Gamestorming There’s no medal for first to market (Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson is president of MindLink Marketing. He contributed this column to VentureBeat.) The iPhone, Google search and Facebook were all latecomers to the game. None was first to market – but all of them are now the dominant players in their category. In the business world, being a trend setter doesn’t guaranteed success. Some see the chance to introduce a new technology or new category as an advantage – and figure “what can it hurt to be first?” Plenty. The race to be first to market causes many startups to work under an imaginary stopwatch. Rushed products – This is a big one. Even first-movers who find a modicum of success – or (the Holy Grail) an early rabid fan-base – are letting other companies learn from their mistakes. So what can companies that aren’t first to move do to work themselves into a leadership position? Simplify the product – This is often one of the best ways to come to market in a crowded field.
Creating a Multimedia Digital Learning Object in Powerpoint 3 Ways Coding and Gaming Can Enhance Learning Coding isn't just for computer science any more. Educators are finding that teaching students to write code and design games enhances learning and creates engagement. These examples illustrate how coding and games are being used across the curriculum and at all levels, as well as why great teaching is at the very heart of this innovation. Connecting With Each Learner: Inform7 (Interactive Fiction for High School) Imagine a weather-beaten oak door. It has a heavy brass knocker and a tarnished handle that doesn't look like it has been used in some time. Now go to Google Images and try to find a picture of the exact door that you have seen in your head. Now imagine that as you approach the door, you notice deep scratches along the doorframe, as if something has been trying to get in . . . or trying to hold the door closed. Yet through the power of narrative description, we are all probably picturing the same door in our heads. Great Teachers
50 Ways to Foster a Culture of Innovation 4. Always question authority, especially the authority of your own longstanding beliefs. 5. Make new mistakes. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. NOTE: This list co-authored with Val Vadeboncoeur Thanks to Michael Plishka, of ZenStorming, for his refinement of #25. Cirque du Soleil photo
Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) Principal Investigator: Ken Ford Research Categories: Expertise Studies Knowledge Modeling and Sharing Computer-Mediated Learning Project Description: The STORM-LK project was intended to illustrate the application of the principles of Human-Centered Computing (HCC). The domain of weather forecasting was selected for study, with the goal of creating a "cognitive prosthesis"–a computational system that leverages and extends human intellectual, perceptual, and collaborative capacities. Another goal was to analyze a variety of methods of Cognitive Work Analysis: Workplace analysis, workpatterns analysis, the Critical Decision Method, protocol analysis, etc. (see Hoffman, Crandall, & Shadbolt, 1998; Hoffman, & Woods, 2000; Hoffman, Shadbolt, Burton, & Klein, 1995). The multimethod approach permitted the empirical comparison of the methods in terms of their relative efficiency in generating knowledge models and identifying possible leverage points for the application of HCC. a). b). c). d).
The Importance of Thinking In- and Out-of-the-Box How to encourage creativity in a tech-based environment. GUEST COLUMN | by Wendy Marshall How do you teach a student to be creative? It used to be that educators encouraged innovation by telling children to “think outside the box” via a “sky’s the limit” approach. During our summer Makers Camp that is put on by my educational center ExplorOcean, children (ages 9-13) participate in guided projects using tools such as Little Bits, Makey Makeyand Hummingbird robotics. It is important, especially in a tech-based environment, to encourage students to think both inside and outside the box. 1. Researchers who study prodigious accomplishments talk about the 10,000-hour rule, which means in order to be able to do something notable, one must devote 10,000+ hours to mastering that discipline. 2. Requirements, guidelines, time and materials all narrow the realm in which a student is allowed to operate, making it easier for her or him to focus on the problem or issue. 3. 4. 5. Like this:
How do we measure innovation? In response to the IEEE’s report on Patent Power, which lists the top companies ranked by number of patents, Ari Shahdadi and Brad Burnham made trenchant comments in email that I thought were worth sharing (with their permission): Ari wrote: The main article is sad to read, with choice quotes like this: “Clearly, the global recession seriously hampered innovation in the United States.” If I’d like to do anything, it’s end the use of patenting statistics as a metric for innovative activity, especially by groups like the IEEE. Brad responded: Amen – R&D spending is also a bad indicator because so much is wasted in big companies. I totally agree with both Ari and Brad, but just wishing that people would use another metric won’t make it happen. I’ve long been mindful of the power of synthetic indexes. I’d love your thoughts about what could go into such a measure.
Effective Storytelling - a basic manual Effective StorytellingA manual for beginners by Barry McWilliams Effective storytelling is a fine and beautiful art. A well-developed and presented story can cut across age barriers and will hold the interest and reach its listeners. Stories will be remembered long after other orations. You are most welcome to copy and use this document! Finding stories: There are many kinds of stories you can work with. While traditionally stories were learned by listening, the best source today is the children’s department of the Public Library - particularly in the section (J)398. With time you will probably find many kinds of tales that will interest you personally. And be aware of copyrights, it is best to work with traditional folklore or tales in public domain, than to plagiarize a living author or storyteller without their permission. Characteristics of a good story:
How to Get Girls Into Coding WHEN I was 7 years old, I knew the capitals of most major countries and their currencies. I had to, if I wanted to track down a devious criminal mastermind in the computer game “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?” On screen, the ACME Detective Agency would spit out clues like notable landmarks to help players identify the city where Carmen’s globe-trotting henchmen were hiding out. I wouldn’t learn how to pronounce Reykjavik for more than a decade, but I could tell you that its currency was called the krona. I was the child of Indian immigrants, and like any begrudging Bengal tiger cub, I penciled in fill-in-the-blank maps and memorized multiplication tables after dinner. A huge nationwide push is underway, funded by the nonprofit Code.org’s corporate and billionaire donors, from Amazon and Google to Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, to introduce American schoolchildren to coding and to redefine it as a basic skill to be learned alongside the three R’s. Continue reading the main story
Staying Ahead of Innovation Challenges - Adam Richardson - The Conversation by Adam Richardson | 8:48 AM March 7, 2011 We recently hosted at frog design a group of mid-career executives who are in the Global Executive MBA program at the IESE Business School in Barcelona. We have done this collaboration for several years now, and it’s enlightening to see how the students are facing an ever-changing set of innovation challenges. Given the diversity of countries and industries (everything from energy to telecom, government to nonprofit) and company sizes (multinationals to startups) there are some striking commonalities that emerge. See if these feel familiar, and consider if they are trending up or down for your business: Challenge 1: Commoditization Two factors are conspiring to heighten concerns over rapid commoditization: price pressures from still budget-conscious customers, and market compression from more competitors (and more cut-throat competitors). Challenge 2: Simplicity Last year the focus was on how customers were becoming more demanding.
Upgrade Your Brain: Resources for Coding Beginners Adam Benzion is the founder of Entirely—a Seattle startup focused on social innovation, keen on connecting more people in more places to create special things together. “Everybody in this country should learn to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think.”— Steve Jobs Anyone who’s paying attention these days has probably figured out that computer programming is fast becoming the new standard of literacy in our technology-driven economy. Those with even a rudimentary knowledge of code will probably read this little article and chuckle. But for me and many other “business types,” not understanding coding has become a real handicap and a growing blind spot. As an intelligent person who’s had a successful career in the software industry and even managed to deliver as technology entrepreneur, I hate feeling left out of certain conversations because I don’t know the language. Everyone is tweaking, hacking, and experimenting. Upgrading your MBA brain is actually fun Spread the word
10 places where anyone can learn to code Teens, tweens and kids are often referred to as “digital natives.” Having grown up with the Internet, smartphones and tablets, they’re often extraordinarily adept at interacting with digital technology. But Mitch Resnick, who spoke at TEDxBeaconStreet, is skeptical of this descriptor. Sure, young people can text and chat and play games, he says, “but that doesn’t really make you fluent.” Mitch Resnick: Let's teach kids to code Fluency, Resnick proposes in this TED Talk, comes not through interacting with new technologies, but through creating them. The point isn’t to create a generation of programmers, Resnick argues. In his talk, Resnick describes Scratch, the programming software that he and a research group at MIT Media Lab developed to allow people to easily create and share their own interactive games and animations. At Codecademy, you can take lessons on writing simple commands in JavaScript, HTML and CSS, Python and Ruby. While we’re at it: bonus!