Serendipity35

IBM held something called the Smarter Planet University Jam this past April. Nearly 2,000 students, faculty, IBM business leaders,technologists, governmental officials, and industry partners from 40 countries around the globe took part in the Jam. They were five theme areas: smart skills and education, smart water management and green planet, smart grid, smarter healthcare, and smart cities.

The Jam Report they have released says that 80% of the students want universities to revamp traditional learning environments. 90% want to join or start a Green Advocacy group at their campus. 60% believe that education and efficient transportation offer the best hope for sustainability of our cities. <

“The Smarter Planet University Jam was the first time that so many university-aged students came together in an online forum to brainstorm ideas to better our world,” said Jai Menon, vice president of technical strategy and university programs, IBM. “Students are confident that their future will be a smarter place – a world where they will drive cars that get 100 miles per gallon, learn in virtual classrooms connected with students across the globe, and where they can run their businesses on a secure, energy-efficient and interconnected grid. They are boldly challenging the industry to transform that vision into their reality, and IBM is committed to meeting that challenge.”

"Jammers" also discussed that success in the services-based global economy requires academia, government, and industry to work together to create “T-shaped” people. Those are people with deep knowledge in one discipline and broader knowledge in other areas.

IBM has created an interdisciplinary curriculum called Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME), and is currently working with 250 universities around the globe.

If educators haven't picked up on the idea yet, business people have. Tim Brown, CEO and president of Ideo, writes in Fast Company:

We look for people who are so inquisitive about the world that they're willing to try to do what you do. We call them "T-shaped people." They have a principal skill that describes the vertical leg of the T -- they're mechanical engineers or industrial designers. But they are so empathetic that they can branch out into other skills, such as anthropology, and do them as well. They are able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behavior that point to a universal human need. That's what you're after at this point -- patterns that yield ideas.

In Business Week, Bill Buxton, writes about t-shaped people:

When you slide multiple Ts together, their cross bars all overlap, indicating that the various Ts have a common language, and, ideally, their combined base can be broad enough to cover the domain of the problem that you are addressing. At Microsoft (MSFT), we try to make sure that in looking at new product or services ideas, we have at least three Ts, which we call BXT, reflecting equal levels of competence and creativity in three domains: business, experience (in design), and technology. These are three interdependent and interwoven pillars we see as the foundation for what we do.

But Buxton also suggests a variation of his own - "I-shaped people" - thinkers who have their feet firmly planted in the practical world, but can stretch their heads to the clouds, and simultaneously span all of the space in between.

Bill Gillies, writing on the Grown Up Digital blog about the Jam Report, focuses on the Jammers' ideas about changing universities. They questioned the traditional role and model of university systems, as Internet-based applications begin to provide more course
content and we shift to a system of global and service based economies.

Some of their suggestions:
- Adopting learning methods that are student-led versus instructor-led, with professors playing a mentor role in the learning process.
- Adopting videoconferencing as a means to accomplish distance learning without sacrificing interaction.
- Broader use of virtual environments to enhance learning, interaction, networking and communication.
- Implementing team-based projects across geographical, disciplinary and institutional boundaries.

IBM also promotes Open Education as part of the solution to the problems it sees in education:  

Despite billions of dollars in spending, technology has produced inconsistent results for educational institutions. Ad hoc technology implementations. Difficulty getting devices into the hands of all constituents. Resistance to adapting teaching and learning as technology has become available. All have been barriers to success.
In addition, increasing enrollments and decreasing funding are realities for many academic institutions. And student expectations are changing—their technical requirements are high. K-12 schools struggle with high dropout rates and accountability mandates. For higher education, the challenges include institutional differentiation and an emerging focus on student outcomes.

Whether you call our students "T-shaped" or "I-shaped" or even "O-shaped" (well rounded), the questions remain: Are we providing what the work world wants in its employees? Is the purpose of schools, particularly secondary and universities, to create workers?


IBM Open source Information
White Paper: The power of the open approach to transform K–12 schools
White Paper: Solving the integration issue - Service-oriented architecture (SOA)
White Paper: Vision 2010 – The future of business software applications
Video: Open technologies in education