Bucking Horse Day

Yippee, it is Bucking Horse day across on the Vacana. See if you can't recognise your students in this tale from the Buddha. Link

Online Community

I've been investigating a virtual world with a class. Should be fun seeing how it all turns out as the students all have their secret missions relating to employability skills.

But I've Done This Before

As the cry of "I've done this before" goes up over the land on a Monday morning, the answer comes from Aristotle:

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

A colleague noted that no-one would pass a driving test after just changing gear once. We get better, faster, use it as a basis for new skills, type letters and manipulate graphics without having to think of how we do something. Repetition is, however, seen as boring. And boredom is the enemy of education these days. Was it always thus? I don't know. I find the world a place of infinite variety, infinite challenges, and the chance to make infinite mistakes. Sometimes I learn from them, sometimes I don't. Life is like that. Varied. Challenging. And only boring if you let it. I like the idea of strengthening the neural pathways by using games. The issue becomes taking skills from the virtual word, and bringing them back into the real world. Typing tutors are easy to transfer from the virtual to the real, but what about other skills?

In a world which relies heavily on computers, does dealing with avatars in a virtual world help you deal with a customer in the real world? Do they react the same? They don't, but are your reactions the same? Do they allow people to achieve excellence by repeating encounters in a controlled manner and allowing the learner to try out different strategies? Or will people just get more frustrated that the real world isn't the same as the virtual one?

What if the word processor made a "quack quack" noise with every spelling mistake? Turn the real world into the virtual. As much of our work is done on computers anyway, isn't it all virtual anyway?

The skills you need to succeed

Bill Gates writes:

Today and in the future, many of the jobs with the greatest impact will be related to software, whether it is developing software working for a company like Microsoft or helping other organisations use information technology tools to be successful.

Communication skills and the ability to work well with different types of people are very important too.

A lot of people assume that creating software is purely a solitary activity where you sit in an office with the door closed all day and write lots of code.

This isn't true at all.

Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs.

I also place a high value on having a passion for ongoing learning. When I was pretty young, I picked up the habit of reading lots of books.

It's great to read widely about a broad range of subjects. Of course today, it's far easier to go online and find information about any topic that interests you.

Having that kind of curiosity about the world helps anyone succeed, no matter what kind of work they decide to pursue.

Source: BBC. Bill Gates: The skills you need to succeed

Forbes Top 400 richest Americans

I Shot A Moose Once

I shot a moose once in my pyjamas, how it got there, I have no idea. (Allan Konigsberg/Groucho Marx).

Here's the recent warnings:

• 7 Deadly Sins of Blogging
• Convergence 2.0
• Blogito, ergo sum

Plus all the talks in class about the College's discussions and concerns about Web2.0 and potential misuse and liability (ours and yours).

I hide little from you concerning these issues. I've pointed you towards the "soft skills" that employers look for. As classes, you have done things that few (if any) students in Scottish further education have done before. Part of this has been to develop the soft skills that employers look for. Part of it is under the remit of student-centred learning, where your desire to learn and better yourself is the focus of the education system, and staff are here to support and develop your learning.

I've spent the last few days building up quotes for a budget spend for multimedia kit for students. It is tedious. Locating shops that sell the gear, find the item, take a pdf print and note the price in a spreadsheet, and then repeat for two other stores. Then move on to the next item. I have 5 windows open, and move between them.

This is the sort of soft skill that people need to develop - just using IT to do their jobs. It isn't difficult, it isn't exciting, it is just online paperwork. It isn't separate from the multimedia or hardware or programming or whatever job you eventually get, it is a natural part of it. The same with your online presence - if you want a private social network, create one, don't link to it from your professional blog, keep it separate.

I went through the "7 deadly sins of blogging" with 2 classes last week. Today, I filled in an disciplinary form for a blogger. I know in my heart that it won't be the last, and that eternal vigilance is the price of developing your online citizenship. But would your employer take the same view? There have been dismissals out in the real world over employees' online antics. Just look at the full version of the Clearswift leaflet summarised in "7 Deadly Sins of Blogging".

Good night, and good luck.

Welcome to the 'Sphere

A new class of bloggers starts today. The N4OG-N, November starts. Welcome aboard.

What's Next? Aberdeen City

A DVD clip commissioned by the ASPIRENorth project to promote post school education.

This clip shows current students from Aberdeen City area talking about their studies.

A Vision of KSU Students

This is what Kansas State University students felt, what about you? Should we do one for here?

>>Sourced via www.viralvideochart.com