Over and over again I have told my students that what we learn at school is secondary to the process.

Sure there are some exceptions but they are not as glaring as you might think.

What is important in our education is that we learn to follow through, meet deadlines, dare, challenge and ultimately get the tools to know who to ask and how to ask for help and guidance when we need it.

Sure some may disagree but that disagreement is fueled more out of fear of a change in the way we deliver education than the reality of the suggestion.

Last night I spoke to Iman Ben Chaibah about the creation of Sail magazine.

Iman Ben Chaibah on SAILemagazine.com

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What is interesting is that Iman studied computer science and works in the computer industry, NOT the field of communication and journalism.

Yes there is no question Iman is a journalist!

The point of all this is wandering off the path is what education should be all about, getting us to explore and follow our gut feelings no matter how far from what we are trained to do it is!

But a list in and of itself is a pretty useless thing.

The value of your inspiration list is it might open the door to a whole new set of ideas for others.

So don’t just make a list SHARE it!

And please share it with me!

My list of 2 great resources for the month is as follows.

Cory Doctorow, one of the co-editors of BoingBoing, and a fantastic author has a content rich website where he has also resumed his podcast! I like Doctorow because he is the perfect example of what I tell my students!

1. trust yourself

2. be amazing at what you do

3. share

4. make it worth while

5. dare

Changethis is one of my favorite idea sites.  What I love about CT is the contents are brief and they come in the form of a manifesto. Here is what it is about.

Are you an optimist?

Sometimes it seems as though our disagreements—over everything from politics to business to the designated hitter rule—are more serious and more divisive than ever before.

People are making emotional, knee-jerk decisions, then standing by them, sometimes fighting to the death to defend their position.

And yet, we’re optimists.

People call the team at Change This optimists because we don’t believe it has to be this way. We don’t believe humans evolved to be so bad at making decisions, so poor at changing our minds, so violent in arguing our point of view. We’re well aware of how split our country and our world have become, but we don’t think the current state of affairs is built into our very nature.

The problem lies in the media.

In the old days, we had the time and inclination to consider the implications of a decision. Everyone wasn’t in quite so much of a hurry. At the same time, most conversations (and most arguments) were local ones, conducted between people who knew each other.

Today, it’s very different. Television demands a sound bite. A one hundred word letter to the editor is a long one. Radio has become a jingoistic wasteland, a series of thoughtless mantras, repeated over and over and designed to fit into a typical commute.

What I also love about the site is it shines a light on ways to use technology or WEB2.0 tools to communicate better!

For instance how do we manage comments in a more public manner? What about disqus.com and I learned about this on the Changethis site!

OK your turn!

We need to ask what the purpose of our time investment is!

No purpose, why do it!

You know I am a TED fan and will be going to TED2011 as well as co-curating TEDxDubai this coming December.

But there is another group that you might not have heard of and need to also look at!

GEL  Short for “Good Experience Live”

You are scratching your head right?

Well here is what it is all about.

Gel is a conference and community exploring good experience in all its forms – in art, business, technology, society, and life.

Gel was founded by Mark Hurst in 2003 and has run a spring event in New York City each year since. Gel 2010 was the 8th annual event.

Instead of focusing on just one thing (design, technology, user experience, business, etc.) like many conferences, Gel touches on many things. This challenges attendees to find, and learn from, the patterns that underlie good experience, even in disciplines vastly different from their own.

The best way to understand the Gel experience is to attend.

I have not attended yet BUT like TED I do love the videos.

You can find the videos on VIMEO

One of the recent greats is this one!

Matt Haughey

Founder, Metafilter.com

Tags: business, community, technology

Posted: 05/26/10 | Recorded at Gel 2010

As the founder of Metafilter.com, Matt Haughey has created one of the most successful and vibrant online communities in the world. At Gel 2010 he describes some of the lessons he’s learned along the way. Matt is a longtime Gel attendee and it’s a privilege to spotlight his outstanding work.

(Coincidentally, just days after Gel 2010 the online community of Ask Metafilter stopped a human trafficking attempt in New York City. See also the Mother Jones article on the incident.)

See also: Matt Haughey on Twitter

The point is there are a bunch of people doing great things and making it available, live, learn and pass it on!

I really love this little talk and for me it frames a lot of where I think education in the field of media needs to be going and fast.

David Bornstein at Gel 2010 (author, “How to Change the World”) from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

Do this, help that, think this, be that, there are an endless number of demands on us and we cannot do it all.

The problem for many, is because of noise, they do nothing!

Mark Drewelow of C2C has managed to block out the noise, focus, and in the process has done something amazing.

CSR calls are making a lot of noise, a lot of mud is tossed hoping some will stick.

Mark took a look around his industry, Yacht services, and saw as clear as day a way he could make a difference!

YachtAidGlobal.org was born out of the realization that there are yachts being re-positioned around the world that on a leg of their trip could help distribute supplies to schools in remote and needy situations!

Simple.

Silence the distracting noise, focus and use your skills to do what you can.

Mark is the living example of this with this CSR activity being funded and organized by C2C!

I love this idea, it is simple, create a means to get supplies to those who need it and ask people to donate those things they no longer need!

Stationary, chalk, pens… YachtAid.org has the means of delivery!

Listen to the conversation and then ask what can you do given the resources you have available!

YachtAid Global

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The simple answer is we go to  school to learn how to act on our curiosity.

We are all curious right?

School provides a means to shape that curiosity, and if the student steps back from credits and grades for a moment, by glimpsing into the unknown and allowing some form of action/reaction to occur the shaping of curiosity can take place.

Take our WEB2.0 technology today as a perfect example.

Writing, art, research, design, economics, business… the full scope of university studies are being recast in the blink of an eye.

Tomorrow is here today and the university is really the only place that almost anyone can engage with this technology pushed change that is just starting to demonstrate tomorrow today.

But to engage students and teachers need to be asking, “how can I use the poetry I am reading”  and not “why am I reading this anyway!”

Take Layar for instance. This is the application of all we teach at University.

About Layar
Layar is world’s leading Augmented Reality Platform on mobile. The Layar Reality Browser currently has more than 1.6 million users and comes pre-installed on tens of millions of phones from leading handset manufacturers and carriers by the end of the year. Over 500 layers are published on the Layar Platform with over 2000 in development. These layers are developed by the global community of 3000 Layar publishers and producers, and by leading brands and agencies. Layar is located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The company is funded and has 32 employees.

The free Layar Reality Browser is available on Android devices and iPhone 3GS. The Layar Platform is available for anyone to create their own Augmented Reality experiences on.

Layar, see the world
http://www.layar.com

Find more information and screen shots at: http://site.layar.com/paid-layer-launching-partners/ and http://site.layar.com/paid-layer-screens

The point is this is a brand new way of applying the thought process that has existed since we could think and the education we are delivering as professors is as relevant to this application’s development as it is to writing press releases!

BUT ,and that is a big but, we need to create an environment that provokes what might simply be called entrepreneurial-applied-education or EAE for short!

In my own college we do it is some places on purposes and by accident in others.

If we work at creating a culture of reaching for the unknown tomorrow and embracing the technology that may help or hinder us in the long run there is no question we are setting ourselves up for good things, even if we stumble along the way.

But we need to start and in many cases jump into a paradigm shift that like where technology is taking us feel like a step into the unknown.

And what Godin writes MacLeod draws!

Tell a few people?

I am not an advocate of keeping secrets or locking away ideas, in fact, I love to share them.

But idea guy beware, this is a message to myself, if you tell other people your ideas be ready for them to act on them and not give you an ounce of credit!

99% of my ideas are just that a thought of fancy that I have no idea how to activate, the 1% I usually wait until I have worked on it a bit to talk about.

My problem?

Bootstrapping!

Have you read Seth Godin’s Bootstrappers Bible?

I need to just start boostrapping more of my ideas!

I need to read more Godin!

Abu Dhabi Forum on Entrepreneurship

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Can you learn to be an entrepreneur? Do we all have what it takes?

I am not so sure and I am certainly not sure that any school can actually teach you to be an entrepreneur!

Look at the number of MBA’s out there, using the logic that you can learn to be a master of business should the world of business not be in better shape?

I worry that our education systems put too much emphasis on entrepreneurship too late!

While we see universities globally getting on the entrepreneur band wagon where we really need to see this attention is at the kG-12 stage!

If encouragement is the oil of entrepreneurship then early is better than later in my book.

If there is one thing I learned from the entrepreneurs last night it is that the trick is starting, do your thing, make it happen, as small as it might be, and the buzz becomes infectious and you cannot help but do more.

3 entrepreneurs walk us through their glory!

And you know what? In 2010 we are no better at dealing with conflict than in 0010!

I had a great conversation with Dr. Kennon Rider about relationships and marriage, but came to realize that the core message he was delivering can fit well to almost ANY relationship and conflict!

Communication and trust!

If we can get communication and trust right we might have a chance.

Give the recording a listen and don’t let the title scare you.

Make a Marriage Work!

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