Keyword

Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Career School, Convergence, Creativity, Digital Technology, Education, Innovation, Work Skill Demand, Liberal Arts

Abstract

Today’s businesses are investing heavily in IT transformational tools to keep pace with the 21st century’s ceaseless advances in digital technology and artificial intelligence. However, business leaders are realizing those investments go nowhere without the creative minds to discover new ways to converge technology advances in software clustering algorithms, Big Data Analytics, data lake deployments, blockchains, chatbots, and social media apps with customer engagement for growth opportunities
 
Traditional business skills are no longer viable in a globalized digital ecosystem. Departmentalized linear and vertical thinking skill competencies have been usurped by the value chain of integrative, non-linear and lateral thinking. Complex problems arising from unfamiliar and multifaceted complications caused by globalization and technology advances need nontraditional, unconventional and atypical responses. The intellectual agility of the creative mind uncovers new associative links by converging disparate knowledge domains to provide innovative solutions.  


Converging different ideas from different knowledge domains to form new patterns of thought has become one of the most valuable 21st century workforce skills. Yet, an overwhelming amount of higher education institutions separate, silo, and isolate one subject area of knowledge from another. A liberal art “breadth of knowledge” is no longer sufficient without establishing a methodology that provides a convergence of knowledge.

It is the finding of this paper that the case study of The North Coast College demonstrates a pedagogical model which converge disparate knowledge domains to redefine education for the 21st century.

The North Coast College’s Principle of Convergence pedagogy is a response to the changing 21st century business environment and its need for “transdisciplinarity
, interdisciplinarity, and multidisciplinarity” minds to stimulate idea generation for innovation. The 4 Layers of The North Coast College’s Principles of Convergence Plan are: The Convergence of Business and Design; The Convergence of Design Industry Standards with The NCC Academics; The Convergence of Linear Thinking with Lateral Thinking; and, The Convergence of General Education Requirements with Everything. Each layer is designed to interact with today’s needs of a workforce skill which values convergence of knowledge to foster creative thinking and innovation. The NCC’s pedagogical construct converges career skill-based competencies with the holistic breadth of a liberal arts education while providing an epistemological methodology to converge disparate knowledge domains for creative thinking and innovation aptitudes. 


Full Text : PDF

References
  • Amabile, Teresa M. (1996.) Creativity in context: update to the social psychology of creativity New York, NY: Routledge Publishers.
  • Baker, Sarah and Hesmondhalgh, David. (1994.) Creative labor: media work in three cultural industries. London, England:
  • Routledge.
  • Barrett Feldman, Lisa. (2018.) How emotions are made: the secret life of thebrain. New York: Houghton Miffflin Harcourt.
  • Florida, R. (2012.) The rise of the creative class: revisited. New York, NY: Perseus Book Group.
  • Forrester Consulting. (2014.) The Creative Dividend: How Creativity Impacts Business Results. Retrieved from https://landing.adobe.com/dam/downloads/whitepapers/55563.en.creative-dividends.pdf
  • 47 A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) www.ijhem.abrmr.com
  • International Journal of Higher Education Management (IJHEM), Vol. 5 Number 1    August 2018
  • Gordon S. Linoff and Michael J.A. Berry. (2011.) Data mining techniques for marketing, sales and customer relationship Manager. Indianapolis, Wiley Publishing.
  • Hesmondhaghl, David. (2013.) The cultural industries. London: SAGE Publications.
  • Howkins, John. (2001.) The creative economy. London, England: Penguin Press. England.
  • Kuhn, Thomas S. 1996. The structure of scientific revolution. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Levy, Frank and Murnane, Richard J. (2004.) The new division of labor: how computers are creating the next job market.
  • Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  • Lord W. Bob and Velez, Ray. (2013.) Converge: transforming business at the intersection of marketing and technology.
  • Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
  • Mishra, P., Koehler, M.J. and Henrickson, D. (2011.) The Seven Trans-disciplinary habits of Mind: Extending The Tpack Framework Towards 21st Century Learning. Educational Technology.
  • Morgenstern, Michael. (2016.) Automation and Anxiety, The Economist. Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21700758-will-smarter-machines-cause-mass-unemployment-automation-and-anxiety.
  • Puccio, G. J. and Cabra, J. F. (2010.) Organizational creativity: a systems approach. In J.C. Kaufman and R.J. Sternberg (Eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity.
  • Roco, Mihail C., and Bainbridge, William S. (2013.) The New World of Discovery, Invention, and Innovation: Convergence of Knowledge, Technology, and Society. National Science Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/nano/reports/MCR_13-0831_Convergence KTS_Roco+Bainbridge_17p.pdf
  • Roco,    Mihail C., and Bainbridge, William S. (2003.) Converging technologies for improving human performance: nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and the cognitive sciences. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
  • Scott, Ginamarie, Leritz, Lyle E. and Mumford, Michael D. (2004.) The Effectiveness of Creativity Training: A Quantitative Review. Creativity Research Journal. Retrieved from http://www.gettingsorted.com/Scott__et_al__2004_Creativity_Training.pdf
  • Sebastian Seung. (2012.) Connectome, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Boston, New York.
  • Sharp, Phillip A., Cooney, Charles L., Kastner, Marc A. (2011.) The Convergence of The Life Sciences, Physical
  • Sciences, and Engineering. Retrieved from
  • http://www.aplu.org/projects-and-initiatives/research-science-and-    technology/hibar/resources/    MIT
  • whitepaper .pdf
  • Weber, Larry and Henderson, Lisa Leslie. (2014.) The digital marketer. John Wiley and Sons Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Whitehead, Alfred North. (1929.) The aims of education and other essays. New York: Simon and Schuster,
  • World Economic Forum. (2015.) New Vision for Education: Unlocking the Potential of Technology. Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved from
  • http://www3.weforum.org/docs /WEFUSA_NewVisionforEducation_Report2015.pdf World Economic Forum. (2016.) The Future of Jobs. Geneva, Switzerland. Retrieved from
  • https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs