STRATEGIC PLANNING
(THINKING)
FOR THE DIGITAL ERA

Volume 7, Number 8                                                                  April 2001

                                                          * * * * * * * * *

PREPARING FOR THE NEW WORLD GEOGRAPHY BEE

"Geography Bees" were common in schools along with bees in other disciplines. Geography Bees often began with local, regional, and world physical geography ranging from low order cognitive factual information recall to higher order cognitive integration and synthesis. Bee questions would extend to cultural, economic, and social dimensions with the same cognitive low to high processes. "Fast forward" to today's competitive application of technology among developed nations and think about bees and the "Career Development Paradigms for Digital Dividends" that need to be created.

"The Internet, experts said, would free us to do business anywhere. As a result where we did business would no longer matter. We'd live in a `placeless' society. As it turns out, the experts were wrong: Where we do business matters now more than ever.

The result is that the Internet Economy is driving fundamental changes in America's landscape, creating new winners and losers out of cities and towns. Urban technology centers such as San Francisco are thriving, while some of the older industrial cities, such as Buffalo and Detroit, have lost their way. Some suburbs, such as those outside Boston, have evolved into high-tech havens, while others, particularly those near the old industrial cities, are little more than tree-lined slums. The most affluent parts of rural America, such as Park City, Utah, are enjoying a remarkable resurgence, while towns in regions like the Great Plains struggle to survive."

Kotkin, Joel. "Spreading the Wealth." The Industry Standard. 4(7), February 19, 2001, 76-7. Joel Kotkin is author of The New Geography: How the Digital Revolution Is Reshaping the
American Landscapehttp://www.thestandard.com/

The February 19 issue of The Industry Standard contains articles about the best new places to do business for tech companies: (1) Route 202 corridor, Philadelphia; (2) Boise City, Idaho; (3) Tacoma, Washington; (4) Huntsville, Alabama; and (5) Ventura County, California.

"Across the globe, new-economy businesses are looking for the ideal place to set up shop. What makes a place perfect: a ready work force, technological infrastructure, beautiful scenery - and a pool of like-minded entrepreneurs eager to create a vibrant community." The Standard selected: Shenzhen, China; Subiaco Valley, Australia; Leeds, England; and Campinas, Brazil (p. 103).

ATTAINMENT

Statements of Purpose are necessary, 
But something must eventually be done to prove that attainment is possible.

Burl N. Osburn, "The Editor Has The Last Word," The Industrial Arts Teacher, Nov-Dec, 1961, p. 26.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT FOR DIGITAL DIVIDENDS

Preparation for citizenship, learning, and work have been themes for the purposes of education in the U. S. All three purposes are becoming increasingly more difficult to achieve. Preparation for citizenship could include analysis of corruption by individuals in high level positions that are using contemporary technology or critique of "Human Trafficking" in multiple forms that is now the biggest enterprise of organized crime. How can education address such issues? To what extent can formal education prepare individuals in detection, apprehension, judicial processing, possible incarceration, rehabilitation, and re-entry into society in cases of multinational jurisdictions?

Preparation for continuous learning and waves of workplace changes also pose unique challenges for education. Career Development is a generic term for services to assist individuals to clarify aptitudes and interests and guide them from awareness through processes that can lead to a range of options within career clusters such as in business, engineering, healthcare, education, public service, and other groupings. But, disconnects in services are widespread. An example is offered that relates to both purposes of learning and work. A broadband technology race is occurring among developed nations and is revolutionizing how education and training is being provided and how work is being done. And, the race will accelerate. How are children and youth made aware about broadband technology and about career opportunities? And, what about adults? Equally important is how will educators become at least minimally proficient in the demonstration and to effectively use broadband technology to access information from Web sites worldwide for career development and for curriculum development in Anytime (24 x 7) Anywhere Learning formats? A 16-member commission created in 1998 has recommended broadband technology deployment but making it available must be accompanied with cognitive bandwidth applications in education.

GOAL 

It is our goal to design and perfect a CAREER DEVELOPMENT system that can be modeled in AAL and traditional formats that will be qualitatively superior to ad hoc services currently in use. Awareness will include developmentally appropriate learning units about biometric, card, voice, wireless, and other technologies of the digital era that can be used in the early years and modified for use by individuals who have special needs. Exploration in application of the above-mentioned technologies can enhance critical thinking competencies and problem solving skills as electronic literacy skill of accessing, browsing, and mining are pursued in a collaborative learning community involving culturally diverse learners with differing "intake" learning preferences and use styles. Specialization could involve mining Web sites with applications of above-mentioned technologies in a career cluster or a concentration such as engineering of M-commerce for an economy sector.
 

AWARENESS PHASE OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT FOR DIGITAL DIVIDENDS

A few children observed Boeing's Joint Tactical Fighter (JTF) fly overhead during recess and began to compare the JTF with other Boeing planes and discuss Boeing's Vision 2016. The bell rang and one of the children said, "Well, its' time to go back and do worksheets." Their fathers were not engineers at Boeing. But, the after school services at the public library and a computer volunteer guided young children through new literacy skills of accessing, browsing, and mining.

In a "Charter Virtual Sandbox," however, children were encouraged to pursue this information in collaborative groups based on "intake" learning preferences to browse biometric, card, voice, wireless, and other technologies. After analysis of information, collaborative learning continues in groups based on how individuals are most likely to use it based on a modified Myers Briggs test. Collaborative learning groups comprised of individuals with similar use profiles will find it easier to find commonalities in the information that was mined to add value to the knowledge gained. Collaborative learning groups comprised of individuals with dissimilar use profiles will critique the knowledge and perceptions from the above-mentioned activity to discover differences/similarities. Children then reflect upon and synthesize content and feeling about experiences in a journal log. Children are then encouraged to demonstrate competencies, knowledge, and skills to members of extended families in a public library, at home, or elsewhere in the community.

Basic Technologies for Digital Dividends

Analysis of biometric or biometric-related information could begin with some of these Web sites:
http://www.ankari.com/
http://www.biometricaccess.com/
http://www.digitalpersona.com/

Analysis of card and smart card information could begin with some of these Web sites: http://www.cardtechnology.com/

Analysis of speech and voice recognition and verification could begin with these Web sites:
Natural Language Speech Assistant  http://www.unisys.com/marketplace/nln/
Natural language on phone to conduct e-business  http://www.altech.com/
Text-to-speech http://www.acuvoice.com/
Speech synthesis and text-to-speech  http://www.elan.fr/
Medical e-Services  http://www.voicecommander.com/
Increase security by speaker verification  http://www.t-netix.com/
SpeechTEK Conference & Expo  http://www.speechtek.com/
Speech Technology Magazine  http://www.speechtechmag.com/
Historically Speaking, 1950s to 2000  http://www.smartpartnermag.com/filters/voice

Analysis of wireless information could begin with some of these Web sites:
http://www.allnetdevices.com/
http://www.allnetdevices.com/
http://www.wap-resources.net/
http://www.WindCaster.com/
http://www.option.com/
http://www.yospace.com/
http://www.waply.com/
http://mfinder.cellmania.com/
 

EXPLORATION PHASE OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT FOR DIGITAL DIVIDENDS

Exploration activities include (a) browsing Web sites for career cluster categories such as business, engineering, education and training, government, health care and human services, etc.; (b) mining high quality information for an array of topics such as biotechnology, e-books, and categories of establishments in an economy sector such as graphic arts and printing; and (c) acquiring collaborative group competencies and skills in Anytime Anywhere Learning formats.

AMP is the world leader in electrical connectors found in airplanes, cars, and computer. AMP was using EC in the mid 1990s. Tyco International Ltd. operates in all 50 states and 80 countries throughout the world. http://www.amp.com/ and http://www.tyco.com/

Thermacore International, Inc. leads the global market in design and production of thermal management solutions for electronic cooling through its divisions Thermacore, Inc.; Thermacore Europe Ltd., Thermacore Korea Ltd.; and Thermacore Taiwan Inc. http://www.thermacore.com/
http://www.thermacore.com/korea.htm
http://www.thermacore.com/taiwan.htm

OUR VISION 

"It is our vision to see ... brands on store shelves in every country." Kimberly Clark is a world leader in personal care products, consumer tissue products, and away from - home products. Kimberly Clark manufactures in 20 states in the U.S. plus 38 countries and territories and sells in over 150 countries. Access http://www.kimberly-clark.com/ and click on "Who We Are," "Worldwide Scope," and "Asia & Australia."

OUR VISION

 "We aspire to be the world's premier provider of medical electronic equipment and
 Systems used for clinical diagnosis, monitoring, and patient information integration."
GE Medical Systems is defining leadership in the field. Access http://www.ge.com/medical/

Lands' End is expanding fill-service e-commerce Web sites. Web sites were launched in the:
United Kingdom  http://www.landsend.co.uk/
Germany http://wwwlandsend.de/
Japan http://www.landsend.co.jp/
in November, 1999 and in 
Ireland http://www.landsend.ie/
France http://www.fr.landsend.com/
and 
Italy http://www.landsend.it/
in the fall of 2000. Imagine competencies and skills that professionals and technicians must have for needs assessment and market analysis for expanding market share or penetrating new markets. Imagine the mix of competencies and skills that are necessary to design and engineer the technological infrastructure to do B2B, B2C, and M-Commerce globally. What Career Development pathway will you plan?
 

ARCHIVED STRATEGIC THINKING NEWSLETTERS

Archived newsletters from December 1999 through the present are available at Blackboard.com. A partial list of topics is on pages 9 and 10 of the March 2001 issue. Link directly to Web sites. Access  http://www.blackboard.com/courses/webcom/  and follow instructions on page 10. Instruction for accessing bulletin boards on page 10 can link you to hundreds of resources.
 

SPECIALIZATION PHASE OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT FOR DIGITAL DIVIDENDS

Specialization activities include (a) mining high quality information from one or two career cluster categories, (b) collaborative cross cultural discussions focused on an economy sector, and (c) two collaborative cross cultural Project Management experiences to improve Quality Of Life (QOL). One of the collaborative cross cultural experiences can be domestic with Native Americans or new immigrants but at least one must be with an Eastern culture such as China, Korea, or Taiwan.

Asia Pacific, the European Union, Latin America, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are evolving rapidly in the digital era. Countries vary in their transition from industrial era economies to digital economies. Although Africa was not listed as a leader in transitioning to new economies, Egypt (Cairo) will host the International Telecommunications Union ITU Telecom for the Middle East & Arab States on May 7-10 and South Africa (Johannesburg) will host the ITU Telecom Africa on November 12-16. http://www.itu.int/

The East Asia percent of goods and services produced in the world grew from 3% in the 1960s to 11% in the 1970s to 25% in the 1990s; East Asia is consuming an increased share of goods and services produced by others (Copper, 1998). East Asia will soon pass the rest of the world in production and will probably be bigger economically than the North American free trade area and the European Union combined. The most dynamic region of the world is the Pacific Rim. The Republic of China (ROC) is currently the fastest growing economy and has 22% of the world's population with a large middle class of people who want to buy consumer products.

The European Union (EU) began with 350 million people in 12 nations with the highest per capita income in the world in 1993; EU became a single market for good and services. Austria, Sweden, and Finland raised the membership to 15 in 1995. The EU will probably expand by 12 members by 2003. Candidates include Cyprus, Malta, Hungary, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Lithuania, and Latvia. Turkey is a possible l3th candidate. EU launched the Euro in 1999. National currencies will remain in circulation until 2002.

Canada, Mexico, and the United States formed the North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA), a total population of 320 million people in Canada's 10 provinces, Mexico's 32 states, and the 50 U.S. states. A free trade agreement between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay began in 1995. Chile joined Mercado Comun del (MERCOSUR) in 1996; Bolivia joined in 1997. MERCOSUR's goal is to incorporate all S. American countries by 2005 before joining NAFTA.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) implemented a new initiative in E-Commerce for Developing Countries (EC-DC) with assistance by WISeKey with "The Secure E-commerce Partnership Seminar" last November. Nearly 500 delegates, including 17 Ambassadors and 4 Ministers, represented some 120 countries and 11 international organizations. http://www.itu.int/

About 1 billion of the world's 6 billion people have access to the Internet. Therefore, 5/6th of the world's people can be viewed as markets. Research about globally competitive communities is being used for `Building Smart and Sustainable Communities and Regions." What career paths are needed to improve Quality Of Life (QOL) for people around the world through technology that could yield Digital Dividends for more "have not" peoples as well as the "haves."?
 

SPECIALIZATION PHASE OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT (Con't)

An example of a cross cultural domestic experience focused on Career Development is as follows. A dissertation by Kathryn A. Green is about diagnosing needs and wants of foreign people and the development of bulletin board pages in response to specified wishes. Asians represent 76% of the foreign students from 46 different countries that are enrolled in this institution in California. The largest number in order are from Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Korea. Majors with the largest number of Asians are (a) marketing, international business plus travel, tourism, and hotel management; (b) liberal arts; and (c) computer science, Web design, and computer programming. Services sought by Asians in interest rank order were (a) career information, (b) tutoring, (c) career assessment and skills for future roles, and (d) job description information. Bulletin board pages on "Globalization and the Family of IT Careers," "Asia Society" and "Taiwan" were used. Bulletin board pages were created for clientele from the United Arab Emirates, China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Kenya, Taiwan, and Vietnam  http://www.blackboard.com/courses/webcom/

The Pennsylvania Governor's School for Excellence for the Agricultural Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, provides an opportunity for 10th and 11th graders to explore career paths for that economy sector. The Governor's School for Excellence for Information Technology hosted by Drexel University and PSU provides an opportunity for 11th graders to explore IT and perhaps concentrate in EC. Other Governor's Schools of Excellence for 11th graders focus on Sciences, Teaching, and International Studies. A four-week summer institute for 48 rising high school seniors is conducted by the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Imagine interpreting some of the insights from Wharton's Electronic Business Initiative (WeBI) for seniors who could be provided a continuous flow of resources from a university with partners throughout the world. http://undergrad.wharton.upenn.edu/programs/highschool.cfmhttp://webi.wharton.upenn.edu/

Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Knowledge Manager (KM) functions and roles have evolved over the past decade in the private sector, especially in corporations that have implemented global B2B and B2C strategies. CIOs have also evolved in national and state governments and are often cited as a primary reason for coordination of programs, effectiveness of services, and efficiencies gained. In addition to a role in strategic thinking, CIOs access, analyze, and redistribute high quality information that is most often in e-formats. KMs will often perform a secondary analysis of information to determine its' "fit" to vision and goals and (a) lead a team through a critique of high quality processes to determine if value can be added to the products and/or (b) redistribute the information to someone who will critique it further and apply it in some way. Other emerging role for which career pathways must be developed include Chief Technology Officer (CTO), e-Customer Relations Manager (e-CRM), and multiple combinations of functions and roles.

BULLETIN BOARD PAGES

Access http://www.blackboard.com/courses/webcom/  and enter as a guest.

Click on "Announcements," `External Links" and "The Friendly Forum" and browse "The
Friendly Forum: Class Discussion." Browse "Asia Society," "Globalization and the Family of IT Careers," "Health Informatics," "Taiwan" and other categories. Access some Web sites by links.  Browse and Mine. Request one or more of the "Asia Society" Electronic Newsletters (ENs).
 

PREPARING TOMORROW'S EDUCATORS TO USE TECHNOLOGY

"Globalization" begins with information about the Centers for International Business Education and Research (CIBERs) at 26 research universities scattered throughout the U.S. The page continues with leading exporters, many with job descriptions and looking for applicants to hire. Since creating "Globalization" and other bulletin board pages, graduate students have found multiple uses. Country data based at CIBERs could help teachers prepare for a Geography Bee with levels ranging from area physical geography to global economic and political geography. Business, economics, and political science teachers could elaborate on a conceptual framework to introduce E-Commerce and a family of emerging careers, complimented with developmentally appropriate biometric, card, voice, and wireless technology learning units in AAL formats.

Attached is a "Biometric Continuous Voice Activated Wireless Powerbook" (BCVAWP) model. Engineers have been collaborating on developing products in as many as five different parts of the world since the early 1990s and a continuous voice activated Verbex system has been used by quads confined to beds in hospitals to call nursing stations, raise and lower both ends of the bed, turn on or off the television, control the volume, select a channel, etc since the early 1990s. Remove the back page and fold the BCVAWP in half. Peer at "Biometric" on the front cover and the eye iris recognition software imbedded in the ink in the word will recognize who you are allow you to access the system, then clearly speak into the machine and recognition and verification software will allow you access to non confidential files. Now, copy the BCVAWP on firm paper and distribute them to children in an elementary school or the public library as a computer aide. Imagine the cool discussions. Now, copy and distribute BCVAWPs at the workshop you will do at the neighborhood school for teachers, aides, counselors, administrative staff, and parents.

Although Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Knowledge Manager (KM) functions are common in the corporations, education has been slow to add these roles to effectively and efficiently deal with unrelenting waves of data and information to improve the enterprise of learning. A model is:

Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Knowledge Manager (KM) in Education/Training

                                            Accessing     Analyzing     Redistributing     Critiquing/Using
                                            Information    Information      Information          Knowledge

Early Years                                                             Electronic Publishing
                                                                             http://www.electronic-publishing.com/

Middle Years                          Biometics
                                             Card
                                             Graphic Arts               Electronic Books Reach Libraries
                                             Voice                        http://www.netlibrary.com/
                                             Wireless                    http://www.guestia.com/
                                             Other technologies      http://www.ebrary.com/
                                             and combinations      Article: http://www.jsonline.com/news
                                                                                   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
                                                                                          April 8, 2001, 2B

Secondary Years
 

USING VISION QUEST TO CREATE A PREFERRED SCENARIO WITH ACTION PLAN for Global Members in Learning Communities to Use Technology to Enhance Quality Of Life

VISION QUEST emerged when only a few establishments that used strategic planning expected advances in technology to be as complex as they were, had difficulty in extrapolating technologies into the fixture, could not comprehend the convergence of multiple technologies into the driving and unifying force they have become, and wanted to create "future-pull" strategies to reduce the lag between imagination of an idea and the design through development and implementation of it. VISION QUEST places emphasis on assessment and detailed extrapolation of economic and technological variables in an establishment's external environment and their probable impact on life and work as a prelude to an audit of internal variables such as intended program outcomes and the human, fiscal, and technological infrastructure that are needed to achieve high quality impact. Archived newsletters and bulletin board pages contain many resources such as the Institute for the Future  http://www.iftf.org/ and lists of research organizations. Browse and mine SP newsletters.
 

WHEN CAN YOU START?

An Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) workforce study indicates that an estimated 900,000 IT jobs are unfilled. But, a broader definition of emerging functions and roles associated with the revolution of Communications Systems may yield a figure 4 to 6 times larger. When can we start to consider career paths for emerging careers for which Career Development programs do not exist and are essential in articulated AAL online an traditional formats?

After children return to class from recess all excited about the JTF, how can we start to build on that enthusiasm and offer a brief comment that the pilot was probably guiding the plane via eye iris recognition software? One could elaborate with "How many of you have seen footprints of animals...?" and progress with aging of facial characteristics that are shown on TV, etc.

Assume we become serious about analysis of technology for inclusion as content in curriculum, when do we start to add a column for technology for developmentally appropriate learning units. Ed has a neat display of learning units for "Language Arts; History, Geography, Social Sciences; and Math and Science" at http://www,classroom.com/edsoasis/ Could we build on that model?

Critical Thinking Competencies (CTC) and Problem Solving Skills (PSS) were critical in paperbased processing of data and information and essential for electronic processing of information. When can we start to de-emphasize low order cognitive factual information recall and upgrade questions to higher order cognitive integration and synthesis in a "Generation 2 Global Bee?" Then, when do we start emphasizing advances and applications of technology in an online format for a "Generation 3 on Improving Quality Of Life (QOL)" for people falling through the Net?

An ACTION AGENDA could be based on Statements of Purpose about "global citizenship." Then, development problem solving methodology can be applied to achieve ATTAINMENT.

Warren H.Groff, 3408 N. 49t' St., Milwaukee, WI 53216-3208
 (414) 871-1127
 mailto:%20groffw@nova.edu