The+World+is+Flat

Concepts and Resources for 'The World is Flat' (by Thomas Friedman)

Concepts presented in the book
1. The leveling of the economic playing field idea has been interpreted by Friedman as "The World is Flat". 2. The ten forces that flattened the world:
 * The New Age of Creativity: The Berlin wall coming down on Nov 9, 1989
 * The New Age of Connectivity: When Netscape went public but how you learn that will set you apart
 * Work Flow Software
 * Uploading: Harnessing the Power of Communities
 * Outsourcing
 * Offshoring
 * Supply-Chaining
 * Insourcing
 * In-forming: Google, Yahoo!, MSN Web Search
 * The Steroids: Digital, Mobile, Personal and Virtual

3. Relating to education: (page references are from newly revised and expanded second edition) >>
 * According to the Institute of International Education: India sent more students to study in the US in 2004-5 than any other country. India: 80, 466; China: 62,523; South Korea: 53,358. Most study business, engineering, math or computer science. (pg.214)
 * "Did you ask a good question today?" (pg 301-2)" "...In the future, //how// we educate our children may prove to be more important than //how much// we educate them." Quote from Alan Blinder, Princeton Economist
 * "The first and most important ability you can develop in a flat world is the ability to "learn how to learn" - to constantly absorb, and teach yourself, new ways of doing old things or new ways of doing new things. That is an abilily every worker should cultivate in an age when parts or all of many jobs are constatnly going to be exposed to digitization, automation, and outsourcing, and where new jobs, and whole new industries, will be churned up faster and faster. In such a world it is not only what you know but how you learn that will set you apart. Because what you know today will be out of date sooner than you think." (pg 302)
 * In a flat world: CQ + PQ > IQ (curiosity quotient plus passion quotient is greater than intelligence quotient) (pg 304)
 * Implications for education: "If the jobs of the new middle require you to be a good collaborator, leverager, adaptor, explainer, synthesizer, model builder, localizer or personalizer, and these approaches require you, among other things, to be able to learn how to learn, to bring curiosity and passion to your work, to play well with others, and to nurture your right-brain skills, what does that mean specifically for eduation?" (pg 309)
 * Education for the future: how? New jobs emerging e.g. SEO: Search-engine optimizer (something to do with a math degree) (pg 270)
 * In the USA: Less students interested in studying math, science and engineering (pg 335: the education gap at the top)
 * The ambition gap: complacent, non-ambitious youth in the USA cf more hard working employees in India (pg 340)

=Task= 1. Consider one the following: > 2. Find a partner (adult, or peer) and discuss your topic. Have a list of points and/or questions you wish to raise for discussion. Encourage interaction and a sharing of views. You may need to 'rehearse' this a little before recording it. 3. Record the discussion as a podcast and edit down to 3 minutes (be succinct!). 4. Upload your podcast along with a one-pargraph blog posting summarising the main points.
 * The 'Steroids' and how they are making a difference, if any, to the way we learn and the future implications of education
 * Education for the future and new emerging jobs in the IT industry: What are these? What skills are needed to get these? Where would you go to study these skills?
 * **"Let's all learn how to learn and keep learning."** is the school motto for us here at International School Dhaka. In terms of globalization and cultural diversity, how do the conepts in 'The World is Flat' help you as students to take your place in the world after ISD?
 * Do you think the world is flat? Give specific examples related to IT developments mentioned in the book

=Resources= Wikipedia page for [|The World is Flat] [|Friedman's site] on the New York Times

Book Reviews for The World is Flat':
 * [|Falling flat]: As the world's boundaries are worn smooth, Friedman examines changing horizons (San Francisco Chronicle)
 * [|Inside the new superpowers] (Guardian)

Online streaming video of Friedman 'The World is Flat' by MIT World >
 * [|Overview page]
 * [|Information] about and link to streaming video

[|Flatworld] del.icio.us bookmarks

rss url="http://www.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=flat+world&ie=UTF-8&output=rss" title="Google News Search: Flat world" number="10" description="true" date="true" length="100"

- //Julie Lindsay//