by Gary Gordhamer |

Everything around us today is an outcome of the Industrial Age. The 250+ years of changes allow a toaster in every house, a car in every driveway, and a computer in every pocket. It’s hard to imagine the amount of change that workers have gone through during this period. We are now on the journey through the Information Age, and it continues to change our world every day.

I believe we are still very early in this age. The questions I often ask myself are:

• Am I a creator or a consumer in the Digital Revolution?
• What does it take to be a creator?
• How does one learn the needed skills?
• Increase their knowledge?
• If data is the new currency, how does one learn to harness the value of data?

There are many approaches to learning a skill, but really it all comes down to similar methodology. Start with something simple, repeatable, and safe. Learn basic skills, and once those skills are second hand, apply them to harder techniques, and continue. I get to work with elementary school kids teaching Lego robotics. This is their first introduction to programming and basic logic skills. My favorite takeaway for them is “When the robot is not doing the right thing, I’m going to guess it’s something wrong in the program.” They learn this after only a few sessions, but it has to be repeated until it’s second nature.

For more information, read Gary’s full article on DBTA and join him at COLLABORATE 18!

About the Author

Gary Gordhamer is the IOUG Director of Education. This is his eighth year working on the COLLABORATE IOUG committee and third year as the IOUG conference chair. Everyone on the committee works extremely hard to bring the best presenters, hands-on labs, topical themes, and targeted vendor sessions to COLLABORATE every year.