Personal Blogs
Covent Garden & Soho
Social Learn
What academics and authoritative authors have to say about blogging
Birds of a Feather: How personality influences blog writing and reading. (2010) Jami Li and Mark Chignell. Science Direct. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 68 (2010) 589-602
Top 10 Most Influential eLearning Bloggers
Channel Flip
A tonic for TMA blues
The mortality of ideas (and incandescent light bulbs)
I've wanted to quote this for many years.
Winston Fletcher used this with images at an Advertising Association presentation at the CBI in October 1984.
When the client moans and sighs
Make his logo twice the size
If the client still proves refractory
Show a picture of the factory
Only in the gravest cases
Should you show the clients' faces
Found in 'Welcome to Optimism' after several false starts finding the right search terms for Google.
This is another way to look at it:
I was a trainee Rep at JWT.
My merry dance around the world of advertising continues with occasional afternoons mentoring at the School of Communication Arts which I attended in 1987.
I kept a daily diary at the time, most days a single sheet of A4 whether I felt like it or not.
This was Tuesday 9th October 1984.
It was a fortnightly or weekly IPA meeting that attracted graduate account managers from across the London advertising agencies. The diary entry reminds me who I was with, the ads we looked at, where I was and what I got up to. Plenty in fact to bring it all back in considerable detail.
The other quote or image I am looking for was a set of dimming light bulbs to illustrate the 'Mortality of ideas' something that threatens and crushes many a great project.
B822 TMA3 DONE!
Done and sent!
I can trim 100 words and a final check of grammar, punctuation and sense will do no harm.
It adds nothing to the word count and appears to entertain the tutors so I illustrate my assignments. Well, I add pertinent photos, charts and diagrams. The use of photos should be encoruaged, indeed in the MAODE aren't we able to submit multimedia? I remember an assignment that some presented as a short video.
Unusually for me I have 12+ hours in hand. I also have a day in London seeing production companies. I'll take in a print out. If I'm inclined to do so, or want of a few marks or just making my tutor's life easier, I'll edit and re-submit before the midnight deadline.
For all my MAODE modules that would be it. This being an elective that comes from the OU MBA means there is an exam at the end of April
If you could recall everything is this helpful or a hinderance?
Resistance and an EMA
The EMA is due on Monday.
Instead of writing the penultimate draft from the notes, earlier drafts, diagrams and pics I have assembled I am spinning through people's blogs. On the MAODE modules this served a purpose because there are always a handful of people who get into the blog thing on H800, H808, H807 and H809. However I have only ever come across TWO people doing any MBA module here and never anyone who is doing or has done B822 'Creativity, Innovation & Change'. All I need, or benefit from is the knowledge that I am in the same place they are or were ... or are reaching, to help clear the fog so that I can give the thing some certain shape. One trick, I've done this, is to write my TMA into this blog space ... never publish, but somehow I feel, momentarily, I have grabbed my space on the Church Hall platform and I have no choice but to talk through what I've got.
What have I got?
- Five parts with a very clear sense of how many words per part are permitted and will work for what I think I know.
- A couple of drafts which very unusually for me gives a total some 1000 words under rather than 10000 words over the required total.
- A neat collection of course work references, quotes and diagrams.
- Evidence in the form of photos, more diagrams, and comments on the topic from discussions that I seeded 'businessy' groups in Linkedin.
- This stuff printed out and in digital form.
- Two hours before I need to get off to the swimming club where I swim an early morning Masters session then teach for a few hours.
SO
- Focus on pulling stuff together for two hours.
- Do the swim.
- Then look at it afresh this afternoon.
- This is a REPORT, so keep each part objective, and contained by the word count.
- Stop fretting! A pass will do, but if I submit nothing a fail is inevitable
- It MUST go on Sunday as I'm in London all day Monday.
(P.S. At some stage I'll be wandering around the Hockney at the RA if anyone wants to meet up)
The Future of Productivity
This matters
a) I've theorised about web 2.0 to web 4.0 before
b) This adds a recognised business theory, as it takes the 'S' model or 'Sigmoid' Curve 'Business Cycle' of Chales Handy
With some of this SlideShare on Social Media Monitor
New businesses in a radical market
'As soon as a new radical market emerges, hundreds of new entrants rush to colonize it. Before long, consolidation takes place and most of the early entrants disappear. A few survive. But even these early survivors usually are not the ones that end up conquering the new market. The true winners are those that undertake a series of actions that scales up the new market. How do they do that?' Markides and Geroski (2004)
Can you think of organisations that have been a flash in the pan, that came out of the DOT COM boom and went bust? Who are the winners and losers going to be with Web 2.0?
Reference
Markides.C; Geroski, P. (2004) Strategy and Business, 35: 2-10
Stories and Metaphor 12th January 2012
From the B822 Techniques Library we learn that we relate to stories; the parallels to our own lives provide meaning.
I'd say that to be successful audiences must feel empathy with any story, whether for entertainment or to get attention in a business context.
Bill Naylor takes this well attended session.
He starts with the story of a Merchant
(I thought we were going to get the 'Merchant of Venice'. It felt like something from 14th century Italy, like a piece from Bocacio's Decameron).
The story concerned a merchant, his beautiful daughter and a money lender. Unable to pay back the loan the money lender suggests a deal, his daughter in marriage and the debt will be dropped. To help the merchant he offers to put two stones in a bag, one white, one black to be picked out by the daughter. It is agreed. The daughter happens to see the money lender putting two black stones in the bag. What does she do?
We offer our solutions, though none get the Merchant off the hook and save the daughter.
- Take none
- Take both
- Pick a pebble.
CHEAT
- Herself by picking up a white pebble and hiding it in her hand.
Transpose the rules
Actually she dropped the black pebble and said they'd know which one it was.
To create strategic clarity
"Stories stick in your mind like mental velcro." Naylor (2011)
- They create strategic clarity
- They create a connection
- They embed values
- They compel or inspire to take action
- They are revealing
- Stories connect us to a purpose and improve our performance
Quotes Henry V on the eve of The Battle of Agincourt
E.g. Chairman of the board.
STORYTELLING AT WORK
- An icebreaker
- Induction
- Communications
- Learning. (Boje 1991)
- Strategy
- Action
A story usedby De Bono about Columbus
Egg on its end. Breaks the tip so that it would stand on its end. Once done anyone can do it.
- Story of a young character on his first day having a word with a gruff character on the train in.
- The story of the fat man in the bath in relation to consumer law and returned products, in this case a bath that had sat for 5 months. Bill at a builder's merchants.
- Splintered toilet seat. The lady had a history of such issues.
- The thin man in the shower. Covered in soap he couldn't turn it off.
SPECTRUM
- Little s
- Anecdotes
- Examples
- Rcounts
- Big S
- Movies
- Epics
IMAGE
VS. The uncanny valley of business story telling ... Plummets.
ELEMENTS
- Characters
- Plot
- Conflict
- Resolution
MYTHICAL THEMES
- Creation
- Struggle for self-discovery and identity
- Battles, warriors, heroes (building of the M62)
- Jack Welch 'neutron bomb' Manager of the Century. 'Winning' Topping and tailing'
- Finance the top, ditch the bottom. (not unlike Steve Jobs)
- Love, self-sacrifice, dedication
- Wisdom and maturity
Three Huberts on a hill, three rivals.
Owns a race horse, only half, which half? The rear end as it eats less.
WHERE USED
- Induction
- Formal and informal settings
- Before an event
- Teaming courses
- Newsletters
- Customer meetings
- Social events
- Team building sessions
Left brain right brain
(Simplistic and superseded?)
HOW STORIES WORK
- Auditory types NLP
- Absorbed playfulness (winnicott, 1972)
- An excursion from the problem.
- Stimulate new ideas
- Convey hidden messages (do you tell them or leave them to dwell on it)
- Enable uncurious learning
De Bono's 'Thinking Hats'
- Unsconscious
- Feta on the verge of sleep (best for learning)
- Relaxed awareness (best for learning)
... Achieved through story telling, with learning supported by light music.
CAVEAT
- Stuck in the metaphor
- Persuasiveness of advertising
WORKSHOP
- Participants write the first line of a story that others complete. John Brucker on metaphor.
- Write an essay 10 mins
- Draw a mind map of the story
Write a statement in 3 sentences of 5,7 and 5 syllables. (Japanese Haiku poetry form)
E.g. sales director or purchasing director, what is best for the company and what is best for me.
DEVELOP
- In pairs use why?
- Write a sentence on the problem
- Boundary examination
- Options for for As.
Jack welch
'My main job was developing talent. I was a gardener who provided water and other nourishment to our top 750 people. Of course I had to pull up a few weeds as well'. Jack Welch.
COMPONENTS OF THE METAPHPOR
- Topic : the original concept
- Vehicle
- Ground
- Tension
- Zolta Kovecses Metaphor: a practical introduction.
- John Brooker, yesand.biz
Joke
- Set up, and punch.
- Friend broken up with wife. With his best friend. Going to miss the friend.
SHOULD I QUIT MY JOB ?
- Metaphor: swimming Linguistic: Am I too far from the shore.
- With a systematic framework.
Mind Maps
Rich Pictures
FURTHER LINKS:
Metaphor & Analogy
METAPHOR
- A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
- A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, esp. something abstract.
Wikipedia - Dictionary.com - Answers.com - Merriam-Webster
ANALOGY
- A comparison between two things, typically on the basis of their structure and for the purpose of explanation or clarification - an analogy between the workings of nature and those of human societies - he interprets logical functions by analogy with
- A thing that is comparable to something else in significant respects - works of art were seen as an analogy for works of nature
- A process of arguing from similarity in known respects to similarity in other respects
- A process by which new words and inflections are created on the basis of regularities in the form of existing ones
- The resemblance of function between organs that have a different evolutionary origin
Why blog? A lecturer's perspective
Why blog? The lecturer's story
Dr Matthew Ashton's blog
Six months updating it roughly once a day. Around the 500 word mark range from topical pieces to reviews and commentary.
WHY?
A rewarding experience
New ways of teaching learning student engagement
A wide range of political topics every week. Students don’t fully engage with the wider subject area. An excellent knowledge of contemporary politics but less aware of events from before 1989.
Friday called “Great political mistakes” drip feeding them knowledge.
Saturday on “Political advertising” helps raise awareness amongst students of political advertising techniques and campaigns and how they’ve changed over time. A way of engaging with student learning.
By writing reviews of political films and books I can point students towards interesting ideas and resources.
Encouraging writing and research
500 words acts as a warm up exercise A way of stockpiling material. Prepared
New ways of sharing ideas and research findings
VS. The traditional dissemination of research through books and journals can take years.
It can act as an unofficial means of peer review.
Engaging with people outside the academic
Share ideas and dialogue with people from a range of countries and backgrounds.
For instance I’ve had some illuminating conversations with an American about Native American rights in the media and how they relate to the US Constitution.
In the same way people have pointed me towards books and documentaries that I wasn’t aware of that I’ve subsequently shared with my students.
Raising your academic profile
It is a source of material for the media. I’ve written several blog posts that have subsequently been used by the press as newspaper articles or led to me being interviewed on the radio. This is useful in terms of both raising my own profile and promoting the work done by the university.
On one recent occasion the press office contacted me to let me know that a blog article I’d written on Mubarak’s options in Egypt had appeared in a newspaper in Tanzania.
On a more local level I wrote an article based on my recent research on the coverage of female sports that was featured in the Nottingham Post newspaper.
20 Benefits of Mobile Learning
20 benefits of mobile learning
- Convenience and flexibility
- Relevance
- Learner control
- Good use of 'dead time'
- Fits many different learning styles
- Improves social learning (i.e. Communicating with peers and experts)
- Encourages reflection
- Easy evidence collection
- Supported decision making
- Speedier remediation
- Improved learner confidence
- Easily digestible learning
- Heightened engagement
- Better planning for face-to-face
- Great for induction
- Elimination of technological barriers
- Designed once; delivered across multiple platforms
- Easily trackable via wifi
- Cost-effective build
- A means to recoup money
EPIC
Dr Chris Davies, Head of the e-learning research group, Oxford Prof. John Traxler, Prof. Of Mobile Learning
2011
Epic.co.UK/assets/files/20_benefits_of_mobile.PDF
(accessed 8 September 2011)
Personalisation
There is evidence to suggest value in “vicarious interaction,” in which non-active participants gain from observing and empathizing with active participants (Sutton, 2001; Fulford and Zhang, 1993), also Cox (2006)
For learning on the periphery you need John Seely- Brown, who gave a keynote speech on the subject here at The OU in October 2007.
The webcast:
My notes:
This is the transcript of that session:
REFERENCE
Cox, R. (2006) Vicarious Learning and Case-based Teaching of Clinical Reasoning Skills (2004–2006) [online], http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ esrcinfocentre/ viewawardpage.aspx?awardnumber=RES-139-25-0127 [(last accessed 10 March 2011).
Fulford, C. P., and Zhang, S. (1993). Perceptions of Interaction: The critical predictor in distance education. American Journal of Distance Education, 7(3), 8 – 21.
Sutton, L. (2001). The principles of vicarious interaction in computer-mediated communications. Journal of Interactive Educational Communications, 7(3), 223 – 242. Retrieved July 15, 2003 from: http://www.eas.asu.edu/elearn/research/suttonnew.pdf
Don’t say yes, unless you really want to do something.
Why do teenagers dislike having their picture taken?
Yet there will be hundreds of pictures shared on Flickr, Tumble and Facebook. Or was she saying 'I've not done my make-up?'
Out of control?
Immersive reading and research
B822 TMA 3
The Reluctant Vegetarian
I've done this before and been evanlegical; I'm doing it again for health reasons and intend to moan all the way.
Farm shop visit no longer lamb, beef and suasages, but veg.
So I will make some fantastic soups.
I'll have mushroom risotto, which is the next best thing to a beef stir fry.
I am roasting all kinds of vegetables in the oven to make a vegetable stock to die for.
My in-laws are vegetarian, my daughter is vegetarian. I will do the same ... until. Well, the cholesterol levels drop below X. And I am a trim 12 stone.
So I swam with the club this morning at 7.20 am and feel great. Taking several teaching sessions afterawards I wished I too could be 8 or 9. These are watersprites, I'm a hippo.
P.S. I am meant to be writing a TMA
Ticking off the countries as anyone can gather in a global 'audience'
As I boy I had a Phillips Atlas. I shaded in all the counties if the UK as in my peripatetic way I stayed with friends, divorced parents and went on holiday. (I still have it stored in a Really Useful box in a garage).
Decades later I know the few counties that I haven't ticked off. I am not widely travelled: France regularly, otherwise the odd trip to Hong Kong, US, Spain, Sweden, Cyprus ... However, it would appear that my blog is picked up all over the planet. My task then is to have views from those countries not yet picked out in the terrific metrics that are provided by Wordpress.
Why not China? Is Wordpress blocked. How about Finland? I don't think Greenland is feasible.
As soon as a new radical market emerges, hundreds of new entrants rush to colonize it.
Before long, consolidation takes place and most of the early entrants disappear. A few survive. But even these early survivors usually are not the ones that end up conquering the new market. The true winners are those that undertake a series of actions that scales up the new market. How do they do that? Markides and Geroski (2004)
What's going on here? What examples can people think of?
High Street Computer Shops
Knowledge Shops
Quick Print Printers
Coffee Shops
Social Networks:
- Friends Reunited
- Tripod
- MySpace
PDAs & Netbooks
Reference
Markides.C; Geroski, P. (2004) Strategy and Business, 35: 2-10
You are where you work
What makes a university campus such as Harvard or Oxford a hotbed for entrepreneurs? Is this recreated in closed networks online or at Residential School. How come some buildings induce mental stagnation and disaffection whilst others are a delight? Where (no company or organisation names) have you worked where the architecture, landscaping and office lay-out are conducive to innovation?
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/23/tony-hsieh-las-vegas-zappos/
Serendipitous interactions, or what Tony Hseih calls 'spontaneous collisions' between people, are what spark ideas and facilitate relationships that lead to stronger ties and more ideas.
Have you worked for such a company?
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/23/tony-hsieh-las-vegas-zappos/
Hsieh calls his people "culture magicians". Steve Jobs designed this into fabric of Pixar and Apple.
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