Learn to Adapt

• Instruction eLearning 2.0 and Quality : eLearning Technology - Tony Karrer resonds to comments regarding the "quality" of content being shared using Web 2.o tools (wikis, blogs) for learning. He's spot on in his response. I deal with the same resistance to change. The final accounting is "does performance improve?
• Even Poor Kids Are Social Network Savvy: Scientific American Podcast - Closing the "digital divide"? Study from the University of Minnesota says these days even the least privileged kids have profiles on MySpace and Facebook. And they’re on the internet all the time.
• Our Brains on Marketing: Scans Show Why We Like New Things: Scientific American - "We know not to judge a book by its cover—but new research shows that may be exactly what we do. Scientists have discovered that novel objects perk up the reward system of our brains"
• The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete - Chris Anderson postulates: "The new availability of huge amounts of data, along with the statistical tools to crunch these numbers, offers a whole new way of understanding the world." A transformational theory…
• It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know: Work in the Information Age - Ethnographic research on personal social networks in the workplace, arguing that traditional institutional resources are being replaced by resources that workers mine from their own networks.
• SocialLearn: Bridging the Gap Between Web 2.0 and Higher Education at e-Literate - Martin Weller ponders: "when learners have been accustomed to very facilitative, … and adaptive tools both for learning and socialising, why will they accept standardised, unintuitive, clumsy and out of date tools in formal education?

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• Preparing Students to Succeed in the 21st Century - Liz Davis reiterates the importance that teachers get with the program if the US wants to compete effectively in the 21st century.
• How to Unleash Your Creativity: Scientific American - In a discussion with Scientific American Mind executive editor Mariette DiChristina, three noted experts on creativity, each with a very different perspective and background, reveal powerful ways to unleash your creat­ive self.

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• The Future of Media >> TV Gets More Social - Perhaps we can move beyond the boob tube: "New technologies focusing on the convergence of TV and community continue to turn watching TV into a social activity."
• OLPC XO Laptop 2.0 Has Dual Touchscreens, Looks Amazing and Future-y - OK - Great. But how will this new design hold up in a developing nation environment? I wonder if OLPC has lost focus from its primary misson..
• Once shunned by academics, Wikipedia now a teaching tool (AFP) by AFP: Yahoo! Tech - The cultural tides are changing to embrace Web 2.0: "Wikipedia, the upstart Internet encyclopedia that most universities forbid students to use, has suddenly become a teaching tool for professors"
• Unplugging Conferences (Techlearning blog) - Steve Hargadon shares his twelve (OK - thirteen) "Ideas for enhancing or creating self-organized meetings". Unconfrences are (potentially) a great opportunity to recreate Web spontaneity and dynamic learning in a live setting.

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• How Tetris Makes You Smarter - Blogs Scientific American Community - Julian Lyles Bass-Krueger, 14, of Clinton, NY does a great science fair experiment to show how you new digital environment can effect our intelligence (at least the intelligence tested in spatial questions in IQ tests).
• Microsoft Joins Effort for Laptops for Children - New York Times - OLPC continues to evolve: After a years-long dispute, Microsoft and the computing and OLPC said Thursday that they had reached an agreement to offer Windows on the organization’s computers.
• FRONTLINE: Growing Up Online | PBS - PBS program Frontline always asks: "Just how radically is the Internet transforming the experience of childhood?"
• Predictify, Inc. - Tap Into Collective Wisdom, Make Money by Predicting Future Events - Another example of a prediction market to harness the wisdom of crowds. These collective intelligence sites will have a huge impact on how people learn and discern trends.

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These are my links for April 23rd through April 28th:

• Gin, Television, and Social Surplus - Here Comes Everybody - Transcript of Clay Shirky's great presentation at Web 2.0 Conference. As always, his insight into the social impact of technology is sharp as he walks us through all of us finding better things to do with our time (sorry TV).
• InSTEDD - Web 2.0 is not just about the money. The power of the Web and social networks is being harnessed to addressed some of the most importnt issues we face. InSTEDD is just one example. The Web is the global brain to help us learn and perform better.
• On Managing A Community | chrisbrogan.com - Chris Brogan weighs in on the emerging role of community manager. While his focus is on a media and events company, it is food for thought on what the tasks and measures should be for a learning community manager - a central role in Learning 2.0.
• Morgan Stanley’s March Internet Trends Report: Social Applications Dominating - Oh what a difference a year makes! A report chock full of data on the amazing and continuing growth of social networks. As this becomes a communications standard, it will have huge impact on how we work and learn.
• More Thoughts on Why Workplace Learning Is Largely Learning 1.0 -

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