Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Unlearning the Rules of School..... it RULES!!!!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
What's Your Creatvity Style
I've just posted the link to a really good piece by Roger von Oech on figuriing out your
creativity style(s). It can be found here.... http://post.ly/ETYt
Be Well. /jeff
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This is Jeff's ShareAndLearn blog.
These are periodic notes from Jeff on items he feels
are worth sharing. Sometimes humorous, sometimes
provacative, and sometimes just fun. Hopefully you'll
find something useful, or at least thought provoking.
We are all LEARNERS, and we can all SHARE. So,
feel free to share this message with others. Also...
don't hestitate to send me items that you think are
worth sharing.
visit the Share and Learn Blog at:
http://jeffsshareandlearn.blogspot.com
Jeff Miller
Innovative Leadership Solutions
jeff@inleadsol.com
http://www.inleadsol.com
---------------------------------------------
"Gramma said when you come on something good,
first thing to do is share it with whoever you can
find; that way, the good spreads out where no
telling it will go. Which is right."
- Forrest Carter,
The Education of Little Tree.
_______
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Servant Leadership Academy
"Change happens from the outside in but transformation happens from the inside out.” - Dan Burrus
Monday, April 6, 2009
Core Work in the "New" Economy
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
(Fwd) KnowledgeWorks Foundation 2020 Forecast: January Update
Cheers!
jeff miller
indianapolis
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Subject: KnowledgeWorks Foundation 2020 Forecast: January Update
From: "KnowledgeWorks Foundation" <EducationMap@kwfdn.org>
KnowledgeWorks Foundation 2020 Forecast: January Update
Dear Friends -
Happy New Year from KnowledgeWorks Foundation! After describing so many dilemmas facing our society in our last update, we want to make this month's news full of the promise of the New Year. So grab a mug of something warm and enjoy our first update of 2009.
This month's focus is on the ways in which the economy will change over the next ten years. And the news is good. Though we are facing a recession and volatility now, the availability of new design technologies might change all of that. Websites that offer product customization mean that anyone can produce personalized goods. Lightweight fabrication equipment, such as 3-D printers, is available for purchase or rental, and will eventually be cheap enough for home models. Social networks allow artists and tinkerers to share ideas and improve upon ideas.
There are abundant opportunities to reinvent learning and teaching in light of the economy of the future. If our students can create new things easily and give life to their ideas, they can engage in experiential, tangible learning activities that let them play with, experiment on, manipulate, and hold in their hands the products of their labor. Hands-on, authentic learning promises to enable students to make meaning out of previously boring and abstract lessons.
The 2020 Forecast proposes that these new technologies and new ways of approaching learning will give rise to new abilities. Students will naturally engage in more processes of creativity and innovation, deepening essential problem-solving skills. They will leverage their considerable skills in online communication to collaborate on projects with real results, and perhaps discover new interests along the way. They will become creators of knowledge instead of just consumers. They are going to do this whether we teach them to do so or leave them to their generation's devices, but if we take advantage of these opportunities and guide them, today´s students will embody the entrepreneurial spirit that can drive our economy to unprecedented levels of prosperity.
This new economy will not be organized around the assembly lines that served as the model for the factory schools of the 20th century. What kind of school organization can we envision as the appropriate model for the new economy of customized goods made in small shops by networks of artisans?
This past holiday season, many Americans were busy buying gifts for each other, but tomorrow's learners will be able to buy, borrow, or make them. The sneak preview of this new driver of change, the Maker Economy, will be expanded upon on our blog shortly. Stay with us!
KnowledgeWorks Foundation brings you this monthly update on the progress of our work to empower communities to improve education.
KnowledgeWorks Foundation, 1 W. 4th St., Ste. 200, Cincinnati, OH 45202.
Copyright © 2008 KnowledgeWorks Foundation. Empowering Communities
to Improve Education.TM www.kwfdn.org - All Rights Reserved.
------- End of forwarded message -------
Friday, November 14, 2008
21st Century Skills
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Hiring the Right Skill Set and Motivating the Millennials
http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2008/11/hiring_the_right_skill_set_and.html
In raising and schooling our children in the U.S., it appears we have dropped our standards. And it shows. Finding the right people is becoming a more and more difficult proposition. (I enjoyed reading about Linda Zdanowicz's search for a dental assistant on her blog.) Tony Wagner , author of the The Global Achievement Gap has written am important book that should not be ignored by business leaders. It sets a meaningful agenda for a good dialogue between educators and business leaders and concerned parents about our educational system. Wagner has written the following for us:
In an economic downturn, employers need to be even more careful with their hiring decisions. And recent graduates from some of the best schools may not have the skills that matter most in the new global knowledge economy. In researching my book, The Global Achievement Gap : Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach The New Survival Skills Our Children Need -- and What We Can Do About It, I have come to understand that there are "7 Survival Skills" for the New World of Work, and that employers must look beyond applicants' "pedigrees" to carefully assess whether they have the skills that matter most.
New Skills
Here are the Seven Survival Skills, as described by some of the people whom I interviewed:
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
"The idea that a company's senior leaders have all the answers and can solve problems by themselves has gone completely by the wayside . . . The person who's close to the work has to have strong analytic skills. You have to be rigorous: test your assumptions, don't take things at face value, don't go in with preconceived ideas that you're trying to prove."
—Ellen Kumata, consultant to Fortune 200 companies
• Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence
"The biggest problem we have in the company as a whole is finding people capable of exerting leadership across the board . . . Our mantra is that you lead by influence, rather than authority."
—Mark Chandler, Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Cisco
• Agility and Adaptability
"I've been here four years, and we've done fundamental reorganization every year because of changes in the business . . . I can guarantee the job I hire someone to do will change or may not exist in the future, so this is why adaptability and learning skills are more important than technical skills."
—Clay Parker, President of Chemical Management Division of BOC Edwards
• Initiative and Entrepreneurship
"For our production and crafts staff, the hourly workers, we need self-directed people . . . who can find creative solutions to some very tough, challenging problems."
—Mark Maddox, Human Resources Manager at Unilever Foods North America
• Effective Oral and Written Communication
"The biggest skill people are missing is the ability to communicate: both written and oral presentations. It's a huge problem for us."
—Annmarie Neal, Vice President for Talent Management at Cisco Systems
• Accessing and Analyzing Information
"There is so much information available that it is almost too much, and if people aren't prepared to process the information effectively, it almost freezes them in their steps."
—Mike Summers, Vice President for Global Talent Management at Dell
• Curiosity and Imagination
"Our old idea is that work is defined by employers and that employees have to do whatever the employer wants . . . but actually, you would like him to come up with an interpretation that you like -- he's adding something personal -- a creative element."
—Michael Jung, Senior Consultant at McKinsey and Company
Looking Beyond the Degree
The conventional thinking of many who make hiring decisions is that graduates from "name-brand" colleges are likely to be more intelligent and better prepared than students who have gone to second or third tier schools. But, in reality, what the degree may mean is that these students are better at taking tests and figuring out what the professor wants -- skills that won't get them very far in the workplace today. A senior associate from a major consulting firm told me that recent hires from Ivy League business schools were constantly asking what the right answer was -- in order words, how to get an "A" for the job they were doing -- and were not always very adept at asking the right questions, which was the single most important skill senior executives whom I interviewed identified. So what does this mean for the interview process?
First, listen carefully for the kinds of questions the applicant asks. Are they probing? Insightful? Do they suggest that the applicant has really prepared for the interview by trying to understand your business? Do you feel as though you or your company are being interviewed? If so, that's a very good sign.
How a perspective employee asks these questions matters, as well. Does he or she listen carefully and engage you in discussions? Is the potential new hire both interested and interesting? In addition to the ability to ask good questions, senior execs told me that the ability to "look someone in the eye and engage in a thoughtful discussion" is an essential competency for working with colleagues and understanding customers' needs.
Finally, perhaps the most important question you might ask is, "what do you want to learn or how do you want to grow in this job?" This question is essential for two reasons: First, the quality of the answer will tell you how reflective this individual is -- and how intentional he or she may about his or her own development. More than any specific skill, individuals must want to learn, grow, and improve continuously to be successful in today's workplace.
Motivating the Millennials
The second reason why this question is important goes to the heart of the problem of how to motivate new hires to do their best. In asking the question, "how do you want to grow," you are signaling to a prospective employee that you and your company are committed to developing the talents of your workers. Many employers worry that this generation lacks a work ethic. But in my research, I have discovered that this generation is not unmotivated but rather differently motivated to learn and to work. Above all else, they want opportunities to be challenged and to make a difference.
Describing the different work ethic of this generation, Ellen Kumata, who is managing partner at Cambria Associates and consults to senior executives at Fortune 200 companies, told me, "They don't see coming into a company as being a career experience. They don't want to climb the corporate ladder and make more money and please the boss. And so you can't manage them the same way -- you can't just put them into a cubicle and expect them to perform." Tracy Mitrano, who manages the Office of Information Technologies at Cornell University, agreed: "You have to make the work more interesting and allow them to work in different ways. They are prepared to work just as much and just as hard -- but not at a desk 8 hours a day."
Andrew Bruck was finishing a law degree at Stanford when I interviewed him last year. "We want to feel ownership. We have a craving for an opportunity to do something really important," he told me. "People in my generation have been in a constant state of training. Now they're excited to go do something. The more responsibility you give people, the better they produce . . . There are more and more recent law school grads who are willing to take a lower salary in return for an opportunity for more meaningful work."
Ben McNeely, a journalist, described to me the difference between his former employer and his current one. "At the paper where I worked previously, the publisher would kill stories if they portrayed an advertiser in a negative light. At the paper where I work now, I have an opportunity to contribute something in a growing community. I was brought in to cover the new bio-tech research campus under construction nearby, where the Canon towel factory used to be, and to cover health care issues, as well. I have support from the editor and publisher who both have strong journalistic ethics. I like it that the editor pushes Windham, who us to dig deeper."
Carie Windham, who graduated from college in 2005, told me about the best boss she's ever had. "He asked me where I want to be in 10 years. He talked to me about creating the experience I want to have. He understood I wouldn't be there forever . . . Mentoring is a huge motivational tool, someone showing an interest in you and giving you feedback. We want to feel we have a creative, individual role -- that we're not just working on an assembly line. We want to feel like we have ownership of an idea."
Hiring the right talent, then, is only part of the problem employers face today. Equally important is how businesses create challenges and learning opportunities that motivate the Millennials to do their best. Google, which had more than one million applications for 5,000 jobs in 2006, is the number one pick of a place to work for many of the Millennials. Listening to twenty-two year old Matt Kulick talk about his work, one begins to understand how profoundly many companies will have to change in order to attract and retain the best talent: "First, they (Google) share ideals that I believe in -- open source software. And their products are solving important problems for people -- doing good in the world. I believe in what they're doing -- these values are very important to me. I wanted to help out, to make a contribution. The second reason I came to Google is because they give me the resources I need to accomplish major things that will really make a difference in world. The third reason is the responsibility they give you from the day you start. It is a winning combination. It makes me happy to go to work every day."
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Attitude Problem in Education
51.05 - The Attitude Problem In Education by Don Berg
Today, October 08, 2008, 5 hours ago | Change ThisClick here to visit the site.
Click here to download the PDF.
"We are losing the potential for entrepreneurial, vocational, and artistic genius in children and teachers around the world because the majority of schools navigate by academics alone. Academic schooling facilitates only a partial liberation of the human spirit. We have liberated some people, in some places, in some ways by making due with the limited academic tools available.
[...]
Parents today have already chosen to launch their children into a world of challenging conditions. The question is whether their suppliers--schools--are providing the right stuff to get the job done."
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The Learning Imperative
Monday, June 9, 2008
Turn Learning Upside Down
Wednesday, June 04, 2008, 3:08:32 PM | Change ThisClick here to visit the site.
Click here to download the PDF.
"Education should be a lifelong enterprise, a process enhanced by an environment that supports to the greatest extent possible the attempt of people to 'find themselves' throughout their lives.
For too long, we have educated people for a world that no longer exists, extinguishing their creativity and instilling values antithetical to those of a free, 21st century democracy. The principal objective of education as currently provided is to ensure the maintenance and preservation of the status quo--to produce members of society who will not want to challenge any fundamental aspects of the way things are. Traditional education focuses on teaching, not learning. It incorrectly assumes that for every ounce of teaching, there is an ounce of learning by those who are taught. Being taught is, to a very large extent, boring and much of its content is seen as irrelevant. It is the teacher, not the student, who learns most in a traditional classroom."
Open Source Education
Rice University professor Richard Baraniuk has a giant vision: to create a free global online education system that puts the power of creation and collaboration in the hands of teachers worldwide. He's realizing that vision with Connexions , a website that allows teachers to quickly "create, rip, mix and burn" coursework -- without fear of copyright violations. Think of it as Napster for education.
Connexions' open-source system cuts out the textbook, allowing teachers to share course materials, modify existing work and disseminate it to their students -- all for free, thanks to Creative Commons licensing. Baraniuk envisions Connexions as a repository where the most up-to-date material can be shared and reviewed (it's far more efficient than waiting for a textbook to be printed); it could become a powerful force in leveling the education playing field. Currently encompassing hundreds of online courses and used by a million people worldwide, Baraniuk's virtual educational system is revolutionizing the way people teach and learn.
"[Connexions] is trying to reshape the way academe uses both peer review and publishing. The project also has hopes of becoming a major curricular tool at community colleges."
Inside Higher Ed
"Change happens from the outside in but transformation happens from the inside out.” - Dan Burrus
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Collaboration, Leadership, Learning, and Community
March 19, 2008
Beyond Community to Collaboration and Collective Intelligence
March 19, 2008 Don Frederiksen
I have previously written on the importance of building community in our team environments. Several posts have focused on community building.
Click the above link for the entire post.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Today's student, Learning and Engagement
This is a very short post today.... but one I think you'll find to be well worth your time.
If you are interested at all in the state of the various institutions of education and how
relevant (or not) they are, take a look at this 4+ minute video. It is profound. It was
developed by some students at Kansas State.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
After you've seen this, tell me what you think of this statement..... "screw education
reform.... what we need is education/learning revolution"!!!
Be well
jeff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Miller, Ph.D.
Innovative Leadership Solutions, Inc.
6526 Oxford Drive
Zionsville, IN 46077
office: +1 317-733-8635
via Skype: jeffmiller79
http://www.inleadsol.com
------------------------------------------
e-mail: jeff@inleadsol.com or
miller.3293@osu.edu
- Vist the "ShareAndLearn" blog at:
http://jeffsshareandlearn.blogspot.com
- See the ShareAndLearn e-archive at:
http://lists.topica.com/lists/shareandlearn/read
"Change happens from the outside in but transformation happens from
the inside out." - Dan Burrus
.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
21st Century thinking, skills, and communities
Workers for the 21st Century: Imagine That
In a poll released in January by the Arts Education Partnership , Americans say that the worker for the 21st century must be able imagine new products, processes, and concepts. More than half of the respondents say that they would vote for the presidential candidate who supported building these capacities in students. Creativity, the Partnership contends, is developed through the arts and creative approaches to education. This is an important finding as we search in our communities for ways to improve education (note I didn't limit that to schools). There are teaching avenues throughout our communities that could help our children develop their creative bent--museums, community art and design classes, theatre--many more I am sure. The STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math are more likely to lead to innovation if enhanced by the arts advocates contend. It makes sense. If a person can see beyond what is there, then he or she begins to see new possibilities. Charles Kettering, the great American inventor, was once asked the difference between inventors and the rest of us. He replied, "most people think about where they have been; inventors think about where they are going." For more on ways to develop imagination in your public schools visit the imagine website.