Nine Shift

When will U.S. youth revolt?

When will U.S. youth revolt?

Young people in Tunisia and Egypt have led revolts against old out dated regimes (see Photo).  When will U.S. youth do the same?

In the U.S., old people are waging an economic war against young people.  Young people want health care, Republicans want to deny them health care.  Young people want trains, old people want young people to die in cars on the roads.  Young people wants jobs, old people want to keep their own jobs and not let young people into the workforce. 

Stress levels among college freshmen, for example, are at historical highs, according to a NYTimes article last week.

U.S. youth will not violently revolt, but they have demostrated in 2008 they can elect a President. U.S. youth are the largest generation in society right now.  They know how to use Twitter.  They can vote, they can organize economic boycotts.  They have, can, and will, change society. The situation for our young people is revolting.  When will U.S. youth revolt?

Egypt and U.S.: Why Can't We Watch Al Jazeera?

The best live coverage of the Egyptian revolt is on Al Jazeera.

One of the ironies of living in the United States, supposedly a democracy supporting democracy, is that while Al Jazeera broadcasts in English from the United States, people in the U.S. cannot watch it.

As far as I can tell, the online live coverage on Al Jazeera is so trafficked that I have not been able to watch it online.  What do you think about Americans' ability to access information and news?

Obama and Egypt: What the U.S. Won't Say

Are there lessons for us in the Egyptian democracy movement?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears to be supporting Egyptian dictator Mubarak in her public comments.  Young Egyptians certainly feel the U.S. backs the dictatorship and opposes democracy in Egypt.

Today's blog comments carry this insightful comment in response to a call for President Obama to use the D-word, "The big D refers to the Democratic Party, a little d  refers to democracy. But it has been a long time since big D has supported little d."

But here's what President Obama or any other American leader will say. It is one of those so-called 800 pound gorillas in the room.  That the U.S., with only 4% of the world's population, possesses around 32% of the world's wealth.  This great imbalance of wealth is at the core of many if not most of the world's problems. 

 

Teacher Ratings Step Forward

Are teacher ratings are a step forward for education? 

We are going to say yes.  Here's a NYT Story on the latest venture, sort of a status update on where we are at.  Here's where we are at:

-Teacher ratings based on value-added test scores are good.
-Trying to find out how the best teachers teach  is good.

Where we are headed:
-We test students in a variety of ways, much more frequently (once a week).
-We figure out which teachers teach which kinds of learners best (and vice versa).
-We let the bottom 5% of teachers go each year, replace them and keep improving the teacher corps.

Photo: Prof. Kim Curtis of Duke University, who flunked a student simply for being on a sports team.

The new venture, filming teachers, is a start. Unfortunately teachers judge other teachers instead of looking at learning and getting student feedback.  But it is a start.   What do you think?

 

Is Everything Moving Too Fast?

What do you think, is everything moving too fast?

Think back 4 years. All the things that aren't here now (pay phones, check books) and all the new things that are here (Facebook, YouTube). Here's the latest story on cell phones replacing cameras.

The best summary of it was made by Gareth Mitchell, one of the world's foremost technology reporters and host of "Digital Planet" on the BBC.  He noted that in the past 5 years people now have access to the entirety of the world's information with the mobile in their pockets. 

My favorite NineShift-ish line from the song "Everything is Moving Too Fast" is that it used to take a farmer a day to drive (with a horse and wagon) to town, now it only takes a minute for your plane to touch down.   I played the song at Nine Shift for 2011 presentation in Chicago in November. 

What is a Knowledge Worker

What is a knowledge worker?  That was the question asked of me by a reasonably good reporter with a national business magazine. 

Here's the problem: he ought to know. Every business reporter ought to know. Every government leader ought to know. Every American economist ought to know.  And almost none of them do.

And this is a major reason why America is in decline: our leaders don't have a clue about the economy of the 21st century.   I was at a conference and talking with three young Germans there. They all knew the term and concept of knowledge worker.  I asked them how to say 'knowledge worker' in German. The irony: Germans, who are way out in front of us in the knowledge society, use the English term. They don't even translate it. 

An American, the brilliant Peter Drucker, invented the term back in 1959 and correctly predicted the emergence of the knowledge society in his writings for decades. As long as our leaders persist in fighting the lost battle over manufacturing, we continue to fall behind.

What Gen Y Will Buy, and Won't Buy

Laura Kennedy of Kiplinger interviewed Julie and me, asking what Gen Y will buy, and won't buy.

Here’s the Top 20 buying trends we predicted for Generation Y. Tell us your thoughts, and add your own observation or prediction.

UP
1.Cell phones, computers, and other technology continues to be the mainstay necessity for this generation.
2.Durable, long lasting, high quality household items like furniture and appliances.  Gen Y will want fewer, but longer lasting household items as they value the environment and do not value the “throw away” economy.
3.Gift cards.  Flexible, choice-producing cards that mean fewer returns and left overs.
4.Clothes. Customized fashions that keep them current, with used clothes recyclable.
5.Shoes.  Really good high quality shoes for this generation that walks, bikes and gets outside more.
6.Travel. Travel, travel advisors, travel information and travel items.
7.Rented online versions of music, movies, games, simulations, multimedia, books, magazines and anything else available online.
8.Books. Some exceptions to the preference for intangible goods, and books are one of them.
9.Restaurants, movie theaters, concert halls, bars, coffee clubs, and other experience-creating establishments.
10.Outdoor gear, bikes, kayaks and canoes, bird watching binoculars, cameras, tents and other back-to-nature equipment as Gen Y balances online work with Mother Nature offline.
11.Services. This generation values and will pay for services, from continuing education to counseling, home repair advice to child care assistance.
12.Tech gadgets.  If they invent it, someone in Gen Y will buy it, just to see. Hey, no generation is perfect.

DOWN
13.Cars, garages, and anything related to cars (seat covers, drive through restaurants, auto parts stores, trailers).
14.Large houses, maybe home purchases entirely, as Gen Y switches to renting and leasing, offering greater flexibility and less financial responsibility, spurred by elimination of home mortgage credits.
15.Nick nacks. Anything non-essential and material in nature is on the “endangered species” list. Find another line of work souviner dealers.
16.Lawn mowers, fertilizer, leaf blowers, leaf rakes. They go in the Suburban Museum of the Last Century as Gen Y deserts suburbia.
17. Boats, outboard motors, motorcycles, ATVs, Jet Skis, snowmobiles, snowblowers. From birth, Gen Yers have disliked gas guzzling polluting machines.
18. Football tickets and apparel, with pro basketball, baseball not far behind. NASCAR and ‘truck sports’ are DOA for this generation.
19.Scrapbooks, diaries, photograph albums.
20. Antiques and estates. Don’t tell Grandma Gen Y wants to inherit a flashdrive with the family history, not the oak buffet and china for 12.
21. Stuff.  More is less when it comes to stuff for Gen Y.

 

Cell phones in school

In the Netherlands, school children are urged to keep their cell phones on.  Yes, on, not off.

So says Gareth Mitchell, one of the world's leading technology reporters and presenter of BBC "Digital Planet" show, speaking in an intimate fireside chat following his big keynote address before 775 attendees at the LERN annual conference in Chicago last month.

LERN's Julie Coates compared this to U.S. teachers and schools, where cell phones must be turned off, or not even allowed in the classroom.  It represents the huge disparity between backward looking educators in the U.S. and forward looking educators in the Netherlands.

THE REASON: So students can use the web as a learning resource while in the classroom. What do you think? Should students in the U.S. be encouraged to keep their cell phones on?

Will Next World War Begin in 2014?

Will there be a "World War" starting in 2014 ?

World War I started 100 years ago, in 1914. We have hesitated to predict such bad news, but recent rumblings over a "currency war" smack of the same rhetoric and situation 100 years ago.

Back then, Great Britain was beginning to go in decline as the world's super power. Today America is beginning to go in decline as the world's super power.

A currency war would be America's next-to-last-gasp attempt to remain #1 in the world. The war would be fought with Internet denial of service hackers on both sides.  It would begin if China pulls the financial plug on its U.S. investments, although other countries are chipping away at the supremacy of the U.S. dollar.  I hope not, but What do you think? 

School reform: accreditation agencies question the Carnegie Unit

Accreditation boards are starting to question the Carnegie Unit and other time-based learning standards.

That according to Linda Hall, President of Hawkeye Community College in Iowa, in an exclusive interview with Nine Shift.

This is good news.  The time-based standards of learning, including the Student Hour and Carnegie Unit, are obsolete and out of date.  They will be replaced by an outcome based standard. We like the International Learning Unit (ILU), an outcomes based standard that measures learning, not seat time.

Photo: Linda Hall with LERN's co-founder and NineShifter Greg Marsello.