ILD 831: Reflection Blog, Week 8

What I garnered most from this course was a completely new way of understanding my role as an educational leader. In short, I need to enthusiastically accept the changes needed in my current method of operations and employ far more effective, efficient and innovative ways to help make my professional worth more valuable to the educational community that I serve. This epiphany appeared through many aspects of the course structure, such as the weekly assignments provided by Dr. Watwood, Friedman’s book, the video and written materials Britt used as course links, the eclectic perspectives presented by my classmate’s in their weekly blogs and the challenging responses submitted back to my course blogs. These elements mentioned allowed me to understand much better how technology can be used to offer my students more advantages in life through learning.

I particularly enjoyed the blogs presented by my classmates who were not in the field of education. Their weekly perspectives gave me a sense of how the varying types of technologies are actually used in the business world. Their daily operational structure is so very different from mine, particularly in their use of technology to communicate across a broadened horizon. For my educational colleagues, their blogs provided a kinship with other administrators endeavored to help bring about needed changes within our institution. Moreover, several of them sent me resource links to aid me in finding solutions to professional problems I face.

I have learned that my role as a leader in a digital age needs to take into account the ways education can, is and will change. This entails that I will need to retrain myself to encompass the skills that will allow me to communicate with a larger professional audience on educational matters. Additionally, I will need to provide better professional development in the area of technology use, provide links for my staff and students to open-sourced learning sites, create partnerships with other schools on content instruction and ensure that the communication of information across my school becomes more effective.

My vision will have to change as a leader too. Maintaining a provincial view of education is no longer acceptable in a digital age. I understand now that education is a global matter, and my students are inextricably connected to this world too. My accountability in preparing my students to both cope with and succeed in this flattening world has become a paramount goal of mine. There are far more ways available now for educators to provide information to students other than the traditional ways contained within physical buildings. I will need to actively pursue these new methods to help provide a type of schooling model that allows for more creativity and innovation to occur within my profession.

Finally, this course has already caused me to change as a leader both professionally and personally. I am keenly aware that education is changing rapidly and I want to be able to offer the managerial means to meet the needs for this dynamic. I genuinely want to develop an alternative learning model for students to use and have taken a more serious approach to being an educational role model. There are a number of ways in which I can see how my skills as an educational manager can be applied to helping address some of the niche issues I am interested in related to parent choice of schools and alternative learning models for business-minded students.

 

 

ILD 831: Emerging Technologies Blog, Week 7

The implication for leaders taken from this week’s material is thought provoking. Several points that Kevin Kelly made in his Web Expo 2.0 address were demonstrated within both the Corning and Google videos. The ideas presented by Kelly of the future of the web including more active human screening, interaction, sharing and accessing were demonstrated in the Corning and Google productions. What appeared to me as a consistent feature in this week’s materials though was the absence of education as an institution in this future world. It was neither explicitly mentioned as an important component of the development cycle to the technological advances being portrayed in the two videos, nor suggested by Kelly and Wikipedia as playing a vital role in the learning process of how to use these emerging technologies.

As a leader in the field of elementary education, I find this slight omission of education somewhat daunting. I do realize that this was not the intent of the three videos that were used in this week’s lessons, nor the Wikipedia list of emerging technologies. Yet, within this interactive world portrayed on screen, many of the skills employed by the actors in order to manage their fictional lives effectively are ones that are not currently being emphasized as an integral part of the nationally standardized educational curriculum. Spatial understanding of three-dimensional objects, communicating through virtual means, interpreting signs and symbols, connecting icons in patterns to make sense,  video imaging, manipulating graphic imagery and oral communication are many of the skills portrayed that will be needed by people in the near future. These skills do not necessarily align themselves to the ones being purported as having significance to student achievement within the twenty-first century.

The suggestion to educational leaders is that the current attempt to standardized core learning skills to all K-12 students is outdated already. Which leads to larger questions being asked of educational leaders and their roles in shaping the future. Do the Common Core Standards provide enough information to prepare students to make the cognitive connections needed to function in this type of future world presented? Is enough emphasis being placed upon technology use and skill development through the CCS in order to effectively prepare students for the future? Is there a sufficient amount of time to develop a technology-based curriculum for students to learn in order to adequately function in this future world? Should some of the required content areas be replaced for other content areas that may have more importance in the future? What impact will a visually interpretive world have upon student brain and cognitive development? Is the curriculum being taught today geared towards or even relevant to students who are physically developing different operational means to interpret and explain data? How will American culture change in a world where language acquisition and expression recede their roles as participatory keys within societal interaction?

This was a world presented in the three videos that demonstrated very little written communication, reading comprehension, computational math skills or language expression. This was an analytical world being presented; one, which emphasized the importance of inference, patterns, functions, graphics, reasoning, sequencing and technology use skills. Even the dialogues depicted within the scenes were far more connected to the images being visually presented on screen or within the glasses. There was very little verbal language expression demonstrated, even between the meeting of a friend for coffee or the girlfriend presented on the glasses.

As leaders today, the question of how we are to remain current and adapt to the changes that technology brings is not an easy one to answer. This is primarily due to the changing nature of both technology and time. Neither one remains stagnant and can change faster than our ability as leaders to understand how to adapt or learn the skills necessary to keep pace. I think as a leader the dual management skills of anticipation and prediction will become more important to possess as time goes on. Having the ability to predict the affects of new technology upon the work force one manages, in terms of how emerging technologies will help to increase organizational efficiency, effectiveness, productivity and savings will force leaders to stay current. Anticipating how to meet the needs of the customer through the use of new technology will also cause leaders to be well informed.

Finally, knowing what role a leader plays towards helping building bridges for people to cross into to this future world presented will be important. As a principal of an elementary school, I am keenly aware that the role I play in guiding the students, teachers, parents and community I serve within is to help develop these technological and instructional pathways. My role is to begin this process of transitioning the educational community I serve into using new technologies developed that apply to the educational field.

ILD 831: Intellectual Property Rights Blog, Week 6

Traditionally, governments have undertaken the management and funding operations of large-scale public interest enterprises. These endeavors are ones that are typically characterized by a vast commitment to human personnel, generate little or no income through the sale of a product or offer of service, and are publicly funded by the use of federal, state and local tax dollars. Municipal ventures such as communication, fire service, mass transit, police, departments, public education and space travel serve as examples of government administrative responsibilities.

Usually, this realm of civic commitment on the part of government remains in tact until private enterprise develops a way in which to manage these public operations more effectively. Once the private sector enters into the domains of government ventures, deregulation soon follows with many commercial businesses vying to supply the goods and services that will serve to best meet public interest needs. It is within this transitional phase from public to private ownership that newer methods of efficiency are introduced into the development, production and service cycle.

Education is by no means an institution that is immune to the evolutionary phases of civic needs being met. As a century old American institution, public education is currently experiencing a shift from static to dynamic models being used. New and compelling financial, organizational and technological changes are being introduced daily into the profession in order to allow it to remain viable as an American establishment. It is within this premise of mine that I believe intellectual property rights will play a critical role within public education.

As both managerial and technical platforms continue to evolve, more people directly associated with education will be able to participate within the identification of barriers restricting student achievement and provide solutions to these identified problems. Additionally, people who are not directly employed within the public institution, but still have a keen interest in students being successfully educated, will become more actively involved with education. Parents, community members, service organizations, non-profit groups, private companies and corporations are a few examples of the growing list of persons used to illustrate this point.

As the two sides of people addressing educational concerns converge, new approaches and solutions to formidable student learning barriers will lead to dynamic educational innovations being implemented. We are already seeing these changes occurring in the increasing offers of alternative educational models such as charter schools, online schools, home-school cooperatives, private schools and autodidactic learning. More technical innovations appearing on the horizon and changing education are software programs and web-based applications which address such topics as  shared communication, curriculum content, learning interventions, assessments, financial organization, lesson plan design and open-sourced learning. Not to exclude from this list are the growing hosts of educational consultants and vendors offering a myriad of ways to improve student achievement through the use of their products or services offered.

So how do these transitional changes in public education mentioned relate to intellectual property rights? Well, many of these programs, services and alternative models of education are being developed either directly by, or with the assistance of public education employees. Quite often the means by which the new products or services were developed on was through the use of school district property. Moreover, some employees that copyright or patent their ideas have done so through the use of district resources and time. Afterwards, they end up selling their products back to the district they work in for personal profit. This leads to a major issue school districts are currently facing with regard to intellectual property rights. Questions related to receiving monetary compensation for copyrighted or patented products, the use of public funds for private purposes and developing a product while being paid on district time are among the issues facing school districts today.

This trend within public education of intellectual property being developed on district time, money and resources will continue to rise as more employees transition into private educational businesses. It is something that the institution will have to accept as a natural consequence of becoming a flat world.

References:

Drucker, Peter F. (2001). The Essential Drucker. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc.

Hess, Frederick M. (2008.) The Future of Educational Entrepreneurship: Possibilities for Reform. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.

Robinson, Ken. (2001). Out Of Our Minds: Learning To Be Creative. West Sussex. England. Capstone Publishing Limited.

 

 

 

ILD 831: Challenges and Opportunities Blog, Week 5

To a great extent Friedman argues in his latter chapters that the primary advantages of living in a flat world are threefold: The ability of connected workers to use their imagination towards creating a myriad of opportunities that benefit humanity as a whole, an end to long-standing hegemony’s between countries through mutual trade dependency and a sobering picture of the evil that can befall civilization as a result of the rapid spread of specious dogma from disenfranchised or humiliated organizations.

To begin with, Friedman’s determinedly optimistic view of the roles that hope, vision and imagination play upon humanity is far from naïve. After all, there were other heralds that preceded him with similar views on the importance of these three virtues. Jeremiah, King Solomon and Albert Einstein have all expressed similar ideas on the positive effects on hope, vision and imagination as noted in the footnotes.

One positive result that Friedman sees from worker connectedness is the potential for thriving economic development between companies, countries to occur (Friedman, p. 536). This entails that workers will be able to access new digital and virtual technologies faster, cheaper and tailored to their specific needs. The communication of ideas will increase, as will the ability of the workers to collaborate and  compete on a global scale to increase their own and others standards of living.

Another opportunity created with increased worker connectedness is the ability to collaborate horizontally on defining problems and finding solutions to them. Friedman’s reference to the approach the Gates Foundation took when seeking to fund technological innovations to help remove health barriers in the developing world echoes this point (Friedman, p. 542).

A third prospect for workers is their ability to use new technologies to broaden their knowledge base and participatory input into the success of the company. Workers can now communicate between all levels of the organization offering new ideas to increase efficiency, product development and better customer service. Moreover, the creative atmosphere and sense of belonging to a company through frequent idea exchanges can boost the morale of employees. Peter Senge speaks about this creative process growing his recorded training sessions on the Power of Presence (Senge, 2010). He argues that the more participatory employees can become in the decision making process of the company, the sooner collaboration, collegiality and respect will appear. Once these elements are in place, a company can begin the process of developing a presence, or understanding of what their collective purpose is and the will to creatively accomplish goals that are set.

Contrary to the positive aspects of connectedness are the challenges presented to workers with the use of new technologies. Mary Madden’s article on Networked Workers discusses many of the problems workers now face with the imposition of technology upon their free time away from work. The stresses of working at home while off the clock, checking, wading through emails that take away both personal and productive time, using the time saved as a result of technological efficiency, only to be expected to use the stored time to begin other time consuming business endeavors were all highlighted problems she illustrated through her survey data (Madden, 2008).

A major and ominous problem of worker connectedness that I agree with Friedman is the opportunity for employees to sabotage an organization through technology. He illustrates this point through his analysis of the destructive use of technology by terrorist organizations. He noted that there are far too many people in this world that are simply too sick, too disempowered and too frustrated to participate in the opportunities that present themselves in this connected world. This perspective entails that those people who are within these categories seek negative or destructive ways to harm humanity, slow down the retail ability of countries to compete and keep large segments of society under authoritarian control. Their efforts to destroy rather that to create are fueled by a feeling of displacement, uncertainty, humiliation, jealously and twisted fervor.

On a smaller scale you can already see elements of this type of  ailing world view within employee hate mail attacks, released computer viruses, shooting rampages at the job site and physical threats of mayhem and assault towards colleagues from coworkers.

As a result, the opportunities and challenges that workers face today in their use of technology for good instead of evil is heavily predicated upon their sense of belonging to endeavors that seems purposeful. As a principal, the task for me is to create an environment where my employees gain an understanding that they have a valued place within the organization. One that affords the opportunity for them to contribute their unique talents, ideas, expertise and time towards the development of  creating an educational system that truly gives students advantages in life through learning. 

 References:

Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.

Madden, Mary. Networked Workers. (2008). Retrieved on May 29, 2012.

Senge, Peter. The Power of Presence. Audio recording. (2008). Retrieved on May 29, 2012.

Footnotes:

Jeremiah 29:11 “I know the plans that I have for you. Plans for good and not for evil. Plans that will bring you good future and hope.”

Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people will perish.”

Albert Einstein “Imagination is more important that knowledge. Knowledge is limited.”

 

 

ILD 831: The Changing Nature of Work Blog, Week 4

How is the open, social, increasingly participatory aspect of the web changing the nature of work? What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with this hyperconnected world? The two questions posed from this week’s readings have related applications to the professional concerns raised from my staff members which pertain to alterations made to the school site’s curricular plan, organizational structure, fiscal spending, diagnostic/ assessment tools and work culture.

Essentially, what I am facing as a principal of a historically underperforming, Title I, urban school is a severe lack of student academic achievement. In the combined six years of the school’s California Standards Test (CST) data, prior to my arrival to the school last year (2005-2010), not one of the six major subgroups listed on campus exceeded beyond a combined average total of seventeen percent (17%), within their Reading-Language Arts Adequate Yearly Progress measures. This data reflected testing 4,208 students from the second through fifth grade levels during that period.

Quite obviously there were a multitude of recommended structural changes that needed to be made based upon this small portion of the school’s data. One of the first steps taken was to develop a three-year plan to realistically assess the fiscal health of the school, its governance policies, curriculum and instructional system, communication infrastructure and working environment.  Friedman’s four perspectives on the policies that help to shape wholesale reform of an organization or country parallels this type of focus on basic organizational structures being done right that my staff and I undertook.  [1] 

Once we had established the strengths and weaknesses of each structural component of the school, we moved to the next phase of changes being made, which paralleled Friedman’s perspectives on reform retail’s benefits. [2] In year one of my tenure, we made a conscious effort as a staff to eliminate the most adamant barriers preventing student achievement. Management teamed with the  staff to recommend and implement new school-site governance polices, curriculum development and instructional practices, collaborative teaching models, fiscal controls and standardized diagnostics and assessments.

Of course, some of these changes affected the existing culture of the school, with 42% of the staff members transferring from the campus after the first year. Yet, as we implemented new models of organizational efficiency during the first year, the yield was seen in the redirection of $840,000 gained from the use of redistributed fiscal measures and being placed back into the general supply fund for the instructional staff to use. CST scores in all major subgroups increased within both RLA and Mathematics; and a change in the “intangibles” Friedman discusses were evident, as sacrifices were made for the benefit of the whole group, school-site management provided the avenues for innovation and development to occur and the school renewed its commitment to education. [3]

During the second and current year of my tenure, we addressed the specific concerns with the adoption of the National Core Standards (Common Core Standards). Basically, we looked at ways in which we could synthesize the essential skills for K-5 found within the Common Core, CST, school-site and district assessment measures used. We reduced the total number of 316 combined RLA and Math skills that our students were being assessed on annually (state, district, school-site), down to 17 in RLA and 20 in Math.

This was an incredible savings in the time it took for the staff to prepare lesson plans, document student grades, diagnose student proficiency levels and assess student performance. We even outsourced the lesson plans, diagnostics and assessment processes to existing educational companies and use the savings in our time to innovate on ways in which we can improve our actual classroom instruction.

Much like Friedman’s Rule #7 [4] and Gartner’s Work Swarms, [5] my staff has has committed to using innovation in order to address student achievement through a multitude of partners. Currently, they are creating an open-sourced web account for sharing instructional practices centered on the essential skills we have developed in our new curricular plan. It is limited to my school-site’s use only, but will increase to include other elementary schools, pending my school district’s approval. 

How is the participatory nature of the web changing the nature of work? Well, my staff is communicating and teaming together much faster on problems associated with student performance. They are seeking broader ways in which to expand their ability to become better-trained and more knowledgeable professional educators; and school culture has become far more collegial and friendly over the past two years. Moreover, although my school experienced minor federal and state subgroup increases in RLA and Math during my first year as principal, we have seen some major shifts in the commitment to education on the part of the support of parents and students to our three-year plan.

In terms of the threats and threats and weaknesses of the connected web world, I have seen the more detestable aspects of employees making obnoxious or questionable work-related comments of Facebook. I have seen other colleagues serve as barriers to student achievement because of their inability and reluctance to understand how web-based tools can help improve education; however, I too, was once like them.

My biggest concern within a connected world as it relates to my profession, is that parents and students will simply stop patronizing the existing public school system for more innovative and effective educational models. I just believe the K-12 public education system is not making the necessary technological changes fast enough for parents to remain convinced that their children are gaining advantages in learning through the use of its services provided.

Sources:

1      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. p. 408.

2      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. P. 412.

3      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. p. 427.

4      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY:

Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. P. 465.

5      Gartner Says the World Will Witness 10 Changes During the Next 10 Years. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.gartner.com./it/page.jsp.

 

 

ILD 831: The Changing Nature of Work Blog, Week 4

How is the open, social, increasingly participatory aspect of the web changing the nature of work? What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with this hyperconnected world? The two questions posed from this week’s readings have related applications to the professional concerns raised from my staff members which pertain to alterations made to the school site’s curricular plan, organizational structure, fiscal spending, diagnostic/ assessment tools and work culture.

Essentially, what I am facing as a principal of a historically underperforming, Title I, urban school is a severe lack of student academic achievement. In the combined six years of the school’s California Standards Test (CST) data, prior to my arrival to the school last year (2005-2010), not one of the six major subgroups listed on campus exceeded beyond a combined average total of seventeen percent (17%), within their Reading-Language Arts Adequate Yearly Progress measures. This data reflected testing 4,208 students from the second through fifth grade levels during that period.

Quite obviously there were a multitude of recommended structural changes that needed to be made based upon this small portion of the school’s data. One of the first steps taken was to develop a three-year plan to realistically assess the fiscal health of the school, its governance policies, curriculum and instructional system, communication infrastructure and working environment.  Friedman’s four perspectives on the policies that help to shape wholesale reform of an organization or country parallels this type of focus on basic organizational structures being done right that my staff and I undertook.  [1] 

Once we had established the strengths and weaknesses of each structural component of the school, we moved to the next phase of changes being made, which paralleled Friedman’s perspectives on reform retail’s benefits. [2] In year one of my tenure, we made a conscious effort as a staff to eliminate the most adamant barriers preventing student achievement. Management teamed with the  staff to recommend and implement new school-site governance polices, curriculum development and instructional practices, collaborative teaching models, fiscal controls and standardized diagnostics and assessments.

Of course, some of these changes affected the existing culture of the school, with 42% of the staff members transferring from the campus after the first year. Yet, as we implemented new models of organizational efficiency during the first year, the yield was seen in the redirection of $840,000 gained from the use of redistributed fiscal measures and being placed back into the general supply fund for the instructional staff to use. CST scores in all major subgroups increased within both RLA and Mathematics; and a change in the “intangibles” Friedman discusses were evident, as sacrifices were made for the benefit of the whole group, school-site management provided the avenues for innovation and development to occur and the school renewed its commitment to education. [3]

During the second and current year of my tenure, we addressed the specific concerns with the adoption of the National Core Standards (Common Core Standards). Basically, we looked at ways in which we could synthesize the essential skills for K-5 found within the Common Core, CST, school-site and district assessment measures used. We reduced the total number of 316 combined RLA and Math skills that our students were being assessed on annually (state, district, school-site), down to 17 in RLA and 20 in Math.

This was an incredible savings in the time it took for the staff to prepare lesson plans, document student grades, diagnose student proficiency levels and assess student performance. We even outsourced the lesson plans, diagnostics and assessment processes to existing educational companies and use the savings in our time to innovate on ways in which we can improve our actual classroom instruction.

Much like Friedman’s Rule #7 [4] and Gartner’s Work Swarms, [5] my staff has has committed to using innovation in order to address student achievement through a multitude of partners. Currently, they are creating an open-sourced web account for sharing instructional practices centered on the essential skills we have developed in our new curricular plan. It is limited to my school-site’s use only, but will increase to include other elementary schools, pending my school district’s approval. 

How is the participatory nature of the web changing the nature of work? Well, my staff is communicating and teaming together much faster on problems associated with student performance. They are seeking broader ways in which to expand their ability to become better-trained and more knowledgeable professional educators; and school culture has become far more collegial and friendly over the past two years. Moreover, although my school experienced minor federal and state subgroup increases in RLA and Math during my first year as principal, we have seen some major shifts in the commitment to education on the part of the support of parents and students to our three-year plan.

In terms of the threats and threats and weaknesses of the connected web world, I have seen the more detestable aspects of employees making obnoxious or questionable work-related comments of Facebook. I have seen other colleagues serve as barriers to student achievement because of their inability and reluctance to understand how web-based tools can help improve education; however, I too, was once like them.

My biggest concern within a connected world as it relates to my profession, is that parents and students will simply stop patronizing the existing public school system for more innovative and effective educational models. I just believe the K-12 public education system is not making the necessary technological changes fast enough for parents to remain convinced that their children are gaining advantages in learning through the use of its services provided.

Sources:

1      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. p. 408.

2      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. P. 412.

3      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. p. 427.

4      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY:

Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. P. 465.

5      Gartner Says the World Will Witness 10 Changes During the Next 10 Years. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.gartner.com./it/page.jsp.

 

 

ILD 831: Knowledge Management Blog, Week 3

Thomas Friedman’s Triple Convergence theory is based upon three components. First, the steady convergence of the ten flatteners he mentioned in Chapter 2 created a new platform that enabled individuals, groups, companies and universities the opportunity to collaborate on projects without geographic, time, language and distance barriers. [1] Second, this new operating stage created a set of business practices and skills by which organizations could exchange information and collaborate on projects within a more efficient and faster horizontal plane. [2] Third, with the onset of the world becoming flatter by means of a new operating platform, coupled with the development of more efficient business tools and practices, a massive influx of people, three billion in number, were able to join the global business innovation and product development market. [3]

Complementary to Friedman’s ideas on convergence are both Dixon’s and Jarche’s views on knowledge management and social learning. Nancy Dixon illustrates in her work the history of how organizations have viewed their knowledge capacity and use. [4] Her conclusion that the leveraging of collective knowledge within an organization will increase its ability to have all levels participate as a whole (Friedman’s Convergence I), find strategic solutions to problems faced (Friedman’s Convergence II), and increase organizational innovation (Friedman’s Convergence III) fits well within Friedman’s premise.

Moreover, Harold Jarche’s view of social learning being used by organizations as a method to transfer knowledge through connections made with others (Friedman’s Convergence I), increase faster rates of business and technological changes (Friedman’s Convergence II), and provide better feedback on environmental changes back to the organization (Friedman’s Convergence III) matches Friedman’s argument as well. [5]

All three authors read this week provide practical examples of how web-based tools can both improve the management of knowledge. Dixon’s notation of the benefits of Think Tank software used within the Knowledge Café framework by NASA, [6] Jarche’s reference to WorldBlu’s role in helping organizations to design and develop successful democratic organizations, [7] and Friedman’s references to Konica Minolta’s bizhub and Southwest’s airlines at-home ticketing service [8] are used as evidence to support the positive impact of web-based tools upon businesses and organizations.

Which leads us into the question of what is the role of leadership in knowledge management? I think Peter Drucker stated it best when he maintained in his book, The Essential Drucker,  “To be sure, the fundamental task of management remains the same: to make people capable of joint performance through common goals, common values, the right structure, and the training and development they need to perform and respond to change.” [9] Much of what Dixon, Jarche and Friedman purport in their writings fit within Drucker’s view of the role of a leader.

Another critical role of leadership in knowledge management is the understanding that both organizations and businesses are linked to the welfare of human beings. This observation entails that the leader must combine and employ all organizational platforms, technology, capital, human resources and models of shared knowledge into a singular, unifying objective of creating a product that the consumer finds advantageous to use in his or her life.

It is within this framework that I am making the argument that the role of leadership in knowledge management is to develop ways to combine the shared knowledge of an organization with its technical ability and innovative methods in order to create a product or service that meets the needs of new consumers.

Sources:

1      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. p. 204.

2      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. P. 207.

3      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. P. 210.

4      The Three Eras of Knowledge Management Summary. Retrieved May 14, 2012, from http: //www.nancydixonblog.com/2010/08/

5      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.).

6      The Three Eras of Knowledge Management Summary. Retrieved May 14, 2012, from http:   //www.nancydixonblog.com/2010/08/

7            WorldBlu: Most Democratic Workplaces. Retrieved May 14, 2012, from

             http://www.worldblu.com/

8             Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.).   New York, NY:

             Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, p.202.

9             Drucker, Peter F. (2001). The Essential Drucker. New York, NY: Harper

             Collins Publishers, Inc. p.4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ILD 831: Web-based Tool Blog, Week 2

The web-based tool that I researched as a subject for this week’s assignment is named TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design). According to sources used, the original founder of the organization was Richard Saul Wurman, who in 1984 developed the idea to converge three elements among his personal interests in technology, entertainment and design into a powerful means to foster and transmit “ideas worth spreading.” [1] Since 1996, the organization has been owned by Chris Anderson, a media entrepreneur, as part of his privately held, non-profit, Sapling Foundation. [2] Under his direction TED has branched into new forms of communication such as TEDGlobal, TEDPrize and TEDTalks to help spread its core message that “there is no greater force for changing the world than a powerful idea.” [3]

As a whole, the TED links exist as vast and eclectic repositories of video conferences aimed at providing an international platform for many of the world’s most accomplished and interesting artists, educators, inventors, leaders, scientists and visionary thinkers to communicate their ideas on improving the world’s physical and human conditions. The diverse topics of discussion are presented within a thirty minute or less format to both live and simulcast audiences. Many of the audience members and online viewers of the presentations continue these discussions by forming global communities linked by common interests and objectives.

In keeping with chapter two of Friedman’s book, TED fits into the realm of websites used for uploading, viewing and sharing video content to empower audiences. [4] Additionally, TED is related to Friedman’s position on being a component of Flattener #9, In-Forming, which argues that the availability of information online allows for groups to form as empowered global communities. [5]

TED being used as a web-based tool to improve workplace productivity has several practical applications. When viewed as a means to help foster a culture of learning, encourage a climate of high expectations and improve the creative capacity of an organization through focused dialogue, it fits neatly into the human resources division of an organization. Keep in mind that all TED links are designed to support the foundation’s beliefs that ideas are created out of inspired imagination, can be transferred across the world, have an extraordinary receiving impact, can reshape the views of the world, alter human behaviors and can be passed to connect with other creative ideas. [6] As a result, TED ideals complement many of the human resource goals found within successful organizations that believe a central objective of the company is to inspire, develop, motivate and support its employees’ ability to achieve.

Finally, consistent with the premise of Friedman’s flat world, TED videos can be used as a resource to help connect the global workplace and find innovative ways to address and solve unfamiliar problems faced. The knowledge gleaned from conference speakers can be applied to establishing links with other global forums that have similar interests, new perspectives and innovative solutions.

Sources:

1      TED (conference). Retrieved May 10, 2012, from http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_talks

2      About TED: History. Retrieved May 09, 2012, from http://www.ted.com/pages/16

3      About TED: Who we are: Who owns TED. Retrieved May 09, 2012, from http://www.ted.com/pages/42

4      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. p.181.

5      Friedman, Thomas L. (2007). The World is Flat (3^rd ed.). New York, NY: Picador/ Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. p.183.

6       About TED: Who we are: Who owns TED. Retrieved May 09, 2012, from http://www.ted.com/pages/42

ILD 831: Flat or Spiky World, Week 1 Blog

Thomas Friedman asserts in his flat-earth, or leveled argument that individuals are increasingly becoming empowered to collaborate and compete on a global scale for economic wealth. This ability for individuals and small groups to establish their economic viability through the use of open communication means provided on the web allows for less emphasis for business to occur in historically located urban areas. On the other hand, Richard Florida’s makes the argument that these same open communication dynamics Friedman discusses are actually accelerating the concentration of economic wealth into a few urban-centered, global locations. Thus, Florida’s proposal is that the world is not flat, but instead spiky.

The perspectives issued from each author on the global generation of business and its impact upon individual opportunity can be viewed as both right and paradoxical at the same time. Yes, modern web-based communication methods and the convergence of computers, digital content and software have boosted individual participation, diversity and geographic range in commerce. Yet, individuals are using these new forms of trade innovations provided to focus their creative talents within a relatively few, highly concentrated urban areas.

Although there is enough evidence presented from both authors to argue their conclusions, there is a unifying point in their individual beliefs. Implicit within each writer’s assertions is that greater access to knowledge is allowing people to gain increased advantages in life over those who do not have access to knowledge. Friedman and Florida use a variety of examples in their works to quietly infer this point. They both cite as follows:

• Percentage of MBA graduates in India (89,000 annually)
• Accounting graduates in India (75,000 annually)
• Technology-based graduate students in China (100,000)
• Outsourcing accounting, journalism, radiology, call centers
• Major technology companies in India and China: Intel, IBM, GE, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Dell, Sony, Hewlett-Packard
• Home sourcing of travel reservations
• Patent filings
• Citations or patents to scientists
• Population centers
• Light emission maps

These indicators used by both authors suggest that access to knowledge plays a critical role in allowing more individuals to enjoin themselves into participating and creating new business endeavors on a global scale. Correspondingly, these commerce interests undertaken, whether flat or spiky, are increasing opportunities for both rural and urban people to combine their skills and expertise into highly innovative business projects, which help to establish new avenues for people to participate in and improve their economic condition.