The New Economy Requires More of an “Einsteinian” Approach

Einstein would feel at home in today’s world.  His creative genius in solving problems would be of great demand in today’s world. Gone are the industrial days where following simple instructions from start to finish guaranteed success in life. Today’s employment opportunities have a greater need for creative thinking, STEM, and unique approaches to solving problems.  The world is changing and society will need to catch up. 

A great many things in our society are still built off of the Industrial Era mentality. Our educational system, government offices, law enforcement, etc. continue to use a sequential pattern to process people and information in an inefficient and often ineffective manner. Contrary to institutional sluggishness, most businesses have already moved into the Information Era where they focus on competitive advantages to solve problems and reduce costs. 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics between 1998-2004 30% of new jobs created were algorithmic while 70% involved complex heuristic work (Bradford, Manyika, & Yee, 2005). In other words, most jobs today don’t involve simple A to Z processing and require thinking at a higher level to effectively process information in a way the can generate new ideas. The use of creativity and intuition are not foreign in this environment. 

A paper in Educational Leadership highlights how creative thinking is more rewarded in today’s society than sequential thinking (Goodwin & Miller, 2013). The global economy requires new ways of educating people to use those skills and abilities that were second nature to geniuses. Education has the responsibility to meet the needs of preparing people for more complex work environments.

Einstein was considered “dim witted”, Thomas Edison had a “confused mind”, and Darwin was a “little slow”. They were characterized by “experts” in this manner because a healthy human mind was one that could easily follow instructions. Line up and take your number was the main criteria for success-not a whole lot of creative thinking needed. People were stuck where they were born regardless of their abilities.

Luckily things have changed for the better in most sectors of society. According to the paper divergent thinking, heuristic problem solving, and right brain thinking are needed in today’s world and should be taught, not thwarted, in education. There will be an increasing need for graduates to think beyond what is front of them and move into more complex thought patterns to overcome market challenges.  

When a person can think about problems from multiple vantage points they can be more creative. Likewise, it is necessary to try and understand problems as much as possible and make an intellectual leap when all of the information isn’t available. The right brain will need to be employed to tackle issues emotionally, intuitively, creatively, globally and analytically.

For those developing new products and solving complex problems they will need to come up with answers to very complex problems. They cannot solve problems simply by following pre-made steps but must move forward, upward, backwards, sideways and downwards to understand problems. The use of multidirectional perception is needed to tackle problems effectively. 

We can see this process occur in software creation, product development, consulting, science, and other fields that require heavy intellectual labor. As the economic output speeds up and relies less on physical attributes mental faculty will help in developing businesses to push the envelope of their industries. The educational process will need to adjust their processes to ensure that the brightest minds, not only the ones that can follow instructions, can move forward to meet the intellectual needs of employers. I’m sure that Einstein will find his employment options today much more to his liking than sitting on an assembly line.  

Bradford, C., Manyika, J., & Yee,L. (2005). The next revolution in interactions. McKinsey Quarterly, 4,25–26.

Goodwin, B. & Miller, K. (2013). Creativity requires a mix of skills. Educational Leadership, 70 (5).

Learning the Skills that Match San Diego's Employment Needs

San Diego is a hot and trendy place these days (no pun intended) and draws a lot of motivated young people soaking up good times and seeking exciting employment opportunities. Many of these young people come from different places of the country and the world and have decided to place a shingle on San Diego's coastline. Ensuring that they have the "right skills" to succeed on the local market and feed growing local businesses is important for regional development.

The beauty of young people is that they are motivated and adaptable. A company could take in a fresh face and over time train them to successfully navigate their work environment. Corporate training can instill new knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA's) to ensure they can operate, build and/or sell new products/services. Young people seeking careers are willing receptors for knowledge.

Outside of corporate training students may come with a college degree that certifies that a level of knowledge has been obtained. That education will come with both general skills and industry specific skills. General skills apply to multiple industries and often focus on skills such as mathematical and writing while specific skills are focused more on those that are most applicable to their chosen industries.

Each regional area is comprised of various kinds of businesses that need their own type of skills. In San Diego you will find industries in blue technology, pharmaceuticals, military, science, micro-manufacturing, hospitality, tourism, and technology making the biggest industry employers readily apparent. Those employers need qualified talent that can fill their needs without adding significantly to their training budget.

The problem of misalignment between jobs and skills is not unique to San Diego. However, by encouraging the development of basic skills in high school and more specific skills in college the gap doesn't need to be as wide. Corporations will be required to train graduates to the specific needs of their company.

Some cities have put in place work oriented programs that retrain displaced and unemployed workers to fill local needs. At other times, corporations may band together and sponsor training programs that help them recruit top talent from the area. A few cities may actively seek specific skills by targeting people from other areas that work in related industries.

Developing skills locally by partnering with community colleges and universities helps in creating a home grown pool of talent. Where gaps still exist training should take precedence that encourages the closing of the skills gap. Feeding San Diego's businesses with qualified talent helps ensure that future investment and growth are possible when the time rises."Put your time, effort and money into training, grooming, and encouraging your greatest asset."- Tom Hopkins

How Technology is Narrowing the Gap Between Business and Academia

Someday we might be looking back at those old laptops and cell phones and blow the dust off the keyboards as you would the cover of some rare hard bound book. Across the nation educational platforms are changing bringing with it uncertainty about the future of higher education. As technology disrupts the foundation of business colleges there will be a closer alliance between businesses and academia to generate new solutions that improve the skill sets of graduates.

According to a Business Education Jam session it is possible to use technology to narrow the gap between academic and industry stakeholders (Freeman, 2014). The traditional gap that exists between academic knowledge and business knowledge is narrowing as stakeholders and universities take advantage of new technologies that offer a chance to connect at multiple levels.

Technology has advanced to the point that communication is moving at a much faster pace than in the past. New generation technologies and the way these technologies are used socially are impact the platforms of higher education (Rajesh, 2015). Higher education is adjusting to the new methods of communication to foster knowledge transference and this will have a natural impact on business-academia relationships.

Greater partnerships between employers and higher education can provide greater relevancy in curriculum development. Students should be learning skills that truly encourage greater ability to work in the modern market and develop systems thinking that can influence their ability to understand organizational operations.

The caveat being the courses that may not be directly career oriented but do support the general understanding of human nature and life. Greater communication will help industry stakeholders understand that ethics courses, philosophy, humanities, are not wasted courses when applied appropriately to human behavior and management. A shared understanding between colleges and employers can be found through perspective sharing.

The differences of perspective between the hallowed halls of higher education and the nitty gritty of corporate life will become more blurred in the future as communication technology advances and create permeability within these borders. Communication will influence the way leaders in both sectors think about challenges and opportunities. This increased level of communication doesn't need to be purposeful to create influence but implementing a more focused approach to sharing perspectives can lead to faster conclusions. 

Freeman, K. (2014). The call for innovation in business education. People & Strategy, 37 (2).

Rajesh, M. (2015). Revolution in communication technologies: impact on distance education. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 16 (1).

Call for Papers: 2015 International Business Conference New York City

Date: 2nd to 6th August 2015 New York, United States of America Proposal Deadline: July 7th 2015 Join us at our 2015 International Business Conference in New York City, at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel! The conference provides a forum for faculty and administrators to present their research on all aspects of business/education. Website: http://www.cluteinstitute.com/business-conferences/2015-international-business-conference-new-york-city/

Report on Cyberbullying in Online Higher Education

Donna DiMatteo-Gibson, PhD

Paula J. Zobisch, PhD

Andree Swanson, EdD

The research in cyberbullying has been heavily focused on elementary and secondary education; however, cyberbullying permeates throughout online higher education. The challenges regarding bullying in higher education are the need to define cyberbullying, detect cyberbullying, and how to respond to cyberbullying when it is occurring. Policies and best practices must be in place to minimize these occurrences for students and professors. Procedures on what students and faculty can utilize will be recommended based on survey results.

Literature Review

Misawa and Rowland (2015) reviewed academic bullying as it takes place in adult education, higher education, continuing education, and professional education. Misawa and Rowland found that in higher education, cyberbullying frequently was focused on racism and homophobia. Unbelievably, Misawa and Rowland also found evidence of gender and race cyberbullying. In fact, they found that faculty were often mean to one another.

Morgan (2012) in a review of cyberbullying found that because of the anonymity of individuals on the Internet, they found a form of bravery by threatening others through the veil of the Internet. “The higher degree of anonymity afforded to students on the Internet allows bullies to have less fear of disciplinary action as a result of their nefarious activity” (Morgan, 2012, p. 175). Morgan stressed that a plan needs to be in place to deal with the inevitable attack. “Unfortunately, many teachers do not have enough training of knowledge on how to respond to bullying” (p. 176).

Rivituso (2014) conducted a study using Bandura’s Theory of Tradic Reciprocal Determinism and the General Strain Theory as a framework. Six themes emerged:

1) repeated instances leading to feelings of vulnerability and fear; 2) distrust of technology and mistrust of people; 3) the value of friends in college and their impact on victim self-esteem; 4) self-control in response to lack of control over cyberbullying instances; 5) feelings of stress, depression, and embarrassment; 6) frustration leading to self-blame. (Rivituso, 2014, para. Abstract)

A 2013 study surveyed 202 online faculty members who were asked whether or not the faculty member could identify what constitutes cyberbullying and if the faculty member understood how to cope with cyberbullying. The findings from the study indicated that 50% of the faculty who had experienced cyberbullying (Smith, Minor, & Brashen, 2012). Although very few studies have been conducted that assess cyberbullying at the higher education online level (Eskey, Taylor, & Eskey, Jr., 2014a; Eskey & Eskey, Jr., 2014b; Smith, Minor, & et al.), the findings were supported by Smith et al. whose study results showed 17% to 30% of faculty had experienced some type of cyberbullying.

The findings of the studies indicate educational institutions need to address the issue of cyberbullying as well as methods to cope and/or reduce cyberbullying. Methods could include faculty training as well as addressing the issue of cyberbullying in the school’s faculty and student handbooks (Eskey et al., 2014a; Eskey & Eskey, Jr., 2014b). An organization’s legal department should be able to provide insight into potential policies and protocols.

Washington (2015) specifically addressed cyberbullying and the law. “To date, 18 states have laws to address cyberbullying, compared with 49 states, all except Montana, having laws to address bullying (Hinduja & Patching, 2013)” (Washington, 2015, p. 24). Although state laws focus on the k-12 arena, nowhere (federal or state) addresses cyberbullying. In 2009, a cyberbullying prevention act was introduced into Congress, but was not successfully passed. Specifically, the business college in this current study has campuses in California, Colorado, and Iowa, thus, these states were reviewed for their legislation on cyberbullying.

Results and Discussion

Our study has shown that cyberbullying is a serious issue that must be addressed when it comes to faculty teaching at online schools. The importance of investigating cyberbullying and netiquette issues within online institutions was emphasized. Also, the complexities in regards to defining cyberbullying and how to best respond to these issues was addressed. Our study addressed that recognizing what is and is not cyberbullying is an ongoing task; however, recognizing differences between cyberbullying and netiquette was not a concern. Even though a majority of our participants indicated that they knew how to respond to cyberbullying issues, there was still a sizable percentage that did not.

Our study addressed differences between netiquette and cyberbullying. By obtaining this survey data, we highlighted the importance of schools ensuring that online faculty understand what are netiquette and cyberbullying issues as well as outlining how to respond to such instances.

Concluding Comments

The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge and understanding of cyberbullying and netiquette within the school of business at an online university. Faculty, both part-time and full-time, were asked questions regarding their understanding of cyberbullying, netiquette, and how to respond to it and report it. Based on the data from this study, the researchers created a list of best practices for creating policies, procedures, and implementing training. The researchers developed a list of best practices for incorporating an awareness and reporting of cyberbullying and netiquette issues:

1. Review current faculty policies and procedures.

a. Are they current?

b. Do they address the procedures for faculty to report and respond to cyberbullying?

c. Provide examples

2. Review current student policies and procedures.

a. Are they current?

b. Do they address the address appropriate netiquette?

c. Provide examples

3. Create a cyberbullying email or hotline for faculty to report cyberbullying.

a. Ensure a response to faculty within 24 hours

b. Assign a trained person to respond to emails

4. Create faculty training via webinar, tutorial, and or job aid on how to recognize and report cyberbullying and inappropriate netiquette.

We had many strengths that came out of this study. The strengths were that the researchers focused on one online school of business, which helped to focus our research efforts. These results can be generalized to other schools and online faculty by replicating the study through different online colleges and universities. Another strength that we experienced was that the Dean of the school supported the study and provided the researchers with a specific database of faculty addresses. This helped to connect with this particular sample of participants. The researchers attempted another study by reaching online faculty through social media (Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter) and did not have success that we had hoped. In regards to the limitations of the study, the participants self-reported on cyberbullying or netiquette instances. An observation style experiment may result in different perspectives on cyberbullying and netiquette especially since the literature has indicated that sometimes cyberbullying occurs but online faculty do not recognize certain instances as cyberbullying Participants may also have experience teaching at other online colleges or universities that may have different policies, procedures, and experiences and this can add to our results.

***This is an excerpt from a paper that will be presented at the DLA 2015 Conference (http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/)***

Is the Internet Forming Collective Intelligence?

Society is changing and higher education is in a process of adapting to that change. The Internet has been a major catalyst in that change as new forms of collective intelligence is being created. Higher education is in a transitional period moving from traditional to virtual models to keep up with that change. An article on collective intelligence discusses the possibilities of greater change as different forms of intelligence find their way onto the Net (Medeiros,et. al., 2014).

Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences helps us realize that intelligence can’t be measured by simple IQ alone. A single measurement of intelligence as a basis of our education system is subjective by nature. The knowledge accepted, scrubbed and published by higher education limited innovative development. Multiple forms of intelligence are forming new knowledge outside of traditional systems. 

These intelligences include linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and natural. Each intelligence taps into a different human capacity to perceive and understand the environment. Higher education predominately focuses on a couple of different types of intelligences but the Internet is forming its own collective form of knowledge through the expression of multiple intelligences.

The Internet is offering opportunities to create collective intelligence based upon these multiple ways of understanding through the adaptation and integration of knowledge. People can now be co-creators in the knowledge generation process and are no longer forced to think about issues from a singular vantage point. The Internet has cracked open the vault of expression.

As information continues to spread through the use of modern technology it will generate new forms of collective intelligence. Multitudes of people will form around specific interests and begin to build new forms of knowledge as they share their interest and understandings. The faster this process occurs the quicker the development of societies.  

The information will also challenge existing institutions in higher education, government and civic arenas much like the printing press challenged previous forms. As scientific knowledge spread, church teachings were questioned, and governments adapted to new systems because knowledge led to higher levels of collective intelligence. An era of enlightenment ensued that led to the scientific advantages we still use today. The Internet is the next great printing press that will change all that it touches. 

Medeiros, V. et. al. (2014). Connecting multiple intelligences through open and distance learning: going towards a collective intelligence? European Journal of Open Distance & E-Learning, 17 (1).