I linked to this talk in my previous Sunday’s Top Links, but wanted to share again in case you missed it.
Sir Ken Robinson, in another humorous and insightful TED Talk, explains what’s wrong with education and the importance of curiosity, teaching, and creativity.
Also, if you somehow haven’t seen his infamous first TED Talk, check it out here.
Welcome to this week’s links!
The best way to come up with new ideas is to combine them. Find out 5 ways to cross-pollinate your ideas.
Kickstarter is a resounding success and competitors are growing in numbers, so is crowdfunding here to stay?
Ken Robinson is back in this TED Talk explaining the 3 principles of education that we need to embrace to navigate education’s death valley.
If you don’t understand the problem, how can you solve it? A key point in problem solving is being able to clearly identify the problem.
Here are 10 theories from various philosopher’s and scientiest that just might change how you think about the world.
And if you missed last week’s links, find them here.
Also check out my Flipboard Magazine – Always Be Curious.
As the cost of education continues to rise and the efficiency of our current learning models in question, we are seeing a growing number of alternative solutions to the more traditional forms of education. This is part of the Education 2.0 revolution that we are watching develop everyday.
The following is a preliminary list of Education 2.0 resources available to everyone online. This is only a small segment of such resources, but I hope to expand this in the coming years. Check them out below!
These platforms are the most comprehensive education efforts to date, which are not only delivering information, but integrating learning opportunities through exercises and applied learning.
Web Video/Audio
Although not as engaging as virtual classrooms, these organizations provide a wealth of high quality lectures ranging from thought leaders to the most prestigious of institutions.
You can find anything on the internet and these are typically the first places to look when you want to know how to do or learn anything you could think of.
Probably the most engaged community in the future of education is that of hackers and technologists that are fully willing to embrace this change. Here you’ll find resources catered to these early adopters.
Learning languages online is also a growing trend, as several platforms have tailored the key foundations required for language mastery in an online environment.
Technology is not only revolutionizing the education system, but also supplementing it and these are some great resources for teachers and classrooms.
I fully believe that games are the next step for education and that this particular area of the education revolution will be the most exciting in years to come.
Keep a look out as I’ll be continually updating this list to add more and more resources that are part of the education revolution.
Better late than never… enjoy this week’s links!
Feeling lazy? Looking for some motivation? This post will get you in the mood to get sh*t done.
A great article exploring apprenticeship and it’s value – brought to you by Robert Greene and his latest book Mastery.
Have an idea, but don’t know what to do with it? This step by step guide shows you how to make your big idea a reality.
There is a lot we can learn from nature, but the question now is HOW to actually learn from it.
Check out amazing interviews with top entrepreneurs such as Mark Cuban, Richard Branson, Jason Fried, and many more.
And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.
Welcome to this week’s top links!
In this free manifesto, Seth Godin asks one simple question: What is school for? Learn why our education system is stuck and how we can fix it.
Have you found your dream job? Here are 8 simple ways you can identify that you’ve found your life’s work.
This simple tool does exactly what it says. Type in a book you’ve recently read and it’ll give you recommendations on what to read next.
Connectors have a very unique skill set, which is comprised of specific habits. If you adopt these 31 habits, you too can become a world class connector.
What if we acted without having a goal in mind? This thoughtful post from Leo Babauta explores the wonder of a journey without the focus on a destination.
And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.
Welcome to this week’s top links!
Joss Whedon, Director and writer of the summer blockbuster The Avengers, tells us the best way to recharge after a huge project, and it’s not what you’d expect.
If you need some help getting started, check out this list of excuses that will show you there’s no reason to not becoming great today.
Want to learn how to influence others? Check out these cliff notes on Dale Carnegie’s 1936 book, How to Win Friends & Influence People.
Times are changing and the level of free education available nowadays is amazing. This list from Lifehacker shares a number of fantastic resources to learn just about everything.
An in depth look into procrastination and its many forms uncovers a simple, 3 principle system for getting work done efficiently.
And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.
There are all kinds of business models out there, but I think the most ingenious one has to be universities. They are massive money making machines and its crazy how they are able to get everyone to pay for an education they can’t afford.
When you look at the university industry from a business perspective there is one thing that they seem to disregard that is central to any business, having a customer focus and by customer in this situation I mean the students.
Universities have become too big to be flexible and meet needs of their students anymore, essentially they do what they see fit and everyone else has to fit into the box that is a university or major. Think about the choices you have as a student. Basically you can choose your major and perhaps a few electives here and there, but that’s all the choice they allow. This may not be true for all colleges, but it is for the majority.
If you think about, when was the last time a university asked you, the paying customer, the student, what YOU wanted from the school?
When the students are what makes the universities prosper, make millions of dollars, and empowers them to continually raise tuition, then shouldn’t the students be better served? Shouldn’t they have a larger voice? Universities don’t serve their customers adequately for how much we pay them.
Fortunately, at the same time we’re seeing a counter movement in education in the use of technology, content, and design to deliver a higher quality, individualized experience to students that meets their needs. Organizations such as the Khan Academy, P2PU, and Academic Earth are giving the power to the students instead of the teachers or institutions.
I can understand how many are saying the education system may be the next bubble, but at the same time no real change will occur until our preconceived perceptions of these systems and their value are broken. In the meantime, let’s continue paying off our student loans.
Sorry for the delay, was travelling and had some technical difficulties, but here’s this week’s top links!
This HBR articles acknowledges the importance of collaboration for success, but there are a number of misconceptions that can seriously derail productive teamwork. These include harmony, fluidity, size, communication methods, leadership, and talent.
Education has been a hot topic this year and one trend that is apparent is the movement of learning into a digital format, accessible to all. In this video, we are introduced to DIY U and the future of education, based on the new book from Anya Kamenetz.
This article from behavioral economist Dan Ariely explores the interesting situation in which we make many of our choices. More importantly he shows how we often alter our choices to match our underlying preferences, despite external pressures.
In this Q&A with Janet Echelman from the TED Blog, we learn more about the creative overlap. She talks about the need for time to stumble upon the creative, the importance of collaboration across fields, and pushing the limits.
Seth Godin does it again, as he compares and contrasts the work we do in two very different contexts. Either we can work for someone or we can work for ourselves, which do you think is more fulfilling?
And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.
Welcome to this week’s links!
… to quit college and start businesses. Peter Thiel’s program “20 under 20″ is designed to give students funds to startup new businesses instead of stay in college. A bit extreme, but its definitely making a statement about issues with the education system.
The latest tool from LinkedIn Labs comes in the form of a connection timeline. Now you can watch how you built up your network over the years, which is pretty cool to see if you have an established network already.
These ten YouTube videos cover some of the great thought leaders of our time and useful advice for all entrepreneurs. Learn from Steve Jobs, Seth Godin, Muhammad Yunus, Warren Buffet, and more.
Disney decided to spend some cash and come out with the first graphic novel via HTML5 for the movie Tron: Legacy. The novel is very well put together and using HTML5 really brings the story to life.
In a recent McKinsey report released for the eG8 forum, we get more insight into just how big of an economic driver the internet has become. There’s also a number of charts and graphics that convey the most important information from their report, which is also available.
And if you missed last week’s links check them out here.
Welcome to this week’s top links!
What exactly do students get with the ridiculous amounts of tuition they pay every semester? An important question as more and more students are facing ever increasing student loans. Seth Godin tries to clarify the real value of the money being spent.
In a TED Talk by Ron Gutman, we get a high level overview of just how powerful smiling can be. Some surprising findings include its impact on longevity and how a smile can create positive emotions in others, very interesting stuff.
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely shares some further insights into the area of self-control. He covers how our self-control is essentially challenged everyday and how we can develop the ability for our own benefit. Also, the marshmallow experiment video near the end is hilarious.
Another showcase of HTML5 is found in the interactive film ROME for the latest collaboration album between Danger Mouse, Jack White, and Norah Jones. Its really cool stuff, but as it says its experimental, so you should use Chrome to watch it.
A recent post from 37 Signals talks about how it is the process that is more important than the passion, when doing business. There are some great points in the article about the issues with following your passion and how to find meaning in your work. Also for more from 37 Signals, check out their book Rework, that rethinks the assumptions of business settings.
And if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.
Welcome to this week’s top links!
Ever wonder what kind of media Malcolm Gladwell consumes? Well in this series called Media Diet from the Atlantic Wire, we get insights into Gladwell’s media consumption, as well as several others, such as Eric Schmidt, Clay Shirky, and more.
Video Games as a solution for education has been a growing trend of late, and Bill Gates is clearly pushing the trend forward. In this article from Fast Company we see how video games are taking a bigger role in the re-design of education for the future.
Eric Schmidt recently interviewed Tina Fey at Google HQ to discuss her new book, comedy, and life. It’s a good interview with some great advice from Tina Fey, and Eric Schmidt was a surprisingly good interviewer.
There’s a few different ways to overcome procrastination: habit, fear, deadlines, but incentives or bribery is apparently the trendy solution. In this article from Fortune, we look at how properly framed incentives can get us to act.
I’m sure everyone has heard about the iPhone tracking scandal by now, but this article from the Economist dives deeper into the issue touching on the responses from Apple and Steve Jobs, the real problems, and the possibility of similar problems on the Android OS.
Also, if you missed last week’s links, check them out here.
I’ve noticed lately just how much we’ve started to focus on the value of failure. It seems we’re understanding that failing is how we learn, how we grow, how we gain experience. I know I remember my failures much better than my successes, because they teach us something new and valuable every time.
Posts from Seth Godin, Wired, and Harvard Business Review have been hitting on failure more and more often, but are we seeing any significant changes? I’m not so sure. The underlying problems of accepting failure and making mistakes can be seen in the education system, where we get it drilled into our impressionable minds where being right is all that matters, and if you’re not right you’re basically stupid.
Additionally, even though we can acknowledge the importance of failure and making mistakes, are we able to actually be open to them, be receptive and accepting to situations when we have failures? Can we see the bigger picture, rather than feeling crappy, embarrassed, and discouraged? A recent TED Talk from Kathryn Schulz talks further about this idea of acceptance and being wrong. You can watch the full video below.
Are you ready to fail?