Learn to Adapt

• Working with Cognitive Load – Continuing on the brain biology and learning techniques theme!
• Top tips for using neurology to improve elearning – As a once-upon-a-time biologist, I love it when biology is applied to learning. From the article: "This means that it’s important to recognise which brain mechanism is appropriate for the type of training you want to deliver."

written by Jeff Kelly \\ tags: biology, bookmark, l2a, Learning, learning2.0

• Set in Our Ways: Why Change Is So Hard: Scientific American – A great article from Scientific American on the biology/psychology of why people are naturally resistant to change. Interestingly, it claims people are more tolerant of change during their 20s and then again after 60.
• Pew Internet: Future of the Internet – Pew Internet research releases the results of its survey on the future of the Internet. Much as expected, with the exception of one finding that surprised me: "The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness." I think we may see more tolerance overall as everyone moves to "wearing a transparent kimono."

written by Jeff Kelly \\ tags: biology, bookmark, change, culture, future, innovation, Internet, l2a, psychology, statistics, technology

• Ask Nature – the Biomimicry Design Portal: biomimetics, architecture, biology, innovation inspired by nature – As a biologist by training, I constantly see ways in which effective business systems mimic biological systems. This looks like a wonderful site for inspiration. From the site: "That's the idea behind AskNature, the online inspiration source for the biomimicry community. Think of it as your home habitat—whether you're a biologist who wants to share what you know about an amazing organism, or a designer, architect, engineer, or chemist looking for planet-friendly solutions. AskNature is where biology and design cross-pollinate, so bio-inspired breakthroughs can be born."
• learningscience.org – A topic near and dear to my heart. And based on the latest international test results, we need it now more than ever…

written by Jeff Kelly \\ tags: biology, biomimicry, bookmark, education, innovation, inspiration, l2a, Learning, nature, resources, science, technology

• 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?

written by Jeff Kelly \\ tags: biology, bookmark, brain, Business, children, data, digitaldivide, e-learning, education, enterprise2.0, l2a, Learning, learning2.0, marketing, mind, science, socialnetworking, technology, theory, visualization, Web2.0

• The Growth of Open APIs: More Evidence That Web Services Drive Network Effects [Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 Blog] – Dion extrapolates the growth of Amazon Web Services to the Web as a whole. The question remains how to monetize this usage. Without the scale or intrinsic financial incentive of Amazon, how do other companies leverage APIs successfully?
• The Science of Irrationality: Why We Humans Behave So Strangely: Scientific American – MIT's Dan Ariely discusses his research in behavioral economics and explains how to deal with our brain's flawed decision-making process.

written by Jeff Kelly \\ tags: amazon, api, biology, bookmark, hinchcliffe, l2a, Learning, mind, mit, psychology, Web2.0, webservices