Millennials, Technology & Education

Recent study of University of Ghent says most youngsters (millennial) own a smartphone (81%), BUT use it to text message ( an average of 71 messages a day).  This because online connection is to expensive (most of the time). Together with a couple of recent infographs on technology, millennials and education, I feel safe to say our youngsters are tech “nerds”. They never knew a society without mobile and connected technology….Off course this has an effect on their life, 70% of US students (but I see similar things happening in Belgium as well) take digital notes, 38% of US college students check email every 10 minutes (f.i.) – talking about compulsive behaviour -  but only 6% of teenagers use Email to communicate (so we already see new patterns between college students and teens).

No Guts,No Glory – in search of collaboration, Jef and Sheep!

No Guts, no Glory….a 2day international marketing congress at Ghent (Belgium).
A small round-up on insights, ideas, future views,  sheep, your mind, collaboration & GaGa-nomics!

Jamie Anderson (@ProfJamieA) took the stage  on stage, and gave quite a rock’n roll performance on GaGanomics. I got his message on Creativity World Forum, but he added some nice Lady Gaga Movies to show strategy doesn’t have to be complex. Her connection with her little monsters, the GaGa-fans, is a small thing, but has a huge impact. Lady Gaga owns her own social media channels, but works with 4 people who make her social strategy (not complex you said?)…so she can keep up with the clock speed of the music industry (+/- 6 months <-> 2 years in the 80-ies). Thanks to social media you can create mass intimacy!

Big Brains For Life – Get in touch with digital reality

Most of the time, you get my reports on events afterwards…since I’m organising one myself, you get an invitation up-front!

On December 21st, 2011 University College Karel de Grote is hosting the first (ever) Big Brains for Life event on Digital reality. This event is in support of Studio Brussels Music For Life charity. All revenues are in favor of this charity which supports Red Crosses kids diarrhea program in Nepal.

Why #Edushock is a must read!

Education = it’s one of my passions (besides the fact that it is my job). I’m trying to figure out where our education can bring us , or wear it should bring us the (near) future. I hope everybody agrees with me, that our education as we know it, no longer is sufficient enough to prepare this generation for the future ahead of them. I’ve been writing, posting and tweeting about it already  (social media as an educational tool, co-education = co-creation = social education = engagement, Flat Learning & Educating), and sharing insights, thoughts, ideas, questions, …. feel free to react!

Most of the time I get my inspiration online, but now I got some really need inspiration off-line as well; thanks to ‘Edushock’ (by Dirk De Boe, Bernard Lernhout & Pieter Sprangers) by Lannoo | Spectrum (2011). (Only in Dutch for the moment, but hopefully in English soon!). Edushock launches 20 tweets from where the authors hand ideas on how and what the future of education should or can look like. The book hands inspiration on why we should change education as we know it.

All 3 authors have got a specialized field of study (from personal creativity and innovation over Leonardo Da Vinci to personal development), but all together this gives a bright insight on (the future of) learning and education.  I especially loved the “Lighthouses of education” as a get together of generations to learn and inspire.  Edushock describes these new ‘Lighthouses of education’ as a learning community where every topic, course, question, …. can be discussed, debated, answered and learned. Together with this vision there is off course the fact that each student is a unique individual and should be treated like one (even in education). Personal interests are there to be cultivated and can work very inspirational both for teacher and student!
The inspiration can work as a triangle in these ‘lighthouses of education’ where student (who are learning), are coached by the teacher (which means he changes his role – instead of being the gatekeeper to the knowledge, he becomes the information coach who helps with the knowledge) and get inspired by ‘an inspirational speaker’ or ‘someone from the field’ or ‘…’

Besides new roles for each player, I truly believe technology will play an important role. Edushock also deals with this aspect. How technology can play a role in a lesson, or helps students…off  course what the future brings on technology will be mobile, instant and omnipresent; so educating without technology isn’t an option….but this doesn’t mean  that you have to be plugged in/connected all the time to learn!

The book uses a nice structure with an introductory story describing the tweets, from where a brief (sometimes more could be told) analyses of the story and theoretical framework is told. Each tweet/chapter ends with ‘brainoptimizers’, tips and tricks for teachers, students and policy makers. Some are easy to do, like easy to ask questions to your students, others are more ambitious, like rethinking/organising playgrounds, buildings, classes, …

One huge remark: the colour….OK it sticks, but that’s it….maybe this can be adjusted in a second print?!

For most this book makes you (re-)think about education, learning and personal development, and gives ideas to create yourself! And off course this is the challange….which ideas will get into a classroom or policy? I know which ones I’m taking, are you?

More on edushock through:
Website: www.edushock.be
Twitter: @edushock
LinkedIn: Edushock group
Mail: info@edushock.be

Why #social better becomes the new normal!

We all know the impact of IT – flat world – has on our lives….it’s huge, it’s fast and never seems to stop. Within these 3 short sentences lays the challenge of the future…the learning decade as it has been called, where knowledge isn’t power (Francis Bacon – you know) anymore…but where knowledge becomes survival!

The speed of the flat world holds great challenges for companies and people for the next decade.  Everyday we have thousands of information touch points (on our fingertips) with knowledge to be learned. But learning in this multi channeled information society has become a survival of the fittest….
Companies demand that every employe is up to date with the latest [...], but hold back on opening up communication channels for their employees. First mistake: the communication becomes in hand, when an employee brings his smartphone…as an employer you better facilitate your employee to have access to a multichannel information society.  On the other hand side, a good training on how to manage and curate this information is mandatory. Divide and curate your information to different people and let them share and collaborate from different perspectives to the same subject. This way innovation and creativity are stimulated!
The employer should be coaching this new way of social working and develop knowledge workers! Instead of being the great inspirational creative guru who holds the ‘one and only’ knowledge! Don’t be afraid to share….social knowledge (is more than 1+1)

Off course this means our knowledge workers have to be trained and skilled in content curation, information management and collaboration! This is the challenge for the learning system of the next decade….we still believe the old education paradigm, where everybody is tought exactly the same way because the have the same age and that a question only has one answer….in the knowledge society, where information  is survival, we need to stimulate individual strengths, creativity and collaboration.  A new educational paradigm is needed. Sir Ken Robinson has some nice insights on how this new educational learing paradigm can work.

A new educational paradigm that is empowered by society as a whole, can create a new dynamic educational system which feeds our society with social knowledge workers…

And the time to change is now, not tomorrow….since our current workforce never had a proper training nor education on being social, connected and collaborative….This week a study revealed that the younger generations are becoming more stressed due to the fact that the can not manage or curate the connected information society  (if compared with the elder generations).  So if we train our future employees to be social and capable of surviving the information cascade thanks to good curation and management, I think we might be able the open en bright, creative future!

 

Thank you Peter Hinssen for your inspiring work on ‘The New Normal’ (in Ducth: Digitaal, het nieuwe normaal) It inspired me to my title!

Social media as an educational tool

Education in the 21th century can’t be the same as education in the 20th century…
As I already stated in my prior post I’m a true believer of collaborative education where a teacher is a facilitator, the guy who gives a structure, and the students are the real knowledge workers.

A major role as a tool (never a goad) can be social media in every form you can think of; microblogging, Facebook, Blog, wiki, … Social media can be the platform to engage and enchant the students…but recognizes also the student as an individual learner! In my presentation I see a couple of challenges…and when I give this presentation, I can see they are real challanges; like mindset (both teacher and student side!), choosing the right algorithm for social media use in each learning context (which is always different – topic, subject, students, ….) and last but not least sharing of knowledge (breaking down the barriers and collaborate).

If you want to this presentation alive and kicking in your learning/working environment, don’t hesitate to contact me (flatworldbusiness@gmail.Com)!

Co-Education = Co-Creation = Social Education = Engagement

I was blown away today (thank you #bnox) with an inspirational film on the new educational paradigm.

Since I’m in education myself, I couldn’t agree more with the following:
“We’ve messed up! Our students aren’t ready to build their career in the real world, since we don’t prepare them for the real world” (sorry fellow colleagues….).

From kindergarten on, we try to educate them in a linear way….which is wrong, since not everybody can be as good in everything, but we still keep them on the same line – like “date of fabrication determinates were you are in your educational status” (love this one!). Off course not…every student is different and unique (check out Edushock (Lannoo Campus - by Dirk De Boe, Bernard Lernout, Pieter Sprangers) and needs te be recognized as one! So lets start building structures to prepare them for 21t century society where nothing is linear and information is overloaded, and where we teach collaboration as the most important part of growing and learning (nowadays this is called cheating in education)…

If I can’t convince you, be shure to check to check this video by sir Ken Robinson

In my opinion social education and co-creation can play a big role in this new educational system (with social media in the heart of this educational organisation -  but more on this in my social media for education post – Tomorrow!). Hopefully we can create a new way of educating where we can recognize a student as a unique person and educate and develop every talent he has got (and not the talents we think he should have!).

To be continued….

Cross Media Management

Exciting day tomorrow…the first ever lesson to promote cross media management and in the evening a course debate with Gunther Beersaerts, Clo Willaerts, Polle De Maagt, Hendrik Everaerts, Steven Verbruggen, Jan Seurinck en Bart De Waele.Something to look forward to.

Flat Learning & Educating

Flat business, Flat Lifestyle, Flat….I don’t know what…but we can’t deny it anymore the world is getting more digital, more connected, more mobile….and is serving more individual needs. We can’t chance this! It’s happening, it’s not a fad.

Business is searching for new (business) models to serve this mobile and connected customer, the social individualist….we serves his personal needs but loves being connected socially. The digital natives are gaining on influence, but I don’t see an educational shift….yet! Off course we have to rethink education as well, … only yesterday I read that 80% of the 5 year olds are connected to the flat world….If we don’t rethink our educational methods, we will lose valuable assets because they won’t be engaged nor enchanted!

We need to challenge them….we need to engage them….we need to get them enchanted about our education, about our topics, about our content. Content still matters, YES it does! But there is more than only content….there is attitude, talent and competence management. All those factors need to be part of a new educational system measured to the need of the flat society.  We need to incorporate social learing skills into our day-to-day education, we have to allow students to take up responsibility for their education and learning (which students aren’t willing to do at first….but they will benefit from it later!), we have to engage them….learn together with them, since content is easily accessible and even the teacher can’t know everything.  The teacher is the coach, the guide to help students find their way in this content, keep them engaged….and most certainly confronts the students with his attitude, talent and competences!

I found a great presentation on the future of education from the university of Plymouth, were my insights on  future education are mostly shared.

I’ll post more on flat world educating in the flat world section (soon – just wait a few more days please!). 



(image from futuristspeaker)

Flat Education – an update!

Since we started 3 months ago….I’ve teached a couple of courses on flat business, and therefore it might be interested in just giving an update on what’s happening in the flat education department, especially the intensify-section.

I know people don’t make a fuzz on it, but I want to start a fuzz about it: don’t use e-commerce and e-business as synonyms please….e-business covers a broader load (in my opinion). E-commerce is an important part of e-business, but not the only part….look at e-CRM, and the social media as being part of e-business…..Give me your ideas on the terminology please, through the comment section! 

I’ve added 3 basic cases: Apple, Amazon and Webvan as a start on how and why flat business can/will (or can/will not) work. I’ll keep adding useful insights on these pages! Afterwords I’ve added a couple if topic based items which involve e/flat-business items:

• creating a flat business (or e-business), with extra attention to the business modelling (which is not that easy when going into the flat world….look Webvan!)
• “socialnomics” or the use of social media in your flat business – Social CRM!
• privacy in the flat world? Does it exist? Or do we need a social web?

The future section gives some primary insights on how the technological future might look like. I’m spending extra attention on the mobile part, since the future is going to be mobile….probably this part will move into the intensify section, since this future is near

Just wonder around….I’m trying to keep things up to date….but always looking forward to read your comments to improve this information!