Human Specialization in Design and Technology

The Current Wave for Learning, Culture, Industry, and Beyond

Patricia A. Young

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9780367557430
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000334944
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Organisational Development

Human Specialization in Design and Technology explores emerging trends in learning and training—standardization, personalization, customization, and specialization—with a unique focus on innovations specific to human needs and conditions. Analyzing evidence from current academic research as well as the popular press, this concise volume defines and examines the trajectory of instructional design and technologies toward more human-centered and specialized products, services, processes, environments, and systems. Examples from education, healthcare, business, and other sectors offer real-world demonstrations for scholars and graduate students of educational technology, instructional design, and business development. The book features insights into the future of professors, public schools, equity and access, extended technologies, open educational resources, and more, concluding with a set of concrete solutions.

Section I

The Research and Practice of Human Specialization

Section I consists of three chapters that integrate information from the popular press with academic research. The combination provides real-time data with scientifically based research. The chapters explore the what and how of human innovation, looking broadly across industries at four trends, the history of personalization and COVID-19.

1
Interdisciplinary Trends

Understanding the pattern of Human Specialization must first begin with identifying that this cultural phenomenon truly exists. Through an analysis of industry trends such as standardization, personalization, customization, specialization and the “dynamics of economic structure” (Imbs & Wacziarg, 2003, p. 83), this chapter maps the places and spaces that Human Specialization manifest. The industries explored include healthcare, agriculture, other businesses (e.g., insurance, software, clothing, etc.) and education. Finally, the history of these industry trends is revealed through a methodology called text mining. Text mining is characterized as looking for “recurring word patterns in large collections of digital documents” (Weiss et al., 2015, p. xi). By mapping the pattern of Human Specialization across industries, text mining should disclose the path of innovation in all its forms.

Healthcare Industry

The Healthcare industry is projected to be a 10-trillion-dollar business by 2022 (DTTL, 2019). Professions most prevalent in this industry include doctors, nurses, scientists, technicians and other healthcare practitioners (USBLS, 2019a). Standardization, personalization, customization and specialization all support the healthcare industry's ways of doing business.

Standardization

A brief look back at the healthcare industry might begin with prescription drugs. Prescription drugs have a long history of development, trial and error and, in many cases, success. The Prescription Drug Timeline (Table 1.1) examines a sampling of medications most approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Aspirin may be considered one of the first standardized drugs used for a multiplicity of health-related issues. Standardization is the key word here. The timeline indicates that there is movement from the most standardized drug – the basic aspirin that provides treatment for multiple ailments – to more customized or specialized drugs (e.g., codeine) that meet the needs of a particular disease, condition or disorder.

Table 1.1Prescription Drug Timeline*

1899	Bayer Aspirin, painkiller
1955	Salk vaccine, polio
1969	Valium, anxiety
1975	Rohypnol, a sleeping pill
1983	Nasalcrom, allergies
1993	Depo-Provera, injectable birth control
1995	Varicella, Chicken pox vaccine
1998	Viagra, male impotency
2000	RU-486 (mifepristone), French abortion pill,
2005	BiDil, heart failure drug for African Americans.
2006	Prezista, a protease inhibitor drug for HIV
2006	Atripla, a single pill, 3-drug combination, to fight AIDS
2006	Avastin, lung cancer
2006	Gardasil, vaccine human papillomavirus (HPV).
2007	Sativex, cancer
2008	Avastin, breast cancer
2009	Atryn, blood-clotting disorder
2012	Kalydeco, cystic fibrosis
2013	Xofigo, castration-resistant prostate cancer
2014	Testosterone undecanoate, testosterone replacement
2015	Tagrisso, non-small cell lung cancer
2016	Rubraca, advanced ovarian cancer
2017	Benznidazole, children ages 2 to 12 with Chagas Disease
2018	Motegrity, chronic idiopathic constipation
2019	Golodirsen, Duchenne muscular dystrophy
2020	Artesunate, severe malaria

^*Data gleaned from a variety of sources: Connelly, D. (September 26, 2014). A history of aspirin. Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/news-and-analysis/infographics/a-history-of-aspirin/20066661.article?firstPass=false.

The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. History of Vaccines - A Vaccine History Project of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia | History of Vaccines. Retrieved June 3, 2020, from https://www.historyofvaccines.org

Personalization

The healthcare industry has reinvented personalization. Specifically, the industry began with tailoring medical treatments to the individualized characteristics of patients. This shifted the clinical treatment of patients from the trial-and-error approach to delivering the right-drug, right-patien...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Prologue
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Section I: The Research and Practice of Human Specialization
• Section II: Futures Thinking and Sociopolitical Thought in EdTech
• Appendix: Background to Human Specialization
• Index