E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez

The Child-Driven Education: Where Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Collaboration Come Together!

Through my good friend, Harold Jarche, I bumped the other day into one of those TED Talks that will surely leave an unforgettable mark on all of those folks out there who may want to go through 17 minutes of pure gold inspiration around the topic of Learning and Education. Now, I do realise I don’t get to talk much over here about Learning in general, despite it being one my lifetime passions (Having graduated myself as an English teacher many moons ago!), but perhaps that talk will change things quite a bit. After all, who is going to neglect and ignore such powerful statements as this one: “Education is a self organising system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon“.

Harold tweeted a recent blog post by the always insightful Will Richardson under the heading “Sugata Mitra’s New TED Talk” where he puts together some very thought provoking arguments as to why we now may be in a good position to re-think the way learning and education happen with our young ones. And perhaps also not just with the not so young ones anymore …

Here are a couple of interesting reflections from Will’s post after watching Sugata‘s talk which I think would set, quite nicely, the stage of how that change would probably need to happen and not too far into the distant future; to be honest, this looks like something that could happen today:

“[...] It’s no secret that I lean toward seeing a future where self-organized learning rules, and that the role of school is to develop the passion, motivation and skills necessary to help kids become amazing learners as opposed to pretty good “knowers” [...]“

Not too bad to spark a great conversation on where learning and our education systems should be heading to, don’t you think? I surely agree with Will’s statements shared above on the role that school should be playing, as well as Sugata’s on the power and strong influence that technology, in general, could have to help shape up how people learn today. It would be interesting as well to see how we shift from that individual learning experience that our education systems seem to have forced upon our students quite effectively for decades, when we all know that learning is a collaborative and knowledge sharing activity amongst individuals. Mind you, I am not saying that learning on your own is wrong or should be avoided or forbidden. Not at all. It’s still very much needed and should be encouraged…

What I am saying though is that learning should be a collective activity, one where learners (And perhaps I am not using the right term in here…) should be capable of contrasting with others what they have learned to see how they could apply it accordingly to themselves and their environment. More than anything else, because I suspect that collaborative activity of wanting to question and validate what one learns is what helps bring forward a healthy discussion on how to immerse themselves into that overall learning experience. If you contrast it with others, you are helping build, what I think, is one of the main characteristics that the role of school should be playing beyond developing the passion, motivation and skills that Will mentioned in his post: that is, the ability to promote and engage in critical thinking.

I am not sure what you would think, but after seeing Sugata‘s TED Talk one cannot help, but think if there is anything that made incredibly successful the various experiments that he carried with those young learners was their ability to collaborate, throughout that learning experience, through plenty of critical thinking and determination to solve a problem, for which, in most cases, they didn’t seem to have the right resources to do so in the first place. Technology.

Truly fascinating, to say the least!, to witness how that determination to accomplish a task, not matter how cumbersome it may well be, was easily accomplished by that collaborative nature we all seem to have when applying that critical thinking through collaboration and knowledge sharing and, eventually, learning. If there is a way for our current education systems to incorporate such kind of wonderfully explosive mix I just can’t wait for it to happen!

In fact, if I were a teacher, which I am, but, you know what I mean, if I were teaching nowadays, it would be a learning and a education model I would feel very comfortable with embracing; I wouldn’t neglect it, why should I? Why should I want to keep having the control over the education of those learners who already seem to have the motivation, the determination and an unprecedented willingness to think for themselves and collaborate amongst peers, to eventually get the job done with the tools they already have at their disposal: i.e. find and apply a fix for that problem!

Yes, why should I still have the control? I mean, Sugata puts it quite nicely with one of my favourite quotes from the entire talk: “If children have got interest, then education happens“, which I think reflects, quite nicely, on one of the main activities I would propose to do every single day of the school year: watch a TED Talk of their choice!

Now, would you think they (And I am not referring to the learners, by the way) would allow me to do that? If so, and I surely hope so!, I would start with this one:

The Child-driven Education by Sugata Mitra

Now, can you imagine what it would be like having all of this applied successfully in a business environment? Yes, I surely can! We just need to make it happen. Today! We have got the technology, we have got that critical thinking, those problem solving skills, as well as that innate collaborative spirit. So what’s stopping us from making that jump? I will tell you; it’s just one single key word and probably one with a rather easy solution, too! … Ourselves!

Technorati Tags: Harold Jarche, TED Talks TED, Learning, Education, Learners, Will Richardson, Sugata Mitra, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Collaboration, Determination, Keenness, Innovation, Technology, Talks, Presentations, Informal Learning, Schooling, Formal Learning, Schools, Teachers, Teaching, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Innovation, Productivity

My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week – Week #3

It’s that time of the week where, once more, here I am, dropping by on this blog to share with you folks my next round of My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week. This time around for Week #3. I know, and do realise fully, that I am running a little bit late on this series, since when I got it started with this initiative, over in Twitter with #elsuapps, a good number of weeks have already passed by. So don’t be surprised if for the next couple of weeks you eventually seem more than one blog entry on this very same topic. That way we can catch up faster with the ones that I am currently sharing across on a daily basis. And that way walk hand in hand with those I keep sharing through Twitter itself.

At the same time, and while I get to share those Top 5 iPad Apps, I thought it would be rather interesting to share, at least, one other relevant link to show how powerful the iPad may well be as well as a business tool (We already how how empowering it is from a personal productivity perspective, right? ). In short, I think it would also be interesting to comment further on an relevant link I may bump into so that we can make this blog entries a bit more insightful than just sharing the apps.

No, don’t worry! I’m still planning to keep these posts on the short side of things; so instead of a fully commentary on an article, it will probably be just a pointer for you to head over to what I think would be a worth while reading. And if I bump into multiple links, I may include them all as well. Why not, right? Thus let’s go!

Here is the first interesting reading coming from CIO under the heading My iPad Enterprise Rollout: 5 Surprises, where you will be able to find out some more how Florida State College’s CIO Rob Rennie is facing the deployment of 1,000 iPads (Having gotten started with an initial rollout of 350 units). Quite an interesting read where you will find golden nuggets like this one:

“Now decisions at meetings are made quickly thanks to the iPad, he says.

In the past, no one fired up laptops at meetings in a conference room because it made the executive look disengaged. When a topic came up that required facts to make a decision, such as the difference in cost for an allocated requisition and an unallocated one, the vice president of HR would have to research it later. Thus the topic would be tabled for the next meeting“

Yes, I know! It’s, indeed, coming along nicely, folks! Anyway, like I said, let’s get down to business and go ahead with My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week – Week #3:

• MindMeister for iPad: Like I have been mentioning a couple of times already, I do really like mindmapping tools in general and if they are on the iPad, all the better! I could talk about them for ageas! But here we go with another one of my favourites that I have used quite a few times already. In the past I have utilised MindMeister on the Web itself, but ever since it came out for the iPad I only go there to give my mindmaps the last finishing touches. The rest happens inside the iPad app. Remember the mindmap I put together to describe my experiences with “A World Without Email“, that I blogged about it over here a few days back? Well, I created over 95% of it on the iPad in idle moments here and there and in a matter of minutes! And, of course, its synchronising back to the server is just priceless! Taking your mindmaps wherever you go, even when you may not have the iPad with you!
• Things for iPad: I have tried out a whole bunch of To-Do, Getting Things Done, Executing Action Items apps and Things is probably my favourite. Superb user interface and really nice experience, AND fast!, to add to-dos! Wish I was that quick myself for closing them off accordingly!
• Appstream for iPad: Ever from the very first moment that this app came out I just fell in love with it! Despite the initial repetitive crashes, and the odd one that still happens every now and then, since they released the latest version, it’s one of those essential apps everyone should have. What does it do? It allows you to navigate, through a really cool and engaging user interface, and find other iPad apps that you may be interested in! Really nice! In fact, some of these weekly picks come from apps I have found there!
• Instapaper: If you are one of those folks who travels on a more or less regular basis or who happens not to have a rather fast or reliable Internet connection where you may well be, Instapaper is probably as good as it gets! What does it do? It allows you to take entire Web sites offline, so you can read them when you are not connected! Ideal for when you are on the plane, or if you have a wi-fi only iPad and there is no wi-fi around wherever you may be going.
• Sparkle HD: And, finally, the iPad Game of the week! If you have been playing, Luxor or Peggle on the iPhone you more or less will be capable of picking it up rather quick; but at the same time you will love it just as much as with the other, too! Oh, and both the music and the graphics, I am sure, they would remind you perhaps one or two of your favourite movies by an amazingly talented director.

And, that’s it, folks, for this week! Like I said, I am running a little bit behind from the time I started sharing some of these top picks in Twitter, so don’t be surprised if you see another upcoming blog post sooner rather than later. Stay tuned!

Oh, and if you have got some Top iPad Apps of the Week, feel free to share them with us over here, in the comments, and I will cover them in future blog posts as well with due credit, of course. As usual. Thanks for dropping by and till the next one!

Technorati Tags: #elsuapps, Apple, Collaboration, Games, iPad, iPad Apps, Mac, Mindmapping, MindMeister for iPad, MindMaps, MindMeister, Productivity, Productivity Tools, Things, Getting Things Done, GTD, To-Dos, Action Items, Appstream for iPad, Appstream, Instapaper, Sparkle HD, Sparkle, Peggle, Luxor, iPhone, iPhone Apps, Recommentations, Florida State College, Rob Rennie, CIO, iPads for Business, iPads for Biz

Dear Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Gen Yers … Can We Please Move On?

Earlier on today I bumped into an article that made me wonder, once again, about when are we going to stop talking around the topic of multiple generations at work and the generational divide itself, as one of the arguments that’s going to change the workplace for good in the next coming years, if not already altogether. I wonder when people are going to realise that this is not about Baby Boomers, Gen Xers or Gen Yers (Or Millennials) having their own needs within the corporate world. This is all about working styles; about identifying the strengths from one and another and make them work together in a rather complex business environment where what matters is how people collaborate and share their knowledge across to become more productive at what they already do. Not whether one group of knowledge workers belongs to this or that generation and therefore their needs are different than the others. Actually, they may not well be the case altogether. Those needs may be the same across the board. It all depends on successfully combining and mixing those working styles to reflect today’s complexity in our business world to get the job done.

The latest culprit of that reflection is a recent article published by Gary Curtis in CIO UK Magazine under the title “Give your workplace a Millennial makeover“, which I got through a rather interesting follow-up write-up by my good friend Stu McIntyre and a tweet from fellow IBM colleague Steve Cogan (Amongst several others), based on some recent global research conducted by Accenture on “Millennials’ views and use of technology in 13 countries“. It surely is worth a read.

In that article Gary covers a good number of the key lessons that CIOs need to learn, as well as provides a good number of recommendations on what things to pay attention to with regards to this millennial workforce entering the workplace. Now, I am not going to spoil all the fun commenting extensively on the article itself; I would encourage you to have a look into those recommendations yourself, as there is plenty of common ground to develop further on that idea of different working styles vs. the generational divide. However, what I would like to do in this blog entry is to comment a bit more on each and everyone of the key lessons learned from that piece of research, because they surely prove that point that this is way beyond the generations argument per se. And here is why we may need to start shifting gears with that argument, and perhaps be done with it altogether, as my good friend Kevin Jones suggested just recently under “Baby Boomers vs. Digital Natives – Let the Debate… End“:

• Millennials expect to use the technology and devices of their choice: And who wouldn’t, right? Now, I know and fully realise that I may be one of those lucky folks who happens to work for a large IT company (IBM) that understands the concept of freeing up the human batteries and empowering its knowledge workers to take the most advantage from the technology around them to get their jobs done at the end of the day. But, are we alone? Probably not, although I am sure folks would be kind enough to remind us on the comments section about how restricting some businesses have become over time not allowing their employees to use technology as they see fit and, instead, block and lock down their machines so that they can’t do anything out of the ordinary with them. How limiting can that be? How long before companies start trusting their employees to behave like those good hard working professionals they hired in the first place?
  How liberating, on the other hand, can it be to use your own MacBook Pro, your own iPhone, your own iPad or whatever other mobile device, to hook up to the company’s network through a secure and trusted VPN connection and do your job in an environment that you enjoy and fully embrace? Yes, I know! Quite liberating! Well, that’s been my computing environment for a while now (Already over the third year mark with my own MacBook Pro and counting!) and, at this point in time, I doubt I would have it any other way.

  Why? Most probably because 10 years ago we didn’t fully realise the true potential that was hidden behind making the most out of the Web; 10 years later there is just so much promise out there with these social tools that it would be just too bad to neglect and deny the access to such an abundance of people, networks, resources, information and knowledge, as my good friend Brett Miller puts it nicely over at “Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age“.

  I dream of the day where knowledge workers would, finally, be in almost (You probably know what I mean with that one, right? ) total control of their own computing environment so that they can focus on the tasks at hand to do their jobs versus trying to keep fighting with all of the technology hurdles we see, and bump into, today. I am not a millennial, nor a techie, just someone who wants to explore the full potential of what’s available out there, you know. And, somehow, I bet I’m not the only one feeling that way, don’t you think? Specially, when we all know it’s out there, waiting for us to engage!
  

• They either don’t care about or won’t obey corporate IT policies: Yet, every single business lives truly by their own corporate values and culture, as well as business conduct guidelines that year after year we still need to comply with. It’s part of the business. It’s probably part of work, too! Still, there is a huge difference from imposing corporate IT policies on your employees than to helping people understand the risks behind ignoring or bypassing them by encouraging them to shape them according to their needs and wants, as well as those of the business itself. To, eventually, co-creatively and collaboratively improve them in a rather open and transparent manner, so that they, too, feel part of that co-creation process of defining the company’s (IT) policies for themselves.
  
  It kind of makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s worked for us, too!; that’s how the IBM Social Computing Guidelines have been brought to life, back in 2005, with their updated versions in 2008 and 2010. If you engage your employees, whatever the generation they may be coming from, to shape those (IT) policies, I can guarantee you they will respond back! In fact, they would go the extra mile to make it work not only for them, but also for you. Straight and simple. Try it out and you will see. They won’t fail you. They are just waiting out there to take a share of responsibility for the business that they spend more than a lifetime working for. Don’t you think it would be worth it for them as well?
  
• They have entirely different view of privacy than previous generations: Yes, they probably do, just like I do with older generations, but that doesn’t mean that privacy is dead for them. Quite the contrary! They still have it, pretty much like us, it’s just that they are re-defining it to meet their needs, just as much as we did, each and everyone of us, when we had the opportunity and the chance to do so. The interesting thing is that they may not see privacy in the same way we do, but they respect it, because they know that if they would want you to respect their privacy, they would need to start by respecting yours.

  It’s all part of that negotiation process that takes place when two or more people need to collaborate on something, i.e. a particular task. It’s all part of a mutual understanding that there will be areas of that collaboration that will be shared and there will be others that, because of the nature of what needs to be shared, will remain just that: private.

  Eventually, it’s all about striking for that balance between that need to know and that need to share, while trying to get the job done. Yes, I do realise that it’s a lot more complex than what I try to put together over here in this blog post, but there is something out there that constantly permeates through the corporate world which we should not forget: compromise. Compromise that may come in the shape of mentoring: older and younger generations mutually learning from each other’s working styles, so they essentially grab the best of both worlds, merge them and become one. One that would benefit both altogether. Any business that is not encouraging mentoring within their organisation is missing plenty of the great opportunities informal learning can offer in this respect. So what are you waiting for?
  
  

• They have little use for corporate email as a major collaboration tool: Really? Nothing new on that one, right? Remember living “A World Without Email“? All generations are feeling that way nowadays, in my opinion. In fact, if you get together a group of your knowledge workers and you ask them to pick up one of the tools they use on a daily basis that they could do without, or, at least, do without a bunch of volume and noise that it generates, I bet that a very high % of those folks would chose email.

  Email per se is a great communication tool, but in the current times we live in today, where things happen yesterday, in real-time, where you would need to react almost immediately, or suffer from the consequences, there is a great chance that email doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s not fast enough. It’s not pervasive enough to reach the entire workforce, specially those folks who may not have activated their email accounts in the first place, or those other folks who are starting to associate email with playing political emails or just plain “CYA” (Cover your a**e!). Or, simply, they are just getting too much of it, too little value overall.

  More and more the knowledge workforce is asking for more open, public and transparent collaboration where email is no longer the only game in town, the bottleneck that regulated everything, the exception to every single process, but, instead, just basically, one more of the many many choices available. And since most other options out there are better collaboration and knowledge sharing tools, it’s not surprising to see how more and more workers prefer to move the conversations elsewhere. Not just the younger ones. That’s why I started that initiative 2.5 years ago in the first place! And still going strong… There *are* better collaboration tools out there. It’s just a matter of choice for us to pick up the ones we would want to work with, regardless of whatever the generational label we would want to use.
  

I don’t know what you would think, but after going through all of those key lessons mentioned in Gary’s article I am more convinced by the minute that I’m going to agree quite a bit with Kevin’s argument of ending the debate about whether we do have multiple generations at work and the younger ones being the ones that are going to take the corporate workplace by storm. That’s probably not going to happen per se. It’s the balanced mixture of working styles the ones that are going to shape up and define “The Future of the Workplace”. Not the generations. They have got much more important things to tackle than just trying to divide themselves. So we better stop trying to divide and conquer them and, instead, making them stronger by the day helping them realise their true potential: a unique knowledge workforce capable of capable of combining the best of both worlds, learning from one another, while on the job, understanding not only what their limitations are, but fully embracing their strengths and let them permeate throughout the entire corporate culture. There is a great chance that only then they will help you move your business into the 21st century.

One where work will get organised, and done!, through social networks and communities, vs. traditional hierarchies (Or organisations) and generational stereotypes. We have got better things to do, and to focus on, to be honest, than to split the single, most powerful competitive advantage you have got nowadays as a business: your talented knowledge workforce. Trust them! Allow them to co-share that responsibility of caring for your business and let them work together in that complex environment where they know what they are doing. Each and everyone of them. Regardless of the generation. Just start empowering them so that they can empower you!

Technorati Tags: Generations, Generational Divide, Generational Stereotypes, Gen Xers, Gen Yers, Baby Boomers, Boomers, Working Styles, Gary Curtis, CIO UK Magazine, Stu McIntyre, Steve Cogan, Millennials, Kevin Jones, Technology, Internet, IT Infrastructure, Freedom, Brett Miller, Cognitive Surplus, IT Policies, Policies, Guidelines, Business Conduct Guidelines, Social Computing Guidelines, Negotiation, Compromise, Future of the Workplace, Knowledge Workers, Knowledge Workforce, Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, email, Productivity, Re-purposing Email, No-Email, Challenge Your Inbox, Progress Reports, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Information Overload, A World Without Email