Scott Dinsmore's TED talk about how he found the work he loved by hanging around those he saw doing what he wanted to do, and seeing that it could be done. Being with people who took a risk to work at their passion allowed him to feel more confident, gain valuable incite and advice from them, and forge ahead much more successfully. His steps for quitting your job and doing what you love is to become a self expert first, then find those who are doing what you want to do.

site of Scott Dinsmore's Live Your Legend org. The tag line is: change the world by doing work you love. This online site helps you connect with others who are seeking their passion, are already doing what you want to do or something like it, and then finding guidance, support, and connections through the online and f2f forums. The site offers free tools to help you quit your job and do something you love.

From Entrepreneur.com: some fun and useful exercises to get in touch with what you are passionate about. All of them are active - none are text oriented.

Stephen Downes presentation that draws the distinction between personalized learning and personal learning from the AMEE 2015 conference in Glasgow, Scotland. 78 Slides with audio

Jarche lists his top 10 tools: Netflix, Skype, Apple Preview, Pixabay, Keynote, Feedly, Diigo, Twitter, Wordpress

Interesting blog by Jenny Mackness on attending two keynotes at the Association for Learning Technology Conference in Manchester, UK: Jonathan Worth and Laura Czerniewicz. She attended virtually. She found some common themes in the keynotes about privacy, vulnerability, and trust in open learning environments on the learner level. From Jonathan she says: he talked about the difference between the image and the photograph and how there is a paradigm shift because the image is breaking away from the photograph. Photographs are about evidence, images about experience. Laura's talk was about the inequality on a global scale and is a life or death issue and it is a challenge to address inequality in new online landscapes. Jenny ends the blog with: Jonathan's focus on vulnerability and trying to see the image clearly will inform issues of inequality and Laura's focus on inequality will inform Jonathan's concerns about privacy, trust, and vulnerability.

Mattel is using AI to turn Barbie into a young girl's friend. Hello Barbie is the new incantation of the doll that appeals to 3 - 10 year old girls. Hello Barbie can react to what a young girl is saying to her, and is programmed with thousands of responses. Unlike the toys that had pull strings, Hello Barbie transmits via wifi so the girl's voice is read and then sends Barbie a response to the keywords in the voice data within a second. Hello Barbie has thicker thighs to accommodate the batteries necessary for all this. Interesting research on girls who play with Barbie have lower self esteem than those who do not, and feel they have to be think, have large breasts, and be blond and blue eyed. Scary!

Great talk by Stephen Downes about personal learning in a networked world: what it is, what it is not, the difference between collaboration and cooperation, and how trends by younger students are driving change. He poses that there is no one model that is successful - it is up to the learner to devise their own purpose and methods.

TEDx talk by Doug Belshaw. Interesting talk on digital literacy, and how it is tied to social and societal norms and memes. Good graphic explanations of his essential elements.

Great short YouTube video via twitter on the joy of trying something new, the joy of failure, and the joy of practice = learning. Mike Wesch does a handstand for his students to show he is learning how to do them, then shows his young son George learning to climb down a stair step. Fun, yet gets the point across that failure is a big part of learning, as is practice.

Free Ebook from Jacob Morgan: 5 Ways People Over 50 Can Stay Relevant. How Older Workers Can Embrace the Coming Changes and Stay Relevant in the Future of Work. Has info on what does the future of work look like for the 50+ population; The 5 key trends shaping the future of work; Why you need to embrace the coming changes; The 5 ways older workers can embrace these changes and stay relevant in the changing world of work; Specific actions that you can take to help future-proof your career.

Four ways nonprofits can cut through the data hype and start using data on purpose. Architecture for Data Management, Architecture for Data Security, Architecture for Building a Data Culture, Architecture for Data Use.

Lots of reports, news releases, publications from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

from The Future of Work. Elizabeth Segran "For women in tech, a humanities background can be an added liability, since there is already a perception that they are less competent at science and math. Danielle Sheer says that when she joined Carbonite, her first impulse was to hide her lack of knowledge and retreat at meetings. However, she quickly changed strategy, deciding it was more important for her to ask questions to fully grasp the technology. She's spent hours tinkering with the software and working with engineering teams to learn about it. She says her colleagues are supportive, even if she sometimes slows them down. "By articulating complicated technical or strategic ideas in plain English, you'd be amazed at how much progress we've made solving problems," she says. "We've become very good at assuming that we don't have the same definition.""

"The nerd's guide to learning everything online" John Green talks about the cartography of our own learning - mapping our learning with others online in new ways and new collaborations. Sites like YouTube are the new learning communities, with a diverse set of learners interacting together around subjects and topics of their own choosing.

The author David Bach argues that business schools need to go in a different direction - more like liberal arts. Frame problems and get out of the way. "When people hear liberal arts, they - mistakenly - think of content, of literature, history or philosophy. They think of curricula without structure, of students mixing and matching courses from the arts and sciences without plan or direction. But liberal arts education is something more. "It's a way of looking at the world, a mode of inquiry. It is what Albert Einstein called "the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.""

From The Next Web (TNW) News by Michael Redbord, the VP of Global Customer Support and Technical Services at HubSpot. Backs up what the Forbes, USNews, and other articles are saying about the ability of liberal arts majors to think, problem solve, see from different perspectives, and translate the technical into common language. Although geared towards recent grads, good advice for any job seekers on applying for jobs, a resume that tells your story, not your lists of accomplishments, and evidence of your investment in yourself.

Dr. Tuajuanda C. Jordan is president of St. Mary's College of Maryland, a small liberal arts school. Jordan was trained as a biochemist, but had a liberal arts education and was exposed to natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and the arts while attending college. This is a very articulate and clear essay on why liberal arts education matters, and how learning to question is its most valuable trait.

Impact of the internet of things - sensors and actuators connected by networks are replacing humans but have the potential to economic impact of $3.9 trillion to $11.1 trillion a year by 2025 according to this McKinsey and Company report. Further evidence that automation is replacing humans at an ever increasing rate.

by Rahul Bhargava in the summer issue. Nice article on effective use of data for organizations. He stresses that "to use data effectively, orgs need architecture - people, process, and technology-driven structures that support the effective and intentional use of data to further their mission - for data management, data security, data culture, and data use." Nice use of graphic icons to simplify most sections.

by Rahul Bhargava in the summer issue. Nice article on effective use of data for organizations. He stresses that "to use data effectively, orgs need architecture - people, process, and technology-driven structures that support the effective and intentional use of data to further their mission - for data management, data security, data culture, and data use." Nice use of graphic icons to simplify most sections.