tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19869591812075826092024-02-02T08:30:49.547-05:00Introduction to Dark Zone EducationA journey through the evolving corridors of virtual online education based on the experiences of a current online educator.Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.comBlogger268125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-31279486818544097712021-09-27T08:37:00.001-04:002021-09-27T08:37:11.910-04:00New Update--September 27-2021<p> Greetings</p><p>I have noticed that there has been varied access to my repository of e-Learning blogs. I would ask two things of those that access:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>That if you use information from my blog within a personal article, that you credit where the information came from in your posting.</li><li>Also, it would be a great favour to me if you would consider, passing on to others that I am now posting new articles to the following sites:</li></ol><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://elearningindustry.com/">https://elearningindustry.com/</a><br /></li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-turner-94948287/detail/recent-activity/posts/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-turner-94948287/detail/recent-activity/posts/</a><br /></li><li>LinkedIn Forums that my articles are also posted in are:</li></ul><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>e-Learning Industry forum</li><li>Learnnovators Forum</li><li>L&D -Community e-Learning Journal Forum</li><li>Elearning Edge-For Rapid eLearning Solutions</li><li>The Learning Guild</li></ol>These are the main ones.<p></p><p>Thanks for your consideration in this.</p><p>Best Wishes</p><p>Ken Turner</p>Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-1558078213966727762020-11-25T07:40:00.002-05:002020-11-25T07:40:41.071-05:00Update Notice About Blog<p> Greetings to all</p><p>This blog is now a repository for articles on e-Learning that I have written in the past.</p><p>If you are interested in more of my articles that are more up to date, you will find more recent ones at:</p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">www.LinkedIn.com</span></b> and also at <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>www.eLearningindustry.com</b>.</span></p><p>From time to time I will post articles here in this blog but most of my most recent writing will be found at the two sites mentioned above.</p><p>Feel free to also comment on any articles that I have posted.</p><p>Stay Safe!</p><p>Ken</p>Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-5976933991913397612019-05-07T13:00:00.000-04:002019-05-07T15:33:55.572-04:00Re-Visioning E-Learning: Breaking With Knowledge Silos in Formal Education and Business<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The industrial model of education from the 19th century has left us as course designers and instructors, constructs that are no longer viable in the 21st century. One of the hold overs from this model that is still with us today is the idea that the knowledge of disciplines need to be taught from separate, specific compartments complete with their own vocabularies and guiding principles and pedagogy for instruction.<br />
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It is for this very reason that schools were designed the way they were with students going along a hallway from class to class. Replace the hallway with a conveyor belt and each class room with stations along that conveyor belt, you have the model of a factory floor where each product in process that is moving along must be conformed to a set pattern. The products, being students, must conform and be adapted to that pattern. Notice that this is not an action that they are performing but it is an action being performed on them.<br />
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So, what happens when you have a creative student who is either "gifted" or what is euphemistically referred to as "challenged"? Putting this back in terms of the factory environment, these disparities would be seen as "defects" because they do not fit the set pattern. In this case, a defective product is either off-ramped to quality where the product is collected with other products for further experimentation or correction. In terms of the school this off-ramping would be to what has been called "classes for the gifted" and "classes for the challenged". These students represent exceptions to the defined norm.<br />
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This all brings up some very important questions which are:<br />
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<li><b><i>Is this model in sync with the needs of the 21st century, given the advances in technology and its application to conducting research and business in online global networks?</i></b></li>
<li><b><i>In the continuing use of this model, are we preparing students for the past or the future?</i></b> </li>
<li><b><i>What skillsets do we need to meet the challenges of finding solutions to very real world problems?</i></b></li>
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When you consider that the goals of this model of education were two fold:</div>
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<li>to create a work force that that would conform to all required by areas devoted to mass production of goods and services. To discourage anything that did not fit the prescribed pattern, and</li>
<li>to create life-long consumers of products and services so that the workers who produced the products also became the consumers of them,</li>
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you realize very quickly that in the 21st century, we are still living out these goals especially with the over the top consumerism. Consider what happens, as a case in point, when a new I-Phone comes out:</div>
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Sir Kenneth Robinson, a well known author and speaker on the state of education systems in the 21st century makes a strong case for the need to dispense with this model that supports a continuance of a knowledge silos as useful constructs for learning in the following presentation:<br />
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As Robinson suggests, a change in paradigm is needed.<br />
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"<b><i> So, if we need a change in the paradigm of education, what are we changing to?</i></b>"</div>
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In this age of the 21st century, we need students who will become effective agents of change who will be able to work together on a global scale in a totally online environment to address the rising global issues that need innovative and effective solutions. They need to have the following skillsets:</div>
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<li>Able to collaborate with others who may be resident in different cultures and world situations anywhere on Earth to solve global issues that impact multiple groups of nations</li>
<li>Able to recognize that the new global issues require the pooling of the talents from various sources in a cross disciplinary approach.</li>
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Problems in the 21st century are not one dimensional in nature and therefore can not be adequately resolved by one specialist addressing the problem These new problems require a multi-disciplinary approach. The interconnected relationship of such approach can be illustrated as in the diagram below.</div>
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Higher education institutions are starting to realize the importance of this needed paradigm change in that areas of study and collaboration are being created to advance students in ways that are in sync with the realities of the 21st century world.</div>
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<b><u>E-Learning and the New Paradigm</u></b></div>
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E-Learning is evolving to become a useful asset for meeting the demands that this new paradigm requires. However, it does not just mean a change to a whole new environment, it means a radical re-evaluation of our pedagogical methods that we have grown and entrenched in an education system built on the industrial model. The question that begs an answer is:</div>
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"<b><i>Do our "best practices" still apply when looked at in the context of a completely new environment as represented in the online world?</i></b>" </div>
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There are still higher education institutions who allow their instructors to simply copy their courses over to an e-Learning environment in an uncritical fashion and call it e-Learning. The obvious down side to this is that students who attend courses have never known a time when they were not connected to the web so they can recognize that which is true e-Learning that makes use of all the assets of the web and that which is a phony, lazy, attempt to be an e-learning experience.</div>
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Attendance statistics for courses tell an interesting story and support the student's awareness of course offerings which are not true e-Learning courses. It seems that in these courses, the only time that attendance is up is when tests need to be done.</div>
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<b><u>E-Learning, Knowledge Silos and Business Organizations</u></b></div>
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If there was ever an area in our society in need of a revolution in thinking it is in business organizations and the training regimens that they inflict on their employees. There is a very serious disconnect in learning done within business organizations compared to learning that employees engage in outside the hours of business. The idea of using silos of knowledge as a viable construct is alive and well within the learning culture of business organizations. Largely, this is driven by fear that any type of innovation or change will disrupt the flow of business.</div>
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So, the question that should be addressed by business is:</div>
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"<b><i>Which is more important, the organizational needs or the learning needs of our employees which directly impact on innovation and performance?</i></b>"</div>
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Next--Steps for Business into the 21st Century</div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-19503267687533501652019-03-27T12:41:00.002-04:002019-03-27T12:41:43.637-04:00Best Practices in 21st Century e-Learning in Formal Education and Business: A Flexible Future<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The drive towards the compilation of and implementation of "<b><i>best practices</i></b>" has been the hallmark for success both in the training environment of business organizations and in the institutions of formal education for much of the 19th and 20th century. These selected practices have been the goal when mentoring new educators and trainers. However, with the rapid development of technology and the ever present web involved in every aspect of our lives, we are faced with some challenging questions:<br />
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<b><i>"Has technology and the world wide web changed our traditional concept of what best practices are? </i></b></div>
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<b><i>Do we need to re-think the nature of best practices because of rapid change in our society? Can the best practices that have essentially remained static over the years still afford us success and a competitive advantage in a world economy that has a greater focus on the online world of the world wide web?"</i></b><br />
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<b><i><u>A Business Example: The PowerPoint Presentation</u></i></b></div>
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First, I want to assure you that I am not disputing the usefulness of the Microsoft collection of tools. What I am questioning is whether or not this approach is still meeting the real learning needs of business organizations as they seek to meet the demands of the 21st century globally connected business economy.</div>
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"<b><i>Does this "best practice" still meet the learning needs of our employees and also our clients?</i></b>"</div>
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This style of "<b><i>training</i></b>" is based upon two main assumptions:</div>
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<li>The "<b><i>sage on the stage</i></b>" approach is best because the person on the stage is the expert on the topic and the audience are the learners.</li>
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In the first assumption there is a neglect to acknowledge a stark reality which is that the world has changed and the changes do have an impact on business organizations. Due to the rise of technology, information is growing at an exponential rate across many disciplines and to suggest that an "<b><i>expert</i></b>" has a strong hold on information that impacts a given business is naive at best. It also ignores the fact that because of the integration of technology into the lives of our employees outside the business environment, how they learn as adults has changed. This brings us to the second assumption which is linked to the changes taking place.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u></b>:<b><i> www.businessesgrow.com</i></b></td></tr>
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Learning in the outside online world does not treat learners as passive receivers of wisdom. On the contrary, learning is very much interactive where the learner is engaged with the technology with the purpose of developing skills and mindsets that allow the individual to advance in his or her learning. Besides interacting with the technology, the idea of collaboration has taken on a whole new meaning where collaboration is not restricted to physical borders or time. Learning and collaboration is now in a 24/7 framework where any mobile device can have a participant join in and collaborate in a business organization that is a port networked with other ports anywhere in the world.</div>
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A third trait that runs contrary to the "<b><i>training</i></b>" best practices is the idea that learning needs to be ongoing rather than "<b><i>one and off</i></b>" training sessions. This means that the learning culture of a business organization needs to change the mindset of meeting organization needs in a checklist of needs to meeting, encouraging and GROWING the learning of employees. In such a change, the business will experience a greater ROI that is directly in harmony with what is really happening in the outside world.</div>
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<b><i>So, what does this all mean for the concept of best practices in business learning?</i></b></div>
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<b><i><u>Re-Visioning Best Practices: Five Qualities</u></i></b></div>
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<li>If best practices are still be considered as a great guide to effective business learning then they need to be adaptive, flexible and individualized to the needs of the learner. Best practices should always point to the future and not be unchanging and rooted in the past because the one constant in the 21st century is constant change.</li>
<li>The design of learning experiences need to have the qualities of being: meaningful, memorable, motivational and measurable for learners. Learners need to be engaged in their learning on a regular basis within the organization and the organization needs to weave a drive to learn throughout the organization from the C-Suite to the entry level personnel. It should become a natural mindset in the way a business competes and serves their client base.</li>
<li>For the benefit and health of the organization, learning needs to have stronger connections to the ROI which will happen if decision makers make it part of their organizational mission.</li>
<li>Employees need the assurance that their ideas that they arrive at through collaboration have value for the organization. To accomplish this, business organizations should have forums where employee collaborative groups can pitch and defend their ideas. Such a forum could follow similar parameters as the t.v. reality show called: "<b><i>Shark Tank</i></b>".</li>
<li>Establish a new staff position titled: "<b><i>Learning Principles Director</i></b>". If you wish to know exactly what that means, ask me. <b><i>HINT</i></b>: It has to do with establishment of mentor networks.</li>
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Effectively competing in a globally connected world means capitalizing on the intellectual assets found within business organizations. This means establishing the free flow of information through networked collaboration. You as a business organization have a choice; you can stay on the treadmill constantly running to keep up or you can act proactively and force your competition to keep running to keep up. Business organizations such as Apple and Google testify to the importance of placing a priority on learning. </div>
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<b><i>Are you ready to join them?</i></b></div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-37639097660448920772018-09-20T15:47:00.003-04:002018-09-21T12:59:34.424-04:00The Rise of New Technology and the Paradox of Learning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A fundamental understanding that will shock both formal education organizations and decision makers in business organizations is this:<br />
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" <b><i>You do not have to learn every piece of technology that appears as the newest, trendy thing in order to safely and productively navigate the new reality of the 21st century!</i></b>"</div>
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To the committed cyber-geek, this is tantamount to heresy and to those who have struggled with learning new technology, they are saying that: "<b><i>I knew it all along!</i></b>"</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>credit</u>: <i>www. betterworld.mit.edu</i></b></td></tr>
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<b><u>Organizational Errors in Introducing New Technologies to Staff</u></b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><span style="font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">www.pinterest.co.uk(Akhil Kapu)</span><br />
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<b style="font-weight: bold;"><u>Resistance to Change</u></b><b>: </b>Employees have good reason for demonstrating a resistance to change within an organization. Such resistance can be communicated to them through the actions of the decision makers within the organization. Such actions often take the form of the following:<br />
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<li style="text-align: left;">There is no attempt to re-visit the <b>mission</b> and <b>core values of the organization</b> or any attempt to communicate to employees that this is even being considered as an organizational priority. It is evidenced in the fact that the only change that is permitted is tweaking of some things which very often do nothing to change the ways of doing things that have been in place for decades. Leadership has no vision of what the organization should look like taking into account technological change.</li>
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<b><u>Timelines for Implementing New Technology</u></b>: Another error in introducing new technology to employees is the use of unrealistic timelines required for mastery of the technology whether it is software applications, hardware or both. This creates unnecessary levels of stress and frustration for employees at all levels. So, the question becomes:<br />
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<b><i>"How do we resolve this problem so that we have meaningful sustained engagement of employees in their learning?"</i></b></div>
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Three potential solutions that could be implemented individually or in a hybrid form of all three, might be the following:</div>
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<li><b><i><u>Creation of a Technology "Sandbox</u>"</i></b>-- Believe it or not adults still need time to "<b><i>play</i></b>" and this is especially true with new technology. It has been stated that 90% of learning these days happens as informal learning outside of business hours. It is on this point that businesses should take their cue and create a 24/7 "<b><i>technology sandbox</i></b>" login site where employees can play with the new technology outside the stress of business hours. This is especially true with new software apps. However, there is also great potential in using interactive simulations that allow employees to try out new procedures through role playing and then seeing the consequences of their actions before embedding learning behaviours into their work routine. For example, one area that has been explored is customer relations where the employee has to resolve a problem so that the interests of the organization are maintained but also the concerns of the customers are addressed. Similar simulations can be set up to simulate manufacturing hardware problems. The key here is that the employee receives immediate feedback that doesn't automatically create a risk of a poor performance evaluation.</li>
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<li><b><i><u>Micro-Learning Implementation</u></i></b>-- This is the procedure of breaking learning up into smaller chunks for easier learning and review if necessary. One of the real problems of our age deals with the fact that we are not adept in managing time. With the growth of BYOD and 24/7 connection to the Internet, micro-learning makes sense. This enables an employee to use a tablet or Smart Phone to access a learning module wherever they might be other than at work. This fits well with the first suggestion. The caveat here is that the micro-learning modules must be well designed and should be <b><i>memorable</i></b>, <b><i>meaningful</i></b>, <b><i>motivational</i></b> and <b><i>measurable</i></b>. Without these qualities, employees won't stick with them.</li>
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<li><b><i><u>Develop Mentoring Relationships Between Those Who Get It and Those Who Don't</u></i></b>-- An important term to introduce to staff at all levels is the term "<b><i>Co-Learner</i></b>". In this age of learning and the rapid growth of new technology, it makes good business sense to encourage the development of these relationships. One benefit it gives us is that it forces us to admit that: </li>
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<b><i>"We Don't Know Everything!"</i></b></div>
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This is a hard thing for <b><i>SME's</i></b> to admit but Subject Matter Experts need to re-think their roles!</div>
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<b><u>The Great Paradox of Learning vs. Training</u></b></div>
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When we consider all the procedures that have been employed for decades in helping our employees learn all that they need to know in the performance of their labours, we are faced with the daunting question:</div>
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<b><i>"Are our training protocols in sync with the current research on learning science in regards to adults in the 21st century or have we lost our vision and purpose to maintain the status quo?"</i></b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><b>: </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">www. uni-learning.com</i><br />
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We need to make sure that organizational learning matches with how employees learn outside the workplace where they are connected to the world in a variety of contexts.<br />
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<li>Changing the mindset of the organization so that it moves from the "<b><i>training</i></b>" mindset that carries a great deal of negative baggage with it to a "<b><i>learning culture</i></b>" mindset. One way to begin this change is to separate the dreaded but necessary "<b><i>compliance training</i></b>" from the category of organizational learning for the advancement of employee learning. The fact is that in many organizations, compliance training gives learning a bad name in the minds of employees.</li>
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<li>Using the "<b><i>mentoring relationship</i></b>" mentioned to develop actual learning communities devoted to improved performance within disciplines or departments of the business organization. This should not be limited to internal learning communities but should also result in networks online forming external learning communities in the specified discipline. A wealth of information and knowledge exists on the web in many disciplines. Making the right connections can impact not only employee performance but also enhance brand image on a much wider scale within the global economy.</li>
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Finally, in order to resolve this paradox involving training and learning within business organizations, there is a need to expand our abilities to design engaging learning experiences that capitalize on e-Learning and blended learning which are becoming more and more the indicators of a healthy and dynamic business organization.<br />
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<b><i>"Are we prepared as business leaders to take the first risk to encouraging an entrepreneurial and innovative mindset within our employees so as to move forward into the future? "</i></b></div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-9089973590478612672018-08-28T15:42:00.002-04:002018-08-28T15:42:45.264-04:00Harnessing Social Media for E-Learning: Re-Designing Learning Experiences<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><u>Credit</u>:<i>https://curatti.com</i></b><br />
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The harnessing of social media for effective use in the cause of e-Learning is a novel concept because in the minds of many who use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube...etc, social media has always been synonymous with socializing with friends, keeping up with family and sharing personal exploits. However, the ability to allow collaboration on a large digital scale without concern for physical borders and even language and cultural differences is also its greatest strength for helping promote effective e-Learning.</div>
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In reality for those who are in the field of digital education, it is <b><i><u>our responsibility</u></i></b> to prove how the power of social media can be re-tasked to a higher purpose of ongoing learning for employees in business organizations as well as in the area of formal education.</div>
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In order for that to happen, we need to understand that the way we design learning experiences must change to capitalize on what social media has to offer. If the goals with employees are to create the desire in them to engage with their learning at a personal level to benefit the mission and goals of the business organization, then the type of engagement must be one that they personally sustain beyond the learning experiences. It must be a product of growth in the internal intrinsic motivation of the individual to the point where extrinsic motivators are irrelevant. </div>
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For example, the desire to collaborate and solve a real world problem that is germane to the functioning of the business organization will be over powering to the point that informal learning outside the business hours becomes tasked to solving the problem.</div>
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It is design thinking that is the key to achieving this mindset that can only benefit the health and future of the business organization. The learning experiences that are designed should be memorable, meaningful, motivational and measurable as Michael Allen has so aptly put it.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDeI2qY_9bxfPZTko7igOVHpq_XAOWJi7tdDSn0sKdYKDJvrsfUPfDoYUDBibzCDGaCWhSB5HeTvW4lDA-_Ea5F6KeSrazWT-yTLI0e2cjQZ6CtJrtjwQxIWSv6M1f_IZM1Y7ahXuMSIqB/s1600/asocmed3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDeI2qY_9bxfPZTko7igOVHpq_XAOWJi7tdDSn0sKdYKDJvrsfUPfDoYUDBibzCDGaCWhSB5HeTvW4lDA-_Ea5F6KeSrazWT-yTLI0e2cjQZ6CtJrtjwQxIWSv6M1f_IZM1Y7ahXuMSIqB/s400/asocmed3.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.quotemaster.org</i></b></td></tr>
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<b><u>ADDIE: Has It Reached Its Best Before Date</u>?</b></div>
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The standard design template has focused on <b>ADDIE</b> (<b><i>Analysis, Design, Development</i></b>, <b>Implementation, Evaluation</b>) in the past or what could be called the "<b><i>waterfall approach</i></b>". In following this approach analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation are all treated as ordered steps in the larger product development process.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><b>: </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">www.msit.bloomu.edu</i><br />
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The <b>advantages</b> to using the ADDIE model are:<br />
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<li>It is quite prevalent both in the business and formal education worlds and is the basis for many instructional design models.</li>
<li>It can be used for many evaluation strategies and can be very easily measured.</li>
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The <b>drawbacks</b> to using the ADDIE model are:<br />
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<li>one stage must be completed before moving to the next stage.</li>
<li>using this model is "time overwhelming".</li>
<li>Very expensive to use</li>
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Given the pros and cons of continuing to use ADDIE, we have to ask the question:</div>
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"<b><i>Is ADDIE still meeting the instructional design needs in business organizations if the 21st century advancements in technology and the expansion of the potential of the World Wide Web have changed and continue to change in profound ways?</i></b>"</div>
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If we respond in the negative then what is our alternative and will it fit our criteria of:</div>
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<li><b><i>Making use of the web's advanced pedagogy tools</i></b></li>
<li><b><i>Cost effective</i></b></li>
<li><b><i>Leads to the least amount of disruption in the changeover</i></b></li>
<li><b><i>Results in the ability to engage in the rapid prototyping of our primary service/ product to the benefit of our established clients and new leads</i></b></li>
<li><i><b>Scale-able to meet the needs of employees and the use of mobile devices</b></i></li>
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Michael Allen in his publication: "<a href="https://www.alleninteractions.com/leaving-addie-for-sam-book" target="_blank">Leaving ADDIE For Sam</a>" (2012) put it very succinctly when he states:</div>
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" <b><i>The bottom line for a business organization is this; the best model for an organization today is one that assures each project will be completed within its constraints and will achieve desired performance outcomes to the fullest extent possible</i></b>."</div>
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<b><u>Social Media and E-Learning</u></b><br />
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In order for e-Learning to harness social media, it is necessary that the design of e-Learning experiences use a design format that is iterative. In choosing such a design approach, elements such as interactivity and learner engagement become tests of the effectiveness of the design and allows for what is called "<b><i>rapid prototyping</i></b>" of the learning experience to take place.</div>
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"<b><i>Why is this so important when it comes to using social media as an asset in e-Learning?</i></b>"<br />
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With regards to business organizations it is imperative to know how much productive time is lost when social media is being used by employees in a clandestine fashion during business hours. The truth is out there.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCuleu4hSV14SI0fwHLBMrg3dQwJlzmkLrFi4FK4swMFZxGeYnPo2N8CnGPYQUeMP-DdfwbplW9_AHsJl4Qna_2ErQu8jgaa4_r8g27Jbt9RKBJ5oFusrGlYuYLDPK3BllKgdeI5RpVfSh/s1600/asocmed5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="970" data-original-width="1023" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCuleu4hSV14SI0fwHLBMrg3dQwJlzmkLrFi4FK4swMFZxGeYnPo2N8CnGPYQUeMP-DdfwbplW9_AHsJl4Qna_2ErQu8jgaa4_r8g27Jbt9RKBJ5oFusrGlYuYLDPK3BllKgdeI5RpVfSh/s400/asocmed5.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><span style="font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">https://www.dontwasteyourtime.co.uk</span><br />
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Another point to consider is the toxicity of some social media sites which can emotionally and cognitively affect the performance of employees.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnfFae5ip1Lyr6AkDcDxuGy8Bsp_O5c2cvWhdeMZM8Qz6dUvY7cI95xgOCw7fjabVoM2Hpb-Dqz1XnfDaTzXUO0q33UA12juFnj5EYVubdcKDXGtiOQEqiushQmDlwA5hl5vnjUayzPPgw/s1600/asocmed4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnfFae5ip1Lyr6AkDcDxuGy8Bsp_O5c2cvWhdeMZM8Qz6dUvY7cI95xgOCw7fjabVoM2Hpb-Dqz1XnfDaTzXUO0q33UA12juFnj5EYVubdcKDXGtiOQEqiushQmDlwA5hl5vnjUayzPPgw/s400/asocmed4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>http://inspiredelearning.com</i></b></td></tr>
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<b><u>Re-Designing Learning Experiences for Social Media: A Few Suggestions</u></b></div>
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<li><b><u>Creation of a Mentoring Network</u></b>: As was pointed out, one of the great strengths of social media is that it enhances and refines our ability to collaborate with others. At many conferences dealing with technology, it is not unusual for Twitter special interest groups to form in an ad hoc fashion which brings together people with like professional backgrounds and diverse talents for a defined purpose. If we translate this into a business framework, we can address a real need in the learning culture of an organization to enable on going learning for employees. In an age of vast information production across many areas and disciplines, this is a survival skill. In the past, business organizations have surrounded themselves with SME's to educate instructional designers who then create learning experiences for "training employees". The problem today is that the term "<b><i>Subject Matter Expert</i></b>" is really a dated designation because claiming to be an "<b><i>expert</i></b>" in the content to be presented suggests that the SME is able to keep up to date. Can he or she really claim this in this age? The focus needs to switch to empowering employees by teaching them how to think and work in an online world. This requires an emphasis on process skillsets and not on content attainment skills. Creating an online mentoring network in which ready connections can be established with individuals across the digital landscape who can offer a continued mentoring in these processes should be considered. Cross discipline mentoring is the wave for future global network collaborations.</li>
<li><b><u>Creation of An Over Watch Position</u></b>: Anyone who has served in certain branches of the military will understand this term. In an area of conflict, a person who has over watch communicates to ground forces what is coming as they advance. They are the ones who provide important intelligence as to what they see coming so that important decisions can be made on reliable evidence. When it comes to the performance of employees in a business organization, the factors of change management, technology and pedagogy is re-defining what our KPH's should be. Within the business organization, we might suggest that this is the job of the CEO, or CLO! But is it? Given the diversity of responsibilities that such positions now hold and the low priority of L&D, would what is coming that helps the learning of employees even be on their radar? This "<b><i>over watch</i></b>" position should be occupied by a person who is an expert in learning principles as they affect adults, up to date on the research current on learning science and someone who can profile, track and personalize the learning of employees so that engagement, innovation and creativity are nurtured for the benefit of the organization.</li>
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The time has come to truly, as the cliche goes, "<b><i>think outside the box</i></b>". Using Social Media as an asset to effective e-Learning means the establishment of an organizational learning community where from the decision makers to the ground levels of the organization, there is a common focus of making continued learning of employees a theme of unity within the organization. The ROI will be a growth in individual performance and a commitment to being part of something that is far greater than anyone individual effort.</div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-89367609281139241132018-04-12T12:27:00.003-04:002018-04-12T12:27:48.062-04:00Harnessing Social Media in e-Learning-Part III<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In the previous post, one of the barriers identified was the entrenched viewpoint that social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat...etc are just for socializing with family and friends.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBEUFrSNtyozHPohAfGCxy4vg2xt385g4it1NS-vqFoerScBnZxVijExTRSkSmhQFNNQqgbfzSUDe17WtwLu00wNrmyLWyVKSBNHvGGBwzZ936jVG93rD632jbGvu00OfNvBH02grg4H5/s1600/socmed10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBEUFrSNtyozHPohAfGCxy4vg2xt385g4it1NS-vqFoerScBnZxVijExTRSkSmhQFNNQqgbfzSUDe17WtwLu00wNrmyLWyVKSBNHvGGBwzZ936jVG93rD632jbGvu00OfNvBH02grg4H5/s320/socmed10.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www. theconversation.com</i></b></td></tr>
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In diagnosing the problems with the entrenchment of the common social media attitude in regards to its purpose, we are faced with a couple of questions that need to be addressed if we desire to capitalize on the potential that social media holds for effective e-Learning:<br />
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<b><i>"What are the characteristics of social media and how can these characteristics be harnessed in the cause of effective e-Learning?"</i></b> </div>
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<b><u>Step #2: Identifying the Characteristics of Social Media</u></b></div>
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The elements that describe social media could simply be described by the following:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Ad_ey4lVxlbDpL8LAjpv7JaPc6Gh4z6TjwlKOk_7_uF6diA7CyRtbc9PY0DDEpt4kqQN5B6rzYhiERV4yaZf2gWrs8753uNX_vqwt054tnWZGcf_pgg1pH7vm6y8QRRYoMOpeHPdBXCN/s1600/socmed11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Ad_ey4lVxlbDpL8LAjpv7JaPc6Gh4z6TjwlKOk_7_uF6diA7CyRtbc9PY0DDEpt4kqQN5B6rzYhiERV4yaZf2gWrs8753uNX_vqwt054tnWZGcf_pgg1pH7vm6y8QRRYoMOpeHPdBXCN/s320/socmed11.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.tech.dmu.ac.uk</i></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7o1GD3ZcErys-ROk6CgFFXyLfM3uQiekBBqwXCzePLynVPomwh71O_FDcjk48Vx5xDHMptc1WqCux7CwAk1tKdXujABCF04YZRjTOBe3AToaOrar2FVd5sY8XfXnfNOy5t-IWazLvCJ3T/s1600/socmed14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="700" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7o1GD3ZcErys-ROk6CgFFXyLfM3uQiekBBqwXCzePLynVPomwh71O_FDcjk48Vx5xDHMptc1WqCux7CwAk1tKdXujABCF04YZRjTOBe3AToaOrar2FVd5sY8XfXnfNOy5t-IWazLvCJ3T/s400/socmed14.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Carmella Howard</i></b></td></tr>
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<b><u>Community</u></b>: In defining community, it is necessary to point out that the nature of community has changed from what was considered community in the past. The community of the past had common bonds such as occupation, morality ( A community church used to be placed at the center of a community in the western world), beliefs about education, and common traditions as represented by ideas such as holidays on the calendar). The connections with other communities globally were through the transportation and communication technologies of the time. The common restriction was that use of such technologies were constrained by time.</div>
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With the advancement of technology in the 20th & 21st century, the nature of community was transformed. With the advancement of knowledge and information brought on by the exponential changes in technology, the idea of community lost some of the constraints involving time and place with community transforming from being localized to global. Due to the growth of information and knowledge across many disciplines, a new community or "c<b><i>ulture of learning</i></b>" became one of the important prerequisites for both business and education in order not just to survive but move forward within a global context. This "<b><i>culture of learning</i></b>" is what e-Learning strives to establish in a totally online environment. Community is important in the online world. In order to establish this "<b><i>culture of</i></b> <b><i>learning</i></b>", there is a need to break away from a status quo which is decades old and definitely not in sync with the needs of 21st century communities.</div>
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<b><u>Conversations & Participation</u></b>: With the removal of the constraints of time and space, opportunities were opened up for the development of a way to extend personal relationships from the local stage to the world stage. Part of the growth of this "<b><i>culture of learning</i></b>" was the development of global networks focused on inter-relationships that we call "<b><i>social media networks</i></b>". When we compare these two elements with what is needed in effective e-Learning we realize that these terms correspond to the elements of "<b><i>collaboration</i></b>" and "<b><i>engagement</i></b>".<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLM970FiftR6ASMicEkz5-pfNpI2tAhmWanQT5UR1WvhqbKilo7TKBn6QWrVDTaGn4mcd17Yu8Nb6wdI33RVf59a-5gwuZfUetkYqhzs4qeus8Ub0XqacrfWTWDcCpK6q7_q70ywl84kV9/s1600/ID-10043657.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="400" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLM970FiftR6ASMicEkz5-pfNpI2tAhmWanQT5UR1WvhqbKilo7TKBn6QWrVDTaGn4mcd17Yu8Nb6wdI33RVf59a-5gwuZfUetkYqhzs4qeus8Ub0XqacrfWTWDcCpK6q7_q70ywl84kV9/s400/ID-10043657.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Just as within the social media networks, conversations often focus on current events common to the inter-relationships, collaboration and engagement in effective e-Learning must focus on identification and solution of real world problems where feedback on decisions that are made have real world consequences. This brings us back to a change in the role of educator and student. The educator becomes a mentor and guide in effective process skills that students need to develop in order to become much needed "<b><i>agents of change</i></b>" in societies that need to separate and interpret the forces of change in technology and the generation of information and knowledge. The bottom line is that"<br />
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<b><i>"... both business and education must become proactive in dealing with the perfect storm of technological and information change rather than continuously retreating into steadily shrinking comfort zones through being reactive to change."</i></b></div>
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So, this brings us to a very pertinent question:<br />
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<b><i>"Given that social media and effective e-Learning have so many of the same elements, how can we use social media as a tool for effective e-Learning?"</i></b></div>
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The answer to that question involves the re-design of learning experiences so that they are irresistibly engaging and make use of the very concepts of social media that has made it a spectacular world wide phenomenon. This involves re-designing learning experiences so that they focus less on the acquirement of information by the student for the sake of becoming a "<b><i>human database</i></b>" to be tested and approved by education systems. Given the exponentially growing amount of information and knowledge that is happening in the 21st century, maintaining this type of focus presents the student with an impossible task. Instead, teaching students how to engage, think and collaborate on the web for real world purposes that is key to enriching the societies they will live in should be the prime directive for education. This means that education becomes far more meaningful and relevant to students because now they are learning how to contribute to their present and future in meaningful ways.<br />
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The next step will focus on how to incorporate the use of social media in innovative ways that addresses this previously mentioned "<b><i>prime directive</i></b>". As can be seen in the following diagram, the possibilities are endless in achieving this goal.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqeZDFrOBKx1XFJBgeGEpffbfo09RZJ6dJ4OvEQiSLzQOXpEsI1Pdke1fGMzxLCxpQDsGRIdv0XnARToIqNbUH1HoVTh1bt0OrKEOgyTbh9W3OzkPF_DGgdeHzabBGt3SUauzFnV4qvflK/s1600/socmed12.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="700" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqeZDFrOBKx1XFJBgeGEpffbfo09RZJ6dJ4OvEQiSLzQOXpEsI1Pdke1fGMzxLCxpQDsGRIdv0XnARToIqNbUH1HoVTh1bt0OrKEOgyTbh9W3OzkPF_DGgdeHzabBGt3SUauzFnV4qvflK/s400/socmed12.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.FredCavazza.net</i></b></td></tr>
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<b><u>Next</u></b>: <b><i>Step #3---Re-designing Learning Experiences</i></b><br />
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-18482450826926842332018-03-22T17:19:00.001-04:002018-03-22T17:19:40.577-04:00Harnessing Social Media in e-Learning-Part II<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Social media has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately because of a mistaken perception that people who use the web have that they are entitled to the maintenance of some form of personal privacy. With the recent disclosure of data breaches on Facebook, a major social media platform, much to the chagrin of owners and users, the personal data that they indiscriminately added to their Facebook area, is now out there and now subject to the growing use of predictive analytics. Now through the use of big data collection and access to Facebook data, companies such as Google, Amazon and others can make suggestions to you, unsolicited, on products that should interest you based upon their analysis of your digital footprints. Note that words such as "might interest you" is not used because the advance of predictive analytics have raise the percentage of probability out of those shadowed areas.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPytyv-_gD_mYK83RZmoO_vR1j7H53OPqSj09fw58sO9Ma8jFZ6bJJrPK3dUVClvYcgHjD4Ph2jkx4MBbdBk7hONNhN9B45x-RrF4t9ubzt-l9qjKrfThdjhIGElt31i3bV02ast2oAA_0/s1600/socmed1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPytyv-_gD_mYK83RZmoO_vR1j7H53OPqSj09fw58sO9Ma8jFZ6bJJrPK3dUVClvYcgHjD4Ph2jkx4MBbdBk7hONNhN9B45x-RrF4t9ubzt-l9qjKrfThdjhIGElt31i3bV02ast2oAA_0/s320/socmed1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u></b>: <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">www.jeffbullas.com</span><br />
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The frightening thing about the above scenario is not that the fact that the breach of the data was huge but that a whole generation of highly connected social media users never thought that such a thing could happen. Despite the fact that most of this youthful generation of users have never known a day in their lives when they were not connected, they still remain rather ignorant and uneducated about how the web works. This leads us to the question:<br />
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<b><i>"If we are going to capitalize on the potential that social media has for e-learning, what steps need to be taken to educate users of social media?"</i></b></div>
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<b><i><u>Steps in Positive Directions</u></i></b></div>
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There is no doubt that the attraction to e-Learning has hit "<b><i>prime time</i></b>". Statistics bear this growth and transformation out.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhAdAHkvtZ5VOuq9_mlSZZh3JKYjsBXKzvGQx1xrPlwbUTorJQOI70LzXO5_iUTPw1ysRlZl4PDcw4vXu1W2b5bhKJBpo5SEs51Dj9x9QFfUHGph8PerFjF5Za1rHipFdMMPOJI39fvU9Q/s1600/socmed3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhAdAHkvtZ5VOuq9_mlSZZh3JKYjsBXKzvGQx1xrPlwbUTorJQOI70LzXO5_iUTPw1ysRlZl4PDcw4vXu1W2b5bhKJBpo5SEs51Dj9x9QFfUHGph8PerFjF5Za1rHipFdMMPOJI39fvU9Q/s400/socmed3.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u></b>: <b><i>www.moodlenews.com</i></b></td></tr>
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<b><u>Step #1</u></b>: <b><i><u>Change an Entrenched Perception of Social Media</u></i></b><br />
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Many of this 21st century generation have never used social media for anything else than to socialize with others online. How entrenched this perception of what social media exists for is again revealed in glaring statistics. If we take an example from the United Kingdom in 2015, it becomes very clear what people perceive as the purpose for social media.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNGgcXuaxLNGn0n6rFIv9G-_Ef6znCCZV5p8eoFJqNO_eu7TShgvL0IBBCRcU4_4evNbJdSU25nlVPMUslRk4d6Z7gc_Gd2i1xwdgTV2rJWZDrDp8VXRvAHUVwuuWxFn10-n7ydNI4SW77/s1600/socmed4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNGgcXuaxLNGn0n6rFIv9G-_Ef6znCCZV5p8eoFJqNO_eu7TShgvL0IBBCRcU4_4evNbJdSU25nlVPMUslRk4d6Z7gc_Gd2i1xwdgTV2rJWZDrDp8VXRvAHUVwuuWxFn10-n7ydNI4SW77/s400/socmed4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www. statista.com</i></b></td></tr>
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Another interesting development in the business world is how social media is now seen as a potential tool for digital marketing. It is in this area that outrage has a arisen recently in the media due to the harvesting of data or data mining that is being carried on by big business which sees such an activity as quite reasonable given the fact that effective guidelines or even a consensus of guidelines for data mining of social media has not been established in the "<b><i>wild west</i></b>" we know as the Internet. The temptation is too great for them to resist.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBvjp1dnEv5E2RZNqWua0YzXfBlSXbvkHJFnKabQPNSOHTN9N2pkf8lISYCe09Q5BAGb10wUQimG7cBQlj0_GROGc8Ak8Uo90LgGzM2OmaPj8l0CNEWX7Tv4Q-a2SUcxr0V4KPYdSw2QsD/s1600/socmed5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBvjp1dnEv5E2RZNqWua0YzXfBlSXbvkHJFnKabQPNSOHTN9N2pkf8lISYCe09Q5BAGb10wUQimG7cBQlj0_GROGc8Ak8Uo90LgGzM2OmaPj8l0CNEWX7Tv4Q-a2SUcxr0V4KPYdSw2QsD/s400/socmed5.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>:<i> https://wearesocial.com</i></b></td></tr>
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So given the entrenchment of these attitudes over the use of social media, how do we change direction so that it becomes focused on effective e-Learning for all? It starts by realizing some of the realities:<br />
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<li>The reason students do not use social media for purposes of enriching their education is because they have never been taught to see social media in this light. Unfortunately, educational institutions, enforcing the command and control mantra of the typical classroom, have devoted their resources to banning smart phone use, blocking cell signals completely, restricting cell phone use to obscure times of the day rather than seeing mobile devices as another tool to be used to enrich student learning.</li>
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<li>A second reality is that in order to change the perspective, we need to re-design learning experiences in innovative and creative ways that engage students to use social media collaboratively in irresistibly engaging learning. This flies in the face of prescribed government curriculums which are more obsessed with redundant assessment than creative and innovative instructional design. The great irony here is that if we are preparing students to be effective citizens working in a business world, we are employing a system that runs counter to the needs of 21st century businesses which are placing a high value on innovation and problem solving.</li>
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Next post--Step #2</div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-63790952706347591622018-01-16T16:04:00.002-05:002018-01-16T16:32:44.426-05:00Using Social Media As a Tool in E-learning: The Challenges and Potential<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There is no denying that the rise of social media in the form of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat...etc has created a level of engagement among people globally.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaS1OWcN7KGjQGn_o1ait21ADHZjCi66KJuli4TUF5lU9rRnllwYQ7IXbA_g4XoW1N7vebNo2Juuf5pk-3BPE5TRnpGC_72szEisTDtdLZHowaPDHvNrrkbyrrx6KnpeYU87Ba2HNFDg75/s1600/socialmed1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaS1OWcN7KGjQGn_o1ait21ADHZjCi66KJuli4TUF5lU9rRnllwYQ7IXbA_g4XoW1N7vebNo2Juuf5pk-3BPE5TRnpGC_72szEisTDtdLZHowaPDHvNrrkbyrrx6KnpeYU87Ba2HNFDg75/s400/socialmed1.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u></b>: <b><i>www.statista.com</i></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW3eXIBtU7EPQAyJysvr1SihdSOLnmiVz1b7DMF2avx_leOpJ0ssJlfWBjG_JHPFANlyTsZXPDy0SZNeiJJpZ2dBIGP3P5foJjxIrOi0RGGppN12k5gNXsxm2zBzANr1pzJrkSgeF8BpJr/s1600/socialmed2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW3eXIBtU7EPQAyJysvr1SihdSOLnmiVz1b7DMF2avx_leOpJ0ssJlfWBjG_JHPFANlyTsZXPDy0SZNeiJJpZ2dBIGP3P5foJjxIrOi0RGGppN12k5gNXsxm2zBzANr1pzJrkSgeF8BpJr/s400/socialmed2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u></b>: <b><i>www.taktical.com</i></b></td></tr>
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When we consider that level of engagement from a business perspective, we wish that our own business culture could boast such percentages. The even greater dilemma dealing with social media focuses on the following questions that every business organization needs to confront and solve which are:<br />
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<li><b><i>How do I ensure that our business organization is not losing important hours of productivity as a result of employees using company time to be on social media?</i></b></li>
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To respond to such a question, one needs to ask is this really a widespread problem or is it a problem at all? Looking at how employers deal with employee access and their reasons for their approach shows their concerns with social media. A survey was performed by Robert Half Technology of 1400 chief information officers from companies across the United States to<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> </span>find out their policy on visiting social media sites. The results were that:<br />
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<li>54% do not allow employees to access social media sites under any circumstance at work.</li>
<li>19% allow limited access and then only for strictly business purposes only.</li>
<li>16% allow limited access for personal use.</li>
<li>10% allow for unlimited and unrestricted access for personal use.</li>
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Business organizations have various reasons for blocking social media sites. It is interesting to note the prime reason in the following list:<br />
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<li>Loss of productivity.</li>
<li>Potential exposure of computers and business networks to spyware, malware and viruses.</li>
<li>Greater chance for corporate information that is strictly proprietary to be leaked.</li>
<li>Potential legal liability for the company as a result of employees accessing certain social media sites that have poor security measures.</li>
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The elephant in the room underlying the above rationales is the question:<br />
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"<b><i>Do employees feel that they are stakeholders in the health and the future of the business organization or do they feel that they are merely paid pawns in an enterprise that they have no credible input into?</i></b>"</div>
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<b>2</b>. <b><i>When are employees most likely to access social media sites and which ones in particular?</i></b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: </b><i><b style="font-size: 12.8px;">www.healthventures</b><b style="font-size: 12.8px;">.info.com</b></i><br />
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What is interesting in the statistics shown is the fact that employees will access social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter,...etc intermittently throughout the day (40.0%) as well as during lunch (41.4%).<br />
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<b>3. <i>Given that 54% of the companies surveyed blocked social media sites completely, should the rest </i></b><b><i> follow this lead?</i></b><br />
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Simply put the answer should be "<b><i>no</i></b>". Why? Such a response creates a whole host of problems which impacts a relationship with employees when we want them to engage with the vision and mission of the company. One of the great characteristics of the new generation of employees is their ability to be creative. In the 21st century, we need employees who are creative, collaborative and actively engaged as innovative solution creators.<br />
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<b><i>"It is far better to have employees use their creativity to further our business case than to have them use their creativity to subvert, in a covert fashion, policies they find out of date with the truly connected lives that they lead outside the work place."</i></b></div>
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<b>4. <i>Does granting access to social media sites impact employee productivity?</i></b><br />
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The answer to this is both yes and no. This may sound like we are hedging our bets but anyone who has used social media for a length of time will tell you that it can be a very healthy place to connect as part of a personal online community but it can also be a "<b><i>cesspool</i></b>" which harbours unhealthy and potentially dangerous attitudes which can impact a company.<br />
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Employees have even made a case that use of social media sites actually improves their productivity.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG_eAEYgO1AIYcHaFxl82lft2Ne0n0KFAxEHgGwmg1NYuYry63rOrOHPE3n0PbU5sSGWIgizjRgsRIkchjuavOkW6Vma7Wrof4oVYBoS6nqc0QpwiJQJ3FOfaSI-HL7n6pXKXlbyUEOZIy/s1600/socialmed10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG_eAEYgO1AIYcHaFxl82lft2Ne0n0KFAxEHgGwmg1NYuYry63rOrOHPE3n0PbU5sSGWIgizjRgsRIkchjuavOkW6Vma7Wrof4oVYBoS6nqc0QpwiJQJ3FOfaSI-HL7n6pXKXlbyUEOZIy/s400/socialmed10.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><b>: </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">http://brandongaille.com</i><br />
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One area of increased improvement is that it exposes employees to the effective use of web 2.0 tools that can be applied to tasks in the workplace.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><b>: </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">www.socialmedia.biz</i><br />
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This brings us back to a very important question in regards to the idea of engagement which is:<br />
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<b><i>"How can a business organization harness the engagement that social media offers to business tasks and still not lose productivity time?"</i></b></div>
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<b><u>Using e-Learning and Social Media: Time to Get Creative</u>!</b></div>
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One key term that should have hit you in the above was the word "<b><i>community</i></b>". Despite the fact that we constantly say that employees live very connected lives, there is something that we once had that has become very elusive in the 21st century and that is belonging to a community. In the drive to adapt to and advance the use of technology, the idea of being part of a stable, reliable community has been fractured. Use of social media is the closest that some people get to being "<b><i>part of a community</i></b>". You will also note that when people feel that they are part of a community, they are far more engaged over time.<br />
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The goal for business organizations is to transform their organizations so that employees feel that they are part of a community that welcomes their input and ideas as bona fide stakeholders. This has been attempted in the past and has resulted in success. The airline company, Westjet, is such a success story. The benefits of engaged employees as part of a community has been well researched and stated.<br />
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Keeping such statistics in mind, how can we create high levels of engagement by harnessing e-Learning and social media?<br />
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The drive and energy that employees devote to personal learning both for the advancement of their job skillsets and to interpret their world is a personal part of their lives. The only other people who would care about how they are learning are people who are close to them and part of a personal community. It is within this context that a business organization can empower employees to become stakeholders in the business community and the use of e-Learning as a means of creating that personally meaningful community is one tool to make it happen.<br />
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From a skeptic's point of view, why would a business organization want to do this? One reason is to close the digital skills gap that exists within business organizations. This means re-visiting and re-evaluating priorities now taking into account that the world has changed and that the digital skills of all employees either advance the interests of a business organization in a globally connected collaborative, digital business world or results in a constant loss of market share akin to the types of processes that such companies such as Kodak and today, the Sears organization have experienced.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>https://buildfire.com</i></b></td></tr>
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<b><u>First Steps in Harnessing Social Media to Company Interests</u></b></div>
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<li><b><u>Recognize the value and potential of using social media</u></b>: Since employees are tightly involved in social media outside the business organization, it becomes important to train or mentor employees in how social media could be used to help transform the community that they are part of each day. Both Twitter & Facebook have specialized groups that focus on many areas of the business world. Collecting these sites and making them focused links on the company's working organizational network accessible to employees 24/7 helps put into place one of the elements of a new and more vibrant community. Such sites will be accessible to employees regardless of the tool that they use thanks to the use of HTML 5.0 as a foundation for design. A site such as LinkedIn would also be an important site because of the many forums available for learning across many dimensions of business knowledge.</li>
<li><b><u>Creating dynamic learning profiles</u></b>: If learning is a personal element in the lives of employees then those who enable growth of skillsets within learners are considered valuable members of that transformed community. This requires a re-visioning of the roles of HR, Instructional Designer and even the CLO of a business organization so that they are in tune with nurturing the growth of intellectual capital found in the persons who are employees. If information in the 21st century is the new currency, then learning is the key to creating digital capital in this new age.</li>
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<b><u>Next</u></b>---<b><i>Part II will plot out the paths to this needed transformation</i></b>. <b><i>Please feel free to share this post on e-Learning Industry forums on LinkedIn.</i></b><br />
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-50291763090631900932017-11-25T14:29:00.002-05:002017-11-25T16:17:45.961-05:00Business Organizations and Learning Culture--Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skillsets<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Business organizations need to re-assess their understanding of the importance of critical thinking and problem solving skillsets for their organizations. News articles are appearing with such titles as :<br />
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<b><i>"New Graduates Will Not Be Employable Unless They Possess the Soft Skills of Critical Thinking and Problem Solving"</i></b></div>
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At first glance such a statement seems entirely reasonable and given that we are living in an age of increasing information and knowledge many organizations would agree with such a statement. However, suggesting that critical thinking and problem solving are "<b><i>soft skills</i></b>" does not recognize that these skillsets are essentials and not the "<b><i>nice if you have them type of skills</i></b>".<br />
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In fact I would go so far as to say that business organizations should NOT hire university graduates who can not demonstrate efficiency in these skillsets.<br />
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<b><u>Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills</u></b></div>
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Hard skills have been defined as teachable abilities or skill sets that are easy to quantify. Typically, you'll learn hard skills in the classroom, through books or other training materials, or on the job. Some examples of hard skills as pointed out by HR departments are:<br />
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<li>a degree or certificate</li>
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Soft skills have been defined as subjective skills that are much harder to quantify. Also known as "people skills" or "interpersonal skills," soft skills relate to the way that you relate to and interact with other people. Some examples of soft skills as pointed out by HR departments are:<br />
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<li>critical thinking</li>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "publico" , "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"></span></span>I would like to turn this balance on its head by suggesting:<br />
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<b>"Soft skills in a digital age should be "<i>primary tier skillsets</i>" because they are foundational to accomplishing all that is involved with the use of hard skills!"</b></div>
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Why change? The reason is tied to the fact that more and more business will be conducted online where collaboration, communication, problem solving and critical thinking are essentials to developing a healthy "brand" in a much greater market for being known. Also, with the development of digital simulations that involve employees collaborating as a group, soft skills are the key to the development of hard skills.</div>
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Looking at the definitions and examples above, we are left with an important question:<br />
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<b><i>"Do these definitions align effectively with the 21st century expectations of a globally connected digital business world?"</i></b></div>
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I would say no and it is getting worse. it has been the goal of business organizations to achieve a balance between hard skills and soft skills. The hard skills would get an individual a job but it was the soft skills that would allow the individual to keep the job.</div>
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The balance as a result of advancing technology and the opening up of a business friendly online environment has shifted towards the importance of soft skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration. So, what then is the problem??<br />
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<b><u>Higher Education and Development of Critical Thinking</u></b></div>
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Coming back to the original headline which was:</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">"<i style="font-weight: bold;">New Graduates Will Not Be Employable Unless They Possess the Soft Skills of Critical Thinking and Problem Solving"</i></span></div>
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we have to ask what is happening with the development of critical thinking and problem solving skillsets in higher education. After all, this is the pool from which we will draw our future workforce from.</div>
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Critical thinking as a skillset is not being nurtured on many university campuses where teaching students WHAT to think has become important than teaching them HOW to think. A recent article is but one of many articles that are coming under the media spotlight in many universities.</div>
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<a href="https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjWlqmnotrXAhUMxWMKHdeOCbwQqQIIJygAMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theglobeandmail.com%2Fopinion%2Feditorials%2Fglobe-editorial-why-are-we-killing-critical-thinking-on-campus%2Farticle37008714%2F&usg=AOvVaw2DWilGj5Y2eW2YbHIluKHv" target="_blank">Global Editorial: "Why are we killing critical thinking on campus?"</a></div>
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You might ask yourself, from a business perspective, why I should be concerned? If you look at the soft skill traits that non-critical thinkers possess, you should be alarmed.</div>
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All the soft skills, as important as they are, will be dispensed with. So skills involving collaboration, problem solving, communication, team work will not work unless they fit the mindset of students who have have bought into political correctness as the right mindset for approaching all things in life. They may be proficient in the use of technology but will they use it to develop and encourage the soft skills or will they use their proficiency in technology to challenge and paralyze the need for soft skills to the detriment of the business?</div>
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Your solution might simply be not to hire such individuals but what if it is entrenched in a generation? If you think that I am exaggerating then Google news items about free speech and critical thinking on university campuses. I think that you will be surprised.</div>
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<b><i>So, what is the solution to such a dilemma?</i></b> </div>
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Political pressure needs to be brought to bear on educational institutions in our societies to make sure that critical thinking and problem solving are systematically embedded, emphasized and taught across all curriculum boundaries and not just in the sciences. It needs to start in primary grades and flow throughout the education system into the realm of higher education. Teaching students how to think instead of what to think leads to employees who know how to think, will listen to all points of view, evaluate evidence presented by different points of view and then be able to make decisions based upon valid, verifiable evidence. It is also a key to arriving at creative and innovative solutions that our societies need in order for effective change that improves the quality of life of all people.<br />
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If you look at your future business needs and compare them with 21st century thinking skills that should be emphasized, you will notice a good and useful pattern of harmonization,<br />
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If the use of such technologies as VR , Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Robotics are going to be harnessed to enrich your business organization and increase ROI on a global scale, then you need employees who are good critical thinkers, problem solvers and can play nice in the digital sand box with others. Social attitudes that counter this are not only to be discouraged but also countered using whatever political and financial assets are available. With elections on the horizon, the time to re-shape and transform the importance of soft skills is now.<br />
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-38906169345348897932017-11-15T12:45:00.001-05:002017-11-15T12:45:04.137-05:00Learning Culture or Training Culture--Part IV-- 21st Century Networked Collaboration<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In the previous post I suggested that the type of collaboration that organizations should be involved in is not the version that they were familiar with during their schooling. The advancement of technology involving the World Wide Web has brought about a significant paradigm shift in regards to the reach and the removal of time as a factor in the new way of doing business. Businesses now have the ability to compete with the world on a more immediate scale than ever before. Networking between branches of an organization and its home organization on a global scale has allowed businesses to accomplish more by opening new markets previously untouched and form new partnerships which help multiply client bases in ways that are mutually beneficial.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXPvYM7pL64p9FVE3kzf75RTm0Hl7PS_pDX69ZLFXak3SrmoCUkk8-Ub1eZasQ8vMZQqcDnLaXUQVY0pFoagDL0Xwys5D0yO649kHpymXXbXAVqjhlT5zvViokFcC2dsKYiJNFVu7PldDp/s1600/cmentoring8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXPvYM7pL64p9FVE3kzf75RTm0Hl7PS_pDX69ZLFXak3SrmoCUkk8-Ub1eZasQ8vMZQqcDnLaXUQVY0pFoagDL0Xwys5D0yO649kHpymXXbXAVqjhlT5zvViokFcC2dsKYiJNFVu7PldDp/s400/cmentoring8.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u></b>: <b><i>www.london-nerc-dtp.org</i></b></td></tr>
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This new type of collaboration is based upon some important traits that the learning culture of your business organization should have embedded in it. Some of these traits would be as follows:<br />
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<li>The organization has transformed the traditional "<b><i>training culture</i></b>" with its "<b><i>sage on the stage</i></b>" approach to the learning of employees with a "<b><i>learning culture</i></b>" where ongoing learning is valued and is systemic from the CEO's office down to the base level. This transformation is not just systemic within the home base but is systemic and networked on a global level. All leaders in the area of what use to be the training culture now become mentors and networkers across the many tiers of the organization.</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirqG1bdSLldlVKmzQNlJeznii9x4UD12KXg0nzdql8NXYpx76Y6Wj5B2tSaVEKjm_bydQKpLAYbShtZza4UL2aV7Us9jLpnCo3MbNGKlaVqZA_5VDSKg6LaPIoSVYzhHAFEG26KrgDu5lX/s1600/alchem2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="500" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirqG1bdSLldlVKmzQNlJeznii9x4UD12KXg0nzdql8NXYpx76Y6Wj5B2tSaVEKjm_bydQKpLAYbShtZza4UL2aV7Us9jLpnCo3MbNGKlaVqZA_5VDSKg6LaPIoSVYzhHAFEG26KrgDu5lX/s400/alchem2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<li>The organization has embraced the value of building a learning culture and no longer considers learning as a low priority when it comes to the health of the business. The decision makers consider the learning culture as a key to improved employee performance and their engagement in the mission and vision of the organization as well as an important step to making innovative thinking as a natural mindset throughout the organization.</li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqIpgyCNaPoml_vQk9i0JBIjqxWw3dW6k1XzJOFxhad2AEkE7nZzx6-EQrntopH2V9XnFEOouScDBxj5nXVygS30H7j4NcUpuoiv5ipTXY8dVdqv-hl4hFg7knjKxzdR9JKmipO88WDp1D/s1600/perform1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="820" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqIpgyCNaPoml_vQk9i0JBIjqxWw3dW6k1XzJOFxhad2AEkE7nZzx6-EQrntopH2V9XnFEOouScDBxj5nXVygS30H7j4NcUpuoiv5ipTXY8dVdqv-hl4hFg7knjKxzdR9JKmipO88WDp1D/s400/perform1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Josh Bersin</i></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNdX8uma5f1kiOVg5BfTB_ljtOQnj37UwGXZIlQ2wIQzr_BOgF6Y5QJ8JjST9kc-n6zoPa1MihNWjh0tyVNCi2XsHZ0QnA-ZI4DwNszL5mCj-tu1cerKpcoMrUiv_gU1TbcXyxxBuLJ_Tg/s1600/perform5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="760" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNdX8uma5f1kiOVg5BfTB_ljtOQnj37UwGXZIlQ2wIQzr_BOgF6Y5QJ8JjST9kc-n6zoPa1MihNWjh0tyVNCi2XsHZ0QnA-ZI4DwNszL5mCj-tu1cerKpcoMrUiv_gU1TbcXyxxBuLJ_Tg/s400/perform5.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.atd.org</i></b></td></tr>
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<li>The organization encourages innovative thinking on the part of employees by enabling them to collaborate with other employees across the global network of the organization by tasking them with problems that enable them to harness their talents to come up with innovative solutions. Then they are provided with a forum where teams may "<b><i>pitch</i></b>" and defend their solutions before decision makers. </li>
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<li>The organization also empowers employees to collaborate beyond normal business hours by providing a "<b><i>virtual war-room</i></b>" on the web that they can access as part of their informal learning. This would mean the harnessing of mobile learning as well as micro learning by enabling access for employees from any digital device to this war room, other participants globally as well as big data reservoirs and cloud data bases relevant to the problem they are tasked with solving. Engagement of employees occurs when the problem they are tasked with is memorable or challenging, meaningful and motivational.</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ev7ulwk_yNVhmzRzVqzyvyJCfdusMl9IUjXj7r7PYLwLPjyYtfOjiqKh7H-PQ6agx0fuI-1HyAZXDH8HBsNuRIdqfmXwzpFBrDkokNThHqAcKE6e9MEABDYYNkDBoxowlD-V_OF11pjX/s1600/collab1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ev7ulwk_yNVhmzRzVqzyvyJCfdusMl9IUjXj7r7PYLwLPjyYtfOjiqKh7H-PQ6agx0fuI-1HyAZXDH8HBsNuRIdqfmXwzpFBrDkokNThHqAcKE6e9MEABDYYNkDBoxowlD-V_OF11pjX/s400/collab1.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<li>The learning of the individual employee is nurtured, tracked and opportunities are provided for the employee to stretch beyond his or her capabilities. The business organization should have in place a staff member who would fulfill the role of a "<b><i>Learning Principles Expert or Guru</i></b>" whose principal duties would be some of the following:</li>
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<li>Establish a "<b><i>learning profile</i></b>" for each employee and track their learning as they progress through the organization. and determine their proficiency in regards to talents that could be harnessed for the continuing health of the organization.</li>
<li> Provide employees with opportunities through networked groups to grow their abilities while helping the organization grow and perform.</li>
<li>Stay current with advances in learning, especially research dealing with Neuro-Cognitive learning.</li>
<li>Develop irresistibly engaging learning experiences in coordination with the instructional designer that enables employees to collaborate by becoming engaged in simulations and branched scenarios where they are confronted with task problems that change depending upon the decisions they make. <b><i>Feedback is immediate and displays clear consequences to the decisions that were made.</i></b> This should involve not only collaboration groups based in the home organization but also employees of the branches of the organization. This could be accomplished through a "<b><i>blended e-Learning</i></b>" setup or by a completely immersive virtual experience similar to "<b><i>Second Life</i></b>". </li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMh4tSnu8VcTEZVYatY5qEYvzMPYrZGZ9BcQZs5vMQlRMhg_-pz0fDsRS6bWhnYmvjQ0E0S6Wv-5x53lD9dsWw5d4WW3Ns-Nj0PHQ0bwdLCP8URKmNc9Qvj4qqDCcyyERWyoZRZ7GaIIH/s1600/business2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="140" data-original-width="360" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMh4tSnu8VcTEZVYatY5qEYvzMPYrZGZ9BcQZs5vMQlRMhg_-pz0fDsRS6bWhnYmvjQ0E0S6Wv-5x53lD9dsWw5d4WW3Ns-Nj0PHQ0bwdLCP8URKmNc9Qvj4qqDCcyyERWyoZRZ7GaIIH/s400/business2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggrlwqc1TmnibVdM3hCF-Lh0LV_BSXT8OsO1lezkyVi40F5I7dgzyt8mSlmzTkXD6pVADoHV1y-UBwNN9kgTrnKzp_JI9nRHoTq06dzOnswIeUyB-izHpcfXl_dY8MRM1LoSAt4mwy8A1E/s1600/vr2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggrlwqc1TmnibVdM3hCF-Lh0LV_BSXT8OsO1lezkyVi40F5I7dgzyt8mSlmzTkXD6pVADoHV1y-UBwNN9kgTrnKzp_JI9nRHoTq06dzOnswIeUyB-izHpcfXl_dY8MRM1LoSAt4mwy8A1E/s400/vr2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<li>Re-defining the relationships between the instructional designer and SME is crucial for the simple reason that in a 21st century learning culture, learning is not about putting huge amounts of facts into the heads of employees. We have computers for that and soon we will make use of advanced AI algorithms that will be able to take on many of the repetitive, time consuming, administrative tasks thus freeing human beings to use their creative and innovative talents to the fullest. The ability to wonder and be curious are characteristics that separate humans from machines. <b><i>Subject Matter Experts</i></b> can no longer claim to be the "<b><i>fountain of knowledge</i></b>" in a given subject because knowledge is increasing at an exponential rate across many disciplines. Their role needs to change so that they become mentors by directing employees to online knowledge banks or big data reservoirs and help them clarify their thinking on tasks by asking them the right but crucial questions. It is not about input of information and output. It is about guided thinking and systems thinking that will enable collaborative global groups arrive at innovative solutions to the problems that they have been tasked with.</li>
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Next---- Collaboration and Virtual Borders in New Technology<br />
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-41161663724227723942017-10-27T14:11:00.000-04:002017-10-27T14:11:29.224-04:00Learning Culture or Training Culture--Part III--Collaboration<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When considering the need for a transformation of a training culture into a learning culture, a third element to consider is the nature of collaboration.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGMX-DfOJ4fxvGf4v_QHyTllg5YJDMuwgDOzWqgS2XgWjiUPxgi9-KgBhyoFqtx4eVO48c3n-AvvQx2Z2ADBz-MM7qy19TjDItWemhaV8Q8R9evGvp6WgHAjZBWeyQhSWCSyGjgHbho8yb/s1600/collab1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGMX-DfOJ4fxvGf4v_QHyTllg5YJDMuwgDOzWqgS2XgWjiUPxgi9-KgBhyoFqtx4eVO48c3n-AvvQx2Z2ADBz-MM7qy19TjDItWemhaV8Q8R9evGvp6WgHAjZBWeyQhSWCSyGjgHbho8yb/s400/collab1.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><u>The Roots of Collaborative Skillsets</u></b></div>
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The industrial model of education set the tone for how collaboration was to be conducted within the classroom often referred to as "<b><i>group work</i></b>". The usual process for bringing forth collaboration started with the teacher announcing a task or issue that groups were going to work on and arrive at finished product which could be the resolution to a problem or the position on an issue that the group had adopted. An example of such an issue might be: "Capital punishment should be restored for such crimes as murder and treason against your country". Agree or Disagree. The educator would choose groups, making sure that that each group had equal numbers, had mixed genders, and at least one above average student in each group. A time limit would be established for each group to either solve the task or come to a consensus on the stated issue. The teacher would then be the person who would listen in and check on the groups' progress.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYadGx-KtEA97ag8M6tdG8UredNq3VvP-lNkZpQhCdxELOkIpY6zDaKa83hYSQSQNjM4HIiM91KtaBBaKTqRBA42jwE080JQPcYyoNUkY_M_M5Ud8igLJd1YZpqK-xe3xtY3BCm9IKo06k/s1600/group1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYadGx-KtEA97ag8M6tdG8UredNq3VvP-lNkZpQhCdxELOkIpY6zDaKa83hYSQSQNjM4HIiM91KtaBBaKTqRBA42jwE080JQPcYyoNUkY_M_M5Ud8igLJd1YZpqK-xe3xtY3BCm9IKo06k/s400/group1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.paloaltoonline.com</i></b></td></tr>
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The reality of this process was that group dynamics had several effects on the reaching of the goal such as:</div>
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<li>Usually the above average student became the group leader</li>
<li>Usually the above average student ended up doing the "<b><i>lion's share</i></b>" of the work</li>
<li>The other students in the group usually helped to a limited degree or did very little work at all in terms of adding to the discussion portion of the work.</li>
<li>Some of the group members, not feeling that their input was valued, became distracted and did things that had nothing to do with achieving the stated goal of the exercise.</li>
<li>There also the problem of personality clashes</li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BKA34jmc3J5vlmbZY4vKqpwo9npteUuJ6yeh6VVhLyidbyFEdtftSsx98ey5F9m0ctWTM_Y-rBzLLf8A_LAWVUUrJXmnq_-sE5dHHZTktkPQD028nh_KLWOJDxKYuaKGGXoNINW6bM1S/s1600/group2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BKA34jmc3J5vlmbZY4vKqpwo9npteUuJ6yeh6VVhLyidbyFEdtftSsx98ey5F9m0ctWTM_Y-rBzLLf8A_LAWVUUrJXmnq_-sE5dHHZTktkPQD028nh_KLWOJDxKYuaKGGXoNINW6bM1S/s400/group2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.tes.com</i></b></td></tr>
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As a business organization, you might be asking yourself the following questions:<br />
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<i><b>"Do you see parallels here to what happens in business organization groups?"</b></i></div>
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<b><i>"Why should I care as a business leader about how kids do group work in school? It doesn't affect us."</i></b></div>
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The answer to your question is:</div>
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<b><i>"You should care because this is the way the adult employees in your organization including your leaders have learned to collaborate! This approach has been entrenched and reinforced over many years of schooling.</i></b></div>
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Although, we have changed the terminology in that groups are now called "<b><i>teams</i></b>" and "group work" may be called "<b><i>team projects</i></b>", all the failings of this process have been transferred into the business environment. The teams and the make up of teams are still relatively the same as they were in school. However, to further complicate collaboration, the arrival of the Internet and social media have increased the level of distraction to new levels.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEqKNiwm8_DExNbLuGWuCFwUO5VuowOTKf6FMsPxWb4IZIwBji3funZTO1iLXhBLiNuchb9wHvOI1__QoQSul8aGssWUZSgkfMFLnx0zzK9gK1SiSu8lJnOghQmiHfhvBr4PSu84nTCUpm/s1600/create6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEqKNiwm8_DExNbLuGWuCFwUO5VuowOTKf6FMsPxWb4IZIwBji3funZTO1iLXhBLiNuchb9wHvOI1__QoQSul8aGssWUZSgkfMFLnx0zzK9gK1SiSu8lJnOghQmiHfhvBr4PSu84nTCUpm/s400/create6.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><i style="font-weight: bold;">: Fredrick Questier</i><br />
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For collaboration to be effective, individuals employed within business organizations need to see the following characteristics of the task that they are collaborating on:</div>
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<li>The task needs to be personally meaningful for the individuals involved</li>
<li>All participants need to feel that their input is valued in that they see it as realistically contributing to the success of the goal</li>
<li>Individuals need to be able to trust the talents of those in their group and trust that each individual has the success of the group as a more important priority than their own personal "glory". Out of control egos destroy trust relationships in the collaborative setting.</li>
<li>Individuals need to be able to trust that the decision leaders who brought the project forward have analyzed the needs for the project and have carefully selected members whose unique talents sync with the talents of the other group members so that their performance and contributions to the group are vital to the success of the project.</li>
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<b><u>Two Dimensional Thinking in a Four Dimensional Business World</u></b></div>
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The arrival of the online world has resulted in drastic changes to the ways that 21st century business organizations conduct daily business. It has also changed the way that collaboration should occur. Since the industrial revolution, business organizations were characterized and built upon two dimensional thinking, meaning that projects were often conducted "<b><i>in-house</i></b>" using purchased resources on site and having employees collaborate with other on-site employees in pre-selected teams with oversight given to on-site middle managers. All members of the team were usually in the same time zone or within a time zone that was workable. What you had is a closed system that included your clients, suppliers...etc.</div>
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The standard team project might take the form of the following:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8l5VTzfleEz5HTkAYg8VxeISV_SOCxKoCMgDs_BJUFETyiZz29OvxS6yGJcm7zLmAHR4daLq4Et9LikZelwoZXAnvHhQPuOSrGBsqwLf8GaFQXIxzuQwDt1hhyphenhyphenihVrsdttZQtqyeAXsHb/s1600/business3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="228" data-original-width="390" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8l5VTzfleEz5HTkAYg8VxeISV_SOCxKoCMgDs_BJUFETyiZz29OvxS6yGJcm7zLmAHR4daLq4Et9LikZelwoZXAnvHhQPuOSrGBsqwLf8GaFQXIxzuQwDt1hhyphenhyphenihVrsdttZQtqyeAXsHb/s400/business3.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
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With the exponential growth in new technology and its use to compete on a world class level, the restraints on time and place that characterized the two dimensional business environment all of a sudden were cancelled shifting business organizations into a world where information was the new currency and technology innovation became a necessity in order for a business to compete in a global digital economy. </div>
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The training culture that has been in place since the industrial revolution was not able to provide the innovative thinking skillsets that were required and instead a new culture based upon learning principles that would allow collaboration to grow outside the confines of the local business organization and create collaborative global business networks became necessary.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUWiQx2Q43lB6ytIRK5Mk8WLNrckkHfqMzJKhvBtV_bgxtmSYhZg_BdvaSyBv9uo39WFs_sGVF5mecqIO9LhX8eqB03hebhJs-K8G2oJHJ80fP0VVy44g3CXnbyC-aoLFJKYH7vbosH3Sl/s1600/business2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="140" data-original-width="360" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUWiQx2Q43lB6ytIRK5Mk8WLNrckkHfqMzJKhvBtV_bgxtmSYhZg_BdvaSyBv9uo39WFs_sGVF5mecqIO9LhX8eqB03hebhJs-K8G2oJHJ80fP0VVy44g3CXnbyC-aoLFJKYH7vbosH3Sl/s400/business2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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In order to truly capitalize on the great potential of accessing world markets and to open up new ones, the collaboration approach of the past needs to be transformed. In order for the transformation to take place without significant disruption to the flow of a business organization, not only requires the establishment of a learning culture within the organization but also a new form of collaboration that fits with the new connected and collaborative world economy.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEZeQVUQE7SAyYO866Mgda3GC9q2B3p03PLbCYkOdIiW_Q7x7nw6oyptpRY9HE9R30gvcQ3PFOApHd6_6r-BhqhfnFjaGYtiyuECo_gQvZRtQn5nu3emFR5mHaVLnEzzTl2cYytH8ibBF5/s1600/alchem6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="483" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEZeQVUQE7SAyYO866Mgda3GC9q2B3p03PLbCYkOdIiW_Q7x7nw6oyptpRY9HE9R30gvcQ3PFOApHd6_6r-BhqhfnFjaGYtiyuECo_gQvZRtQn5nu3emFR5mHaVLnEzzTl2cYytH8ibBF5/s400/alchem6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The question that needs to be asked is:</div>
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<b><i>"What will this new form of collaboration look like and what will distinguish it as a benefit compared to the more traditional one we are used to?"</i></b></div>
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In the next post, the characteristics of this new form of collaboration will be more closely described. Some of the ideas that will be looked at within this new form of collaboration are:</div>
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<li>the use of AI and intelligent assistants to enable business organizations to work smarter rather than longer</li>
<li>the use of big data in making collaboration more effective </li>
<li>the use of globally networked communities of business as resources</li>
<li>the engagement of employees in collaborated networked projects that are proposed by the employees themselves</li>
<li>the use of a Learning Principles Expert and the collaboration with SME's</li>
<li>the development and use of the "<b><i>rapid prototyping</i></b>" model in creating new innovative products and services</li>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-9304213256297106832017-10-09T12:23:00.004-04:002017-10-09T12:23:38.787-04:00Learning Culture or Training Culture: Part II: Elements of a True Learning Culture--Engagement<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As suggested in Part I of this post, the development of a true learning culture within business organizations is no longer a "we will experiment with this if we have time but lets keep doing what we have always done" choice. It has become an essential to healthy organizational growth that enables an organization to to truly compete on the new digital playing field.<br />
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It starts with admitting that we have a problem, as business organizations, in handling change in ways that do not disrupt what we already do well. In admitting this, we need to take a good look forensically at the nature of our present learning culture and ask some key questions.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><b>: </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">www.24x7 Learning.com</i><br />
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Looking at these key questions, we see that they have one thing in common. They emphasize developing employee engagement as a part of their learning culture.<br />
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<b><u>The Element of Employee Engagement</u></b></div>
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Looking at how much your employees are engaged in the mission and vision of the business organization means that business leaders have to ask themselves some hard questions that reflect directly on their leadership. Some of these questions might be as follows:</div>
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<li><b><i>Do employees know and understand the mission and vision of the business organization? If not it is a problem of clarity and communication.</i></b></li>
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<li><b><i>Do employees have faith in the mission and vision of the business organization recognizing that decisions that are made in relation to mission and vision have direct consequences for their professional lives and then their lives outside the walls of the business?</i></b></li>
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<li><b><i>Do they see the mission and vision of the organization as being in sync with their connected lives in the 21st century or do they see it as contradictory to being meaningful in the context of the way they live?</i></b></li>
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<li><b><i>Are they engaged because they are told to be engaged and must endure endless, meaningless training sessions that for the organization means just another check mark on the mandatory list or are they engaged because they are inspired by the vision and mission?</i></b></li>
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<li><b><i>Are they in fact a picture of the "overwhelmed employee" instead of the highly self-motivated and engaged employee who is committed to a clearly defined and communicated vision and mission?</i></b></li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Credit</b></u>: <b><i>www.LinkedIn.com</i></b></td></tr>
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If engagement is such an important element in a true learning culture then it begs some obvious questions:</div>
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<li><b><i> Why is employee engagement important?</i></b></li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><span style="font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Lewis Garrard</span><br /><div style="text-align: left;">
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Business organizations are finding it is more difficult to retain employees with the necessary skillsets pertaining to 21st century, globally networked business. In particular, the "<b><i>millennials</i></b>" as incoming employees are proving to be the most challenging.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.Deloitte.com</i></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.Deloitte.com<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">2. </span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><i>Given that engagement is a problem, how does this translate as a problem for the bottom line of a business?</i></b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX6vo19lP3UiIwFqeaUlxQEjiT3STgKM0mkTPNmMlm2FXtf3B_UC59Yy66PUf_tGDFwXfBle0Tf2-DiILuZopYVLagX58PUh-UMVkWDmdpkRW1K8MtiqvU6gCoAJI43lhg4MnC5oX5hZ2u/s1600/eng1l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX6vo19lP3UiIwFqeaUlxQEjiT3STgKM0mkTPNmMlm2FXtf3B_UC59Yy66PUf_tGDFwXfBle0Tf2-DiILuZopYVLagX58PUh-UMVkWDmdpkRW1K8MtiqvU6gCoAJI43lhg4MnC5oX5hZ2u/s400/eng1l.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>http:// blog.pomello.com</i></b></td></tr>
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Comparing this with highly engaged employees within business organizations, the business case for employee engagement becomes even more convincing.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_g9o0diIS6jU2iUk2LK2C9F1aXNvISqu8wkBRbOHmcZECnMlcK1ddm7dYJF52HRtXGVmg0IYMsuHYT7Q65aWQ9E8aBtfRZJcAER3c50873qxeydMMkgrdikWfY11ktYV7HfDQz5txzeB/s1600/eng1k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="650" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_g9o0diIS6jU2iUk2LK2C9F1aXNvISqu8wkBRbOHmcZECnMlcK1ddm7dYJF52HRtXGVmg0IYMsuHYT7Q65aWQ9E8aBtfRZJcAER3c50873qxeydMMkgrdikWfY11ktYV7HfDQz5txzeB/s400/eng1k.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>:<i>www. infugin.com</i></b></td></tr>
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In regards to the branding aspect for a business organization that is very much customer focused, how engaged the employees are also translates into sincere efforts of employees to make known to the outside world that this company is not only a good one to work for but also to do business with because it can be seen in the engagement of the employees.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPDOuoklYb9mIubXEL53ZsYKIuAHjp8B1AmWbaGOup62ioaqNvmzU-rnnd2WhitaXf9PinWvGxYhHLGPWgVI7DuoTFQUFRzpRXUfTz1dQUSnd35qQD36KLz4u_TjgvzFdK2msCkNIyAUeh/s1600/eng1i.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="650" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPDOuoklYb9mIubXEL53ZsYKIuAHjp8B1AmWbaGOup62ioaqNvmzU-rnnd2WhitaXf9PinWvGxYhHLGPWgVI7DuoTFQUFRzpRXUfTz1dQUSnd35qQD36KLz4u_TjgvzFdK2msCkNIyAUeh/s400/eng1i.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.exceedglobal.com</i></b></td></tr>
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One of the key elements that gives rise to engagement in employees is that the organization is making efforts and progress to make ongoing employee learning systemic throughout their organization. This means that employee needs start to take precedent over organizational needs.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigBuXZ8pVKxtrwqfb9F6Rf1TsjPXwMMJs11BggT_pvt_3-HBh6yEdLIx2lxyTgDc4H8e5Y_iYBnmu6AT3n8hQV0u5D1s9jrKs8mz-tEj1uLgJgJx6vhUiOhAwT09KQTkU74u3SBT-PJvnv/s1600/eng1j.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="985" data-original-width="1400" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigBuXZ8pVKxtrwqfb9F6Rf1TsjPXwMMJs11BggT_pvt_3-HBh6yEdLIx2lxyTgDc4H8e5Y_iYBnmu6AT3n8hQV0u5D1s9jrKs8mz-tEj1uLgJgJx6vhUiOhAwT09KQTkU74u3SBT-PJvnv/s400/eng1j.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><b>: </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Harvard Business Review.org</i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">
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In one sense it means that when the learning of employees is concerned that they are given a greater degree of autonomy to developing new skillsets, engaging with co-workers in innovative projects that benefit the company and having a forum by which their ideas may be explored, presented and defended in the presence of key decision making leaders within the organization. In order for an organization to take such steps it requires leadership in the corporate suite with the courage to be innovative in the way that they approach new ideas.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho0XVy0lOUX_Da1iK4k4eW0Fr10O-9PrHi7yX24oxC3UwxptV0yZnSOTytYNA_Cms-JF6xgMW3Z-OV-UGwGeHRuTn7BSxuvTTNlBa7lcRULxtyrcoJO06oUmUFEGEhGJskh8or6MKvpC9Y/s1600/eng1m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho0XVy0lOUX_Da1iK4k4eW0Fr10O-9PrHi7yX24oxC3UwxptV0yZnSOTytYNA_Cms-JF6xgMW3Z-OV-UGwGeHRuTn7BSxuvTTNlBa7lcRULxtyrcoJO06oUmUFEGEhGJskh8or6MKvpC9Y/s400/eng1m.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.forbes.com</i></b></td></tr>
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When leadership starts down this path to build and nurture employee engagement through the design of a better learning culture they can take solace in the fact that this is not just a local national problem but it is global in nature and that there is a relationship of need in regards to engagement and learning.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBvrzqmItPbP_X7MS7emeOxpkV9toxaMTy2c-4MMdPRfvNTf98uMOp7KSB2Mz529sT_t9aNHFpK9hVTJ7kol-2g8LEuX-X4uuMGQcEp-GO1dZvVktSgKgbK69x3qV4PzAHbojU4xOV2WpD/s1600/eng1g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBvrzqmItPbP_X7MS7emeOxpkV9toxaMTy2c-4MMdPRfvNTf98uMOp7KSB2Mz529sT_t9aNHFpK9hVTJ7kol-2g8LEuX-X4uuMGQcEp-GO1dZvVktSgKgbK69x3qV4PzAHbojU4xOV2WpD/s400/eng1g.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><b>: De</b><i style="font-weight: bold;">loitte University Press</i><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrnY69luKtHVngmgcFzxWkrJDmxEbZDvg1Skpg61nyD80KlHdMtart2O-Ie16956gPEcDtZ0TL6kpa_kKmL5uxmX7P4uQ-p0aPDeJ4OVNtj13vN_zaJNC5Lx6hj5v7tGQvUq1tPKtmssDE/s1600/eng1h.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrnY69luKtHVngmgcFzxWkrJDmxEbZDvg1Skpg61nyD80KlHdMtart2O-Ie16956gPEcDtZ0TL6kpa_kKmL5uxmX7P4uQ-p0aPDeJ4OVNtj13vN_zaJNC5Lx6hj5v7tGQvUq1tPKtmssDE/s400/eng1h.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Deloitte University Press</i></b></td></tr>
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The questions that we are left with are:<br />
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<li><b><i>How does the element of collaboration change in order to make a learning culture within an organization more dynamic and in tune with the globally connected economy?</i></b></li>
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<li><b><i>What would the business organization look like as one that is different by design</i></b>?</li>
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<li><b><i>What steps can we take to change a stagnant learning culture to one that is innovative, vibrant and serving the future of the organizations to the benefit of all stakeholders, especially the employees?</i></b></li>
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These questions will be the focus of Part III...</div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-46765731848334072042017-10-04T16:02:00.001-04:002017-10-04T16:02:09.798-04:00Learning Culture or Training Culture: Part I: What is the 21st Century Mandate?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A phrase that is appearing more and more in the spotlight, especially in the corporate realm, is the "<b><i>learning culture</i></b>". A growing tension is occurring in business organizations in regards to how employees may be engaged to be stakeholders in the health and advancement of business organizations. This tension is driven by the face off between the training culture that has been in place since businesses first opened shop with the intent by leadership that someday the apprentices of that business would carry on and teach the skillsets to the next generation versus a new generation born into a world where technology is advancing an exponential rate and that technology is merging into all layers of life and has made itself irreplaceable. The obvious example would be the cell phone which has evolved into the smart phone. More than just a simple communication device, it has become an essential to linking people up to all the necessities of digital life. To see how dependent we are on such a device, consider the human reactions that are displayed if access is suddenly cut off for a lengthy period of time.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlja_ZUZthzJK83rHymlW1EGHB3wij2tAEvq9tI_S44sR1i2denl5lPGInTXvLeX0IVKBACokVzkF9gDjo09PUdtFWr_sXxBdvdOICjDqYqMaZURjca4MWECndLlNnclGIheGzVkubYAj3/s1600/culture19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlja_ZUZthzJK83rHymlW1EGHB3wij2tAEvq9tI_S44sR1i2denl5lPGInTXvLeX0IVKBACokVzkF9gDjo09PUdtFWr_sXxBdvdOICjDqYqMaZURjca4MWECndLlNnclGIheGzVkubYAj3/s400/culture19.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.ibdaahub.com</i></b></td></tr>
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In order to cope and adjust to the emergence of technology means that human beings have to exert effort to learn how to use and integrate the technology into their daily lives. This means that learning is not limited to the four walls of the business organization in training sessions but learning needs to be available 24/7, using any device, and available anywhere. This is the requirement of living productive lives in the digital world.<br />
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<b><i><u>Corporate Training: Putting a Square Peg into a 21st Century Round Hole</u></i></b></div>
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An obvious but important question that needs to be asked is:</div>
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"<b><i>Why doesn't the old training paradigm deliver anymore the way that it has always done in the past?</i></b>"</div>
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A simple answer would be that the world changed and is changing faster than business expected or had even planned for.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_qleHJWgh9_9Ue75AnuedNR3ozgVCr2gTDvpn7mUs0Eki5EOzWNW9tqvWnnnqrZoGuWyQjXD9QNLnYgkmMj2ftKV6NQaM5ggGciv2QIRmWrMkejuKgeUgyuSxEm2_W9tmnZ0eF7RH87Er/s1600/culture14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_qleHJWgh9_9Ue75AnuedNR3ozgVCr2gTDvpn7mUs0Eki5EOzWNW9tqvWnnnqrZoGuWyQjXD9QNLnYgkmMj2ftKV6NQaM5ggGciv2QIRmWrMkejuKgeUgyuSxEm2_W9tmnZ0eF7RH87Er/s400/culture14.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www. Biz Library.com<br /></i></b></td></tr>
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A natural reaction when confronted by rapid change that could impact your business livelihood and that of your employees is to freeze in your tracks and retreat back into what was comfortable. This retreat is a double-edged sword because while it may feel comfortable, the changes with the opening up of the collaborative, networked, global economy means that those who are not use to this constant change are being quickly left behind. Past clients and opportunities disappear and join forces with competitors who have learned that in order to increase the ROI, their organizations need to have employees who have developed the necessary skillsets to work on the world wide web.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEaT1zcVmB5Spo8DvnFYlGDuH_2ttwy0X7g1WERfz5mQSGGlIaiMkTUgW0aHiYYJMV5d_mtl1FdmtkAOJudVa69NIKeh5ziuqQGc_CTFQSnYYQrgPqIlnxvDOlmhN6ZMZCSuZOvvzyP3Zj/s1600/culture4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEaT1zcVmB5Spo8DvnFYlGDuH_2ttwy0X7g1WERfz5mQSGGlIaiMkTUgW0aHiYYJMV5d_mtl1FdmtkAOJudVa69NIKeh5ziuqQGc_CTFQSnYYQrgPqIlnxvDOlmhN6ZMZCSuZOvvzyP3Zj/s400/culture4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>David Blake</i></b></td></tr>
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With respect to the traditional training sessions involving the "<b><i>sage on the stage</i></b>" with his or her multitude of Powerpoint slides, this just does not cut it if the performance goals are based on in house learning alone.<br />
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"<b><i>It is important to remember that the training culture has its roots in the industrial age which is long past. The age of learning, technology and innovation works on a new set of parameters. The differences between the training culture and the newly evolved learning culture are becoming starkly apparent."</i></b></div>
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On a basic level of comparison, the following would apply:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAOYXr1zMbOr_YJl7eDksNDVGvlPUDyiZcdHHWgPZtKHF4al2rXWM2-oyXUyu5LtwjIF6xBL656S11-PQHz3zA42T2nIKOoWsfFGb_AxMAq06C9aWRHULxxNKr7u-b65NvZpFV4bVbpo49/s1600/culture7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAOYXr1zMbOr_YJl7eDksNDVGvlPUDyiZcdHHWgPZtKHF4al2rXWM2-oyXUyu5LtwjIF6xBL656S11-PQHz3zA42T2nIKOoWsfFGb_AxMAq06C9aWRHULxxNKr7u-b65NvZpFV4bVbpo49/s400/culture7.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Vikas Tyagi (2013)</i></b></td></tr>
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In comparing the above parameters it can be deduced that there has been a shift from organizational needs to employee needs. Why? The answer lies in the need of an organization to empower employee engagement in an age where personal learning and collaboration in a networked world are the key elements to innovation which is the key to competing in a globally connected digital economy.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-7oY21D3JWOsEPWvAUc4b9BJnKBVr2hwZOeKHCEL44vzry0U026OVlQWdkURXPLP5kQnYJIpeEXNVrkazprHmJf6MUgoWH57NaIt5G7YVyqaMs0m-coS4tkQaXFULpUnH4VFJzmBm90BV/s1600/culture6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-7oY21D3JWOsEPWvAUc4b9BJnKBVr2hwZOeKHCEL44vzry0U026OVlQWdkURXPLP5kQnYJIpeEXNVrkazprHmJf6MUgoWH57NaIt5G7YVyqaMs0m-coS4tkQaXFULpUnH4VFJzmBm90BV/s400/culture6.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><b>: </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">David Blake</i><br /><br /></td></tr>
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If training culture no longer fits the needs of 21st century business, what other evidence supports such a radical conclusion. As we piece the evidence together, we start to see how advancing technology and the explosion in new knowledge is giving shape to a new type of learner who become employees and leaders.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiNdZ-iMv6VcG5CqxTlr2yq9NCSMn10BM0pRFxDVv9-8ExvBjGtwI-2zqaUUzpxZKN5sanOUiixfKCaWoEhrY3r3-rmVOQSmnlWpJWwrkmg0VR9VMgsSIHZ51sMLCelTYpZZUm8Fkd_JUy/s1600/culture15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="700" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiNdZ-iMv6VcG5CqxTlr2yq9NCSMn10BM0pRFxDVv9-8ExvBjGtwI-2zqaUUzpxZKN5sanOUiixfKCaWoEhrY3r3-rmVOQSmnlWpJWwrkmg0VR9VMgsSIHZ51sMLCelTYpZZUm8Fkd_JUy/s400/culture15.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><b>: </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">www. Biz Library.com</i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5oJfmQ8ohoQuPRZd3Om-bIi8M0EJUQj_FeKM2z0zfS1RrHjWcVJRJY4osqI5HqpH0vo9KcMhObDFcOk4ZJ0hQjtWgWcJxmN2QtuQ7GBTRrNeJdxgEqdAFSmCH5L0ppx5m0b4HLLl1IFlJ/s1600/culture5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5oJfmQ8ohoQuPRZd3Om-bIi8M0EJUQj_FeKM2z0zfS1RrHjWcVJRJY4osqI5HqpH0vo9KcMhObDFcOk4ZJ0hQjtWgWcJxmN2QtuQ7GBTRrNeJdxgEqdAFSmCH5L0ppx5m0b4HLLl1IFlJ/s400/culture5.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>David Blake</i></b></td></tr>
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In this post you will notice that I have not attempted to "<b><i>train you</i></b>" but instead to get you to think about your own business organization in the context of the globally connected digital economy. In Part II of this post, I will detail more as to what an effective learning culture in business should look like. I do leave you with the following question:</div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-38474605457353304462017-09-02T18:23:00.003-04:002017-09-02T18:23:57.369-04:00Global E-Learning: Rising to the Challenge of Nation Building--Part I<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<u style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">[Author's Note</u><span>: <b><i>My apologies to the readers! Part II was published before Part I. This post was the one you should have read first. Cyberspace is not always kind to the creative effort</i></b>.]</span></div>
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<u style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">A Story To Tell</u>....</div>
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In 1982, I was a classroom teacher in Calgary, Alberta, Canada at the grade 8 level. It was September, the beginning of a new school year and my assignment was to instruct students in the area of Social Studies and Current Events for several grade 8 classes. All the students were bubbling over with excitement. Okay, some were lukewarm. I was informed that I would be receiving a new student, whose family had just arrived from the country of Lebanon. Since I was a current events teacher, I knew that Lebanon had been involved in a civil war with a number of factions still fighting there. Nothing could prepare me for what I was to experience that day when Ali entered my class.<br />
A class assignment was given that day to describe having students describe what a typical daily schedule was like for them at home and then share what they wrote with the rest of the class. This is what Ali read to us:<br />
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"<b><i>..In Lebanon, early in the morning before breakfast my father would gather me and my younger brother together in another room. My father would then blindfold each of us and then place an AK47 automatic rifle in front of us and tell us to take it completely apart and he would time us. After recording our times, he would then then tell us to reassemble it while blindfolded and again he would time us. He would always say that we need to get quicker and more efficient. After our tests we would eat breakfast. Then we would pick up our freshly cleaned weapons and father would tell us to follow him and we would go out quietly and pick spots under cover so that we could kill members of the Christian militia. After doing that we would gather up weapons and ammunition and then go among the ruins to scavenge for things that my father thought we could use...</i></b>"</div>
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After hearing the story, a couple of students asked a question:<br />
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<b><u>Student</u></b>: " <b><i>Didn't your mother try to stop you from killing people?</i></b>"<br />
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<b><u>Ali</u></b>: "<b><i>No, my father said that we had to do this or they would kill us. My mother went along with whatever, my father said</i>.</b>"<br />
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<b><u>Student</u></b>: "<b><i>Why did you come to Canada?</i></b>"<br />
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<b><u>Ali</u></b>: "<b><i>My mother was killed by the militia. My father, with many tears, said that we must leave this place and go somewhere where he could grow old and see his children go to school, get an occupation, get married and have many children. He heard that Canada was a safe place for such things and a beautiful country.</i></b>"<br />
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That day many of us grew up after spending most of our young lives taking much for granted.<br />
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<b><u>The Power of Education to Change the World</u></b></div>
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The power of education to change the world for the better has been an ideal that has been debated through the ages but no more has it been most valued than when a country has lapsed into difficult times brought on by poverty and war. It is at these times when the access to education is removed that we see the growth of injustices, persecution, and that which is morally abhorrent in the eyes of humanity.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.edopt.org.uk</i></b></td></tr>
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Due to the fact that education has the power to free people from ignorance, enables them to help themselves improve the quality of their lives and in the end, collectively build democratic, viable nations. Tyrants, dictators and others who cherish power and the wealth it provides them, fear the power of education. In many countries where military coups have occurred, educators have been targeted by those who do not want the people under their control to be led to hope that a better life is possible.<br />
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<b><u>Education in Conflict Zones</u></b><br />
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Most rational individuals would agree that if young people had the opportunity to grow up and be educated free from an atmosphere of hate, mistrust, war and civil instability, that we would see the rise of doctors, lawyers, engineers,..etc dedicated to improving the quality of life of their people in their own countries and perhaps also contributing to the quality of life of peoples on a global scale. Given the truth of such a statement, we are faced with a sobering question:</div>
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"<b><i>How many generations are we willing to sacrifice who have the potential to become nation builders?</i></b>"</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><span style="font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">www.Pinterest.com</span><br />
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Looking at the current conflict zones, the statistics and conditions speak to the frightening answer to that question:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.un.org</i></b></td></tr>
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For those children who survive but remain in a conflict zone surrounded by hate and destruction and with no access to education, they become part of the violence in order to survive.</div>
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Those who don't survive do not just become statistics but become a nail in the coffin of hope for a country.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.faculty.fordham.edu</i></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.baodatviet.un</i></b></td></tr>
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<b><u>The Case of Syria</u></b></div>
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In a recent newspaper series titled: "<a href="http://special.nationalpost.com/syria-exodus/" target="_blank">The Great Exodus of Our Time</a>" by Michael Petrou, the journalist meticulously highlights individual cases of children who as a result of the devastation in their homelands and the need to labour in order to support their families because their parents have been physically incapacitated or even killed, have no hope for an education in any form. As he points out:</div>
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"<b><i>...What chance does a 12 yr. old boy---who was six when the Syrian war began and has never been to school---have of catching up to his peers elsewhere or even learning to read?.."(Petrou</i></b>, <b><i>2017)</i></b></div>
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For girls, early marriage, robs many Syrian refugees of an education. As one female student by the name of Safa Zreiqi points out:</div>
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'<b><i>Some of us don't want to get married. We didn't go to school for nothing. What's a shame is that we studied and got degrees and can't get work.'</i></b></div>
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As Petrou very aptly points out:<br />
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<b><i>"These boys and girls, an entire generation of Syrians, will one day be men and women who will shape Syria and the Middle East. They will have a far more consequential impact on the region than now." (Petrou, 2017)</i></b></div>
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My question to you, as educators, is one that is daunting to our souls:</div>
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" <b><i>Given the state of lack of education for thousands of refugee children in Syria and abroad, will the cycle of hate and destruction continue to grow with no end in sight or will it finally be broken so that the coming generations will be peace builders?</i></b>"</div>
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<b><u>Global E-Learning and Nation Building</u></b></div>
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Coming back to Nelson Mandela' s statement that education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world, as an educator you either believe this to be a true statement or you write it off as just another cute meme.</div>
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The numbers of refugees from the Syrian conflict have overwhelmed the resources of the countries taking them in. For example Jordan, a country of 6.5 million people is host to 1.5 million refugees whereas the country of Canada with a population of approximately 36 million people has taken in 40 000 refugees since 2015. We could look at the different European countries and the numbers of refugees that they have taken in but that is not the point of this article.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Filippo Grandi-UNHCR</i></b></td></tr>
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As Filippo Grandi points out, how we educate refugee children will determine what the future Syria, Iraq, and other conflict areas in Africa, South America, and Asia will look like. What we are talking about is developing nation builders or re-builders who will break the perpetual cycle of violence found in their home countries. On reading this your response might be:</div>
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"<b>Noble sentiment! But how?</b>"</div>
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<b><u>Global E-Learning and Empowering Generations to Be Nation Builders</u></b></div>
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The nation of Canada just celebrated 150 years as an independent and free nation on July 1, 2017. When we look back to the sacrifices made by past Canadians we recognize that it took real nation builders to unite a land into the second largest country in land mass in the world and yet with a comparatively small population compared to our powerful neighbours to the south. People of those times said that what we were attempting was impossible. Our fathers of confederation built the Canadian Pacific Railway that would unite our land from west to east coast. At the time all bets were against accomplishing such a feat given the varied terrain but we accomplished in 10 years what others said would take 25 yrs.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.LinkedIn.com</i></b></td></tr>
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We know that the key to developing nation builders is to provide an environment where hope for the future of a country can be nourished. Obviously, this can not be done in a war zone.<br />
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What I am going to propose to you is an unorthodox solution, a solution as impossible as building a railway across a sea of mountains using only equipment from the 19th century and yet it may spark other thoughts because it has become the moral imperative of our time to counter those who have spent the last generation as nation destroyers with a new generation of nation builders.<br />
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Global e-Learning is part of this solution that I will describe in Part II.</div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-41517180855378396462017-08-29T08:47:00.002-04:002017-08-29T08:47:25.895-04:00Global E-Learning: Rising to the Challenge of Nation Building--Part II<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
[<b><u>Author's Note</u></b>: <b><i>Be sure to read Part I of this article first for the sake of continuity</i></b>]<br />
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It would be an understatement to suggest how unprepared Europe and North America were for the waves of refugees fleeing the conflict zones in Syria and Iraq in particular. Regardless of what the media headlines say in order to sell their wares, heroic efforts were made by all countries to accommodate the families now arriving and continue to arrive at their borders, many requiring food, shelter and immediate medical care.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: ww<i>w.abc.net.au</i></b></td></tr>
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However, in settling refugee families, there is a fundamental mistake being made in regards to the education of children and a missed opportunity.<br />
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<b><u>Refugees vs. Immigrants---Education</u></b></div>
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In order to understand the educational needs of new families arriving from foreign lands, it is important to make a distinction between landed immigrants and refugees. Landed immigrants make a personal choice to leave their home countries and apply for landed immigrant status in another country. It may be for such reasons as:</div>
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The important point to emphasize is that it is the family's personal choice to move which is often based upon the pros and cons of moving to a host country. As such, the focus of helping families adapt to the host country involves an education that allows for a smooth "<b><i>assimilation</i></b>" into the culture of the host country whether based upon the "mosaic" or "melting pot" models.</div>
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Does the assimilation always work? Not always! Some groups seek to stay closely associated with their cultural and linguistic roots once they arrive in the host country. In Canada, as an example, big cities such as Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto often have areas of the city where specific cultural groups have chosen to work and live together. They still have pledged allegiance to their host country but it is a hyphenated allegiance.</div>
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For refugees, the situation is quite different because their choice to leave has been a forced choice in order to survive. So, the questions that need some reflection are:</div>
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<b><i>"Do these refugee groups want to be assimilated into the culture of the host country and even more important, should the education they receive have as its focus the preparation for assimilation?"</i></b></div>
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As has been witnessed in many European countries, such as Germany, failure to ask these questions have led to clashes of very different civilizations with violence and mistrust on both sides.</div>
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<b><u>Point of View of Refugees</u></b></div>
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If you were to speak to refugee families about what life was like for them before their homeland became a conflict zone, you would see hesitant smiles as they remembered their family's lives and the lives lived by their fathers and grandfathers. In some instances life was hard but for many despite the hardships, they still had peace, even if it was enforced by a dictator such as Saddam Hussein. Many would tell you that they would like to pass on their traditions to their children and grandchildren but only if there was a democratic government in place that guaranteed certain freedoms that citizens in a country like Canada enjoys. </div>
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If such a future was made possible in their ancestral homelands, would they want to return with their families? Many would say "yes!" Many would like to see their children grow up to become doctors, engineers, nurses, agriculturalists, scientists, lawyers, teachers, writers...etc. and especially if their children could be the ones to re-build their nations. However, such an opportunity is not available in a war zone. However, such an opportunity could be made possible in the host countries.</div>
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<b><u>The Phoenix Project----A Radical Proposal</u></b><br />
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">Rationale for Name</u>: The choice of the name of the project reflects the desire to see nations rise from the ashes through the efforts of those whose futures were forfeited as a result of being born into a conflict zone. This represents an opportunity for those most affected to re-build their homelands and re-claim their heritage.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.pinterest.com</i></b></td></tr>
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<b><u>Purpose</u></b>: To establish "<b><i>sanctuary education zones</i></b>" within host countries where the children of refugees (roughly ages 12 and up) may go to access a networked online school system dedicated to educating the children of refugees in all areas of knowledge related to the necessary skillsets for nation building.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><b>: </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Nefertari (1984)</i><br />
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<b><u>Mission</u></b>: To educate and empower the children of refugees in the skills of nation building for the purpose of helping to create a viable future for their homelands. By being educated in professions vital to re-building their homelands, they would return to their homelands to fill the vacuum created by conflict and sow the seeds of peace for their people.</div>
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At first glance, such a vision might seem improbable, impossible or even grossly naive but even now in the Middle East there are model visionaries for the children to learn from. Such an example is the one set by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum of the UAE.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.twitter.com</i></b></td></tr>
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<b><u>Creation of a Global Networked Online School and Sanctuary Education Zones</u></b></div>
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In order to layout a framework for how such a project would be structured, it is best to think about some pertinent questions:</div>
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1. <b>How do we identify and encourage parents of refugee children to consider this type of education path for their children?</b> When refugee families enter host countries and are being processed, we describe what we have in mind and why we see this as a good path for their children. For those who are living in temporary refugee camps and are receiving medical help, this offer can be made to parents of age appropriate children. Otherwise, public announcements made in the different languages of the refugees are posted in areas where refugee families go to get food and water.<br />
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2. <b>Do we have the technology available for creating a globally connected online school?</b> The fact that we already have online schools and universities established means that we do have the technology and the knowledge for setting such a school up. The technology is advancing in such a way as to give more control to all individuals regardless of their status and language is becoming less and less of a barrier<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Roger Hamilton</i></b></td></tr>
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3. <b>What do these "sanctuary education zones" in the host countries offer? </b>These zones contain technology centers that are set up for children to go and login to their education. They are manned by mentors who are trained to interact with the children in English but also interpreters could be added so that they can receive instructions in their own languages. These zones also offer the opportunity for children to collaborate with children in other sanctuary education zones to exchange ideas, solve real world problems and educate each other with respect to their cultural traditions. Part of the path to peaceful co-existence is to be able to communicate with each other in a non-threatening environment.</div>
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4. <b>What happens if these "sanctuary education zones" should be threatened in some manner? </b>Having the school and its courses online would also mean that children could access their education from mobile devices such as Smart Phones, tablets and any other mobile device on a 24/7 time basis. This means that if the centres need to be closed down because of a potential threat, children would not be prevented from continuing their education. With the creation of virtual online communities and worlds, access to education becomes more and more of a collaborative experience.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #4b4b4b;">Although the above is just an example, our lessons from the experience with virtual worlds in "</span><em style="color: #4b4b4b;"><strong>Second Life</strong></em><span style="color: #4b4b4b;">" has taught us that we can collaborate on a global scale. The caveat is that cybersecurity is just as important in the online world as it is in our very real world.</span></span><br />
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5. <b>How will this project be financially supported?</b> <span style="color: #4b4b4b;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This would require participation by stakeholders willing to do their part in seeking to achieve a higher purpose. LMS providers to digital entrepreneurs would be involved. In order for something like this to happen, we have to come to terms with what value nations place upon providing education for its children and especially in these times, the education of displaced children living in refugee camps and in host countries. The facts speak for themselves:</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.motherjones.com</i></b></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #4b4b4b;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is time to change the above ratios!</span></span><br />
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6. <b>Of what benefit is such a project to the host countries and the rest of the nations? </b><br />
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<span style="color: #4b4b4b;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Considering the financial drain that the cycle of conflicts have placed on the economies such as the United States , Russia, and other European nations, such a plan would present an opportunity to break that cycle and allow nations to divert funding into more peaceful endeavors. This brings forth a sobering question:</span></span><br />
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<em><strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Is it not about time that we re-task our spending as nations so that we break the cycle of having children who are born into a cycle of violence in favor of spending more to educate new generations to become nation builders?</span><span style="font-family: Fira Sans, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">"</span></strong></em></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><span style="font-weight: bold;">: </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">www.wenr.wes.org</span><br /><div style="text-align: left;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Thaer Mohanmmed</i></b></td></tr>
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Global e-Learning presents us with an opportunity to educate, nurture and connect generations of children who could become re-builders of their homelands if provided with a peaceful sanctuary in which to grow and acquires the skills of nation building. The inheritance of a peaceful future where they can grow, build families and establish life long friendships on a global scale should not be kept from them any longer. We have the knowledge and the evolving technology to make it happen but do we have the wisdom to put self-interest aside and work for something far more precious and greater than ourselves? That is the tipping point of this proposal.</div>
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<em style="color: #4b4b4b;"><strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">(If you are passionate about not losing more generations of potential scientists, doctors, engineers, nurses, educators to the vicious cycle of war where children are taught to embrace death, make these two articles go viral on the web! </span></strong></em><br />
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<em style="color: #4b4b4b;"><strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">For business organizations this should be a wake up call because if you hope to prosper on a global level, keep in mind that the generations that we don't pull from the quagmire of cyclical violence will wage war against society on the new battlefield, the world wide web! Not a threat, just a growing reality.)</span></strong></em></div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-28689210139166523402017-08-11T11:34:00.004-04:002017-08-15T12:40:54.659-04:00Update: Important Article<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Greetings to all those who follow this blog.<br />
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I wanted to update you on an important article that I am having published in two parts in LinkedIn in the <b>e-Learning Industry forum</b> starting tomorrow (<b>Aug. 12</b>). It is an important article because it connects global e-Learning to the prospect of nation building in conflict zones. The title of this article is:<br />
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"<b><i>Global E-Learning: Rising to the Challenge of Nation Building-Part I</i></b>"</div>
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<b>Part II of this article</b> will be published in this same forum on <b>Aug. 16</b>.</div>
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<u style="font-weight: bold;">What makes this article so important</u>? </div>
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It is important because it ties all the advances that we have made both pedagogically and technologically to a very real world problem that needs to be addressed now because the future of nations are at stake.</div>
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When you read it, you might say: "<b><i>How can we possibly accomplish what is proposed?</i></b>" A better question that should be considered: <b><i>"What will happen if we don't and can we live with the consequences?"</i></b></div>
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For people to think about this, they first need to be aware and so I am asking, if it is within your power, make this two part article go viral on the web. It seems that we are able to make many trivial things become a thousand hit wonder on the web, so, now I hope that you will consider this article as something of substance dealing with something that is greater than ourselves.</div>
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For myself, I am not looking for recognition. I am satisfied that I rest knowing that I stood up for something that was important to me with passion.</div>
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After this article, I will be devoting some postings in this blog to creating realistic learning cultures within business organizations using e-Learning.</div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-75947382325704296562017-07-03T12:32:00.003-04:002017-07-03T12:32:46.590-04:00The Desperate Need for Inspiration and Brilliance As Drivers in E-Learning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When we observe the rising changes in technology and the exponential rise in information and from it new knowledge, we have to ask the question:<br />
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"<b><i>Are we making the best use of these waves of change or are we like mice in a maze going great distances through the lure of a quick meal but never really being able to synchronize these forces of change to achieve greater meaningful progress in e-Learning?</i></b>"</div>
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However, the question, despite its length, does speak to a problem that exists in the way that we view e-Learning. In order to save time in whatever our daily pursuits are whether in the business or academic world, we are constantly in search of the quick fix that doesn't require of us to do much thinking beyond the bullet points.<br />
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In following this pattern, what are we sacrificing or missing as a result?<br />
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"<b><i>Are we mastering the increasing forces of change in technology, pedagogy and individualized learning or are they mastering us?</i></b>"</div>
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Where have those who use to inspire our imaginations to see things in a different light gone? Where are the Nikola Teslas, the Da Vinci's , the Michelangelos, of the 21st century? </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.quotesgram.com</i></b></td></tr>
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We have young people who need such people as a source of inspiration so that they too can be nurtured and mentored so that they in turn may be an inspiration to others. We need to recognize and celebrate the appearance of brilliance in young people and not shuttle them off to their own intellectual ghettos to be with their own kind as we presently do. </div>
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The debilitating cycle of cynicism that seems to be the driver in many of our societies needs to be broken so that young people can become the architects of a future that has hope for the improvement of the quality of life for all people. E-Learning represents a vehicle that when orchestrated and driven by a vision that believes in hope for the future can have a tsunami effect both in education and in the business world that reaches out and connects young people globally so that what they are tasked with is no longer a local initiative but one on a global scale. Not to persevere in creating such an environment results in young people who will learn and use technology to subvert and use to increase their own personal gain to the detriment of the good of all people.<br />
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"<b><i>As a business organizations, what kind of new employee do you want to have, one who seeks to use their brilliance to further the cause and health of your organization or one who will use their digital skills to hack your systems and sell your prized innovations to the highest bidder on the web?</i></b>"</div>
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For business directors, some sobering questions to ask your self are:</div>
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"<b><i>How well do you know the intellectual and creative abilities of the employees you depend upon as an organization? Do you have in your midst pockets of brilliant people whose abilities you are not recognizing and as a result are not using to the potential that they are capable of ? Are these the people who are disconnected from your vision for your organization?</i></b>"</div>
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For business organizations, e-Learning when done right can open up a whole new dimension of increased ROI that you had not possible. The question is how badly do you want it? </div>
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<b><i>What is the state of your organization's learning culture with respect to the use of e-Learning? Still doing things the way you have always done them?</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Or, have you discovered the great benefits of identifying brilliance, nurturing it among your employees and encouraging them to be an inspiration to all?</i></b></div>
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If you are a business organization, it is time to truly maximize your potential by identifying and nurturing a learning culture where brilliance and inspiration can lead to breath taking innovative ideas that will move you forward in the global economy. If you are in education, your take away from this is to get off the assembly line education model because in today's world one size does NOT fit all and then you will be able to truly appreciate brilliance and be inspired to accomplish great things with young people.</div>
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We do not need an army of non-thinking, non-creating, non-inspiring conformists. We need those whose brilliance we will nurture, encourage, and showcase through their innovations to the world, so that many of the real world problems that are plaguing our societies can finally be resolved so that quality of life of all people will be enriched.</div>
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Effective, well designed, innovative e-Learning is a means to reach globally and heal the wounds of our societies. Build it into our higher education systems and build it into the fabric of the learning cultures of our global business organizations. Our survival truly depends on it.</div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-68617957702131029722017-05-18T11:12:00.001-04:002017-05-18T11:12:08.725-04:00An Honourable Request<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Many of the ideas that I have been exploring in this blog on the evolution of e-Learning and the rising technologies are starting to come into fruition as a result of technological advancement. As a result, I have a request that if you make reference to ideas that have been mentioned here, that you also share the link to this blog which is:<br />
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www.darkzoneeducation.blogspot.com<br />
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<b><i><u>Of Hope and Inspiration!</u></i></b></div>
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One of my goals was to stimulate the imaginations of what could be through effective e-Learning and inspire young people to have an active voice in how the future of e-Learning will take shape and how they can be the architects as agents of change of a brighter future that would enrich the quality of life of all people. Unfortunately, too many young people are entangled in the despair of what they see around them and have bought into the cynical mindset that is prevalent in many societies. We see this being played out in countries where living each day is one more day under siege both physically and morally.</div>
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If <b><i>innovation</i></b> and <b><i>collaboration</i></b> are to be nurtured as benefits to our societies, we need to inspire young people to work together for something that is far greater than themselves. This can be accomplished through the effective development of e-Learning in such a way that young people believe that they can make a meaningful difference to their societies as agents of change.</div>
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What is required is to mentor them to start to build bridges collaboratively and on a global scale. This process, like any process that is worthwhile pursuing, is not without risks. To take this journey, we need young people who are a "<b><i>thinking generation</i></b>" which means a generation who welcomes the challenge of debating ideas that will bring about a transformation that will improve the quality of life for all people instead of a generation addicted to "<b><i>group think</i></b>". </div>
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So, my appeal to you is to check out previous posts in this blog in terms of challenging ideas and invite young people to see them and most importantly, use their own imaginations to push the boundaries of all areas of learning to the benefit of all. The future they create is one that we will all have to live in.</div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-15609544985608416652017-05-08T06:44:00.000-04:002017-05-08T06:44:19.799-04:00Part II--"It was the Best of Times, it was the Worst of Times"--Motivation to Learn<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Charles Dickens, in his opening to his work titled: "<b><i>A Tale of Two Cities</i></b>"(1859) wrote the following:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www. Quote Addicts.com</i></b></td></tr>
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It would be very easy to see the condition of our own world today in this quote but if we did, we would miss that what the quote was leading into was a revolution that would involve great self-sacrifice on the part of the people of France. However, not all revolutions need result in a "<b><i>winter of despair</i></b>" but can lead us to a far better place than we have ever been before.<br />
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The fateful words of Charles Dickens might very well describe the condition of e-Learning in the highly connected digital world we live in. We can see the contrasts of the "<b><i>age of wisdom</i></b>" and the "<b><i>age of foolishness</i></b>" when we compare those in education and business at every level refusing to encourage the growth of adaptive, agile, collaborative learning cultures and willing to settle for the status quo in learning that hasn't changed in decades. This is representative of an age of foolishness in which the sacrifices are made by learners who desire and need to learn but see no motivation in learning that stems from curiosity and a very human love of learning.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Macleans Magazine</i></b></td></tr>
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<b><u>The Spring of Hope: Motivation to Learn and Irresistible Engagement</u></b></div>
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Finding that elusive motivation to learn and fostering an engagement in learning that learners find irresistible is the hope that we have in the development of e-Learning experiences within business training and formal education. True and sustained engagement of the learner can only be achieved when the intrinsic motivation of the learner is more powerful than artificial external motivators. For learners, whether business employees or students in formal education, there are levels of engagement that describe the reaction of learners to the learning experiences that they are exposed to. These reactions also speak to the effectiveness and vision of the instructional design used in the creation of the e-Learning experiences.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Jim Marteney (2015)</i></b></td></tr>
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At the highest point of engagement as indicated in the diagram, you have a learner reaction of high attention and high commitment.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Jim Marteney (2015)</i></b></td></tr>
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At the middle level, <b><i>Ritual Compliance</i></b>, you have the reaction of a learner that is quite representative of many university students as well as learners in corporate training sessions to the learning experiences.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Jim Marteney (2015)</i></b></td></tr>
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At the lowest end you have outright rebellion against engaging the learning experiences chosen for them. In business organizations, the easy manner of dealing with the situation is to eliminate the disruptive influence. Although this may seem like an expedient solution, it is probably not the wisest course of action because in doing so we may be blinding ourselves to serious pedagogical problems inherent in the design of the learning experiences that we are exposing employees to.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Jim Marteney (2015)<br /><br />(<u>Editor's note</u>: It appears that this rebellion also applies to the spelling of the word.)</i></b></td></tr>
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It is for that reason that we need to see the importance of having someone on staff who does not fit the standard pattern of HR staff but it needs to be someone who is in tune with and current with learning principles that are being uncovered through the research of Cognitive Learning scientists. It needs to be someone who can create learning profiles for employees and is able to convey to employees that they are willing to invest the requisite time in helping them grow in their learning within the organization. It needs to be someone who recognizes that for most business organizations, "<b><i>blended e-Learning</i></b>" is the best fit. This learning growth is not to be reserved just for the front line employees but also those who occupy the executive suite of the organization. Leading by example is a priority for a healthy organization in an age of information and learning.<br />
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The positive indicators are that students or business employees want to be engaged in their learning but that learning must have important characteristics built into it.<b> Michael Allen</b>, author of "<b><i> Michael Allen's Guide to e-Learning</i></b>" (<b>2016</b>) put it very succinctly when he stated that if we want learners to be engaged in their e-Learning experiences, those experiences need to be:<br />
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If we believe that having employees come to training sessions, providing them with trays of snack foods and then exposing them to stacks of PowerPoint slides will lead to sustained engagement in their learning, we are being quite naive and blind to the levels of digital connections to reservoirs of knowledge that employees have outside their work environment. For e-Learning to be meaningful, it means that the employees need to be able to connect with it on a personal level that relates to their goals both in the work environment and outside that environment.<br />
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Sadly, there is alot of poorly designed, bad e-Learning on the web. Although MOOCS are improving, they still have a high percentage of learners who never finish courses. Their engagement has become disengagement.<br />
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<b><u>Engagement and Motivation to Learn in High Education</u></b></div>
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When it comes to college and university, we need to ask in regards to e-Learning, what do students expect from their online education? Solving the simple problems enable us to arrive at solutions for greater problems:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjijo2h5kKZT8zNgZ41kImsexr3CDoTogOIvRNI6o9bNAASWLui3NBkfMKEdAVGeoYWaOim3r1-f52YZHIuwA6R86asf69pJ5KUU8xQG0KlCFP6EWlieyAnQZd3R8AVmDoRQupmR7pQUKny/s1600/engage8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjijo2h5kKZT8zNgZ41kImsexr3CDoTogOIvRNI6o9bNAASWLui3NBkfMKEdAVGeoYWaOim3r1-f52YZHIuwA6R86asf69pJ5KUU8xQG0KlCFP6EWlieyAnQZd3R8AVmDoRQupmR7pQUKny/s400/engage8.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Caroline Brock (2016)</i></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Caroline Brock (2016)</i></b></td></tr>
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As is indicated above, taking care of the daily little things goes along way towards creating confidence on the part of the learner that decision makers have a vested interest in the learning of the employees or students and are willing to demonstrate that interest in credible, non-artificial ways.<br />
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This brings us back to the need indicated in Part I that in order to develop effective, irresistibly engaging e-Learning where learner engagement becomes more and more fueled by intrinsic motivation, we need to include the voice of the silent stakeholders in learning, the students or learners themselves. Without their voice, motives that have more to do with profit reports rather than high quality, effective e-Learning design will become the drivers to a continued disengagement of employees and students in formal education. </div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-90137485313289372552017-04-28T14:15:00.002-04:002017-04-29T08:45:39.853-04:00Is LinkedIn Everything It Can Be As a Professional Portal? A Rhetorical Question?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Anyone who has been associated with LinkedIn over an appreciable amount of time has noticed a variety of changes, some good and some quite questionable.There are two agents of change in the transformations that we have seen. First, there are the changes made by those who form the administration of LinkedIn. Their primary motive is to attempt to make the overall experience pleasant for all users while maintaining their original mission of creating an environment for professionals from many strata of our societies to connect, discuss common issues and form professional bonds. This mission is useful in that we all have a professional story to tell and as users we have a desire and an essential need to learn and grow.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvR9FW8YKIbqlLqKWVqqKY5l6rn-V3YIpvoYwd4kT50HfHoEbDSE4hckycG-2tXz9SNlgbDJ33blQoCjDSNLXBhpfKuq3vgNlFAwghl9pA5mpr0JMVaBGApaRq3bBE_KpRMi2W2Ou3-KVl/s1600/link4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvR9FW8YKIbqlLqKWVqqKY5l6rn-V3YIpvoYwd4kT50HfHoEbDSE4hckycG-2tXz9SNlgbDJ33blQoCjDSNLXBhpfKuq3vgNlFAwghl9pA5mpr0JMVaBGApaRq3bBE_KpRMi2W2Ou3-KVl/s400/link4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Secondly, there are changes made by those participants in LinkedIn who make up the subscribers to all the professional forums set up in LinkedIn which represent the many professional interests which have a common thread running through them which is the use of technology as it pertains to the specific interests of groups. Having stated that we should stop, step back and ask an important question:<br />
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<b><i>"Is LinkedIn everything it can be as a professional portal?"</i></b></div>
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To begin to answer such a question, we need to look at the status of LinkedIn but more importantly, the perceptions of LinkedIn on the part of the participants.</div>
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<b><u>The Nature of LinkedIn and Participant Perceptions</u></b></div>
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Looking at the stats on LinkedIn, we see some interesting forms of growth:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuwdn_rBze9xBU10H45O1798_IjFHOSWpKImz2CtQtuFRV40YHTSaUjiATaw7DgZgU6oIFrm7UxCuUop7nXUQtandygtSB6G5N5q73-9zbklNCuXTKfbqBpop07S93szCAxue02xRzYAfr/s1600/link1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuwdn_rBze9xBU10H45O1798_IjFHOSWpKImz2CtQtuFRV40YHTSaUjiATaw7DgZgU6oIFrm7UxCuUop7nXUQtandygtSB6G5N5q73-9zbklNCuXTKfbqBpop07S93szCAxue02xRzYAfr/s400/link1a.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.LinkedIn Blog.com</i></b></td></tr>
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The stats as they appear show an impressive pattern of growth but to be honest in such as assessment, we have to ask:</div>
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<b><i>"Impressive pattern of growth compared to what?"</i></b></div>
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The natural response on the part of many individuals would be to compare its growth to social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter but do we really want to use them as the comparative standard? We claim that LinkedIn is a professional portal but then to compare it to social media portals we run the risk of forfeiting its professional status. This is where we have to take a reality check and ask :</div>
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"<b><i>What are the perceptions of the subscribers to LinkedIn in terms of how they think it is used?</i></b>"</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.themommiesnetwork.blogspot.com</i></b></td></tr>
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In looking at the above survey results, do the responses reflect more a perspective that LinkedIn is a professional portal or that in fact it is another clone of Facebook or Twitter?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>:<i> www.entrepreneur.com</i></b></td></tr>
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It is interesting that two articles have recently appeared that predict the demise of LinkedIn as a professional site due to the ever changing perception that it is steadily transforming into just another social media portal.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wAUNRnNYSwAqF6omraaOrF0FrJR9CoSY7Ch6Em0uJh7NjfJWKnJXlNEdKDPU-8prsyjaApkeyxUGcw0nDWoknL32BLg5o8ygA6a9KID3af-3bNLqzrfk86fBm2e5OB34WeSPlndfDV5r/s1600/link6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wAUNRnNYSwAqF6omraaOrF0FrJR9CoSY7Ch6Em0uJh7NjfJWKnJXlNEdKDPU-8prsyjaApkeyxUGcw0nDWoknL32BLg5o8ygA6a9KID3af-3bNLqzrfk86fBm2e5OB34WeSPlndfDV5r/s400/link6.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.LinkedIn.com</i></b></td></tr>
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In an article by <b>Jaakko Paalanen</b> titled: "<a href="http://observer.com/2017/04/the-death-of-linkedin-social-media-sales-marketing-facebook-business-relationships/" target="_blank">The Death of LinkedIn</a>"(April, 2017) , he points out an interesting juxtaposition that is occurring between the focus of Facebook and LinkedIn when it comes to promoting business interests. In a second article by <b>Daniel Tunkelang</b> titled: "<a href="http://observer.com/2017/04/how-linkedin-could-be-disrupted/" target="_blank">How LinkedIn Could Be Disrupted</a>" (April 2017), an interesting point is made that despite the big data that LinkedIn collects on subscriber preferences and offerings, they are not staying ahead of the curve when it comes to innovating and as a result, down the road, an opportunity exists by rising competitors to disrupt it.<br />
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<b><u>The Problem and Potential Solutions</u></b></div>
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At this point in time one might ask whether or not we see evidence of this drift of LinkedIn towards becoming more of a social media site. For many people on LinkedIn, this has been a resounding yes. Consider the number of times people have complained about the amount of social media content appearing on LinkedIn and the number of likes that such complaints have garnered. To those who are complaining, I would offer these challenges:</div>
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"<b><i>What are you doing personally to change this?"</i></b></div>
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<b><i>"How often have you, personally, instigated a discussion that is in line with the mission of LinkedIn?"</i></b></div>
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<b><i>"How often do you personally respond to posts in more than the traditional 140 characters of a social media site such as Twitter?"</i></b></div>
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<b><i>"How much time are you willing to allocate to a thoughtful response to a post or are you still time's prisoner?</i></b>"</div>
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As much as we dislike the misuse of LinkedIn, it would be hypocritical not to admit that we are also part of the problem. </div>
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So, what are some possible solutions?</div>
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<li>Get involved in discussions in meaningful ways that promote the stance that we are all learners and can profit much from the expertise of others.</li>
<li>Promote and encourage discussion. Even though LinkedIn can be a one-stop "tip factory", it needs the help of subscribers to truly help it become more innovative.</li>
<li>Make a point of sharing articles that caused you to stop and think with others.</li>
<li>Stop complaining and making excuses for the quality of LinkedIn by leading by example.</li>
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These are just a few ideas but the last word of wisdom, I leave to a cartoon character:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Walt Kelly</i></b></td></tr>
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[<b><i>If you find this article interesting, pass it on but more importantly discuss it. Also, it might be helpful to share this article on LinkedIn itself but I will leave that up to the reader!</i></b>]</div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-65392660443313537202017-04-15T10:53:00.000-04:002017-05-01T06:47:56.157-04:00E-Learning--The Silent Stakeholders--Part I<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It is interesting that in the developing story of e-Learning, we have been hearing from the trainers, instructional designers, SME's and those trying to satisfy the growth of e-Learning by marketing products that they feel could be the next big thing in the e-Learning market. We have also been hearing from instructors, technology specialists and their fans.<br />
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However, there is one sector of stakeholders who perhaps are hiding in plain sight but we have become so absorbed with our own sandbox that we have in fact neglected them. I am referring to students themselves. I think that they probably would like to be consulted since what we are doing in the development of e-Learning will have a profound impact on their lives and in turn, on all of our lives. It is ironic that in our informed practice and determination to stop treating audiences as passive objects to be acted upon, we are doing exactly that with students at many levels of the education systems we have populating our societies.<br />
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Any new paradigm that we seek to use to aid e-Learning development must include students not only as partners in life-long learning but also partners in describing what e-Learning should look like. Since we often refer to them as the "<b><i>digital natives</i></b>" of our connected age and we admittedly as adult learners are in the process of catching up, we should be getting and valuing their input as we go about disrupting their educational lives.<br />
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<b><u>Higher Education and The Challenge</u></b></div>
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If you are an instructor or educational developer working in the realm of higher education, I have a question for you:</div>
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" <b><i>Do you have the courage and curiosity to honestly sample the views of your students when it comes to their education and how you present it to them?</i></b>"<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <u>www.inspirelearning.com</u></b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Credit</u><b>: </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">www.inspirelearning.com</i><br />
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In order to effect change in e-Learning that will benefit our students and in turn all participants in our society, we need to ask them some critical questions and then brace ourselves for their answers. We may not like what we hear but we should give them a forum to express themselves freely on this. To start off here are some questions to consider for which I will also provide the rationale for asking these specific questions.</div>
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<li><b><i>As a student, do you consider yourself just a consumer of education or do you consider yourself a creative, innovative contributor interested in the improvement of education for all people?</i></b></li>
<li><b><i>Would you say that your instructor makes effective use of the tools of online learning in order to enable you to grow in your understanding of what is taught?</i></b></li>
<li><b><i> If not, what would you suggest should be used more and incorporated into the design of the lessons you receive that would engage you more, keeping in mind that it must serve a valid educational objective or goal?</i></b></li>
<li><b><i>Do you keep up to date with changes in education?</i></b></li>
<li><b><i>How useful would it be in your opinion to harness the use of social media, serious game elements and online, transnational collaboration in your personal e-Learning?</i></b></li>
<li><b><i>Have you participated in a MOOC before and was it a positive or negative experience? Reason?</i></b></li>
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<b><i><u>The Challenge</u></i></b></div>
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I am challenging higher education instructors to share this article and the questions above with your students. I encourage you to share genuine student comments concerning this short article and in particular the questions and post their responses to these questions in the comment section in the area where the article is posted. It is vitally important that we encourage conversations that will add the voices of the most important stakeholders, the students, to the way we design our e-Learning experiences. The future shape of what effective e-Learning is dependent upon all voice being heard. In following through on this, we need to recognize that sometimes in order for education to evolve, risks must be taken.</div>
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<b><u>Next</u></b>: <b>Part II--"<i>It was the best of times, it was the worst of times</i>"--Motivation to Learn</b></div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-6291847737286505632017-03-28T11:40:00.000-04:002017-03-28T11:40:44.734-04:00Exploring the Dark Side of Big Data<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<u><b>A Big Data Scenario: " I have a story to tell........"</b></u></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u><b>Credit</b></u>: <i><b>www.amuellergh108.blogspot.ca</b></i></td></tr>
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I confess that I have a fondness for military and espionage fiction. There are many interesting story-lines that authors have exposed me to. As my profile indicates, I am an explorer even when I am reading fiction. When I become engaged in this genre, I try to work out problems presented in scenarios to the characters to not only consider different potential solutions that I would try if I was the character but also to predict the potential outcomes of each potential path. Naturally, risk assessment, performance capability and real time intelligence are all important factors to be considered. With regards to real time intelligence and similar to the game of Chess, it is important to develop an accurate profile of your opponents because in doing so, the accuracy of your predictions as to their intentions and ways of thinking increase dramatically, percentage wise. The more data that you have to work with the higher the probability that you will arrive at a complete picture of what you are dealing with.<br />
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This week I started reading a novel offering by noted military fiction author, Mark Greaney who has taken the helm in continuing the successful series started by the late author Tom Clancy. The title of this particular work was: "<i><b>True Faith and Allegiance</b></i>" (G.P. Putnam & Sons, 2016). What was most intriguing was the story line which goes something like this:<br />
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"<i><b>In Mark Greaney’s <i>Tom Clancy True Faith and Allegiance</i>, someone
with inside knowledge and access to personal details of key military
and government personnel has been selling that information to enemies of
the United States.</b></i></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>:<i> www.Military Press.com</i></b></td></tr>
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<i><b> The actual breach occurred as a result of oversight on the part of a security organization tasked by the U.S. military to put their database through security tests to make sure that it could not be breached. However, when the organization was finished, it forgot to delete the database from its servers. Overtime it was forgotten about until a disenchanted but highly intelligent predictive analyst was able to take the raw data and organize it into very precise and targeted intelligence that could be sold to the highest bidder. He was able to make alignments between this data and all other sources of data coming from everything from social media to personal e-mails and text messages from cell phones. This resulted in precise real time profiles of targets of interest.</b></i>"</div>
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As I read this it suddenly hit me! What this is really about is how Big Data could be used by a criminal organization to subvert democracy for their own gains. Then a flood of questions came into my mind such as:<br />
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<li>Is it possible via the use of Big Data for a gifted predictive analyst to pinpoint what I am doing at a given hour on a given day with precision? My first response was that such precise predictive personal data is not possible even with the high level of technology that we have access to. However, then I remembered how much personal information people routinely place on social media such as Facebook, Twitter and also on simple apps such as common e-mail.</li>
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<li>With the advance of the Internet of Things technology (IoT), will we be contributing to the growing data on our daily activities? What about technology that takes sensor readings of our vital signs during exercise activities?</li>
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<li>With the multitude of businesses online and governmental, are appropriate safeguards being taken to protect who has access to the data and for what reasons? Data breaches have happened much more frequently in the last decade than ever before. Well known department stores such as Winners have made headlines with the loss of personal customer data.</li>
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In a specific article titled "<a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/after-mystery-hack-millions-of-logins-for-sale-on-dark-web/" target="_blank"><i><b>One of the biggest hacks happened last year but nobody noticed</b></i></a>" by Zack Whittaker for Zero Day pointed out that a data base containing detailed information on 52 million people was stolen. With that information coupled to incoming data from many sources such as social media, profiling just took on a whole new meaning within the context of Big Data. <br />
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<u><b>The Nature and Definition of Big Data</b></u></div>
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Lisa Arthur, Teradata Applications CMO and Forbes contributor, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaarthur/2013/08/15/what-is-big-data/">explains</a>
that Big Data “<i><b>is a collection of data from traditional and digital
sources inside and outside your company that represents a source for
ongoing discovery and analysis.</b></i>”<br />
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She asserts that traditional data must
be included in Big Data because it is an important piece of the Big Data
picture. Indeed, incorporating data from all sources is key to
optimizing the insights gained with Big Data.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.techwhirl.com</i></b></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Some of the first organizations to embrace Big Data were online and startup firms. Firms such as Facebook, eBay, Google and LinkedIn were built around Big Data from the very beginning. Surely, as an online worker you have felt a little "<b><i>creeped out</i></b>" by Google's uncanny ability to read your mind about your needs and your personal preferences before you had even publicly acknowledged them.<br />
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When we look at the characteristics of Big Data, there are three main characteristics:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Nasrin Hussain</i></b></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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As implied above, Big Data generates volume from the storage and processing of very large quantities of digital information that defies analysis using traditional computing technologies. With the rise of the great potential of quantum computing, these barriers will be wiped away.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>:<i> https://community.hpe.com</i></b></td></tr>
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A second characteristics of Big Data is velocity and as can be judged from the statistics below, this complements the power of Big Data.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Nasrin Hussain</i></b></td></tr>
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A third characteristic is variety. With the advent of the IoT technologies, the variety of data is about to expand even more.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Nasrin Hussain</i></b></td></tr>
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Two other characteristics that are sometimes considered are value and veracity. Summarizing these characteristics in a simple graphic might produce the following:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>:<i> www.learnrnd.com</i></b></td></tr>
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Therefore it is easy to say that Big Data and Predictive Analytics are the most intriguing trends in learning innovation. Naturally, business leaders who are new to the concept have questions. The answers to such questions could have a very profound effect in how their business plans for future growth with regards to global market share move forward. Such questions as:<br />
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<li><i><b>What is big data and how can it impact my company?</b></i></li>
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<li><i><b> Can it be used to help us deliver what we have promised our clients in a more efficient and cost effective manner?</b></i></li>
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<li><i><b>Can it help us grow as a company to meet the potential we know that it has and help us find and develop new markets in a very globally competitive economy?</b></i></li>
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<u><b>The Seductive Potential of Big Data for Business and Education</b></u></div>
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With the break-neck pace of the rolling out of new technologies, we have to stop and ask what is its potential for prospering business and education. For business, David Strom(2015), a world known expert on networking and communications technology suggests that there are three main ways that Big Data can help business:</div>
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<li> Make it more predictable</li>
<li>Replicate your initial successes or trials</li>
<li>Enhance customer engagement</li>
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It is the last item on the above list that holds Big Data's greatest promise:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.black.ninja.com</i></b></td></tr>
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Another very alluring aspect of Big Data is the promise of increasingly positive growth in revenues for business organizations that make use of Big Data.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.datamation.com</i></b></td></tr>
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To add to this positive picture as suggested earlier, the growth in the number of data sources will increase as technology advances making the profiling of customers and competitors all the more precise to the point where predictions about future habits of such groups gain in accuracy making decision making more effective. As early as 2013, the seeds of what Big Data could mean for business organizations were starting to show life.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcsCv9t0FNJ0-kxAfwlyB6goFvNpy1rRgrc8VLg8geLGwMF0ZlajmWtq5Jc3E2OSNnMh30qKa6_nN4eKw865bEsz907Xckxr7jGJ_SflXVorpEdfr4-y4p71BXe9zjs_dxLBi51DqjNXXv/s1600/bg3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcsCv9t0FNJ0-kxAfwlyB6goFvNpy1rRgrc8VLg8geLGwMF0ZlajmWtq5Jc3E2OSNnMh30qKa6_nN4eKw865bEsz907Xckxr7jGJ_SflXVorpEdfr4-y4p71BXe9zjs_dxLBi51DqjNXXv/s400/bg3.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.digitalnewsasia.com</i></b></td></tr>
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Then there is the possibility of expanding the business to capitalize on national and global opportunities:</div>
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"<i><b>So, given the positive growth picture, what is the down side of all this?</b></i>"</div>
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<u><b>Exploring the Dark Side of Big Data</b></u></div>
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As businesses rush to take advantage of the great potential of Big Data, there are some cautions that business is failing to recognize which could have a dramatic impact on the future health and welfare of the organization. Some of these are as follows:<br />
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<li><u><b>The Dazzle of New Technology</b></u>: Business organizations want to not only protect their market share globally but also open up potentially new markets never explored before. New technologies are held up as the "<i><b>holy grail</b></i>" by which to achieve this end. Business leaders have a responsibility show distinctively improved ROI to stock holders that make quarterly reports glow. However, in the scramble to adopt new technologies it is important to step back and consider the possible vulnerabilities that such technologies might open up. A case in point is the "<i><b>cloud</b></i>" technology. Obviously, with the huge increase in data that is becoming available from multiple sources, storage needs to be effective to meet the new demand. However, not everything is as it appears to be.</li>
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In an article titled: "<a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/3041078/security/the-dirty-dozen-12-cloud-security-threats.html" target="_blank"><i><b>The dirty dozen: 12 cloud security threats</b></i></a>" written for InfoWorld magazine by Fahmida Rashid (Mar. 11, 2016), we are being dazzled by the technology and not taking the necessary security precautions. This is not just an organization IT problem. It is a decision maker problem because it is the decision maker who is being swayed by effective digital marketing that is being applied.</div>
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2. <u><b>Making Data Security a Priority</b></u>: The obvious question that needs to be asked is whether or not business organizations and decision makers are making data security a high enough priority. As indicated earlier, the threats are real and a number of very high profile data breaches have caused dramatic drops not only in stock value but also in the confidence that clients and the public in general have in very well known business organizations.</div>
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Bernard Marr a best-selling business author, keynote speaker and
consultant in strategy management, performance management, analytics,
KPIs and big data in an article titled "<b> <a href="http://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/why-is-big-data-so-dangerous" target="_blank"><i>Why is Big Data so dangerous?</i></a>"(</b>Sept. 14, 2016<b>) </b>outlines 5 key risks that Big Data presents to business organizations.<b> </b>Who has access, what kind of budget have business organizations allotted to data security and how the data is used are key ideas for business organizations to pay attention to. As can be noted in the following structural diagram, how secure are the numerous access points especially if the cloud is used as a storage depot?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.bigdataandanalysis.blogspot.com</i></b></td></tr>
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3. <u><b>The Role of e-Learning and Education</b></u>: One of the last elements you would ever expect to have an impact on Big Data is education. However, you would be surprised what education is putting at your front door. If we look deeper into how technology handles data, we would arrive at the machine language of the specific technologies. At this level, how a piece of technology will deal with data can be directed right at the very heart of the machine. Another flashy trend dealing with technology is to teach young people at a very early age how to do programming and machine language coding. At first, your response might be, "<i><b>so what?</b></i>". However, consider the fact that many attempts to hack the networks of business organizations are coming from very talented young people who are not only curious but also are interested in how far they can go before someone tells them that this type of activity is wrong. We are now teaching them how to access the very heart of computer language but are we doing the teaching with an emphasis on the responsibility of acting in ethical ways? In the atmosphere of social action and moral relativism perhaps we have opened a box that we should not have opened.</div>
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E-Learning and education have roles both within the learning culture of business organizations as well as formal education. These tools need to be used not just for training as in the business context but also to help employees and students develop skillsets that help them engage in the vision and mission of making the quality of life of others better. They need to understand the need how to shut the door on dangerous uses of Big Data if not for the fact that their own data is part of the mix.</div>
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As suggested by the Tom Clancey novel, some story-lines you never want to see become realities....</div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-80944771638300222722017-03-18T14:00:00.001-04:002017-03-18T14:00:07.167-04:00Critical Thinking and the Crisis of Credibility <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On numerous occasions I have raised the alarm through posts that students in educational institutions are being taught "<b><u>what to think instead of how to think</u></b>". As a result of this entrenched attitude within education systems, education has become less about effective, authentic learning and more about indoctrination of views held on a variety of topics that favour only one side of topics and dismiss other points of view without considering the evidential merit of these points of view. We see the fruit of this on many university campuses where even speakers holding alternative points of view are denied access to campuses or if given access, their presentations are harassed by those with opposing points of view. A case in point here in Ontario, Canada is the case of Professor Jordan Peterson, who is a University of Ontario Psychology professor who is due to speak to a sold out crowd at the University of Western Ontario in London.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.ottawacitizen.com</i></b></td></tr>
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Due to the fact that Professor Peterson does not agree with the use of gender neutral pronouns in his classroom and openly criticizes the rise of political correctness on university campuses, the university is charging the student group who invited him to speak a $1200 fee to cover security which is not something they do in an equitable fashion when dealing with speakers invited to speak.<a href="http://www.lfpress.com/2017/03/17/western-university-urged-to-refund-security-fee-charged-for-university-of-toronto-professor-jordan-peterson-speech" target="_blank"> Professor Peterson</a> has made his views known on YouTube and is open to rational discussion on his views.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.the College Fix.com</i></b></td></tr>
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As a result of this retreat away from rational thought and discussion, societies are experiencing what I would term a " <b><i>crisis of credibility</i></b>". A crisis of credibility occurs when foundational systems such as education systems, religious systems, law systems, and systems of labour which were the bedrock institutions originally designed to serve the people, lose the confidence of the people they were mandated to serve. The obvious question then becomes:<br />
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<b><i>"What are the causes of this crisis of credibility?"</i></b><br />
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Some of the causes that can be identified, as relating to education, the family and society in general might be the following:</div>
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<li>The increase in priority of asking learners how they "<b><i>feel</i></b>" about topics instead of educating them in the skills of thinking about topics, being able to state what position they hold on issues based upon <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">authenticated and
verifiable evidence. Learners are repeatedly exposed to a variety of social
issues in our societies without being given the necessary thinking skillsets
needed to form informed opinions. This happens at the earliest level of
education when students have only rudimentary thinking skills but are requested
to take stands on social issues. A good example is the issue of bullying. Young
people are taught to use emotionally laden terms and take specific actions but are never
clearly given the root causes to the issue for them to have a complete picture.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Without this, they
learn that feelings are what you should base your decisions on and therefore
your actions. Anyone who has an opposing opinion, you should not have to listen to
and to protect yourself, we have a vocabulary built up to dismiss them
altogether thus freeing you from being upset. Please clear on this! I am not
saying that feelings are not important because they are and we all have them. I
am saying that it is wrong if they take the place of reason altogether.</span><br />
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<li><b><u>Moral relativism</u></b> has been a destructive influence on our
understanding of the difference between what should be considered morally
"<b><i>right</i></b>" behaviour and what should be considered morally
"<b><i>wrong</i></b>" behaviour in our societies. The end result of this is societies
coming to the conclusion that there is no "<b><i> right</i></b>" or
"<b><i>wrong</i></b>" behaviour. A case in point on this is the declaration
of cities and states to be "<b><i><u>sanctuary cities</u></i></b>". Simply
put the rationale, based upon "<b><i>feelings</i></b>" is that it is
o.k. for illegal immigrants to break our laws and by declaring our city or
state to be a "sanctuary place", we the guardians of the rule of law are going to
help them do it and we are going to feel good about ourselves for doing it. Such acts lead to a very disturbing question:</li>
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"<b><i>If elected officials who were elected to uphold the rule of law in government, encourage the breaking of our laws and abrogate the processes designed to maintain stability of law enforcement and protect the constitutional rights of all citizens then how can we in good conscience hold citizens accountable for the breaking of other laws?</i></b>"</div>
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<b><u>Stopping a False Paradigm</u></b></div>
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One of the first steps that we need to take in education is to stop promoting a false paradigm that is relegating reasoning to a frill topic in schools. In the past, the paradigm that has allowed our civilizations to advance may have looked like this:</div>
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<b><i>Important issue---->identify all sides to the issue---->examine the evidence supporting each side carefully through effective research---->take a position on the issue---->defend your position passionately through effective debate</i></b><br />
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We may have been inspired by an issue that truly moved us and consider an important issue or the events of the day required that we investigate due to a possibly negative impact on our lives. So, although "feelings" may have started us to take action, we followed a paradigm of necessary investigation based upon reason.</div>
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<b><i>So, what has changed?</i></b></div>
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<i style="font-weight: bold;"><u>New Paradigm</u>:</i> </div>
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<b><i>Important issue----->only one side of the issue presented for acceptance-------> use of selected emotional multimedia assets are used to suggest how you should feel about the issue----> based upon your feelings, put pressure on others who do not share your viewpoint through the use of dismissive vocabulary that uses ad hominem argumentation as a tool to censor debate------> engage in forcing the point of view into enforceable laws upon all people.</i></b></div>
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The end result of this new paradigm which we even now see being played out in the current events and in social media circles is the systematic sabotage of the great gift that we all have for critical thinking.</div>
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<b><i>So, how do we stop this type of paradigm from continuing to wreak havoc on the intelligence of learners?</i></b></div>
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<b><u>The Systematic Re-Integration of Critical Thinking Skills</u></b></div>
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We can not as civilized societies remain civilized as long as we allow this paradigm to be constantly reinforced throughout all levels of the education systems and the curriculums that they subscribe to. As thinking individuals, we hold that the following truths should be available to all citizens with the understanding that the goal is to strive to help improve the quality of life for all people.</div>
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<li>Critical thinking skillsets are not frills but as essential for our survival as civilized societies who have to deal with complex real world problems in effective ways that bring solutions that benefit all people. We have already identified what comprises such skillsets:</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs3iVgjhNg5Yk1p0aA1IKcsW72J_sPk5In982t2IYWJbXYouAX-bsyuWyeBocepgNUfVWpwgvidH90r2F21f5aV6vITo3S7pW4RBjU51FmttFzbNFNIiNG7TQmMJ2F_XcVOkh5AjlJvcWV/s1600/critical4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs3iVgjhNg5Yk1p0aA1IKcsW72J_sPk5In982t2IYWJbXYouAX-bsyuWyeBocepgNUfVWpwgvidH90r2F21f5aV6vITo3S7pW4RBjU51FmttFzbNFNIiNG7TQmMJ2F_XcVOkh5AjlJvcWV/s400/critical4.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
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<li>Every citizen is entitled to hold an opinion and have the right to express the opinion giving supporting evidence that can be verified. If I disagree with the opinion, I have the right and obligation by means of providing evidence that disapproves that opinion, to act responsibly.</li>
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<li>When I hear an opposing opinion and am tempted to use popular dismissive vocabulary terms, I have a responsibility to clearly define those terms. I have an obligation that if others question the validity of my definition to listen to their objections and answer their challenges.</li>
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<li>I have to accept the possibility that I just might be wrong if the evidence supports that I am in error even if it might hurt my feelings.</li>
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<b><u>E-Learning: The Potential and the Danger</u></b></div>
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One question that may have occurred to you is:</div>
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<b><i>"What does any of this have to do with e-Learning?"</i></b></div>
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One of the great advantages to e-Learning is that it is no longer dependent upon local constraints but instead has a global reach. The problem of the disassembling of a paradigm that has served civilizations well in favour of the false paradigm noted above is not just a North American problem. It is evident in the education systems of many countries on a global scale that this problem is pervasive. We see in in discussions in global politics and even as far as organized sports among countries.</div>
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The time to stop this paradigm is now so that your children and their children will enjoy a quality of life that puts the needs of others above self-entitlement but even more importantly, that the decisions they make and defend passionately, are based on the building blocks of sound reasoning. </div>
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Together, we can overcome the great crisis of credibility that we now face. We must overcome it....</div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1986959181207582609.post-76619503366201868002017-02-27T08:28:00.000-05:002017-02-27T08:28:04.712-05:00Part III: AI or Humanity--Can AI and Humans Play Nice?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Much of what has been said about AI in the past has been tied to the field of Robotics. From books such as"<i><b> I, Robot</b></i>" by Isaac Asimov to t.v and movie series such as <i><b>Star Trek</b></i> to movies series such as the <i><b>Terminator</b></i> movies, artificial intelligence life forms have been portrayed more as a threat to humanity than as a support and aid to humanity. Much of what was written and portrayed suggested that humanity needed to develop ways to limit artificial intelligence life forms from evolving to become more dominant over man.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.XENLife.com</i></b></td></tr>
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In Asimov's "I, Robot", guidelines were programmed into robots that placed limits on their development.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Nrudakova</i></b></td></tr>
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The great fear was that the AI would advance to the point where human beings were not needed to be involved in the working life of societies at all and at worst that AI beings would become sentient or self aware beings such as what was portrayed in the Star Trek: The Next Generation with "<i><b>Commander Data</b></i>". For the "<i><b>baby boomer</b></i>" generation, the words of <i><b>H.A.L</b></i>. in the movie titled: "<i><b>2001-A Space Odyssey</b></i>" still haunt our memories.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www. scifi.stackexchange.com</i></b></td></tr>
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With self aware AI beings some were predicting that these new self aware beings would determine that humanity was too deeply flawed to pay attention to and that necessary resources of the planet could be better utilized through the elimination of humanity.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.33rd Square.com</i></b></td></tr>
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Jerry Caplan, an expert in the field of AI describes what we should all know about AI and its potential impact on our lives in general and business organization that are striving to compete in a global economy. Although the following YouTube segment is a little long, it is worthwhile to get a good understanding of what AI means to us.<br />
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<b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs</i></b><br />
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<u><b>How Should Business Organizations Plan?</b></u></div>
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In a Canadian news broadcast this week (Feb. 6, 2017) an economic think tank predicted that 40 % of the present jobs will be taken over by automation. Statistics for other countries can be easily found but I would predict that the percentage is higher in countries such as the United States, Great Britain, China & India. The results of such a prediction coming to pass can be reduced to two events:</div>
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<li>Disruption of societies due to the increase of unemployed workers which not only then places the social support networks of such countries under duress but also creates a crisis for governments in trying to balance their books. The cascading effect for business organizations means loss of potential sales.</li>
<li>A second possibility is that decision makers take note of the pace of change and then take steps to enable employees to retrain with the goal of acquiring new skillsets that technology will create a need for. This means having a plan driven by a vision of how new technology will be integrated in the way the business organization does business.</li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.accenture.com</i></b></td></tr>
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The idea of coming up with an effective plan recognizes the need to be proactive rather than reactive because the future of your best assets, your employees, is at stake. Engaging them with a clear vision of the way forward and how they are integral to that plan is an essential.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www. accenture.com</i></b></td></tr>
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We also need to heed the warnings given by very intelligent leaders about regarding the potential drawbacks to using artificial intelligence. The drawbacks arise if we fail to recognize that there is a moral imperative in how we move ahead in the adoption of new technologies. The question that innovators, scientists, business leaders, and technology leaders need to ask is:<br />
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"<i><b>Just because we have the technology to do this, should we do this?</b></i>"<br />
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<u><b>Views of Intelligent Leaders On the Use of Artificial Intelligence</b></u></div>
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Some very intelligent and well respected leaders in technology and science have been quick to voice their concerns about the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>:<i>www. Evannex.com</i></b></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.Quote Addicts.com</i></b></td></tr>
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As ominous as these statements appear, AI will continue to be integrated into the fabric of business organizations and our daily lives.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.kooki.co</i></b></td></tr>
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The integration of AI based "<i><b>intelligent assistants</b></i>" into the fabric of our lives will advance faster than even the growth of social media. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>BI Intelligence, 2015</i></b></td></tr>
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Besides the development of online chatbots integrated into the global
online business presence, with the advancement of Microsoft Hololens
technology we will see intelligent assistants take holographic form as
in the example of Cortana.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.blogs.windows.com</i></b></td></tr>
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Discussion of the advances of technology and business is all well and good but the question still remains:<br />
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"<i><b>How do businesses get started on a proactive path in adopting AI and what part can e-Learning play in this?</b></i>"<br />
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Some very important business understandings need to be considered: </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>Frank Diana (2015)</i></b></td></tr>
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<u><b>Five First Steps for Planning for the Adoption of AI into a Business Organization</b></u></div>
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<li>Identify work areas within the business that involve repetitive, time consuming actions that could better be served by automation. It is important to re-task the talents of employees involved in such labour to higher skilled positions.</li>
<li>Create learning profiles for employees that identify present talents that they have and then plot areas of potential growth for them so that they advance to higher skillsets that will be required as technology advances.</li>
<li>Create a "<i><b>technology sandbox</b></i>" both within the organization and online where employees can go to try out new technologies and applications. Time should be timetabled in where employees have the opportunity to try out these new areas of learning and the online site for this should be open to employees 24/7.</li>
<li>Hire a "<i><b>learning principles guru or expert</b></i>" who will have the responsibility of tracking employee learning and presenting new opportunities for employees to advance their skillsets into new areas of technology and applications. This individual should have a separate line for advancement within the organization.</li>
<li>Create a "<i><b>learning culture</b></i>" within the organization that encourages employee engagement in innovative and creative thinking. The environment should involve a forum where employees may collaborate with each other in the organization but on a global scale. The opportunity should be available for a collaborative group to present and defend innovative ideas that they have come up with.</li>
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<u><b>Business Prospects for the Further Development of Chatbots in Business</b></u></div>
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The operative goal in the use of chatbots in business organizations is to free up employees so they can focus on the higher end skillsets that involve creativity and innovation. This is in line with what a firm called Venture Radar predicts.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiby5RwIlf1DbfHCQbmYfKCKLKjIa-khJjj9fkaNeLDcqMRcm6X5RmCrPTjDXdraccwINKzOpyGV8W4JRgyV0rBeUp48GuNZ605YmYd-bRsXnNkoXlzqwK8060AiRSUH5QKSceWA4gXH8aj/s1600/in29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiby5RwIlf1DbfHCQbmYfKCKLKjIa-khJjj9fkaNeLDcqMRcm6X5RmCrPTjDXdraccwINKzOpyGV8W4JRgyV0rBeUp48GuNZ605YmYd-bRsXnNkoXlzqwK8060AiRSUH5QKSceWA4gXH8aj/s400/in29.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>Credit</u>: <i>www.ventureradar.com</i></b></td></tr>
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These are just a few ideas to promote more discussion within business organizations about how this might take shape in their own specific context.</div>
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As for the warnings about AI, as much as we would like AI intelligent assistants to become more and more human, we have to keep in mind that the model, the human being, that we are using is far from perfect and like Asimov's three laws of robotics, we need to make sure that what we do with AI technology leads to a better quality of life for all people and not just those who have business interests.</div>
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<u><b>Next</b></u>: "<i><b>Exploring the Dark Side of Big Data</b></i>"</div>
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Ken Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03691844055152252165noreply@blogger.com0