Group items tagged

another great post by Tom Barrett on how to say "I don't know" to fuel exploration by children learning, June 8, 2014

Article on how the idea that screens are bad for kids is out dated, but deeply entrenched. Instead of screen time hours, using apps such as Rescue Time, which tracks time spent on specific applications and websites, leads to discussions on time management and productivity. Citing studies on digital parenting by Alicia Blum-Ross and Sonia Livingstone, focusing on context, content, and connections is a better way to engage with kids. The article goes on to list strategies on how to do this. Linked to this from Bron Stuckey's FB page.

Great article by Susan Weinschenk, Brain Wise: Work better, work smarter, September 11, 2012, and why dopamine keeps us "seeking" when we already have enough information. excerpt: Do you ever feel like you are addicted to email or twitter or texting? Do you find it impossible to ignore your email if you see that there are messages in your inbox? Do you think that if you could ignore your incoming email or messages you might actually be able to get something done at work? You are right!" ... "Instead of dopamine causing you to experience pleasure, the latest research shows that dopamine causes seeking behavior. Dopamine causes you to want, desire, seek out, and search. It increases your general level of arousal and your goal-directed behavior. From an evolutionary stand-point this is critical. The dopamine seeking system keeps you motivated to move through your world, learn, and survive. It's not just about physical needs such as food, or sex, but also about abstract concepts. Dopamine makes you curious about ideas and fuels your searching for information. Research shows that it is the opioid system (separate from dopamine) that makes us feel pleasure." Turn off the cues - One of the most important things you can do to prevent or stop a dopamine loop, and be more productive is to turn off the cues. Adjust the settings on your cell phone and on your laptop, desktop or tablet so that you don't receive the automatic notifications. Automatic notifications are touted as wonderful features of hardware, software, and apps. But they are actually causing you to be like a rat in a cage. If you want to get work done you need to turn off as many auditory and visual cues as possible. It's the best way to prevent and break the dopamine loops. What do you think? How do you deal with dopamine loops? Are you willing to turn off your cues?

"Content Marketing has been all the rage these past few years. We've heard from many experts and influencers that content marketing is the new advertising and that "brands must become media to earn relevance". But how do we measure ROI and know our content isn't just fueling some vanity metric but is actually helping our business? If content marketing is the new advertising, then we should try to assess this question with the same criteria. Which means first, we should acknowledge that while advertising is a practice that has been undisputed for decades, measuring its ROI can greatly vary. After all, a lot of marketers would still agree with John Wanamaker who said more than a century ago: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.""

Like this article written by Susan Wojcicki in July 2011 on how to stay innovative. Found it today via my twitter feed. 1. Have a mission that maters 2. Think big but start small 3. Strive for continual innovation, not instant perfection 4. Look for ideas everywhere 5. Share everything 6. Spark with imagination, fuel with data 7. Be a platform 8. Never fail to fail

article by Michele Molnar, EdWeek, June 29, 2015 on how teachers learn about technology in education. "Educators are strongly influenced by their peers when they want information about education technology"