Winners Announced! – Why Open Education Matters Video Competition Timothy Vollmer, July 18th, 2012 Creative Commons, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Open Society Foundations are pleased to announce the winners of the Why Open Education Matters video competition. The competition was launched in March 2012 to solicit creative videos that clearly communicate the use and potential of free, high-quality Open Educational Resources — or “OER” — and describe the benefits and opportunities these materials create for teachers, students, and schools everywhere. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the competition with a video on the Why Open Education Matters website. First Prize Congratulations to Blinktower, an extremely talented creative agency based in Cape Town, South Africa. Second Prize Congratulations to Laura Rachfalski and her great team. Third Prize Congratulations to Nadia Paola Mireles Torres and her collaborators from the design firm Funktionell.
Social Media Torch How to Make Money on YouTube as a Clickbank Affiliate How to Make Money on YouTube I’m going to tell you an easy way to help you learn how to make money on YouTube. Just stay with me, it’ll only take a few minutes to understand the entire process. First thing to do is go to Clickbank.com. I want you to click the sign up link at the top of the page. In order to make money on YouTube, first pick a product that you are advertising for and trying to sell on YouTube. Ranked Videos Make Money on YouTube Find a Site Explorer you are going to use. So how do you do that? Finding Students' Hidden Strengths and Passions Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is the President of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership and he has spent a lot of time thinking about how to inspire both. He has some ideas about how we can inspire our students by helping them find their hidden strengths and passions. To use the word "hidden" may not be quite accurate because often, strengths are hidden by lack of opportunity to display them. Too often, when students are in school, they are not looked at in terms of their strengths; rather, there is a focus on remediating their deficits. This is rarely a source of inspiration for anyone. So what can educators do? Second, ask students to talk about times when they found out something surprising and good about someone else. Third, have students talk to their parents or guardians about "hidden talents"-- you may want to use this exact term. You may have your own ideas. Brad Hirschfield reminds us that miraculous discoveries must be discovered.
6 Expert-Endorsed Ways to Improve Your Marketing TODAY In the marketing world, there’s lots of discussion about shortening attention spans and how we as an industry need to tailor our approach to be faster, better, and more compelling. Often in just three seconds or 140 characters. But where’s the instant gratification for marketers? What can we do in a day’s work that will generate real impact on our business? Below we’ve outlined tips from top experts on tactics and strategies you can employ in the next 24 hours to improve your marketing for the long haul. 1) Revamp Your “About Us” Small business marketing expert and Fast Company blogger Shawn Graham describes the “About Us” section of a company’s website, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages as “a window into the soul of your business.” Instead, however, “About Us” pages are typically a good way to lull people to sleep with mundane facts, figures, and references alongside a vague description of who you are and how it’s different. What to Do Today 3) Make Your Press Releases Buyer-Centric
narrative now Google Bought a Zoo [Infographic] | Infographic Google recently announced a new Penguin update furthering the search giant’s objective to decrease Web spam and reward good quality content and effective white hat SEO techniques. If you’re practicing black hat SEO tactics such as keyword stuffing, duplicate content, and link schemes, be careful; the Penguin or Panda might swallow you whole. For us folks who take our content marketing seriously, these are welcomed updates because Google is rewarding remarkable content and penalizing the poorly written crap. Another important part of this update is that Google is increasingly looking at social signals as a sign of content quality and relevance. The more social shares and interactions that a piece of content has, the more likely it will show up in search results. The infographic below illustrates what you need to know to keep your content on good terms with Google’s new algorithm. Copy and Paste The Code Below to Share the Google Bought a Zoo Infographic
University Game Labs Emerging to Enhance Community Learning How students are learning at university game labs To think, there are still people who say gaming isn’t good for education; try saying that to universities with game labs. Gamification is a powerful tool that can make the educational experience not only more fun, but more effective as well. Because of the increasing number of successful game labs, more universities are looking to tap into the power of games to reap the rewards from social and interactive learning. The joy of gamification is that it isn’t specific to one subject, class size, or grade level – it’s seen anywhere from young kids to college students and everyone can benefit from it. This belief is shown through World of Classcraft as the game is a simple outline that can be applied to any age level or subject. Dr. Schrier continues: “A game lab could serve as a model for a hands-on, problem-based, and meaningful approach to learning. Different institutions have their own methods and reasons for combining gaming with education.
FIVE STEPS Soundcloud1Learn more about this providerWIDGET::local::assignmentsUsed by audio-platform SoundCloud to implement, measure and improve their embedded content/service on the website - The collection of data also includes visitors’ interaction with embedded content/service. This can be used for statistics or marketing purposes. Expiry: PersistentType: HTMLYouTube32Learn more about this provider#-#PendingExpiry: SessionType: HTMLiU5q-! How to Get Hesitant Teachers to Use Technology In my consulting as well as administrative technology work, I am often asked the same questions by different schools and officials. One of the most common is: “How do you get teachers who are hesitant or resistant to use technology?” I am keenly aware that many of my colleagues are not, for various reasons, gung ho about educational technology. And it’s interesting. In my role as tech advocate, I habitually find myself trying to coax these established educators to use new tools and incorporate new methodologies. 1. If you’re working with veteran educators, this is especially important. Instead, try this: observe what they do in the classroom that’s made them successful and build out from there. 2. If teachers express a want or need for technology in the classroom (a particular browser, program, hardware, etc.) accommodate them! 3. Teachers respond better to other teachers who share their situation. 4. Teachers are not done at three o’clock. 5. 6. 7. I cannot emphasize this enough.
Here’s a Quick Way to Define Rapid E-Learning Last week, I posted the question, “How do you define rapid elearning?” The community responded and today we have over 200 definitions. We even got one from former U.S. Vice-President, Al Gore, who claimed to have “invented rapid elearning.” I suspect that one’s not real. What I really enjoyed about reading these definitions is that they were submitted by elearning professionals from all over the world. Something like this wasn’t possible just a few years ago. It is interesting to read the definitions of rapid elearning and see the diversity of opinion. Clear communication is essential for an industry that is focused on teaching others. In the book, BusinessThink, the authors discuss “complex equivalents.” I found this to be true with our definitions of rapid elearning. What Is the Definition of Rapid E-Learning? I am sure that this contest will not settle the definition of rapid elearning. Now for the task at hand… Here are the final five. Click Here to Vote