Learning to Change is from the DigitalArts Alliance, of Pearson Foundation, and CoSN. A lot of it, I’d heard, and I continue to be intrigued by Stephen Heppell’s concept of the “Nearly Now!”
But the statement that really struck me was the first one, delivered by Keith Krueger, CEO of CoSN. He said that…
The U.S. Department of Commerce Ranked 55 industry sectors by their level of IT intensiveness. Education was ranked number 55 — below coal mining.
The first thing I want to do, when I hear something like this is to go find it — the source. It didn’t take very long. I added some key words from the statement, and hyphened out some words that were getting in the way, and came up with a PDF, Digital Economy 2002, from the Economics and Statistics Administration (http://esa.doc.gov/). Page 50 features the list of 55 by IT-intensity, ranking by the ratio of individual industry ITEQ/FTE compared to the overall ITEQ/FTE.
ITEQ/FTE = information technology equipment/full-time equivalent (worker) ((Bergsten, C. Fred. The United States and the World Economy: Foreign Economic Policy for the Next Decade. Peterson Institute, 2005.))
Also among the folks sharing their wisdom in this video are Yong Zhao, Cheryl Lemke, Susan Patrick, Chris Dede, Daniel Pink, Ken Kay, etc.
I worried over this blog post during our drive to the mountains yesterday, thinking about the emotional impact of Krueger’s statement. It delivers, I think, the right message and it does so compellingly. However, as I think about the 54 industries that rank higher than Education Services in their level of technology intensity, I asked my self whether I thought that education should be using more technology (includes machinery) than coal mining. I’m pretty happy, for the sake of those coal miners, that they have sophisticated and powerful technologies to assist them. For the sake of our goals to provide an education that is relevant to our children and their future, it’s probably an effective statement. But our job is to find and then facilitate the appropriate technologies to help prepare our children for the future they will create.
Hmm…I didn’t watch the video so my comments may be completely off the mark…I’m reacting to the statement that education is considered part of the industry sector. Schools are factories? I’ve often been disturbed by the assumption that schools and businesses are one and the same. Someday (when I’m retired) I’m going to write an editorial, “If we ran businesses like schools”. One of the first things a business run like a school would have to do is give everyone who applies a job..and change the job to a doable one if the new employee couldn’t do it.
David, I also found this video today and enjoyed it. I plan to share it with my faculty Monday as I help take them to the next level. You were better than I at finding the source. Thanks for sharing that link. I noticed, though, that the dates on the page are for 1996 and a cumulative average for 1989-2000. I would certainly like to HOPE that education has come up a notch or two since then. It always takes so long for government data to get tabulated and made available to the public. Is it still valid by the time we get it? It DOES make a great sound bite at the beginning of the video, I’ll grant!
Alan, I agree with you that the information here is open to questioning, which I did all the way to Cullowhee yesterday. I’ve added a paragraph to the blog post (see above).
Dave, Thanks for your reply to my reply. I am still planning to show this to my staff this week as part of my Technology Coordinator’s “annual song and dance”. Except the principal is only expecting 20 minutes from me. I am trying to stir them up a bit and thought this video to be compelling. Hard for us more “informed techies” to take in all the facts, think how more so for the “regular teachers” whom we are trying to help along into the 21st Century. So many facts come at you and I do want to take this apart and reflect on several of bullet points with the staff. It’s kinda like the elephant. We may all come away from this with a different take. What strikes one is completely different than another’s take. I’ll stay tuned for more of your insights.
David at al.,
For what it’s worth, The Partnership for 21st Century Skills cited that report long ago (OK, maybe just last year) in their own report here: http://tinyurl.com/3d38uz (see green box at bottom of page 2). Having seen that reference from P21, I’ve been using it in my own arguments (see e.g.: http://edinsanity.com/2008/01/31/an-argument-for-digital-leadership/) I think it’s a pretty damning statement about our schools.
Patricia, I find your words very suitable – One of the first things a business run like a school would have to do is give everyone who applies a job..and change the job to a doable one if the new employee couldn’t do it.
I also blogged about this video a couple of weeks ago and it too sent me to find the original report. It was published in 2002 but the research for this particular table comes from 1 or two years before it’s publication date. While education might still be below coal mining today, I am uncomfortable repeating the stat from the 2002 report. In the six-eight years from the original research a whole lot has changed.