{"id":27615,"date":"2013-11-01T12:18:58","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T19:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=27615"},"modified":"2013-11-01T21:57:29","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T04:57:29","slug":"google-ambassador-opens-world-insight-lifelong-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/google-ambassador-opens-world-insight-lifelong-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Google ambassador opens up world of insight about lifelong learning"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Michael
Michael Jones, Google’s chief technology advocate, addresses a classroom of NAU students during his recent visit to campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A man who has traveled much of the world and brought the Earth to the minds of the masses remains anchored in optimism, and perhaps that is the most remarkable aspect of Michael Jones.<\/p>\n

As Google\u2019s chief technology advocate<\/a>, Jones might be expected to explain how life is better with the ubiquitous tool at the fingertips of 2 billion people. But during a recent five-day visit to Northern Arizona University, his positive messages and advice also revealed a personal belief in the potential of humanity.<\/p>\n

In meetings with students, deans and NAU President John Haeger<\/strong>, and in classroom visits and a keynote presentation, Jones weaved his own encyclopedic knowledge into topics ranging from the nobility of business to career preparation. He spoke about change and the certainty of discomfort in greeting it. And he explained how widespread and nearly instantaneous access to information can be used to create a context for kinship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\"google<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n\n\n
\n

Visit puts NAU on the map <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Michael Jones racks up more than 300,000 miles a year, meets with heads of state and essentially represents Google to the world. And in his spare time he designs yachts.<\/p>\n

But an invitation from Paul Thomas<\/strong>, who is teaching in the Executive in Residence program<\/a> in the W.A. Franke College of Business, compelled Jones to fit Northern Arizona University into his itinerary for a packed schedule that facilitated plenty of interaction with students in business and engineering.<\/p>\n

In addition to appearing in various classes and meeting with student groups, Jones attended the Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology Startup Weekend<\/a> at NAU, at which he delivered a keynote address and spent hours exchanging thoughts with the 63 students pitching their entrepreneurial ideas.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve changed the comprehension of 2 billion humans about their planet,\u201d Jones said in reference to Google Earth, which he and a few others created while \u201csitting around a dining table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought we had a very tiny understanding of the world,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI thought maybe we can own the planet in our minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broadening that perspective to Google\u2019s full array of capabilities, Jones affirmed his belief that the technology tool makes the world a better place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are more capable than we were before Google came around,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make us more intelligent or more wise, but it makes us more informed.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that claim, based as much on feeling as on quantifiable data, underlies Google\u2019s confidence in how people will use that information.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really about us,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing this thing so that people will be better informed, have better understanding and lead better lives. With more choices, they\u2019ll be able to choose more wisely. The optimistic principle behind that is that we think they will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering what Jones sees as the requirements of managing a successful career at a time of great change, people will need all the help they can get. He advised students \u201cto realize that what they\u2019re learning here, and what they must be successful at, is learning how to learn. You learn enough to start the race, and every day is 95 percent working and 5 percent studying for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Put another way, the effect is \u201ca decrease in the half-life of an education,\u201d Jones said. What someone learns in college or a professional school used to be enough preparation for a career but now that knowledge may apply for only half a career.<\/p>\n

Continually anticipating the new skills that will be needed, Jones said, will define professionalism in the future. And not everyone will be happy about it. \u201cThe prospect that what you are is tentative because of what you learned yesterday is very uncomfortable for some people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the future does not belong only to those who can write code or work with nanoparticles.\u00a0 As an engineer, Jones appreciates the power of technology as a tool, but as a well-read person with an almost Google-like breadth of recall, he also sees the need for a balance of creativity and implementation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have the highest respect for the ambitions of liberal arts education. I can\u2019t imagine a better outcome from going to college,\u201d Jones said. In addition, though, \u201cthere\u2019s an engineering component to fulfilling the wisdom\u201d that comes from creativity, he said. \u201cEngineering is the science of turning ideas into answers. One without the other is more than deficient, it\u2019s valueless.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A man who has traveled much of the world and brought the Earth to the minds of the masses remains anchored in optimism, and perhaps that is the most remarkable aspect of Michael Jones. As Google\u2019s chief technology advocate, Jones might be expected to explain how life is better with the ubiquitous tool at the…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":27645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,11],"tags":[518,517,354,38,24,477],"class_list":["post-27615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors","category-research-academics","tag-franke-college-of-business","tag-michael-jones","tag-nacet","tag-nau","tag-northern-arizona-university","tag-t-paul-thomas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}