Nine Shift

Time for better online courses

We teach faculty how to teach online. So we see a lot of online courses.

They are not high quality. At least, not high quality for Gen Y and succeeding generations.
For a start, only about 11% of online courses have multimedia (audio, animation, slide shows) and interactivity (simulations; online gaming, drag-and-drop).

Recently James Surowiecki, New Yorker financial columnist, noted that the same situation existed 100 years ago with the movies. He writes:

"In 1918, the movie business found itself in crisis. Moviegoers...had been growing bored with the crude, melodramatic shorts of the day. Photoplay commented, 'The producer...is not producing good enough pictures. Unless he does so, and does so promptly, the movie business cannot hope long to endure.' " 

The New Left becomes the Old Left

When I was 20, I was part of the New Left.  The Old Left was the 1930s.

We went to Fighting Bob Fest this month. It was great.
Fighting Bob was Robert LaFollette, a progressive Republican who later formed a third party, the Progressives, exactly 100 years ago. If you don't know this, read more about him.

Speaker after speaker outlining the problems of America.
Time and again, they accurately portrayed the problems.
And time and again, they provided 20th century answers.

* High price of gas.  Wrong answer: low prices.  Right answer: trains.
* Jobs going to China.  Wrong answer: trade barriers, no free trade.  Right answer: knowledge jobs.
* Low worker pay.  Wrong answer: strikes. Right answer: college for everyone.
* Wealth concentrated in the top 1%.  Their answer: tax the rich.  Right answer: Tax the rich!
(o.k., they got one right)

How do you address an envelope?

"How do you address an envelope?" my 19 year old son asked me tonight.

He needed to write thank-you notes for his graduation gifts.
I knew this day would come. Somebody had predicted it.  So I was prepared.
And I told him how to address an envelope, where his return address should go, and where the stamp goes.

In his life, he is not likely to need to know this quaint old fashioned bit of knowledge.

Their concept of time is all different

Gen Y's concept of time is all different.

When Michele Melendez of Newhouse News Service interviewed us about the long term societal impact of Hurricane Katrina on children just being born, one of the changes is the ability, and necessity, of being very flexible and instant with time and place. 

Example. When we sent our son Willie to Japan earlier this summer to visit Kentaro, I planned the trip about five months in advance.  When Julie and I walked into the house this week, there was Kentaro (surprise!), having just arrived from Tokyo. 

In a few days he will fly to Seattle. I found a great fare of just $89. But since it was 4 days before he was to leave, that was too much time. Kentaro waited a day or two, making final arrangements, and then booking his ticket.   Prediction: an airline will soon allow same-day reservations-travel. For Gen Y, 4 days from now is too far in an every-changing future to commit to any appointments.

Does your milkman cometh?

Delivered groceries on their way.

I took our AFS Japanese student Kentaro to the store and we bought milk. Third time today I had to use the car, and it doesn't feel good anymore.

On the way home, I told him about 50 years ago, when I was a kid, the milkman delivered milk, and bread was delivered as well.  He told me his family in Tokyo has groceries delivered now.  Every Monday, the grocery company delivers groceries, brings a new catalog, and takes the order form back for next Monday's delivery.  Coming soon to knowledge workers' who really value their time.

If you are old enough to remember 2000 when the online grocer went bankrupt, commentators predicted grocery delivery would 'return' in 2010. We'll see how fast it happens, but happen it will.

If you have any home deliveries, tell us about it in the Comments section.

The greatest man-made, uh natural, disaster

America bless God.

Hurricane Katrina reminded me of this bumper sticker about another place, same time. I don't really think the hurricane was God's fault.  As in the insurance language, "acts of God." Some American facts that the other 96% of the world already knows and is constantly, and in vain, trying to communicate to us in U.S.

#1. With just 4% of the world's population, we use up 35% of the world's resources, like energy.
#2. The U.S. is the biggest polluter of carbin dioxide at 23%, thus the greatest contributor to global warming.
#3 The U.S. refuses to conserve energy, develop alternative transportation, or decrease pollution with the Kyoto accords.
#4. The Gulf is 2 degrees warmer now due to global warming, thus increasing the frequency and intensity of hurricane.

Conclusion: fill in the blank.  (photo of Two Jesters, the group LERN hired for its conference in New Orleans in November, now obviously  and sadly moved to a new city)

PS: Give to Red Cross relief or join LERN's relief effort.

The end of the Middle Class

Remember the airline strike at Northwest? Well, here's who's to blame.

The mechanics are right. They have nothing to lose. Either way they get a job that does not pay for a middle class standard of living.
The airlines are right. Businesses are now unable to compete by providing their employees (the bottom 90% of society) with a middle class wage.

The biggest loser is society. And society is to blame. We have destroyed our middle class while other countries are building their middle class with knowledge-worker jobs, health insurance, and education.  (I knew this would be a happy post)

Unions and strikes were almost the enitre reason why we were able to have a middle class in the last century. It is now likely that 1) strikes will no longer be a viable option for workers; and 2) people will now have to find another successful tactic to re-create a middle class for the future.

It is clear that in the 21st century, people in the middle class will have a college education and a knowledge job. The good news is we can do it. Let's start now!

Best Comments of the Month

Time to acknowledge and thank the folks who have made a comment on the NineShift weblog.

And to award prizes (yet undetermined) to the people with the top 3 comments of the past month.
Now that the weblog gets more than 1,100 views a month, we want to encourage more comments.
We almost have as many Comments as Posts, so that is a good start.  This month's awards:

Funniest comment:  Erick Holden, see his Comment under Aug 29 entry.
Most poignant: Gemi Powell, see her Comment under Aug 15 entry.
Most Amazing Fact: Suzanne Kart, see her Comment under Aug 19 entry.

For an excerpt of each, click on Comments under this entry.

Ya gotta understand

"Ya gotta understand." The worst customer service phrase ever.

When you hear it, you know you're in trouble. It means the person is only thinking about themself, their own insulated institutional world, and the customer is definitely not Number 1.

Last month our son Sammie enrolled in a technical college (see "Sammie tries to enroll," August 15 entry). Bad enough customer-service-nightmare.  But then we had to get him books. 

So Julie calls the college bookstore. They need to know Sammie's "schedule."  But no one will tell us his "schedule" (there's only one offering of his courses in our tiny town) This is TOP CONFIDENTIALCLASSIFIED INFO , even though we are his parents and paying the bill. 

After a few phone calls, Julie (being smarter than them) tries a new angle and asks his instructor/advisor if he can tell us Sammie's "courses."  Of course, he says. Just not his "schedule."  If this makes any sense to you, let us know. In essence, Julie is doing their thinking for them.  Julie goes to the bookstore with his "courses" and they finally ship the books.  Can this college make it any harder?   We'll see. 

Instant Messaging vs. Email

If the kids are doing it, it's important to the 21st century.

So when I saw kids seemingly to prefer Instant Messaging (IM)- - synchronous OVER email - - asynchronous, I was confused.

Asynchronous appears to be far better for online courses than synchronous. But the kids usually know better. So are they telling us something about synchronous? 

Apparently not. The Pew Internet group did a study, coming to the same conclusions we've known for several years.  I wrote asking them the implications. They did not reply! But the slashdot weblog readers had plenty of analysis. In the comment section, I post the best ones.