Phillip Djwa, First Nations SchoolNet
April 26, 2008

Thinking about work
• What is happening in the world?
• Why is work changing?
• How is work changing?
• What is Knowledge Work?
• How can you and your
learners take advantage
of what the trends are?

Phillip Djwa
• Have been part of the First Nations Education Steering
Committee since 1999
• Have been in technology for 15 years, working with
organizations large and small
• Work closely with Aboriginal Organizations
• FNS has delivered over $9M to FN Schools in BC for
computer hardware, software, connectivity and training
– responsibility for Program Design, Policy development
– E-learning lead
• Have Capacity Building Portfolio on First Nations
Technology Council

Did you Know?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q

We are preparing students for jobs that don’t exist,
using technologies that haven’t been invented, to
solve problems we haven’t begun to think about.
-Thomas Friedman The World is Flat
Therefore the definition of what it means to be
educated in the light of the modern world has
changed

Question
In a global economy, does
the idea of instant access
to information and services
change in any way, shape
or form the kinds of skills,
knowledge and habits of
mind that students might
need?

“A whole New Mind”
• Daniel Pink writes that almost anything that involves left-
brained thinking can be automated, turned into software or
outsourced and that in the new economy, many skills can
be outsourced or automated, but creativity and imagination
cannot.
• If our children are going to survive let alone thrive in this
new 21st century economy requires skills, and knowledge
and habits of mind that, historically, have been largely
discounted or ignored in schools; and that if they are going
to survive, they’re going to need to use both hemispheres
at the same time - they’re going to have to use the Whole
New Mind.

What’s our P.O.V.?
• We come from what Bill Spady
(Paradigm Lost, 1997) describes
as the “educentric” point of view.
We’ve had very little need (or
opportunity) to step back from
education and start to understand
what’s happening outside of
education.

Is School Relevant?
• Children’s view of the relevancy of their school experience
to their future lives has declined steadily since the late
1980s.
• Today, only 28% of US 12th-grade high school students
believe that school work is meaningful; 21% believe that
their courses are interesting; and a mere 39% believe that
school work will have any bearing on their success in later
life. (American Center for Education Statistics and reported
in The Condition of Education, 2004.)
• These are the opinions of those students who have
remained in high school for four years.

\"the illiterate of the twenty-
first century will not be those
who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot learn,
unlearn, and relearn.”
- Alvin Toffler

Why is Work Changing?*
1. The speed of technology has increased the pace of work
transformation.
• Collaborative technology and collaborative platforms appear
every day.
2. Demographics are changing the face of North America
– The shortage of skilled knowledge workers is real
3. Economics are hugely affected by global changes
– Globalization isn't working as well as many people thought it
would (people can’t get the right talent and product safety is an
issue)
4. Cultural impact – the “Cultural Tapestry” has been torn
and is now being rebuilt
*Keynote speech, Jennifer James, BCED Online Conference 2007

Question!
What steps can we take to ensure
that all of our students develop
the essential skills including
creativity training to succeed in
this radically emerging
exponential environment?

The Issue
• In the Infowhelm age, learners need to work with
information in all forms to fashion content products
that have value, that entertain and teach.
• But if learners do is learn the traditional literacies –
read, write, arithmetic- they may be literate by 20th
Century standards but not by 21st Century
standards.

How is Work changing?*
• Older employees favour telecommuting (Gradual
Retirement)
• Management by Objectives vs old Mgmt by Time
• Desire for additional control over worklife (anyplace,
anywhere)
• Economic development agencies will be important
in telecommuting (matching talent to supply)
• Work is no longer a synonym for a physical place
*Future of Work Agenda, Work Design Collaborative

What is Knowledge Work?*
• The broadest view of knowledge work is that it is an activity
that either requires specialized knowledge or skills, or
creates new knowledge.
• In contrast to physical labor, knowledge work focuses
primarily on creating or applying information or knowledge
to create value.
• Knowledge worker jobs are often information-based,
predictable, portable
• In an infinite sea of information, knowledge workers are the
new fishermen
*Future of Work Agenda, March 2007. Jim Ware and Charlie Grantham, Work
Design Collaborative

What are Knowledge Worker Jobs?
• Programmer, graphic designer, engineer, architect,
bookkeeper, accountant, broker, insurance agent,
draughtsman, web designer, interior designer,
writer, thinker, artist, etc etc etc!!
• Any white collar job is knowledge work!
• BUT any white collar job is in jeopardy
– Alan November, theorist and teacher

• Fifteen years ago, graduates from my hometown of
Vancouver only had to compete for jobs with graduates
from Victoria, Nanaimo, and Prince George.
• Then about 10 years ago, these graduates had to compete
with graduates from Seattle, New York, San Diego and
Cleveland.
• But now the competition comes from people and machines
Shanghai, China, Mumbai, India and Tel Aviv, Israel and
soon anyone anywhere on the planet.
- Ian Jukes

Question!
In a global economy, where these students will be
competing with people from other countries, what
skills and knowledge and habits of mind will they
need to know that we didn’t need growing up?

Connected economy
• The knowledge worker doesn’t exist in a vacuum
• They are Connected to each other and therefore are
an ecology and ultimately, an economy

Question?
What should we in education be doing to help
prepare them for this world?
Or are we just pretending this isn’t happening - that
it isn’t really relevant to the responsibilities of
schools? Or worse, are we hoping that if we ignore
these trends, they will just go away?

How can your learners take advantage?
• Learn Information Fluency!!
– the unconscious ability to ask good questions,
– access data from a range of high tech and low tech
sources,
– analyze and authenticate the data to distinguish the
good from the bad,
– the ability to apply the data that has been turned into
knowledge to solve real world problems,
– the ability to be able to asses both process and product

Remember!
\"the illiterate of the twenty-first century
will not be those who cannot read and
write, but those who cannot learn,
unlearn, and relearn.”
- Alvin Toffler

How can your learners take advantage?
• Learn how to use the computer
• Share stories, explore challenges together, and
learn from each others’ experiences
• Start to use the new tools to become the new
craftspeople
• “Online teaches online”
• Your community can be “new economy”

Example Opportunity
• Industrial Age
1. means of production
2. channels of distribution
3. means of marketing
• TODAY music examples –
you can record the music on your home studio,
distribute it through your website and market it
through Youtube, Myspace, & Facebook

• Your challenge, should you choose to
accept it…
Take advantage of the new trends,
embrace them and find the ways to use
them to your advantage!

Your choice!
• Demo some collaborative software tools of this new
age
• Watch another video showing how students live and
work?

Student Perspective
Student Perspective

Some Collaborative Tools
• Virtual Office - Groove
• Sharing documents - Google Docs
• Project management – Basecamp
• Communications - Skype
• Meeting online - GotoMeeting / Elluminate / Adobe
Connect

Thank you!
Questions, please contact
Phillip Djwa
phillip@agentic.ca
Phone 604-255-2131