Could you pass this question from the Chinese version of the SAT?

Pretty interesting story from over the weekend at Business Insider on the lenghts that some test-takers will go to try and get an edge, i.e., cheat, on the test in China that is largely equivalent, (except it seems even more important), to the United States SATs.

The piece, titled Chinese Teens Have Found Remarkable High-Tech Ways To Cheat On Tests, focuses on some of the 'creative' ways that test takers are attempting to use in order to better their chances of passing this hugely important test. While creative and high-tech cheating is always kind of interesting, I thought the most interesting bit of detail in the story was this translation of one of the tests' essay questions. Take a look at this question, then ponder just how you might take a shot at answering.

"You can choose your own road and method to make it across the desert, which means you are free; you have no choice but finding a way to make it across the desert, which makes you not free.Choose your own angle and title to write an article that is not less than 800 words."

A totally fair question, right? And much better than the ones that seemed to dominate the SATs for years. Things like "Crumb is to bread as BLANK is to pencil", or some such nonsense.

But having to drop, in a high-pressure set of conditions, 800+ words on freewill, choice, deserts, roads, and sorting out just exactly what is it that the testers are looking for in your answer seems ridiculously tough to me. Plus, remember these are 18, 19 year old kids trying to figure this out.

Where would you do with that question? 

You are free but also not free. 

Probably, just a little maybe, the way you feel on a summer Monday morning, settling in to a job that you could both walk away from and are chained to at the same time.

Happy Monday.

I'll trade you a Carl Sagan for your double of Niels Bohr

I am out at HR Technology Europe in Amsterdam the rest of this week, and working on about 2 hours of dodgy sleep on the overnight flight from New York last night, so today's post is totally being mailed in. If you are disappointed, please feel free to fill in the complaint form and ask for a refund.

I am pretty sure my favorite non-reality TV show, and really the only TV show that I actually try and catch semi-regularly is Big Bang Theory. If you are not familiar with the show, it is a comedy that features as its main characters a group of four friends that all are highly educated university level scientists.  They also happen to be a bit geeky, are irrationally focused on comic books and Star Trek, talk often of how they were, (and in some cases still are), mocked and picked on by 'cooler' people, and often struggle with a world that at times seems kind of stacked against them. The good looking, socially confident, and outgoing people seem to get most of the breaks in life, while their incredible intellectual capacity seems only valuable in the workplace, and kind of a hindrance everywhere else.

So when I stumbled upon this post on the It's Okay To Be Smart blog titled 'Scientist Trading Cards - Collect the Whole Set!', I immediately thought about the guys on Big Bang Theory, and the probably thousands of science students everywhere that look up to and hold in extremely high regard these legends of science that are depicted in the set of Scientist Trading Cards. 

The trading cards, each one representing a legend of science, ranging from physics, to chemistry, to astronomy, are purposely designed to mimic the styles of famous sports trading cards of the past, (the Isaac Newton shares a design with baseball legend Brooks Robinson for example).

Why bother taking note of these scientist trading cards? Why not just look at them as an amusing bit of fun and an interesting bit of design completed by someone clever with photoshop?

Well, here's why I think they are worth thinking about. In the HR/Talent/Recruiting industries we seem to have been talking for ages about hard to fill roles in the technology fields, and the seeming lack of suitable, trained talent for many of our most technical and scientific jobs. And while lots of potential remedies for this problem continue to be suggested, things like getting more training for displaced workers, loosening up the H1B visa process to welcome more foreign workers, and even increasing the numbers of 'smart' automation in our businesses, we never seem to attack the problem at a basic, more fundamental level.

Namely, convincing the next generation that science, technology, engineering etc. are not just important, but they can and should actually be careers to aspire to, and possess incredible legends, heroes, and role models - just like the professions that we routinely train our children to idolize - athletes, entertainers, and reality TV personalities. What if we could convince kids that being a great scientist could actually get them there own trading card?

I dig the scientist trading cards. I wish they were actually real. I think I'd like the kinds of kids that would want to collect them.

Big Kid Digital Merit Badges

There was an interesting piece in the New York Times a few days ago titled 'For Job Hunters, Digital Merit Badges', a look at a recently announced MacArthur Foundation sponsored competition for the creation of a system of 'digital merit and achievement' badges, not at all unlike the kinds of badges that have been typically awared over the years to Boy and Girl Scouts for accomplishing tasks, demonstrating skills, or achieving mastery on specific subjects. Merit Badges for Big Kids

Some addtional details on the MacArthur Foundation contest and the goals and expected benefits of the new system of Digital Badges:

(the competition) for leading organizations, learning and assessment specialists, designers and technologists to create and test badges and badge systems. The competition will explore ways digital badges can be used to help people learn; demonstrate their skills and knowledge; unlock job, educational and civic opportunities; and open new pipelines to talent.

The idea being that job seekers, well really everyone, could 'earn' and post these digital merit badges on their personal websites, their social network profile pages, and I suppose even as images on traditional resumes.

The Mozilla organization is participating in these efforts by creating the technical infrastructure to make the awarding, and more importantly the verification and portability of these digital merit badges possible. According the the Times piece, 'The badges can be verified in several ways. For instance, a badge can include a verification link that makes it possible to check with the issuer about authenticity and status, should the badge have an expiration date.' 

More color on this from the MacArthur Foundation announcement:

(the) Open Badge Infrastructure—a decentralized online platform that will house digital badges and can be used across operating platforms and by any organization or user. This approach will help to make digital badges a coherent, portable and meaningful way to demonstrate capabilities. It will also encourage the creation of "digital backpacks" of badges that people will carry to showcase the skills, knowledge and competencies they have gained.

It sounds like a fantastic idea that will be incredibly difficult to pull off. But the idea that workers should be recognized for the unique set of skills and capabilities that they possess, most earned over time and on the job as opposed to in formal education and training settings is certainly compelling. Additionally, one of the sub-projects that the MacArthur competition addresses is specific to a set of badges and recognitions for military veterans, aimed to help them translate their skill sets to better match civilian employment opportunities. And any efforts that can potentially help veterans transition to civilian work should be explored and supported.

What do you think - could a set of standards for the creation and awarding of a more universal set of skill and achievement badges that could operate across the web actually be an effective way to help workers and job seekers better communicate their qualifications?

Note - for readers in the USA, have a Fantastic Thanksgiving tomorrow and enjoy the long holiday weekend!

Disconnect (but rendered in nice colors)

I sort of think the infographic craze is starting to get a bit played out and certainly a bit overused. But once in a while I catch an infographic, (or in this case two infographics), that whether it is the compelling design or simply the starkness of the data being described I think are worth sharing. 

Both the below infographics are from the GOOD.is site, and when taken together, they paint a picture of a significant disconnect between the education and demonstrated achievement that today's employers demand, and the stark reality of trends in demographics and experiences in a changing and increasingly diverse population. Take a quick look at the two charts and think about the data for a minute.

Chart 1 - Educating the Workforce of the Future (click image to see in full-size)

Money point : We need to produce significantly more workers with either Bachelor's or at least Associate's or Trade School credentials to meet the expected demand for these skills.

Source : GOOD.is

Chart 2 - The Opportunity Gap (click image to see in full-size)

Money point : The faster growing segments of our population also have the worst prospects to attain the advanced degrees and certifications that we know the workplace will increasingly demand.

Source : GOOD.is

There's an obvious disconnect here between what kinds of education and experiences the future worplace will require, and the ability of the complex combination of primary schools, colleges, trade schools, labor unions, communities, government, and really all of us to provide. It can be argued that on a micro-level that employers can and should relax some of these often artifical educational requirements, and that these kinds of barriers really don't do a great job at helping organizations obtain superior talent. I even took on the subject here once. 

But even if some employers take steps to expand their thinking around degree requirements there is no doubt that overall, the gap or disconnect in education and skills will persist, and possibly drive even more work, opportunity, and income to other parts of the world that are adapting more rapidly to these changes that we are here in the US. 

I certainly don't have a simple answer to address these kinds of systemic, structural issues, but I do think that talking about them more is a needed initial step.

What do you think? What can we do to better prepare for these shifts?

Hat tip to Bryon Abramowitz whose presentation on these topics at the Aquire Structure 2011 conference put the bug in my ear to start thinking about this topic.

Going Graphic

Almost every day we are faced with some communication materials or other informational resources that for one reason or another are difficult to slog through, that seem to have no real point or call to action, or that simply bore us to tears since we are so tired of their style, format, or delivery mechanism.

At work it could be the quarterly company newsletter, the Annual Benefits Open Enrollment packet, or the organization's bereavement policy - How many days for a second cousin? But we were very close, more like first cousins really.

Last week I posted about a new and innovative technology for delivering Benefits information, and for helping employees to make the best decisions for themselves and their families, the Jellyvision Benefits Counselor interactive video application. The tool transforms the presentation and delivery of potentially dull, and likely confusing information into an engaging and effective format.

This weekend I came across another example of a new and innovative approach to a classically boring and imminently forgettable medium: the college textbook.

Jeremy Short, Texas Tech University professor of management, has taken the traditional and staid textbook, and re-imagined it in a format that students find more appealing, and certainly more relatable - the graphic novel. Short has created two novels for his undergraduate and MBA classes chronicling the adventures of a young entrepreneur named Atlas Black.  In the titles, Atlas Black: Managing to Succeed, and Atlas Black: Management Guru?, students follow Atlas' journey while exploring the concepts of management, organizational behavior, strategic planning, and entrepreneurship.

You can get a bit of the flavor of the textbook graphic novel in the trailer video below (email subscribers will need to click through).

Pretty cool, right?  I mean way more entertaining than the formal text book that it replaces. Can you ever imagine a traditional textbook even having a trailer? 'And then Chapter 7 - with more of the same, long paragraphs and black and white charts!'.

Sure, this re-imagination of the classic management textbook would not work for every course, subjects like statistics and the hard sciences are too data driven, but for courses that are really mostly about ideas and concepts, why not?  Surveys of Short's students at Texas Tech report that 86% feel the Atlas Black graphic novel  "compares favorably" to other management textbooks they've had. 

Oh and one other thing, in a world where a college management textbook runs somewhere north of $100, the Atlas Black graphic novels only set the students back $14.95.

But to me, the best message here is the way the professor has created an alternative to long standing tradition, developed a product designed to appeal to his audience, while taking into account that tastes, preferences, and technology have all changed.  He is still teaching the necessary course material, but by letting go of 'the way it's always been done', has created an environment that is quite different, distinctive, and memorable.

The kind of thing we are all striving for in every communication we create.