greenbananablog.org

Critical Thought about Senseless Contradictions

Archive for the ‘Sustainability’ Category

The Future of Business: Innovation and Sustainability based on what we love more than what we measure…

December 17th, 2009

I’m reminded of the axiom that we measure what we value but what we love, we protect. This 3 minute video explains pretty well why that is and why new business models must reach for more than trust, performance, and respect. As Saachi advertising gurus brought out last year, trademarks must be replaced by lovemarks.

We live in an experience market more than a consumer market. Sustainable experiences are those experiences we love and to which we want to come back and invite others.

What about education? What model do we use in the design of our schools and the learning we deliver? Are we meeting the needs of stakeholders? We would do well to reconsider, rethink, redesign, and reconstruct from the ground up.

Posted via web from Dallas’s posterous

Comments

Posted in Futurism, Sustainability, Technology

Tags: business future love measure values

Polar Sea Ice Cap and Snow – Cryosphere Today – iPhone friendly puts data in your hands

December 17th, 2009

recent Arctic ice area N. hemispheric ice area N. hemispheric anomaly seasonal sea ice

via arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu

Before jumping on the ice-melt bandwagon, we should arm ourselves with the facts. This university science center website offers visual data, both historic and current.

The adaptation to the iPhone demonstrates how education is being changed by hand-held devices. Just this past week, a school in the U.K. gave iPhones to every student. Imagine trying to argue and debate with ubiquitous access to data in the palm of our hands.

Of course, critical thinking skills are still needed to sort through the vast array of opinion and conjecture and to skillfully help others release their death grip on old ideas without losing face.

Posted via web from Dallas’s posterous

Comments

Posted in Conservationism, Critical Thinking, Education, Environment, environmentalism, Internet, Social Media, Sustainability, Technology

Tags: apps global warming iphone polar ice cap Technology web2.0

‘We’ll Work for Free,’ Say Retired Professors, but Colleges Struggle With How to Use Them. Really?

December 17th, 2009

via chronicle.com

This is a good example of how the old business model is so entrenched within the educational institution, that we can’t see for forest for the trees. Experienced, retired professors are willing to teach for free. But we can’t figure out how to make that work. Hmm… perhaps because money interests outweigh education interests? Is that a crowded football stadium I hear roaring??

Where are our priorities? Look what Open University is doing (started by retired professors I remind you). With all our brains, we can’t figure out how to make a new model sustainable? I find that hard to believe. What is easier to believe is that the discomfort faced by the entrenched at the thought of losing their jobs, prevents them for doing their job which is to educate the next generation.

If our forefathers had this attitude when founding our Nation, we wouldn’t have a nation. Self sacrifice for the common and future good took precedence over personal comforts. Who wants to make a difference? really??

Posted via web from Dallas’s posterous

Any student, any subject, anywhere (guardian.co.uk)
Current directions in educational repositories (slideshare.net)
The #Future of #Business: #Innovation and #Sustainability based on what we #love more than what we #measure (greenbananablog.org)

Comments

Posted in Education, Futurism, Government, Internet, Sustainability, Technology

Tags: Add new tag Colleges and Universities Education Educators Open University

Everything I needed to know wasn’t available in Kindergarten… – The Future of Education

December 12th, 2009

via futureofeducation.com

However, although information may help reduce risk, genuine learning increases capability. Education needs more information as badly as a certain golfer needs endorsements.

Posted via web from Dallas’s posterous

Comments

Posted in Critical Thinking, Education, Futurism, Sustainability, Technology

Tags: Education learning society values

Congressional Mathmatics…

December 8th, 2009

I rec’d this email today…

How many zeros in a billion?

The next time you hear a politician use the
word ‘billion’ in a casual manner, think about
whether you want the ‘politicians’ spending
YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend,
but one advertising agency did a good job of
putting that figure into some perspective in
one of it’s releases.

A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
A billion minutes ago, Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
A billion hours ago was the Stone Age.
A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our mind, let’s take a look at New Orleans. It’s amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking Congress for
250 BILLION DOLLARS to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number…
what does it mean?

A. Well… if you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans
(every man, woman, and child)
you each get $516,528.

B. Or… if you have one of the 188,251 homes in
New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787..

C. Or… if you are a family of four…
your family gets $2,066,012.

Now do the math yourself and figure out how much every man,
woman and child in the U.S. would get if we split among us,
the $800 Billion allocated for the Health-care bill*

*(which requires the formation of 118 new government agencies to manage).

How is your math?

Comments

Posted in Critical Thinking, Futurism, Government, Health, Simple Living, Sustainability

Tags: billion Government health care spending

What are Educational Technologist Leadership Competencies?

December 1st, 2009

The cool possibilities about the more than 200 real-time web 2.0 tools under development (Like Google Wave) is that sync and async are being melded together along with multi-dimensional communication tools such as voice, text, image, video, etc.

When semantic web becomes the standard (searchable text becomes recognizable object) then tagging and bookmarking values will be reduced and personal and group collections will become more useful.

Such collections will not simply consist of some items “saved” to another location, but more likely will consist of “searched” items and “pointed to” results. http://popurls.com is demonstrating the real-time value of aggregating crowd sourced and theme specific topics. Studying such real-time results can be a great source of discussion for critical thinking development.

The most important quality for Ed Tech leaders is to understand trends and adapt their craft to emerging innovations. Higher education may do students a disservice by focusing too much on tool techniques and too little on trend research.

Comments

Posted in Critical Thinking, Education, Futurism, Internet, Media, pedagogy, Social Media, Sustainability, Technology

Tags: Critical Thinking Education future pedagogy Technology web2.0

Community is Not Superficial…

November 5th, 2009

Cooperation is working toward a common goal. Collaboration results in collateral material. However, community may or may not be present and/or result from either cooperative or collaborative efforts.

AND COMMUNITY IS THE GOAL!

Which is why teachers should be careful about assigning cooperative and collaborative work without a clear goal in mind of fostering community.

Community cannot exist without a sense of trust and belonging; a sense that each member’s contribution is valued and necessary; and the belief that what the community produces bears significant impact on MORE than the community itself.

I have pondered this phenomenon a great deal recently due to my position with iMMEDIA and have come up with our Mission statement as follows: Shaping communities of impact through professional development targeting technology integration.

My point is that unless we visionize our student groups with the why; then the “what” and the “how” remain irrelevant and dysfunction results. The assignment may get done but not community resulted and in my opinion, we have done nothing more than drive the herd to market. I find this distasteful to the uttermost.

If there is not impact, members feel like they are given busy work. If the only goal is self enlightenment, members grow tired of the monotony of self centered foci.

If we ask them to cooperate, there must be a bigger reason than the subject matter alone. If we ask them to collaborate, the resulting collateral material should impact a wider audience than the group/class itself. It may work for awhile. But eventually everyone will see through the gloss and look elsewhere to satisfy their innate need to pursue the greater good.

Comments

Posted in Education, Futurism, Internet, pedagogy, Simple Living, Social Media, Sustainability, Technology

Tags: collaboration collateral community cooperation Education pedagogy teaching web2.0

eLearn 2009 Chock Full of Useful Tools & Ideas…

October 28th, 2009

When hundreds of educators from all over the earth gather to share current research about the integration of technology in education, the results are bound to be exciting and eLearn 2009 in Vancouver, B.C. has been no exception.

Research about Web 2.0 tools, education trends, learning theory, instructional design, content development and MORE are explained and discussed in dozens of concurrent sessions held day by day during the week long gathering.

The experience confirms my own educational experience is up-to-date. The questions I bring to the table are the same questions being researched around the planet. There are no easy answers but many useful tips are shedding light on the path ahead. Here are just a few encouraging highlights…

1. The digital divide is not just about personal access to technology in a remote region. We learned of many organizations who use technology to raise support for charitable efforts. Those efforts, in turn, benefit people who may still not enjoy direct access to the technology but who receive aide from the organization nonetheless. This needs to be considered when we discuss the digital divide.

2. Gaming research is demonstrating unique possibilities for online textbook design that engages students who need to conquer levels (chapters) in order to move on. They can cooperate online and share tips with one another as they learn the game (material). The possibilities are limitless.

3. Outside forces such as economic stress, are forcing the creation of networked communities in order to accomplish mutual goals and fulfill mutual needs. The communities themselves are distilling various Web 2.0 tools in order to simplify to the lowest common denominator, a platform for collective information and action.

4. Open sourcing, open education, and open publishing are flattening access to scholarship.

5. Technology is the answer. What was the question? The question concerns Wider Access, Higher Quality, and Lower Cost. These are the drivers of current Web 2.0 applications.

Resource links:

http://aace.org/conf/elearn/

Free books: http://aupress.ca

http://publicationshare.com

http://communitiesofinquiry.com

Of course, the same questions many of us have been asking, remain. How do we motivate teachers to create network communities for professional development in light of the time barrier? Many researchers here are working on the creating of Bot Tutors to guide individuals according to the assessment of their aggregated work and present needs and future dreams. As computer processing speeds up, we will see the creation of computer generated simulations and suggestions customized to users based on such things. The future is now. We just need to get rid of the trees in order to see the forest. lol

Comments

Posted in Education, Internet, pedagogy, Social Media, Sustainability, Technology

Tags: educational technology elearn elearn2009

Simple Living with a twist…

February 13th, 2008

I’ve enjoyed the thoughtful comments from the class (Soc 333 on Sociology of Environment) concerning the simple living movement. However, I noted some inconsistencies due either to misunderstanding or circular reasoning. I wish to clarify two of them.

First, simple living is not the reduction of Man-made items. From beginning of time, man has made his shelter and clothing and containers for food and weapons to secure food. It might be better stated that Man should continue to progress by making new items in » More: Simple Living with a twist…

Comments

Posted in Environment, Simple Living, Sustainability

Tags: Environment Simple Living Sustainability synthesis