Affordable Innovations in Work and Learning – a Global Imperative

Donald M. Norris, Ph.D.Strategic Initiatives Inc.

www.strategicinitiatives.com

Innovation 2008 ConferenceApril 14-15 , 2008

Getting the conversation started on innovation…..

We began with a simple thesis…..• Higher education needs to realign itself to the needs of learners

in the 21st century…..• Transformations in the way we create, share, engage, and

experience knowledge….• Have shaped the global competitiveness that is making

affordable innovation an imperative.

Where Have Innovations Developed?• Evolutionary innovations in traditional K-12 and tertiary

education• Spin-offs from traditional institutions• Disruptive innovations in new learning enterprises,

emerging competitors, enterprises willing to write new rules

• Burgeoning international markets and competitors• New approaches to millennial learners• Fresh ventures for knowledge workers in the global

economy• Emergent partnerships spanning sectors

The Innovator’s Dilemma• Clayton Christensen’s work on “The Innovator’s Dilemma”

show that disruptive innovations never come from market leaders

• New competitors or existing competitors taking new approaches are the alchemists of disruptive innovations

• Underserved populations who are looking for “good enough”– Fields like nursing– Competency-focused learners– Community colleges and proprietary schools

Education Is Awash in Innovation, But Not the Right Kind

• Innovation as cottage industry, a thousand points of light

• Innovation with a lower case “i”

• But where is the enterprise-wide innovation?

• Innovation that captures the imagination of practitioners, rewrites the rules of competition, scales, and engages the energies of entire organizations, professions, or societies?

Lessons in Affordability in the U.S.• Baumol and Blackman, “How to Think About

Rising College Costs”

• Cost of education quadrupled in 42 years

• Rising productivity of other elements of the market basket

• Education and health care would have grown from 20% of GDP in 1990 to over 50% in 2040 – this cannot happen

• Erosion of public financing, education as a private good in US, market distortions

• US has “medallion” system in education and health care

• Looming affordability crisis at all levels

Lessons in Affordability, Globally

• Global talent shortage; supply and demand for talent are “out of synch”

• Lefrere points out the quest for “golden future” jobs

• Need for perpetual refreshment of competencies – “Competencies 2.0”

• Gap between rich and poor is growing

• Emerging areas need to leap to higher planes of performance

• Need for new approaches that reach all levels of the workforce and learning force

Action Analytics That Support the Full Spectrum of Innovations

• Enhanced power of analytics to focus on affordability, access, and success – analytics for the masses

• Special focus on “serving the underserved” and spanningPK-16

• Predictive modeling, dynamic viewing, intrusive interventions

• New analytics approaches driving wedges into existing technology platforms and process silos

Examples of Some of Today’s Evolutionary Innovations

• Learners seeking and creating multiple, concurrent enrollments, mixes of online, physical, and blended learning

• Institution-wide efforts to leverage technology and learning design to reduce costs and enhance learning outcomes (Carol Twigg’s Course Redesign Initiative)

• Embedded and contextualized leadership and competency development

• Richly-textured transcripts and portfolios that enable individuals to demonstrate competencies

• New facilities designs for collaboration-rich learning spaces and campuses realigned to mobile learning

Existing/Emerging Disruptive Innovations

• For-profit learning enterprises focusing on competencies, advanced analytics, and demonstrated value propositions, charging premium

• Community and technical colleges creating new certificates, degrees, and options

• Providers from Asia and Australasia using new delivery mechanisms and knowledge management tools

Potential Disruptive Interventions

• Richard Katz video at Campus of the Future 2006

– Partnership between education, entertainment, knowledge content providers, and visualization/simulation enterprises

– New generation of affordable, amenable, avatar-driven, and competency-based learning experiences

• Multi-faceted initiatives that dramatically improve transitions between work and learning

• PK-16/20 reformation projects

New Innovations to Support Millennial Learners and Social Networks

• Chris Dede – “mediated immersion” for neomillennial learners– Fluency in multiple media, simulation-based

virtual settings

– Communal learning, involving diverse, tacit, situated experience

– Balance between experiential learning, guided mentoring, and collective reflection

– Expression through non-linear, associational webs of representations

– Personalized experiences, co-designed

• Immersion in Educational Virtual Environments/Immersion in Educational Augmented Realities

Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0

• John Seely Brown talks of new approaches to e-knowing (“Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0,” EDUCAUSE Review)

– Open Educational Resource Movement (OER)– eSciences, eHumanities– Web 2.0 and beyond– Open Participatory Learning Ecosystem

• Demand pull – learning to be as well as learning about

• An ecology of specialized learning/doing niches – the so-called “Long Tail”

A Disruptive Innovation From the EU

A Disruptive Innovation Over Time

The Challenge for Leaders

• Lead and navigate change in a period of unsettling change in a manner that assures competitiveness

• Lower and middle segments of the workforce cannot afford high-touch, high-fee learning

• Transformation in PK-16/20

• Drives wedges into existing cultures

• Build capacity to succeed

• This must be a focus of Innovate 2008’s program

Reshape Time-Honored Practices

• Innovation with a capital “I”

• Competition in a vibrant marketplace of options, dazzling in their range and complexity

• Leveraging social innovations – Voluntary, peer-to-peer networks– Fusion of work and learning– Different ways of knowing

• Concerted expeditionary campaigns of a decade or more

Primary Change Agents in Affordable Innovation

The foot soldiers in the campaign for affordable innovation include:

• individuals and institutions committed to transformation;

• for-profit learning enterprises;

• newly emerging partnerships in the knowledge industry combining education, entertainment, and simulation/virtualization;

• legislative leaders and public policy makers; corporate leaders and community leaders;

• educators and faculty who are passionate about maximizing learner outcomes and success,

• new learners willing to demand what they need, and

• parents and citizens insisting on demonstrable value from our learning enterprises.

Demonstrable Value 2.0• To achieve these ends, innovation

must focus on demonstrable value – outcomes, – the experiences through which

they are achieved,– cost/price.

• Scalability, affordability, and sustainability will become increasingly important in the context of Web 2.0 practices

• Transportability, transparency, and continuous change will be the order of the day in the Web X.0 future

And so the conversation begins…

Resources on Affordable Innovation• Dolence, M.G. and Norris, D.M., Transforming

Higher Education, 1995.

• Norris, D.M., Mason, J. and Lefrere, P. Transforming e-Knowledge, 2003.

• Baumol, W. and Blackmun, S.A.B. “How to Think About Rising College Costs,” Planning for Higher Education, 1995.

• Lefrere, P. “Developing Tomorrow’s Competencies Today,” Open Education Record, Vol. 13, No. 6, 2007.

• Dede, C. “Planning for Neomillennial Learning Styles, EDUCAUSE Quarterly, Number 1, 2005.

• Brown, J.S. and Adler, R.P., “Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0,” EDUCAUSE Review, Jan/Feb 2008.

Resources on Affordable Innovation (Continued)

• Christensen, C.M., Baumann, H. and Sadtler, T.M., “Disruptive Innovations for Social Change,” Harvard Business Review, December, 2006.

• Norris, D.M., Baer, L., Leonard, J.,Pugliese, L., and Lefrere, P. “Action Analytics: Measuring and Improving Performance That Matters,” EDUCAUSE Review, Jan/Feb 2008.

• Norris, D.M. and Leonard, J. “What Every Campus Leader Needs to Know About Analytics,” White Paper, strategic inititaves website.

• Norris, D.M., Poulton, N.L., and Grummon, P., A Guide to Planning for Change, 2008 forthcoming.