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!

1-to-1 and Leadership

Thinking about 1-to-1 and leadership for possible workshop series in Australia and one thought came to mind: probably the very best thing leaders of laptop/tablet programs can do is empower their master teachers to rethink teaching and learning utilizing 1-to-1. And then to find ways to share what and how the master teachers teachers are using 1-to-1 with the entire faculty. Teachers respect and emulate the master teachers amongst their ranks.

Research continually points to effective teaching as the most important element for student achievement. If you can facilitate having a core group of your master teachers onboard your 1-to-1 program, many other necessary elements will follow.

I (Heart) Lausanne Laptop Institute - 2010

I am really looking forward to the Lausanne Laptop Institute from 7/18 - 7/20 at the Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis, TN. I'll be presenting two sessions - one on a review of current literature on studies/research on 1-to-1 programs in schools and one as part of the Adaptive Technologies new thinktank partnership of ISM and the Laptop Institute. Note for the Adaptive Technologies session you need to sign up when registering - but there's no additional fee.

Here are descriptions and links to both sessions. It promises to be a terrific conference so do consider attending if at all possible - but sign up right away in case it's filled up. (By the way it also happens to be one of the most FUN conferences anywhere with cameraderie, Beale Street, great food and a really warm and friendly vibe everywhere!)

Examining New Models … The Shift in Process – Pamela Livingston - Monday July 19 11-12:30

These are exciting but shifting times. The old model for education, which worked for most all of us, doesn’t really fit our shifting world. Education has been slower than other organizations to adapt and change but now global and economic factors are forcing the change. Educators immersing themselves in the shift can be part of what comes next – or as Shakespeare in Hamlet said, “The readiness is all.”

This session is about looking at some innovative models bubbling up in education – virtual schools, project-based-learning schools, blended approaches, and other examples of how schools have seen the need to change and responded with a new model.

• We’ll start with a brief overview of several new models

• We’ll then form groups, with each group honing suggested open-ended questions according to what members of the group want to know and understand about these new models – with an eye towards bringing strategies and approaches back to their own schools

• Each group will then take a deep critical dive into several innovative models, responding to the group’s questions, and recording their thoughts into a Wiki.

• We’ll end with a sharing by each group of what was discovered, what was of interest and what conversations or strategies might happen next at everyone’s schools.

Review of Current Research on 1-to-1

Session Summary: This review of current studies and research on 1-to-1 is based on some work I've been doing. Participants will understand the benefits, challenges, and results from a synthesizing of 1-to-1 research and studies.

Presenter(s): Livingston, Director of Information Technology, TEAM Charter Schools of Newark, NJ, Newark, NJ USA

Day / Time / Room: Tuesday, July 20 / 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM / UM 205

2 Projectors

I was emailing Tami Brass (she's got a terrific blog to follow - I find myself retweeting her all the time and using her Diigo bookmarks as a first stop when researching) and was talking about the idea of 2 projectors.

The question is: why is there only 1 projector in a classroom, or even at a conference where there are speakers? Why is the projector fixed in the "front" of the classroom or meeting space and pointing to one wall or screen - meaning that the "owner" of the projector is the owner of the material - and he/she "releases" that position for the students or the audience? (Or sometimes does not ever release that position for others.)

Why not 2 projectors? (Yes, I understand about the cost) But why not have a projector just for the students to use so when they are working together and want to share with the smaller or whole group, it's easy to do? Why not a projector for the audience members when there is work to be done so that groups can also share together or for a larger group? Or even then both the students and the audience can use both projectors as needed.

I've started requesting 2 projectors sometimes when speaking. I am still working on the model so it's a bit messy right now but conceptually it feels like it could work. Knocking the sage off the stage often takes multiple tries and approaches.

Roadmap for Change - Feb. 1, Vancouver, WA

The idea of Roadmap for Change is an interesting analogy - and the title of the workshop that Tom Woodward (Bionic Teacher) and I will be conducting this Monday, February 1 in Vancouver, WA for superintendents and principals from Oregon and Washington State. We've planned a hands-on interactive session and hope that participants will have the first draft of their own maps for change when they leave.

Jumping into 1-to-1 with stimulus money is happening at many schools now and it can be a good time for jumping - partly because there are so many schools who have gone before and can provide cautionary tales and successes. That is, it's a good thing so long as stakeholders are fully involved and there are clear goals articulated by the school or district on specifically what 1-to-1 might accomplish for teaching and learning - and so long as everyone keeps an eye on these goals throughout the process.

Podcast from Oz

Here's a podcast with Leslie Wilson, Ben Paddle Jones, and myself conducted by Chris Betcher. Australia is about to become the largest by far provider of laptops to students and teachers - and they have learned from their predecessors. We talk about this program and what can work in general as well as some of the caveats to dodge if possible.