Change | It's About Learning

Minute.io & Saving Time

Dwayne Harapnuik — June 9, 2011 — Leave a comment

With so much to do and with so little time finding something that can help you save a few minutes in every day is extremely valuable. Therefore, I am forever in pursuit the the right app, web-app or piece of software that will make me moire efficient. Minute.io is a web-based service that simply enables you to record your meeting minutes, assign tasks/outcomes and then send those task out to meeting participants in an email. The meeting minutes can also be shared through a secret URL.

While these features are enough to entice me to use the service it is the coming or advance features that should make the service even more effective. Being able to send out a custom email with grouped ToDo is one feature that I am looking forward to but I am really looking forward to the integration of this service with my project management tools. If Minute.io will allow me to push my ToDos to Evernote, Things or Getitdone then this service will be even more valuable and could save me even more time. I will be watching this closely….

In Change, Innovation get it done, mangement, time

No More Digital Facelifts & Bags of Gold

Dwayne Harapnuik — March 16, 2011 — Leave a comment

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At the 3:00 minute mark of this talk, from the Open Education Conference in May 2009, Gardner Campbell relates trying to introduce faculty to the potential of connected world by comparing to giving out bags of gold.

”It’s as if day after day, I say, ‘I have a bag of gold, would you like a bag of gold?’ and they say, ‘How do you have time for bags of gold?’”

This is a classic example of squandered potential. Thanks Gardner.

In Change, Uncategorized gold

Let Kids Rule the School

Dwayne Harapnuik — March 15, 2011 — Leave a comment

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/opinion/15engel.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=let%20kids%20rule%20the%20school&st=cse

Let Kids Rule the School – NYTimes.com via kwout

Eight public high school students, aged 15 to 17, in western Massachusetts under the supervision of their guidance counselor and various teachers designed and ran their own school within a school. The students designed their own curriculum, deciding to split their September-to-January term into two halves and took on much more work than was normally the case for even A.P. Students. The students worked with and supported each other and even wrote and filmed a movie demonstrating how students could design their own learning.

The project was a success. After returning to their conventional curriculum the students are highly motivated and are doing well. Two of the seniors are applying to selective liberal arts colleges. The lessons learned here are that if students are given the opportunity to take control or contribute significantly to their own learning they will become more accomplished, more engaged and more knowledgeable. But isn’t this really what learning is all about. Should we be surprised by these positive results?

Read the full article…

In Change, Innovation, Learning autonomy, mastery, purpose

Gartner Group IT Predictions

Dwayne Harapnuik — December 2, 2010 — Leave a comment

Tis the season of prognostication and the folks from the Gartner Group have offered the following list of prediction for IT over the next 5 years. Since IT plays such a significant role in Education or any sort of organization for that matter, these predictions will impact all of us.

These wording in each of these predictions is quoted directly from Gartner.

By 2015, a G20 nation’s critical infrastructure will be disrupted and damaged by online sabotage.
By 2015, new revenue generated each year by IT will determine the annual compensation of most new Global 2000 CIOs.
By 2015, information-smart businesses will increase recognized IT spending per head by 60 percent.
By 2015, tools and automation will eliminate 25 percent of labor hours associated with IT services.
By 2015, 20 percent of non-IT Global 500 companies will be cloud service providers.
By 2014, 90 percent of organizations will support corporate applications on personal devices.
By 2013, 80 percent of businesses will support a workforce using tablets.
By 2015, 10 percent of your online “friends” will be nonhuman.

Read the full Gatner summary…

In Change

Scholars Test Web Alternative to Peer Review

Dwayne Harapnuik — August 23, 2010 — Leave a comment

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/arts/24peer.html?_r=1

For Scholars, Web Changes Sacred Rite of Peer Review – NYTimes.com via kwout

The following statement is key to the whole New York Times article and to the debate over opening up the peer review process:

…the goal is not necessarily to replace peer review but to use other, more open methods as well.

In opposition to this perspective is the traditional notion that evaluating originality and intellectual significance can be done only by experts in a field.

Yet academics like Mr. Cohen who regularly posts his work online are finding the exact opposite: