Learning is...Ironman vs Minority Report

What does learning have to do with these two movies? They illustrate the two disruptive pathways of learning coming in the near future.. In his “CLO Symposium15” session entitled "Are You Future Strong?," Bill Jenkins used these movies as illustrative examples of the data stream disruption coming soon to learning at a corporation near you. The same data analysis used by marketing groups are now being applied to learning. Apps capable of tracking our every move, the sites visited, the articles read, the searches done in Google will be collected and synthesized to build a profile of you. The patterns will then be used in two ways. The first will be like “Ironman,” where the data stream is sent to the individual. Like Ironman, the learner can use the data to guide decisions to care for the current challenges faced. It will empower the individual with incredible personalization of specific learning from the massive amount of content available. The second will be similar to “Minority Report.” In the movie, the government uses surveillance and usage patterns to attempt to predict behavior of citizens who will commit crimes in the future. Corporations, software creators and others will be likewise use data to be predictive of where and by whom learning will be required. The patterns will reveal what is profitable to maintain and what is not. It will also personalize and serve up learning just-in-time. Regardless of how it is used, Jenkins said the fact is not under dispute. Whether you agree with it or not, is not the issue. It WILL happen and is starting as we speak. One learning leader from a large tech company commented in the QA session they have already started such tracking. Bill challenged the rest of us as learning leaders to start planning how we will use the stream of data -- will it be like Ironman or Minority Report.