Flipping classrooms, hybrid learning and the future of global education.

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20 years ago or so, print publishing changed, typesetting, film seperations and many other processes that took many people to achieve was now shifting over to a little personal computer and putting the power into the hands of anyone with the skills.

15 years ago or so, music publishing changed, MP3 file compression and file sharing put the power of distribution of content into everyone’s hands. For better or worse.

10 years ago or so, video publishing changed, YouTube, MySpace, Vimeo, Google and now Hulu, Netflix and many more offer video streaming. And once again the creationg and distribution of content is available to nearly anyone with the skills and acccess.

On line shopping, mail service, and the list goes on have all been transformed by the digital revolution not unlike the industrial revolution.

Education is next.

The thrust of energy and access to on-line, virtual learning tools is putting publishing of educational content to the masses and creating a level playing field to many. It is also forcing educators from Pre-K to Post Graduate to re-think their models.

Interstingly, those creating the educational models of the future may not have a revenue model to sustain the process. This is what the newspaper industry struggled with initially, and once the content is out for free, or reliant on ad based revenue, it may be too late.

Here are just a few recent articles and resources.

MIT, Khan Academy Partner on Instructional Videos

Michigan Program provides new learning exprience.

Stanford Experiment in WIRED

YouTube launches Education Tube

TED Talks releases Ted Ed beta

And a great visual from Visual.ly

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Social Media and Education – Oh what to do…

Consider a small district with a half dozen schools, some administrators, a hundred teachers and a thousand parents or so.

Start a topic or issue and you have a meeting to for discussion. Leadership plans it out, makes recommendations, stakeholders weigh in and issue moves forward. Right?

Now – consider a massive school district, 800 schools, 70,000 staff, 600,000 students, a million parents – AND inject social media into the dialogue of a topic.

Need some guidelines on social media for school? Here’s a start. 

From Edutopia.org – The George Lucas Educational Foundation.

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Social Media Explained – Info Graphic for the masses

The story behind the viral post that wasn’t intended to go viral, but did and continues to do so.

http://www.threeshipsmedia.com/social-media-and-donuts/

 

The original post on InstaGram by Douglas Wray 

http://instagr.am/p/nm695/

Image001

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New Study: 2012 CEO Performance 100

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Today SCCO International and the Graziadio School of Business and Management released the 2012 CEO Performance 100, which ranks CEO performance of Southern California’s largest companies. The report names Occidental Petroleum’s CEO, Stephen Chazen, as the top value creator in Southern California. In 2011 Occidental had the highest absolute value creation with $3.4 billion in economic profit, an increase of $1.6 billion over its 2010 results. Occidental was followed closely by Amgen, with an absolute economic profit of $3.2 billion.

http://community.pepperdine.edu/today/news/2012/05/gbr-presents-ceo-performan…

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Designing? People are busy, keep it simple.

In design – I love that everything is getting simpler to view, easier to read, and keeping it ‘at a glance’. This is purely reflecting the technological steps we are taking.

Here are some good tips for you.

http://www.sitereviver.com/5-of-the-best-social-media-page-designs/

1 Humble voice 5 Of The Best Social Media Page Designs

 

Also, have a look at this book!

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758

 

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Where, What, When, Why and How do you use social media?

Social-media-questions

Quick question/survey on Social Media:

[1] Where do you initiate social media?
Mobile/Desktop/Laptop

 
[2] What spaces do you most actively participate? Facebook/Twitter/Foursquare/Pinterest/Yammer/Other

 
[3] What primary purpose?
Fun/Work/Connections/Other Please share and pass along to others.

 

*image courtesy of socialcommerceblog

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TOP 10 Lists – a Best of Pinterest

If you are a fan of David Letterman’s Top 10 list and love branding, social media and the digital space… see this post on some of the best practices on Pinterest.

In this article “10 Surprising Brands Killing It on Pinterest”  you will see some major brands making the most of Pinning.

Maybe you will be inspired to bring their insights into your workplace.

Infographic-10-surprising-bran

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Cloud Computing. Almost everything you wanted to know-but were afraid to ask.

Cloud computing is THE trending topic of this decade.

Apple just announced iCloud - 
Google is becoming the Cloud - just ask them.
and what is the Chromebook anyway.
How do they compare you ask? Well, see Computerworld
Ok, Ok, so there are a few more companies to watch… so rather than go into each one and confuse both of us… here is a great list of Cloud Companies to watch.

Cloud computing may kill a lot of major companies. Technology is making billions for some and a few years later corporations that were huge are circling the drain.

Will the cloud re-define the need for applications ? and hard drives ? and many other elements that seemed to be infallible?

Who needs a hard drive if you don’t need software. And if technology gets smaller, more portable, will it become part of other elements.
Buy a TV it has the device. Buy a car, it’s part of the dash. Redo your kitchen it’s built into the system.

All of these “Jetson” cartoon ideas have been around, they are real today, but they are all getting a dose of steroids with Cloud computing. The question may be are we ready for it. Is it secure, is it better, faster, smarter, safer?

On to entertainment….

I would venture to say that with that in mind… CLOUD ENTERTAINMENT will be a close second very soon.

A movie use to be in a theater,  a show use to be on a television and a song use to be on the radio. We went through the days of albums, tapes, cds and mp3′s in music, we saw movies being adapted for VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray for home consumption. We are watching TV take on many forms as people watch it on the DVR… or an entire season via iTunes.

But what is next is rather interesting and exciting for some and completely frightening to others.

Rather than tip-toeing around it… have you checked out Bamboom yet? Great article just came out about it at All Things D
This includes the discussion that free entertainment may never be free… but will that change.

If you have a Netflix account and you’re watching a Movie at home in your den with your slippers on, with a bowl of popcorn, with your dog at your feet…. and then the phone rings and you forgot you had to be somewhere…  NO WORRIES…
pause the movie… continue watching it on your iPhone… stop it again…. watch it on your laptop… stop again… watch it while visiting grandma in Minnesota. It doesn’t matter… because Netflix sees you as an account. A user who has paid for creative content and should be able to use, view, consume it whenever and wherever you want.

The tricky part and where the line continues to be redrawn is the notion of the cloud.
If “IT” as in “ENTERTAINMENT CONTENT” is already out there, floating in the air, then if you have the technology (antenna)… to consume it, it is yours.

Not so fast say some… while others say. YES.

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[VIDEO] Love em or hate em… Google knows what they’re doing. #UX

This is my personal call to STOP MAKING BAD WEB SITES.

With years in design, art direction and creative direction, I am focusing much of my attention on User Experience [Interaction/Interface design]. Utilizing my knowledge of core grid systems, incorporating the user’s needs and motivations and fully realizing the potential of the medium and the platforms we have available to us. Not to mention those to come. I hope we can all agree we can make web sites… but making truer tactile digital experiences, that is the goal.

If you don’t like how Google is doing some things or maybe you think they’re taking over the world, demanding all others to follow their tracks. Well you may be right.  BUT, it must not be forgotten what else they have brought to the globe. And this is a list that is long and growing.

Case in point.

I have been very fortunate to have experienced many countries and traveled to most of our United States. Along these travels, I have often visited art museums, but many don’t have that ability – until now. To see what greatness is found throughout the world. What we beleive to be great, to learn about these works of art and to share them with others.

As a creative professional with a focus on UX and the social media platforms, I look to the future of how we are going to be using digital content to inform and connect. As a parent, I am encouraged when I find sites like the GOGGLE ART PROJECT. My kids and yours, and those across the globe, with access and the click of a mouse or a point of a finger can go to the TATE in London, The Vang Gogh in Amsterdam or the Kampa in Prague.

Would love to chat further, but I am headed to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

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Do you have a SMART telephone? If you don’t most believe the whole world will soon. #cisco

Was on Linked-in navigating through some of the new tools they are rolling out and noticed in the lower right hand corner of the page a survey being conducted by Cisco. Though I generally would not participate… the subject being assessed was quite interesting.

Not sure how long this has been running, but noticed it had over 1200 votes and will be going for another 3 months.

Cisco has long been a player in the tech sector, but they, along with other big hitters are really ramping up while at the same time are forced to constantly assess if they are ramping up in the right direction.

Certainly not an exhaustive, scientific study, but it was rather alarming that smartphone ran away with the first place position. Is it that we can only see a few months behind and in front of us with technology? Smartphones are the craze currently. But with the intro of the new Google Laptop – CHROMEBOOK - is real ‘cloud computing’ going to take it’s place?

What’s next? Flying cars and jet packs?

:•)

Cisco_survey

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