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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

great article on rise and decline of Wikipedia by Andrew Lih, June 21, 2015, NYT. Rise of smartphones is one challenge; fundraising continues apace creating new tensions around allocating/dividing proceeds; record participation in elections for new trustees is call for new governance?; too few women as editors or trustees; yet Wikipedia is most popular way into articles/resources in museums, etc.

article on ed-tech buzzwords such as flipped classroom and digital humanities by Jeffrey R. Young, 8/28/15

Jeff Ward-Bailey for Christian Science Monitor, September 1, 2015 "Adobe's once-ubiquitous Flash technology has been losing popularity for years now, as websites phase it out in favor of newer, more flexible standards such as HTML5 video."

Don Kilburn/Tom Vander Ark blog post on how formative assessment made possible by technology is helping GenerationDo-It-Yourself students (and teachers?) remediate while still in high school. Pearson is behind this article (remember Barb McDonald's mention of this in a CPSquare discussion).

"NAAL defines literacy as both task-based and skills-based. The task-based definition of literacy, used in both the 1992 and 2003 assessments, focuses on the everyday literacy tasks an adult can and cannot perform. The 2003 NAAL adds a complementary skills-based definition of literacy that focuses on the knowledge and skills an adult must possess in order to perform these tasks. These skills range from basic, word-level skills (such as recognizing words) to higher level skills (such as drawing appropriate inferences from continuous text). New information provided by the 2003 NAAL is intended to improve understanding of the skill differences between adults who are able to perform relatively challenging literacy tasks and those who are not."

Continuous acquisition and application of knowledge, skills, and beliefs by individuals, teams, and the whole enterprise is an essential aspect of high performance organizations. However, barriers to this learning are common in organizations. These barriers must be overcome in order for organizations to have long term success. Stephen Gill has identified 12 common barriers to learning in organizations: Program focus; Limited resources; work-learning dichotomy; passive leadership; non-learning culture; resistance to change; not discussing the un-discussable; need for control; focus on short-term, simple solutions; skilled incompetence; blame-not gain language; selective attention.

Boston Club report, 2013, of Boston area women and nonprofit organization representation "For over 20 years, The Boston Club has worked collaboratively with local and regional nonprofit organizations of all sizes to identify and recruit qualified women for positions as directors, trustees, and overseers. During that period, we have placed over 175 women on nonprofit boards. We also have conducted over 30 programs about nonprofit board service, with topics ranging from the basic questions a board candidate needs to ask, to the latest issues of governance affecting nonprofits. Through these initiatives, we have met hundreds of nonprofit executives, board and nominating chairs, and women who serve on their boards. We are continually amazed and energized by the missions and breadth of work conducted by nonprofits, their contributions to the economy of Massachusetts, the vital services and programs provided to our citizens, and the dedication their boards exhibit. But even we could not answer the question: how many women serve on nonprofit boards in Massachusetts? Until now. Why is this information important? Nonprofit organizations play a major role in the economies of many towns and cities in the state, generating $234 billion in revenues in 2010. In 2010, nonprofit jobs represented 16.7% of the total employment in Massachusetts 1 . We are known worldwide for our universities, hospitals, and cultural institutions, most of which are nonprofit organizations. Fifty-seven percent of women in Massachusetts are in the workforce. For The Boston Club, which has long tracked the number of women in leadership positions in publically owned companies, the question of gender diversity in the leadership of nonprofit organizations is part of our mission. We believe that the advancement of women to significant and visible leadership roles in all types of businesses will have lasting and meaningful impact on business performance and the economic health of our communities."

Wonderful blog post on social learning by Sahana Chattopadhyay, October 19, 2014. Identified by Jane Hart. Excerpt: "Then comes the dichotomy of having an enterprise collaboration platform where no one is sharing, where there are no conversations happening, no debates and questions. It's a ghost town. At the end of the day, the platform doesn't matter. The culture of the organization does. An organization with an essentially command and control approach, an overly competitive outlook, and a repressive environment is not yet ready for social learning." Does this mean the employees are not engaging in "social learning"? Not at all. Learning has been social ever since human life was born on this planet and will continue to be so, with or without technology. Individuals will get their work done by talking to peers, reaching out to their network, and bringing their #pln and #pkm to work.

Interview with Kat Cole on leadership and becoming a leader, July 19, 2014. Like her emphasis on coachability and feedback and unrelenting curiosity to learn. Supports learning, leading, connecting online. Also like her other leadership insights and how she hires new people. Excerpt "What advice do you give your employees who are ambitious and want to move up? First, I talk about being incredibly coachable, because we all give each other feedback. If you want to move up, you've got to get as many inputs as possible to continue to develop. Second, take your development into your own hands and be curious about the entire company. If there's something you want to learn, go learn it. The structure here is like a start-up. "

Learning forward is a professional teachers organization dedicated to improving teaching that impacts student success. They have recently created standards that include professional development standards where learning communities are the focus of continuous improvement to engage in inquiry, action, research, data analysis, planning, implementation, reflection and evaluation.

An interview by Kellye Whitney, 2013 for Talent Management Magazine with Evan Rosen on "Can Collaboration be Forced?" The short answer is no because that would only continue the command and control mindset and decision making that stifles collaboration. Instead design structures and processes that bring people together to partner and collaborate across disciplines, locations, etc. Uses example of BMW reducing development time needed for new car with workers in Germany/S. Carolina being matched up to work together to solve problems, design issues.

Really good blog post by Brook Manville, 9/5/14, HBR on how the "thin we" becomes the "thick we" excerpt: To borrow language from the philosopher Avishai Margalit, the web is a "thin we" type of network. Participants tend to belong for individualistic reasons. They have little in common with other members, and they're reluctant to do much for the network. A big goal requires a "thick we" network - a community of people who feel responsible for collaborating toward a shared purpose that they see as superseding their individual needs. Members of a community - as opposed to a simple network - expect relationships within the group to continue, and they even hold one another accountable for effort and performance. When networks develop into communities, the results can be powerful. Look at the accomplishments of Wikipedia contributors, open-source software developers who find and fix bugs in Linux, or doctors who help each another with difficult diagnoses as part of the Sermo social network.

blog post by Daniel Newman, author of Millennial CEO on need to learn continuously and quickly.  Find the reference to IBM asking employees to acquire tech skills.  could be reference in ECO Byte #1. 

Very valuable assessment of social media that this nonprofit--Nonprofit Tech for Good--decided to drop or continue at the end of 2014. December 28, 2015

How introversion affects teachers' ability to continue in the excessive "social collaborative" environment

from Creative Writing Now: reasons for keeping a journal: preserve memories; improve writing skills; sharpen your senses Good links to practical steps to begin and continue journaling

love this page on using a tool for continuous learning, leadership and culture development

Patrick Allan from Lifehacker proposes this simple journal template to reflect each day. In the Challenge course with Jane Hart, we are using this at the end of our day as a daily reflection, and then will report via our discussion group about our learning, and respond to others. It is a nice ritual to practice. Part of the exercise at the end of the week is to discuss how we will continue the practice after the 15 weeks are over.

article by at LifeHack on what to stop doing in order to get the right things done