We forget to ask two important questions that you should ask with everything you create:
I rewrote this post twice because when I got to the end I asked “Does this suck?”
The answer was yes.
I’m eager to start playing with the format of books and blogs on the iPad. Imagine the possibilities of learning here—being asked 5 questions at the end of a chapter—or being able to markup and comment on a book with a group of classmates. The possibilities are endless, let’s just hope the platform is adopted so that developers and publishers can make money—if so, we’ll see an explosion of learning innovation.
If you see writing as a conversation, and you write like you speak, you’ll likely get the message across.
If you see writing as an academic exercise you’ll hate it and so will most of your readers.
Action:
In a comment below, write a couple sentences to explain what you’ve read this week—blogs, books, twitter, whatever. Remember—write like you speak.
These notes came from a sermon preached by Mark Driscoll on March 28, 2010.
Why do we still do things the way we always have?
If the answer isn’t “because it’s the best way”—it’s time to put on our creative hats.
I love that Andrew Kim was able to see the shipping inefficiency of a round container, and while he was at it, figured out how to minimize the volume when recycling. Nice work Andrew, thanks for the inspiration.
I’m considering writing one post per week that is designed to simply teach one aspect of writing, and asking for response. First we need to understand what makes good writing good, and then we can learn to write. I’m always in the process of learning—so I need to learn from you too.
Lesson 1:
Writing isn’t about words—it’s about communicating.
Stop wasting my time, and start telling me something that’s going to change my life and help me to affect the lives of other.
Action:
What have you read that had the biggest impact on you? What was special about it? Please respond below, I’ll keep posting these if I get some conversation going here.
I love soda, which is why I try not to drink it. In the latest issue of Fast Company Chip and Dan Heath do a great job analyzing the marketing behind anti-soda campaigns.
The editor of Fast Company thinks that the future of education is customized. I agree. See an example of this below the image.
My education:
Without a doubt I’ve learned more out of school than in school. I’ve never taken a design class, this year was the first time I participated in official theological training, and I got a C in English 101 (my worst grade in college I believe). Yet I get paid to work in all of these fields.
My Parents educated me well
When I was in 6th grade I was in public school 4 days a week and home-schooled on Wednesdays. One of the projects I did on Wednesdays was to build a backyard vegetable garden.
I had to sketch out how the garden would be set up, use the sketch to estimate materials I would need, call the lumberyard to get an estimate on material cost, propose a budget, and then build the garden with my folks.
That’s customized education. I learned more about project management, dealing with people, business constraint, etc. than I ever could sitting at a desk in a row in a column listening to a lecture.
I’m excited to see what happens when eLearning hits the big time. I’m also wondering what my part is going to be in making that future.
“You cannot not communicate. Every behaviour is a kind of communication. Because behaviour does not have a counterpart (there is no anti-behaviour), it is not possible not to communicate. ”
—Paul Watzlawick’s First Axiom of Communication
The Internet in 1969
Just imagine what will change in the next 50 years.
YouTube — The Internet in 1969.