Nine Shift

Do you feel guilty driving your car?

Last week I ran into the mother of Landon, one of Willie's best friends.  Virginia told me Landon felt so guilty buying a car.  

I didn't understand the "guilty" part until the next day, when I listened to a Gen Y radio station, and the young woman announcer said:
"Think of all the money you spend on your car, totally destroying the environment."

More evidence why Gen Y will kill cars and transition to trains.  Do you feel guilty driving your car?

Breakthrough in Homework Policy

Toronto schools will no longer punish students for late homework.  Here's what administrator Karen Grose told Nine Shift:

"Homework is not marked/evaluated--it is assessed to direct students in their learning goals. As it is not marked, there is no mark deduction for being late--rather progressive consequences (ie a range of supports to then help the student get it done).
Assignments of course are evaluated. Again, if late a range of progresive consequences are applied.  After the large range of supports and progressive consequences, mark deduction could be used as a very last resort."

Here's a link to the announcement.
Congratulations Toronto District School Board. This is exciting news !

Airline exec supports rail over planes

Another irony. A day after we propose rail take over regional flights, we find an airline exec is urging it as well.
American Airlines ex-CEO Robert Crandall also supports high speed trains replacing planes for regional trips.

In a New York Times article last week, he called for "high-speed rail systems that would encourage the use of airports that are farther away from the cities they serve." 

His article got good reader support for his rail proposal as well, see this Letter.

Trains will replace regional flights

NineShifter Eric from Boston asks why someone would take a train, rather than a plane, all the way across the country.

Here's the answer: they won't.  Trains won't replace planes for long distances.  However, for regional flights trains will replace trains. 

Trains will reduce air traffic congestion and reduce air pollution. But here are the Big 3 reasons why trains will replace planes for regional flights (1-500 miles).

1. Frequency.
Trains can run much more frequently than planes because they stop at cities in between, picking up passengers. 

2. Cost.
Trains are cheaper than plane tickets.  And regional planes are also much more expensive to operate for airlines than either trains or long haul planes.

3. Time.
Time is money.  As trains go 250 mph (like they do already in Europe) it will take less time to take a train than a plane.  Drive-to-airport : Park : Go through Security : Be an Hour Early :  Board 30 min. ahead of flight : Taxi to runway : We're off !  (Land : DePlane : Get Luggage : Find Car : Drive !)

'Virtual Association' seminar premieres

Association executive Judy Gombita of Toronto said the time was right to do a seminar on Becoming a Virtual Association.  Judy was right.

This month we premiered our first seminar on Becoming a Virtual Association, telling about how LERN became a virtual association ten years ago on June 1, 1998.  We also outlined the how-to steps association executives should take today to become virtual.

The primary reason why associations and other information organizations should become virtual: to recruit the best people.

(Photo: Judy Gombita, second from right, with other association executives at the seminar premiere in Toronto this month)   Thanks Judy!

Why train people don't understand trains

Well, I finally figured out why even train people don't understand that trains are replacing cars.

I was in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, doing NineShift and talking with David, an African who grew up in Uganda. At age 24, his perspective in life is just like my own son, age 21, who grew up in Kansas and Wisconsin.  (Photo: me and David in New Brunswick)

It's because most train people are over 40. Gen Y understands trains.  Gen Y wants trains.

P.S. Going home this month, saw two Amish buggies pulled by horses. The horses are so beautiful, strong and magnificant.

The Recession cure

Recession cure: the economic double standard

 Ever notice how consumers are urged to spend their way out of the recession?

 Ever notice how businesses are urged to stockpile their money?

 What’s good for the goose must be good for the gander. 

It's only a recession if you're a person

 If you are a business, there does not appear to be a recession. I went to the airport recently, getting one of the last parking spaces in the lot before it filled up. Waiting in the security line, I overheard one guy look around the crowded airport and tell his colleague, “There’s no recession in the airport.” For business people, there’s no recession.

 And if businesses invested some of their huge stockpiles of money in their future, the rest of us wouldn’t be experiencing a recession either.

Why there's a recession

  The reason there is a recession is because business is not investing in the economy (infrastructure, technology, training, nada). A great story by Diana Henriques in the NY Times confirms this. I figured it out one day, the next day her story appeared (she wins). The story headline: "Unlike consumers, companies are piling up cash."

 The media always blames the consumer (you and me), saying consumers are two-thirds of the economy. But what about the other third?

 That must be business. And business has plenty of cash. Too much. And they are just hoarding it, not giving pay raises, not buying technology, not hiring, not training.

 Businesses could (should, must) invest in their own future, and in doing so, get us out of the recession (win-win).

Nine Shift outlines 21st Century Testing for Test Publishers

 In a major keynote address before the Association for Test Publishers annual conference, Nine Shift co-author Wm. Draves outlined the future of testing in the 21^st century.

   Testing will become even more important in this century than in the last one, he noted.

 But the current system of testing is obsolete, meant to prepare students for the factory rather than knowledge work.

 A few big tests given infrequently will be replaced by testing that:

1. Replaces the subjective and inaccurate judgments of      individual teachers;
2. Measures learning and knowledge at the unit and subunit      levels for each course;
3. Are taken frequently, usually about once a week;
4. Measures knowledge in thousands of subjects with thousands      of different tests;
5. Provides choice in tests based on student gender, age,      ethnicity, learning style, neurological abilities, and other learning      differences.

 As a result, there will be thousands of different tests, almost all of them administered online, that respond to individual student testing styles.