The Case for Community Colleges: Aligning Higher Education and Workforce Needs in Massachusetts

Reviews research on the need for middle-skilled workers with at least an associate's degree, Massachusetts' community college system, promising models for aligning community college curricula with workforce needs, and challenges. Makes recommendations

Scaling Up Inclusive Business -- Solutions to Overcome Internal Barriers

Sustainability challenges including poverty, social unrest, climate change and environmental degradation have become ever more urgent. Business has the technology, innovation capacity, resources, and skills to play a key role in providing the radical solutions the world desperately needs.The objective of this brief is to kick off greater dialogue on the internal barriers companies face along the pathway to scale in inclusive business and how to overcome them. Building on the hands-on experience of businesses active in this space and the valuable insights of experts, the following pages identify some of the most common internal barriers and the solutions that leading companies are using to tackle them. We gained new insights by looking at the work of thirteen companies: CEMEX, Grundfos, Grupo Corona, ITC Ltd., Lafarge, Masisa, Nestlé, Novartis, Novozymes, SABMiller, Schneider Electric, The Coca-Cola Company, and Vodafone. We also interviewed two leading academics doing research in this area, Cornell University's Erik Simanis (United States) and Universidad de los Andes' Ezequiel Reficco (Colombia)

Strategies for shifting technological systems : the case of the automobile system

Californian and Dutch efforts to produce electric vehicles are explored and compared. Three strategies are put forward that could turn electric vehicles from an elusive legend, a plaything, into a marketable product: technology forcing creating a market of early promises, experiments geared towards niche development and upscaling (strategic niche management), and the creation of new alliances (technological nexus) which bring technology, the market, regulation and many other factors together. These strategies deployed in the Californian and Dutch context are analysed in detail to explore their relative strengths and weaknesses and to argue in the end that a combined use of all three will increase the chances that the dominant technological system will change. The succesful workings of these strategies crucially depend on the coupling of the variation and selection processes, building blocks for any evolutionary theory of technical change. Evolutionary theory lacks understanding of these coupling processes. Building on recent insights from the sociology of technology, the authors propose a quasi-evolutionary model which underpins the analysis of suggested strategies

Assessing the future of air freight

The role of air cargo in the current transportation system in the United States is explored. Methods for assessing the future role of this mode of transportation include the use of continuous-time recursive systems modeling for the simulation of different components of the air freight system, as well as for the development of alternative future scenarios which may result from different policy actions. A basic conceptual framework for conducting such a dynamic simulation is presented within the context of the air freight industry. Some research needs are identified and recommended for further research. The benefits, limitations, pitfalls, and problems usually associated with large scale systems models are examined

Do Chatbots Dream of Androids? Prospects for the Technological Development of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

The article discusses the main trends in the development of artificial intelligence systems and robotics (AI&R). The main question that is considered in this context is whether artificial systems are going to become more and more anthropomorphic, both intellectually and physically. In the current article, the author analyzes the current state and prospects of technological development of artificial intelligence and robotics, and also determines the main aspects of the impact of these technologies on society and economy, indicating the geopolitical strategic nature of this influence. The author considers various approaches to the definition of artificial intelligence and robotics, focusing on the subject-oriented and functional ones. It also compares AI&R abilities and human abilities in areas such as categorization, pattern recognition, planning and decision making, etc. Based on this comparison, we investigate in which areas AI&R’s performance is inferior to a human, and in which cases it is superior to one. The modern achievements in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence create the necessary basis for further discussion of the applicability of goal setting in engineering, in the form of a Turing test. It is shown that development of AI&R is associated with certain contradictions that impede the application of Turing’s methodology in its usual format. The basic contradictions in the development of AI&R technologies imply that there is to be a transition to a post-Turing methodology for assessing engineering implementations of artificial intelligence and robotics. In such implementations, on the one hand, the ‘Turing wall’ is removed, and on the other hand, artificial intelligence gets its physical implementation

The promises of educational technology: a reassessment

The claims made for educational technology have not always been realized. Many programmes in education based on media and technology have produced useful documentation and supportive research; others have failed. The current, comprehensive definition of educational technology is a helpful key to understanding how a problem-solving orientation is necessary to approach teaching/learning designs. The process of educational technology begins with an analysis of the problem, rather than with the medium as a solution. Examples of appropriate applications come from open universities and primary schools where distance, time, insufficient personnel, and inadequate facilities have led to a search for alternative means for teaching and learning. Less successful programmes tended to have confused goals and an emphasis on one medium. They also lacked: support services, staff training, quality software and a system focus. The threads which run through the more successful programmes are described. The lessons learned from fifty years of media and technology development in education and training are discussed with an eye toward the future. It is clear that educational technology as a problem-solving process will lead the field into the twenty-first century

An evolutionary stage model of outsourcing and competence destruction : a Triad comparison of the consumer electronics industry

Outsourcing has gained much prominence in managerial practice and academic discussions in the last two decades or so. Yet, we still do not understand the full implications of outsourcing strategy for corporate performance. Traditionally outsourcing across borders is explained as a cost-cutting exercise, but more recently the core competency argument states that outsourcing also leads to an increased focus, thereby improving effectiveness. However, no general explanation has so far been provided for how outsourcing could lead to deterioration in a firm‟s competence base. We longitudinally analyze three cases of major consumer electronics manufacturers, Emerson Radio from the U.S., Japan‟s Sony and Philips from the Netherlands to understand the dynamic process related to their sourcing strategies. We develop an evolutionary stage model that relates outsourcing to competence development inside the firm and shows that a vicious cycle may emerge. Thus it is appropriate to look not only at how outsourcing is influenced by an organization‟s current set of competences, but also how it alters that set over time. The four stages of the model are offshore sourcing, phasing out, increasing dependence on foreign suppliers, and finally industry exit or outsourcing reduction. The evolutionary stage model helps managers understand for which activities and under which conditions outsourcing across borders is not a viable option. Results suggest that each of these firms had faced a loss of manufacturing competitiveness in its home country, to which it responded by offshoring and then outsourcing production. When a loss of competences occurred, some outsourcing decisions were reversed

A differentiated model for tertiary education: past ideas, contemporary policy and future possibilities

Using history as a policy tool, this report looks back at the binary system as well as its demise with the Dawkins reforms of the late 1980s to uncover the lessons learned. Summary: Australia’s education system has undergone many changes over the past 50 years — and it will continue to do so as governments change. The first major reform over this period was the introduction of a binary policy of higher education, which was subsequently replaced by a unified system with the Dawkins reforms. Today, potential changes to the system include the deregulation of student fees and the widening of government-supported university places to cover provision by private providers. The latter would open up the delivery of tertiary education — taken here to mean diploma and above — to traditional vocational education and training (VET) providers to an increased extent. To enrich the current discussion on changes to tertiary education policy, the author has used history as a policy tool for uncovering trends, explaining institutional cultures and preventing the re-application of ideas already tested. While this particular report is contextualised through a rereading of the Martin Report (the report of the Committee on the Future of Tertiary Education in Australia, published in 1964—65), a companion piece What next for tertiary education? Some preliminary sketches (Beddie 2014) makes a number of somewhat radical suggestions for future directions to tertiary education, with the aim of stimulating discussion in this area