May 22, 2013

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Executive Personal Learning Environment, or EPLE

August 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The intent with this project is to define, deploy, and provide CEO and VP-level leaders with a tablet-based environment for personal learning, leadership development, and resource management.  Leaders and executives at this level have always invested in their own advancement, so the goal here is to provide a dynamic, personalized, and enterprise-integrated tool to encourage and enable this.  The challenge is to develop the methods for getting intimate with the organization and the individual to create relevance, ease of use, and seamless functionality, on an iPad that doesn’t require new apps and a lot of training.

While the iPad is the preferred platform, we’re also developing platform-independent solutions, accessible from other mobile devices or a plain old laptop or desktop.  Further, we’ll integrate the content and the learning process with a variety of executive-level leadership training workshops.

Filed Under: Blog Posts, e-Learning and Online Education, Human, Personal, Professional Development, Life Purpose in a Changing World, What I'm working on now Tagged With: , , , , ,

Finding and then helping excellence into the world

July 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Continuing the quest to uncover those hidden gems of brilliant content, methods, tools and getting them into the light:  In business, education, human development, art, community outreach, and all conceivable endeavors, … all the projects described here are part of this, and in service of this effort.  Sometimes, I find them, sometimes they find me. Some further examples:

The “Peak Purpose” program from Pikes Peak Learning, my other company, about career planning, life purpose, and answering the questions, “Who Am I, Where Am I Going, How Will I Get There?”  The content, assessments, planning tools, rich databases, and entire process was developed by Sam Kirk of Sam Kirk and Associates of Denver, longtime career counselors for individuals and corporations.  Sam is now retired, and a few years ago, we adapted his pencil-and-paper programs for online, interactive – where they’ve helped thousands of youth and adults across the U.S.

In the early days of the web, I led the teams that created Hewlett-Packard’s “Educator’s Corner” – a web site that still exists 16 years later, serving content, education, community, equipment, and news for engineering students, universities, professors, departments, and engineering education initiatives around the world.  We were doing cloud computing, social media, and making new innovative content before anyone knew what those were!

Filed Under: Art of Writing, Blog Posts, e-Learning and Online Education, Human, Personal, Professional Development, Life Purpose in a Changing World, Small Biz, User Experience, What I'm working on now, Youth Life Skills Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Infographic: Changing value of college

July 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I love these Infographics, the better ones approach information art. In this one, from OnlineSchools.org, I disagree with the statement that dropouts waste their money – $9 billion worth – because many probably transfer credits elsewhere, or learn some skills, enhance their character, and make friends and connections.

With the explosion of distance learning, the number of unemployed college graduates, the volume of college debt – threatening to become the next debt crisis, possibly approaching the scope of the mortgage debt crisis – higher education is in desperate need of redefining itself.  For some students, in some majors, the old model is still relevant, but the demand for more ways of learning, more flexible financing options, and more relevance to the realities of the job market will continue to drive changes in the use and usefulness of college.

College in America
Via: OnlineSchools.org

Filed Under: Blog Posts, e-Learning and Online Education, Human, Personal, Professional Development, Life Purpose in a Changing World, Youth Life Skills Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Apple, Textbooks, and Education

June 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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As we all know, Apple recently announced, with the release of the new iTunes U, iBooks 2, and apps to create textbooks, that they will re-invent the textbook market. I have three kids in college, and that’s a big deal. Here’s the larger picture.

Sure, taking on the textbook monopoly is a big deal. Those publishers are quaking in their old-print-paradigm boots, because their 500-year old industry is now dead. DEAD!

Seriously, here’s the big picture of this phenomena at the moment: In 1450, Gutenberg invented movable type and printed his first Bible. The printed-book paradigm has not fundamentally changed until Apple announced apps for the common man to create electronic texts and instantly publish them to the world. That is a BIG deal. The emergence of the Internet and e-text was the opening bell in this world-changing shift, and all the recent developments in self-publishing, e-readers, e-books, and the accelerating transformation of the entire media industry are all part of this mega-trend, but until now and Apple’s announcement, we didn’t have the means to take full advantage of that potential.

Apple is poised to go after education next. There’s another centuries-old model screaming for transformation. Apple has already established a beachhead with this move into textbooks. Oh, by the way, they also have a market capitalization of $500 BILLION, and they make a BILLION more dollars each week. They have half a TRILLION dollars in the bank, which is absolutely unprecedented in the history of business. The have the platform, the ecosystem, the innovative chops, the market share, the beachheads, and the CASH to do this.

And the competition will not sit idly on the sidelines. Especially Amazon and Google, who have both staked their strategies on e-content. There will be furious competition here. This equals further opportunity for us consumers and developers – as long as we stay reasonably platform agnostic.

Filed Under: e-Learning and Online Education, Featured, Human, Personal, Professional Development, Interactive Onboarding Tagged With: , , , , ,

This here blog, and leaping without nets

February 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Getting this blog rolling here in early 2012 and connecting to the blogosphere  is a plunge into the global streams of creative people and communities in my various fields of interest.  It requires adapting my own lifestyle and time management to align with that: my previous blogs were driven by ulterior motives, to generate new sales leads, to improve search engine traffic, and to promote and positive particular companies and brands.  This one here is different – it’s about the art of participating in the worldwide community, engaging good ideas and creative endeavors, learning, sharing, and simply “putting it all out there to see where it goes.”  It’s a bit of leaping without a net – but some forms of Providence are only revealed by leaping, there’s no other way!  The precipice is exhilarating.

Filed Under: Art of Writing, Blog Posts, e-Learning and Online Education, Human, Personal, Professional Development, Life Purpose in a Changing World, Small Biz, User Experience, What I'm working on now, Youth Life Skills Tagged With: , ,

Develop and deploy an online “venture university”

January 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

For small and medium sized business operators: Many, perhaps the majority, of entrepreneurs and small business people strike out on their own to pursue new ventures based on a their passion for an art, a technical skill, or a particular service to their communities or their lines of business.  Most do not have the vast set of skills required to succeed: marketing, finance, capital, operations, HR, technology, sales, quality management, process development, and much more.  And they don’t have the time or the inclination to read books and articles, or the funds to hire experts to train them.  What they need are digestible, relevant, and applicable learning modules to take them step-by-step to greater success.

Venture University will provide an extensive series of courses in career exploration, fundamentals for entrepreneurial individuals looking to start new ventures, and a variety of key skills for small business folks to manage their operations and train their staff.

We’re in the funding stages of this Venture University now.

Eventually, we’ll provide a branded learning platform and process for content providers to serve these three populations.  Finally, we’ve reached a tipping point in user experience and quality content that will allow many more authors and educational developers access to the users and markets they want to serve, and for the aspiring small business owners to take advantage of it, now that it’s affordable and effective.

Filed Under: Blog Posts, e-Learning and Online Education, Human, Personal, Professional Development, Small Biz, What I'm working on now Tagged With: , , , ,