"Connect the dot"
In the book “The World is Flat”, the author Thomas Friedman points out that global competition and the “Flattening” of the world has dramatically increased competition among countries. For the first time in history, knowledge and skills are becoming more important in determining a person's opportunities in life. All students are now not only competing with the best students in their country for jobs but also with best students in the world. This is a critical factor that many students still do not understand it well. They need to know that what they can do, others can do it too, and some can do it at lower costs and better efficiency.
In the globalized world, competitiveness do not depend on having one skill but on multiple skills, often unrelated skills. You may have computer skill but do you have foreign language skill? You may know Java but do you also know English too? In other words, technical knowledge is not enough, you needs more than that to stay competitive. In a speech at StanfordUniversity, Steve Jobs, attributes his success with the ability to “Connect the Dot” of two unrelated fields – Computer Science and Calligraphy. He said that he was able to create the McIntosh computer with beautiful fonts and that was why the McIntosh (Mac) is one of the best seller computer at that time (Today all computers use these fonts). Later he was able to “Connect the Dot” between the computer and the phone to create the iPhone and iPads and make Apple into the largest and most powerful company in the technology world. Similar to that, Mark Zuckerberg also mentioned that what he did was to apply computer technology to help a group of college friends (Social network) so they can discuss about “girls” and other topics, then eventually it became “Facebook”, the fastest growing company in history.
Today, innovation does not happen within a field but at the intersection between fields. That is why students in computer should learn about business, about customer and finance. Students in business should also learn about computer and technology etc. Of course, some students will complain that is too much. Unfortunately, we are living in the globalized world where competition is the rule. If you want to stay ahead then you must do whatever you can to meet the need of the job market. If you want to have good jobs then you must understand the industry trends and willing to change and adjusting your skill to meet the demand.
Last year, when I had dinner with several students at a restaurant in China, we saw a young man walked into the restaurant after parked his car, a new BMW outside. One student told me: “That is Zhiang, he graduated in Computer Science from our school last year. He is now working for a big foreign company. He is very wealthy now”. I asked: “Since you are all Computer Science students, what did he have and you do not? They answered: “He knew English very well, he took English class since high school”. I was surprised: “If English is the only thing that differentiates him from all of you then why don't you take English class?” The students explained: “It requires a lot of works. We have so many classes already, we have so many things to study for our yearly national exams. We do not have time, adding another class like English is too much.” It could be too much for most students but the student named Zhiang did it and today he is wealthy. What make him differ from the rest is that he probably had a plan for his career, he probably set goal, managed his time so he can “connect the dot” between computer science and English.
As college professors, I believe that we have an obligation to prepare our students for this flattened world. We need to explain that not only having multiple knowledge is necessary, but it is essential in this globalized world. Some students do poorly in class because they do not understand why they should learn something extra. Professors should spend more time explaining why we teach what we do, and why the topic is important and worthwhile. Students who are not sure about what to do with their knowledge will not perform well. To the question, "When will we ever use this?" My answer is: “You never know when the knowledge will be useful. Whether or not you ever use this knowledge is less important than the fact that you are learning how to learn, learning how to work on something that might not be interesting to you today but you could make it more interesting.”
Students need to know about the changing world. They need better information so they can be prepared for their future.
One of the major keys to learning is the active involvement of students in their own learning. Standing in front of them and lecturing to them is a relatively poor method of teaching. It is better to get students involved in activities, in practicing and solving problems, in decide what to do and getting involved in the lesson. A lesson about job market, for example, would be more effective by set up a visiting to a company or an industry than just talk about it. Professors need to combine traditional lecture format of learning with practical “doing” aspects. We need to help the students to “Connect the dot” through a combination of lecture and exercise. Only by putting in the efforts, we can make thing happen to our students.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
