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In the News with Knowledge, Learning, Performance, and Leadership - 2005 For the latest news, go to main news page December 29, 2005 Was Drucker Wrong? - Tom Davenport I also had a chat a few days ago with a Wall Street Journal reporter who is researching an article on knowledge worker productivity. He asked me if the subject is important. I said yes, and mouthed the old Peter Drucker chestnut that "making knowledge work productive is the greatest economic challenge of this century." He asked, "Well, was Drucker wrong?" The Internet Is Broken - Technology Review The Net's basic flaws cost firms billions, impede innovation, and threaten national security. It's time for a clean-slate approach. Coming U.S. Workforce Unprepared for Knowledge Economy, Author Warns - Heartland Institute Edward E. Gordon, president of Imperial Consulting Corporation in Chicago and Palm Desert, California, has serious misgivings about the future of America in the world economy, which he documents while offering a possible solution in his new book, The 2010 Meltdown: Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis. Welcome to Web 2.0 2005 (podcast) - IT Conversations In the year since the first Web 2.0 Conference the term "Web 2.0" has definitely become part of the mainstream technological vocabulary. Indeed, it seems that any new Internet offering feels that using the term is an essential part of its product description. Further evidence is given by the ever-increasing number of hits returned by a search on Google for "Web 2.0". Knowledge Management ­ Creating A Sustainable Yellow Pages System How can I "know who knows"? None of us can personally know more than around 250 people, yet we want our companies to be smart, learning organisations where it's easy to find the right person to talk to. Wikis: Enabling Effective Knowledge Sharing Across the Organization - Intelligent Enterprise "Wiki" is currently one of the most popular new buzz terms in business discussions. Unfortunately it is also one of the most incomprehensible for many people. But what are wikis, are they important, what benefits do they provide and are they being used successfully within large corporations? December 26, 2005 Horizontal Knowledge - Tech Central Station Just try this thought experiment: Imagine that it's 1993. The Web is just appearing. And imagine that you - an unusually prescient type - were to explain to people what they could expect in the summer of 2003. Universal access to practically all information. From all over the place - even in bars. And all for free! Tag: Horizontal Knowledge Thinking Outside the Grid - Molly E. Holzschlag Grid-based design can be extraordinarily useful in creating sites that are predictable, easily navigated, and visually appealing. Grids are really good at helping designers to plan where things go, and easy for site visitors to use. On the other hand, compelling visual work can result from breaking out of the rigid system that the Web's design and development environment has, to date, retained. Tags: Grid Web Design Why being busy has become a status symbol - Management Issues A century ago, the idea of paid work was anathema to the leisured Victorian gentleman, whose social status was demonstrated by how much time he could spend on unpaid leisure pursuits. What a contrast with today, when working long hours has become a status symbol for busy professionals and social position seems to be determined by how much we do, not how little. Training is NOT Snakeoil - Learning Circuits Laurie Bassi's research shows that organizations that make large investments in training do much better than others. Tag: Training December 24, 2005 An Introduction to Connective Knowledge - Stephen Downes You probably grew up learning that there are two major types of knowledge: qualitative and quantitative. Tag: Connective Knowledge Market, market, on the wall - Economist If prediction markets are so good at making forecasts, why not use them to identify emerging technologies? Tag: Prediction Students can get lectures by podcast - Inside Bay Area Starting this school year, some California college students have been able to carry around course lectures and materials stored in their portable MP3 players. It is a move that is raising concerns about possible empty lecture halls and an impersonal education that is not worth the high price. But busy students find the technology appealing. Tag: Lecture Task-Switching, Emotional Motivation, and Reward - Eide Neurolearning Blog Task-switching is a common cognitive task associated with attention and cognitive control. In this very interesting study, researchers examined what brain areas were associated with good task switching ability. Surprisingly, the most highly correlated area for efficient task switching was the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a region implicated in emotional and social motivation and reward. Tag: Task Switching Elliot Masie's Learning 2005 - Epic show report At one point Elliot Masie sped into the hotel bar on his Segway and made straight for our table. He looked down on us, we looked up at him, he asked for one of our nachos, ate it, then seeing that we werenıt playing disciple, rotated 180 degrees and sped off. Weird or what? December 18, 2005 Learning Objects as Activities - Harold's Blog An example of the power of the Internet, blogs and asynchronous communication in the development of ideas. Wikipedia, Vol. 2: Encyclopedia Smackdown - Fast Company Much like a Wikipedia entry, our discussion of the online encyclopedia is nothing if not dynamic. In fact, it's already time for an update. As FC Now reader Shel Holtz points out, the science journal Nature posted an article yesterday about a study comparing Wikipedia to Encyclopedia Britannica. And the winner is...(drum roll, please)...neither. Tag: Wiki World is Flat - Streaming Video - Harold's Blog I just listened to Thomas Friedman's presentation at MIT which is available online as a streaming video. It's over an hour long and covers the first three chapters of his book, The World is Flat. The World is Flat Self-Organized Learning and Slashdot - HeadsPace Slashdot content is complex and ill-structured (just like life), which requires participants to engage in higher-order thinking and in case­based, problem­based learning that is so essential for transfer of learning to new contexts. PLATO Learning, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2005 Results - New Release PLATO Learning, Inc. (NASDAQ:TUTR), a leading provider of K-adult computer-based and e-learning solutions, today announced revenues for its fourth quarter ended October 31, 2005, totaling $33.7 million. This is an $8.7 million or a 21% decrease from the $42.4 million reported for the comparable period of fiscal 2004. December 14, 2005 Air Force Center Improves Access to Knowledge - Transformation "In today's age of exponentially expanding technology advancements, distributed databases, and the World Wide Web, many think we've got a pretty good handle on our information resources," said U.S. Air Force Capt. Dave Sasser. Tag: Knowledge Management Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning : A systematic and critical review - Learning & Skills Development Area This report critically reviews the literature on learning styles and examines in detail 13 of the most influential models. The report concludes that it matters fundamentally which instrument is chosen. The implications for teaching and learning in post-16 learning are serious and should be of concern to learners, teachers and trainers, managers, researchers and inspectors. Tag: Learning Styles Intentional Learning Orientation Research - Margaret Martinez Basically, there are 4 types of learning orientations (based on conative and affective student perspectives). They range from "transformers" (highly intentional learners), to performers, conformers and finally, resistors. Tag: Learning Orientation What Was the Most Important Lesson You Learned in 2005? - Dave Pollard Number 25 - There is no defence against disruptive innovation. Will Fair Use Survive? Free Expression in the Age of Copyright Control - The Free Expression Policy Project Paints a striking picture of an intellectual property system that is perilously out of balance. Tag: Copyright Control December 5, 2005 Porter thinks his way to the top - Times The death of Peter Drucker means that there is a new king of management thinking. Incudes the top 50 business brains. Tag: Michael E. Porter RMBL - what does it mean for KM? - Denham Grey This is an exploration of the RMBL (rip, mix, burn, learn) culture. Not copyright denouncement or P2P music stealing, but the potential to build on the ideas and works of others, the synergy that happens with sharing, the innovation that emerges from making novel connections & rework. Tag: RMBL Discovery disproves simple concept of memory as 'storage space' - EurekAlert Even if you could get more RAM for your brain, the extra storage probably wouldn't make it easier for you to find where you left your car keys. Tag: Memory Growing pains for Wikipedia - c/net For Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, last week was a tough one. And he's going to change the ground rules for the popular anyone-can-contribute encyclopedia because of it. Tag: Wikipedia Thinking About Google and The Turning Point - John Battelle Google is coming close to a "worm turning" moment - a moment when the world realizes that the company is too powerful and its ambitions are too great. Tag: Google November 27, 2005 The Brain - An Orchestra without a Conductor - Max Planck People cannot really get into their heads just what goes on in their heads: billions of nerve cells work on their individual tasks in separate areas of the cerebral cortex with absolutely no coordinating supervision ­ and nevertheless convey coherent perceptions of the world as discerned by our senses. Tag: Brain Lifelong-Learning Support by M-learning: Example Scenarios - eLearn Magazine It is often emphasized, that the main advantage of e-learning is independence of both location and time. However, in traditional e-learning the minimum requirement is still a personal computer (PC) - consequently an absolute independence in location is not provided. Tag: mLearning Are We Really Becoming Better Communicators? - CLO For years, managers and employees alike have gone to amazing ends to avoid certain controversial, touchy or possibly frightening conversations. For example, how do you tell a co-worker that he has persistent and noxious body odor? Tag: Communication LCMS Market to Grow 30 Percent - LTi Bersin and Associates estimates the Learning Content Management Systems market at approximately $60 million in vendor revenues today, and predicts it will grow by 30 percent over the next year. Tag: LCMS Project Management Graphics (or Gantt Charts) - Edward Tufte A quite interesting thread that has been running for four years on excellent visual diagram for project management. Tags: Project Management Edward Tufte The Day His World Stood Still - Brain Connection (editor's choice of past stories) When twenty-seven year old Henry M. entered the hospital in 1953 for radical brain surgery that was supposed to cure his epilepsy, he was hopeful that the procedure would change his life for the better. Instead, it trapped him in a mental time warp where TV is always a new invention and Truman is forever president. November 26, 2005 Mash Up The News - Business Week If you've got a little technical flair, you can use the Post's RSS feeds to create new, noncommercial applications that let you remix the news. Tag: Mash Up Nobody Really Cares About the Creative Class - Dave Pollard Nobody really cares about the creative class. They are underpaid, underemployed and underappreciated, and pretty well always have been, right back to the days when you if you were an artist or musician you needed a rich and titled sponsor underwriting your work if you didn't want to starve. Tags: Creative and Creative Class On Being Radical - Stephen Downes Opening keynote at the Saskatchewan Association for Computers in Education conference in Regina. Available online are PowerPoint slides and the MP3 audio of the talk. Tag: Radical Engaging Learning - new book by Clark Quinn The goal now for training is to target and improve the key performance indicators of the organization. Tag: Engaging Learning The Ideal Collaborative Team - Dave Pollard A recent survey conducted jointly by Mitch Ditkoff and Tim Moore of Idea Champions, Carolyn Allen of Innovation Solution Center and Dave Pollard of Meeting of Minds reveals that most people would rather have inexperienced people with a positive attitude than highly experienced people who lack enthusiasm, candor or commitment, on a collaborative work team. Tag: Collaborative Peter F. Drucker - Forbes Drucker died of natural causes at his home in Claremont, east of Los Angeles. It was there last year, on the occasion of his 95th birthday, that Drucker spoke with Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard. In tribute to Drucker, we republish that interview, Peter Drucker on Leadership here. Tag: Peter Drucker Ten Must-Read Tech Stories - Forbes Fascinating, weird and wacky stories on the Web this week. November 13, 2005 Business guru Peter Drucker dies - CNN Peter F. Drucker, revered as the father of modern management for his numerous books and articles stressing innovation, entrepreneurship and strategies for dealing with a changing world, died Friday, a spokesman for Claremont Graduate University said. He was 95. Tag: Peter Drucker Search Literacy - Karl Nelson In an age where the knowledge of mankind is increasingly at our fingertips through the services of Internet search, we must teach our children critical thinking. One can never have all the answers, but if prepared, one can always ask the right question, and from that creative act, learn to find his or her own answer. Tags: Search Literacy Information Literacy Rapid E-Learning - Line56 How a new paradigm in e-learning is solving common training problems Tag: Rapid eLearning Eventually, our entire day will consist of interruptions - San Jose Mercury News Interruptions at work waste 28 percent of the day and cost U.S. businesses a staggering $588 billion a year. Tag: Interruptions Learning Chinese The Next Rage? - CBS The fourth-graders at Chicago's McCormick Elementary School don't know Mandarin is supposed to be hard to learn. Tag: Learning Chinese Don't Blame Trade For U.S. Job Losses - Forbes The U.S. recession officially ended in late 2001, and ever since, despite recent gains, aggregate job creation has been extremely weak--weaker even than during the "jobless recovery" that followed the 1990 to 1991 recession. Tag: Trade November 6, 2005 Characteristics of Formal and Informal Learning Episodes - Learning Circuits Tough discovered that within each informal learning episode (where the primary motivation is to gain and retain certain knowledge and skill on a task or thing), the average learner interacts with an average of 10 people. Tag: Informal Learning The End Of Management? - Time You show up for work, boot up your computer and log onto your company's Intranet to make a few trades before getting down to work. You see how your stocks did the day before and then execute a few new orders. Tag: Management Leadership Lessons From Gettysburg - Training magazine Experiential training programs offer metaphors that are more interesting than the daily grind of work. But the measure of a metaphor is whether it provides a deeper understanding of that work. Tags: Leadership Metaphor The Cult of iPod - Playlist One of the most remarkable things about the iPod is its almost universal appeal. Itıs been embraced not just by West-coast urban techno-ravers, nor just teenagers in general. Everyoneıs got one, from pious parish vicars to impious punk rockers. Tag: iPod November 2, 2005 Improving Learning and Cutting Costs - Inside Higher Ed There is now proof that colleges and universities can improve student learning while reducing instructional costs. Tags: College University Instruction Visualizing Better Human-Computer Interaction - UCLA When computers and people communicate, something is often lost in the translation. Essentially, computers don't know how we think. UC Berkeley computer scientist Maneesh Agrawala is helping bridge the gap. Tags: Human-Computer Interaction Cognitive Design Complex Systems - The Northwestern Institute Complex systems can be identified by what they do - display organization without a central organizing principle Tag: Complex System The True Meaning Of Leadership - The Day Rosa Parks' single act of courage and commitment shows us that the best form of leadership can come from within. TagsRosa Parks Leadership segregation The Social Networking Landscape - Dave Pollard Because they are so easy to build, there is a temptation to design Social Software to provide many Social Networking and Knowledge Management functions in a single tool. The consequence, often, is an over-engineered, unintuitive, overwhelming product. Tag:Social Networking October 30, 2005 Free Mind Mapping Software Open Source mind mapping tool. About mind maps. Tag: mindmap Review: Everything Bad is Good for You - Slashdot In, Everything Bad Is Good For You, Steven Johnson tries to convince the reader that video games, television and the Internet are good for us, despite critics who talk about "vast Wastelands" and "infantilized societies". The book raises interesting questions, but in the end is a lightweight analysis that is better for engendering sound bites on NPR and The Daily Show than for convincing serious readers. Tag: Everything Bad is Good for You What exactly is the role of podcasting in knowledge work? - Denham Grey The place, value and importance of podcasting is still emerging within PKM and corporate KM. Tags: Knowledge Podcasting Re-appraising Emotional Intelligence - Training Journal Does EI really exist? (No, not really. It is a rather loose collection of concepts.) Is EI important for learning? (HmmŠ the assumption that if you feel good, you learn good is a gross oversimplification.) Tag Emotional Intelligence Forbes "Attack of the Blogs" is surprisingly accurate - Dave Taylor This article is deliberately going to take the opposite tack to the vast majority of bloggers who are, predictably, jumping to the defense of the blogosphere after Forbes Magazine published a feature by Daniel Lyons entitled Attack of the Blogs. Tags: blogging "Attack of the Blogs" Forbes October 27, 2005 Web 2.0 Cracks Start to Show - Wired The debate revolves around the cracks that are starting to appear in Web 2.0, a term coined by O'Reilly Media Vice President Dale Dougherty to describe a post-dot-com generation of sites and services that use the web as a platform -- things like Flickr, BitTorrent, tagging and RSS syndication. Language and the 'Otherness' of the Environment - Dave Pollard We can only think what our embodied brains permit and our brains work by analogy. Your brain knows more than you think - Web India Although behavioral performance is generally accepted to reliably reflect knowledge, it is heavily influenced in the laboratory and in the real world by other factors, such as motivation, attention and environmental distractions. Thus behavior may vary, but knowledge endures. Where The Brain Combines What's Heard And Felt - Science Daily When sense perceptions from various sense organs are processed in the brain, this information is integrated - for example, when we are watching a ventriloquist, our brain combines information pertaining to both language and vision. October 23, 2005 Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age - George Siemens Connectivism and learning. A child's view of tomorrow's learning - Parkin's Lot Today's US K-12 pupils were born into digital technologies. They intuitively integrate things like computers, the web, instant messaging, cell phones, and e-mail into their daily lives. Emerging Technologies: A Framework For Thinking - ACT DET A review of emerging technologies in education. Remarkability and the Ten Faces of Innovation - FastCompany Innovation roles are intended to offer a chance for people feeling stuck in an ordinary work life to have the rewarding experience of being just a little bit more extraordinary. Presenting Stanford on iTunes - Stanford University & Apple Stanford provides access to university content through iTunes. October 17, 2005 E-learning 2.0 - Stephen Downes eLearning will shift from being a medium in which information is transmitted and consumed into a platform on which content is created, shared, remixed, repurposed, and passed along. Why Google's Business Model is So Revolutionary - Dave Pollard Recently Google discovered there's a third great source of revenue in today's wildly inflated and delusional stock market: IPOs. I'm convinced that, more than anything else, Google went public because it gave them a ton of cash to do even more things for free for their customers -- which is exactly what they've done since then, offering a never-ending stream of wonderful goodies. The Net Generation Goes to College - The Chronicle of Higher Education Change your teaching style. Make blogs, iPods, and video games part of your pedagogy. And learn to accept divided attention spans. A new generation of students has arrived -- and sorry, but they might not want to hear you lecture for an hour. October 16, 2005 Reflections "Awakening Faith in an Alternative Future" by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers. Drawn from the introductory chapters of Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future Hype Cycle - Gartner Group Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, assessing the maturity, impact and adoption speed of 44 technologies and trends over the coming decade. What is a hype cycle? 'Folksonomy' Carries Classifieds Beyond SWF and 'For Sale' - New York Times NETWORKING sites on the Web started as online personal ads, and most are still built around the desire to meet people. But there is a new, rapidly growing generation of networking sites built around purposes, not people. Meet the Life Hackers: The science of interruptions - New York Times Information is no longer a scarce resource - attention is. David Rose, a Cambridge, Mass.-based expert on computer interfaces, likes to point out that 20 years ago, an office worker had only two types of communication technology: a phone, which required an instant answer, and postal mail, which took days. "Now we have dozens of possibilities between those poles," Rose says. Science is not body of knowledge - Sun-Sentinel Contrary to what some think, science is not a body of knowledge. Science is a method. Religion, on the other hand, is a body of knowledge. October 15, 2005 The Dream Factory - Wired magazine From design to delivery, custom manufacturing is coming soon to a desktop near you. Inside the "fab lab" revolution. "How Level is the Leadership Playing Field?" Online Survey Captures Perceptions of Being Pink in a Predominantly Blue Environment - eMediaWire Executive Coach Leigh Henderson was curious to see what it would take to change the question from "Why are only nine Fortune 500 companies run by women?" to "How did women come to hold 50% of the top jobs at Fortune 500 companies?" The World Is Spiky - John Hagel The world is not flat -- location still matters. Wicked Problems Rip Mix Learn Four main web technologies: blogs, RSS, social bookmarking and flickr and the role technology can play in education. October 10, 2005 What would I see if I rode on a beam of light? - Donald Clark Traditional learning systems have typically been centralized and operate on the principle that learners are unable to decide what they need to learn, thus the system does it for them, which in turn creates a vicious cycle -- put the learners in a system that does very little to encourage critical thinking, formal reasoning, or meta-learning; then tell them they are unable to decide what they need to learn, thus others will have do it for them. Einstein's big idea: The Legacy of E = mc2 Einstein's big idea has been enormously influential, in ways that reach far beyond the purely scientific. Airs on PBS October 11, 2005 - Check local listings Knowledge Economy: Are we ready to capitalise on it? - eGov Monitor The "Knowledge Economy" is driven by high technology and is global in dimension. KM waves - more of the same? - Denham Grey Dave Pollard reviews KM paradigms in this thoughtful post that I somehow missed. He sees a paradigm shift from 1st to 2nd generation. A History of Apple's Lisa, 1979-1986 - Orchard The Lisa was first envisioned as a brand new business computer to succeed the very popular Apple II, and it was to be designed by Steve Wozniak. The project was quickly turned over to Ken Rothmuller, a former HP director, as Wozniak drifted away from Apple. October 9, 2005 In the Bubble: Designing for a Complex World - John Thackara We're filling up the world with technology and devices, but we've lost sight of an important question: What is this stuff for? What value does it add to our lives? Black pupils given learning boost - BBC A scheme designed to reduce the persistent under-achievement of black pupils is achieving good results, the government says. Podcasting for knowledge - Denham Grey Currently podcasting is very much one-way broadcasting, true it lowers the barriers and access to radio sound bites, but there is limited feedback opportunity and almost no interaction. Affordances for annotation, commentary, refutation and analysis are missing or serial at best. Wikibooks takes on textbook industry - c/net An attempt to create a comprehensive, kindergarten-to-college curriculum of textbooks that are free and freely distributable, based on an open-source development model. The Idea Economy: Battle over right to sell knowledge - International Herald Tribune In the information economy of the 21st century, the most priceless resource is often an idea, along with the right to profit from it. Places to Go: Robin Good's Master New Media - Stephen Downes Students, instead of being mere receivers of learning content, are active participants in the learning process, tasked as much with creativity as with consumption. Chinese Town Loses Hyperlink to Future - L.A. Times A remote Chinese village was poised for prosperity after a tycoon introduced it to the Internet. Then fate stepped in. October 4, 2005 Alphabetical order - KM World Mortimer Adler devotes much of A Guidebook to Learning: For the Lifelong Pursuit of Wisdom, to railing against alphabetical order. He would hate what's going on now. The knowledge (worker) economy - KM World How many knowledge workers are there? Although the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) does not include it as a specific category, Davenport estimates there are 36 million, or 28 percent of the labor force, based on categories BLS does identify. Other estimates place the number as high as 45 percent of the work force. Da Vinci clue for heart surgeon - BBC A UK heart surgeon has pioneered a new way to repair damaged hearts after being inspired by artist Leonardo da Vinci's medical drawings. Review: 'The Shame of the Nation': Separate and Unequal - Nathan Glazer In the five years up to the writing of "The Shame of the Nation," Kozol visited approximately 60 schools, in 30 school districts, in 11 states. Design Thinking - Dave Pollard the intellectual process of intentional creation. It is much more than just imagination, or invention, or creativity, or project planning, though all of these are a part of it. The metaphor drawer - KM World Metaphors are a category of personal knowledge management (PKM) tools. The word's Greek roots literally mean to "carry across" as we juxtapose one thing with another. October 1, 2005 Distributed Leadership in the E-Learning Organization - Stephen Downes I think Susan Smith Nash's exploration of the subject of leadership and organization is useful, but it seems to me that business writers still haven't grasped what post-industrial organization looks like. What Makes a Good Leader? - CLO The qualities that make an effective leader have two distinct perspectives: what followers look for and what research from the past few decades has shown. Innovative Practice with e-Learning - Joint Information Systems Committee Imagine how interactions in a classroom change when both practitioners and learners have in their hands, and in their control, immediate access to information, learning materials and a range of administrative and support functions. Our Impoverished View of Educational Reform - David C. Berliner The effects of high-stakes testing on curriculum, instruction, school personnel, and student achievement studies performed by Nichols, Glass, & Berliner. Additional links: SA.com, Joe Thomas, Susan Ohanian. The Trend Spotter: Tim O'Reilly - Wired O'Reilly books tend to colonize entire sections at Borders and Barnes & Noble, their distinctive cover design as recognizable as the Tide circle on a box of detergent or the Apple logo on the lid of a PowerBook. September 28, 2005 What is knowledge and what is wisdom? - Knowledge Board An interesting discussion with a number of comments from various posters. eLearning vs knowledge mgmt - by Verna Allee I especially relish chancing upon the elearning booth that suggests they have the ultimate knowledge management solution. Hmm, really? Fear and emotional learning genes found - M&C News Researchers have determined both copies of the neuroD2 gene are essential for fear responses and emotional learning. Learning to Love RSS - Fas Company The Web's hottest technology presents users with a movable feast. But what will it take for RSS to become a household word? A Mash-up Matrix - Business Week Via O'Reilly Radar, here's a link to a new matrix of Web mash-ups. September 27, 2005 Information Design Classic Makes The Shelves Again After Two Hundred Years - Robin Good Thanks to the popularity of information design guru Edward Tufte, a two hundred years old book by William Playfair has just made the shelves again. On the concept of a concept - Denham Grey Our beliefs, world views, creativity and communication ability, depend on the concepts we hold, how strongly we hold them and ways we can change them. Concepts are the building blocks for analytical and mental models. Are we getting smarter or dumber? - c/net "Too much information" may be the catchphrase of the Internet age. September 24, 2005 Better Information Isn't Always Beneficial - Wall Street Journal Socially useless but privately valuable information. Intelligence in the Internet age - c/net A few thousand years ago, a Greek philosopher, as he snacked on dates on a bench in downtown Athens, may have wondered if the written language folks were starting to use was allowing them to avoid thinking for themselves. Positive Affect and the Complex Dynamics of Human Flourishing - Barbara L. Fredrickson & Marcial F. Losada How often do you praise colleagues? How often do you criticize them? Three to one is about the best ratio according to this study. THE FIFTY TWENTIETH-CENTURY WORKS MOST CITED IN THE ARTS & HUMANITIES CITATION INDEX, 1976-1983 - compiled by Eugene Garfield 1. T.S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 1962 2. J. Joyce, Ulysses. 1922 3. N. Frye, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. 1957 4. L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations 5. N. Chomsky, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. 1965 6. M. Foucault, The Order of Things. 1966 7. J. Derrida, Of Grammatology 8. R. Barthes, S/Z. 1970 9. M. Heidegger, Being and Time. 1927 10. E.R. Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. 1948 Office blunders caused by computer jargon - Wales Office workers are baffled by computer jargon and make serious business blunders because they see 'IT speak' as a foreign language, a survey has revealed. The Wiki and the Blog: Toward a Complex Adaptive Intelligence Community - D. CALVIN ANDRUS - Central Intelligence Agency US policy-makers, war-fighters, and law-enforcers now operate in a real-time worldwide decision and implementation environment. The rapidly changing circumstances in which they operate take on lives of their own, which are difficult or impossible to anticipate or predict. Recent theoretical developments in the philosophy of science that matured in the 1990's, collectively known as Complexity Theory, suggest changes the community should make to meet this challenge. September 18, 2005 Emotionally Evocative Design - Donald Clark A mix of design, development, and context should theoretically help the learners build their knowledge and skill bases. Yet this combination often fails because it leaves one important piece of the puzzle -- Emotionally Evocative Design. Getting Real: Don't pick the tools ahead of the craftsman - Signal vs. Noise Would you settle on a brush and then go look for a painter that could use it? Or would you rather find a good painter and then let him use the brushes he sees fit for the task. Put like that, I'd wager few would argue for the former. But when it comes to technology, it happens all the time. The Taming of the Screw - Forbes The humble screw has changed little in 2,000 years, until a stubborn engineer at Illinois Tool Works came up with a fascinating new twist. U.S. world position in education slipping - CNN report Among adults age 25 to 34, the U.S. is ninth among industrialized nations in the share of its population that has at least a high school degree. In the same age group, the United States ranks seventh, with Belgium, in the share of people who hold a college degree. September 13, 2005 The Power of Conversation - Corante "I don't read anymore; I just talk to people who have." - Dr. Tom Malloy, University of Utah yisual LiteracV - Phil Douglis Layers can play a huge role in the composition of an image. We can read these layers from front to back, or from side to side. Layers can be used to create incongruous juxtapositions, or can create perspective by implying depth. Intelligent reaction, not intelligent design - ZDNet The old model isn't dead, but what you can do iterating lots of releases quickly based on learning from users will ultimately be better for customers. Increase the Success of Your Knowledge Transfer Effort - CIO Magazine Never underestimate the complexity of knowledge transfer. That's a key principle for organizations preparing to embark upon an outsourcing effort. Since knowledge transfer is usually one of the first tasks of transitioning to an outsourced model, it is sometimes overlooked or under-planned, resulting in a shaky start to the outsourcing relationship. Moreover, it can be more complex than it initially seems. September 10, 2005 Incomplete tasks and the Zeigarnik Effect - 43 Folders The Zeigarnik effect states that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed ones. Are Employee of the Month awards a good idea? - CRM News If you don't have an EOM program, don't start one. Critical Thinking for Managers: A Manifesto by Crystal King A how-to think critically guide. With many choices in todayıs world, managers need to be able to think critically and encourage their employees to do the same. While this manifesto specifically targets managers, it can help anyone become a more proficient critical thinker. Building a future based on knowledge - The Buffalo News "I think colleges and universities are the most important asset a region can have in terms of developing the economy," said James J. Allen, executive director of the Amherst Industrial Development Agency Making knowledge - by Denham Grey There are basic conditions and special practices that help with knowledge formation and utility vetting. Everyone's a Reporter - Wired Magazine The lowdown on the new proletariat press. American workers: Lazy or creative? - c/net The overworked American appears to be fighting back, and Bill Coleman is watching closely. September 4, 2005 KM disappointments: A reflection on ideas that never quite made it - Denham Grey KM has always been about access to information in some form (for learning, awareness, problem solving, decision making....). New Last.fm: Social Architecture Drives Music Experience - by Stowe Boyd The newest version of Last.fm is almost a perfect example of what I have been preaching about social architecture: People Are The Living, Breathing, Beating Heart Of The Universe Artifacts Bind Us Together and Define Us Social Interaction Is Bottom Up, And So Is Everything Else Social Stuff Absorbs and Trumps Domain Stuff A Review of What Instructional Designers Do - Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology Systems Design (ISD) theories is extensive and extends at least as far back as the 1970ıs Internet creates new opportunities for cheating, but also learning - Seattle Times When students use the Internet for research or homework aid, who decides which shortcuts are too short? The Hard Work of Failure Analysis - Harvard Business School Organizations cannot learn from failures if people do not discuss and analyze them. THE MORAL-HAZARD MYTH: The bad idea behind our failed health-care system by Malcolm Gladwell People without health insurance have bad teeth because, if youıre paying for everything out of your own pocket, going to the dentist for a checkup seems like a luxury. August 24, 2005 In Asia, the Eyes Have It - wired magazine Asians and North Americans really do see the world differently. Shown a photograph, North American students of European background paid more attention to the object in the foreground of a scene, while students from China spent more time studying the background and taking in the whole scene, according to University of Michigan researchers. Offbeat Offsites -- Fast Company The New York Times reports today on new approaches to corporate team building. No longer will rope courses and trust games suffice. Today's corporate trainers are turning to cooking contests, drum circles, and dinner party-like mystery games. ICTs for Critical Thinking by wwwtools Although critical thinking is widely acclaimed as a Good Thing by educators, many are hard put to define it precisely. John Markoff - Technology Columnist and Author (podcast) by ITConversations How did the the licensing of the transistor Silicon Valley? Did Moore's Law come from Gordon Moore or was it borrowed from somone else else? And how did LSD and the Vietnam war help start the PC revolution? Part two is here. A group of one by Dave Gray A group is its own worst enemy. Why "Made in China" is good news for the U.S. by Salon The boom in the Chinese microchip industry has Americans worrying about lost jobs and national security. We should be praising it as a model of how globalization is supposed to work. August 21, 2005 China and India a special report by BusinessWeek Rarely has the rise of two relatively poor countries been watched with such awe, hope, and trepidation. Where are India and China headed, and what does it mean to you? Learning about stereotypes reduces their impact by Cognitive Daily "Boys are better at math" is a stereotype decades in the making, and it has in some cases been borne out by testing measures such as the SAT. The stereotype has been around so long that many wonder whether the stereotype is the effect or the cause of any actual differences in math ability. John Seely Brown - Podcast (37 min) by ITConversations Using the example of Toyota's relationship with suppliers as a starting point, JSB covers four businesses where innovation is driven through interaction between suppliers and where the very nature of the traditional top-down business model is challenged. China Tries to Wipe Internet Icon from Web by Red Nova The government has created a special Internet police force believed responsible for shutting down domestic sites posting politically unacceptable content, blocking some foreign news sites and jailing several people for their online postings. August 18, 2005 Lapping up knowledge by The Arizona Republic Out with the textbooks. In with the laptops. When Empire High School opened last month, it made history. The Tucson school didn't buy a single textbook. Instead, it equipped every student with a laptop computer. Post-Literacy by Clark Aldrich We are going to have to begin talking about post-literacy. The irony is that as we explore the topic, our love for reading and writing will become more heightened, not less. The Cat That Came Back by Gary L. Neilson and Bruce A. Pasternack To change an organization effectively, concentrate on the deliberate design of four key organizational building blocks: Decision Rights, Information, Motivators, & Structure. Knowledge: The Essence of Meta Data: Organization and Classification Begins at Home by R. Todd Stephens, Ph.D. I was classifying my thoughts on the future of technology under "The Future of Technology" which sounds reasonable. However, everyone else was using globalization, future, technology or innovation. August 13, 2005 Knowledge and Information, are they the same? by Albert Ip Information is manifestation of someone's part knowledge. Knowledge is all the accumulated experience I have since my birth. How Not to Connect on LinkedIn by Dave Taylor This is a general topic, actually, not one specific to LinkedIn, and I'll call it "how to network electronically" for lack of a better phrase. Innovation, By the Book by Kevin Ohannessian Books are changing their format. Publishers are catering to increasingly far-sighted baby boomers by enlarging print size. Connecting with the Flow by Jay Cross I used to think that things and facts in isolation had meaning, but in an age of relativity and the uncertainty principle, as I recognize the importance of stories, narrative, and context, I realize that when you get to the center, there's nothing there. Relationships, how things are tied together, are what matters. Flow by Donald Clark Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt wrote Canto Ostinato for various instruments and flexible duration. Ten Holt uses repetition and minimalist permutations to create an original, evolving work with ever-shifting moments. What if VisiCalc had been patented? by Dan Bricklin I'm not against patents in general (they are good for some industries, I guess), but I do have real problems with how they are affecting the software industry which has other means of protection and incentive that have proven successful to society. August 11, 2005 Dan Pink Interview - author of "A Whole Mind - Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age" (Podcast) Elliott Masie interviews Dan Pink on his latest and provocative book. Dan Pink offers a fresh look at what it takes for individuals and organizations to excel. Social Network Analysis: What to Map A lot of work has been done in the past couple of years in the field of Social Network Analysis (SNA) -- the assessment of the real person-to-person links in and between organizations and groups, as distinct from the ones that you might expect to see from the 'official' organization charts. The Knowledge Sharing Toolkit Governments and business gurus alike assert that knowledge is the key to innovation, economic growth and commercial success, and construction needs to catch up with other industries in its use of knowledge management. August 10, 2005 Visual Literacy Incongruities intensify meaning by creating contrasts or juxtapositions that stimulate the emotions, the intellect and imagination. A good way to build incongruous ideas into your images is to conceive images in terms of opposites and contradictions. Principles of Distributed Representation The changing conception of knowledge, the idea of knowing (and learning) as a network phenomenon, and how that changes how we should approach metadata and in particular learning object metadata. Folksonomy: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Mess (podcast) Discussion of variouss topics important to folksonomies. Surprising aspects of the implementation of tagging in various environments and approaches to balancing the needs of the system to the desires of the user are discussed from various viewpoints. August 8, 2005 New York Times Op Ed on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki My great-grandmother and my grandmother faced the occupiers alone, having ordered the children to hide. The Japanese had been warned that the invading barbarians would rape and pillage. My great-grandmother, a battle-scarred early feminist, hissed, "Get your filthy barbarian shoes off of my floor!" The interpreter refused to interpret. The officer in command insisted. Upon hearing the translation from the red-faced interpreter, the officer sat on the floor and removed his boots, instructing his men to do the same. He apologized to my great-grandmother and grandmother. An Anniversary to Forget We Media: How audiences are shaping the future of news and information n his 1995 book Being Digital, Nicholas Negroponte predicted that in the future, online news would give readers the ability to choose only the topics and sources that interested them. Waiting for "Eye"-Pod The rumors of a video iPod gained new momentum on July 18 with a Wall Street Journal article reporting that Apple was in discussions with music labels and other companies to license music videos for its new device. August 6, 2005 The Collapse of Globalism John Ralston Saul's new book The Collapse of Globalism is saying what most economists have been afraid to say: The emperor has no clothes. Performance management systems are about structure, transparency and fairness The only thing important in the performance management process is the alignment of individual employees to their job roles and that means (just so we have it clear) - the alignment of any job role to their supervisor's job role, the supervisor's alignment of their job role to their manager's job role, the managers job role alignment to the appropriate Directors portfolio of responsibilities, and last but by no means least, the Directors Job Role (portfolio of responsibilities) alignment to the outcomes desired in the organisations current business plan. Interview: Jerry Wennstrom on Learning The author is trying to explain the source of learning and creativity, and finds it in the removal of the self from society and in the listening to the inner voice, surrendering ourselves to the mystery of the self and the world. Yawn Over the Yuan (video) China dropped one currency peg for another to buy some time. August 2, 2005 Delving into the Mystery of Customer Satisfaction: A Toyota for the Retail Market? It started out as an academic puzzle of sorts. The researchers already knew that in the airline industry, customers and employees revere Southwest Airlines. With computers, Dell stands out as superior in customer satisfaction. And Toyota remains the company to emulate in the automobile industry. But when it comes to the retail industry, what company sets the standards for customer and employee satisfaction? How One Airline Flew Back to the Black While Industry Rivals Struggle Two American Airlines mechanics didn't like having to toss out $200 drill bits once they got dull. So they rigged up some old machine parts - a vacuum-cleaner belt and a motor from a science project - and built "Thumping Ralph." It's essentially a drill-bit sharpener that allows them to get more use out of each bit. The savings, according to the company: as much as $300,000 a year. From the maintenance floor to the cockpit, American Airlines is daily scouring operations to increase efficiency and find even the smallest cost savings. It's paid off: Last month, the company announced its first profit in almost five years. There's No Content In Content Is it just me, or does anyone else have a problem with content? By that I mean the use of the word "content" to describe anything that gets created and/or recorded somewhere in an organization. The problem with content is that there is no content to it. Managing content is like managing. . your metaphor goes here. Death by Powerpoint Try asking someone not to use PowerPoint for their presentation. Watch them squirm. The rise in blood pressure is palpable. Beads of perspiration form. You become a threat to all civilization. Preferred Coworkers Fancy this: "An overwhelming majority of people would rather work with a less-skilled but likeable person than a more-competent jerk." What Is Knowledge Management - Knowing What We Know? Research literature shows a strong link between knowledge management and the creation of a sustainable competitive advantage, because of the tacit nature of an organisation's knowledge Why We Hate HR In a knowledge economy, companies with the best talent win. And finding, nurturing, and developing that talent should be one of the most important tasks in a corporation. So why does human resources do such a bad job -- and how can we fix it? August 1, 2005 Going Home We have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero path. It's All About Leadership! Leadership is not about power or position, but the power of positive influence regardless of position. MySQL Users Conference (podcast) Building a system that is capable of handling one billion transactions a day is easier than it sounds. That is Adam Bosworth's view and he should know because he works for a company that has managed to achieve this level of scale on a simple architecture based on commodity hardware and simple brute force algorithms. Long, Hard Road From Here To Performance-Based Pay At a recent panel discussion on the Pentagon's plan to jettison current pay practices and set up a pay-for-performance system, the first questioner noted that the changes would give added responsibilities to managers and asked whether managers would get extra compensation for the extra work. July 27, 2005 Designing sticky knowledge networks Much of any organization's experience and expertise remains underused and underexploited simply because it resides not in databases, repositories, or manuals but in the minds of its employees. The Neglected Receiver of Knowledge Sharing Most knowledge sharing practices neglect the group or individual who will receive and hopes to leverage knowledge. When Cell Phones Become Oracles Cell phones know whom you called and which calls you dodged, but they can also record where you went, how much sleep you got and predict what you're going to do next. At least, these are the capabilities of 100 customized phones given to students and employees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- and they may be coming soon to your cell phone. July 25, 2005 On Being Digital Being a digital native is more about what you do, rather than your age. CasePlace CasePlace.org is a free, online service for obtaining cases, references, and commentary published by business educators and business executives. In Praise of Open Thinking (podcast - 42 min) "As a working hypothesis to explain the riddle of our existence," says Freeman Dyson, "I propose that our universe is the most interesting of all possible universes, and our fate as human beings is to make it so." An equal and opposite reaction The connectedness of the Net has clearly changed the way our kids learn. Collaborating on assignments just seems natural. July 23, 2005 Human Brain's 'Mastermind' Located Humans attempt to do many things at the same time, such as driving and chatting on the phone, or working and listening to music, and now research suggests why such multitasking may be possible: the brain appears to have its own control center. Training Top 100 for 2005 Training magazine's annual ranking of organizations that excel at training and development. Driven to distraction by technology The typical office worker is interrupted every three minutes by a phone call, e-mail, instant message or other distraction. The problem is that it takes about eight uninterrupted minutes for our brains to get into a really creative state. The result is a situation where the digital communications that were supposed to make working lives run more smoothly are actually preventing people from getting critical tasks accomplished. Systems Thinking There are some myths surrounding systems thinking. The most common is the 'Input->process->output' archetype. Podcast with John Thackar Thackar is the author of "In the Bubble -- Designing in a Complex World." He says that "if we can design our way into difficulty, we can design our way out." July 20, 2005 Open Cellphone podcast with Tom Evslin (Podcast) VisiCalc creator Dan Bricklin talk with Tom Evslin about getting a big company to do new things. Knowledge Process Management Knowledge processes cannot be managed following the standard business process management paradigm. Taiko Mania Taiko began as a cultural expression of the Asian American civil rights movement representing the dual (American and Asian) identities of the practitioners. Audiences, performers and young students gravitated to this art form that encouraged them to be both Asian and American. From Dave Pollard's How to Save the World. July 17, 2005 Personal Toolkit: Apertures of articulation We work and learn in living networks. Together, we comprise great bodies of knowledge and expertise. Getting New Managers Up to Speed Managers' effectiveness derives directly from their web of relationships," says Rollag. With that in mind, "map out" your new manager's network before she starts the job. Sharing knowledge - do we know enough? If your CEO comes back from a KM conference and sets up Lotus, LiveLink or eRoom with complex access privilege's, you should question if they have really got the message. How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart Why Big Dog & Little Dog love to shop at Costco. July 16, 2005 Learning Space Designing a learning space, creating a learning space, and future of the learning space. Learning Objects and Motivation Theories Learning objects, when incorporated into an online course in an outcome-focused and learner-centered manner, can enhance learner motivation. Time Wasting or Wanting? AOL/Salary.com report about the amount of time workers "waste" at work and the "cost" to the company. Partnership for 21st Century Skills I was re-reading Learning for the 21st Century the other day as background material on a forthcoming undergraduate teacher preparation project. I was struck by how well the report navigates the political waters of educational reform, so decided to use this Viewpoint to bring this report to the attention of those who have not yet read it. It deserves widespread attention, particularly among those of us engaged in improving undergraduate teacher preparation programs. July 14, 2005 Mirror Neurons (video) We humans are really good at reading faces and bodies. A recently discovered system in the brain may help explain why we humans can get so worked up watching other people. Using Case Studies to Teach Science (note: excellent article for all learning professionals) I will tell you something about stories; they aren't just entertainment. Don't be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death. You don't have anything if you don't have the stories. - Leslie Marmon Silko, Laguna Tribe Wikipedia's Word on Folksonomy There's a debate at the online encyclopedia Wikipedia about a new listing for the word folksonomy, which it defines as "a neologism for a practice of collaborative categorization using freely chosen keywords." Untested Assumptions May Have a Big Effect Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, has observed that numerous, often hidden, assumptions underlie the mental models or mindsets of senior leaders. Money isn't everything Through most of the 1990s, you may remember, the common wisdom was that Apple was doomed because, with its shrinking market share, it wouldn't be able to keep up with the innovations on the Windows side. July 12, 2005 The Wikification of Knowledge The most talked-about thing going on right now is the wiki. Essentially, wikis are a fast way to do online collaboration, and people seem to enjoy them. GTD: A New Cult for the Info Age To converts, popular time-management manual Getting Things Done is a way of life and its author, personal productivity coach David Allen, leader of their flock. Video Blogging (aka Vlogging) Videoblogging is a new form of expression centering around posting videos to a website and encouraging an audience response. Will Malthus Continue to Be Wrong? In 1798, a curate at a small parish church in Albury, England, published a sobering pamphlet entitled An Essay on the Principle of Population. As a grim rebuttal of the utopian philosophers of his day, Thomas Malthus argued that human populations will always tend to grow and, eventually, they will always be checked. Learning Development Cycle: Bridging Learning Design and Modern Knowledge Needs Effective learning design must recognize different domains of learning. Learning Development Cycle attends to four broad learning domains: transmission, emergence, acquisition, and accretion. July 10, 2005 Generating Creativity through Benchmarking Toyota practices Kaizen: Everything it does is never good enough. Everything is viewed as an experiment, and people are empowered to make the next best improvement. Harry Dent - The Next Great Bubble Boom (Podcast) Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Harry Dent, the author of The Next Great Bubble Boom. He sees another boom coming, and he says that technology and the Baby Boomers are behind it. Teachers map out new learning style Software offers concepts to help students understand, not just memorize, information. The hierarchy of power Leaders look for ways to affect the course of events. How much they can affect events depends on the circumstance, but those who have leadership in their character and not just their job description know the difference between having authority, making use of it, and depending on it. July 9, 2005 Strategic e-learning implementation What strategic e-learning coordination might look like. Theory & Practice of Online Learning A free ebook that includes both html and PDF versions. Technologies of Cooperation The eight clusters of cooperative technologies to include social tools, self organizing mesh networks, and knowledge collectives. Do we remember a pretty face? This study may explain why supermodels typically aren't flawless - Cindy Crawford's mole and Angelina Jolie's huge lips make it easier for us to remember them, even if they don't necessarily make them more beautiful. I believe this has a lesson for the learning programs we design. Podcast - On Maslow and leadership Also, a related reading - Leadership & Human Behavior. July 7, 2005 Challenging The Primacy Of Lectures: The Dissonance Between Theory And Practice In University Teaching (via Stephen's Web) Current practice in universities foregrounds the traditional lecture, tutorial, examination approach to teaching. It's Who You Know Social Network Analysis is a set of survey methods and statistics that reveals the hidden connections between people. Are the Basics of Instructional Design Changing? Sometimes, just asking a question is indicative of a significant change in climate. A Framework for the "Entrepreneurial" Learner of the 21 st Century Successful distance learners and entrepreneurs may be similar in that they seek out and capitalize on opportunities and marshal resources to achieve their goals. Yahoo's Search Reinvention Yahoo is tapping into its community of users (80.5 million people visited Yahoo in May, according to NetRatings) by allowing users to designate sites as share-worthy and to search what others in their Yahoo-based communities. July 5, 2005 Immersive Learning Environments Stephen Downes continually challenges those of us involved in online teaching/learning to think carefully about what we do and to conscientiously strive to maximize our use of this medium in a manner that will benefit teachers and learners. What's a micromanager? A micromanager is someone who manages at a level far lower, far more detailed than is necessary or appropriate. New Cornell study suggests that mental processing is continuous, not like a computer The theory that the mind works like a computer, in a series of distinct stages, was an important steppingstone in cognitive science, but it has outlived its usefulness. Tomato TomA[h]to Tom Peters shares many conventional business wisdoms and tells you why they are all wrong. July 4, 2005 Instructional Designers: Being Everything to Everyone You can't be everything to everyone, and yet instructional designers are forced to be just that. Clutching our knowledge assets Human knowledge is not the aggregation of discrete, objective information, but a result of emergent processes of knowing through human subjective interpretations, or sense-making, dependent on complex historical contexts. Are the Basics of Instructional Design Changing? An interesting turn of discussion on ITForum. What are the SME's needs related to e-learning? Most of the learning in an SME is informal, i.e. it often takes place on the job, through a "sharing of knowledge" rather than in a "training". When confronted with a need, the SME worker will usually contact his network of reference people whom he trusts. The PDA market is not dead! (podcast) Media is getting much more compact and portable in today's world. iPods and PSPs are taking over the world. June 28, 2005 Knowledge Management: No Such Thing As A Knowledge Worker For those who manage well, there is a bright and prosperous future. For those who are managed, the future-certainly the income prospects-are not so bright. Visual Cognition Lab Videos on cognition and stimuli. Tools for collaboration How do you pick the 'best' tool for collaboration when attention shifts, activities change and engagement exhibits a rhythm? Biased Brains "There is nothing more painful for me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start to think about robbery, and then look around and see it's somebody white and feel relieved. How humiliating," explained civil rights and political activist Reverend Jesse Jackson in an interview in November, 1993. June 27, 2005 Visual Literacy Bringing Fresh Visions to Tired Cliches. Asian and American Leadership Styles: How Are They Unique? There are important differences. Are differences attributable to different cultures or to different stages of corporate development? An interview with John Hagel (audio) Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with John Hagel, who with co-author John Seely Brown, has written "The Only Sustainable Edge," a new perspective for business. Developing An Authentic Planning Process Todayıs business environment is dynamic, unpredictable and filled with instances of discontinuous change. Trend: Podcasting in Academic and Corporate Learning Why is podcasting becoming such a hot trend -- itıs doing for audio what blogs did for text. June 25, 2005 iPods for Learning Do iPods have any value in a corporate training setting? A Conversation with Alva Noe (audio) Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Dr. Alva Noe, professor of philosophy at UC, Berkeley and the author of "Action in Perception." They talk about the nature of perception, and how philosophy is quickly meshing with cognitive science. Social bookmarking in the enterprise The idea to take the concept of social bookmarking and turn it into more than just a bookmark saving service, such as a way to clip and save articles and provide a way for users to save articles and publish them on portlets within the corporate portal. VidBlogging & Blogcasting David Weinberger, the Cluetrain guy is posting video interviews with the blogerati of the Supernnova 2005 conference. It is being referred to as "blogcasting." June 23, 2005 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT - Who Knows Whom, And Who Knows What? Employees' personal connections can be as valuable as their individual knowledge base. Social network analysis, or SNA, helps maximize a company's collective smarts. History is written by the winners - not any more it isn't? Basically, Wikipedia is perhaps the finest public example around of a community editable web page (a wiki) in action. How Bloggers Can Help Defeat Anti-Intellectualism Throughout history, only a small number of people have done the serious thinking for everybody. The New Gatekeepers Part 1: Changing of the Guard To read the headlines, or the bloglines, one might get the sense that the bloggers have arrived on the scene to challenge the ³gatekeepers² of the big media. June 20, 2005 Why RSS and Folksonomies Are Becoming So Big An RSS feed is a blog distilled to its core essence. If you look at the output of an RSS feed in a reader, you'll see no comments, no trackbacks and (for the most part) no design. It's the better blog. It's pure data. Deep, Dark Secrets of His and Her Brains Sandra Witelson had studied scores of brains looking for gender differences. Then she found one that made a difference: Einstein's. Google vs. Yahoo: Clash of cultures Google is all about individuals fulfilling or exceeding their potential, and employees are given significant license to foster this, while Yahoo has morphed into a more mature company with tough management discipline. Myths About the Brain: 10 percent and Counting Examining the issues and getting to the truth behind the myth June 19, 2005 Going Visual (podcast) Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Alexis Gerard and Bob Goldstein, authors of "Going Visual -- Using Images to Enhance Productivity, Decision-Making and Profits," about the next generation of all our organizations. Steve Jobs @ Stanford On Sunday (June 12) Steve Jobs gave the commencement speech at Stanford University to its 5,000 graduates. p.o.d.c.a.s.t. The debate over the word "podcast" is still going on Turning Knowledge Into Power They say knowledge is power but, if that were the case, academics would rule the world. Knowledge in itself is not power; rather the application of knowledge is where power lies. June 18, 2005 It's iPod's Revolution: We Just Live in It It's hard to recall any branded recreational product that ever carried the cultural oomph that the iPod now has. Who Knows Whom, And Who Knows What? Employees' personal connections can be as valuable as their individual knowledge base. Social network analysis, or SNA, helps maximize a company's collective smarts. Learning innovations US Naval Education and Training Command and the Defence Acquisition University's symposium on "Innovations in E-learning." June 13, 2005 Is Social Networking Broken? Super-hyped social networking is exploding, with new ways to link up to others being added daily. Make ebooks for your iPod guide There's a somewhat little know and often-unused function of iPod called "Notes" which can actually be quite handy for storing and reading text, creating a locked "kiosk mode", quizzes, games as well a full-length ebooks. Learning to enjoy e-learning We used to talk about being either on campus, or you are traditional distance, or you might be one of those few people who is just working online. That is all converging now. A Success Story That's Hard to Duplicate Upward mobility requires what sociologists describe as the twin pillars of success: human capital and social capital. Human capital is a person's education, job credentials and employability. Social capital usually means emotional support and encouragement from a reliable stakeholder in one's life. How to Disappear Completely June 12, 2005 Joining the knowledge economy Any visitor to Egypt cannot fail to be impressed by the speed and efficiency with which tickets are issued for the train between Cairo and Alexandria. he railway infrastructure is a different matter. Want to Win? Here's Some Practical Advice from Jack Welch Distinctions between leadership and managing are "academic hogwash." Wikipedia, Authority, and Astroturf Since the threshold for exclusion from the Wikipedia is so low, there is almost no value in thinking "Hey, it's got a Wikipedia article - must be serious." Alternatives for Measuring Learning Success In the beginning, Donald Kirkpatrick set forth a four-level approach to the evaluation of training. Going for Broke Apple's Decision to Use Intel Processors Is Nothing Less Than an Attempt to Dethrone Microsoft. Really. June 11, 2005 Ivy League E-Learning How eCornell helps Cornell University translate and enrich the classroom experience for purposes of online executive and professional education. How Humble BBS Begat Wired World Before America Online, Friendster, forums and blogs, geeks communicated with one another in a clunky and pedestrian way that was the precursor to all subsequent forms of online communication. Capturing Knowledge A crisis is brewing as more companies face a knowledge drain from the number of baby boomers planning to retire soon. ASTD Study: Learning Programs Have High Yield Companies that invest in employee learning have higher productivity, revenue growth, and profit growth than companies that do not. Oh Yes, It's Devo: An Interview with Jerry Casale The band Devo is definitely worthy of the term "enigma". To most, they are the 1980s band that produced the hit "Whip It". June 6, 2005 A Workflow Learning Pattern Language A preview of Jay Cross' presentation for the Innovations in eLearning Symposium. Camcorders Revisited: Why Didn't I Think of That? Amazingly, the answer is that a camcorder and lightsmith actually works better than a traditional ‹ and much more expensive ‹ digital imager. Time to (re)innovate the office? It isn't news to anyone reading this that Microsoft and IBM have been fighting over the knowledge sharing and collaboration (collectively: collaborative business knowledge) space for many years. Does racial diversity help students learn? There is some research backing these claims: schools with greater racial diversity tend to have better retention, satisfaction, and intellectual development. How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry John Markoff's new book What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry will be highlighted at Borders Books. June 5, 2005 Effective corporate IT training: Bursting the e-learning bubble Humans, by nature, learn best through social interaction - a critical element removed by e-learning. Training inspires loyalty WHILE money may not buy you love, it certainly does not buy worker loyalty. Performance: When looking isn't seeing: Is cockpit design flawed? Reducing the number of objects in a display appears to have no general effect on perceptual performance. Indeed, in many cases, this adversely affects performance. Whiteboard videos Learning Designers would benefit from adding Whiteboard Videos to their bag of tricks. System Thinking From the Open University Systems Group. June 1, 2005 Human Performance: If you don't find it often, you often don't find it In some sequences of images, an item would be present half the time, and the volunteers missed only 7 percent of them. But when the item appeared only 10 times in every 1,000 images, their error rate rocketed to 30 percent. The Education Podcast Network The Education Podcast Network is "an effort to bring together into one place, the wide range of podcast programming that may be helpful to teachers. Screencasting Del.icio.us Tags? Organic metatags? Del.ioci.us? Folksonomies? Self-organizing ontologies? Huh? The Power of Design The evidence of design's power is everywhere. It's apparent in the mere fact that the bar has been raised. Customers expect, even demand, more from the design of everything they buy. May 31, 2005 Concept Maps Go to School Cmaps can be used to assess student knowledge, encourage thinking and problem solving instead of rote learning, organize information for writing projects and help teachers write new curricula. Free download (Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, Solaris). A Conversation with James Surowiecki: The Promise and Perils of Collaborative Tools James started the conversation by expressing his optimism about the upside potential for collaborative technologies, which are "immense, in the sense that we can learn from each other, and pass critical information to each other." eportfolios Eportfolios are the current blog-volume trend. Scott Wilson provides an excellent overview, Stephen Downes links to an extensive report and also provides his own views on the future of online learning (.ppt)...and I just came across this link to a facilitator's guide to portfolio development. Students Imagine Design's Future Spread through several rooms and halls in two different school locations, projects in this year's show range from computer animation to high-tech ecology to innovations in software. More of the student's work can be found here. Link to the school's homepage. AI Seduces Stanford Students Psychologists and salesmen call it the "chameleon effect": People are perceived as more honest and likeable if they subtly mimic the body language of the person they're speaking with. May 30, 2005 Brain Region Linked to Metaphor Comprehension Metaphors make for colorful sayings, but can be confusing when taken literally. A study of people who are unable to make sense of figures of speech has helped scientists identify a brain region they believe plays a key role in grasping metaphors. Thwarted innovation: what happened to e-learning and why This study debunks three failed assumptions: 1)If we build it they will come, 2) The kids will take to e-learning like ducks to water, and 3) E-learning will force a change in the way we teach. With link to PDF file. Taking The E-train Online training programs continue to flourish on the plant floor and in the office. Implementing knowledge strategies: lessons from international development agencies This study emphasises that the ideal entry points for knowledge and learning are largely organisational specific and that within this context the suggested Knowledge Strategies framework may help with a gap analysis and priority setting. With link to PDF file. Weblog Video Using weblogs in the classroom video. May 28, 2005 How to be a Good Learner PowerPoint Slides and MP3 Audio on Stephen Downesı survey of the three major characteristics of good learning behavior. Innovation: Core Competency for the 21st Century Despite the growing recognition that innovation is the only sustainable source of growth, competitive advantage, and new wealth, fewer than 25 percent of companies believe innovation performance is where it needs to be if they are to be successful in the competitive marketplace. Brain Plasticity The history of KM has been one of hype, failure and disappointment. Video Storytelling: Rule of Thirds How do you frame your pictures for maximum effect? (with video) The World is Flat A video with Friedman discussing his latest book, The World Is Flat, describes the unplanned cascade of technological and social shifts that effectively leveled the economic world, and accidentally made Beijing, Bangalore and Bethesda next-door neighbors. From elearnspace. May 26, 2005 Make Mine a Grande Frappuccino Landed.fm Executive Producer Dawn Fotopulus reports from the recent Human Resource Institute's Issue Management Conference titlted "Next Practices in People Management." Presenters at the HRI conference included HR executives from Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and Shell. (With Podcast) 11 steps to a better brain It doesn't matter how brainy you are or how much education you've had - you can still improve and expand your mind. Boosting your mental faculties doesn't have to mean studying hard or becoming a reclusive book worm. There are lots of tricks, techniques and habits, as well as changes to your lifestyle, diet and behaviour that can help you flex your grey matter and get the best out of your brain cells. We Gather Together For many reasons we hear about community: podcasting communities, learning communities, online communities. Where are these communities going? What are the elements? (With Podcast) New study supports use of humor in online courses "We did not expect to find differences in performance and we did not find differences in performance, because our view is that humor itself is not some learning potion," Shatz said. "Humor is more of a social lubricant. It can facilitate interactions, and that is exactly what we found." Full Spectrum Warrior debate Some people are criticizing the US Army's involvement with the computer game Full Spectrum Warrior. Peripheral vision and ambient knowledge We filter incoming data (typically processing about 10% of available inputs) and perform intuitive pattern matching to make sense of a situation. May 24, 2005 Learning from Google Should humanity survive the next few hundred years, we'll look back at the early decades of 21st Century and think of that time as the learning revolution, much as we now think of the turning decades of the 19th century as the industrial revolution. BusinessWeek's Special Report on PodCasting Includes a podcast on podcasting. Several interesting features. The virtue and vice of audio Audio is a special medium: It's impossible to skim. When we listen, we have to hear every word in the order intended. We are taken from a start to the finish. And, of course, the nuance of the spoken word adds incredibly rich metadata to the mere content. There's a reason that "listening" implies appropriating what's being said in a way that "reading" doesn't. Why some of us choke under pressure Some people - even people who really know their stuff - just don't "test well." You can talk to them face to face, and they seem perfectly well informed and intelligent, but when the money's on the line, when they've sharpened their number 2 pencils and it's time to sit down for the big exam, they just crumble. The size of topics The Encyclopedia Britannica has about 65,000 topics spread across 32 volumes, for a total of 44,000,000 words. So now we know that that the average size of a topic is 676 words. This is deceiving, though, because the Britannica is famous for running articles up to 10 times longer than previous encyclopedias. The New Profile of the Long-Term Unemployed Today, the unemployment rate is relatively low at 5.2 percent and overall hiring has started to pick up again, particularly for younger workers coming out of college and professional schools. But the presence of middle-aged women and better educated white-collar workers among the long-term unemployed has increased. May 23, 2005 E-learning becomes a workforce stimulant Most learning management systems are purchased for specific business projects, but it isn't long before they start catering for employee interests, too - such as superannuation or share-option plans. In fact, organisations typically go through at least five phases until they reach full utilisation of these systems. The Space Between: Creating a Context for Learnin