Content is important BUT context is also very important.

Do you really listen?

When you are listening do you get the point?

Or do you hear what you want to hear?

There are always alternatives and how we use them depends on us!

Watch this video, at least 3/4 of the way and you will see exactly what I am talking about.

Today a student asked me about what was required of a practicum exercise.

We are going to be reporting on the 2nd Global Media Ethics Roundtable using social media tools.

The students question was can I post a video and be done?

I suppose but what a waste of time and possibility.

It seems it was and is the possibility that eludes so many people when it comes to engaging in anything.

Can you see beyond the activity?

Can you see how something can, will, should or might be used in another context?

If not the simple problem is the idea has not been frozen long enough, the time necessary for others to get engaged and be brought up to speed.

Which brings us back to education once again.

Are we getting educated just for a grade or for the knowledge we might be able to gain and apply in other directions?

I suspect most students are in it for the grade, too bad.

I suspect all too often we miss the signs that what we are doing is having an impact.

Today I was working with a class on an end of term project and gave the all clear to leave 20 minutes early.

The usual reaction of students is to run!

Today as I sat at a desk after giving the all clear command I was in shock!

For 25 minutes 2 groups of students were planning, debating and organizing the work they had to do for the project.

And best of all they were working as if I was not there! The bonus for me was that I got a chance to listen in on the thinking process.

My verdict?

Something got through, I am doing something right.

I am not talking RSS but how you can get content that is market ready into the market!

Imagine that academic paper that can be reformatted and become a valuable business piece.

How does this effect you? Are you a person who writes? Do you have stories or articles that could be made market ready in a pinch?

If you are like me you are saying YES but how and what to do?

Listen to this interview.

Maddy and Ram are really on to an idea, B2B service, that could have wide implications on the content we consume both in our media and even through newsletters!

Content is king!

I took my son to listen to Darren Shan at the Emirates Airlines International Literature Festival in Dubai and realized I have missed something grand!

Thanks to the power of QIK.com and my iPhone I have some bad video but great audio!

Here is what you missed, or what got me excited to go and read Darren Shan’s work.

Here is part 2 of the reading!

And the Thin Executioner reading!

And finally a piece from the series to come!

Darren Shan is a person I would love to sit and have a conversation with, he loves what he does!

The obvious answer is that I spend a portion of my day in the classroom, at the university level, and deal 1st hand with the education realities of the day.

I am also part of a group of educators that is int he process of fundamentally redesigning what we teach and more important HOW.

Which is a logical lead in to the question of what is is that students want from their education?

I am getting ready to teach a convergent media practicum where we are going to set up a morning information portal at Zayed University.  The working title is “Good Morning ZU“, why reinvent a wheel that is working well!

What we are going to do is combine video/audio/text all that may be housed in autonomous web2.0 services and put them in one place.

What I would really like to see is this project find a home on the students BlackBerry or iPhone and bypass the computer/blog delivery totally. We are not there just yet.

But what I am surprised about is how slow the group is to pick up the tech tools and use them!

The reality I am seeing is that we are talking web2.0 and that takes us to facebook and twitter BUT when we look at the other more detailed content creating options the youth uptake is stalled.

So, my question to the youth of today is very simply what do you really want when it comes to web2.0, education, practical activity… what do you want?

Think about it for a minute, we want people to take risks, create the next best thing, work as teams and WOW the population.

And we learn this where? School.

Sure we have IB schools that claim to do this BUT every IB school I have been to talks a good game BUT is not practicing what the preach! Sorry IB people but the sad reality is if you are going to teach IB you have to be IB and all I see is the old system with a new coat of paint.

Other models exist but for the most part they do the same old thing 8-3, lunch, homework… repeat!

Sure our schools have the elements to create the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs BUT the problem is there is a reality detachment and the biggest piece of this is TIME!

Change happens in real time not in the slow motion that education acculturates us to!

You have 20 weeks to make magic in a school! The real world is have it on my desk in 3 days!

School does not teach us how to manage a team, my own school for example, is eliminating conflict resolution from the curriculum as we move forward, but is the management of people not fundamental to the new social economy?

We are living a social experiment BUT do we really know how to socialize?

So, here we are in search of the next best thing and the cards are stacked against us as we wrestle with imperfect inputs to the system!

Is it any wonder that the most innovative ideas emerge from those people or groups who work outside the system?

Maybe that is what we need from our education, a model that is decidedly outside the norm. We need to seed the next best thing and so far all I see is the field being plowed over, again and again!

Just a little morning rant!

I think, just maybe, we are hiding behind technology when it comes to communication today!

The old voice on the phone can be fast, effective, and definitive!

Today, everyday make one phone call when you would normally send an email or text or SMS or otherwise engage technology!

Technology is great,don’t get me wrong, BUT we are failing in a epic way to manage the use of it in a manner that is healthy!

And the classic example of our failure to manage and live with technology is email!

We have lost control of out time and the reality of interactions, on a personal and professional level!

We are living in a crisis of expectations, unreasonable expectations.

Email, by design, is fast, immediate and rich in volume.

But what is happening is we are being forced, by technology, to be hyper connected to issues instead of taking time away to think and ponder a response.

Email gives the illusion of immediacy and to not answer as fast as a message is received seems to indicate some level of inferiority or disregard yet a fast response may be fraught with error and short sightedness.

Our communication technology is new and we need to re-educate ourselves, schools, industry and society in general about how to use these tools for their greatest advantage.

It is great to learn, apply, use technology on the fly BUT at some point we need to reflect and rethink the communication process and that point is now.

The main rule I live by with mobile media is keep it short!

I have been recording my classes at the university and formatting them for an iPhone! The lectures are about 60 minutes and they actually seem to have a small audience.

If you go to VIMEO and search James Piecowye you will see the latest 2 classes!

There is nothing special about these lectures EXCEPT they are there for students to use and share!

BUT the recordings are formatted for a phone!

The irony?

Every professor I know has the technology and root ability to record and post their classes online!

How many do?

My students say these mobile ready recordings are great for review!

I like the idea of people being able to see what they get from my class and maybe even auditing the course in cyber land!