Technology & The Future of Work

Greg Kulowiec
Sep 6, 2018 · 6 min read

I started listening to Dissect during season two when Cole Cuchna broke down Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I quickly went back and binged all of season one and remember the excitement when Cole announced his independent project was being picked up by Spotify.

Cole Cuchna’s Dissect is picked up by Spotify

This announcement was fascinating for two reasons. One, it meant even more exclusive content connected to Cole’s dissection of each album. Two, he was quitting his job. While the podcast is amazing & has cracked my inner podcast circle of RadioLab, What’s Good with Stretch & Bobbito & The GaryVee Audio Experience, the idea that an independent creative that devoted time to research, write, record and produce such a high quality show that was picked up by a powerful streaming platform solidified an idea. Then, this trailer dropped a few days ago for “Generation: Freedom”…

Ideas I’ve been considering, reading about and discussing lately seem to be converging…

There are countless suggestions and ideas posed in Seth Godin’s Linchpin that support the premise that technology is drastically changing the world of work and it is the creative that understands how to become indispensable that will not only have a job, but one of their choosing. Add the element of the internet and the impact that it has on information & the value of certain types of work over others and one could argue we are at a crossroads of some sorts. When I saw the trailer for Generation: Freedom and thought of the story about Cole’s work with Dissect, it immediately connected with Linchpin.

Consider what Godin says here:

These two passages confirm an argument that has been under development from some time. One, our work must be online for it to have any substantial value or at least provide the option to grow an audience for our efforts. Two, simply having access to information and the work that consists of those efforts is becoming drastically less valuable. So technology in this instance is creating two dynamics, a double edged sword. It is changing the nature of work by making certain types of jobs either less valuable or simply non-existent. And, it is providing a platform for anyone to share their creative project with an audience of their choosing. How is this dynamic being addressed in schools?

Consider the scenario we are sending our children into and if we are truly preparing them for the work that will be available. I have always struggled with the vague notion and unclear idea that we are preparing students for jobs that don’t event exist. And, that somehow technology in schools will somehow help us prepare them for those jobs. But, I think there is a different dynamic at play here. It isn’t that we should be attempting to get them prepared for a world where the jobs they will hold don’t exist, we should be preparing them with the skill set and confidence to create their job with an awareness of how technology can help them grow the audience for the work they want to do. The idea of a project that is published online being the resume that will actually secure work is fascinating and real. Yet, how often are we providing either opportunity for students to do this type of work or allowing & helping them develop the skills to share their work in this capacity? Again the role of technology in schools needs to be considered. More on this in a moment.

I often like to consider a graphic from Dancing with Robots when thinking about the impact that technology and the internet has on the value of information. Further, jobs that consist of recall, or that follow if / then statements around the use of information are inevitably ( if not already ) going to be replaced by machines.

From Dancing with Robots
An excerpt from Dancing with Robots

I think it is safe to assume, the graph above paints a fairly accurate picture of what is happening to the potential for work to be done by humans as opposed to machines. Again, this leads me to thinking about how technology is being leveraged in schools today. One, is the work students are doing for a significant portion of the time nothing more than an if / then statement? And, is the technology being used in a way to solidify that type of work? In a recent episode of the So We’ve Been Thinking Podcast, my colleague Shawn McCusker and I spoke with Audrey Watters about the concept of the Teaching Machine. What was fascinating about the talk was the idea she suggested about values being hard coded into the technology we use in schools and how those values impact teacher practice, student experience and the work we are asking them to do. Listen to an excerpt below:

Excerpt from So We’ve Been Thinking Episode 10: The Teaching Machine with Audrey Watters

What I really appreciate about this excerpt is that while technology is a component of the point Audrey is making, the focus is really on the culture and values that exist in a school and how we perceive the type and quality of work students can do. Unfortunately (listen to the whole episode) the technology isn’t neutral and as Audrey suggests, has values hard coded into them that impacts what both teachers and students are doing with the technology. Again, technology is influencing not only society and the bigger world of work, but the perception of what type of work is valuable and what type of work students are capable of doing in a classroom. Which will have a direct impact on their perception of what they can do and what is possible with technology.

I need to make some sort of effort to bring this together…I typically don’t like bullet points, but in this instance I actually think it makes sense.

  • Work is changing
  • Technology is a driving factor in changing that work
  • Technology also allows for individual ideas & creative projects to thrive online
  • Technology can eliminate all barriers to expression & connection
  • Humans can establish value in their work in ways not possible before because of technology
  • Technology isn’t being leveragged to its full potential in schools

What next & what now?

When I was a high school history teacher I wanted my students to know how to publish text, images, audio and video online to a platform of their liking (blog / website / wiki). I didn’t understand at that time what technology was going to do to the potential for their future employment, but I knew that these fundamental skills when working online were critical. At that point (early 2000s) there were still obstacles to these sorts of process. It wasn’t exceptionally difficult, but not as easy as it is today. The point being is that as the barriers to expression via technology get lower and lower, and the technology impacting work grows faster and faster, it may be even more important for students to know how to pursue their interests, carve out a niche for their work and truly understand how to leverage technology to share their skills, passion and story.

Greg Kulowiec

Written by

Instructor & Creator for EdTechTeacher (edtechteacher.org), husband, dad to 2, iOSdj and former History Teacher. Half of the So We've Been Thinking Project.

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