Who knows me better than myself

Hello all! I'm glad I'm able to stay home to relax and work a little today kaa.

These days, I've been watching several interviews and talks by Yuval Noah Harari, the author of  Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, etc. 

Got several pieces of learning from him ka:

First, being a historian isn't one who studies about the past. Rather, it's about the study of 'change'. I really like to think of it this way to see the evolution, the philosophy of life and livelihood, etc. A different way of thinking has made this seemingly boring discipline turn to be so attractive ka. 

Second, we are followed (by algorithms) everywhere! Amazon, Google, and those with Big Data know me far better than expected! OMG! even when I thought I could understand Big Data a little bit, listening to his examples made me think much harder of the consequences and some different ways of thinking loei ka. 

He was talking about our everyday life to use all these social media tools and to transact in all ways. When combined all, one person is better known to so many external outlets than one's own self. One example was about reading from a kindle.....when Amazon could gather information about our reading speed, which page(s) we spend more time on (and now I recall the highlighted sentences we mark too!), plus how far we've read the book. On the whole, besides knowing our books of choice, Amazon knows us so much more than we are aware of our own selves. 

This is just one little thing and this could also be one of the ways to learn about our own selves and styles though each company doesn't reveal it to us yet.....and all can be sold to us eventually na ka.....another big business in the future to sell 'Know Me Better App!' ื with individual and organization-wide usage on any particular topic, or to help shape our balance in learning about other dimensions dai loei na ka nia!   

How should we manage to assess ourselves now and then? Privacy, ethical issues, information security, and management of information will be much higher on the agenda for sure ka.

As I'm writing, google has already recorded my writing patterns, styles, lengths, time spent, etc. 

Should I start to get scared or to friend with all these tools to know myself better dee ka?

Teacher's inner joy!

Some of you may not know that I once was a high school teacher that lasted for less than 2 years....that was the first and the last of my teaching career over 40 years ago ka.

Yet, the bonds stay on until today!

Thanks to 'my homeroom students' (who I still call 'dek dek' even when they're around 55+!) for organizing a reunion yesterday at the school (Trimitr witayalai!) 

Let me share the following with you ka:

- The organizing team agreed to hold it at school that allowed all present to make merits to late teachers and friends while using the school meeting room for lunch and fun time, not only for nostalgic reasons but also for some 'income' to the school fund!

- Donation for the tamboon and event was voluntary and one key person handled all the transfers. Those who aren't so ready to donate didn't have to feel too sensitive about it ka.

- Amazingly, many teachers and students attended this reunion from early morning hours and I was able to chat with some, be reminded of a few I forgot or to know who I didn't teach, yet was quite familiar with during the school's morning assembly.

- I got to know two stories to explain 'Little things mean a lot' ka:

1. One student told me he recalled very well when he sneaked out during a morning prayers to go into an ordination hall with several friends to be spotted by me. Instead of using a cane to hit them (what was so common those days ka!), I led them to the school library and asked them the reason. I told them I too was bored having to go through the process. Another student said, 'The talk could be more painful than being hit!'

I had no idea about this situation and last night I talked with my sister about it. She said I may have got the strategy from watching 'Leave it to Beaver' as I was very impressed how his dad always sat by the bed to discuss some issues to jointly find out ways to sort them. The movie could have influenced my thinking after having reflected on it na ka.

2. While another student was walking me to pick up food (my family's get together that day too!), he said he was even shorter than my shoulder when I taught him:))! Then he said he had brought a postcard I sent from the US when I was studying for my master's. The next day, he took both sides of the post card for me to see! It was a real surprise how he had kept it very well!

He ended his chat yesterday, saying 'คิดถึง อ. นะครับ' Oh! my heart melted!

It's the beauty of being a teacher na ka!

The bonds and inner joy stay on for many days/years to come!  

Coach Ptk!?!

5555! (Thai laughs!) I'm not a professional coach yet but completed my 4-day attendance finally after trying to avoid going there for the second weekend ka.

The thing is last year, I was encouraged to participate in a 2-weekend coaching sessions and I could do just the first part. I came back, feeling stressful and hopeless. Here's why:

1. I didn't have that much desire to be a coach as I already have lots on my plate.

2. It was a new learning experience and I wasn't sure I'd get it.

3. After exercises to be both a coach and a coachee, I felt I failed completely, especially when I had to coach a participant.

After that first week, I reflected on what happened and said to myself 2 key lessons ka:

- I've served more as a mentor and what a coach has to do has made it tough for me to change.

- It was hard for me to strictly follow the guided questions since I couldn't be myself and it was so mechanical.

My life as a coach ended from this first week and first time!

Then, we invited this professional coach to help offer key tips to GMS university presidents and I too went along with his little workshops. To my surprise, my feeling of discomfort was less and when I was asked of one powerful question, it opened up my mind to think that it could help our own selves and others to know themselves better.

Even so, when another opportunity knocked on me the past weekend, I was again reluctant with fear in me. I decided to end my fear and this time here were what I got ka:

1. I was able to tackle my fear successfully.....I'm not afraid to learn till the end and I CAN kaaa!

2. After having told my mentor how uncomfortable I was last time and that I'd prefer using my own style to include all required, she set me free and I was able to pursue my coachee with questions I had without much difficulty (obviously, as an amateur, I was guided several times in between and it made me feel so good ka!)

3. The gathering was with much younger gens, mainly Y and Z. Thanks to Fulbright Thailand, I didn't feel alienated to be among them....I was the only baby boomer the first day ka. Several kids said my participation inspired them about being life-long learners ka. Oh! ok! 5555!

One key learning ka: A coach is to ask powerful questions to her coachees......it's their contexts and it's they themselves to answer kaa! So so EdPEx!

Yesterday, I used the coaching techniques on an OHEC (MHESI) staff and a group of EdPEx participants, both found their answers on their own kaaa!

As an amateur, I need to practice more and for now, I have a little fear left with some drive to acquire more experience laew ka.

Anyone wants me to help coach mai kaaa?

Be disruptive or disrupted?

I've been thinking of what to share this week as I still don't feel what I have in mind is 'hot' enough for me to feel like writing ka. 

Now I do kaaa.....excited nidnueng too (thinking of what Khun Ken said how he felt the urge to go back to share about it as well.)

While walking yesterday, I decided to get started by listening to a Thai Podcast program (The Standard --Secret Sauce by Ken Nakarin). The topic was on 'Game Changer' organized by Prachachart Turakit on May 22, 2019. 

The key points I learned and I'll add my own views at the end of the lessons ka:

1. The world is no longer a straight line but exponential growth.......how far have we been aware and serious to speed ourselves and our higher education institutions ka?

2. From Khun Supalak Umpujh (The Mall Group),  the disruption is like World War III but the death is businesses, not people.

3. Khun Pipit Aneaknithi (Kbank Managing Director) mentioned three animals that made me feel so curious to learn more ka. We need to be more aware of the threat from 'Gray Rhino', which means 'they are out in the open for the world to see but are nevertheless ignored until it's too late......the term is coined by Michele Wucker from her book, 'The Gray Rhino....' ka.....this was what made me feel so excited to google to read more this morning ka. The seminar speakers also mentioned 'Black Swan', which was from Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book and referred to 'events that are highly improbable but highly consequential'.....again, I learned a bit more about it so now I'll have my new slide showing three animals, including 'elephant in the room' kaaa! happy! happy! happy!

4. Khun Ken concluded his learning into 5 points as follows:

4.1 Business needs partnership......well! we do have lots of partners from M0US....who are our real partners we need to have a win-win result dee ka? The term 'collaboration' keeps popping up here and there in many book summaries I listen to and in other forums too.

4.2 Listening mindset to mingle more with younger gens like Y and Z......Immediately I thought of 2 things ka: I feel blessed right away to be able to get together with younger family members and our Fulbright alums, and I think of the elderly homes that need to bring younger ones to talk with them to bring liveliness and interesting discussions. IN fact, I also thought of my own model, coming up with '3 Learns.....Learn to link, Learn to listen, and Learn to love (purpose in life) ka.

4.3 Decentralized way of management is crucial.....I think of government agencies that are still far behind and of distributed leadership I heard and have repeated to others in many forums.

4.4 We need Outside-in strategy to 'read the outside games accurately for developing our own organization' ........ need lots of efforts with careful strategic minds and actions ka. 

4.5 How to bring joy to consumers as it's the basic requirements of working and the feelings we all yearn for......in terms of business, it doesn't seem to touch me much though. But in terms of education institutions, the essence of life must be high on our agenda to teach/share/learn with our younger and older generations alike ka. 

Another sanuk story I enjoyed and plan to listen again with a big challenge to our universities if they could disrupt the world or be disrupted ka.

Online learning

Dear all, yesterday, I got to read an article shared through Diigo by Andy Hines and I found it quite interesting to share further since online education is 'often represented as the future of education'.

The article is entitled, '21st Century Skills and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Critical Future Role for Online Education' by John Reaves, 2019

First, skills for the future which have overlaps from the three lists presented and I selected the following: intercultural fluency, empathy, resilience, creative/complex problem solving, virtual collaboration, design mindset, and transdisciplinarity....I drew more from the Education Design Lab (2018) than from the World Economic Forum (Gray, 2016), and Insitute for the Future (2011) ka. 

Second, Flipping the online classroom using the flipped concept sounds good to structure the program as a basket of activities, not a topic-based hierarchy while benefiting content from the cloud.

Third, a theoretical framework developed by Heather McGowan and Chris Shipley 'emphasizes the importance of acquiring the skills to continually acquired new skills, across and beyond traditional disciplines. Work to Learn describes the evolution from siloed stocks of knowledge to flows of knowledge, a systems thinking perspective, and emphasizes transdisciplinary skills....' 

I like this statement as well ka: 'The emphasis is on doing-to-learn rather than learning-to-do'. This fits well with the generation Z who is called 'DIY generation' and it makes me think of John Dewey's classic term of 'leaning by doing' ka.

Happy weekend ka.