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Posts from March 2017

IT’S THE IMPLEMENTATION!

“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.”  (Lee Iacocca)  We’ve all heard the expression, “Good ideas are a dime a dozen!”  And, so they are!  But, too many of them prove of little value, simply because the premises behind them are not thoroughly examined.  If the more important questions are not asked –- the more important answers are never found. Therefore,...

SUPPORTING TEACHERS & TRAINERS

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”   (Benjamin Franklin)  When talking about the challenges facing both education and training today, one size no longer fits all.  Stand-up instruction, books, distance learning, networked computer-based instruction, and multi-sensory e-Learning may all have a place. Equally important is the support required by education and training professionals in dealing with the increasingly complicated challenges that effect learning.  And,...

RESPECTING ALL SKILLED PEOPLE

This week I came across a Stephen Hawking quote that reminded me of one of the root problems facing America today, “Asked if he believed he was the most intelligent person in the world, he gave a sharp response, ‘I would never claim this.  People who boast about their IQ are losers.’” As corollary, I’m also troubled by those people who must brandish a PhD degree as if they were wearing a...

COMMUNITY COLLEGE PARTNERING

“In the years since the Great Recession, the American economy has struggled to regain its economic pace, and more policymakers are turning to education to help meet the high demands of a skilled and educated workforce. According to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, by 2020, 65 percent of all American jobs will require some form of post-secondary degree or credential, but the current rate at which colleges and universities...

E-LEARNING IS WORKING

Without something resembling a liberal arts education, combined with an extensive vocabulary, in-depth thinking becomes restricted. Without the skills training one receives in high school and college, as well as from corporate training departments, the ability to excel in one’s chosen career becomes limited. In terms of the former, most individuals are on their own as a liberal arts education becomes more and more de-emphasized.  No worry, however, for those motivated individuals...

JOBS AND THE SKILLS GAP

As The Wall Street Journal reported last Fall, “Amid anxiety about the disappearance of factory jobs, thousands of them are going unfilled across the U.S.  The number of open manufacturing jobs has been rising since 2009, and this year stands at the highest level in 15 years, according to Labor Department data.”  In a most interesting article by Max Nisen, “The Growing Skills Gap, Explained In Three Charts,” published in BUSINESS INSIDER...

REEXAMINING “SUCCESS”

Unfortunately, for many of our young people today, “success” is seen as equatable with annual income — and the resulting inference has become, “the more you earn, the more ‘successful’ you are.” Combined with a greater and greater emphasis on hiring only those individuals who have a college degree, attitudes are changing — and, not for the better. There is no correlation between “smart” and “great grades.”  There is no correlation between...

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN REVISITED

As a followup to last weeks blog, “Improving Instructional Design,” here are some additional thoughts.  Jane Bozarth writing in “Learning Solutions Magazine”  quotes Étienne Charles Wenger (best known today for his work in the field of communities of practice):  “Instruction does not cause learning; it creates a context in which learning takes place, as do other contexts.  Learning and teaching are not inherently linked.  Much learning takes place without teaching, and indeed...

WORDS & SKILLS TRAINING

“We think with words.”  (A. G. Draper) In article by E. D. Hirsch, Jr. in the City-Journal, “A Wealth of Words,” expands on that theme: .  .  . vocabulary size is a convenient proxy for a whole range of educational attainments and abilities—not just skill in reading, writing, listening, and speaking but also general knowledge of science, history, and the arts.  If we want to reduce economic inequality in America, a good...