The End of - Full Time Jobs?

I was in Sydney, Australia last week working with Digital Education Revolution NSW Australia and giving a keynote and workshops to Secondary School Principals, all around 1-to-1. I was talking with Ben Jones who explained that he worked on a contract basis as do many Australians with contracts expired and renewed after the job expires or changes and with an expectation that this is how work will occur.

Thinking now of what is happening in the U.S. with a 9.6% unemployment rate, with much underemployment and disenfranchised people who have stopped looking for work, talk that many of the lost jobs are never coming back and wondering if this is the beginning of the end of the full time job as we know it.

Technology for all its benefit also has a downside in that it can automate away jobs. Just look at how many workers were required 30 years for nearly any organization and how many are needed now. A trip to the grocery store to see the advance of self checkout is just one example.

So many things have converged right now - globalism, high speed Internet, accessible open-ended tools, economic crises, more Americans working from their homes.

What if where we are leading is to have contract-based work everywhere, with organizations finding pools of workers to accomplish projects for short periods and paying just on the work needed, a truly mobile and responsive workforce without the guarantee of a fulltime job of indefinite length - but instead working by contract to do specific projects for specific amounts of time at hourly or per diem rates. People will be working from their homes or possibly temporarily from the organizations, using technology (computers, smart phones, Internet, conferencing and Web based collaborative tools) to work with their fellow temporary team members to accomplish the project and then disband for the next contract.

If so, we have even more reason to ensure that the students we are teaching learn how to be flexible and adaptable, able to locate, leverage and synthesize information quickly to solve problems, report and publish on findings, and create new ideas.

It's exciting to live now but the sand is shifting continually.

Thinking About Sydney - Keynote for Educational Leadership - Getting Teachers Onboard

First let me invite you to an EduTweetup if it can work for you - that's Sydney time by the way, NYC + 15 hours.

Next, enjoyably neck deep in creating a keynote and a workshop (to be given several times) in Sydney the week of November 15. Some ideas coming to the forefront:

• We have to change the assignments if we don't want the same old thing -- static reports that only reward Master Manual Regurgitators to now static reports that reward Master Digital Regurgitators. Why regurgitate at all? Wasn't good then, not good now. In fact counterproductive and time-wasting even.
• The hard stuff with 1-to-1 happens AFTER the hardware/network/infrastructure/logistics/initial buyin happens - that's the humanly complex process of adaptating, morphing, reflecting, rethinking and changing.
• Adult learning is not always considered when PD is designed and should always be.
• Interactivity is key in the classroom and in the keynote room.
• I have learned a whole lot from my PLN - they inform me every time I create a Prezi or write an article. How lucky are we to live in a time when collaboration is so accessible.

Australia!