• 05May
    Author: Katherine Pisana Categories: Education, Educational Technology Comments: 5

    RSS Job SearchI’ve started looking for a job this week, so I can tell you that the economy is much more of interest to me now than ever, particularly how it’s affecting higher education. I subscribe to a number of job search engines and associations that also syndicate new openings, so I’ve been observing the job market in California for a couple of months now. I’ve noticed very few instructional designer roles opening up, and even those that are published directly on university websites come with a disclaimer that although you can apply, they are currently under a hiring freeze so you might never hear back from them.

    I’ve also noticed some phenomenal roles – policy makers, strategists and managers of institution-wide educational technology initiatives. These are generally posted by higher education institutions that have newly established ‘elearning units’ – hubs or centers of excellence with remits to expand hybrid and fully online course offerings for their universities. These jobs sound great, not only because of the stimulating challenges that lie waiting for the people who land the roles, but also because they show signs of greater understanding and openness on the side of the institutions who are ready, willing and eager to invest in educational technology initiatives.

    So, now back to some thoughts on the economy…

    Alan Tait wrote an interesting post on the EDEN President’s Blog about Scotland’s economy and how, through direct engagement with employers, higher education in the UK is able to design custom training for the workforce to ensure that the teaching is relevant, and that the industries feel the benefits. I wanted to include below a snippet of his impressions of the ways in which the oil and gas sectors view the relevance of education:

    I was surprised by the almost total focus on the recruitment of the brightest and best of new graduates, and on coping with the difficulty in persuading new graduates that the Oil and Gas industries are attractive places to build a career. There was almost no focus from the industry representatives on the development of people in their existing workforce. My only contribution was to point out that if the competition for the brightest and best new graduates was already fierce this would only get worse because of the demographic down turn, in many developed countries at least, of this age cohort. This would mean development of the current workforce would become even more important than it was already, and that the emphasis on non-campus based forms of study that supported learning in and around the workplace rather just the campus would become all the more important.

    Some industry giants must have heard Tait’s call because they’re already starting to do their part. Microsoft announced the launch of a new program in February designed to ‘provide up to 2 million people over the next three years with the technology training needed to succeed in the 21st-century economy’. A very important step considering that our focus can’t just be on current college students struggling to get heard in the blogosphere, and kids in K-12 who we’re trying to teach about technology at as early an age as we can. How about the current workforce – those still in it that is? Companies are not likely in the position to invest in on-the-job training, and employees are probably juggling with the new responsibilities faced by so many families who have had to transition from 2- to 1-income households. These types of new training initiatives only require time and determination from the life-long student…and the payoffs of self-empowerment would be priceless.

    So, as the sun spills onto my carpet as I sit on my sofa (a change of pace from being proverbially chained to my desk – the magic of laptops!) and I can still take advantage of the quiet while the commuters are still on the roads returning home, I’ll post this message and get back to work. First point on the agenda: finish watching a webinar entitled ‘The Economy’s Impact on Higher Education’ – part of Educause’s monthly series discussing how the economic climate is impacting upon the education sector. Let’s hope they have some good news…


  • 08Apr
    Author: Katherine Pisana Categories: Education, Technology Comments Off on Chalk vs. Tech

    When I graduated from my first degree, I didn’t know that the job I have today even existed. What does that mean about what I chose to study? If the jobs that today’s students will have tomorrow don’t exist yet, how does a student know how to choose the right course of study? What subjects will be relevant to their profession? What tools are going to help them in the workplace after they graduate?

    A business degree was a marketable degree so that’s why I chose to study it, but the closer I got to the fourth and final year of the degree, the further I found myself diverging away from the values and beliefs representative of that community. Perhaps it was a lesson I had to learn for myself, but it made me wonder how my first university experience could have been different if my passion for what I was studying grew with each new thing I learned rather than dissolved into the background of a down turning economy.

    I’m not trying to imply that we need a mechanism that would enable prospective students to see the future before they have to pick their course of study, but I am wondering whether it’s realistic or even practical to expect a higher education institution to be able to equip students with the skills and tools they need to not only function but also flourish once they get into the real world.

    I’m afraid it comes back down to the teachers once again. If the teacher’s talking to the board, and the student is plugged into the technology, where’s the connection?

    Where's the connection?

    Where's the connection?


  • 13Feb
    Author: Katherine Pisana Categories: Education Comments Off on The Google Generation vs Dumb & Dumber

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    “It’s very dangerous to simply stereotype a whole generation, give it a label [and] put it to one side…”

    Dr Ian Rowlands

    Have you noticed that the concept of ‘information overload’ is becoming less popular? It seems it’s being replaced by the idea of the evolution of a ‘dumbed down society’. Now, this video is of a presentation given at the Open University, UK by Dr. Ian Rowlands of the Centre for Publishing at University College London. During the video, he discusses the idea of the Google Generation and how children who grew up immersed in a technology-rich environment are developing into a ‘new breed’ of student. I just have a question I wanted to release into the blogosphere – a question that came to me while watching the webcast:

    Until recently, the argument was being put forth that in today’s world, the PhD is what the Masters degree was 15-20 years ago, and the Masters degree has the perceived value of the Undergraduate degree of the 1980’s. But, if society is ‘dumbing down’, then doesn’t that mean that reflective students are becoming a valuable commodity again? Or…are we becoming too ‘dumb’ to see the value all together?