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Education Globalization Innovation Reading Technology

Latest read: Made to Stick

What book would be a perfect follow up to The Tipping Point and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell? To prove timing is everything I read Dan and Chip Heath’s new release: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. The book’s authors acknowledge that their book complements Gladwell’s The Tipping Point by identifying “traits” necessary to make your ideas ‘sticky’ with your intended audience.
Made to StickWritten by brothers Chip and Dan Heath they share experiences and research in finding ideas that stick. Chip is professor of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Dan is a consultant to Duke University’s Corporate Education program.

Made to Stick provides wonderful insight to learn how powerful ideas succeed in the face of big obstacles (and people) especially in a stale environment. Take Subway’s series of commercials featuring Jared for example.

Originally passed by PR firms, Jared’s story was brought to life by the Subway store manager where Jared ate while attending Indiana University. The ad campaign was eventually created pro-bono by a firm thinking they would fail. Even Subway’s PR firm did not support this idea. Chip and Dan prove not only how wrong they were, but how powerful the idea has turned out to be for Subway.

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Education Globalization Network OpenSource Reading Technology

Latest read: Wikinomics

Want to learn where a faster, wireless internet and robust web technology is moving all of us? Read Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything to get a real-world understanding of the impact of YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr, MySpace, Linux, SecondLife and InnoCentive.
wikinomicsThis is a true paradigm shift. Changes have occurred in business and society regarding mass collaboration and the internet. I know many people do not like change but we live in exciting new times.

How has technology transformed our world? Consider ABC Television has been around for almost 60 years. The first television broadcast was in 1948. If you total all the video (24/7) shown on ABC since 1948 — just over 500,000 hours. YouTube has produced more hours of content in just the past 6 months.

The colonial era approach to education will never should not be continued. When will our educational systems catch up with the world? The longer we stand on the sidelines and watch countries including India and China establish educational models around the internet-enabled world, the longer our students will not be able to compete when they enter the global marketplace.

Some states are making that change. Michigan’s virtual schools permit students to study the Chinese language via the internet. Their instructor lives in China. It started when choices for foreign language were no longer acceptable. What economic impact does French or German have in contrast to Chinese and Hindi for a student’s future? Its safe to say French economic power has been on the decline since World War I. Lets give our students the best opportunities to succeed in our country’s future.

In higher education there are examples of how ideas fall short. Teacher are often unaware of how to get their students to connect their idea/project with a engineer, on-demand book publisher or patent attorney in today’s global marketplace. Yes patent attorney. But it may be due to the colonial era approach to educational reform. Too often educators look inward (or to peer groups) and believe if they change internal measurements, students will benefit. Wikinomics proves this to be another colonial era step in the wrong direction.

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Education Globalization Reading

Latest read: The Looming Tower

Lawrence Wright has written an amazing book that helps us understand al-Qaeda. His book The Looming Tower: al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11 is very well written and as a result very upsetting.  This deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize.
The Looming TowerWould you be surprised to learn foundations of al-Qaeda began from an Egyptian enrolled in grad school at the University of Northern Colorado in 1949? His name was Sayyid Qutb. He began the modern Islamist movement that today is al-Qaeda.

Wright documents the wealth of the bin Laden’s family which provided Osama bin Laden the financial ability to forward his own view of the world through terrorism. Osama bin Laden promoted great myths of Islam defeating massive Soviet troops in Afghanistan to sell his vision…including the dreams of airplanes hitting buildings and his relationship with Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The Looming Tower uncovers frustrating examples of how the US government failed to stop the attacks on 9/11 even when small teams within our intelligence agencies had evidence of the coming attacks. But they were fighting each other. The CIA purposefully withheld evidence from the FBI. This shows how broken our intelligence systems were organized and how they failed America.

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Education Milwaukee Reading

Latest read: The Gulag Archipelago

I am not sure why this title The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956 came to my reading list…other than Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as author. In college August 1914: The Red Wheel 1: A Narrative in Discrete Periods of Time was on my reading list. The story of his own family and Imperial Russia’s role in WWI.
The Gulag ArchipelegoWith the holiday break at MIAD almost over I found time to finish this work’s first volume and re-examine my interest in Soviet history. For the better part of the 1900s – all too often – it delt with this type of control by the communist party in Soviet Russia.

Solzhenitsyn’s writing is so powerful. Soviet oppression beginning after the 1917 revolution and extending into Stalin’s post WWII Russia is one of the most horrific periods of the 20th Century. The amount of suffering and the power of the Checka was overwhelming to read story after story. And reading how many ways the Soviets could torture people…made me think about the amount of suffering and torture that occurred in “break away” Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact nations in 1968. Czechoslovakia and Poland come to mind.

So is it actually possible to torture someone by forcing them to standup for four or five days? Solzhenitsyn clearly proves this was just one of so many terrible treatments people faced for not supporting the communists. His writing provides too many details of the number of vivid examples…all based upon his own stay in a Gulag and the interview with hundreds of fellow prisoners. Solzhenitsyn wrote this in volumes and multiple sections. This is only Volume I Section I “The Prison Industry, Perpetual Motion.” As much as the first section is horribly depressing, his writing in section two is even more compelling.

I must now also acknowledge that Volume II has been to difficult to read. The detail’s provided by Solzhenitsyn too intense, depressing and horrific. The details of torture by the Soviets… A Russian ship carrying prisoners that breaks down at sea, is offered assistance by a Japanese boat — only to be waived off. Dead prisoners were then pushed overboard. Many unknown deaths by systematic torture how all too well the horrors of the Soviet Gulags.

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Education Milwaukee Reading

Latest read: The Life of Mozart

It was a real joy to read Edward Holmes work The Life of Mozart based around a series of letters by the Mozarts. This is really a must read for anyone wanting to learn more about Mozart’s communication with his family and his amazing life.
life of mozartDon’t judge this book The Life of Mozart by its cover — especially if this book was published in 1845! From touring Europe and the excitement his operas, to his father’s wish not to raise his young children in London — a city lacking the influence of God.

I was amused to learn of a gift given to Mozart by a Polish count in exchange for a composition (when Mozart had “free time”) to feature violin.

After a year the Count wrote Mozart asking for his composition…only to receive a reply which indicated Mozart had no free time to compose! The Count’s reply: since Mozart had no problem holding a gift of gold for a year maybe he should consider returning the gift…and surprisingly Mozart did…while he continued to struggle financially with his wife and children.

Another example were two letters written by Mozart at age 22 to his father and sister while he was touring Paris with his Mother. After she suddenly died he wrote a letter home to prepare them for her death. Then four days after she died he wrote a second letter announcing her death…just before he departed Paris for Saulzberg with her body.

Edward Holmes work is wonderful. Please consider at the time (1845) of this release Mozart’s fame was not fully realized. A wonderful book worthy of a second read.