Today, there is a lot of potential to leverage mobile devices for engaging and enriching learning. The challenges are in understanding how to ensure learners don't get excluded in process, keep costs low, and, of course, support effective pedagogy.Recently, my good friend +Vicki Curtis who teaches ESL at Ohlone College mentioned to me that she was experimenting with the use of a new tool called Presentain in her face-to-face class. The features of Presentain at first sounded confusing to me but the outcomes of the experience (for both instructor and students) made me curious enough to listen and want to learn more. So Vicki and I stayed in touch while she continued to try it out and she soon let me know that she felt confident she was on to something good.  Last week, she joined me as a guest for a Center Hangout on Air. And it was awesome! Here is a quick overview of Presentain but if you really want to check it out, view the 40-minute Hangout embedded above. In it, you will see Vicki engage the live Hangout on Air audience in an interactive demo of the tool, as the virtual audience members play the role of students in her class (to be clear, Presentain is not intended for distance presentations -- it does not synchronously relay audio, in other words).Presentain is available for free but you will find the need to upgrade if you like the product. The free version is pretty limiting, enough to get a taste. There is no "education" license, per se, they offer a staggered pricing plan based on features included. Click here for pricing information.For the "presenter," Presentain requires use of their web app and free mobile app (available for Android and iOS). Prior to a live presentation (before a face-to-face audience), the presenter (let's use the word "instructor" for our purposes) loads one's presentation into the web app in PDF form. The presentation is stored there. At this point, the instructor can also create and store polls within the account (paying attention to the poll and presentation limitations of one's account type).At the time of class, the instructor enters the classroom, takes out her mobile app (this could be a smartphone or tablet), and launches the Presentain app. Also, she logs into the Presentain web app from the computer in the front of the room (connected to a projector for the students to view). At this point, students are entering and settling in. On her mobile, she is able to view thumbnail views of the presentations she loaded previously. She selects the one she wants to present for the class and indicates whether or not polls will be included and, if so, pulls those into the queue. Then Presentain provides a PIN number to enter into the web app. Now the presentation appears on the computer screen and the Presentain web app provides a simple, unique URL to share with students!Students are now ready for class. The instructor greets them and asks them to take out their internet devices (smartphone, tablet, or laptop -- anything with access to WiFi, provided there is WiFi in the room -- or else a network connection would be required on the device, of course) and go to the URL displayed on the screen. From there, the students view each slide on their device.Presentain allows any student to view the instructor's presentain on his/her internet connected device, regardless of platform, via a URL (no account or log in required).  as the instructor clicks through her very few, slides that are beautifully designed with sparse amounts of text and Creative-Commons licensed images (grin). The instructor moves throughout the class, bending down to engage closely with each learner. She makes eye contact directly with each student as she moves through the room.  She holds her mobile device in her hand and swipes the screen -- yes, it is acting as a remote. She doesn't even need to think about it.Presentain turns the instructor's mobile device into a remote.As she pays attention to her learners, that mobile device in her hand has also been transformed into a recording device. The microphone is picking up her words as she speaks and the app is recording the presentation as she delivers her content to the students.Presentain turns the instructor's mobile device into a recorder.Now, after three slides and ten minutes, the instructor pauses. She activates a poll on her mobile. It projects on the screen in front of the class and simultaneously the students see it appear on their mobile devices. They read the prompt and click their response. As they respond, the results of the poll appear dynamically in the form of a pie chart on the screen. The instructor enthusiastically engages with the responses and the students start to inquisitively ask questions about the concept that had just been covered. Together, they engage in inquiry to understand why most students chose A, while some other students chose B and C.Presentain enables an instructor to use dynamic polls from a mobile device that students respond to on their internet connected devices (no log in or account required).One student is still confused. He is embarrassed and does not want to raise his hand. So he clicks the "return to Dashboard" link on his iPhone's screen and from there Presentain gives him the option to submit an anonymous question. He types his question. The instructor receives an indication (that is not seen on the presentation screen) that a question has been received. She clicks the notification to review it and chooses to display the question to the class.  She notes that she felt similar confusion about the topic when she was a student and then proceeds to clarify things using a real world analogy. The instructor prompts the class to submit questions if they have more, as time is running out.Fifteen minutes have now passed. The instructor knows that's enough presentation time. It's time to move on to an activity. So, she stops the presentation on her mobile device using the Presentain app and requests the app to publish the recording. Within moments the recording is available and the link may be emailed to students and/or embedded directly in an LMS.Presentain instantly provides an embeddable video of an instructor's presentation, enabling students to review class sessions or experience sessions that were missed. Intrigued? Watch the Hangout. You can learn more at Presentain.com.  Vicki Curtis can be followed on Twitter @LearningGuide12.The Center is brought to you by @ONE.www.tiny.cc/TheCenter@Center_Ed

We hunger for inspiration, purpose, exhilaration — but mostly, we settle for lives of annihilating boredom, alternating with sheer panic. Perhaps we get our fix of "life" through the finely honed narratives of the hundreds of channels of reality TV and "news" we're smilingly offered night after pixelated night. We want contracts that don't steal our future — but we're often unwilling to walk away from those that already have. Perhaps we feel a sense of moral responsibility to pay our debts — but I'd suggest the greater, perhaps greatest moral responsibility is choosing to live. . .  We don't want the future we're getting — but most of us shrug our shoulders at the end of the day; only to wake up panicked, the next — and begin the cycle all over again. Welcome to the Great Collision. In the aggregate, our preferences are savagely at odds with our expectations; the future we want is at odds with the present we choose.                         --Umair Haque A few days ago I read Umair Haque's The Great Collision on the Harvard Business Review blog. The paragraph that resonated the most for me was this one: It's easy to construct a narrative of victimhood; and a narrative of victimhood is as easily palatable as a Big Mac. Sure, you can argue that the modern condition is a finely jawed trap: bound by the chains of debt peonage, our horizons have been ineluctably delimited. But I'd say we're equal parts victims and victimizers — preying not merely on one another, but our own better selves. When it comes to real human prosperity, in the crudest terms of political economy, "demand" is about what people have the impertinence to, well, demand — and perhaps the simple fact is that we've become a society that's simply not demanding enough. As I go about my work day I'm struck  by how often we see ourselves as victims, at the mercy of other forces greater than ourselves. The boss who won't "let you" do what you know is right. Some other department that has tied your hands. The co-worker who holds you back. The spouse or partner or children who must be served first. It's easy to play this victim card--safer, somehow, and certainly less demanding.  But I agree with Haque that we are equal parts victims and vicimizers. In fact, I would go so far as to argue that we are entirely victimizers, as he puts it "preying on our better selves." Many people--myself included--know in our hearts what it takes to be our better selves. Yet each day, we make small and large choices that keep us tied to being less than we could be. I don't think it's too dramatic to say that we victimize ourselves and those around us when we choose to be less than we are, when we forfeit our best selves to hold on to what seems safe or unchallenging.  Because to be less than our best selves is to choose actions that chip away at us, that challenge our integrity and wholeness. Inevitably we feel this chipping away on a deep, often unacknowledged level, and we take out our anger and resentment and sadness on ourselves and other people. Don't believe me? Then do something that is in alignment with your deepest sense of your best self and watch how it changes your interactions with others and what you bring to the table. Watch what it does to how you treat yourself.  Each day we make choices. Let's make our choices so they support that future we want.  

Teaching speaking sounds easy until you actually try it. Some of the myriad issues that inevitably pop up are:DialectsWhich dialect should the instructor teach? Most people will instinctively say "their own" but what if an American teacher is teaching a room full of students preparing to study in the UK? Should the American instructor really teach "sidewalk" instead of "footpath?" How about "crosswalk" instead of "zebra crossing?"AuthenticityOf course you want your students to use "real English," but how do you teach slang? Similar to dialect, whose slang do you teach? What about cursing?Should I send myself to the principal's office? Read more »

Did you ever see the "results not typical" comment at the bottom of an ad for some product? In the US, it once was* a legal loophole. Something like this: "This miracle powder worked for this genetically engineered buxom red head with six-pack abs but probably won’t work for fat brunette cows eating Chicken McNuggets in front of the TV." It’s (1) potentially damaging (I almost tore my rotator cuff hurling a McNugget at the TV screen) and (2) costly (people blow a ton a money buying "results not typical" products and subsequently consulting with psychiatrists only to learn that it’s all their mother’s fault anyway). Part of my job (and my nature) has  always been searching for the best, most innovative examples. In my mind, I see inspiration in the "non-typical." I search for what is typical among non-typical programs and write about it. I hope to inspire. I hope people say, "we could do this…" But be warned. If you don’t take a "results not typical" mindset when it comes to e-learning, you should. Be inspired but don’t try to be something you can’t. And don’t think you’ll do better than everyone else that is equally typical. You won’t.

Improper "pruning" of neural connections could lead to the development of mental illness -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

I really like the show "24" and being a geek, I always notice the geeky things that are cool in that show. One of the things that I want is to be able to say to someone, "Send the file to my computer" and have them able to actually do it. That would be awesome. Well, I found out how to do that. It is a little program called Dropcopy. Below is a video I made showing how it works.  On my MacBook Pro, I only have one account, and on the iMac, I have two accounts, one for me and one for my wife. To get it to transfer to the iMac properly, I had to manually set up both accounts, which wasn't that hard because I just had to put in the IP addresses for the iMac (same IP addresses, obviously) and give the different accounts nicknames, which isn't actually necessary. From my iMac to the MacBook Pro, it worked flawlessly, and saw the computer without any additional setup. It seems to transfer faster than using Finder to transfer files (though I don't think it is any faster), and certainly faster than a thumb drive. Also, it is super easy. Just drag and drop a file. The Preferences pane does give some additional options, which I think are useful and pretty self-explanatory, so I will just show some screenshots. If you have any questions, just leave a comment. Another neat feature is that you can send short text messages to the other computers. I imagine that in a school setting, this would be pretty neat.That is much faster than finding my hall passes, or a piece of paper, and writing out the same note. And, it is much less of a disruption when the kid comes into class. But, imagine if you use it to collaborate with your teachers. The department chair has a curriculum that she needs everyone to have, but she forgot to send it out. In no time, the other teachers would have the file sent to them, and they would be able to access it. It would be faster and easier than email. I use Apple Remote Desktop all the time, and this little program would make it very easy to send files for people to install. For example, trying to download Smart Technologies software (for Smartboards and our Clickers) is a total pain. With this, I can easily send files to people so that they can install the updates, instead of going through the ridiculous sign-in process via the SmartTech Website.Have a Good Life.

Conferência Serious Game Time ! sobre aplicações de serious games e gamification no mundo empresarial.

So I am actually generally impressed by the McKinsey Quarterly and particularly their Web site. I noticed them integrating feeds, widgets and now Twitter responses to their articles from early on. The other thing that is nice about McK Q is that it is one of those publications that goes over well with the folks upstairs. MCKQ focuses on corporate issues and they have a certain cachet when I can walk into the boss and say "see. I told you this would be important." HBR works too. I also love the fact that they footnote their stories. In this article, they lay out what they consider to be "six critical factors that determine the outcome of efforts to implement these technologies." They are:1. The transformation to a bottom-up culture needs help from the top. 2. The best uses come from users—but they require help to scale.3. What’s in the workflow is what gets used. 4. Appeal to the participants’ egos and needs—not just their wallets. 5. The right solution comes from the right participants.6. Balance the top-down and self-management of risk.From my experience, that's a pretty spot-on list.  #3 is especially important...particularly say if you happen to work in an organization whose age demographic skews older and need strong ties between what you are proposing and what they are already doing. I have this image in my head of leading a group of people thru a fog bank along a mountain path and they are help together by a thin line - that line connects all the crazy stuff I'm talking about to their reality - break the line and you lose their support.

I am passionate believer that humanizing our online classes is a severely under explored use of emerging technologies in higher education.Why is it important to humanize online classes with emerging technologies?Achieving deep learning in an online learning environment requires more than cognition.Achieving deep learning demands the full engagement of the affective domain.The affective domain involves the interplay of learning and emotions.Emotions are engaged through the use of video (tone, gesture, the human presence) and images (visual metaphors). Smore for humanizing online learning.Smore is touted as a visual flyer creator and it is a fabulous tool for that particular objective. But I see many other possibilities for this tool in education.  With a free account, a user can select from a small but ample collection of themes and background images and add a variety of "blocks" to the flyer page.  These block options include text that can be formatted and hyperlinked (but you can't customize it with html); simple links; online videos from YouTube, Vimeo, or Viddler; a picture; bio; audio file; event link; and more! Adding blocks is simple and they can be clicked and dragged into new locations with no issues.  The interface is fluid and a refreshing change from trying to work with templates built into MS Word or Pages (which I treasure for multiple page flyer/document creation).The "flyers" you create with Smore cannot be multiple pages. This rules out creating visual syllabi (hint, hint Smore developers -- big opportunity here for education!).  They can be shared with a link, embedded on a website (as I have done below) and they can also be printed, creating a lovely transition between the digital and text-based world of teaching.  Even more wonderful is the fact that the flyers render nicely on mobile devices. I tested my flyer on my iPhone and it rendered well; the video played great too! Social media sharing is integrated nicely with Smore and analytics are even provided (your flyer must receive 30 visitors or views to unlock your analytics, a nice incentive for sharing, I think!).There is a special discounted premium account option for educators -- hooray for Smore! For $59/year the educator account allows your flyers to be set to private by default (all content with a free account goes to public as a default but you can change it to private).  I am not sure yet what "private" means exactly.  For example, if my flyer is "private" does that mean only I can see it (this is what "private" means in YouTube).  Or is Smore's definition of "private" the equivalent of YouTube's "unlisted," which means anyone with the link has access to it?  These nuances are confusing but important to understand. Wouldn't it be nice is if all social tools used the same sharing lingo? Also included with the educator account are additional background images (it would be nice to preview these), full access to flyer analytics (no 'view' requirement), and the option to remove Smore logos from your flyer.Humanizing online class schedules with Smore.OK, now that you know how Smore works, here's how I would encourage online instructors to use it if I had a magic wand. I want my students to be able to peer inside my class simply and easily (without the barriers of an LMS) to understand if the learning environment I have designed in my class is one that will fit their needs.  I know my class is different. Some students love this. They find it refreshing. Others feel surprised, yet rise to the challenge and learn a great deal about themselves, as well as about the history of photography. These are the most meaningful experiences. Some students decide they want an online class that is just like their other classes.  They want comfort. They want discussion forums and multiple choice quizzes. They don't want to be challenged to try new things.  These students end up dropping the class, creating inefficiencies in the enrollment process.This is a problem that has happened for decades. I dropped classes in college I didn't like the first week of college...and I bet you did too. Today, the issue is more severe as classes are harder to "get" as budget cuts have slashed course offerings.  I WANT my students to know me. I want my students to experience a taste of my class. I want them to have a chance to hear what my past students have shared about the class too.  What if they could see this before the clicked "register"? Click here to view this flyer in a new window: https://smore.com/phhcI created this with Smore in about 45 minutes. Most of this time was spent writing my original text content and deciding on my background image and theme. :)  The welcome video was already made (created with my free Educator account from Animoto and exported into my free YouTube account, allowing me to simply plug the URL into Smore), the Wisdom Wall is a link to a VoiceThread that I give my students to option to leave a comment on at the end of each class (no points are given, it is entirely voluntary), and the was linked from a PDF I have uploaded on my free box.net account.  My students use VoiceThread throughout the entire class (yep, they learn out loud and it does make a difference in how they learn and how they relate to me and each other) and I pasted the course description from my college class schedule and wrote the "What to expect" section on the fly.Imagine, just imagine if these "humanized class descriptions" could be linked into a college or university's online class schedules for students to explore before the register for classes.  How would this shift the student experience? I plan to share this link with my students at the end of the term so they can send it to the peers who might be interested in taking the class next semester. Thanks Smore for creating a fabulous, much needed tool for education!!How will you use Smore?

Abstract: "Scholars, advertisers and political activists see massive online social networks as a representation of social interactions that can be used to study the propagation of ideas, social bond dynamics and viral marketing, among others. But the linked structures of social networks do not reveal actual interactions among people. Scarcity of attention and the daily rythms of life and work makes people default to interacting with those few that matter and that reciprocate their attention. A study of social interactions within Twitter reveals that the driver of usage is a sparse and hidden network of connections underlying the "declared" set of friends and followers."

I have a special fondness for Flash. Having worked at Macromedia in the years before it was purchased by Adobe, and then staying with Adobe for a few years after the acquisition was completed, I came to know a fair...

Yesterday I read a wonderful Change This Manifesto on The Zen of Business: 7 Habits of the Highly Creative by Matthew May. I'm currently in what I'm referring to as "creative recovery" (otherwise known as AA for creatives) so these habits really struck a chord with me. One of my favorites on the list is the habit of "Seijaku" or stillness, solitude, quietude. It is the habit of learning to quiet your mind, designating a place and time for creative solitude. In other words, "stand still when the hippos charge," advice from National Geographic journalist Boyd Matson. As luck would have it, when I opened up Typepad to start this post, I saw that someone had visited a post I wrote a few years ago about The Tyranny of Now. In it, I lamented the fact that I was responding to the "nowness" set for me by my email and my ringing phone and the clamor of unread items in my feed reader. In other words, the hippos were charging around me and I was running for my life. This is an issue that has plagued me off and on for awhile now, so lately I've been trying to create for myself moments of creative solitude. I start my day with Morning Pages, a practice of writing 3 pages of stream of consciousness, just to empty your brain. What I've found is that each morning, as soon as I open my eyes, I'm flooded with the things I didn't complete the day before and the things I MUST do today. By emptying my brain of these worries, I create in myself a stillness that allows me to get to my "to do's" with less anxiety and more focus. I have also designated another room in my house--NOT my home office--as the place to go when I need to get some space from my work. This quite literally changes the dynamic for me as it is a room that's off limits to my laptop and phone. When I enter it, it says that I'm setting a boundary between me and technology that I will not violate while I'm in there. It's helped tremendously in getting my brain to shift from the Tyranny of Now when I need it to. The other practice I'm working on happens to be one that is in May's Manifesto--the idea of "Datsuzoku" or taking a break from routine. May points out that our bodies and brains work in 90-minute "pulses" or rhythms: When we're awake, we move from higher to lower alertness every 90 minutes. And here's the thing: our bodies clearly signal that rhythm in the form of restlessness, hunger, drowsiness and loss of focus. Generally we either ignore or overrride these signals, because we have a lot to do and many ways to artificially pump up our energy with various supplements. The problem is that after working at high intensity for more than 90 minutes, our brains begin to shut down. We become more reactive and less capable of thinking clearly, creatively and reflectively or seeing the big picture. I've most definitely noticed this in myself and have been trying to pay closer attention to the signals my brain and body give me that it's time for a break. This isn't always easy--I have to fight with myself to NOT keep going. There's something that says I'm being "weak" or "unproductive" if I don't push through. But in reality when I honor what my brain and body are telling me, I'm actually MORE productive. It's funny what can happen if we just stop and listen. So what do you do when the hippos charge? Do you stand still? And how do you do that?

  Updated daily, the HR News home page is your one-stop shop for the latest news and featured articles. This page compiles top staff-written and external news of general interest to HR, plus major stories in the HR Disciplines.  Stop the Madness? Or Accommodate It? NCAA basketball tournament tests workplace boundaries on betting, game-watching By Dana Wilkie  3/11/2015 It may not be surprising to learn that more than 1 in 4 employees plan to tune in to March Madness games while on the job, but it could be alarming to know that 1 in 7 said...

For years, we've had "Take Your Child to Work Day." But lately, as I listen to people talk about the false selves they bring to jobs that feel pointless, I'm thinking that we need another day--"Take YOURSELF to Work Day."  On this day, you would have the joy of bringing the real you to work. The day would be focused on discovering and sharing each other's gifts, removing our corporate masks and creating real conversations and connection with each other as human beings.  We would start with individual greetings and being made to feel welcome as people coming into a new space. It would be clear that we were valuing each individual person for their individual selves. Anything that made it seem like we are interchangeable cogs in the machine would be strictly forbidden.  I'm thinking this day would include some of Peter Block's great questions for the Gift's Conversation including:   What is the gift you currently hold in exile? What is it about you that no one knows about? What is the positive feedback you've received that still surprises you? What is the gift that you have that you do not fully acknowledge? There would be no discussion of what we need to "fix" or "improve" in ourselves, no conversations about our deficiencies. Instead, we would celebrate each other's strengths and assets, the possibilities that are at the heart of who we are.  We would also discuss the gifts we receive from our co-workers, including asking and answering questions like: What gift have you received from another in this room? What has someone in your group today done that has touched you, moved you or been of value to you? In what way did someone here enage you in a way that had meaning for you? Each person, as he or she heard what is appreciated about him/her, would only be allowed to say "Thank you. I enjoyed hearing that." There would be no downplaying of their gifts, no "I couldn't have done it without you."Just a heartfelt "thank you."  On this day, we would not be exhorted to be "professional," but would, instead, be required to be real and authentic, including sharing our emotions about the things that are important to us. We would be encouraged and supported in feeling joy, sorrow, confusion, and any other emotion that comes with being a fully engaged human being. The only emotion that wouldn't be allowed is apathy.  Part of our day would be spent having conversations about the things that actually MATTER to us--the stuff that brings us joy and the stuff that keeps us up at night. Each of these conversations would be received with acceptance and curiosity, not judgement and criticism, because each is part of the real human experience. What matters to us is part of what defines who we are.  We'd end the day by committing to bringing more of ourselves to the work we do. Not in the sense of pouring our every waking moment into work, but instead, bringing our own unique gifts and humanity to work with us every day.  This includes having the space to NOT work so that we were able to stay in touch with those gifts. And we'd commit to supporting our co-workers in the same endeavor.  Of course, ideally, this wouldn't be confined to a single day. But even that one day could make a huge difference, don't you think? Frankly, a day structured like this is a day I would happily bring my daughters to, as well. 

I am excited to announce that we are starting a special series of blog posts for the Fall 2014 term. During the recent Graduate TA Orientation, we asked our students to pose some questions about active learning and some of their concerns about teaching. They had fantastic questions!Now, our ASU community will be posting responses to these questions, and I am sure we will all gain insights! I invite you to post additional comments below, and help us build a faculty learning community.Our first guest blogger is Michael Angilletta, PhD. He is a SoLS Professor, Senior Sustainability Scholar and the new Director of Undergraduate Programs at the School of Life Sciences in Arizona State University. What do you do when students come up with aggressive opinions that contradict well-accepted values during teaching? ("I don't believe in evolution" or "global warming is a scam")Your worst fear as a teacher of biology will eventually come to pass. A student will challenge you to defend an established theory in front of your entire class: most likelyevolution. The student and his or her peers may feel empowered by public opinion (which usually doesn't reflect scientific opinion).How should you react? I can only tell you how I reacted in 2006, when one of my students spoke out strongly against evolution, and many other areas of science that conflicted with her religious beliefs. Don't escalate the emotional level of the exchange. Remain calm and thoughtful in your communication and other people will see that you care about each person's learning experience. Don't dismiss the student's concerns.This tactic only makes scientists seem pompous and doesn’t help change society. That said, a time and place exists for everything. I invited my students to an informal discussion, which took place outside of class. If that's not your style, you can speak with a student individually after class. Lean on your scientific resources. You don't have to be an expert in an area to help a student understand it better. When a student challenged isotopic data, I referred her to one of my colleagues in the Department of Geology. He was happy to provide the student with a detailed critique of the assertion that Earth is only 6000 years old. Don't panic! Unreasonable views will usually be recognized as such by reasonable people. In my case, all but one of my students saw the anti-evolutionary position as ridiculous once we finished our discussion. As we learned in the recent debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye, you can't reason with someone who doesn't want to be reasonable.

"Thank you LAUSD for giving anti-edtech proponents ammunition to use whenever a school...

(link) "According to Chris Dede, Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard University, education is evolving "due in large part to emerging information and communications technologies." And that's got him excited. According to Dede, that challenge can be met by utilizing a range of tools and technologies that kids are already using and, in many cases, already very skilled at. He broke those tools down into three--albeit loose--categories representing "ways of empowering people individually and collectively to: Think Create Share and do." I think the part where my blog gets a very passing mention is especially good. ;-)

So back on December 5, Will Richardson posted about his thoughts on  Microsoft's School of the Future Summit. I was struck by Will's lament over how quickly he lost any sense that there was a coherent vision of the future of schools in any of the speakers' comments. This got me thinking back to what I still think is one of the most under-reported speeches on education - Bill Gates' address  (PDF link) to the National Governor's Association back in 2005. Don't remember it? That's the one where he made the little comment that "America's high schools are obsolete."Nice right? The richest man in the world and the head of the world's largest philanthropic endowment went on to say:"By obsolete, I don't just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed, and under-funded- though a case could be made for every one of those points.By obsolete, I mean that our high schools - even when they're working exactly asdesigned - cannot teach our kids what they need to know today.Training the workforce of tomorrow with the high schools of today is like trying to teachkids about today's computers on a 50-year-old mainframe. It's the wrong tool for thetimes"So how do these two things tie up? First its a bit ironic to hear Will's lament about a lack of a common vision from a Microsoft summit when 3 years earlier, the former CEO of that same corporation offered a pretty clear vision about how to start the re-design process he felt was needed to change the American educational system. Agree or disagree with his vision but it could've well served as a springboard for a coherent set of discussions at this 2008 Summit. Second, I think Gates' had it partially right when he said that the problem couldn't be solved by starting within the schools themselves but had to begin with having the political will to change. IMHO, with a problem this size, I think we have to get past the idea of incremental, evolutionary change. I think especially with problems of this magnitude - we need REVOLUTIONARY change. There are some many tendrils of the current education system that extend into so many areas, that it seems that incremental change is doomed to failure - piecemeal change efforts just can't seem to gain enough momentum before they are ground to a halt by the forces of the status quo. This, I think requires an effort on the scale being discussed regarding the upgrading and repair of America's physical infrastructure. We need to envision a similarly broad initiative aimed at re-designing  our national educational system.

There are three general principles that should guide your plans to leverage social technology, particularly for leadership development and other "soft" skills.

"The Learning eXPLOSION" by Matthew Murdoch and Treion Muller will help you with moving corporate training to the virtual classroom. It’s packed with lots of great tips, tips and links. If you are thinking about a blended learning approach or have been tasked with creating virtual classroom events, you will find this book a valuable resource. If you are already using virtual classrooms, I am sure you will still find good information including checklists to make your classrooms run smoother and make training interesting and interactive. As I read "The Learning eXPLOSION", I found myself highlighting parts, using sticky notes to mark pages and mentally agreeing with the information in the book. My favorite chapters are "The Rule of Overcoming Bias" - how to address and overcome prejudice against virtual classrooms - with really life examples and what to say to leaders and "The Rule of Personal Practice" - especially the list of common technical watch-outs. The website (http://www.franklincovey.com/tc/solutions/books-and-audio/learning-explosion/) has all the action plans from the book for download. This book is worth adding to your library.ASTD Houston will host a webinar on May 18th with Matt and Treion - http://www.astdhouston.org/en/cev/539. Register and attend for your chance to win a copy of "The Learning eXPLOSION".

From the book's site: "The Self-Organizing Revolution explores the transition from the modern institution of mass schooling to a postmodern network of diverse learning options available to all young people. Miller wrestles with the philosophical, moral, and political questions that arise with the radical proposition that public schooling as we know it has become obsolete. He cautions against simplistic models of privatization and lays out an egalitarian, democratic, socially responsible program of decentralized education."Has anyone read this? Care to offer comments? Couldn't find anything on Amazon

(Link)"The issue here is the loss, for the public, of a certain kind of memory: the memory of cultural, social, and political history of human timescales, the memory that not so long ago things worked differently, and that the present may have looked very different itself. Experts like Krugman and Nesse are, by definition and training, not participants in the humanities game of memory, comparison and synthesis: rather, they are experts. Experts, like the fox of Isaiah Berlin, track down the single series of facts towards knowledge. They come out of laboratories, where they have performed minute studies of a single experiment where terms like "promiscuous" and "chaste" are fixed as a supposition of the game. Experts judge the workings of the brain by the newest findings, not by comparison with Aristotle or Machiavelli. Hedgehog intellectuals, by contrast, agglomerate and compare: this definition of good behavior with those five more relative or strict versions that societies have enforced at different times; the perspective of gender studies with that of sociology. Their training in the humanities acquaints them with thinkers classical and modern; it teaches the keen eye for other cultures, the rapid absorption of information about pamphlet and canvases in everyday time. Hedgehogs generally are made not in laboratories but in libraries, where they have learned to compare dictators and democracies across time and space, dealing with the primary texts of alien societies - learning, that is, from the natives on their own terms. Hedgehogs are assimilators, and they’re friendly with the locals. Lately they do not come out of the libraries so much, and the forum is brimming with foxes."This is a wonderful article and IMHO, I think we need more hedgehogs.