Tag: academic

COLUMN: Learning to live a fuller life

Have you ever wondered when you stop gaining qualifications? Most of us assume it ends with the external discipline of school or college or university. In short, we tend to think of education as something given to us by institutions (or, for millions of young people these days, bought with huge loans) rather than something we give to ourselves.

Of course, you don’t just learn at school. When I was young in the 70s and 80s people talked of graduating from the University of Life.

That particular academic institution offered no formal diplomas or degrees, just its own kind of wisdom, […]

The Paradox of Worry About Job-Taking Robots in an Environment of Labor Shortages

The Paradox of Worry About Job-Taking Robots in an Environment of Labor Shortages

The big idea that has captured much of our collective imagination is that the robots are coming to take our jobs. Well, maybe not our jobs – as higher ed people seem convinced that no A.I. could ever do what they do. But everyone else’s job.

At every academic / educational technology conference that I attend we always end up talking about robots. Those of us who work at liberal arts colleges actually feel pretty good about the future of robots, as we think that our broad education in communication, collaboration, and creativity will withstand automation. Still, even the liberal […]

Education reform: Why role of regulator, service provider and policy maker must be separated

Education reform: Why role of regulator, service provider and policy maker must be separated

The massive regulatory cholesterol in higher education was justified saying “there are not enough colleges”, “not everybody can afford private colleges”, “it is very hard to measure the quality of a college”, and “consumer choice is often restricted by geography”. (PTI) Government regulations are justified in the name of creating public goods (assets where private sector animal spirits alone are not enough), controlling externalities (reducing costs imposed by somebody on everybody), reducing information asymmetry (protecting uninformed consumers) and ending monopolies (giving consumers choice). The massive regulatory cholesterol in higher education was justified saying “there are not enough colleges”, “not […]

Hooray — Here Come the Robots!

Hooray — Here Come the Robots!

Fears that robots and artificial intelligence will make human labor obsolete are overblown. But we’ll have to work hard to adapt. Japan is at the forefront of the robotics revolution. They are starting to take over professions such as nursing. Source: Getty It’s one more quiet morning on Main Street, sometime in the 2030s. Outside, the only noise is the hum of driverless cars and the whir of delivery drones overhead. In the hotel, a robot concierge waits to carry the bags; in the supermarket, shoppers choose from robot-stacked shelves. There’s no bustle at the factory gate, or outside […]

The new face of labor: How the next generation can shine in the face of massive change

The labor force that we recognize today won’t be the labor force of my 8-year-old daughter.

Everywhere I go, when I talk with to academics and business people, the theme of the radical pace of change emerges. Technology is driving innovation, which in turn is driving massive change in our labor force.

In just three years, by 2020, a whopping 43 percent of the U.S. labor force will be freelance, up from 34 percent or 53 million last year. The gig economy will be a reality for my daughter, and I wonder if that’s going to be a good place for […]

Trump tax cut failure or a US debt default will spell danger for financial markets and the UK economy, warns HAMISH MCRAE

Trump tax cut failure or a US debt default will spell danger for financial markets and the UK economy, warns HAMISH MCRAE

Holidays are over, schools go back, and in the US, Labor Day on Monday marks the end of the vacations there too.

This autumn the focus here will be the Brexit negotiations, which will continue in their bad-tempered way. Do not expect any breakthroughs; the trench warfare will continue for a while yet.

But across the Atlantic something big may happen that will rebound on us in the UK too. The question is whether Donald Trump can get sensible tax reforms through Congress when it resumes on Tuesday. ‘The question is whether Donald Trump can get sensible tax reforms through Congress […]

CITI: Retail jobs will ‘vanish’ due to technology and it ‘will affect every city and region’

CITI: Retail jobs will 'vanish' due to technology and it 'will affect every city and region'

As much as 80% of retail jobs at risk from automation, Citi and University of Oxford predict.

Low-skilled jobs most at risk and will have profound effects on communities.

‘Watershed’ moment coming for retail jobs, Citi and Oxford warn. People walk by the Amazon Go brick-and-mortar grocery store without lines or checkout counters, in Seattle Washington, U.S. December 5, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Redmond LONDON — Analysts from Citi bank and academics from Oxford are predicting seismic changes to the retail industry that could mean low-skilled jobs "vanish.""The lesson of the twentieth century has been that most jobs […]

A more realistic, less alarmist Oxford study on automation and jobs

A more realistic, less alarmist Oxford study on automation and jobs

In my book, Silicon Collar and in several blogs I have critiqued the 2013 study by two Oxford researchers which reached this alarmist conclusion about the impact of modern day machines on jobs: “According to our estimates, about 47% of total U.S. employment is at risk.”

I found several flaws in their study. With such a scary conclusion, it was irresponsible for them to not even lay out a timeline. They also did not appear to do a reality check for the job categories they analyzed. They calculated a high 0.79 “susceptibility to computerisation factor” (with 1.0 being the highest) […]

New study finds minimum wage hikes lead to job automation

New study finds minimum wage hikes lead to job automation

States that raise their minimum wages may put low-skill workers at risk of having their jobs automated, according to a new academic paper published Monday.

The study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that higher minimum wages are likely to lower employment in manufacturing jobs that can be performed by robots, and hit older, black, and female workers particularly hard. The paper, which has not yet gone through the peer review process, was written by Grace Lordan of the London School of Economics and David Neumark of the University of California at Irvine, one of the pre-eminent […]

What You Can Do to Prepare for the AI-Powered, Robot-Driven Work Revolution

What You Can Do to Prepare for the AI-Powered, Robot-Driven Work Revolution

In this episode of Motley Fool Answers , Alison Southwick and Robert Brokamp are joined by senior Motley Fool analyst Simon Erickson to talk about the disruptive trends of artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation. Recent studies conclude that huge numbers of U.S. workers will see their jobs — or parts of them — delegated to machines in the next few decades. That will mean great things for efficiency and possibly even society, but how can an individual prepare for the rise of the robots? What jobs are safe? And where should a Foolish investor put his or her money […]