During the TED Global event held at Edinburgh, Scotland in July of 2011, renown academic Niall Ferguson spoke of “The 6 killer apps of prosperity“. Those ‘apps’ included: Competition Scientific Revolution Property Rights Modern Medicine Consumer Society The Work Ethic Although he speaks about standardized testing and rote memory plights within the TED talk (see below), I wondered aloud whether a 7th app might be missing from his chat. The learning app. As North America struggles (and occasionally succeeds) at a transformation to 21st century learning, India and China are also struggling simply to get their population more educated. According to India government statistics, only a quarter of students make it past eighth grade & only 15% make it to high school. Of the approximate
learning Archive
Throughout the months of July and August in 2011 I descended upon a self-induced experiment to curb my participation in external and internal (enterprise) social media. Specifically, I refrained from blogging as well as posting any comments anywhere in the months of July and August. In August itself, I refrained from micro-blogging either in Twitter or Google+ or within the tool we use where I work. I also wanted to see if I could go without using any mobile devices in the month of August. Why? In part, I think I needed a bit of a mental break. Between June 15th and August 20th I travelled 48,000 kilometers, spoke at six public events, wrote 3 magazine articles, attended the Game 7 Stanley Cup final and
“We are chameleons, and our partialities and prejudices change place with an easy and blessed facility.” Mark Twain Please rest assured I am not here today seeking well wishes, congratulations or virtual high fives. The spotlight of a birthday, my 40th no less today, is something I’ve always been uncomfortable with. In the spirit of my own personal mantra (see #39 below), however, I felt the opportunity arise to share, give back and humbly annotate my own self postulated moments of wisdom over the past 14,610 days. Where have my partialities and prejudices changed? What have I learned? I’m still working on being less abstruse. (pun intended) Those that write or teach about change management, yet have never moved cities or jobs, should stop writing