Liberating Learning from the Classroom: Workforce Development in Technologys Century

1
Liberating Learning from the Classroom
Workforce Development in Technologys Century

• Presentation to Annual Summit
• The Sloan Center on Innovative Training and
  Workforce Development
• December 7 Washington, DC
• Mary McCain
• TechVision21
• mmccain_at_techvision21.com

2
U. S. Competitiveness at RiskRole of and Impact
on Workforce

• Recent reports¹ underscore threat to US economic
  leadership and success from emerging economies
• Skilled workforce is key component in reinforcing
  current and ensuring future competitive success
  in global economy
• US workforce at risk from job loss due to
  outsourcing, off-shoring, outmoded skills, and/or
  global market for talent

3
U. S. Competitiveness at RiskProposals to
Ensure Competitive Workforce

• Education issues
• increased support for STEM education in K-12 and
  post-secondary
• Increasing grants to low-income college students
  cutting interest rates on student loans,
  expanding public pre-K programs,
• training for individuals who have lost jobs or
  not yet found them.
• Employment/unemployment issues
• income minimum wage, wage-loss insurance,
  unemployment insurance
• pensions, health care,
• trade policy (dislocation and off-shoring)
• Largely irrelevant to skills/jobs challenges for
  majority
• Target populations are individuals with jobs or
  recently unemployed those with sufficient
  education, financial, logistical support to
  participate in post-secondary education
• Focus on easy fixes existing systems and
  programs that ostensibly benefit from more money
  
• Training ill-defined too often leaves gap
  between training
• and getting/keeping a job

4
The Challenge

• Period of transition between two types of
  economies
• Workforce development status quo is not
  sufficient
• Necessity to respond to current needs
• Necessity to prepare for future with little
  clarity about what that will demand
• How to make necessary education and training
  available to all individuals who need it, when
  they need it, how they need it

5
The OpportunityRe-Launch Technology-Enabled
Learning Policies and Programs

• In response to urgent necessity to enable
  Americas and Americans competitiveness in the
  global marketplace for talent
• Why we should and Why we havent installed
  Technology-enabled learning (TEL)
• Selected programs
• Options for innovative policy, legislation, RD
  and funding
• Recommendations for governments and organizations

6
Keeping Americans CompetitiveSkill Demand

• Over 77 of all jobs in US will require some
  level of ability to use ICT by 2010. i
• Nine of the ten fastest growing occupations
  through 2014 are health or information technology
  occupations. i
• A recent survey of seven countries, including the
  United States, by the Organisation for Economic
  Co-operation and Development (OECD) found minimal
  differences in the intensity of computer use in
  occupations ranging from knowledge experts to
  high-skill information to low-skill service.
  ii
• Between 2000 and 2015, about 85 percent of newly
  created U.S. jobs will require education beyond
  high school. iii
• i Norman C. Saunders, Employment Outlook
  2004-2014 A Summary of BLS Projections to 2014.
  Monthly Labor Review Online, November 2005, p. 7,
  Table 4. www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/11/art1full.pdf
  .
• ii The Business Council Survey of Chief
  Executives CEO Survey Results, February 2006.
  The Business Council and The Conference Board.

7
Keeping Americans CompetitiveSkill Demand
(cont.)

• A newly released study of more than 200
  multinational corporations indicates that they
  are global shoppers for talent, not just
  seekers of low-wage workers. i
• 2005 survey of manufacturers 90 reported
  serious to moderate shortage of skilled workers
  29 reported that implementing and using new
  technology was the area most affected by shortage
  of skilled workers. ii
• In a 2005 survey of human resources (HR)
  executives, 70 said that incoming workers with
  inadequate skills are the greatest threat to
  business performance. In a similar survey, 43
  percent of corporate training and development
  professionals listed skills shortages among their
  top three business challenges for 2006. iii
• iJerry G. Thursby and Marie C. Thursby, Here
  or There? A Survey on the Factors in
  Multinational RD Location and IP Protection,
  Highlights found on www.kauffmann.org.
• ii National Association of Manufacturers and
  Deloitte Consulting,LLP, 2005 Skills Gap
  Report, 11/23/05.
• iii Deloitte Research, Its 2008 Do You Know
  Where Your Talent Is? Why Acquisition and
  Retention Strategies Dont Work. The Ken
  Blanchard Companies annual Corporate Issues
  Survey for 2006. TechLearn Newsline (April 11,
  2006).

8
Keeping Americans CompetitiveSkill Supply
Adult Literacy

• Only 13 percent of adults are proficient that
  is, qualified for information jobs and jobs
  requiring some ability to use computers and the
  Internet.
• Only 4 percent of individuals of Hispanic origin
  and only 2 percent of African Americans scored in
  the proficient category.
• Among U.S. adults overall, fewer than half are at
  intermediate level for prose, which is deemed
  necessary for most jobs.
• A comparison of the literacy requirements in 2005
  between jobs in high-growth industries and those
  in declining occupations found the proficiency
  requirement for new jobs in projected high-growth
  occupations to be Level 3, or Intermediate, and
  the proficiency level for lost jobs in declining
  occupations to be Level 2, or Basic.
• Non-literate in English 11 million adults
• Prose Literacy Basic 29 (63 M adults) Below
  basic 14 (30 M adults) Total 43 (93 million)
• Document literacy Basic 22 Below basic 12
  Total 34
• Quantitative literacy Basic 33 Below basic
  22 Total 55
• Data from National Center on Education Statistics
  (NCES), 2003 National Assessment of Adult
  Literacy (NAAL), 12/05. Found at
  http//nces.ed.gov/NAAL/index.asp?fileKeyFindings
  /Demographics/Overall.aspPageId16

9
Keeping Americans CompetitiveSkill Supply
Post-Secondary Literacy

• A 2006 report that measures the performance of US
  post-secondary education and compares these with
  other nations found i
• The US remains a world leader in the proportion
  of Americans ages 35 to 64 with a college degree,
  BUT it ranks 7th for 25- to 34-year-olds.
• Even in the best-performing states, only 65 of
  community college students return for their
  second year and only 67 of students in four-year
  institutions complete degrees within six years of
  enrolling.
• Recently released data from the 2003 Survey of
  Adult Literacy showed that the number of college
  graduates with the highest level of literacy in
  prose (proficiency), declined from 40 in 1992 to
  31 in 2003.
• A 2005 study by the American Institutes for
  Research that tested graduating seniors from 2-
  4-year colleges, found prose proficiency among
  whites to be around 40, but that of blacks to be
  under 20. ii
• i ii J. D. Baer, et al., The Literacy of
  Americas College Students, American Institutes
  for Research (2006), cited in Kevin Carey, The
  Black-White College Literacy Gap, Education
  Sector, found at www.educationsector.org/analysis/
  analysis_show.htm?doc_id364915.

10
Keeping Americans CompetitiveSkill Supply
Immigrants

• The retirement of the baby boom generation will
  leave more jobs available than the current number
  of new workers available to fill them. The
  difference will be filled primarily by
  immigrants, who increasingly will arrive from
  countries with low levels of education and skill.
  i
• Three-fourths all U.S. workers with less than a
  ninth-grade education are immigrants. ii
• Nearly 2/3 of low-wage immigrant workers do not
  speak English proficiently, and most of these
  workers have had little formal education 29 of
  LEP workers have been in the country for 20 years
  or more.
• A key barrier to participation in WIA and
  employer-provided training programs is lack of
  formal schooling, as most of these programs are
  geared towards enrollees with at least a
  ninth-grade education.
• i BLS data, op.cit.
• ii Urban Institute, found at www.urban.org/toolk
  it/issues/immigration.cfm

11
Systems for Skill AcquisitionAdult Basic
Education (ABE) ESL WIAEmployers

• ABE The federally funded share about 25 - of
  the programs that focus on basic education and
  English language training for adults was just
  over 564 million, providing access to fewer than
  3 million individuals (PY 2003)²
• ESL Estimates are that existing ESL programs
  serve fewer than 10 of the individuals who need
  instruction (JFF)³
• WIA Employment and training programs under WIA
  served fewer than 800,000 adults and dislocated
  workers nationally in 2004 just over 400,000
  received training 4
• Employers Most workforce development in the US
  is provided by employers to their employees or by
  employers in partnership with other organizations
  to individuals not yet in the workforce.
  Estimates of annual expenditures by employers for
  training range from 46 billion to 70 billion.²
• Short-term on-the-job training is the most
  significant source of postsecondary education or
  training for 5 of the 10 occupations with the
  largest job growth.

12
Technology-Enabled Learning (TEL)What do we
mean?

• Why technology-enabled, not e learning?
• e-learning connotation is e-teaching
• content and structure is assumed
• e-learning is delivery tool, albeit often cheaper
  and better than classroom delivery
• Technology also enables not teaching
• incorporates and integrates the ability to access
  information and/or knowledge just-in-time to
  assess information via multiple methods to learn
  outside of traditional formats, sequences, media
• TEL includes and often integrates video, TV,
  CDROM, Internet, webspace, cellphone, pda, email,
  iPod, etc.
• Thousands of innovations in history all share
  the same pattern the early assessment is
  unrelated to the outcome.
• Michael Dertouzos, The Unfinished Revolution
  (2001)

13
Technology-Enabled LearningWhy We Should

• An OECD 7-country survey of adult literacy found
  that in each of the 7 countries (which included
  the US), people who used computers consistently
  scored higher on average on the prose literacy
  scale than those who did not. i
• A recent survey of U.S. companies found that the
  companies deliver 23 percent of their training
  via learning technologies.ii
• Evaluations of pilots, programs and use of tools
  RD demonstrate value for tech-enabled
  learning.
• Tech-enabled learning enables not only skill
  acquisition but also ability to navigate the
  information workplace and the information world
• Increasing number of job sites are online
  telephone numbers staffed by few employees
• Trend in employment services provided by
  government programs including WIA is to rely
  on individual to find out about necessary
  education/training programs
• A 2005 survey found that 87 percent of
  12-to-17-year-olds play games online, while only
  54 percent of 18-to-28-year-olds those already
  at work do so. As the 12-17 year olds begin to
  make up growing percentages of the workforce, it
  will be incumbent on employers to adapt.iii
• i OECD and Statistics Canada, Learning a
  Living First Results of the Adult Literacy and
  Life Skills Survey. Ottawa and Paris (2005), p.
  200. Found at www.oecd.org/dataoecd/44/7/34867438
  .pdfsearch22OECD2022Learning20a20Living22
  22
• ii ASTD, Benchmarking Forum Report 2006.
• iii. Pew Internet American Life Project,
  December 2005 (data from 2004 to 2005), found at
  www.pewinternet.org.

14
Technology-Enabled Learning Its Going On All
Around Us

• Social context of knowledge is often overlooked,
  especially in the context of work.
• Participation in communities often is closely
  aligned with actual work of community members, so
  the knowledge exchanged is likely to be timely
  and highly relevant to immediate knowledge needs.
  
• Information and communications technologies can
  enable continuation of face-to-face interaction
  among individuals working remotely, or provide an
  extension of this interaction with colleagues in
  other regions and nations. i
• i Eilif Trondsen, The Business of Digital
  Game-Based Learning. Learning on Demand SRI
  Consulting Business Intelligence, December 2005,
  p. 2.

15
TEL Mobile Learning

• Hispanic-speaking food service workers in
  Sodexho, McDonalds, and other restaurants are
  learning English via a portable electronic device
  that enables them, by pointing at a picture on
  the screen, to record and hear English
  pronunciation as many times as they need to help
  them master their speaking skills.
• Marriott International is developing bite-sized
  training podcasts so a worker can download
  information to cell phone, laptop and iPod as
  needed.
• Young people and adults with limited means,
  limited time and limited education, can use
  Internet-enabled cellular phone or games to
  access information as text, video, image or the
  help of a teacher or mentor often can make the
  difference between staying with a program or
  dropping out.

16
TELLearning by Doing Simulations

• Particularly effective tool in situations that
  require practice, such as medical
  emergency/first responder actions or so-called
  soft skills challenges in management and
  leadership.
• Carnegie Mellon has developed a prototype
  simulation/game, Biohazard
• Simulations also are effective in engaging adults
  with limited education, skills or language
  ability in interactive, collaborative, learning
  environments that mimic the world of work and
  life, providing a virtual experience that
  offers education without a trained instructor.
• Verizon is one of many corporations that have
  begun to use simulations for practice,
  simultaneously taking advantage of the knowledge
  of long-time employees, by developing a course on
  installing DSL.
• Home Depot has introduced kiosks in all stores so
  its 300,000 employees can bone up on forklift
  safety and product details with electronic
  tutorials. They can click through simulations to
  learn which aisles to close when restocking and
  to improve knowledge of plumbing (for example)
  when they switch departments.
• The use of video has proven to be especially
  useful, incorporated into comprehensive learning
  frameworks the video providing a view of action
  and environment via episodes, supported by
  text-based and interactive materials, assessments
  and other learning tools.

17
TEL Games and Virtual Worlds

• Games can teach a wide range of higher order
  skills with high time-on-task. Multiplayer games
  also provide opportunities to learn negotiation,
  teamwork, relationship management, and how to
  generate self-forming networks.
• The US Army games, for uses ranging from training
  soldiers to deal with situations they may face in
  combat or other types of deployment or developing
  knowledge of strategy in war games.
• Americas Army developed as recruitment tool,
  giving players an opportunity to learn how to
  jointly accomplish military tasks while using
  different skills and to interest the individual
  in joining the Army.
• IBM new video game technology and the virtual
  world of the Internet as a global on-boarding
  tool for thousands of new employees in burgeoning
  technology markets such as the US, India and
  China.
• Combining play with learning, IBM is making it
  easier and faster to train a huge influx of new
  employees.
• IBM_at_Play, takes advantage of the Internet's 3-D
  virtual world that runs on platforms such as
  Second Life, where people interact via lifelike
  digital personas or "avatars."
• Uses social network capabilities of the Internet
  to break down the barriers of distance and
  satellite office environments.

18
Establishing Value in the Marketplace
Assessment, Validation, Certification

• Automated assessment tools and intelligent tutors
  are able to identify learner strengths and
  weaknesses, level of mastery and individual
  progress in learning.
• In the workplace and/or for individuals with
  significant levels of education and skill, the
  use of automated assessments can track an
  individual employees progress through difficult
  (or boring) material and be aware of whether or
  not there is a need for special assistance or
  improved content.
• Online, self-directed and interactive ICT
  assessment programs can lead to credible
  validation of digital literacy levels
• UKs eSkills Passport
• European Computer Driving License
• Microsoft Digital Literacy Certificate

19
Digital Literacy Microsofts Digital Literacy
Curriculumwww.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitize
nship/citizenship/giving/programs/up/digitallitera
cy/default.mspx

• Five course curriculum that provides a foundation
  of basic computer skills to learners with little
  or no prior computing experience.
• Curriculum combines eLearning, assessments and a
  certificate test in an adaptable format that can
  be used in an instructor-led classroom
  environment or as self-paced study.
• The five Digital Literacy eLearning courses
  offered include
• Computer Basics
• The Internet and World Wide Web Basics
• Productivity Software Basics
• Computer Security and Privacy
• Digital Lifestyles
• Computer Basics requires a literacy level
  appropriate to read a local newspaper. Remaining
  courses require mastery of Computer Basics, or
  similar experience.
• Each course includes an online assessment of 30
  randomly generated questions linked to the key
  course topics. The curriculum culminates in a
  Digital Literacy Certificate Test.
• 8 Languages to date

20
Selected Tech-Enabled Learning Programs ESL

• EnglishForAll http//www.myefa.org/login.cfm
• Multi-ethnic Web-based and CD-ROM program
  includes five compelling, real-life stories in
  twenty, fifteen-minute episodes.
• Each episode features a multi-ethnic cast and a
  friendly Wizard, who explains language and skill
  content throughout each story.
• The site includes interactive student activities,
  streaming video (for broadband connections),
  Flash-based audio, and a course management system
  for teachers to track student progress.
• Print materials are available in PDF and
  downloadable without charge from the Web site.
• The lessons in English for All track to the
  students answers as well as to the episodes,
  which become progressively more difficult.
• The student may review his/her answers with those
  that are correct and view the videos and lessons
  repeatedly.
• The content is based on the California ESL
  standards and skill areas identified in the
  Latino Adult Education Services Project, and it
  is correlated to CASAS and SCANS competencies.
  The site also includes Spanish a translation of
  most of the online text. A link to an online
  translator accommodates speakers of other
  languages.

21
Selected Tech-Enabled LearningWork Readiness,
Literacy, ESL

• TV411- www.tv411.org
• Dynamic, pedagogically sound material using media
  and print available on public TV stations, video,
  online, downloadable print materials
• To enable people to use on their own, or in
  classes, or with families to improve basic
  reading, writing, and math skills. Idea is to
  help people become learners.
• Structure
• Weekly, half-hour episodes consist of discrete
  segments hosted by both fictional and real-life
  personalities and a cast of entertaining TV411
  characters who walk the learner through the math
  and literacy topics of everyday.
• Each episode has an accompanying 12-page workbook
  which further explores concepts presented in the
  show and provides opportunities for practice.
• Online components include interactive lessons and
  articles addressing the themes of money,
  parenting, people, and health.
• Web site has a bulletin board to provide users
  with personalized support and a forum to share
  their writing and ideas. Content and skills are
  at a pre-GED level, articulate well with most
  state curriculum and crosswalk well with EFF,
  CASAS and SCANS.

22
Selected Tech-Enabled LearningWork Readiness,
Literacy, GED

• PBS Workplace Essential Skills www.pbs.org/literac
  y
• Helps adult students advance toward their GED and
  improve those basic skills needed at the
  workplace, either through classroom-based or
  independent Web-based instruction.
• computer technology.
• Video, print, online
• Individuals at 4-5th grade reading levels

23
Selected Tech-Enabled ProgramsICT Skills for
the Office

• Microsofts Unlimited Potential Program
• www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/citiz
  enship/giving/programs/up/
• Cash, software, curriculum, and technical
  expertise to nonprofit 501c3 CBOs, CTLCs
• Enables individuals to learn about technology and
  gain the information technology skills needed for
  employment in the IT field or other industry
  sectors.
• 8 modules provide content for the community
  (nonmatriculating) learner that focuses on
  real-world skill development in the areas of
• Computer Literacy
• Computer Fundamentals.
• Information Literacy - Using the Internet and
  World Wide Web.
• Digital Media Fundamentals.
• Productivity Applications
• Word Processing Fundamentals
• Spreadsheet Fundamentals.
• Presentation Fundamentals.
• Web Design Fundamentals.
• Database Fundamentals.
• Files available in Microsoft Word format, so
  instructors may customize lessons.
• English, Spanish, French, and German. Russian,
  Arabic, and Simplified Chinese in development.

24
Installing TELWhy We Havent

• FEAR and CUSTOM
• Undercuts business models of institutions
• Governments are inherently conservative
• Risk-taking in one arena may jeopardize necessary
  service in another
• Passionate constituencies for status quo
• Funding inconsistency
• Aging leadership

25
RecommendationsGovernments

• Initiate National debate
• Engage powerful partners (corporations)
• narrow participating community (reduce
  institutional representation)
• expand participating community (bring in the
  techies)
• Craft a comprehensive TEL agenda that represents
  traditional silos e-learning interests under one
  umbrella
• Install Broadband, including the last mile
• Expand RD on TEL
• Include US Dept of Defense greatest breadth and
  depth of experience
• Identify and promote existing ICT
  assessments/credentials, and fund development of
  credible, vendor-neutral assessments/credentials

26
Recommendations Organizations

• Look beyond traditional business for partners
  approach ICT companies/creative start-ups with
  younger generation
• Identify what we know are/will be 21st century
  jobs and necessary skills often extensions of
  existing jobs
• case management in health care
• supply chain management in warehousing
• Creativity in content, device, access,
  instructor/mentors
• Learn what is out there and PROMOTE it
• Add digital to the literacy requirements and
  assumptions

27
Sample Resources

• Outreach and Technical Assistance Network
• www.otan.dni.us/login/login.cfm
• Connect Kentucky - www.connectkentucky.org/
• Games2Train.com
• Tech21.org
• JFF.org E-Learning Snapshots for Adult
  Literacy (2002)

28
Conclusion

• In a time of drastic change, it is the learners
  who inherit the future. The learned find
  themselves equipped to live in a world that no
  longer exists. Eric Hoffer, Vanguard Management
  (1989)

29
Notes

• 1) Rising Above the Gathering Storm Energizing
  and Employing America for a Brighter Economic
  Future. National Academies (10/05) Innovate
  America. Council on Competitiveness (12/04) Is
  the US Losing Its Competitive Edge? Task Force on
  the Future of American Innovation (2005) Are
  They Really Ready to Work? Employers
  Perspectives on Basic Knowledge and Applied
  Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S.
  Workforce. Conference Board, Partnership for
  21st Century Skillls Corporate Voices for
  Working Families, SHRM (10/06)
• 2) Workforce Investment Act Substantial Funds
  Are Used for Training, but Little is Known
  Nationally about Training Outcomes, GAO Report
  to Congressional Requesters (6/05), found at
  www.gao.gov/new.items/d05650.pdf.
• The Workforce Alliance, Skilling the American
  Workforce On The Cheap Ongoing Shortfalls in
  Federal Funding for Workforce Development,
  September 2003.
• A recent survey of organizations that report in
  detail on their training practices found that 23
  of training was delivered via learning
  technologies. ASTD Benchmarking Report, 2006
• 3) A recent survey by The Urban Institute and
  Johns Hopkins University conducted for the U.S.
  Department of Labor found that private sector
  investments in training range between 46 and
  54 billion annually on occupational
  training-related spending, excluding the
  accompanying administrative costs. Cited in
  Training and Employment Guidance Letter No.
  18-05, U.S. Department of Labor Employment and
  Training Administration (3/6/06). The figure of
  70 billion was.estimated by Anthony Carnevale
  and Donna Derochers, "Standards for What? The
  Economic Roots of K-16 Reform", Educational
  Testing Service Office of Assessment, Equity and
  Careers, Washington, DC, 2004.
• 4) U.S. DOL ETA Performance Report FY06
  (7/1/04-6/30/05), found at ww.doleta.gov/performan
  ce/results/Reports.cfm?etaqr7/1/04-6/30/05.