Job Trends: Shifting

clipped from www.careerjournal.com

The David Wessel wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal about job market trends in the United States. Globalization is creating great demand for the most educated workers, those that can work with abstractions and high order concepts. These highly paid workers create a market for lower level workers that take care of their personal services. However, work in the middle is being eroded and outsourced to lower wage countries.

What does David Wessel suggest that we do about this concerning trend?

"That's a harder question.

Economists warn that shoring up the middle by shielding manufacturing industries from imports or otherwise meddling with the market would cost consumers heavily. Some, certainly not all, suggest letting the market be, and using the tax code to transfer money from the biggest winners. Others suggest "professionalizing" personal-service jobs, perhaps encouraging unionization, to boost wages. Unlike factory jobs, advocates reason, these jobs can't be moved offshore or automated if employers have to pay more.

The more popular solution -- at least among economists -- is a familiar one: Educate all workers so they are better at interpersonal or abstract skills (the jobs of the future) as opposed to dial-turning or keyboard-pounding (rapidly disappearing jobs of the past)."

Changing a System: K12 Online Presentation

My presentation titled "Changing a System: Network Centric Learning Communities" is now live on the K12 Online Site. For those of you interested you can view the video podcasts through that site by clicking here. I have also posted my three part video podcast on Youtube and embedded them below. I used a Pecha-kucha format. I receive the idea for the Pecha-kucha format from a blog post that Daniel Pink (author of A Whole new Mind) titled, Got Pecha-Kucha? It was a challenge to generate a presentation following a strict format of 20 slides automatically timed at 20 seconds per slide.

It forced me to be direct and attempt to write a provocative story while minimizing pontification. As I was producing these video podcasts, I realized that the stories that make me think, are often the ones that don't attempt to fill in all the details. They let me connect some of the dots and react.

Note that I have three segments (three Pecha-Kuchas) to my story The Setting, The Characters, and Collaboration (a solution). I didn't get my entire story in one Pecha-Kucha - I felt that I needed to provide 20 minutes worth of presentation. I know old habits are hard to break... I still think about time allotted for the presentation.

Also note that, each Pecha-Kucha (each segment) begins the story with the same introductory slides...

Anyway, I would appreciate any and all feedback on these presentations.

Part 1: The Setting


Part 2: The Characters


Part 3: Collaboration (a solution)

Who’s being educated? ME!

I teach a course on educational technology at Colorado State University within the teacher licensure program. We are eight weeks into the semester and it has been a very interesting ride so far. I must admit that I entered the class somewhat naively, thinking that my students, being “digital aboriginals” would embrace technology, embrace a more collaborative approach to teaching, how wrong I was…

Here are some of my reflections so far…

Entering the class I believed that “digital aboriginals” were students that were creating their own connections and building knowledge, but what I find is that the majority of my students are “digital facebook users” connecting to friends for social engagement. When I created a Ning site for the class they were more than capable of building a profile but getting them to engage in a community (either in Ning or in class) to build knowledge collectively has been a challenge.

I have spent many hours reflecting on how pervasive our current education system is and how difficult it will be to change the course of that system. I love Sir Ken Robinson’s TED presentation; he talked about how our education system models the university, placing university professors, many that don’t work well with others, at the top. This model runs all the way through our education system, as teachers leave their university preparation programs and model “expert” behavior, they act as experts of their classrooms. And why not, for the last 16 years they have been rewarded by a system that is built on “experts” and their existence and sense of self is based on these rewards.

Obviously, the importance placed on standardized testing only fuels this system. Students are rewarded for obtaining the correct answer, and these are the students that end up in my class. For the majority, when I give them an assignment that requires a solution (with no correct answer) they become uncomfortable. In fact, many get mad. I know I am writing this dialog to colleagues but everyone knows that we can’t produce another student that only feels comfortable spitting out correct answers. The “correct answer” skills are outsourced or automated. The system must change.

I am having my students respond by producing “reaction videos" to Karl Fisch’s “Did you know.” I also had my students watch the video “A vision of students today” produced by Kansas State University students within the Digital Ethnography program.

Little or no reaction! What is going on? I think I know…

It is like pulling teeth to get them to feel, to get them to react! It is like they are void of feelings or original thought. And, many of them revert back to what they know and where they are comfortable… their content area “expertise.” Those that get most agitated, “push back” in class and have said things like, ‘I would never use video in my classroom’, and ‘most of us are experts in our content area’ (indicating that changing their model of classroom delivery is not something they are contemplating)… they say these things with distain… I have touched a nerve… I am upsetting their system… a system that has rewarded them for years.

Furthermore, many appear to be afraid to create anything that is original, afraid to share their original ideas.

Wow, I am getting a great education out of this class.

More to follow…

Response videos to "Did They Know"

Following up on Barry Bachenheimer's assignment that asked graduate students to...

Thinking about Friedman, Pink, Fisch, and the other authors and ideas you've been exposed to in class this week, create your own "mash up" video in the form of "Did You Know". The video has no set length but should question, ponder, expose, consider, inform any of the ideas from this class that you would want to share. You can select who your "audience" would be; a colleague, your department, your school, your principal, this class, the world. etc.

I have directed my students to watch the videos produced by Bachenheimer's students and then produce their own "mash up" videos about something that they have a passion about (related to education). After they complete their videos I will post them her on switchspace.

Download YouTube Videos

Here are three online (no download required) tools that you can use to download YouTube Videos so that you can show them wherever and whenever you want. Click on the image above to link to each online tool.

Academia 2.0

This YouTube Video talks about how university professors can connect with 21st century students by embracing the use of technology. Kansas State University is providing a great service by opening a dialog about young learner and how they are shifting and different. My question is... are they fundamentally different? I remember sitting in class as an undergraduate listening to what I thought was irrelevant information. I was disengaged in many of my classes. The difference is that students today have an option. An option, to learn on their own through extensive online learning communities.

A Vision of Students Today

Here is an interesting thought provocative video that was produced by students in a University program. It is a simple but creative way to deliver their message.

Here is a mapping site (CommunityWalk) that you can use to map your local, national and international discoveries. It is free and very easy to use. There were several teachers talking about using this mapping tool within the classroom (Classroom 2.0). You can see this discussion by clicking here.

Open Minds Conference.

DSCN2126.JPG
Originally uploaded by SteveHargadon

I have been listening to Steve Hargadon about open source software and the future within education. An international group of influential gurus got together yesterday and worked on concepts and a road map for the future. Here is one of their note pages. You can see the other notes and ideas @ K12openminds Wiki.

He talked about how everyone who has success implementing open source in schools has done so not by promoting the benefits of "openness" but by promoting it as a practical solution, e.g., saving money.

Sketchcast: A whole new mind

Daniel Pink, in his book A Whole New Mind, talks about the increasing importance of creativity and talent. He suggests that we all need to strengthen the right side of our brain by engaging in creative processes. Here is a great tool to do just that. Using Sketchcast, you can create presentations and stories using sketches.

Here is one that I enjoyed watching.