A Strategist’s Guide to Industry 4.0. Global businesses are about to integrate their operations into a seamless digital whole, and thereby change the world.
Industrial revolutions are momentous events. By most reckonings, there have been only three. The first was triggered in the 1700s by the commercial steam engine and the mechanical loom. The harnessing of electricity and mass production sparked the second, around the start of the 20th century. The computer set the third in motion after World War II.
Henning Kagermann, the head of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (Acatech), did exactly that in 2011, when he used the term Industrie 4.0 to describe a proposed government-sponsored industrial initiative.
The term Industry 4.0 refers to the combination of several major innovations in digital technology
These technologies include advanced robotics and artificial intelligence; sophisticated sensors; cloud computing; the Internet of Things; data capture and analytics; digital fabrication (including 3D printing); software-as-a-service and other new marketing models; smartphones and other mobile devices; platforms that use algorithms to direct motor vehicles (including navigation tools, ride-sharing apps, delivery and ride services, and autonomous vehicles); and the embedding of all these elements in an interoperable global value chain, shared by many companies from many countries.
Companies that embrace Industry 4.0 are beginning to track everything they produce from cradle to grave, sending out upgrades for complex products after they are sold (in the same way that software has come to be updated). These companies are learning mass customization: the ability to make products in batches of one as inexpensively as they could make a mass-produced product in the 20th century, while fully tailoring the product to the specifications of the purchaser
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Three aspects of digitization form the heart of an Industry 4.0 approach.
• The full digitization of a company’s operations
• The redesign of products and services
• Closer interaction with customers
Making Industry 4.0 work requires major shifts in organizational practices and structures. These shifts include new forms of IT architecture and data management, new approaches to regulatory and tax compliance, new organizational structures, and — most importantly — a new digitally oriented culture, which must embrace data analytics as a core enterprise capability.
Klaus Schwab put it in his recent book The Fourth Industrial Revolution (World Economic Forum, 2016), “Contrary to the previous industrial revolutions, this one is evolving at an exponential rather than linear pace.… It is not only changing the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of doing things, but also ‘who’ we are.”
This great integrating force is gaining strength at a time of political fragmentation — when many governments are considering making international trade more difficult. It may indeed become harder to move people and products across some national borders. But Industry 4.0 could overcome those barriers by enabling companies to transfer just their intellectual property, including their software, while letting each nation maintain its own manufacturing networks.
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more on the Internet of Things in this IMS blog https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=internet+of+things
1. Blogger – It’s free and easy to set-up. It can be integrated into your Google Apps for Education account which means that you and your students can use the same usernames and passwords that they use in all other Google tools. You can make your blog private (up to 100 members invited by email). The drawback to it is that a lot of school filters flag it as “social media” and block it on those grounds.
1a. Edublogs – Probably the best option for elementary school and middle school use. Blogs and individual blog posts can be made private, password-protected, or public. You can create and manage your students’ accounts. The latest version of Edublogs allows all users to include videos in blog posts. Outstanding customer support.
2. Weebly for Education – It’s free to have up to 40 students in your account. You can manage your students’ accounts. You can have students contribute to a group blog and or let them manage their own individual blogs.
3. SeeSaw.me – SeeSaw was originally launched as a digital portfolio tool. The addition of a blogging component was made in January 2016. The blogging component of SeeSaw allows you to import and display your students’ digital artifacts publicly or privately. There is not much you can do with SeeSaw in terms of customization of layout and color scheme.
4. WordPress.org – If you have the technical accumen or the time to learn it (it’s not that hard), self-hosting a blog that runs on WordPress software will give you the ultimate in control and flexibility. You will be able to create and manage student accounts, have a nearly infinite variety of customizations, and you’ll be able to move your blog from server to server whenever you want to. That said, you will have to pay for hosting (or convince your school to give you server space) and you will be responsible for maintaining security updates and backing-up your blog regularly.
5. Kidblog – Allows you to manage your students’ accounts. Requires you to pay for a subscription in order to get the features that you really want. Those features include embedding videos and other media from third party sites. Powered by WordPress software.
6. WordPress.com – It’s easy to use and is free, but with some serious limitations at the free level. The free version displays advertising on your blog which you cannot control. The free version also doesn’t allow embedding content from many third-party sites.
Because the questionnaire data comprised both Likert scales and open questions, they were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Textual data (open responses) were qualitatively analyzed by coding: each segment (e.g. a group of words) was assigned to a semantic reference category, as systematically and rigorously as possible. For example, “Using an iPad in class really motivates me to learn” was assigned to the category “positive impact on motivation.” The qualitative analysis was performed using an adapted version of the approaches developed by L’Écuyer (1990) and Huberman and Miles (1991, 1994). Thus, we adopted a content analysis approach using QDAMiner software, which is widely used in qualitative research (see Fielding, 2012; Karsenti, Komis, Depover, & Collin, 2011). For the quantitative analysis, we used SPSS 22.0 software to conduct descriptive and inferential statistics. We also conducted inferential statistics to further explore the iPad’s role in teaching and learning, along with its motivational effect. The results will be presented in a subsequent report (Fievez, & Karsenti, 2013)
The 20th century notion of conducting a qualitative research by an oral interview and then processing manually your results had triggered in the second half of the 20th century [sometimes] condescending attitudes by researchers from the exact sciences.
The reason was the advent of computing power in the second half of the 20th century, which allowed exact sciences to claim “scientific” and “data-based” results.
One of the statistical package, SPSS, is today widely known and considered a magnificent tools to bring solid statistically-based argumentation, which further perpetuates the superiority of quantitative over qualitative method.
At the same time, qualitative researchers continue to lag behind, mostly due to the inertia of their approach to qualitative analysis. Qualitative analysis continues to be processed in the olden ways. While there is nothing wrong with the “olden” ways, harnessing computational power can streamline the “olden ways” process and even present options, which the “human eye” sometimes misses.
Below are some suggestions, you may consider, when you embark on the path of qualitative research.
excellent guide to the structure of a qualitative research
Palys, T., & Atchison, C. (2012). Qualitative Research in the Digital Era: Obstacles and Opportunities. International Journal Of Qualitative Methods, 11(4), 352-367.
Palys and Atchison (2012) present a compelling case to bring your qualitative research to the level of the quantitative research by using modern tools for qualitative analysis.
1. The authors correctly promote NVivo as the “jaguar’ of the qualitative research method tools. Be aware, however, about the existence of other “Geo Metro” tools, which, for your research, might achieve the same result (see bottom of this blog entry).
2. The authors promote a new type of approach to Chapter 2 doctoral dissertation and namely OCR-ing PDF articles (most of your literature as of 2017 is mostly either in PDF or electronic textual format) through applications such as
Abbyy Fine Reader, https://www.abbyy.com/en-us/finereader/
OmniPage, http://www.nuance.com/for-individuals/by-product/omnipage/index.htm
Readirus http://www.irislink.com/EN-US/c1462/Readiris-16-for-Windows—OCR-Software.aspx
The text from the articles is processed either through NVIVO or related programs (see bottom of this blog entry). As the authors propose: ” This is immediately useful for literature review and proposal writing, and continues through the research design, data gathering, and analysis stages— where NVivo’s flexibility for many different sources of data (including audio, video, graphic, and text) are well known—of writing for publication” (p. 353).
In other words, you can try to wrap your head around huge amount of textual information, but you can also approach the task by a parallel process of processing the same text with a tool.
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Here are some suggestions for Computer Assisted / Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS)for a small and a large community applications):
text mining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_mining Text mining, also referred to as text data mining, roughly equivalent to text analytics, is the process of deriving high-quality information from text. High-quality information is typically derived through the devising of patterns and trends through means such as statistical pattern learning. Text mining usually involves the process of structuring the input text (usually parsing, along with the addition of some derived linguistic features and the removal of others, and subsequent insertion into a database), deriving patterns within the structured data, and finally evaluation and interpretation of the output. https://ischool.syr.edu/infospace/2013/04/23/what-is-text-mining/
Qualitative data is descriptive data that cannot be measured in numbers and often includes qualities of appearance like color, texture, and textual description. Quantitative data is numerical, structured data that can be measured. However, there is often slippage between qualitative and quantitative categories. For example, a photograph might traditionally be considered “qualitative data” but when you break it down to the level of pixels, which can be measured.
word of caution, text mining doesn’t generate new facts and is not an end, in and of itself. The process is most useful when the data it generates can be further analyzed by a domain expert, who can bring additional knowledge for a more complete picture. Still, text mining creates new relationships and hypotheses for experts to explore further.
Pros and Cons of Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software
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more on quantitative research:
Asamoah, D. A., Sharda, R., Hassan Zadeh, A., & Kalgotra, P. (2017). Preparing a Data Scientist: A Pedagogic Experience in Designing a Big Data Analytics Course. Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, 15(2), 161–190. https://doi.org/10.1111/dsji.12125
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literature on quantitative research:
St. Cloud State University MC Main Collection – 2nd floor
AZ195 .B66 2015
p. 161 Data scholarship in the Humanities
p. 166 When Are Data?
Philip Chen, C. L., & Zhang, C.-Y. (2014). Data-intensive applications, challenges, techniques and technologies: A survey on Big Data. Information Sciences, 275(Supplement C), 314–347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2014.01.015
meetings with Chief Learning Officers, talent management leaders, and vendors of next generation learning tools.
The corporate L&D industry is over $140 billion in size, and it crosses over into the $300 billion marketplace for college degrees, professional development, and secondary education around the world.
Digital Learning does not mean learning on your phone, it means “bringing learning to where employees are.” In other words, this new era is not only a shift in tools, it’s a shift toward employee-centric design. Shifting from “instructional design” to “experience design” and using design thinking are key here.
1) The traditional LMS is no longer the center of corporate learning, and it’s starting to go away.
LMS platforms were designed around the traditional content model, using a 17 year old standard called SCORM. SCORM is a technology developed in the 1980s, originally intended to help companies like track training records from their CD-ROM based training programs.
the paradigm that we built was focused on the idea of a “course catalog,” an artifact that makes sense for formal education, but no longer feels relevant for much of our learning today.
not saying the $4 billion LMS market is dead, but the center or action has moved (ie. their cheese has been moved). Today’s LMS is much more of a compliance management system, serving as a platform for record-keeping, and this function can now be replaced by new technologies.
We have come from a world of CD ROMs to online courseware (early 2000s) to an explosion of video and instructional content (YouTube and MOOCs in the last five years), to a new world of always-on, machine-curated content of all shapes and sizes. The LMS, which was largely architected in the early 2000s, simply has not kept up effectively.
2) The emergence of the X-API makes everything we do part of learning.
In the days of SCORM (the technology developed by Boeing in the 1980s to track CD Roms) we could only really track what you did in a traditional or e-learning course. Today all these other activities are trackable using the X-API (also called Tin Can or the Experience API). So just like Google and Facebook can track your activities on websites and your browser can track your clicks on your PC or phone, the X-API lets products like the learning record store keep track of all your digital activities at work.
3) As content grows in volume, it is falling into two categories: micro-learning and macro-learning.
4) Work Has Changed, Driving The Need for Continuous Learning
Why is all the micro learning content so important? Quite simply because the way we work has radically changed. We spend an inordinate amount of time looking for information at work, and we are constantly bombarded by distractions, messages, and emails.
5) Spaced Learning Has Arrived
If we consider the new world of content (micro and macro), how do we build an architecture that teaches people what to use when? Can we make it easier and avoid all this searching?
“spaced learning.”
Neurological research has proved that we don’t learn well through “binge education” like a course. We learn by being exposed to new skills and ideas over time, with spacing and questioning in between. Studies have shown that students who cram for final exams lose much of their memory within a few weeks, yet students who learn slowly with continuous reinforcement can capture skills and knowledge for decades.
6) A New Learning Architecture Has Emerged: With New Vendors To Consider
One of the keys to digital learning is building a new learning architecture. This means using the LMS as a “player” but not the “center,” and looking at a range of new tools and systems to bring content together.
On the upper left is a relatively new breed of vendors, including companies like Degreed, EdCast, Pathgather, Jam, Fuse, and others, that serve as “learning experience” platforms. They aggregate, curate, and add intelligence to content, without specifically storing content or authoring in any way. In a sense they develop a “learning experience,” and they are all modeled after magazine-like interfaces that enables users to browse, read, consume, and rate content.
The second category the “program experience platforms” or “learning delivery systems.” These companies, which include vendors like NovoEd, EdX, Intrepid, Everwise, and many others (including many LMS vendors), help you build a traditional learning “program” in an open and easy way. They offer pathways, chapters, social features, and features for assessment, scoring, and instructor interaction. While many of these features belong in an LMS, these systems are built in a modern cloud architecture, and they are effective for programs like sales training, executive development, onboarding, and more. In many ways you can consider them “open MOOC platforms” that let you build your own MOOCs.
The third category at the top I call “micro-learning platforms” or “adaptive learning platforms.” These are systems that operate more like intelligent, learning-centric content management systems that help you take lots of content, arrange it into micro-learning pathways and programs, and serve it up to learners at just the right time. Qstream, for example, has focused initially on sales training – and clients tell me it is useful at using spaced learning to help sales people stay up to speed (they are also entering the market for management development). Axonify is a fast-growing vendor that serves many markets, including safety training and compliance training, where people are reminded of important practices on a regular basis, and learning is assessed and tracked. Vendors in this category, again, offer LMS-like functionality, but in a way that tends to be far more useful and modern than traditional LMS systems. And I expect many others to enter this space.
Perhaps the most exciting part of tools today is the growth of AI and machine-learning systems, as well as the huge potential for virtual reality.
7) Traditional Coaching, Training, and Culture of Learning Has Not Gone Away
8) A New Business Model for Learning
he days of spending millions of dollars on learning platforms is starting to come to an end. We do have to make strategic decisions about what vendors to select, but given the rapid and immature state of the market, I would warn against spending too much money on any one vendor at a time. The market has yet to shake out, and many of these vendors could go out of business, be acquired, or simply become irrelevant in 3-5 years.
9) The Impact of Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Slack Is Coming
The newest versions of Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts and Google Drive, Workplace by Facebook, Slack, and other enterprise IT products now give employees the opportunity to share content, view videos, and find context-relevant documents in the flow of their daily work.
We can imagine that Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn will result in some integration of Lynda.com content in the flow of work. (Imagine if you are trying to build a spreadsheet and a relevant Lynda course opens up). This is an example of “delivering learning to where people are.”
10) A new set of skills and capabilities in L&D
It’s no longer enough to consider yourself a “trainer” or “instructional designer” by career. While instructional design continues to play a role, we now need L&D to focus on “experience design,” “design thinking,” the development of “employee journey maps,” and much more experimental, data-driven, solutions in the flow of work.
lmost all the companies are now teaching themselves design thinking, they are using MVP (minimal viable product) approaches to new solutions, and they are focusing on understanding and addressing the “employee experience,” rather than just injecting new training programs into the company.
Using Ursula Le Guin short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” has allowed Fruchter to make his computer science math classes entirely project-based, which in turn draws the interest of kids who might not have otherwise liked computer programming.
teaching computer programming with fiction into a curriculum called StoryCode. He classifies STEM fiction into three categories: explicit, science fiction and implicit STEM texts.
“When you can call a line of code a spell, then you are getting somewhere,” Fruchter said. After all, isn’t computer code basically modern magic?
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Ursula K. Le Guin on Art, Storytelling, and the Power of Language to Transform and Redeem
https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/01/30/ursula-k-le-guin-walking-on-the-water/
The paradox, of course, is that because our notion of history is rooted in the written record, words are both our instrument of truth and our weapon of distortion. We use them both to reveal and to conceal — a duality which Hannah Arendt so memorably dissected in her meditation on lying in politics.
Storytelling is a tool for knowing who we are and what we want, too. If we never find our experience described in poetry or stories, we assume that our experience is insignificant.
The versatility and compatibility of PowerPoint is a primary selling point for many presenters. Since it functions with both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS, PowerPoint is especially ideal for users intending to distribute their presentation out to other individuals and groups. Compared to Keynote and Prezi, PowerPoint has robust design options and multimedia capabilities. Through this program, users are able to follow a simple process to add audio and video clips to their slides.
Cons
Although PowerPoint is compatible across both Mac and PCs, the quality of the program is not created equal on each system – with the Mac version falling short of the PC version. On the design front, what PowerPoint makes up for in design options, it lacks in design function. Plus, audiences may perceive PowerPoint templates and themes as outdated
Keynote
Pros
For those well-versed in Mac applications, Keynote will be breeze. Beginning presenters, along with veterans who are pressed for time will also appreciate the ease of Keynote. Equipped with templates with built-in layouts into the themes, Keynote allows its users to essentially knock out two birds with one stone. Are you featuring animations in your deck? Keynote handles these much better than PowerPoint or Prezi. Compared to PowerPoint, Keynote boasts more elegant, sleek templates and design features powered by Adobe programs. If you want to save your Keynote presentations as a YouTube video or Quicktime slideshow, there will be no hassle involved in the effort.
Cons
PC users might really struggle with Keynote upon first introduction. For example, the application’s design tools are nested in dropdown menus and tabs, possibly foreign to the avid PC user.
Prezi
Pros
Prezi is a useful option for particularly storytelling-driven presentations. It’s non-linear storytelling capabilities far surpass the offerings in either PowerPoint or Keynote. From integrating multimedia and pngs and vector images constructed outside the web-based application fairly seamlessly to allowing collaboration among team members invested in the presentation, Prezi provides unique design and distribution capabilities. This presentation-building option also adds movement to a presenter’s message, which could be particularly engaging in many settings.
Cons
While Prezi’s web-based format provides simple embedding processes for blogs and web pages, any disruption in Internet connection or tiny glitch can reduce design quality and functionality. Even utilizing the zoom functions within Prezi can lead to fuzzy and pixelated photography. Some audiences could find the zoom functions gimmicky, while others could succumb to motion sickness. Designing within Prezi can be a challenge too, as users are limited to a set amount of colors and fonts and shapes are difficult to manipulate.
AECT-OTP Webinar: Digital Badges and Micro-Credentials for the Workplace
Time: Mar 27, 2017 1:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Learn how to implement digital badges in learning environments. Digital badges and micro-credentials offer an entirely new way of recognizing achievements, knowledge, skills, experiences, and competencies that can be earned in formal and informal learning environments. They are an opportunity to recognize such achievements through credible organizations that can be integrated in traditional educational programs but can also represent experience in informal contexts or community engagement. Three guiding questions will be discussed in this webinar: (1) digital badges’ impact on learning and assessment, (2) digital badges within instructional design and technological frameworks, and (3) the importance of stakeholders for the implementation of digital badges.
Dirk Ifenthaler is Professor and Chair of Learning, Design and Technology at University of Mannheim, Germany and Adjunct Professor at Curtin University, Australia. His previous roles include Professor and Director, Centre for Research in Digital Learning at Deakin University, Australia, Manager of Applied Research and Learning Analytics at Open Universities, Australia, and Professor for Applied Teaching and Learning Research at the University of Potsdam, Germany. He was a 2012 Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education, at the University of Oklahoma, USA
Directions to connect via Zoom Meeting:
Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/8128701328
Or iPhone one-tap (US Toll): +14086380968,8128701328# or +16465588656,8128701328#
Or Telephone:
Dial: +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll) or +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll)
Meeting ID: 812 870 1328
International numbers available: https://zoom.us/zoomconference?m=EedT5hShl1ELe6DRYI58-DeQm_hO10Cp
Each student learns differently and assessment is not linear. Learning for different students can be a longer or shorter path.
representation graph:
assessment comes before badges
what are credentials:
how well i can show my credentials: can i find it, can i translate it, issuer, earner, achievement description, date issued.
the potential to become an alternative credentialing system to link directly via metadata to validating evidence of educational achievements.
DB is not an assessment, it is the ability to demonstrate the assessment.
They are a motivational mechanism, supporting alternative forms of assessment, a way to credentialize learning, charting learning pathways, support self-reflection and planning
