Issue #24

February 4th, 2021

The Future of Work? – cont’d

THIS week’s webinar “The Future of Work? continued” – Friday February 5th 4:00PM MST

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9280952495

Our webinar this week continues the series of webinars on “the future of work”. Join us: share and network, discover and learn.

We had an outstanding webinar last week – rich presentations by Roy – the evangelist, Jacquie – the educator, and Ling – the entrepreneur, followed by an audience discussion of how “the future” we anticipate is expected to effect “work and the workplace”. While no one can know the future, the insights are insightful, entertaining, AND worthy of sharing. The entire webinar can be viewed HERE 

The webinar is facilitated by Jacquie Clarke who brought this and last week’s presenters together:

---

ON-LINE LEARNING – What Covid is teaching us

Next week we’ll examine On-line Learning and how the stakeholders of education are faring during Covid.  Here are just some of what may be discussed.

Change is a trigger for learning and there have been few events in history as significant a trigger as has been Covid-19.  The threat has been disruptive to all of us – worldwide, to all of mankind. One thing in particular stands out, and that is how much we all value education for preparing our youth for the future. “What am I going to be when I grow up?” drives us all. The challenges “to educate” have rarely been so challenging, but have been further complicated by the pandemic and the associated mandate to isolate for mitigating it’s spread.  As long as Covid poses a threat and isolation continues, On-line learning will thrive.  Until then education in the classroom has been shelved – at what price?

Our newsletter in August HERE was entitled Education in Crisis and cited the dire straights faced by education in light of not just Covid, but also issues with On-line learning. The facts are becoming increasingly apparent, On-line learning is failing the student, poorly adopted by the teacher, and befuddling the academic institutions. Here are but a few of the realities – reply if you may disagree or want to share more:

• Students report – and teachers agree, that they are less motivated and can easily avoid instruction that would otherwise be more readily addressed in a face-to-face classroom setting.
• Teenagers are highly social and when struggling with isolation often use the On-line learning session to ogle, engage in sidebar chats, and bullying.
• Students arriving at Grade 3 are reportedly lacking even the rudimentary reading skills achieved in the face-to-face classroom.
• Institutions are accused of passing students without regard to performance, struggling with is scheduling instruction for students in distant time zones and others without access to the internet, and charging students for instruction not delivered. See HERE citing a student confrontation with a General Faculty Council at a local university.
  

If On-line learning is to be considered a serious competitor to classroom instruction then teachers need to be better prepared and possibly retrained and/or for education to grant the teachers achieving the best results the role of mass instruction.

As for students, technologies are available that today can assess their learning styles and accommodate them with the right teaching option. This “personalization” of instruction echos what personal 1:1 tutouring offers and what education should strive for.  Also there is the issue of student motivation; to want to learn is not always apparent.  Student preparation for On-line learning must consider several factors including: age, the subject matter, the cost, access to the internet, all part of reinventing education.  But personalization is probably the most revolutionary challenging facing the educational “system” that has traditionally focused on supply management.  Therein lies the role for algorithms and improving the fit of teacher, instruction, and the student. Covid is amplifying what education should be and is not – it should be about the student.  A return to normal means we’ve learned nothing.

---

COMMENTS received in response to earlier newsletters archived at  PerryKinkaide.com

Crazy world we live in right now. Sad, because it seems like humans have never had it better in terms of being able to provide our basic necessities. Yet there is all of this madness going on as well. Shouldn’t be that way. We need to find a way of doing the right things especially when things are going well for us. – John Nation

The inequity between the haves and the have nots due to covid-19  forms the basis for radical popularism. I believe the time for a basic income is rapidly approaching. – John Schiel

I am 79 years old and retired so any changes in the economy have major impacts on my life, so I would like to see things move on at the same rate as in the past. – John Bracegirdle

I expect the 2020s will see an increase in turbulence, stress, confusion and for many terror.  The percentage of the population (our elites and near elites) that is both well-heeled and clever enough to protect themselves from what will be the dominant experiences will continue to shrink.  The now still-common illusion that if we try really hard and have a bit of luck, then we can keep our Modern Techno-industrial (MTI) cultures on the “progress forever” track will be under even more stress than it is today.  By 2030, it will be clearer that we are well-past “Peak Modernity” and in a long and irrevocable cultural/civilizational decline.

What is not yet clear is how we shall respond.  As of today, virtually all our significant public leadership in every sector is either silent in the face of confusion or still rooting for a continuation of MTI progress, albeit in a somewhat fairer form.  As yet, we have no leadership that would help us face, explore and understand the deep disintegration of the roots of our MTI cultures, the threats thereof and the new “adjacent possibles,” to use Stuart Kauffman’s phrase.  

So, the 2020s will certainly be a decade of lurching towards endings.  It could also be the decade in which we get serious about new beginnings.  As of today, the odds are against the latter.  May we be surprised by what we are capable of when we are roused enough to rise to the occasion. – Ruben Nelson

The late Stephen Hawking has postulated that the beginning of artificial intelligence marks the beginning of the end of man woops I mean personkind. When society abdicates the right of free thinking and creativity to machines , can Hawking’s thinking be very far wrong? – Robert Gaetz 

We are particularly interested in any views you may have about our forecasts for 2021: the breaking up and/or increased regulation of BigTech and increasing inflation as an major socio-economic disruptor.

Bruce Matichuk

Computing Engineer/Entrepreneur. Artificial intelligence and computer technology in general are going to eliminate many jobs. People will need to become much more flexible and entrepreneurial in their view of  what is a “job”. Lifetime jobs are likely not going to be a reality for most people because of the radical shifts taking place in the workforce. There will be ongoing pressure by organizations of all types to eliminate human labor costs in order to increase profits.

Dale Alton

Humanist/Financer. Investigating and introducing a broad view of Measures of Success for the future of work.  Financial income or profit is only one of several factors of livelihood that need to be considered.

Laura-Belle Robinson

Revisionist. “It takes one hundred years to create the world into which a child is born.” A brief look at the evolution of work from the future. Every generation’s work is part of an ongoing legacy project. The work of our lifetime begins the evolution (process, not dogma) of the world of our great grandchildren – its economic, ecological, environmental, and political profile and promise.

THE FUTURE

---

 Conference Management

HERE  

Best practices for mastery –  Thank you Sharon

---

Media Manipulation

HERE 

How the internet crushed AB’s economy – Thank you Peter

---

Humour – Reporter Losing It

HERE

When enough is too much – Thank you Charlie

---

The Post Pandemic Workforce

HERE 

Executive Expectations

---

Digital Determinism

HERE 

Everyone’s challenge – Thank you Charlie

---

The Making of an Extremist

HERE 

When she woke up – Thank you Carol

---

The Post-Covid Workplace

HERE

Reinventing the office – Thank you Ron

---

Life-long Learning

HERE

Reskilling China’s workforce

---

Right/Left Pursuing Happiness

HERE  

US Politics – Thank you Carol

---

 Failed Mergers & Acquisitions

HERE 

Ignoring people – Thank you Jeff

---

 Brands Make A Difference

HERE 

Societal impact – Thank you Sharon

---

FOR YOU

We are seeking regular contributors to these cells

Are you an avid reader/ researcher/ opinionater?

  Interested in the future, the impact of change and emerging technologies?

If so, please contact

Michelle@PerryKinkaide.com

Perry Kinkaide – Editor, Perry@PerryKinkaide.com