The Nature of Technology - W. Brian Arthur (2009)

W. Brian Arthur is a leader in the fields of technology, economics and complexity science. He has served as a Morrison Professor of Economics and Population Studies at Stanford and as the Citibank Professor at the Sante Fe Institute. He currently is in residence at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).

In The Nature of Technology, Arthur examines how technologies evolve within the economy. Arthur contends that the economy is an expression of its technologies. This, he points out, runs counter to the perspective of some economists who believe that the economy drives technology. Arthur supports his argument by providing extensive examples of how technologies have evolved over time and have transformed the economy.

Arthur observed that while technology may evolve relatively quickly, its adoption sometimes takes decades. He suggests that this is due to man's inherent relationship with nature. Man seems himself as part of nature and, therefore, he trusts nature. On the other hand, Man places his hopes in technology. He looks to technology to make his life better. He does not, however, trust technology, especially when it seems to be in conflict with nature. Arthur cites the reluctance of some societies to accept genetic engineered crops as an example. Thus, man places his hope in something that he does not entirely trust. This leads to significant dissonance.

Arthur also discusses the process of innovation that is so closely tied to the evolution of technology. He states, "The type of mastery you find in a Maillart bridge does not come out of 'genius.' More than anything it comes out of an accumulation of knowledge and expertise slowly gathered over years." He goes on to say, "experience with different solutions and subsolutions steadily cumulates and technologies change and improve over time. The result is innovation."

I found Arthur's explanation of the reluctance of society to accept some technologies because of their apparent challenge to the natural order to be insightful. He also noted, however, that this does not fully explain why some innovative technologies are resisted. In some cases it is simply because accepted practices become "locked in" due to resistance to change.

I found Arthur's description of innovation as a cumulative process which builds over time to be consistent with other innovation theorists. He notes that this cumulative process leads to a generative and robust economy. It is dependent, however, on the ability to see connections among disparate technologies.

How are we preparing our students to become the generative thinkers required by a generative economy?

Idiot America - Charles P. Pierce (2009)

Charles Pierce is a staff writer for the Boston Globe Magazine. He also contributes to several other publications including Exquire, American Prospect and Slate.

According to Pierce, he became motivated to write "Idiot America" after visiting the Creation Museum in Hebron, Kentucky. What struck Pierce most profoundly was a display in which a dinosaur wore an English Saddle. Another display depicted Noah loading his Arc. Again dinosaurs could be found among the herd of animals seeking refuge from the Great Flood.

As the title suggests, "Idiot America" is a humorous look at a very serious topic. Pierce discusses how knowledge and expertise have been devalued in American society today in favor of religious and political dogma. While the Creation Museum provides a somewhat humorous example, Pierce also highlights other examples that have much more serious implications for America and the world's future.

The author describes a visit that he made to a Shishmaref, Alaska, a village of around 500 on an island in the Chukchi Sea. The island is disappearing due to the melting of the permafrost and rising of the sea. The state of Alaska is already making plans to evacuate the village, which will take years. In the meantime, the residents are building sea walls to stem the inevitable.

Pierce notes that evidence of the impact of climate change is clearly visible in such places as Shishmaref. He also points out that the scientific community has reached consensus on the fact that much of the change is due to human activity. Yet, a large segment of the US population chooses to ignore or deny these facts.

Pierce contends that America has always been a society that tolerates "Cranks" well. By Cranks, he means people with outlandish ideas based on little other than there own imagination. He cites examples such as conspiracy theorists, UFO chasers and others with fantastical beliefs. The problem, Pierce maintains, is that these "Cranks" have now begun to command mainstream prominence. Rather than serving as outliers on the border of serious thought, modern day "Cranks" have harnessed the power of technology to disrupt respectful discourse, discredit expertise and frame radical views as rational.

Pierce states, "In the new media age, everybody is a historian, or a scientist, or a preacher, or a sage. And if everyone is an expert, then nobody is, and the worst thing you can be in a society where everybody is an expert is, well, an actual expert." Pierce identifies "Three Great Premises of Idiot America:" 1) Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings or otherwise moves units. 2) Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough. 3) Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it.

I have read several authors who contend that technology has given rise to a Meritocracy, but has it? These authors suggest that the anonymous nature of the Internet, for instance, allows amateurs to compete with professionals and the only thing that matters is the quality of the product, information or idea. But what happens when we have no real way of judging the quality or validity of an idea? Does the final determiner simply become who shouts the loudest or with the most passion? If this is the case, clearly it poses a great threat to America's future? As educators, what is our role and responsibility to ensure that our students are able to examine issues critically and to engage in rationale discourse?

The Laws of Disruption - Larry Downes (2009)

Larry Downes is a consultant and author who specializes in information technology and law. He is a non-resident fellow of the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society.

Downes identifies nine "Laws of Disruption." The overarching law, however, is: "Technology changes exponentially, but social, economic, and legal systems change incrementally." Thus, as technological capabilities and resources expand, the systems used to manage the physical world are increasingly inadequate to manage the digital world.

Downes explains that the Law of Disruption along with Moore's Law, which states that every 18 months the processing power of computers doubles while the price remains constant, and Metcalf's Law, which states that the usefulness of a network grows exponentially in relationship to the number of users connected.

The economics of information, Downes illustrates, runs counter to the normal rules of economics in the physical world. For instance, value in the physical world is determined by supply and demand. Scarcity leads to higher value. In the digital world the opposite is true.

Downes identifies five principles that characterize information as an economic good. He notes that they run counter to many of the traditional principles of economics. They are:
1. Renewability - Information cannot be used up.
2. Universality - Everyone can use the same information at the same time.
3. Magnetism - The value of information increases exponentially as more people use it.
4. Lack of Friction - The more easily information is disseminated the more its value increases.
5. Vulnerability - The misuse of information can destroy its value.

The nine Laws of Disruption are:
1. Convergence - the border between the physical and digital worlds is blurring. This has led to difficulties in interpreting and managing business practices and private life.
2. Personal Information - Information technology has made access to personal information easier. While this has created great concern. Downes notes the "Privacy Paradox," which is the dichotomy between the concern people express about protecting their personal information and the lengths that they go to give it away.
3. Human Rights - Modern technology raises many questions regarding individual rights to privacy and property. Downes recounts some of the ways that technology has been used by the government for surveillance and raises questions about property rights as they relate to digital information and content.
4. Infrastructure - The rapid deployment of high-speed networks throughout the world has led to conflict and confusion as regulators, such as the FCC have tried to apply laws and regulations to new technologies that were not even conceived of when the laws were first passed.
5. Business - Business practices in the digital age have proven to be the most perplexing as the government has tried to apply Antitrust laws designed to regulate railroads and utilities to digital programs and services. Downes states that antitrust suits have been extremely costly and have stifled innovation.
6. Crime - Cyber crime, including such things as cyber bullying, is a very real problem. Downes notes, however, that the biggest threat is that legislators, who do not understand the nature of the technology or the crime, tend to react in a knee jerk fashion, creating laws that do not ameliorate the problem, but result in collatoral damage to other positive aspects of digital life. Downes claims that most of the crime can be most effectively addressed by industry and the digital community.
7. Copyright - Copyright poses one of the most perplexing and troubling issues in the digital age. Although originally intended to protect artistic and literary works, copyright has been expanded to include other digital media as well. With the low transaction costs afforded by digital media, the length of copyright protection should be reduced. Instead it has been extended to 70 years past the death of the owner, which Downes feels runs counter to the original intent.
8. Patent - Since the dawn of the digital age, there has been a surge in patent applications. This surge has overwhelmed those charged with evaluating the application and consequently has resulted in the erroneous award of volumes of patents. A particularly nefarious outgrowth of the digital age are "Patent Trolls." These are businesses that buy up patents with no plan to actually implement them. They then wait for opportunities to sue companies that actually manufacture products that may have features covered by the patent, even though they were created entirely independently. The most notable case involved the RIM Blackberry.
9. Software - Because of the low marginal costs for distributing software and the extremely short shelf life, assigning value and cost is very difficult. Downes describes how this has led to the "Open Source" movement that provides software for free and accrues revenue through value-added services. With regard to software, Downes proclaims, "Open always wins."

Downes concludes, "the core principles of public law, private law, and information law are being turned upside down. Policymakers from the physical realm have increasingly less influence in digital life, while consumers, both individually and in virtual groups, have correspondingly more."

Of all of the social systems, education tends to be one of the last to change. How can education as we know it continue to exist in the digital world?

Digital Barbarism Mark Helprin (2009)

In the spring of 2007, Mark Helprin published an OpEd piece for the New York Times that posited that copyright should be extended far beyond the current limit of 70 years after the death of the author. Helprin noted that the fruits of his labor, unlike those of other people, would be taken from his children within their life time. He reasoned that if the architect of a successful business bequeaths ownership to his heirs, the benefits of ownership do not expire after 70 years, so why should it be so for an author.

Helprin assumed that his OpEd piece would receive little notice or interest among the readers of the New York Times. Much to his surprise, the piece actually set off a firestorm with three-quarters of a million "hits" all of which, according the Helprin, were negative.

This event led to Helprin writing Digital Barbarism, which uses copyright as the centerpiece around an argument that pits individualism against collectivism. Throughout the book, Helprin reiterates the injustice of authors not being able to secure ownership of their work for their progeny. Unfortunately, most of the book degenerates into an often incoherent rant against higher education, public education, publishers, youth, computers and modernity. Helprin's descriptions of education and society resonate like the musings of one who has read about a world that he has never actually visited.

For instance, Helprin places much of the blame for the embrace of open source and the Creative Commons at the feet of public education. Helprin states that schools today prize collaboration, rather than individual achievement. He states, "Students gather and 'brainstorm' (a comic-book word) to decide topics and approaches. They submit their work to what are in essence factory-floor soviets...as if they were composing essays in a luxurious Vietnamese reeducation camp."

Helprin's disdain for his critics from higher education is evident in his referencing articles from the "Chronicle of [Supposedly] Higher Education." He compares wiki builders to Soviets and describes "bloggy-type wikis" as analogous to "spitting on the street."

Helprin rebukes those who idolize "The Machine." He notes that some who, "lap at the first trickles of what is new even have a name. They are called "early adapters." From Helprin's description of this hapless group, one must conclude that he is actually referring to "early adopters." One is also left with the impression that he has never actually met one, but he knows all about them.

One of the last chapters is devoted to dispelling the myth of "Convergence." Helprin explains that this is an "all explanatory unified field theory in physics; of the notion that the sexes will merge into one; of the quest for a single instrument embodying all convenience technologies; of the desire for a world government" etc. Huh? I thought the Unified Theory of Physics had to do with resolving conflicting laws and properties that exist between quantum and classical physics. One might assume that Helprin is actually referring to the "Singularity" theory promoted by Ray Kurzweil, a researcher and writer in the area of Artificial Intelligence.

Of education, Helprin writes, "If our teachers scoff at dividing their subject matter into history, literature, and science, and wade instead into an amorphous 'interdisciplinary' bouillabaisse that relieves them of the responsibility of knowing what they are talking about...it is because we lack the discipline, focus, and clarity required to make refusals, maintain divisions, and uphold distinctions." Clearly, Mr. Helprin does not recognize that it takes a far deeper understanding of one's discipline to be able to see points of intersection with other disciplines than simply to become an insulated expert (see Chris Mooney, Unscientific America, 2009).

Copyright is an extremely important topic for educators. Understanding ways to protect and at the same time share intellectual property is one of the great challenges of the 21st Century. Educators need to lead this discussion as it encompasses most of the tools of our trade.

The Test of Our Times - Tom Ridge (2009)

This is somewhat different from the typical books that I summarize on this blog. It is a book that describes leadership under the most challenging and difficult conditions. Tom Ridge, the former Governor of Pennsylvania and the first Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, describes the challenges faced in forming a new cabinet-level department charged with keeping America safe after the 9/11 terrorist attack and in the midst of the Anthrax attacks. Senator Joseph Lieberman described the job as asking Noah to build the Ark after the rain had already begun to fall.

Ridge describes how the new department had few resources at the beginning, but had to mobilize immediately since America faced imminent threats. He describes how dedicated people worked tirelessly while having to scrounge for basic supplies. They developed effective strategies and organizational structures despite logistical, political and organizational hurdles.

Ridge describes the difficulties encountered when trying to work with Congress and other members of the administration. These included turf protection, a reluctance to communicate and a predisposition in Washington to do things the way they have always been done.

Based upon his experience, Ridge identified several areas that he believes are essential to keeping America safe and prosperous. These included the ability for organizations at all levels to communicate and collaborate openly with one another and with the public. The need for America to foster good relations globally and to develop a better understanding of other cultures. The need for America to develop an immigration policy that removes onerous restrictions on visas and foreign workers, while maintaining secure borders. The need for America to reassert itself as the leader in innovation. The need for America to secure its assets in cyberspace.

As most educators will recognize, most of Ridge's identified needs fall within the realm of 21st Century Skills. The most effective strategy that Ridge employed in his quest to keep America secure was to openly communicate and collaborate with others, not only in the US, but abroad as well. In addition to skills of communication and collaboration, this required skills of diplomacy. Ridge noted that security efforts were often frustrated by inadequate technology. Effective instruments to identify Anthrax and other biological weapons were too slow.

Unlike Rubin (see post from September 4, 2009), Ridge does not believe that the age of globalization is ending. He believes that America's interests are inextricably mixed with those of other nations. He believes that this is a good thing and that the US can benefit greatly by building good relations with all nations, not just our traditional allies.

Ridge ends his book stating, "Americans do not live in fear. We live in freedom. Our ability to maintain our freedom in the face of these new threats is the test of our times."

What must we, as educators, do to prepare our students to pass the test of our times?

Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller (Jeff Rubin - 2009)

Jeff Rubin served as the Chief Economist for CIBC World Markets for almost 20 years. He was the first to accurately predict the rise in oil prices in 2000 and is recognized as an expert in the field of energy.

In his book, Rubin contends that the depletion of oil reserves coupled with increasing demand will soon lead to triple digit oil prices and seven dollar prices for gasoline at the pump. The author provides much data to support his claim.


Rubin predicts that when the current recession ends, the cost of a barrel of oil will once again reach triple digits. This will be reflected at the gas pump in the US by $7 per gallon prices for gasoline. The result of this, according to Rubin, will be an end of globalization because people will be unable to afford travel for business or pleasure. The cost of shipping goods around the world will be too great, so manufacturing will return to where the products are sold. Just in time inventory will also be too expensive, so warehouses full of stock will once again become the norm. Global branding will diminish and products will become customized to local needs and preferences. Technological innovation will slow because there will be a decrease in specialization. Urban sprawl will contract as people move from the suburbs to the city. Public transportation will become the predominant means of transportation.

Rubin observes that, "We are liberal and tolerant because we are prosperous...As our economies grow, so does our sense of responsibility for others...As our economic well-being deteriorates, will we continue to remain committed to those principles of freedom and tolerance?"

What do you think? Is this our future? If so, what do schools need to do to prepare our students? Are we making a mistake by stressing skills needed for a global economy?

For more details visit the CCIU Shared Resources database by clicking on the title.

Free - Chris Anderson (2009)

Chris Anderson is the Editor and Chief of Wired Magazine. Anderson has written two books that examine the impact of the Internet on traditional business models. Anderson has his B.S. in physics. Prior to coming to Wired, Anderson served as the U.S. Business Editor for the Economist. Prior to that he wrote for two prestigious science journals, Nature and Science.

In Free, Anderson notes that unlike products and services in the physical world that inflate in cost over time, digital content and services actually deflate in cost and eventually approach zero over time.

The abundance of bandwidth and memory has made the cost of storing and distributing content extremely low. This has encouraged amateurs, as well as professionals, to become content creators. This, in turn, has led to an abundance of content, most of which is free.

Anderson observes that although the music and publishing industries have attempted to combat the free distribution of content through technological and legal barriers, Abundance creates a gravitational pull on prices that eventually approaches zero.

Anderson contends that this is not necessarily a bad thing. He provides examples of several successful business models that incorporate the free distribution of digital content and services.

The key to making money while providing content and services for free is to attach paid programs and services to them. For instance, Second Life provides virtual tourism for free. However, if you want to own property or premium content, you must pay a fee. Valuable Open Source software is free, but many businesses, such as IBM, make a sizable profit by offering development and support for a fee. Google, the largest provider of free content and services, makes money by attaching advertising to its searches that is directly targeted to the particular person conducting the search.

Anderson notes that the monetary market is only one aspect of the overall economy. In fact, other economies exist as well that are based on other measures of value. These include the "Attention" and "Reputation" Economies. We have all been told at some time in our lives that there is nothing more valuable than our "Reputation" and the large amount of money that we pay celebrities gives some indication of how much we value "Attention." Reputation and attention are two of the most important currencies on the web.

For each of the business models that Anderson presents, he provides an analysis of a company that uses it. Each analysis breaks down the cost of providing the content and exactly how the company generates revenue to pay for the service without attaching a fee.

As more and more education moves online, what are the implications of the "Free" digital economy? We see states dumping textbooks in favor of online resources and universities posting lectures and curriculum online for free. What opportunities and threats do these trends present? How can Educational Service Providers embrace this new trend without losing the revenue necessary to sustain quality services?

For more information click on the title of this post.

Unscientific America-Chris Mooney (2009)

Chris Mooney is a journalist who has written two books (including this one) on the growing alienation of science and scientists from mainstream American society. Sheril Kershenbaum is the co-author of Unscientific America. She is an associate at Duke University with two Masters of Science degrees in Marine Biology and Marine Policy.

Unscientific America is an extensively researched and well-documented study. Although only 132 pages long, it includes 65 pages of notes and citations.

The overall theme of Unscientific America is that the prestige and influence of science and scientists in the US has diminished dramatically since its hey day in the '60s. News sources have drastically reduced their coverage of scientific topics. Entertainment media tend to portray scientists as nerds or mad men.

The authors cite several reasons for the growing disaffection for science in American society. The primary problem, they believe, is that scientists have failed to develop the skills necessary to communicate with the general public. Part of the problem is the fact that science has become so highly specialized that scientists now have a difficult time even communicating with other scientists whose area of expertise may be in another scientific domain. Many scientists look on communicating with the public as an unnecessary distraction from their work, which exacerbates the problem.

The authors contend that the inability of scientists to accurately communicate the importance of their work has had a detrimental impact of society's view of science. It has made sound scientific findings susceptible to challenges by radical religious groups, climate change doubters and other science skeptics. It has also allowed scientists with the most radical views to emerge as the voice of the science community.

Surprisingly, the authors dispelled the often quoted notion that the US is not producing enough scientists and engineers. They cite the fact that between 2002 and 2007, American universities produced a record number of doctorates in these fields. Unfortunately, most of these Ph.D's leave the field of science due to lack of opportunity to advance. According to the Urban Institute, American colleges and universities graduate three times the number of science and engineering graduates as there are job openings. Those who make it tend to be highly focused on the technical aspects of their field.

Mooney and Kershenbaum state that if the US is to have an advantage in competing with these highly trained graduates, it "will lie in producing scientists with 'soft skills,' such as writing, speaking, and task management." We must create "more interdisciplinary opportunities" and "nurture broader sets of abilities."

The Urban Institute study states, "In our interviews with engineering managers...rarely, if ever, do they say they are unable to find graduates with the requisite technical skills but rather the 'shortage' is of engineers with communication, management, interpersonal and other soft skills."

The authors make the following recommendations for K-12 education: Partner with scientific institutions that can provide engaging and interesting visiting scientists to speak with students. Prepare teachers to work enthusiastically with a stronger curriculum to keep even the youngest students engaged. Make more use of video for science instruction in the high school.

How can K-12 schools better prepare our future scientists and engineers to be better communicators and to function effectively within an interdisciplinary environment? Is this a values issue, a skills issue or both?

How the Mighty Fall - Jim Collins 2009

Jim Collins is the author of Good to Great and Built to Last. In Good to Great, Collins identified a series of organizational characteristics that enabled good corporations to leap to a sustained level of extraordinary success, which put them in the realm of "Greatness." Since publishing Good to Great in 2001, some of the organizations that had achieved sustained "Greatness" have fallen to mediocrity or even worse. This has prompted Collins to embark on extensive research into what causes "Great" organizations to fall.

Collins identified 5 stages of decline. He illustrated each of these with a short case study.

1) Hubris born of success. Companies that have enjoyed a high level of success begin to believe that their way is always the right way. This leads to arrogance and a failure to grow and adapt.
2) Undisciplined pursuit of more. Successful companies tend to create unrealistic growth expectations, which leads to short cuts and loss of focus on the company's core strengths.
3) Denial of risk and peril. Organizational leaders cease to confront "brutal" facts and fail to adjust to mitigate them. They tend to externalize blame.
4) Grasping for salvation. This is the most dangerous stage of decline. Here organizations panic. They waste time and money in recurring restructuring and seeking new ideas and leadership from the outside. This tends to accelerate their demise.
5) Capitulation to irrelevance or death. At this point, the organization no longer has the will to fight. It ceases to exist either through acquisition or dissolution.

Collins offered two particularly interesting observations that I believe are important to educators. One is that while innovation is extremely important to an organization's continued success, frenetic innovation can actually lead to its demise. Frenetic innovation is simply innovation for innovation's sake and can cause an organization to lose focus and waste resources.

As we seek to teach students the skills of innovation, how do we teach them to be "purposeful innovators?"

Collins also addressed the question of whether it is possible for organizations to sustain greatness in a time characterized by "Creative Destruction," better known as "Disruptive Innovation." Collins posited that it is possible if organizations adapt and innovate without losing site of their core purpose.

Summaries of this book and Good to Great can be found in CCIU Shared Resources Database, which can be accessed by clicking on the title of this post.

The Accidental Billionaires-Ben Mezrich 2009

The Accidental Billionaires tells the story of the founding of Face Book. The book is an entertaining docudrama that most likely will become a movie. It tells the story of how Mark Zuckerberg, a computer nerd at Harvard, took a dorm room project and grew it into one of the most influential Internet businesses in the World.

The story is an excellent portrayal of the creative, innovative and entrepreneurial processes. It describes how passion, persistence and hard work, along with inspiration, are required for overnight success. It also describes the competitive and cut throat world of Silicon Valley.

The Accidental Billionaires describes the hazy and tumultuous world surrounding digital intellectual property. It leaves the reader to decide whether Zuckerberg actually stole the idea for Face Book from three classmates at Harvard.

This is a quick read, good for the beach.

Dynamic Leader, Adaptive Organization - Larraine Segil

Segil begins the book by stating that a prerequisite for success is the ability to identify "Elephants in the Room." This is not one of the the Ten Essential Traits, but is necessary for managers with those traits to be able to succeed. Segil notes that Elephant Spotters are extremely valuable. She also notes that, while some elephants may be visible and ignored, a more dangerous kind are invisible. These, she says, often are born out of success, which leads a company to believe that their way is always the right way.

The Ten Essential Traits that Segil identifies are:

1. Fearlessness
2. The ability to complete
3. Commitment
4. Inspiration
5. Assuredness
6. Penetration (Being of the people)
7. Intelligence (Ability to reach one's potential)
8. Energy
9. Integrity
10.Perception (Being in the customer's head)

Segil provides examples of leaders with these traits. Reading this in 2009, some of the examples seem very dated, such as General Motors and Chrysler. None-the-less, the leadership traits that Segil identifies still seem relevant.

Two questions came to mind when reading this book regarding education.

1. Given the highly political nature of education in the United States today and the focus on testing and "accountability" is it possible for an educational leader to be "fearless?" If so, who are some "fearless" educational leaders who we can hold up as role models?
2. Educators tend to focus on process, which sometimes delays or even minimizes results. What strategies can we use to help educators to take greater risks in hope of achieving better results?

The Ten Faces of Innovation

Thomas Kelley is the general manager of IDEO and the author of two books on Innovation. The Ten Faces of Innovation is based upon Kelley's work at IDEO, a consulting firm specializing in innovative design work.

Kelley bases The Ten Faces of Innovation upon the premise that successful and innovative organizations are comprised of people who play many different roles. The most destructive of these is the "Devil's Advocate." Kelly suggests that, although the Devil's Advocate usually attempts to frame their comments as being productive and provocative, their real purpose is simply to derail innovative and creative ideas.

Kelley contends that innovative organizations need to discourage the role of the Devil's Advocate and develop and promote characteristics and skills which he describes as the ten faces of innovation.

The Ten Faces of Innovation are:
1. The Anthropologist
2. The Experimenter
3. The Cross-Pollinator
4. The Hurdler
5. The Collaborator
6. The Director
7. The Experience Architect
8. The Set Designer
9. The Care Giver
10. The Story Teller

Kelley notes that it is not necessary for an organization to have all of these personas present on every team for innovation to occur, nor do each of the roles have to be equally weighted. Most organizations have people capable of fulfilling these roles and that it is imperative that organizations value and foster these skills and characteristics if they wish to be truly innovative.

Who would fulfill these roles in the typical school district? How could a school district foster the skills of the The Experience Architect? Or the Anthropologist?

I have included more about the different "Faces" in the CCIU Shared Research Database. You can access the database by clicking on the Posting title. If you need a user name and password, please contact John Branson: johnbr@cciu.org

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell (2008)

In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explores factors that lead to extraordinary success. As the title implies, Gladwell refers to those who enjoy such success as "Outliers." Examples of Outliers include Bill Gates, the Beatles and Robert Oppenheimer among others.

Gladwell demonstrates that many factors determine success that go well beyond the personal traits and talents of the individual. Can success be determined by the month in which you were born? What role do your ancestors and culture play in deciding how successful you may become? How smart is smart enough (you might be surprised)? And if you are smart enough, what can you do to become an outstanding success? What is magical about 10,000 hours?

This is a book with serious implications for educators. I encourage everyone to read it. If you would like a more detailed summary, see my entry in the ERDTS Shared Research Database by clicking on the title.

Grown Up Digital - Tapscott (2009)

I just finished Don Tapscott's latest book, Grown Up Digital. This drew upon extensive research that Tapscott's consulting company had done on behalf of several large corporations. Findings were based on over 7,000 interviews with Net Geners (18 - 29) from around the world and 1600 interviews with Gen X (30 - 41) and Boomers (42-61) from the US and Canada.

Tapscott provides strong support for the younger generation taking on critics, such as author Mark Bauerlein who has deemed the Net Generation as the "Dumbest Generation." Tapscott points out that raw IQ scores have steadily risen since WWII and that by that standard, the Net Generation is actually the "Smartest."

Tapscott's book is interesting, although at times tedious. He identifies eight characteristics of the Net Generation and contrasts them to the Baby Boomer generation. I found one observation by Tapscott to be particularly enlightening.

Critics of the Net Generation often observe that members of this generation have an unusually high propensity for returning to live at home as young adults. Alan November has coined this phenomenon "Boomerang Kids!" Some observers have attributed this tendency to a lack of desire for independence on the part of the Net Generation due to excessive coddling as children. Tapscott offeres a very different interpretation.

One difference between the Net Generation and Baby Boomers that Tapscott and others have noted is the Net Generation's propensity for returning to live at home as young adults. Some observers have criticized this tendency suggesting that it reflects a lack of desire for independence. Tapscott offers an alternate and interesting interpretation.

Boomers, Tapscott being one, grew up in highly hierarchical families. Children enjoyed little freedom at home. Outside the home, however, they experienced a great deal of freedom. Children and teens left home in the morning to play and had little adult supervision throughout the day. They came to associate freedom with being away from the home.

Boomers as parents, however, embraced a very different approach to parenting. They became much more involved in their childrens' lives outside the home. They structured play time, rehearsals, sports etc. At home, they tended to parent in a much more democratic way providing children with more input into decision-making.

With the ability to socially network with friends from home, Net Geners actually experienced more freedom and independence at home than outside of the home. Thus, Tapscott concludes that, unlike Boomers who longed to escape the restrictive home environment, Net Geners view home as a place where they can be independent. Tapscott also notes that the majority of Net Geners interviewed reported good relationships with their parents.

I would love to hear what others think about the above. Is Tapscott right, is this the smartest generation? Or is Bauerlein correct; are they the dumbest?

Are kids today coddled and ill-prepared for independent living? Or are they more independent, regardless of their environment?

What are the implications of these and the other Net Generation Norms for the future of education in America?

from Jason Ohler's 'Then What?'

Food for thought from Then What?:

"Maybe some day we will all consider ourselves citizens of cyberia first and will choose our governments second. Maybe we will choose them the way we choose any professional organization to belong to. Maybe we will commit to them for a certain period of time and then, depending on their track record, either renew our citizenship or go elsewhere."

While Then What? was a wacky read that I am still plodding through, this passage gave me pause. If our software can be chosen, subscribed to, and abandoned for the new and different, why can't our governments, and for that matter, our schools and classes?

The Game of School

A great compliment to Robert Fried's "the Game of School" is Frank Smith's "The Book of Learning and Forgetting". In it he argues that learning is fundamentally a social act. Children need adult role models and as Deborah Meier points out in "In Schools We Trust" the fundamental difference in the modern era is our system of schooling has limited appropriate adult modeling with children.

I am a school administrator so my charge is to make schools better primarily for the students who attend them. Thank you for mentioning the "The Game of School" and the quotes you shared made me read it. I loved it and it will be on our faculty read list this summer.

Understanding the power structures of schools and how they ned to be reformed is essential to creating schools that are actually focused on human growth and learning rather than the petty game of points that Fried so wonderfully dismantles.

Posted by: Charlie A. Roy | March 21, 2009 at 06:14 PM

Wikinomics (2008) - Don Tapscott

Wikinomics, by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, was originally published in 2006 with the expanded edition being released in 2008. Wikinomics is a new business model that is based upon four principles: 1. Openess, 2. Peering, 3. Sharing and 4. Acting Globally.

The authors contend that "Learning to engage and co-create with a shifting set of self-organized partners is becoming an essential skill, as important as budgeting, R&D, and planning.

Wikinomics provides many examples of self-forming groups coming together to collaborate on complex projects and to solve problems. Many of these, such as the development of the Linux operating system and Apache web server, occurred in the Open Source Community. Tapscott and Williams, however, point out that this movement towards mass collaboration extends to non-technology oriented enterprises as well. They provide many examples.

One key observation by the authors is that the distance between producers and consumers has diminished markedly. In fact, the authors coined a new term, "Prosumers" to describe this phenomena. They state that in order to be successful with the new consumer, companies must look at their customers as true, contributing partners.

How can schools prepare students for the world of self-organizing groups that come together to create and collaborate, then disband to seek other opportunities? What skills do students need to be successful "Prosumers?" Will people who do not possess these skills be left out in the cold?

Click

Click was written by Bill Tancer, the general manager of Global Research at Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence company. In Click, Tancer describes how tracking trends in online search terms can provide useful data about what people are thinking, what they value and what they fear.

Tancer begins by noting that the most popular search terms and web sites tend to be associated with "Porn, Pills or Casinos (PPC)." One interesting trend, however, is that as the popularity of Social Networking sites has increased, the interest in adult web sites has decreased. This demonstrates the high interest in social networking and its potential power.

Tancer challenges some of the basic assumptions regarding Web 2.0 including the belief that many of the visitors to these sites are contributors of content, rather than simply consumers. In fact, Tancer provides evidence that only a very small percentage of visitors to sites such as YouTube (0.16%) or Flickr (0.18%)actually upload content. The demographics for contributors for these two sites tend to be young and, in the case of YouTube, tend to be male. Wikipedia has a larger contributor rate of 3.5% with contributors being much older on average. While Wikipedia is popular with a younger demographic, the younger visitors tend to be consumers rather than contributors. Tancer applies the 1/9/90 rule to Web 2.0 sites, where 1% of the visitors represent regular contributors, 9% represent occasional or one time contributors and 90% are simply consumers, or "lurkers."

Tancer concludes his book with a discussion of how innovation and disruptive change occurs in online services. He references the work of Everett Rogers, who coined the phrase, "diffusion of innovation." After conducting extensive research into the introduction and spread of innovative products (hybrid corn seed), Rogers noted that the level of acceptance occurred on a bell curve. He identified five distinct groups including: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. He noted that the key to rapid diffusion lay in the hands of the early adopters.

Tancer used the rapid rise and dominance of YouTube to illustrate this phenomenon. Tancer noted that YouTube actually entered at a time when there were many video sites. Yet, it vaulted from "obscurity to ubiquity" in a span of just 35 days. This was largely due to early adopters sending links and recommendations to friends.

While this book focused largely on marketing and marketing research, it does have implications for education. I found the discussion on contributors to Web 2.0 sites to be interesting and relevant. I also thought that the chapter on innovation diffusion held some valuable insights.

As I finished the book, I came upon an article/blog discussing how Jimmy Wales cites research that supports that most of the contributions to Wikipedia are made by approximately 1,400 people. The author took exception to that and cited research that he had done that actually showed that, while a small group of "insiders" make most of the edit, they are generally changes to format. The actual content, however, has been been contributed by a much larger group that tends to make small and very focused contributions.

If you would like to examine search term trends, visit: www.google.com/trends. It is very interesting.

For a more detailed summary of Click, visit the online ERDTS Shared Research Database.