Socrates Seminar “Change and Opportunity: The Future of Work and Learning”
Moderated by Connie Yowell, CEO at LRNG by Collective Shift
Digital technology is radically changing just about everything we do, from raising families to running businesses. Optimists welcome this shift, arguing that technology is growing up and starting to take care of us. Are they right? What are the most important trends, both existing and emergent, and how can we prepare for them? What are the specific ways in which technological change is improving our individual and collective lives? What are the dark sides? How is this shift affecting the workforce, productivity, and the nature of leadership? We´ll look closely at four trends in technology: The Automation Revolution, Artificial Intelligence, The Internet of Things, and Social Machines. With the final trend to be examined, we´ll look at the growing chorus of technology skeptics who contend that we are losing touch with the qualitative and spiritual human aspects of existence that make life worth living.
Connie Yowell is the visionary and CEO of Collective Shift and its LRNG endeavour, a social enterprise that works collaboratively with schools, businesses, cities, and community institutions to redesign learning for the 21st century so that all youth have the opportunity to succeed. She brings considerable experience from the MacArthur Foundation where she oversaw a $150 million program on Digital Media and Learning.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Connie was an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, publishing scholarly work that examines the complex interplay among young people’s emerging identity, their social context and achievement. Connie briefly served as Policy Analyst in the U.S. Department of Education during the Clinton Administration, and has worked closely with teachers and administrators to develop programs for youth development.
In 2004, Connie received the Distinguished Fellows Award from the William T. Grant Foundation, an award to support scholars seeking to bridge research and practice, under which she worked with the National Writing Project to develop approaches that integrate web 2.0 technologies into the social practices of teachers. Connie earned her bachelor’s degree from Yale, and her PhD from Stanford University.
