It’s a busy week in higher education. I’m speaking this afternoon in Dallas at the Close It Summit, Shift Happens: No Turning Back. I rather like the conference title this year as it ties into the New Universe of Learning I have been writing about. My talk will be on “Leading the Way to Competencies: Personalized Learning Plans in the Digital Age.” A few key points include:

• Workplace competencies, including behavior, skills, cross-cutting intellectual abilities (such as problem-solving, critical thinking, writing,) and academic competencies are opposite sides of the same coin.
• Using data analytics and IT, curricula can be assessed for  workplace alignment, work that people do can be assessed for academic validation, Academic evidence can be assessed for workplace alignment, and non-higher ed learning, like bootcamps, can be assessed for both.
• What I’m seeing in my work with UMUC, the experiential learning-based classroom and the evidence-based program competency structure promote this personalized approach to learning and assessment.

You can follow the conversation on Twitter with the hashtags #closeitsummit and #shifthappens.

Tomorrow I will be at UPCEA in Annapolis for the 2016 UPCEA Mid-Atlantic Region Conference. I will begin the morning off with a keynote address: “Learning After the Revolution: How One Man’s Blues is Another’s Rock and Roll”.

I will talk about a chance to look beyond the coming disruption to a time when all learning – professional, personal, experiential, and academic – will be available for validation and use meeting personal, intellectual, and career goals; and where lifelong Personal Learning Paths (PLPs) are an operating reality.

Learning after the revolution will be highly aligned with the philosophy and practice of professional and continuing educators.  The game is coming to you. You already know how to find career and academic value in learning, how to assess learning done for personal reasons and learning gained from experience; how to interpret the university’s resources to meet community needs.  To deepen my point, I will address several current harbingers of learning after the revolution: the EQUIP program, networked colleges, evidence-based assessment as pedagogy, reverse-engineered degrees, and the conflation of career requirements with academic outcomes. You can follow this conversation with the hashtag #SetSailMidA.

This is an exciting week of talking about innovative education and what the future holds for personal learning. If you will be at these events, please say hello!