The obvious answer is that I spend a portion of my day in the classroom, at the university level, and deal 1st hand with the education realities of the day.

I am also part of a group of educators that is int he process of fundamentally redesigning what we teach and more important HOW.

Which is a logical lead in to the question of what is is that students want from their education?

I am getting ready to teach a convergent media practicum where we are going to set up a morning information portal at Zayed University.  The working title is “Good Morning ZU“, why reinvent a wheel that is working well!

What we are going to do is combine video/audio/text all that may be housed in autonomous web2.0 services and put them in one place.

What I would really like to see is this project find a home on the students BlackBerry or iPhone and bypass the computer/blog delivery totally. We are not there just yet.

But what I am surprised about is how slow the group is to pick up the tech tools and use them!

The reality I am seeing is that we are talking web2.0 and that takes us to facebook and twitter BUT when we look at the other more detailed content creating options the youth uptake is stalled.

So, my question to the youth of today is very simply what do you really want when it comes to web2.0, education, practical activity… what do you want?

Think about it for a minute, we want people to take risks, create the next best thing, work as teams and WOW the population.

And we learn this where? School.

Sure we have IB schools that claim to do this BUT every IB school I have been to talks a good game BUT is not practicing what the preach! Sorry IB people but the sad reality is if you are going to teach IB you have to be IB and all I see is the old system with a new coat of paint.

Other models exist but for the most part they do the same old thing 8-3, lunch, homework… repeat!

Sure our schools have the elements to create the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs BUT the problem is there is a reality detachment and the biggest piece of this is TIME!

Change happens in real time not in the slow motion that education acculturates us to!

You have 20 weeks to make magic in a school! The real world is have it on my desk in 3 days!

School does not teach us how to manage a team, my own school for example, is eliminating conflict resolution from the curriculum as we move forward, but is the management of people not fundamental to the new social economy?

We are living a social experiment BUT do we really know how to socialize?

So, here we are in search of the next best thing and the cards are stacked against us as we wrestle with imperfect inputs to the system!

Is it any wonder that the most innovative ideas emerge from those people or groups who work outside the system?

Maybe that is what we need from our education, a model that is decidedly outside the norm. We need to seed the next best thing and so far all I see is the field being plowed over, again and again!

Just a little morning rant!

I think, just maybe, we are hiding behind technology when it comes to communication today!

The old voice on the phone can be fast, effective, and definitive!

Today, everyday make one phone call when you would normally send an email or text or SMS or otherwise engage technology!

Technology is great,don’t get me wrong, BUT we are failing in a epic way to manage the use of it in a manner that is healthy!

And the classic example of our failure to manage and live with technology is email!

We have lost control of out time and the reality of interactions, on a personal and professional level!

We are living in a crisis of expectations, unreasonable expectations.

Email, by design, is fast, immediate and rich in volume.

But what is happening is we are being forced, by technology, to be hyper connected to issues instead of taking time away to think and ponder a response.

Email gives the illusion of immediacy and to not answer as fast as a message is received seems to indicate some level of inferiority or disregard yet a fast response may be fraught with error and short sightedness.

Our communication technology is new and we need to re-educate ourselves, schools, industry and society in general about how to use these tools for their greatest advantage.

It is great to learn, apply, use technology on the fly BUT at some point we need to reflect and rethink the communication process and that point is now.

The main rule I live by with mobile media is keep it short!

I have been recording my classes at the university and formatting them for an iPhone! The lectures are about 60 minutes and they actually seem to have a small audience.

If you go to VIMEO and search James Piecowye you will see the latest 2 classes!

There is nothing special about these lectures EXCEPT they are there for students to use and share!

BUT the recordings are formatted for a phone!

The irony?

Every professor I know has the technology and root ability to record and post their classes online!

How many do?

My students say these mobile ready recordings are great for review!

I like the idea of people being able to see what they get from my class and maybe even auditing the course in cyber land!

Teachers go behind closed doors and deliver classes to a small special group and all others are kept out for fear of diluting the value of the product!

Through registration rules, applying to those in the education club, and membership rules to keep the masses out, we have made education a protected commodity.

There have been fits and spurts of academics and institutions trying to make their product more universally available but for the most part it has not worked!

Apple  has created iTunes U but even this has a very small reach that is controlled by Apple deciding who will be admitted, just another form of education clubbing!

What is stopping the average teacher KG through post graduate studies making their courses available to the curious public?

Nothing really, web2.0 technologies and the development of the laptop make self recording/editing and streaming of any content to anyone as easy as brushing your teeth!

I have been experimenting with posting my classes on livestream and have come to realize that VIMEO might be a better option, or you can see the latest class in the sidebar of this site!

I love the idea of creating a text that can be added to, developed and used by my students in class and by others globally, maybe a KNOL is the way to do that?

The point is what is stopping any professor from embracing the convergent media we live with and making their product, education, available to anyone and everyone willing to sit through an hour or so of a class?

Fear! Fear that what we say and do may not stand up to the scrutiny of the global jury?

Imagine the pool of content that could be tagged and disseminated globally on any subject if we professors actually embraced technology and made it work for us?

We really need to think of education as a global resource for all and not an elite protected commodity!

Lets face it those who want a degree will suffer my class in person and those who want to simply broaden their perspective will tune in and out as they need.

The winner? A globally educated population embracing life long learning!

Today’s gem in the rough was Bono talking about how in 2000 it felt to him like he and the band members were “re-applying” to fans to be U2 the band they had grown to love.

That idea got me thinking about my own tenure as a professor and as a radio host, are we in for life once we get the job OR do we continually need to symbolically re-apply for the position?

Maybe the re-application is through the demonstration of skills, maybe it is through the way we imagine and deliver content, maybe it is through our continual demonstration that we are not just repeating the same old thing but bringing new value to those exercises we are responsible for, be them in the classroom, office or in my case on the radio.

How is the changing world being brought into what I am doing?

And this to me is the big problem today, too few people are in the habit of re-applying for the position they hold, and evaluations do not count unless they are going to see you asked to leave!

Look at what you are doing and ask the simple question, “if I was applying for my job today would I be the candidate most suited for the position?”

If you can not say,”yes”, without question  you are the best candidate for the job and you would hire yourself then you have some work to do!

The real issues comes down to what is media today and what will media be tomorrow?

Content is pretty much the same BUT the delivery has changed and because of the new delivery the length of exposure to content and environment where consumption is taking place is rapidly changing.

But, and the but is big, are we as educators listening to the ceo’s like Mr. Sultan and retooling what we are doing to not only meet the wants but the needs that are just now beginning to be demanded by content consumers?

Watch part 5 of 6 of the Osman Sultan presentation.

Here is the last 3 minutes!

I 

I ask again are we as educators ready to meet the challenge and are our students ready to rise to the challenge?

Again I hope so.

Yesterday I was reminded why Dubai, yes Dubai, is such a special place.

I spoke with Saher Sheikh about what she has been doing to help the guys who do general labour in Dubai.

Saher has gone so far as to actually adopt camps!

Give her interview a listen!

So what is stopping you?

We are buried in possibility really!

After watching TED 2010, no I was not there but really did wanted to be, I realized that part of our personal problem with activating ideas t is the start button!

There is no start button for many people they do not see the first box on the grid!

Or we are too scared to start the process of change!

What is going to get in the way of Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize wish, the average person in their home starting to do food differently.

Talk is cheap and so is TV but the start is expensive, it involves faith and buy in.

As Oliver said his idea is not hard, it is obvious and it is needed. WE NEED TO START.

As with all great things we need a push and maybe the school education scheme is the push. Oliver’s wish might be the start button on a personal manageable scale

Or maybe it is less to do with the start and fear of not being able to turn off the process, as is the case with most great ideas.

There is always the fear of the unknown.

So how do we start?

1. think small, like breakfast small.

2.think about a finish point you can see, making the food and eating it for one meal.

3. think of the engagement, not just doing but living with the food and the process.

4. be selfish and think about you, why you are doing this not the whole world.

This idea of making actions, tasks, idea-activation tiny is they key to success in any endeavour! If we can not see why and how and take ownership for ourselves then it is a nameless, faceless activity which is easy to ignore!