Digging into Technology

 

I have been digging into the uses of technology in leadership for the past eight weeks in a course at Creighton University.  A quick look at technology gives a glimpse at how fast it can change.  Twenty years ago my husband and I got our first cell phone - well actually it was a gigantic bag phone that plugged into the cigarette lighter in our car.  We had to pull out the antenna to actually get a signal.  I was amazed that I could talk to someone on a phone in my car.  I now have a cell phone I don't share with him that fits in my pocket and allows me to get on the internet, call people, video conference, keep track of my appointments, and write my grocery list.  I couldn't have imagined those changes when I spoke for the first time on that big bag phone.

The variety of Web 2.0 tools is amazing.  The shift in a classroom to technology-based teaching an learning has led to adaptive learning tools and the ability to embed the tools within learning management systems so grades can be calculated and assignments made directly in the learning management system has helped teachers to organize their online tools.  We can use videos from the internet to teach such as this crude video my students and I made to allow them to review dissections (warning:  it is a dissection of a fetal pig).  I found a great resource for educators called Emerging Ed Tech that has provided a lot of ideas regarding what type of technologies exist for educators.

With all of these advances in technology comes great responsibility in leadership.  Through this course we looked at the ethical and unethical uses of technology.  Technology can be used to help educate and simplify processes, but it can also be used in questionable manners.  I currently have a virus on my computer that is trying to get me to call a toll free number to get instructions for removal - almost like holding my computer hostage to a million pop-ups until I will pay their price for removal.  Obviously, not an ethical use of technology by the virus provider.  What about hactivism (a new word in my vocabulary from this class)?  The campus where I teach is on the border of Ferguson, MO which made national news this week for the social unrest that has occurred due to the killing of a young man by a police officer.  To add to the social unrest on the streets, Anonymous added a YouTube video threatening, or maybe I should say promising to take down web-based assets of the police department and dumping their databases and emails onto the internet if protestors are attacked, etc.  It is up to ethical leaders that are guided by mission and values to lead through this technology boom.

 Technology changes very quickly and can very easily mislead people to poor uses when they become enamored by technology's bells and whistles.  The focal point of mission and values will help leaders to discern the appropriate technologies to use and the appropriate use of those technologies.    I will continue to dig into technologies, but will be much more mindful of mission of the organization and my personal values to guide my choices to ask others to follow my technological lead.

Gazing into the Future of Education

Picture from freecrystalball.com

As I gaze into the crystal ball for education, I cannot help but notice that there is a lot of haziness.  Imagining technologies that we do not have to help students learn and teachers teach makes my head spin.  There are a few areas where it is less hazy.  I think this infographic hits on items in education that are beginning to be done and a few things that I can imagine could come to be.  The infographic concurs with Kevin Kelly's observations that personalization  will become more important.  As competency-based education continues to be explored at this time, it has the ability to open doors for this personalization of one's educational experience.  Students can use experiences, such as military service, work, etc.to help them accomplish competencies more quickly or to even count for meeting the competency.  Therefore what I might need to earn my degree will be very different from what you may need to earn the same degree, because my experiences are different than your experiences.


We are already using adaptive learning technologies to help students learn materials and concentrate on those areas that they understand the least.  This will continue to be refined and come with tools to evaluate the effectiveness of  using these technologies.  The data acquisition piece on these new technologies will be viewed favorably by educational institutions that are more and more becoming data driven rather than driven by anecdotal evidence.



As a leader in a rapidly changing field, I think Clay Shirky's words are very appropriate.  He stated that "our principle challenge is not deciding where we want to go, but rather in staying upright as we go there (Shirky, 2009).  New technologies will continue to emerge, some will be very good and some will not be quite as good.  Providing an environment that allows for innovation and yet protects against jumping on the bandwagon of every new gimmick will create an environment that allows individuals to grow and yet protects the organization from the destabilizing effects that come when technologies are never mastered.  If new technologies are introduced, they need to provide some value to those using the technology or they will be viewed as a waste of time (Shirky, 2009).  I personally like to learn new technologies that will help my students or help me, but get very annoyed if I have to learn something that I do not see any value in for either my students or myself.

Education is in a very exciting period in time.  The entire process of education and learning is being re-considered.  What do you imagine the future holds?

Reference

Shirky, C. (2009). Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organizations (Kindle edition ed.). New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Heigh Ho Silver Away with Computer Crime

Have you ever read your bank statement and found charges that you never made?  Have you been working on your computer and noticed that all of a sudden it is working much more slowly or many ads keep popping up?  These things are evidences of potential computer crimes.  Pauline Go has listed a few of the crimes that individuals can experience.  Computer crimes can also target businesses, industries, and even governments.  The Target scandal affected 40 million shoppers this past year.  I was affected by this because my bank noted I had shopped on Black Friday at Target and they wanted to prevent a crime against my account.  This type of crime is becoming such a problem that the U.S. Department of Justice actually has a computer crime and intellectual property section.  This section of the department works to fight computer criminals.  The FBI also has a cyber crimes unit.  They work to mitigate identity theft, fraud, and computer intrusions as noted by their website.

Earlier this year a young boy in our school district gained control of the school's robo-calling system and sent a message to over 500 families telling them that school was closed the next day.  As you can see by this article,  the local police didn't know exactly what to charge him with.  The article doesn't mention that the messages came from the school phone number and therefore were very convincing.  It also doesn't tell you that the problem was discovered quickly and they did end up having school that day.  So, computer crimes can be carried out in a wide variety of ways and it doesn't take a degree in computer science to break into computers or steal identities.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics stated that in 2005, 67% of businesses had experienced at least one cybercrime.  In the European Union, organized crime groups take $1.9 billion dollars from credit card users according to Huffington Post in 2013.  Numbers like these probably do not paint even half of the problems that computer criminals create. Back in the days of yesteryear, the Lone Ranger would ride into town and take care of the bad guys.  Today we have Anonymous and other hactivists that use computers to disrupt computer criminals or to be political activists.  Here is a case where Anonymous felt the need to ride in on his/her shining white computer to fight for those that were crying for help in Kenya.  Just as it was never quite known if the Lone Ranger was a good guy or a bad guy until the end of the show, it is difficult t tell whether the hacktivists are really the good guys or not.  Until there is a better way to catch computer criminals, we may see hacktivists riding in to try to save the day.

Sneaking Peeks

Have you ever walked by someone's desk at work and seen them very quickly minimize a window that contained their FaceBook page or maybe even a shopping site? Was this person just sneaking a peak at their personal online sites or have they been doing their shopping or FaceBooking for hours instead of the work that they are being paid to accomplish? Are critical items being shared with the organization's public that the organization is unaware of? This report from 2008 shared that workers play games, shop, check personal e-mails, and even maintain personal blogs while at work.  How does any work actually ever get accomplished in this very connected world?

The Pew report noted above, also shared that although shopping, etc. can and often is done during work hours on work machines, most people that work in this hyperconnected environment observe that they actually perform more work than they did when they were not nearly so connected.  The disparity between the two ideas can be resolved by understanding that individuals develop communication pathways and connections through their use of the internet - Shirky defined this as social capital.  He then further observed that increasing social capital increases "health, happiness, and earning potential".  So, on the individual level, connected employees are healthier and happier.  This can be further upscaled to the group level at a workplace.

Harold Jarche's article listed several assets to having a connected workforce.  He stated that connected workers bring relational capital to the workplace. These individuals know how to connect with others and like to form relationships.  Shirky noted that when individuals in an organization are more networked, their communication is better and they have a more "flexible social structure".  The individual that is comfortable surfing the web to do his or her shopping and knows how to navigate social networking brings value through their knowledge and abilities to form connections at work as well.  Recently, several new faculty members have been added to my department.  There is a noticeable difference in the way that they work compared to some of the older faculty that may not have grown up in this more hyperconnected environment.  I have noticed that these faculty try to find ways to connect to others and are very interested in sharing their work ideas with others in many different formats.  They also seek input from others about how work has been done in the past and ask for critique of their work more readily.  I may be making assumptions regarding the driving forces behind these behaviors, but they seem like logical assumptions when viewing these behaviors in light of hyperconnectedness.

As we move into the future, the skills that workers will need to employ will be enhanced by their connected behaviors.  The Atlantic listed the future work skills for 2020.  Many of those skills, such as new media literacy, transdisciplinary, and trans-cultural behaviors can be enhanced by skills gained from interacting with others online.  In education, as interdiciplinary courses increase and online offerings become more accepted, the skills learned through internet interactions will be more and more important.  So, is sneaking a peek at the internet during work hours hurting work production or is it really on- the- job training?

Reference

Shirky, C. (2009). Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organizations. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Homeostasis of the Educational System in a Technological World

I teach Human Anatomy and Physiology.  Students learn about the skeletal system, nervous system, digestive system, and more in these classes.  The most amazing piece of these classes comes at the end of their second semester, when the student finally realizes that none of the systems act on their own - they work in synchrony in order to function in a healthy manner within a particular environment. Each body part "collaborates" with many others in order to function correctly.  

An educational system is much like the body in that it takes many parts to accomplish the work. Systems react to the environment in order to maintain homeostasis. The systems used to be much simpler and relied heavily on physical classrooms. The internet has created an environmental change in education that is promoting changes in the educational system.  Margaret Spellings' Wall Street Journal article described some of the effects that are and may be seen in higher education mostly due to the internet.  Online classrooms are growing in number and competency-based education is being explored by many institutions, including my own.  These adaptations are not without dissent from internal stakeholders.  Does a student get the same type of education if they take online courses rather than face to face courses?If not, is that better or worse for the student?  If seat time is not the measuring tool and competencies are, does that mean that seat time is not valuable?  Will face to face courses be a thing of the past or  are these other modes of learning simply additions to the system required by a new environment?  Unfortunately, these questions cannot be answered at this time.  The system is in the throes of adjusting to the environment and the efforts have not had enough time to fully take root.

Community college education has also been historically focused on providing accessible education to the community in which the college resides.  These colleges are now focusing more on the provision of accessible education to the global community.  This report noted that online technologies are making education more accessible.  The globalization of the marketplace demands that students are trained to work in a global workplace and education can provide that with online classrooms that have students from across the globe.  Collaborative classrooms are being developed where teachers from one country can co-teach with teachers from another country.  Not only can people from different countries collaborate in their teaching, but also people from differing disciplines.  Of course, this isn't just seen in community colleges.  Creighton's Interdisciplinary EdD program is a prime example of this.

Jon Husband's blog stated that leaders in this very interconnected environment must:

Become deeply aware of and truly mindful about the scope and reach of interconnected markets and flows of information. Understand how and why people are connecting, talking, sharing information. Be prepared to listen deeply, be responsible, be accountable and be transparent.

Leaders in education will need to do these things in order to initiate homeostatic mechanisms  to survive and thrive in this technological environment.

Reference for picture:

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