Group items tagged

This is a profound take on website value in today's mobile, social media, apps dominated world.

Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers), the former social studies teacher turned technology wizard consultant, wrote this January 1, 2014 blog post on his new blog Worms in the Fridge. It excels at explaining how to set up a blog on WordPress (his recommended app) to make it one's online hub or central domain. He admits that when he started FTfT on Blogger, he did not yet understand the ease or advantages of WordPress. He is humble, easy to read and follow and the content relates to the personal branding assistance we hope to provide.

blog by Eli Dourado on March 6, 2013 on binge learning. Excerpt: A combination of technology (DVRs) and market service providers (Netflix, Hulu, On Demand) have transformed how and when and where we watch "television." I suspect that students want the same things. Technology and market forces appear to be reshaping how and when and where we learn. Perhaps we education providers should pay attention. But the kind of bingeing that people might like to do with online courses is entirely different. Most people who sign up for an online class at Udacity or Marginal Revolution University want to take the class for its own sake, not as a requirement for some broader credential. The point is not to learn and forget-it is to indulge an interest. This seems like a more natural way to learn than traditional educational structures can offer: develop an interest and mercilessly indulge it until another interest supersedes it. It is a method that conserves the mental energy associated with willpower, leaving more of the brain's resources to focus on the material itself. Since it relies on the student actually being interested in the class, it is hard to fit into a physical schooling environment, where classes have to begin on a schedule, go slow enough for everyone to keep up, and run in parallel with other classes. Online education also saves the resources associated with context switching. Humans are notoriously bad multitaskers. Each time a high school student has to change classes, she has to quickly stifle the thoughts and questions raised in previous classes to focus on the current class. She has to expend mental resources remembering where the previous session of the current class left off. And when she returns to the class that stimulated the thoughts that had to be stifled, she may not recall them. Far better to focus on-or even to binge on-one subject until she is at a good stopping point.

interesting article on young Swedish director who died at age 36 after finishing his low-budget documentary on Sixto Rodriguez on an iphone film app and who won an Oscar in 2014. Talking about inspiring in so many ways!!!! The Looking for Sugarman story led to our becoming fans of Rodriguez and renaming Metro Jethro "Sugarman"!

From Nonprofit Tech for Good blog, 1/11/14 Interesting to see how this list meshes with the list from 2015 from the business and not for profit side. Top of the list is mobilizing online communications and fundraising campaigns. Although not free and costly to small not for profits, social media and responsive designs for websites, blogs, and e-newsletters will become common. Flat design - making sure everything is optimal for mobile is crucial. Donate buttons on social media sites. Google Wallet will be integrated into Google+ pages. Already on YouTube Channels that participate in YouTube's nonprofit program. Live reporting on social media of org events, maturation of mobile fundraising apps, and increased employment opportunities in new media jobs in the nonprofit sector are the other 2014 trends.

Blog from Nonprofit Tech for Good 1/5/15 10 processes to turn into goals for the year including: Write LinkedIn Recommendations and endorsements; Add cause awareness days; experiment with at least one new social network; download and study nonprofit mobile apps; refresh your social media training; experiment with crowdfunding; host or participate in a tweet chat; create a social media fundraising success spreadsheet; take an Adobe Photoshop class; take regular breaks from technology

from themuse.com 8 steps to begin journaling and make it a daily routine. Contrary to the other resources, this one suggests journaling before you get out of bed in the am instead of at the end of the day. They also suggest using an app so you can access your journal throughout the day, writing in sentence fragments to get the ideas down, write on a calendar, make a template, find fun prompts, choose your time frame (once a year, week, month, etc).

article by Jessica N. Abraham-Hogan on trends in mobile app development by Appery.io, a development platform. More mobility, speed, integration of tools, etc. 

Women having been knocking at the gates of men's power for decades. But while the gates may be open, the number of women reaching top positions of power is disappointingly low.

This Youtube Video provides valuable information about setting up and using Twitter. It also include associated apps that help you to be more successful.

Educations tools and apps

This is a crowdsourcing app that may be useful for learning tools.

We definitely want to include this in our directory. Stanford just appointed and administrator who deals exclusively with online learning. Over 3,000 Stanford audio and video programs are available on Apple's popular iTunes platform, including course lectures, faculty presentations and campus events. The iTunes U app provides access to additional course content from several Stanford courses.

The Blog of Tim Ferriss with guest post by Peter Diamandis about crowdsourcing problems and going to capital sources for funding. Reviews the changes in communication and cooperation and what is now possible with ICTs.

I was looking for a tool that allowed the "crowd" to create a database, which I think is ultimately what we would want. None of the ten listed seemed to fit that description. Did either of you see one that we may want to consider, or do we try to find something else? Does one of these seem like a good fit for us in other ways?

I haven't determined that any of these is the preferred channel for doing the W.W. database, Lyn. But the idea of incentivizing the creation and maintenance of a crowdsourced 'database' (for lack of a better term) is offered by these groups. A wiki that is set up for a Learning W.W. could be the beginning app until we find someone to do it or a tool to do it better. Even using Diigo in a paid account could work to gather tagged contributions with better organization to follow when we enlist someone to help us.

Blog post by Arianna Huffington, 4/16/12 on GPS for the Soul "The Internet and the rise of social media have, of course, given us amazing tools to connect, and to effect change in ways large and small. At the same time, there's a snake lurking in this cyber Garden of Eden. Our 24/7 connection to the digital world often disconnects us from the real world around us -- from our physical surroundings, from our loved ones, and especially from ourselves. We see the effects of this in every aspect of our lives. Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Ndubuisi Ekekwe, founder of the non-profit African Institution of Technology, notes how over-connectedness is actually bad for the bottom line. "We're also jeopardizing long-term productivity by eliminating predictable time off that ensures balance in our lives," he writes. Ekekwe also points to Professor Leslie Perlow, author of the forthcoming Sleeping with Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change the Way You Work. Perlow presents research showing how deliberately disconnecting from their digital devices led to people feeling more satisfied in their jobs and their lives."

Google Chrome Store--includes Astrid, Google Search, etc.

interview with Randi Zuckerberg, Entrepreneur, December 22, 2014 Her formula: Work. Sleep. Family. Fitness. Friends. Pick three. Also offers a list of technologies that are useful as the parent of two young children, entrepreneur, careerwoman, etc.

Study released in April 2015 on teens' use of social media and mobile technology

Article by Jena McGregor, Washington Post, on HP and other big companies moving to virtual or hybrid meetings to lower cost, expand participation, etc. March 17, 2015

Great article by Adam Lent, Ashoka, on how social media networks unleash the power of people to act as meaningful change makers themselves. June 8, 2015 Suggests that company leaders need to provide the platform to "allow others to flourish and create. Cites Frederic Laloux's book on organizational theory.