A big reason why ed tech so o...

A big reason why ed tech so often fails to deliver lasting educational innovation is that it is often created and implemented with minimal input from teachers and students, the end users of educational technology. Teachers are a broad, diverse group who differ greatly in each community and school. Ed tech solutions are most often created with the hope that they can be sold to a broad spectrum of schools and classrooms. They tend to be one-size-fits-all solutions, and while these companies may include a founder who is a teacher, they are often not teacher led. But there is another, more insidious notion un-derlying much of ed tech‘s troubled approach to innovation, which is that the teacher is an obstacle to be overcome.

There is a reason why Harvard and the University of Toronto and my old high school are still full, and why no one I went to school with would trade their years there for a MOOC or online degree, anymore than they would for a correspondence course. That reason is teachers.

Teachers are the key to analog education‘s past, present, and future, and no technology can or should replace them. Not because they have the most knowledge, but because without them, education is no more than facts passed back and forth. If you want facts, go read abook. If you want to learn, find a teacher.

The digital world values analog more than anyone.

An intentionally analog workplace mattered more to digital technology companies for two key reasons. The first, which I had seen at Yelp and Medium, was creating a strong, interpersonal corporate culture, bound by real relationships, in an industry where the nature of the work, and the tools used to do it, naturally lean toward isolation.
Offices that appeared at first glance like adult daycares were in fact carefully designed to maximize analog interactions, with an eye on fostering the company‘s culture of innovation and ultimate productivity.

These companies are not turning to analog out of some MadMon-inspired nostalgia for the way business was once done, or because the people working there are afraid of change. They are themost advanced, progressive corporations in the world. They are notembracing analog because it is cool. They do it because analog provesthe most efficient, productive way to conduct business. They embrace analog to give them a competitive advantage.

The nature of consumption of ...

The nature of consumption of digital products favors standardization and builds itself around dominant platforms. For computers to talk effectively to one another, they need to speak the same language and use the same formats. At the early startup stage, there may be dozens or hundreds of fledgling companies vying to establish this new standard, but over time, consumers and investors reward only the largest one with tremendous success, while the rest simply fall away.

The more important reason behind the digital economy‘s failure to create significant jobs is that minimizing the use of human labor tends to be one of its fundamental goals. "As intelligent machines become cheaper and more capable, they will increasingly replace human labor, especially in relatively structured environments such as factories and especially for the most routine and repetitive tasks,"

This is a promising tale, but there is a catch. Undoubtedly the technology industry creates many jobs, but the jobs it provides tend to be rather specific and geared toward educated, upwardly mobile(and overwhelmingly male) individuals.

Digital technology has proven very good at creating two types ofjobs: high-paying, highly specialized jobs at the top (such as software designers and CEOs), and low paying, low-skill jobs at the bottom(such as Foxconn phone assemblers and Amazon Warehouse fulfillers).
The result is an economy of increasing inequality.

Wolf then asked the teachers to list only positive attributes of each model, as they would be making something called a pro-pro chart. "Nothing negative," she said, "only pro here." Teachers called out ideas for each: Online-only schools could connect students to teachers anywhere and anytime. They could be more cost-effective,
and nearly every aspect of the experience was customizable to the individual needs of students. Teachers could even work from home, in their pajamas ... a comment that elicited whoops of approval. In terms of advantages, brick-and-mortar schools were situated in a particular community, and students could form deep social bonds with teachers and peers there, what Federico called the "hidden curriculum" of socialization.

Tabletop gaming creates a uni...

Tabletop gaming creates a unique social space apart from the digital world. It is the antithesis of the glossy, streaming waterfalls of information and marketing that masquerade as relationships on social networks.

Why a book? Why print? Because it is real. Because I can hold this very book in my hands once it is printed, see my name on the cover, and know that all the work was worth it, regardless of how many copies it sells. That feeling is the ultimate luxury, and it is one I will happily pay for, time and again, as a reader and a writer.

[오늘의 한문장] 습관의 힘

습관을 바꾸기 위해서는 습관을 바꾸겠다는 결심이 먼저 있어야 한다. 습관의 반복 행동을 유도하는 신호와 보상을 알아내고, 대안을 찾으려는 의식적인 노력이 있어야 한다. 우리에게 통제 수단이 있다는걸 깨닫고, 그 통제 수단을 의식적으로 활용할 수 있어야 한다.

대부분의 기업은 신중한 의사 결정에 근거해서 합리적인...

대부분의 기업은 신중한 의사 결정에 근거해서 합리적인 선택을 하는 듯하지만 실제로 그렇게 운영되는 기업은 그리 많지 않다. 오히려 기업의 행태는 조직 내에서 오랫동안 지속된 습관에 영향을 받으며, 그것은 직원들의 독자적인 결정에서 흔히 드러난다. 이런 습관들은 일반적인 생각보다 훨씬 큰 영향을 미친다.

삶에서 중요한 사건을 겪은 소비자는 자신도 의식하지 못하는 사이에 쇼핑 패턴이 변한다. 기업은 그런 변화를 알아채고 그 변화에 주목한다.