To support the recent science and tech workshop, our YouTube channel is up and running.
Could a pair of cardboard goggles become a critical student engagement tool?
I invited Derrick Mains to my computer lab yesterday to explain Augmented Reality, and what doors it might open for us educators, and of course students. I think I am sold!
Many students have heard of AR and VR, and you would be surprised how curious they are about this. Just as they are more interested in photography today because of disruptive devices such as the GoPro, they are more interested in Apps like these because of what it could do “seeing things differently.”
As Derrick explained, this is another way to use Apps in education. Not just to stare at a screen but to ignore the screen (which disappears, the moment you put these goggles on) and engage and explore new worlds. We are not talking about fictitious virtual worlds, but uncharted territories whether it is at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, or to observe an eco-system in a rain forest.
Some of you might remember Derrick Mains from his work in social media. He was one of my co-presenters in a workshop on Digital Citizenship. The reason he’s on camera again, is because he will be in one of the several videos I am producing with my Salt River Pima-Maricopa TV team for another upcoming workshop.
Employees are either ticked off or raring to go. That’s the commonly held wisdom, right?
I wanted to find out and conducted a survey before my radio show, Your Triple Bottom Line. Some pleasant surprises: A large percentage of responders have positive things to say about the workplace. (The survey is still open for a week, so that number could change.)
However, when asked to describe what a terrible place to work was, one respondent cited “Filth, blind micro-management, too many chiefs.”
Hmmm! Too many chiefs is a common refrain whenever I speak to companies about what’s the biggest stumbling block to a more collaborative workplace.
I conducted this snap survey because we were planning on asking our guest, a much-acclaimed author of the book Fired Up Or Burned Out, about what kind of leadership makes workplaces so dreary or at other times, inspiring. The book (it’s received great reviews on Amazon!) takes you into the ‘power of connection’ at work from the American Revolution to… Starbucks!
Show # 8 – with Michael Stallard
Download a PDF of the book free here.
Cross-posting this from the Show blog, Your3bl.com
If you are new to the webinar series –and I know some of you will be based on the requests from companies — here is a preview of what we will be talking about in the webinar on LinkedIn tomorrow. I say tomorrow, because it will be the night of August 16th for me in the US, even though it will be the morning of the 17th in Sri Lanka!
LinkedIn is a ‘gated community’ and is much smaller than, say, Facebook. But it is also a super professional network that lets you build networks within the network. You develop solid connections and have richer conversations within this ‘closed’ (which is also a ‘private’) environment.
Here is my short take on LinkedIn: I think of LinkedIn as a knowledge–sharing portal, rather than a friend hang-out. It lets you ‘communicate to the niches’ rather than waste your resources on mass communication tactics.
Here is my co-presenter, Derrick Mains on the subject.
Some of you may recall that I featured Derrick in a guest spot during a previous webinar. Steve England will also join us as usual, with his amazing ideas on how mobile devices are powering social networks.
Here’s the format of the webinar:
After the break:
I think it’s a fair question, and one I raised in my second podcast for GreenNurture.
If you only read the tweets and sites that conform to your interest, you’d miss the contra views. As a writer, and practitioner, I keep an eye on those other points of view. (I get the usual snarky comment: “I don’t want to hear that someone’s having carrots for lunch”)
And there are mixed reviews pouring in every week about what social media is doing to employee productivity, with millions of employees taking to Facebook, Twitter and online games.
Here are a few recent reports:
I put the productivity gains question to Derrick Mains CEO of GreenNurture to find out what a CEO –who tweets much more than I– has to say. Mains has two words to describe its value: frontline intelligence. To him it’s a remake of that old static engagement tool –the suggestion box.
“Social media simply blew the sides of the suggestion box,” he says.
On this podcast Mains talks of how organizations that frown on online social activity are missing out on frontline intelligence.
Hoipolloireport 