A bit of Blackboard TLC | The Learning Edge Blackboard European Teaching and Learning Conference at Aston University, Birmingham Last week I was in Birmingham for the Blackboard Teaching and Learning Conference. This conference allows those interested or involved in Learning Technology to get together to discuss, demonstrate and network with colleagues from institutions all over Europe. The main themes involved: Engagement & RetentionInstructor AdoptionDigital Collaboration SolutionsInstitutional ValueLarge Course Support The ‘Roadmap’ session. This session is always one of the best attended sessions at the conference. Post first on discussion forums; before a student gets to see what other students have written they have to create their own post/message first.Roll over of course dates for the following year which will automatically adjust the dates for the next year in one go! Some features suggested for later releases include: The Roadmap session was particularly relevant to us as we are looking at upgrading in the summer.
Two Routes to Resilience Photography: Aurélien Mole Artwork: Henrique Oliveira, Desnatureza, Galerie Vallois, Paris, 2011, plywood, 3.1 x 3.8 x 3.6 m Sooner or later, your company will probably need to transform itself in response to market shifts, groundbreaking technologies, or disruptive start-ups. Some strategists suggest doing this quickly and aggressively, by making a clean break from the past and turning your firm into something entirely new. In our experience, though, organizations built for legacy markets rarely pull this off. It can take years for an innovative initiative to become large enough to replace the revenue an incumbent has lost to disruption. We propose an approach that’s both more practical to implement and more sustainable. First, major transformations need to be two different efforts happening in parallel. Dividing the effort in two allows leaders to develop a new strategy for the core that doesn’t need to make up for all the business lost to disruption. A Seismic Disruption
30+ Free and Inspiring Blogger Templates Showcasing the designs of Blogger template designers has been a regular feature on Blogger Buster. Each time I compile a collection of Blogger templates, I am fascinated to see the variety of free designs available. But after seeing some of the free designs available in 2012, this time I'm truly awed. Having discovered (and of course, bookmarked) some truly amazing Blogger template designers, I present more than 30 of my favourite templates for 2012 with full template screenshots and links to the designers' sites. P.S. Don't forget to check out some of the older Blogger template collections! 1. A clean minimalist template which is customizable through the Blogger Template Designer. Demo | Download 2. Designed by Compartdisimo, this is a stunning template in which images are automatically transformed to be circular in appearance. Demo | Download 3. A stunning design by Loefa-Cebook which includes an integrated slider on the home page. Demo | Download 4. Demo | Download 5. Demo | Download 6. 7.
A new way to learn foreign languages Bilingual: Polyglot Indonesia was formed by Arradi Nur Rizal after he returned from Argentina and wanted to keep up his Spanish skills. Courtesy of Polyglot Indonesia Arradi Nur Rizal could speak Spanish after living in Argentina for a year. As a fellow in a student exchange program, learning to speak the local language was a must. Unfortunately, after he returned to Indonesia, Rizal lost some of his speaking ability, as he didn’t have any friends to practice with. “I had not spoken Spanish for six years and I lost so much vocabulary as a result,” Rizal told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview. He said he did not want that to happen to others who had learned a foreign language but had nowhere to practice. In Polyglot Indonesia, people who can speak several languages can meet up and practice. Rizal believes learning a language is not easy because it requires serious study and a lot of effort. Polyglot Indonesia was established in June 2012. “I study the language by myself.
What Makes a Leader? It was Daniel Goleman who first brought the term “emotional intelligence” to a wide audience with his 1995 book of that name, and it was Goleman who first applied the concept to business with his 1998 HBR article, reprinted here. In his research at nearly 200 large, global companies, Goleman found that while the qualities traditionally associated with leadership—such as intelligence, toughness, determination, and vision—are required for success, they are insufficient. Truly effective leaders are also distinguished by a high degree of emotional intelligence, which includes self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill. These qualities may sound “soft” and unbusinesslike, but Goleman found direct ties between emotional intelligence and measurable business results. Every businessperson knows a story about a highly intelligent, highly skilled executive who was promoted into a leadership position only to fail at the job. Evaluating Emotional Intelligence
A Economia do futuro, como será? A nossa atual economia (muito pouco econômica) já levou porrada de todos os lados. Políticos, empreendedores, investidores e, frequentemente, até economistas. Cá entre nós, a boa ideia inicial do sistema já foi pro brejo. Isso você já sabe. Como você também sabe, na LUZ a ideia é sempre mostrar possíveis soluções ao invés de ficar apontando problemas. Assine nossa newsletter Receba ferramentas de gestão gratuitas toda semana! Uma das grandes questões que temos para ser respondidas é: qual a nova definição de progresso e como nos organizaremos para isso? Intrigado por esse assunto, me deparei por iniciativas como o FIB (Felicidade Interna Bruta), que divide a vida em várias esferas e mede, tanto com números quanto questionários, quão feliz o povo está. Qual é a solução real então? A solução está no FIB, está no HPI, como está também em diversos outros métodos, mas o que interessa aqui não é dialogarmos sobre que método é o certo, porque vai limitar o nosso horizonte. O que você acha?
Technology: Virtual mobility with a difference « European Association for International Education European Association for International Education Student mobility is on the rise. A previous Communiqué of the Conference of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education set a target of at least 20% of those graduating in the European higher education area having participated in a study or training period abroad by 2020. While this aim is very desirable, it does beg the question: What about the remaining 80% of students who may not engage in some kind of physical mobility during their studies? The need to expose the maximum number of students to the benefits of working and interacting with members of other cultures has led many educators to engage their students in telecollaborative or online intercultural exchange projects with partner students in distant locations around the globe. These exchanges usually involve collaborative project work using two or more languages. Integrated virtual mobility Combining virtual and physical mobility So why isn’t everyone doing it? Supporting new telecollaborators Related posts:
Accelerate! Perhaps the greatest challenge business leaders face today is how to stay competitive amid constant turbulence and disruption. Any company that has made it past the start-up stage is optimized for efficiency rather than for strategic agility—the ability to capitalize on opportunities and dodge threats with speed and assurance. I could give you 100 examples of companies that, like Borders and RIM, recognized the need for a big strategic move but couldn’t pull themselves together to make it and ended up sitting by as nimbler competitors ate their lunch. The examples always play out the same way: An organization that’s facing a real threat or eyeing a new opportunity tries—and fails—to cram through some sort of major transformation using a change process that worked in the past. But the old ways of setting and implementing strategy are failing us. We can’t keep up with the pace of change, let alone get ahead of it. What to do, then?
Cómo gestionar tus referencias bibliográficas (Mendeley + Dropbox + GoodReader) La gestión de referencias bibliográficas y de los documentos en PDF es fundamental para cualquier persona que se dedique a la investigación y, de forma más general, para cualquier persona en proceso de aprendizaje que deba gestionar información en este formato. En el presente artículo voy a explicar la parte de mi Entorno Personal de Aprendizaje que aborda esta área tan crucial para mi trabajo. Parto de la base de que existen otras alternativas. La siguiente combinación de aplicaciones y dispositivos es la que actualmente yo utilizo. En concreto los dispositivos con los que ahora trabajo son Mac (MacBook Pro, iPad e iPhone), si bien las aplicaciones que utilizo son multiplataforma (o existen alternativas) con lo que no debería haber problema a la hora de adaptarlas a otro entorno. Para funcionar necesitas disponer de las siguiente aplicaciones: Mendeley es un gestor de referencias bibliográficas que integra las funcionalidades de una red social de investigadores. Mendeley en la nube
Cultura How Do You Create A Culture Of Innovation? This is the third part in a series by Scott Anthony, author of The Little Black Book Of Innovation. It sounds so seductive: a “culture of innovation.” The three words immediately conjure up images of innovation savants like 3M, Pixar, Apple, and Google--the sorts of places where innovation isn’t an unnatural act, but part of the very fabric of a company. It seems a panacea to many companies that struggle with innovation. But what exactly is a culture of innovation, and how does a company build it? While culture is a complicated cocktail, four ingredients propel an organization forward: the right people, appropriate rewards and incentives, a common language, and leadership role-modeling. The Innovator’s DNA Has Four Components If you ask most people what makes a great innovator, the most common response is innate gifts from parents or a higher power. At the core is what the professors call “associational thinking.” Questioning: Asking probing questions that impose or remove constraints.