Making education ‘real’ the key to success in the Fourth Industrial Revolution Connecting the dots is a marketable skills is this age of disruption
As a teacher I like to stretch my students.
I like to push them to their limits so that redefine what is possible and what success means to them. I believe it is my responsibility as an educator to get my students ready to not only thrive but to equipment them with the skills and mindset to be able to shape the world in which they live.
This personal mission has become all the more pressing with the rapid technological changes underway as the Fourth Industrial Revolution takes shape and gathers monument in both scale and scope.
But how?
My Students
The students of the Post- grad logistics programme at the School of Business and Entrepreneurial Studies (SOBES) of Excelsior Community College in Kingston, Jamaica, were the victims or should I say victors of this personal mission.
These intrepid souls, they signed up for my class after all – just kidding – are all young professionals for professional or personal reason have decided to up-skill their knowledge and skillset in the area of logistics. And even with my biased view I think they made the right choice, logistics -the careful organization of a complicated activity so that it happens in a successful and effective way- after all is the glue that keeps our globalized world together.
For all but a few of them logistics and supply chain management was a whole new subject area.
They are simply great students. A teacher could not hope for a better group of students And as much as I stretched them they equally have pushed me to be better.
And for that I must tell them a special THANK YOU!
Mission to connecting the dots
My personal mission to equip my student with the skills to thrive and shape the world in which they live is guided by my own educational experiences. Particularly one that repeated itself with frightening frequency:
The lack of connection between what is being taught and the real world.
There was no connecting of the dots.
I am sure this is something that many can relate to.
Subjects are often taught in isolation of each other and in isolation of real world applications. It is not that these connections or real world applications don’t exist. For they do. It was that teachers failed to engage the students to bring the subject to life and make it ‘real.’
Just think back to how you were taught history for example: a barrage of fact and figures arraigned in a sequence. No wonder most people find history boring. I was one of those fortunate souls that loved history. Fortunately, I had an uncanny ability to take that tsunami of facts and figures and weave them together into entertaining stories. I literally could see history play out like a movie in my minds eye. As a result I would connect the dots to see how the past shaped the present and how it could influence the future. For me this was equally true in science, politics, literature or social studies. Needless to say history was a ‘real’ and practical subject for me.
So when people would say history was boring I would not relate. Well at least not until the end of university when I finally had a teacher that broke my movie making ability and almost ruined my love of history. But all was not lost, I learned a great lesson out of the experience, albeit not one that would immediately recognize.
The greatest thing I learned from that class was empathy, empathy for those that just don’t get it. Students!
Students who by their very nature are embarking on a journey to learn and are introduced to new things, strange things, things that they thought they knew but now have to rethink. In this case this was logistics.
Please don’t get me wrong this is not a call for only the teaching of “practical subjects” – read to mean only subjects that students can use to directly get jobs that exist now in the market place.
No!
I am not calling for the scrapping of literature, art, history, philosophy or music, etc to be replaced by the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).
Far from it.
Such a call would run counter to my personal philosophy:
A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect. – Sir Francis Bacon.
Re-thinking education
What I am calling for is a re-thinking of education.
Teacher, myself included, have to make a greater effort to connect the dots and make All subjects ‘real’ to their students. This has become all the more importation given the disruptive technologies that are part and parcel of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The Answer to #Disruptive #Technology is "Education"! But we aren't there yet.
— Erik P.M. Vermeulen (@erikpmvermeulen) May 20, 2018
In a digital age, #education must focus on #design thinking, #decentralization & co-creation: https://t.co/VPCNbymfnj#ArtificialIntelligence #blockchain #life #tech #automation #futureofwork
As educators how do we create the architects and not just the working masons of this world?
The answer is simple:
Connect the dots and make what you are teaching ‘real.’
Now with that out of the way come explore with me an example of how I am attempting to do just that. Let me introduce you to:
Excelsior Community College: Post-grad Logistics and Supply Chain Management Assignment 2018
The assignment is set out below however I will be sharing the results over the next coming weeks.
Introduction
The ability to not only collect but to analyze, visualize and weave data together into a compelling story is a powerful skill in today’s information age. What is more, data analytics and data visualization fields are emerging fields that are increasing in prominence in media outlets, governments, in business, etc. Therefore, individuals or organizations that develop this skill set have the ability to distinguish themselves by being able to tell their stories in visually compelling ways.
There are several, free and paid, internet-based applications that let authors combine beautiful visualizations with narrative text, images, videos and social media. The applications are designed to be attractive and usable by anyone, which makes them great for education and outreach, either to the general public or to a specific audience. This makes mindmapping ideal to show at presentations, classes, and workshops to engage people and influence decision makers and stakeholders.
Mindmapping
What is a mindmap? A mind map is a visual representation of hierarchical information that includes a central idea surrounded by connected branches of associated topics. There are a variety of mindmaping technologies out there, however, they are all designed to make it easy for you to harness the power of mindmap to tell your story.
Mindmaping are therefore a simple yet powerful way to inform, engage, and inspire people in the electronic and information age we live in. Mindmaps can be made for a wide variety of subjects and is multidisciplinary.
Mindmapping, as previously indicated is part of the emerging fields of data analytics and data visualization, is a means of developing and demonstrating several of the sought after skills projected by the World Economic Forum to be needed in 2020. Specifically, the top three skills of complex problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity are at the heart of mindapping.
General Parameters
As future logisticians you may be called upon from time to time to map supply chains and produce reports focused on the export potential of a product in certain markets. Your assignment is to create graphically appealing story/report supported by research using the mindmapping feature in the GoConqr online platform. Using mapmapping techniques you will create a report on the export potential of a specific product (with Jamaica being the manufacturing point of origin) that you have selected from the following list of industries:
- Electronics
- Automotive
- Aerospace
- Aluminium
- Medical Devices
* It is important to note that the products that will be selected will not be products that are currently manufactured in Jamaica. Additionally the products were selected from Jamaica’s Logistics Hub Master Plan and Industry Analysis.
Number of mindmaps
You are to create four (4) mindmaps of the following:
Product profile
- Explain what the product is?
- Size of global market
- Where does it fall on the:
- Atlas of complicity (What is this?)
- The Observatory of Economic Complexity (What is this?)
The product’s value chain
- Map out the value chain
- Identify and highlight the area or areas that Jamaica currently occupies in the value chain
Its top markets
- Identify the top five (5) exporting countries
- Does Jamaica have trade agreements with these countries?
- What is the duty paid to enter Jamaica?
- What are the top five (5) importing countries?
- Does Jamaica have trade agreements with these countries?
- What is the duty paid to enter each export market from Jamaica?
- What is the export potential in term of US dollar value from Jamaica to these top five (5) importers
Suppliers
- Identify the top five (5) companies that produce the product
- Identify the top five (5)
Parameters of Mindmaps
The assignment is to adhere to the following parameter set out below. Each mindmap should have the following:
- Nodes: Max 20, Min 10
- Annotation/Notes: Max 10, Min 5
- Videos: Max 3, Min 1
- Images: Max 3, Min 1
Platform
Name: GoConqr
Learning Objectives
Learning mindmapping techniques using the GoConqr technology; learn techniques that are transferable to any other mindmapping technology; develop range of skills including the top three sought after skills of the future as identified in the World Economic Forum’s: The Future of Jobs report (complex problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity).
Learning Outcomes
On completion of the course students will improve their complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity and research skills. Additionally, using those skills students will be able to produce their own mindmaps.
What were the results?
Stay tuned for the results in the up coming weeks but here is sneak peak:
Mind Map created by Kamesa Williams with GoConqr
