how – or whether – it mattered that anything like God existed. Dinosaurs, injustice, seemingly unfair or exploitive actions by others – especially adults toward children – and why it was so much easier to be bad than to be good.

…

I left the worksheets behind and came into the jail with a large sheet of paper that I could stick to the bare wall and some markers. I had no lesson plan, no materials, no agenda. I took a big gulp and entered the jail with prayer and my blank sheet of paper. I asked the inmates what they needed to talk about.

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A devotion for Wall Street [Claiborne]

On 10/26/2011, in corporate / business world, ethics, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, society, by Daniel Christian

A devotion for Wall Street — from www.redletterchristians.org (a blog by Tony Campolo & friends) by Shane Claiborne; with a special thanks going out to Mr. David Goodrich for posting a URL to this item via LinkedIn

Excerpt:

A reporter recently asked me, “As a Christian leader, does your faith have anything to say about Wall Street?”  I said, “How much time do you have?”

The Christian message has a lot to say to Wall Street.

Theologian Karl Barth said, “We have to read the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other.”  For too long we Christians have used our faith as a ticket out of this world rather than fuel to engage it.

In his parables, Jesus wasn’t offering pie-in-the-sky theology… he was talking about the real stuff of earth.  He talks about wages, debt, widows and orphans, unjust business owners and bad politicians. In fact Woody Guthrie breaks it all down in his song “Jesus Christ”.  The song ends with Woody singing, “This song was written in New York City… If Jesus were to preach what he preached in Galilee, they would lay him in his grave again.”

…

From the Start here page at RLC.org:

The goal of Red Letter Christians is simple: To take Jesus seriously by endeavoring to live out His radical, counter-cultural teachings as set forth in Scripture, and especially embracing the lifestyle prescribed in the Sermon on the Mount.

Ironically, it was a secular Jewish country-and-western disc jockey in Nashville, Tennessee who first suggested that title. During a radio interview with my friend Jim Wallis, that deejay declared, “You’re one of those Red-Letter Christians – you know, the ones who are really into all those New Testament verses that are in red letters!” When Jim said, “That’s right!” he answered for all of us. By calling ourselves Red Letter Christians, we refer to the fact that in many Bibles the words of Jesus are printed in red. What we are asserting, therefore, is that we have committed ourselves first and foremost to doing what Jesus said.

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Best idea for higher ed since about 2002 [Davidson]

On 10/24/2011, in content development, aggregation, repositories, higher education, innovation, open courseware and systems, research, society, by Daniel Christian

Best idea for higher ed since about 2002  —  from HASTAC.org by Cathy Davidson

Excerpt:

I just learned about an amazing project (still in Beta) sponsored by the Australian Eight, the eight largest national universities in the country,  called “The Conversation.”  It may well be the most inspiring collaborative project I’ve heard about since about, oh, 2002-2003 (ie I’m joking of course–2002-2003 happens to be when HASTAC went from an “aha!” moment around a conference table to our first actual meeting as a collective; there are tons of other great ideas in higher ed, inc HASTAC’s founding!).   The Conversation translates the best scholarly research into lively journalism.   It makes a giant step towards public intellectualism, taking HASTAC-ish principles of an online network of education innovators learning together in a public and open forum, to their logical (if highly curated) conclusion. Unlike HASTAC, the Conversation’ has a team of professional editors, quite renowned in their collective experience.  They curate and select the best research from many fields produced by specialized academics and recasts it as journalism for the larger public as well as for academics in other fields.   They turn specialized scholarly research written originally for academic experts and peers into accessible, interesting, urgent, and sometimes even delightful fun and creative information for the public at large.

 

Also see:

The Conversation   BETA

Academic rigour, journalistic flair

Addendum later on 10/24/11:

  • Here’s an even BIGGER Idea for Higher Ed! —  from HASTAC.org by Cathy Davidson
    Well, after blogging and tweeting yesterday about the tremendous public aggregator of university research in Australia, an online publication called The Conversation, I heard today from lots of people that there is an even BIGGER version already here in the U.S.—and it includes top research from the U.S., UK, Canada and Australia too.  It’s called “Futurity,” and it is wonderful, and, yes, I should have known about it since Duke is one of the universities that cofounded  it, along with Rochester and Stanford.  But somehow I missed it so now take this opportunity to say how fabulous it is (check it out, it really is fabulous), and how now we have to make sure that HASTAC gets involved to make sure there is even more arts and humanities aggregated as part of its “Society and Culture” category.  Here’s the url for Futurity:  http://www.futurity.org/
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Singularity Summit 2011 — videos, recaps, other

On 10/19/2011, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, computer science, disruption, emerging technologies, ethics, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), pace of change, programming, robotics, society, trends, by Daniel Christian

SingularitySummit.com — conference website

Excerpt:

The Singularity Summit is the premier dialog on the Singularity. The first Singularity Summit was held at Stanford in 2006 to further understanding and discussion about the Singularity concept and the future of human technological progress. It was founded as a venue for leading thinkers to explore the subject, whether scientist, enthusiast, or skeptic. The goal of the Summit is to improve people’s thinking about the future and increasing public awareness of radical technologies under development today and of the transformative implications of such technologies understood as part of a larger process.

Singularity Summit 2011 — from the nextbigfuture.com

Singularity Summit 2011 videos — from the nextbigfuture.com

What you missed at Singularity Summit 2011 — from technoverseblog.com

Excerpt:

  • David Brin (scientist and sci-fi novelist)
  • Ray Kurzweil (inventor, restless genius, and author of The Singularity is Near)
  • Stephen Wolfram (physicist, developer of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha, genius)
  • Dimitry Itskov (founder of Russia 2045)
  • Michael Shermer (contrarian and founder of Skeptic magazine)
  • Riley “Red Balloons” Crane (post doctoral fellow at MIT Media Lab and winner of DARPA’s balloon challenge)
  • Sharon Bertsch McGrayne (writer, author of “The Theory That Wound not Die”)
  • Tyler Cowen (economist, George Mason University)
  • Jaan Tallinn (founder of Skype)
  • Ken Jennings (Jeopardy champion and loser to Watson)
  • Dan Cerutti (IBM executive charged with marketing Watson)

 

Addendum on 10/20/11:

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20 stunning infographics to show how climate change affects ecosystems [Smith]

On 10/13/2011, in change, geography / geology, global / globalization, science, society, by Daniel Christian

20 stunning infographics to show how climate change affects ecosystems — from mastersinenvironmentalscience.org; with thanks to Donald Smith for the resource

Excerpt:

According to one infographic in this list, many people believe that climate change is happening and that it is irreversible. The difference in opinion is in how climate change is occurring. On the other hand, another information graphic shows that fewer people are believing the climate change scenario despite evidence of glacier melt and an increase in dramatic weather patterns such as more rain and drought. A degree in environmental science may not affect what you believe, but evidence-based science is difficult to refute, especially when faced with over 20 graphic images that show how climate change is affecting ecosystems.

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