Group items tagged

blog by nonprofitwithballs on funding people to do the work in nonprofits not projects, consultants, workshops, and redirecting capacity builders back to basics

blog post by Dmitri Dragilev in Better Humans "Dopamine is why CEOs write down goals and vision statements. As you move toward these goals, mentors and advisors reassure you that you are moving in the right direction and every step of the way you get a shot of dopamine. The problem is that all of us have learned how to cheat the system and get shots of dopamine without actually accomplishing anything. Gambling is a great example, every time you pull that handle on a slot machine you get dopamine. Alcohol is the same story, a shot of whiskey = a shot of dopamine, you want more, you repeat; you're not actually moving toward a vision or a goal." I too am guilty of dopamine addiction. I love email and depend on it for a lot of my day to day work. I love instigating stuff, fast back and forths, and knowing what is happening everywhere. But I have found that all this stuff re-prioritizes my day quite a bit. For the past year I have successfully disabled email, Twitter, Facebook, and text message notifications on my phone and have kept it off since then. My life has been transformed. Not only do I find that there are a lot less distractions, I find that I stay focused on the right tasks that keep me marching toward my overall goal. Again, I'm not saying that what I did is the magic formula for everyone. What I am saying is that perhaps it's time to re-assess how much you check your email, text messages, social media and your devices in general and see if you're cheating the system in order to get a rush of dopamine or you're truly marching toward your goal.

part of the interview with Sonia Simone and Jerod Morris at Copyblogger following their decision several weeks ago to close down comments on the Copyblogger blog site. Excerpt: "I don't put my business assets on a platform that I don't control. So I don't put my content on a platform I don't control unless I have it somewhere I can keep it and benefit from it. I wouldn't post original content to Facebook. I would just never - it doesn't make a lot of sense, other than just a post, a simple throw-away kind of a post. So our content lives on our domain, in our e-mail lists. These are assets we can control. " I'm not sure exactly what she means by "content lives on our domain, in our e-mail lists." Maybe it's as simple as it's Copyblogger's stuff, they own it, it's only used to achieve their business purposes and it isn't original stuff that is published elsewhere or stored there on someone else's platform for digestion and use? Blog post also introduces "digital sharecropping" to me. Interesting note about Google-Plus, too. "The nice thing about Google-Plus is I'm notified when someone actually mentions my name, or if I'm following that discussion then I'm notified within Gmail or Google-Plus, any one of the Google products. So it's nice in that way. There's a lot more ease of use. "

Blog post by Meenoo Rami, October 22, 2013. "How can you make the most of social networks? The main thing: Explore. Whether you choose to use Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, blogs, or other forms of virtual communities, read a lot and let the good stuff lead you to more good stuff (and good people). The second thing: Look for community-and if you don't find it, build it. When I realized there was no Twitter chat for English teachers, I launched (and have maintained for past three years) #engchat, which has given me many rewards for the time and effort I put into it. Every Monday night at 7 p.m, ET, dozens of teachers of English come together to discuss topics such as social justice education, teaching grammar and vocabulary, and balancing the canon with contemporary fiction in our classrooms. Even outside our Monday night chats, the hashtag #engchat helps teachers to pose questions, share lesson ideas, and exchange relevant resources with others who share similar interests. "

Video by Off Book/PBS on how YouTube has broadened what we think of as entertaining, valuable, educational, etc. Fast Feedback loop on content. June 6, 2013 Unlike TV, can comment on it and affect directly what is being made, importance of subscription for those who want to watch it. "Just so cool that people all over the world can build a community and drive development." Very intimate and close up framing of videos on YouTube. That comes across, makes it feel personal. "Has to feel like one person is in charge of everything, otherwise it doesn't feel like YouTube." Using feedback mechanisms and viewer interactivity to make new stuff Even TimeWarners of world are reallocating resources to YouTube production "Will be as comfortable going to YouTube as turning on TV"

Blog post by Jenny Mackness on April 24, 2012 announcing a MOOC on First Steps into Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, #fslt12, running from 5/21 to 6/22. Raises issues of how to engage with learners who may not be well-grounded in technology yet who might want to participate because of content, finding the right balance. Will offer certificate for "assessed" learners. Excerpt: "This is an exciting but rather daunting process. We have had lots of interest, with people from all over the world expressing interest in different aspects of learning and teaching in Higher Education. I am beginning to realize the amount of work that must go on behind the scenes in the other MOOCs I have attended. We have deliberately chosen to distribute the course across different platforms - WordPress (for the Home site), Moodle (for the course), Blackboard Collaborate (for the live synchronous sessions) and we are still discussing whether or not to have a separate wiki site, or to go with the wiki in Moodle. The reason for this decision (i.e. the different platforms) is that we hope to introduce participants new to teaching in HE to the idea that learning can take place in a variety of online spaces. Access to our WordPress site has been open pretty much from the word go, and now access to the Moodle site has been opened, despite the fact that neither of these is yet ready. For me, this is a new way of working and takes a bit of getting used to (heart in your mouth stuff!). Finally, we are conscious that the course has been designed to attract people for whom this way of working and the technology involved might be completely new -so we have to achieve the right balance between providing enough structure and support and encouraging open academic practice and independent learning - one of the many tensions involved in designing a MOOC."

"A comment on Joho's (Dave Weinberger) blog post--a memoir of blogging--bySuw Charman-Anderson, January 9, 2014. Excerpt: " I wonder too if my lack of blog writing is related to a lack of blog reading. My RSS reader became so clogged that I feared it, wouldn't open it, and ultimately, abandoned it. And then Twitter and now Zite arrived to provide me with random rewards for clicking and swiping, showing me stuff that I had no idea I wanted to read. Instead of following the writings of a small cadre of smart, lovely people whom I am proud to call my friends, I read random crap off the internet that some algorithm thinks I might be interested in, or that is recommended by the people I follow on Twitter. That may or may not be a good thing. We were all aware of the problems of homophily, and the random clickage does help combat that. But the problem with not following people's blogs closely is that there's no conversation anymore. My blogs used to host great conversations, and I would happily engage in fascinating discussions on other people's sites. You can't do that so easily with Twitter, and Facebook. Indeed, most of my interactions on Facebook, which are scarce as I loathe it, end up being pointless arguments with friends-of-friends who turn out to be idiots. I'd love to see a resurgence in blogging. I think, personally, I need to delete Zite from my ipad and find a good RSS reader so I can follow the blogs of those people that I really care about. Not the worthy blogs I ought to read, but the works of people who matter to me. And then I need to get back to commenting, like this, because there's nothing more encouraging than finding out that people care about what you write, that people appreciate it. And David, I really do appreciate your writing - you're as inspiring and fascinating now as you were back in 2001! "

Blog post by David Truss, Pair-A_Dimes, January 4, 2011, on learning at work by professionals, i.e., teachers. Has much more good stuff to say than this excerpt but I find this useful for Information Overload. Another term I ran across lately--practical obscurity--in relation to why we are now part of NSA's scope--because costs have fallen so low to monitor so much behavior online--voice and text--that what was once unavailable without a lot of costs is now quite feasible for someone to monitor, such as NSA, Google, Facebook, etc. Excerpt: "I read a post recently by Jeff Utecht, whom you have worked with, that said this: "Today at school I answered personal e-mail, updated my Facebook status, Tweeted, looked up flights for winter break, and even read articles that didn't pertain to school. And they say we're becoming less productive at work. What really is happening is the line between our work life and our social life is becoming blurred more and more every day." and he continues: "Sure I use some of my work time to do social things, yet I get home from work after 3pm and answer work e-mails, text faculty members about a computer problem, and work on lessons and things that need to be done. So it's an even swap. I'll use some of your time, you can use some of mine.""

Todd Bishop of Geekwire talks about fears of tossing emails and gets help from the psychologist on the A&E show Hoarders. Dr. Robin Zasio says hoarding emails, like hoarding "stuff" is about fear of needing it some day.

article by Tim Wu in NYT weekly magazine, June 3, 2014 in Culture. Maintaining your brand The euphemism is "sharing," but Klein would probably just call it selling a personal brand, whether you consider yourself the pretty young thing with literary tastes and a traditional side, the family man who brews his own beer or the tough lawyer with a sense of humor. It can be nice to share, but brand maintenance takes constant work and demands consistency. A serious self-brand should have some presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Foursquare, Google+ and Tumblr; keeping it all up can feel like working as an unpaid intern for a Z-list celebrity known as Oneself. excerpt Any old-timer will tell you that anonymity online is nothing new, but how things originally were. There has, of course, always been an anonymous culture, usually tied to deviancy or dissidents. In the '80s and '90s, anonymity was indelibly linked to online culture, concurrent with getting at stuff that was otherwise hard to find or illegal. It was kind of the point really, to go where, as one early adopter wrote, "no one knows you're a dog." It allowed users to escape to a place with few restrictions, where you could say things, and maybe do things wholly without social consequence. In the early days, there was no need for any consistency with the rest of your life, and that's what was so great about it.

Fabulous 2 minute video of 9 year old girl in Holland who taught herself how to sing opera from YouTube videos

"in this digital age we have sacrificed our privacy in order to access all manner of free stuff on the web. It's a movement that most of us have come to accept. Or have we? I'll borrow a quote I read on MetaFilter recently: 'If you're not paying for it; you are the product'. I'm not sure how many people are fully aware of this sentiment yet or whether they even care. But the next time you're browsing the web or enjoying a video on YouTube, remember that Google is watching your every move; because that's the price you pay."

Great blog by Eric barker on how to make the most of your time, August 10, 2014 "To-Do Lists Are Evil. Schedule Everything. Assume You're Going Home at 5:30, Then Plan Your Day Backwards Make A Plan For The Entire Week Do Very Few Things, But Be Awesome At Them Less Shallow Work, Focus On The Deep Stuff"

article by Jill Duffy on email management, March 5, 2012. Also a two minute video on this page that explains the tips: 1. delete (useless stuff) first when you open the inbox 2. Write short 3. Reuse sent messages 4. Reuse subject lines 5. Use groups/distribution lists 6. Sort to delete 7. Turn off notifications 8. Close email to focus 9. Use auto-replies wisely 10. Delete (or at very least, file messages into folders) 11. Take out the trash (daily) or set up auto-dump

article by Stephanie Vozza, Fast company, LinkedIn Seven habits 1. Organized people seek out tools 2. Organized people set priorities MITs 3. Organized people have less stuff 4. Organized people choose simple solutions 5. Organized people practice maintenance 6. Organized people regularly purge 7. Organized people project themselves into the future

from Lifehacker by Thorin Klosowski from 2/10/16 Quick overview of taking 5 minutes/day to journal about what you learned during the day. Love the LAF suggestion in the comments: what was Learned; Accomplished; Favorite moment of the day

database of women scholars who have expertise

Great article on capacity building for nonprofit leadership and staff in communities of color serving people of color

Mashable on internet has gone as far as it can with free news, entertainment, services, etc.

blog post by Marilyn Achiron citing Tyler Cowen, economist at George Mason University in VA on teaching yourself to learn, July 29, 2015. We have cited Cowen in our blog posts at least once. He is a Uber fan and favors marketplace economics for settling competitive battles. He also embraces ongoing, online learning that people set up for themselves.