Nine Shift

Should I Pay for You To Drive?

You have every right to drive a car.  But should I have to pay for you to drive?

If you are over 65, under 33, or telecommute, you probably are subsidizing car-lovers driving to the mall. In my family, we have all three kinds of people.  Do we really need the elderly, the young and the job-creators subsidizing people driving around?  

All forms of transportation are subsidized.  But cars are now being subsidized more than trains.  So I have to pay for you to drive, while you pay much less for me to take a train. 

Two decades ago, drivers paid 75% of the cost of highways.  Today they/you pay just 51%. Us taxpayers pay the other half (49%).   Meanwhile, us train riders pay 63% of the cost. You just pay 37%.

If you want to drive, fine, but pay for it.  And if I want to take the train, we ought to get the same percentage of subsidy that car-lovers get.  What do you think car lovers?

Some 114 Attend Our Webinar !

Thanks so much!

Some 114 people attended our all-new webinar, Nine Shift for 2013: The Great American Comeback. 

Here's what one of you told us afterwards:
"Excellent webinar. It gives meaning to the seemingly random and chaotic events of today. Thanks so much to Bill and LERN." Mitch Tlustos, Whatcom Community College,  Bellingham, WA

As usual, I wore hats, even online.

MOOCs and Other Fads

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are the fad of the moment.

They fall into the category of stabbing in the dark. This is the new phase higher education change is in, a phase of trial and error, hits and misses.  MOOCs are a big miss.  MOOCs are a long shot for being successful, as they have not yet succeeded pedagogically, have no business or financial model, and how they might function in a new higher education model is ever so unclear.

1.There's no pedagogical success. The much heralded Stanford MOOC course had a completion rate of 14%.  That's moving backwards, that's disastrous, that's certain failure over the long haul.
2.No business model.  MOOCs are free. There's no business or financial model here.
3.No big picture.  It is not clear at all how MOOCs fit into a new model for higher education.

Score MOOCs a fad that won't last in their current form.

For a free copy of "MOOCs And Other Fads," just email Tammy at info@lern.org
Sight last week of the beautiful St. Croix River, which forms the boundary between Wisconsin and Minnesota from the Twin Cities north.  This photo is taken just a few miles upstream from where the St. Croix merges with the mighty Mississippi.

The latest in changing higher education

Higher education has entered a new phase in being transformed.

Three people within a week sent me an article about the latest idea for changing higher education. Three is a trend.  In each case, my honest response was that the person who sent me the article was doing more and more exciting things in changing higher education than the ideas in the article.

   What this tells me is we have moved into a different stage in the transformation of higher education. Innovators have been and will continue to develop innovations in education. What’s new is that this is the phase where institutional leaders, those who have been mainly on the sidelines so far, now take stabs at, try and test new ideas.  It is also a phase where there are some ‘hits’ and lots of ‘misses.’
   Moving into this phase is overall positive. It means we have moved out of the phase in which educational leaders have to be convinced that we need to change. 
   It also tells me we have not yet moved into the next phase, which is discovering a comprehensive model for higher education in this century.  That next phase will come soon, as by 2020 we will have a comprehensive new model for higher education. 

This post is from our new 10 page White Paper, "MOOCs and Other Fads." For a FREE copy, just email Tammy at info@lern.org

Why Google Maps Are All Wrong

Google maps are all wrong. For the 80 million Gen Y generation, the maps do not have the right information.

The BBC recently had a great interview with two map experts who said that maps are not the objective, factual documents we think they are, but biased documents with assumptions, perspective and even goals.

So Google maps, as well as Rand McNally and other maps, are all about the auto age. They show big roads, Interstates, smaller roads, and provide driving times.  Here's what they miss:

1.Train stations and train routes.  This is a huge mistake. Gen Y and other train travelers want and need to know where stations are and where trains go.
2.Bike routes. 
3.Pedestrian walk ways and trails.
4.Maybe in last place, but I'll add rivers, especially those one can canoe or kayak.

Watch how in 10-20 years the maps will all change to meet the needs of Gen Y.

Me and the mayor of our small town in front of a 1932 train map of Wisconsin.

Amtrak makes big gains this year

Amtrak and passenger trains are making big gains this year.

1.Trains are now being tested at 110 mph.  This is huge. It means trains will go twice as fast as cars. Already.
2.Expansion.  More lines, more Internet, more riders.  In our area, there is a study about adding a second train from the Twin Cities to Chicago.  That kind of expansion is going on all over the U.S.
3.Hint of federal funding. Don't get your hopes up, but there's a hint in some articles that President Obama will get more money for trains.  Even Virginia and Michigan Republican governors are excited about trains in their states.

Modern data screen in rennovated St. Paul Depot announce passenger trains coming back to this grand depot in 2013.  The Depot is downtown. The current Amtrak station is not large, not modern, and located in the middle of nowhere. 

Trains in the U.S.: The Future is Now

Last month the St. Paul Union Depot re-opened as a transportation hub.
It is an example of how, even in the U.S., trains and light rail are taking over.

Just five years ago we used to go to the St. Paul Depot- - to eat.  Restaurants had taken over the place, which has not seen trains in decades.  We never thought we would see the train there again.

The majestic great hall with train gates will be a hub for light rail lines and Amtrak trains. The second light rail line opens here later this year.

Nine Shift Question: Are We Clueless?

Are we clueless in 2013 about an impending crisis? In 1913 almost all of Europe was comfortable and complacent - - and clueless.

Clueless about the impending world war in 1914 and the destruction of hierarchical monarchies and the fight for democracy and the rising working and middle classes.

Just wondering.  What do you think?

In 1913 everyone, rich and not-so-rich danced the waltz. For the not-so-rich there were dance halls. The largest one in Vienna had a 24 hour full staffed maternity ward for the convience of their female patrons.

Like Obama She's Organizing on M.L. King Day Too

"I was working to get Barack Obama elected president when he was four," says civil rights leader and community organizer Julie Coates.  On Obama's second inauguration day and Martin Luther King holiday, she will still be doing community organizing.

Coates just got funding for The Awareness Project (TAP), her local organizing effort. The funding is paying for large offices and meeting rooms, as well as a half time professional organizer.  Over the holidays she helped a local citizen organize Cash Mobs to support local downtown businesses.  Her next effort, she says, involves housing, with 48% of the housing in her town being rental. Her goal is not to win elections in the short term, but to organize for longer term progressive changes in society.

 

When Telework Will Really Boom

Nine Shift is predicting that around 2016 telework will really boom. Here's why.

"The biggest barrier to telecommuting, by a wide margin, is management fear and mistrust." That according toTom Harnish & Kate Lister, The State of Telework in the U.S. How Individuals, Business, and Government Benefit, Telework Research Network, June 2011, p.4, http://www.workshifting.com/downloads/

That also according to just about everyone who wants to telework, but can't. Management attitudes will change around 2016 as Boomers retire between now and then and Gen X managers replace them.

Photo: Happy Teleworkers.  Two of LERN's staff, 75% of whom work from home, flew to Minneapolis earlier this month for a Management Team meeting.