The Age of Disruption

Jazthedog

Published

7 years ago

7 minute read

Welcome to ” The Age of Disruption”

I am writing a series of articles that will discuss the world of disruptive technology, and the human impact both positive and negative. I will be attempting to put a Red Deer and Central Alberta spin on the technology implications. I will also welcome your questions and comments.

The drive to produce this series of articles is based on my own experience of being downsized in the last recession(2009/10) and then as a result of changes in the economy ending up being structurally under-employed ( living in a place where appropriate jobs are no longer available) But a place where my wife has a good, stable, well paying job. Moving crashes her career for the sake of my career, staying in Red Deer means I don’t work at my highest paying possibility… unless I can find a way to take geography and the traditional workplace environment out of the equasion.

About Me – The Author
I had a very traditional career, in accounting at a high (pre-professional designation) level working in industry; but I came into that career by a somewhat untraditional route, an MBA taken online. To be honest, its not even a true MBA, Simon Fraser University, one of the top universities in Canada, packaged up a portion of the core MBA courses into something called a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration, so basically nobody knows what this is. It sounds like an undergraduate diploma, except that it is graduate (MBA) level work, its like 1/2 an MBA or an MBA without a specialization. In short it is something that is not transferable to anything else unless I want to move to Vancouver and finish it off and SFU is the only school that will give me advance standing for these courses. With a wife, family, and mortgage, simply impossible, SFU only offers their MBA in an on campus mode, I have researched dozens of other MBA programs but can’t get more than one or two courses to transfer so would basically be repeating, and spending big $$ to repeat the coursework.

In terms of Red Deer and central Alberta, we don’t have the large private companies that employ lots of accountants at all different levels, Basically there are large numbers of Bookkeepers, some do very advanced work, but generally the pay rate is hourly, and $25 hour is upper end, then there are the Professional Accountants, some work as Controllers and CFO’s at private companies but most in Central Alberta work for CPA Firms doing Public Practice Tax and Audit work. A funny thing about accounting, many people go from Public Practice Accounting to Private Industry but almost nobody goes from Private Industry to Public Practice, my biggest problems in this area is that I have never worked public practice, and I have no desire to do so.

While I don’t want to work public practice Audit & Tax, I would like to work advisory and consulting services and with the number of industries that I have worked in I believe that I would have something to offer. With out a professional accounting designation in Red Deer, those options are limited. Now nearing 50, I also have no desire to enter the CPA Professional Designation process, which most likely would have me competing with 20 year olds, at an entry level pay grade, doing public practice accounting work. Two years ago I talked to the CPA organization and due to the dates of many of my courses, they advised that I really would be starting out back at square one. I guess time to take a look at a new career path.

In the interim I have been a contingent worker, working several short-term gigs in my profession and running a couple of small sideline businesses. I have also started to educate myself on using the WWW, Cloud Technologies, and Social Media to earn an online living. I am amazed at what you can learn on line or very affordably with Groupon’s. Yes technology is even disrupting traditional learning as well, there are many great courses you can take on line for free, and even better ones that you can take at steeply discounted prices with Groupon coupons.

I have spent three years part-time building out my new technology knowledge base only to find out too often that working in technology is a younger person’s game. Age Discrimination is a very real problem in many technology firms, and also in many non-tech companies. Not saying that Red Deer has many tech firms, they do have some very good ones, but the roles that they have are limited mostly to coding and development that would require a whole new degree. I am still earning the majority of my income from a somewhat more traditional “JOB”, but the goal for 2017 is to earn 10% of my income from online sources and to become a referenced source of knowledge on technology economic and social disruption.

My motto is ” Work Any Place, Any Time, on Any Device” using technology.

If you or your company has a disruptive technology please write to me and we will discuss its impact. I would love to feature it in my posts.
I hope you enjoy my posts, I will try and write here weekly.

Les Brown is a writer, commentator on technology, a Futurologist, Writes for the “Age of Disruption”, Social Media Manager & Business Consultant.

Jazthedog

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The Age of Disruption

Education

Schools shouldn’t sacrifice student performance to vague notions of ‘equity’

Published on May 8, 2024

Todayville

From the Fraser Institute

By Derek J. Allison

According to a new study published by the Fraser Institute, if Canada wants to remain competitive with emerging economies around the world, we must increase our math, science and reading scores—and not simply pursue high levels of “equity and inclusion” as the primary goal for our schools.

Indeed, highly equitable and inclusive schools—with declining PISA scores, as is currently the case in Canada—do a disservice to students and society at large.

Why? Because higher test scores translate into greater “knowledge capital”—that is, the full body of knowledge available to an economy—and boost economic growth (and, incidentally, the tax revenues that fund our schools).

Indeed, the goal should be equitable access to a quality education. And the most realistic and meaningful way to measure student progress is through PISA tests, which every three years assess the performance of 15-year-olds worldwide in core subjects of math, science and reading rather than the limited curriculum objectives used in provincial testing, which can only show progress or decline within individual school systems. In today’s world, where competition is truly global, we must know how our students and schools perform compared to their peers in other countries, especially the “Asian Tigers” of Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Tiawan whose rapidly growing economies have been driven by rising PISA scores.

Obviously, countries with higher test scores can teach other countries how to improve—although there are limits and some traps here. Attempting to cut and paste Singapore’s or Korea’s much more meritocratic systems of highly competitive student assessment and selection would be impractical and impolitic in Canada. Even so, policymakers should consider reinstating more meaningful meritocratic norms in Canadian schools to encourage and recognize academic achievement. Nothing succeeds like success, except recognized and rewarded success.

Closer to home, other provinces could benefit from considering why Quebec is such a stellar performer in math and why Alberta has the highest overall PISA test score average of all provinces.

But fair warning, recent attempts at school improvement in Canada show that top-down one-size-fits-all changes—including extending compulsory attendance, reducing average class size and tinkering with course content—have had little positive effect on student performance, although they may please teacher unions. If policymakers want to achieve more equitable success for more students, they should introduce more flexibility, school autonomy and choice into our top-heavy centrally regulated school systems. In this respect it may be no accident that the three highest performing, mid-spending provincial K-12 education systems (Alberta, Quebec and Ontario) offer relatively high levels of school choice, although of quite different kinds.

Equity and inclusion are noble goals, but they shouldn’t interfere with student progress. There’s too much at stake, for students and the country.

Author:

Derek J. Allison

Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Education, The University of Western Ontario

Opinion

Boy Scouts of America changes name to ‘Scouting America’ to be ‘more inclusive’

Published on May 8, 2024

Todayville

From LifeSiteNews

By Doug Mainwaring

The organization began welcoming homosexual-identifying boys in 2013, halted its ban on gay adult scout masters in 2015, announced in 2017 that girls who identify as ‘transgender’ could enter boys-only programs, and fully opened its membership to girls in 2018.

After years of turmoil and upheaval resulting in a major identity crisis, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) announced today that it’s changing its name to Scouting America in order to be “more inclusive.”

The rebranding comes as the troubled organization emerges from bankruptcy after a tsunami of allegations of sexual abuse rocked the once-beloved, venerable institution geared to forming boys into men.

In all, more than 80,000 men came forward to file claims alleging that they were sexually abused while in BSA programs, resulting in a $2.4 billion bankruptcy plan that was approved by a federal judge last year.

The BSA began welcoming homosexual-identifying boys in 2013, and in 2015 halted its ban on gay adult scout masters.

In 2017, the organization announced that girls who identify as “transgender” could enter their boys-only programs. In 2018, the scouts fully opened their membership to girls.

As a result, Scouting America currently serves more than 176,000 girls and young women across all programs, including over 6,000 who have earned the rank of Eagle Scout, according to a press release.

In a video posted to X, CEO Roger Krone delivered a woke-drenched explanation for the change, saying it sends a “really strong message to everyone in America that they can come to this program, they can bring their authentic self, they can be who they are, and they will be welcomed here.”

The announcement met with a quick backlash on social media.

“This is an act of intentional demoralization against normal Americans and the former key constituency of the Boy Scouts: patriotic, hard working American boys and their families,” wrote William Wolfe, executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, on X.

“The Boy Scouts chose the woke over the church kids that made up the backbone of their membership,” conservative author John Hawkins asserted. “Now they’re as good as dead. They deserve it. The kids didn’t. But the Boy Scouts do.”

“Once again, wokeness ruins everything,” outspoken conservative Hollywood star Matthew Marsden said.

“It started with allowing girls into the Boy Scouts. That’s when I pulled my son out of it,” Marsden noted. “This organization helped equip young boys with the skills to become real men and this move is another attack on them.”

“They will be financially bankrupt in 10 years,” he predicted.