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Lifelong learning at low
Not too long ago (perhaps three decades will sound a long time if you were born about 20 years ago) one had to take that long walk to the Balme Library as a student at the University of Ghana whenever l wasn’t able to find the textbook l needed to study a particular subject or topic at my local library, that is the School of Administration library, now the University of Ghana Business School.
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Established in 1948 and named after David Mowbray Balme, the first Principal of the University of Ghana, the Balme Library provided (and still provides) the collection of books and periodicals for use or borrowing by students, and also served as the real go-to place in our search for knowledge. My experience with the library started in 1991. The Library had a large collection of books with an efficient system in place to ensure that the print book inventory and the overall library management system served students well. Mind you, then, there wasn’t anything like “full automation” anywhere. Well, you can still organise your files very well, if you had a good working knowledge of Lotus 1-2-3 (discontinued spreadsheet programme with the final release 20 years ago!); and to start with, you must have a strong knowledge and confidence in using the Microsoft DOS Commands to boot the computer in the first place! Oh yes, some students were lucky enough to have a semblance of internet access on a dial-up connection. The import here is that “life” was not that simple in the 1990s but enjoyable anyway. I personally enjoyed every bit of campus life back then.
Fast forward to the 21st century and all seems so easy and cosy—at least from where l sit. In fact, on your laptop or on any device that connects to the internet, you can do a search on any material that you want, and you get several pages of displayed information. Ok, I guess you now understand why I opened this week’s column with my admiration for easy internet access today.
As my peg for this week’s article is the Balme Library, as a test, l just typed the name into the Google search engine and the result displayed 459,000 pages! Astonishing isn’t it? Well, the answer to this is that the information superhighway, anchored on the capabilities of the internet, has made it easier for information to be easily accessible, and in some instances, reduced the time to market for products and services.
As the internet has made information easily available to billions in the world, so too has it made it possible for you to acquire knowledge cheaply. Are you aware that there are thousands of free online courses from some of the big-name education providers on the internet? And, significantly too, you will find it straightforward to learn, either as part of your professional development path or to acquire a new hobby.
Let me share with you two providers that l have personally signed up to. EDX is the first education provider that l would like to talk about. EDX boasts of more than 3,600 free courses, serving up online courses from top colleges and universities around the world.
If you want to take your interest a notch higher, you can pay in order to get real-life course credit. However, this is not necessary with EDX if your interest is just to gain knowledge and not to be tested.
The next one is Coursera. Coursera is similar to EDX and does have a dedicated section for courses marked as free. But analysts are of the view that “compared to EDX, Coursera skews a bit more toward professional training, but it’s likely you’ll be able to find a fair amount of overlap if you look hard enough”. Therefore, the advice offered is that “give Coursera a shot if you’re looking to do a bit of professional development in your spare time”.
For those of you interested in programming, you can find some joy with free courses with Codecademy. Compared to EDX and Coursera, the free courses here are not that much.
The message l want to drive home is that there is so much available sources of information today that you can commit to lifelong learning at no cost- except the cost of using your own time and the airtime that drives data connectivity.
As I explained in the June 4 edition of this column, when l wrote under the heading, Fit for the Future?, “we could be ‘redundant’, literally, if we do not subject ourselves to continuous professional development”. In the June 4 edition, my piece reflected on the impact of innovative and disruptive technology on our future. In this edition, as you can see, l have also explained how technology has taken the Balme Library concept from a physical building to online portals hosted on servers held in the cloud!
In effect, be creative and innovative, committing to learn new things at the least opportunity. Creativity and innovation underpin the next generation of economic activity. We already have Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning helping to decipher and break down complex processes for industry. Yes, it may not be all about robotics and complex algorithms with technology but the big picture is
that technological innovation is affecting every industry in different ways, like the way it has transformed the library concept and is expanding the scope and channels for knowledge acquisition.
Talking about robots. Today, robots are deployed to perform some of the tasks that humans used to do. In Amazon warehouses, for example, robots sort goods, and also play significant roles in the car manufacturing industry. Robotics researcher, Joe Davidson, and his colleagues, have turned to the human hand for inspiration, observing professional fruit pickers, and are now working to replicate their skilled movements with robotic fingers. In effect, the robots will be picking apples for you! And, according to reports, their work could help transform agriculture, especially improving the work of farm workers. What this means is that your skills could become obsolete if you do not improve on your knowledge and ideas at all times.
To conclude, let me ask you this question: How far do you think your degree will go? To attempt an answer myself, let me just say that my degree does have a shelf life, so I am ready and prepared to learn new things to keep abreast with the changing times! It is your turn now: How would you answer this same question? Remember that if you are an accountant, as an example, there are always several issues within the profession that attract expert review and engagement that you need to know. Reporting standards are frequently reviewed in accounting to make them abreast with the changing business landscape, and several possible policies and guidelines are issued in the form of Exposure Drafts for further consultations. Are you aware? How are you keeping up? Well, the good news is that it is not difficult these days to upgrade your skills so get right into it!