Compassion needs to be nurtured.

Wouldn’t it be nice if educational establishments spent less time focusing on exam results and more time focusing on what makes an individuals brain light up. I’d like to see researchers deep dive in to what really motivates learners to learn. I’d also like to see studies conducted on the physical and psychological reactions that occur when students request help from one another, and the effect this has on motivation. In essence, I think more needs to be done to create opportunities for learners to help one another?

Students should be constantly questioning and if they’re not, the question has to be asked, why not. Without the motivation to ask why, how or what, the learner is destined to learn very little. I think it’s time to stop taking the learning opportunity away from learners by teaching them and instead help them learn through discovery. Ask them questions, lots of questions, and encourage them to question everything!

I think if the focus can shift from establishment centric, to student centric, a natural increase in compassion would be seen; we need people to care more.

Perhaps it’s time to include Compassion as a subject in the curriculum. Perhaps it needs to have a similar weighting to maths and science. Because if they don’t care or don’t know how to care or they’ve forgotten how to care, life and the footprints they leave will not make much sense, less have any positive ripple effect. #itashare

Image source: http://favim.com/image/21841/ (Cath Schneider)

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If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas. ~ George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish Author & Playwright

Thank you Inma for reminding me of this social gem and leading me back to it.

#itashare

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In an ongoing quest to better understand how Education can be improved utilising both new technologies and smarter ways of working and learning, I’ve been reading up on the Adaptive Learning approach utilised by Knewton. The snippets below, from a recent post about how to make students smarter, provided the inspiration for the commentary that follows. In other areas of recent research, the work done by the Kahn Academy and that of Peter Norvig have also inspired. The combined reading leads me along the path of how (big) data can be used to get a much more accurate view of real learning, both from the student and the teachers’ perspective.

In order to improve student performance and self-esteem, we need to break this cycle and prove that intelligence is malleable and that students can control their academic destiny. Adaptive learning, a teaching method premised on the idea that the curriculum should adapt to each user, is the sort of limitless technology that is up to the challenge of untangling the cyclical effects of self-perception and social expectation on students’ academic performance.

I like how the Kahn Academy platform is based on data analysis and that a teacher and pupil can easily identify the knowledge gaps. The idea that all 30 students in a room will understand the information at the same time is completely flawed, even more so today when technology can provide rich statistical data to support on an individual basis.

In most cases the teachers’ hands are tied, as they themselves are guided by a strict curriculum, and if they want to keep to their jobs it must be followed to the letter. In order to keep the curriculum on track, teachers have to move on, which in turn leaves obvious ‘knowledge gaps’. As time goes by those gaps are the fundamental building blocks the student needs in order to advance to the next phase of understanding, without them being filled complete understand is not possible.

Both Kahn and Knewton are addressing these issues in innovative ways utilising advanced statistical analysis that enables the learner to plug those gaps in ways that best suit and make sense to them. Technology’s role is to supports this process by making sense of how best that individual student likes to learn, identifying where problems occur and routing them back through the foundational work to ensure the gaps get plugged before more content overwhelms the student. I’m inspired by both systems.

Here are 5 ways in which continuous adaptive learning can promote the idea that intelligence is malleable and help each student control his or her academic destiny.

The concept that students are in control of their own destiny is very important. Once a student begins to understand they have the reins in their own hands and they are able to steer the course, and that the system is there to support them, as opposed to it being there only to be adhered to, motivation to fully engage and achieve changes. Students, and in the broader sense, learners, need do it for themselves and not for the reason they ‘have’ to – they also need to take responsibility for that in a supported environment – Education!

1) Pace of feedback. “If neither success nor failure is final, the learning process becomes geared toward exploration and long-term development rather than grades and crash studying. All this shifts the emphasis from talent to effort and promotes the idea that one can control his own ability.”

This is one of my favourite quotes “neither success nor failure is final“, lending itself fully to a life long learning mentality, and that the student is actually responsible for his or her own learning. With this approach the necessary buy-in is created for a sustainable creative future of those who are willing and able to make possible what they aspire to, and to what they can imagine.

2) Targeted focus. “By allowing each student to focus on what he or she most needs to work on at any given point, adaptive learning helps students concentrate on maximizing their own individual potential rather than meeting externally defined one-size-fits-all standards; this encourages them to harness a deeper and more intrinsic motivation.”

Knowing where the specific knowledge gaps are is crucial, because without this information much time and effort it’s misspent relearning mastered sections of work; it also ensures the student to remain highly focus which leads to increase motivation. There is nothing more boring than listening to a lesson that one has already demonstrated mastery in. Unfortunately, this is how the current system of public education operates. There is little or no opportunity for a student to fill their own gaps as the tide of curriculum waits for nobody; it’s still very much a one-size-fits-all public system that is failing today’s learners. Utilising technology and the resulting data in innovative ways is the disruptor and the enabler.

3) Flexibility of presentation. “After discovering how each student learns best, an adaptive system might show one student a video, another a diagram and another an essay on the same subject.”

The blending of preferred choice also makes perfect sense, but of course is only possible once it is known. A teacher managing a class of 30 students, pressured by the timetable, has little chance to personalise the content, so the gaps continue to exist. The more data the student gives to the system, the more the technology can learn and ‘adapt’ to their preferred method of learning.  I would however caution that the technology should not only support students in their preferred ways of learning, but should also provide a balanced mix of methods; understanding the dynamics of that balance is easier when analysing the data, especially when visualisation techniques are applied.

4) Productive social opportunities. “Through an adaptive learning system, teachers can use data regarding performance, learning style, and preferences to create cohorts of students who complement each other academically.”

Peer to peer is how Education scales in the 21st century, and how it creates the inclusive feeling of being part of the bigger picture – you teach and you learn, you are valuable and valued. One teacher to thirty students has never been a viable scenario, the dynamics of thirty to thirty changes the entire game plan. Everyone is a learner and a teacher and the conditions need to be created for peer to peer support to occur. Using data analysis it is possible to identify who can complement one another, which should in turn create social opportunities for students to work with those who previously were not considered ‘part of their circle’.

I’ve seen this occur recently with my daughter. There was a boy at school who was ‘not’ in her tribe, so to speak, until it was identified that he loved music and played drums really well. Suddenly the topic bonded them and a relationship based on the desire to support one another around that topic developed. The technology can aid this process, individualising learning in ways that previously would have been missed, or would have occurred more often than not by chance.

5) Improving self-awareness. “Self-awareness is ultimately what allows students to rebound from failure and understand that their poor performance is not a reflection of innate ability but rather a misunderstanding of something very specific.”

The final point here is so important. The student is in the hands of the ‘Education’ system at a time when they are at their most impressionable. It is isn’t that the students aren’t able to learn, but more that the system is not designed well enough to produce the best for the ‘individuals’ it has responsibility for. The current system is outdated and comes from a a time in history where the economic outcomes required by industry and commerce were very different. Creative thinkers who have learnt how to learn and how to solve problems, both individually and as part of network, are now the real purpose of education.

I tip my hat to those pioneering processes and technology platforms like Knewton and Kahn Academy and those who are pushing back against how Education is currently provided, change is needed and quicker than it is currently occurring.

The final two quotes are from a Mashable interview with the founder of Knewton, Jose Ferreira, and I think they sum up this post rather well.

“We use data to make your education better, that’s it.”

Doesn’t get clearer than that, does it!

“We know everything about what you know and how you learn best because we get so much data. We can predict failure in advance, which means we can pre-remediate it in advance.”

I have great hope that the future of learning is going to be very bright. There are so many committed and talented innovators and educators who through their determination are finding smarter ways of working, living and ultimately learning.

If you have questions or comments please reply below, and if you enjoyed the post please consider sharing it with friends, thanks. #itashare

Source: http://www.knewton.com/blog/knewton/adaptive-learning/2011/11/02/5-ways-to-make-students-smarter/

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The hardware has also dropped significantly in price. Only this morning +Charles Jennings and I were discussing how affordable web-cams have become and how the technology eventually becomes less significant as the demand and expectations for every day use increase. When I look at my own collection of tech gadgets video is everywhere; 2 desktop webcams, a webcam built into the the tablet and the smartphone, and also one in the laptop.

The announced Google Calendar integration makes so much sense I almost ignored it. We have all the tools we need to make use of the software in a way that is productive and cost effective, and at the same time the mobile connectivity is running along side to make it feasible, thus hangouts will only continue to be adopted.

Some years ago I predicted the demise of services like Webex when Google integrated and developed their own video conferencing platform. It has been fascinating watching Google roll out G+, especially how they continally look for ways to add value throughout their existing product range.

In 2013, I expect to see a deeper integration of Google Drive and Google Reader, as well as more flexibility with the G+ API. I would also like to see the ability to clip content to G+, both from the desktop and from mobile, perhaps a similar service to Memonic or Clipboard – perhaps this will come to fruition via aquistion, perhaps it will be developed in house, time will tell.

Google Calendar just became the door bell to Google’s virtual water cooler. I wonder how long it will be before I’m using it without giving it a moments thought.

#fav #itashare   #google

Reshared post from +Gmail

Starting now, you have the ability to use Hangouts from Google Calendar!
Now it’s easier than ever to schedule a face-to-face interview with a candidate located hundreds of miles away or plan a date to catch up with your buddies.  To do so, make sure you’ve upgraded to Google+, and then you can add a hangout to any calendar event with one click. Everyone you invited will be able to join by clicking on the calendar event and selecting Join Google+ hangout.

Learn more here: http://goo.gl/YXeSx

Google+: View post on Google+

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I was disappointed, but not surprised, that “collaboration” as a skill was mostly lumped with technology skills. Folks in the Enterprise 2.0 space, for example, have almost no overlap with organizational development professionals. It’s a troubling trend. Although people are fond of saying, “It’s not about technology, it’s about people,” there’s not much practice validating that mantra.

Easy to say, not so easy to stay focused on.  #shinyobjects

In a perfect world — the world we want to create — I’d like to see a map that is more evenly distributed, with many more cross-connections. This map validated our belief that there is a lot of bridging that needs to happen if we are to learn how to work together more skillfully. It also showed how rich of a research resource LinkedIn can be.

What stands out to me is the importance of data visualisation. Without mapping this it would have been almost impossible to visualise the disconnect between the different factions. Thanks to +Eugene Kim for sharing these findings.  #fav #socbiz   #socent #itashare

Embedded Link

What Does the Collaboration “Field” Look Like? | Groupaya
Over the years, I’ve thought a lot about how to describe my “profession.” I usually describe myself as someone who “helps people collaborate more effectively.” People usually either give me blank star…

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Google+: View post on Google+

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1. Budgets for L&D to shift from formal learning towards performance support, informal, mentoring and social learning in the coming year; the swing could be as much as 40%.
2. A more diverse mix of learning opportunities is desired. Finding better ways to connect learners and ‘experts’ is key.
3. Collaboration, cooperation, engagement, trust, innovation, disruption, community, curation, agile, narratives, context, personalised, mobility, cloud are the new memes.
4. Approaching learning from the perspective of the learner and building everything around it. Begin by addressing the learners question ‘What’s in it for me’.
5. Break down silos of data by sharing across departments, assign specific people to instigate and don’t rely on it just happening. Too much information is being thrown away, lost or misused when, if analysed and shared could add great value. Lack of collaboration between departments is a big issue.
6. Allow employees to have a social media presence and represent the brand, trust that it will result in positive action. It requires trust and transpareny. Expect conflict, complications and disruption.
7. Faciliate more listening and questioning with learning, there within lies the real power. Less noise making. Critical thinking is the new gold standard skill.
8. Create a jargon repository and share to ensure everyone is talking about the same thing.
9. LMS platforms still a contenscious topic.
10. Curation is red hot! Find ways to make sense of content in small digestable mobilised pieces is the new challenge, less is now much more. Future technologies, especially from the tools aspect also peeked interest.
11. Relying ‘purely’ on search algorythms is no longer acceptable. Gathering trusted sources to form a collective intelligence is important. Clarity is king and Context is queen.
12. Don’t foucs on content or product, focus on (learner) experiences. Learning should be embedded in the workflow and not seen as a separate manageable function by one department. The learning strategy should be relevant to the organisations culture.
13. Gathering of knowledge is not the goal, application and how it affects behaviour change is.
14. Innovation and developments are being driven bottom up, where it’s actually needed to affect performance, support from above is encourged.
15. Gamification or gameplay mecahnics is hot, but must be goal/objective orientated. The ‘Story rules!’ Simulations should allow learners to see consequences of actions in safety.
16. Mobile learning is very hot. Focus on intimite experiences. Reiforce content, provide realtime performance support in manageable chunks. MLearning is about displacement not device. Design should be intuitive. HTML 5 is hot. Simplicity is King. Benchmark before you start.
17. Future tech excited the audience. Technology is rewiring us, old skills such as natural navigation being lost. Technology should touch people via an experience. “The way we play today will be the way we work tomorrow, TK.”
18. Education seen to be lagging behind the times, resistence to change is strong. Focus on developing creative skills early that develop critical thinking. Cloud learning is the only viable proposition for the future.
19. Less focus on the tools and more focus on the business performance. Be prepared to change and adapt as required, create a team to focus on the next technologies.
20. Solving the overload of information to derive meaning and sense is a top priority for the next generation.

In this webinar you’ll discover:

• What QR codes are and how they differ from normal barcodes
• How QR Codes are being used to support learning & improve performance
• What design elements you need to consider within a QR code strategy
• What tools you’ll need for creating, reading, and measuring QR codes
• How the future of mobile tagging is already part of the present

Note: Sections of this webinar will be contain interactive real-time participation; use this link http://bit.ly/QR-readers to download a QR code reader for your phone.

RECORDING

The full recording with slides, audio and comments.

Mobile Tagging (Webinar) from Paul Simbeck-Hampson on Vimeo.

QR CODE EXAMPLES

A complimentary 22 page QR Code report which accompanies the Webinar, free to download in PDF format via SlideShare (Webinar Slides available too).

REFLECTIONS

Curation: Thanks to Daniel Durrant and the Open Intelligence team for curating the Twitter stream on today’s Webinar – having it all in one place certainly makes it much easier, I’m also looking forward to your analyst report. http://goo.gl/svqvo

Blog Posts & Tweets

Thanks to David Hopkins for his QR (Quick Response) views and reflections on today’s Webinar, his Blog post can be read here… http://goo.gl/VA92L

More reflections from the Webinar’s host and chairman of the LSG, Donald Taylor. Thanks, Don, great post, look forward to future collaborations. http://goo.gl/XT3Rt

Join LSG: A big thanks to Donald Taylor for releasing today’s recording outside of the LSG. Those interested to join this great community on Ning should send him an @ reply (@DonaldHTaylor) on Twitter or email: donaldt (at) learningtechnologies (dot) co (dot) uk

Paul Simbeck-Hampson, an English learning and technology advisor based in Bavaria, Germany, supports organisations who want to work smarter. An associate of the Internet Time Alliance, Paul has an avid interest in the responsible and thoughtful use of technologies for learning. He is also a passionate believer in learning and improvement who daily puts into practice the continuous improvement principles of Kaizen.

Education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another. ~ Wikipedia

The words ‘act’ and ‘experience’ jumped out at me as those formative effects that can happen everywhere and any time throughout our lives. But then ‘deliberately transmits’ worried me. Probably because it gives the impression that content must be deliberately pushed onto learners in an particular place and time. Then I remembered something I had heard about pull vs. push, or rather what my friend Scott Gould calls “pulley”: “the right balance of push and pull”.

This brought me to the first ‘purpose of education’; to negotiate a balance of push and pull between learners and their sources.

Sometimes learners need permission to pull from their own set of sources. Teachers, peers, and parents simply need to push the content in their direction, so that learners may discover what they’re looking for and then engage with it. The pulley-like rotation of push and pull between learners and their sources made me reflect more deeply on the word ‘purpose’. While reading, again on Wikipedia, I discovered this quotation which resonated.

Purpose-guided education prioritizes intrinsic motivation and helps students to become more engaged in learning experiences through connecting their beliefs and life goals to curricular requirements. ~ Jerry Pattengale

I liked the word ‘their’ because it points to the importance of the student’s, or the learner’s own intrinsic motivation. Education needs to be focused on ‘their’ beliefs and ‘their’ life goals. The priority isn’t on pushing ‘them’ to pass tests.

Does the present education system focus on their beliefs and goals? Better yet, does the present education system focus on ‘our’ beliefs and goals? If not, what can we do about it?

To answer that we must look within. I looked within myself and something Sir Ken Robinson said about the value of the individual comes to mind.

Make the most of whatever it is that floats your boat…

Only when the learner recognises and rejoices in ‘their’ own purpose can they enjoy the process of learning. To keep the boat of the individual learner afloat, we need to become each other’s sources and understand each other’s motivations. I think the educational phrase is ‘Jane is highly motivated, she loves XYZ’. Our purpose is something that we love, so it motivates us.

Purpose: The idea that a final goal is implicit in all living organisms. With teleology (purpose) matter is fulfilling some aim from within. ~ Wikipedia

Without wandering too near to spiritual matters, a ‘final goal’ indicates that a purpose must have a destination. The idea of fulfilling an ‘aim from within’ reveals the starting point of the education process. If the learner is motivated to float their boat toward their purpose, we should help them set sail beyond the rough waters of the past.

Build an education system that feeds inquisitiveness ~ John Abbott

The second ‘purpose of education’ is about stepping outside the boundaries of old systems so that we may learn everywhere. Education is not confined to a school, or a university, or a workplace, it is an ongoing, perimeterless, living, life-long process that “feeds inquisitiveness” and raises consciousness.

Is it consciousness-raising? …in other words does it reveals possibilities that the learner is able to discover, possibilities that they can act upon? ~ Anne Shaw

We don’t know what future jobs will be, so education should nurture and inspire a life-long inquisitiveness focused on what’s interesting to the learner, no matter where they may be. Asking, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” is the wrong question. Maybe instead we should ask, “what do you want to be now?”

Explorable opportunities are everywhere and learners should be encouraged to be what they want to be in their moment of inquisitiveness. As learners we ask questions, we get our hands dirty. Sometimes we succeed at being what we want to be, sometimes we fail. In the sandbox of life our castles may crumble, but we can always keep building, or trying something new.

Sometimes it takes others who are wiser than us, or who simply have a knack for being who we want to be. Forcing square pegs into round holes is a huge waste of time that only creates unhappy people. Nobody wants to be pushed into being something they’re not. The “learning ecosystem” recognizes that.

In a learning ecosystem, the objective is to induce change to behaviours that meets the overall organisational objectives. Again, forcing people to change is nigh-on impossible. The Learning & Development team can only provide the conditions in which change is more likely. ~ Mark Berthelemy

In my recent post ‘Educational change starts locally‘ which touched on some important elements within a ecosystem, I presented a case for a holistic approach to ‘education’ that sees beyond the four walls known as school. It starts with a loving commitment from parents at ‘home’, which is supported by friends, colleagues and local businesses within a ‘community’ with ‘school’ being the place where you can experiment in a supportive environment with other ‘like minds’. John Abbot describes this as:

Home – Emotional Development

Community -Inspiration for life in general

School – Intellectual power, how to draw the ideas together

Education – Joining of those three things to get balance.

He goes on to describe the value of ‘social capital’.

Social Capital is the meeting and exchanging of ideas through conversation with others. If we want children to be ready for the future we all have to be involved with it. This the beginning of a revolution that is most needed.

The third ‘purpose of education’ is to fill our learning ecosystem with engaging experiences and conversations. Roger Schank had to say about it…

You don’t learn anything unless you remember it. Memory comes from having had experience. Experiences have to have certain properties, they have to be, emotional, exciting, contain a surprise or a challenge; without those properties, you don’t remember them.

In order for emotional and exciting engagements to take place, John Abbott reminds us to,

Stop talking ‘at’ learners and start talking ‘with’ them.

Being ‘talked at’ is not an effective way to learn. So why do we spend so much time talking ‘to’ learners and lecturing them? It seems to me that if education wants to make a true shift it must first re-learn how we actually learn, through conversation and experience. Jay Cross suggests that:

Learning implies school. School is chock full of formal learning — courses, classes, and grades that obscure the fact that most learning at school is either self-directed or informal. Informal learning is effective because it is personal. The individual calls the shots. The learner is responsible. It’s real. Most of what we learn, we learn from other people — parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, playmates, cousins, Little Leaguers, Scouts, school chums, room mates, teammates, classmates, study groups, coaches, bosses, mentors, colleagues, gossips, co-workers, neighbors, and, eventually, our children. Sometimes we even learn from teachers.

If a balance between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ learning can be aligned so that it fits within a personalised context, an opportunity for learners to see the true value of their education can be assured. We are living in a state of permanent ‘perpetual beta’ (via Harold Jarche) and education needs to reflect it.

Finally there is the fourth identified ‘purpose of education’: to combine collective wisdom through listening and balancing the hopes and dreams of those who will inherit what we leave behind.

Let’s support learning everywhere, let’s support Purposed.

 

I want to create my own ladder and climb it at my own pace. ~ Micah Stubblefield

http://simbeckhampson.com/2011/03/26/the-purpose-of-education-purposed/

It’s upsetting to see the amount of homework my daughter (9) gets daily, there’s often no time for play #sad#education #fail

As a result, a number of kind people reacted and send me links to help support my frustrations. I can’t thank Roger Schank enough for his links (1 & 2), which went to straight to heart of the matter and inspired me to dig deeper. As always it’s a questions of time, and it’s often against me, but I’ve dedicated extra hours to research in order to prepare for a parents meeting on Thursday.

Other sources that have inspired me include Doug & Mark’s ‘Purposed‘ program. Focusing on the question ‘What is the purpose of Education?’ This campaign has already produced some very high quality 500 word articles and I’m excitedly following conversations that pursue. My own article will be out on March, 26th and will be posted here.

My friend and colleague Daniel Durrant (@ddrnt) has also been chatting recently about a group using the #EduKare. I’m still in the early days of exploring their posts and charter, but already feel a warming to this group and their ideals.

It seems that where ever I look at the moment wonderful people are trying to make a difference in education. Like minds are gathering to discuss and solve today’s real problems, and it seems that the question of how do we learn is taking a far more prominent role in governments, schools, colleges, universities and ultimately the workplace.

As a result of following Dan’s new network, I stumbled upon this quote this morning by Goran Kimovski, which really resonated, and has given me more inspiration to share my research with fellow parents and teachers this week.

The ingredients for rebuilding the learning experience for our kids are not in the government’s hands. They’re not in the school boards, legislative bodies, educational institutions. They’re in the hands of the teachers, the principals, the students, the parents, the community!

I’m sure I’ll also find others, parents and teachers alike, who are feeling the same way, struggling with their own children, struggling to find a balance between play and school life.

That’s where you come in. Before the meeting, I’d like to ask you what suggestions, tips, links or advice you can offer. Please contribute in the comments below while considering the following question:

In practical terms, how can we help ourselves, our teachers and ultimately our children to cope with the current education system?

Here are some ideas that came out of @lrnchat last night…

evolving via @olliegardener
working via @jonhusband
iworking via me
weworking via @c4lpt
living via @tdebaillon

Bright sunshine filled the hotel room on Saturday morning, which was most pleasant and it helped me to forget the passport incidence. We’d arranged to meet at 10:30am at the Savoy hotel. I had no idea how the day was going to pan out and whether we would only have time for a short meeting or…?

I set off across the city with plenty of time in hand. On route I found a Starbucks and settled into some last minute reading and a cappuccino.

The moment had arrived… it was 10.20am as I entered the Savoy. I introduced myself to the receptionist and found a comfortable spot on one of the huge leather sofa’s. Right on cue, Jay and Harold appeared in the lobby. My first reaction was, hey I know you two With very little formality, Jay explained the plan for the day and Harold advised me just to go with the flow and follow Jay… which was, throughout the day, excellent advice.

The plan for the day was built around promoting the book and shooting video at key locations around the city. I was designated camera man, which seemed like a cool deal. We left the hotel and went across the street into the stock exchange for the first shoot. As expected on a Saturday morning it was very quiet which gave us the ideal opportunity to break the ice and shoot the first film clip.

Jay whipped out his iPad and showed me the next version of the book in digital format – it looks pretty cool folks. It was actually the first time I’d seen an #iPad and the first thing that struck me was how small it was, I thought it was much bigger?

After filming the first clip we got the tube maps out and began making our cunning plan for the day… well actually Jay did, and me and Harold waited for the next set of instructions.

The next location was the famous landmark at Potsdam Platz, one of the places where the ‘wall’ divided East and West, almost 20 years ago to the day.

While looking around I found a side show where a uniformed guard was giving out information and allowing photos to be made by tourists. I’d brought my copy of Working Smarter as Jay had forgotten to sign it when he’d sent it a few weeks ago. I was pleased I had it with me as it could now be used as an ideal prop I gingerly asked the guard if I could photograph him and the book (which Harold captured, below), he kindly agreed, although he did warn that it might not help with with international sales )

Using my new and very nice HTC Desire I snapped a shot, thanked him and scuttled off with a grin on my face to find Jay…

I found Jay looking for the ideal place to conduct the next video interview, he’d found a graffitied section of the wall and seemed to be checking out lighting or other such technical considerations… I pushed the HTC under his nose and this was his reaction, superbly caught on camera by Harold.

After another short filming, Harold and I were informed of our next destination. We’d often look at each other and simply say “Follow Jay” Not too far from this location is the Sony centre and this was to be our destination… On route, and still giggling from the German guard gag, I photographed Jay and Harold under a big yellow Lego giraffe? Why? Well, because it was colourful…?

The Sony centre is pretty impressive. We walked around looking at the various exhibits and admiring the architecture. Jay noticed a film Museum, which he’d not previously visited, and so this became our next destination.

We were not advised before that photography was forbidden, but it did not take us long to get the attention of those working there. Here are some crazy shots of us photographing into mirrors – don’t ask why, it’s complicated. Shortly after this we received our first warning (a sobering moment)… notice the book on the floor…

A strange photo, to say the least…

This picture below was to depict how Working Smarter can help save us from the scenario in the film > “The film is set in the massive, sprawling futuristic mega-city Metropolis, whose society is divided into two classes: one of planners and management, who live high above the Earth in luxurious skyscrapers; and one of workers, who live and toil underground.”

As I took this photo one of the curators appeared from behind a wall (almost like in a haunted house film) and issued us with a final warning (oops!) Sadly to say there are no more photos from this museum, but at the risk of being thrown out, we behaved ourselves for the remaining time there.

After the excitement of the Film museum it was time for lunch. We found a nice restaurant at the sony center and took a great seat overlooking the main concourse. Before lunch another short film was recorded with the Sony centre as the backdrop.

After a few glasses of wine / beer and a hearty lunch we were ready for the next destination on the tour… Jay, where are we heading now… follow the leader, said Harold Our next destination was the ‘Brandenburger Tur’. On route we passed by the Jewish memorial which had an eerie feel to it…

I’d not really figured it out until we arrived at the Tür, but tomorrow (Sunday) was the 20 years East/West reunion celebration. A carnival was in motion, a band was playing music, a choir singing, really nice, whole area was filled with a positive buzz.

After soaking up the musical atmosphere the tour continued… Jay wanted to visit the location where Hitler had burned all the books from the Humbold University. We walked behind the Tür and were greeted by an array of excellent promotional photo opportunities – or at least that’s how I saw it…

We strolled down to the University in search of the location where the books had been burned. On arrival there was a protest about something, not sure exactly what as it was all in Italian… anyway we found the location and began to snap away… we drew a small crowd of interested spectators, who seemed amused that we wanted to photograph a book in this location…

As can be seen the bookshelves are empty, we thought it a fitting place to photograph the Working Smarter book

We then sauntered over to the University where a book sale was in full swing. Once again this provided an ideal opportunity to make some more shots of the book…

With a little more risk taking, we took these amusing shots… luckily the security guards took our actions with a pinch of salt and we were not arrested!

It was time to leave the Univeristy and once again follow Jay into the unknown. The final destination of the day was the Pergamon Museum. The Pergamon houses original-sized, reconstructed monumental buildings such as the Pergamon Altar, the Market Gate of Miletus, all consisting of parts transported from Turkey.

It was clear on arriving in the Museum that we were allowed to take photos, which gave us a sense of relief. There were some really interesting exhibition pieces and we could have quite easily spent another few hours there… as it was we were the last to leave. In one of the rooms Jay decided that it would make an ideal place to conduct an interview with Harold and I about the benefits of #Amplify. There was no time to prepare, Jay just gave Harold the microphone and the interview began

Just before closing time, Jay wanted to film another short clip. We began filming and within a few minutes a curator came towards us looking most disgruntled. He said “No, no, no… oh, there will be problems”, he turned on his heels and disappeared in search of reinforcements. A few minutes later his boss turned up and asked what we we were doing. We told him we were tourists making a film of our day out. The big boss looked at the young worker, shook his head and allowed us to carry on filming – I actually think we were lucky not to have been thrown out, but sometimes you need a bit of extra luck

Tired and thirsty, we began the search for a coffee shop, somewhere to rest our aching legs… by chance we came across a Bavarian brewery along the way and thought, that’ll do. We pulled up a few chairs and enjoyed a well deserved beer.

It was a great way to end a very enjoyable and fun day. I’d not expected the day to turn out this way and it is with much gratitude that I thank both Jay and Harold for making it just perfect.

We’ve all added our photos to #Flickr if you want to see the whole collection >>

Jay Cross > http://bit.ly/bpR0UO

Harold Jarche > http://bit.ly/cHD4UM

Paul Simbeck-Hampson > http://bit.ly/bYg5fo

It’s been a busy week researching curation tools and I think this is just the start of things to come – Tips: Amplify, Curated.by, Storify, Twazzup and DataSift. Any others I should be looking at?

Update: The bundles 4 months on – http://www.curated.by/simbeckhampson

Secondly, I found an interesting quote from Jim Taylor, Ph.D., an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco (http://bit.ly/9Sg1Ti) and although the quote is referring to ‘Popular Culture’, I believe the advice can be broadly applied to the topic of Internet usage.

In the final part of the post I’ve found some useful quotes from Dr. Kern, a leading behavioural addiction specialist; listening to his advice via the link offers a range of practical solutions.

NY Times Article – Our Cluttered Minds

Socrates started what may have been the first technology scare. In the “Phaedrus,” he lamented the invention of books, which “create forgetfulness” in the soul.

In the 17th century, Robert Burton complained, in “The Anatomy of Melancholy,” of the “vast chaos and confusion of books” that make the eyes and fingers ache.

By 1890, the problem was the speed of transmission: one eminent physician blamed “the pelting of telegrams” for triggering an
outbreak of mental illness. And then came radio and television, which poisoned the mind with passive pleasure.

In “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” the technology writer Nicholas Carr extends this anxiety to the 21st century.

Carr argues that we are sabotaging ourselves, trading away the seriousness of sustained attention for the frantic superficiality of the Internet.

“Once I was a scuba diver in a sea of words, now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”

This is a measured manifesto. Even as Carr bemoans his vanishing attention span, he’s careful to note the usefulness of the Internet, which provides us with access to a near infinitude of information. We might be consigned to the intellectual shallows, but these shallows are as wide as a vast ocean.

Carr insists that the negative side effects of the Internet outweigh its efficiencies.

Consider, for instance, the search engine, which Carr believes has fragmented our knowledge.

“We don’t see the forest when we search the Web, we don’t even see the trees. We see twigs and leaves.”

Why is it that in a world in which everything is available we all end up reading the same thing?

…he’s horrified by the way computers are destroying our powers of concentration.

And so we lurch from site to site, if only because we constantly crave the fleeting pleasure of new information. But this isn’t really the fault of the Internet. The online world has merely exposed the feebleness of human attention, which is so weak that even the most minor temptations are all but impossible to resist.

He argues that our mental malleability has turned us into servants of technology, our circuits reprogrammed by our gadgets.

The incessant noise of the Internet, Carr concludes, has turned the difficult text into an obsolete relic.

Psychology Today Article – Popular Culture: Too Much Time On Our Hands. What is with our obsession with celebrities? Published on September 9, 2009 by Jim Taylor, Ph.D., an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco.

So what do we do? I think it’s safe to say that our culture isn’t going to help us to make changes. Ultimately, our culture doesn’t care about us, only about making money and accumulating power. Instead, it is up to each of us individually to decide that a different road is necessary if we wish to find what we seek.

We must start by regaining perspective on the role that popular culture plays in our lives. Our worship of popular culture has caused many in America to search for meaning and connectedness in all the wrong places. The only place to find real meaning is by immersing ourselves in our own lives and the people and activities that actually mean something to us, rather than turning to the contrived-and ultimately unsatisfying-meaning that popular culture tries to sell us. We need to rediscover connectedness with real people instead of accepting the virtual connections that are readily available with modern technology. But for this to happen, we must first admit how truly unimportant popular culture is, reject its allure, and recommit our time and energy to the search for real meaning and connectedness.

My personal opinion is not quite as dramatic as Jim’s final sentences and I would suggest methods in developing a health balance of virtual and face to face communication.

Yesterday I was also reading and listening to Dr. Kern’s (http://bit.ly/aCOVkN) take on Behavioural Addictions using Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and what I particular found interesting was the idea of harm reduction and not abstinence. The link above leads to a series of short video’s, I can highly recommend taking the time to listen to Dr Kern inspiring answers.

To conclude: in my view, it is essential we begin developing guidelines for Internet usage that can be segmented for different parts of society; start with Kindergarden age and working through school, college, university, work and leisure groups. As is often read, but perhaps not fully understood, a balanced lifestyle is one key to health and happiness ~ Dr. Kern. This, for me, underlines the overall principle on this topic.