A 9 year old boy who built an elaborate cardboard arcade in his dad’s used auto parts store is about to have the best day of his life. You have got to take 10 minutes and watch this sweet video about imagination, loving what you do, being an entrepreneur and the power of social media. This is a video that teachers should share with their students, no matter their age. I love how proud Caine is when he is showing us his work. After you watch the video, head over to Caine’s website. I know you’ll get chills, goosebumps and might even cry….but it’ll make your day.
Tag: Inspiration
Danielle LaPorte: A Credo for Making it Happen
In 2010 Danielle LaPorte created the original FireStarter Sessions as a downloadable eBook chocker-block-full of fabulously excellent content and yummy videos which have inspired entrepreneurs to ‘spark your genus, ignite your business, make it matter.’ Well, Danielle now has her book out in print.
Here is Danielle’s current video….which I want to have to watch [again and again] and to share:
Based upon Danielle’s first eBook version of this now-hard-cover rendition. I HIGHLY recommend. I can’t wait to get my own copy. My big question is should I get the hard copy or a digital copy?
IF you still need convincing check out this first chapter for free.
36 UIs In 30 Locations
When to know enough is just enough. Ericsson had too much information and needed a message to communicate how a multi-purpose, multi-technology network node enables operators to meet their three priorities in relation to data traffic explosion: differentiation, control and monetization.
The above video is work that makes you jealous, inspires and does both simultaneously. The beauty of this video is that it is a great example of the changing nature of how instruction can communicate an idea [not just a product]. It shows how Ericsson moves data around, and why it matters.
The House of Radon did the creative work and really hit the nail on making sense out of a concept. The video’s message “appeals to the senses.” Data, nodes, operators, differentiation–all of these ideas in Ericsson’s brief are just so much insubstantial vapor. House of Radon’s video translates them into snappy factoids, which helps. But the idea of embedding them into physically appealing touchscreen interfaces–and then embedding those into a series of viscerally evocative first-person live-action scenelets, where just a hint of sound effects and out-of-focus background action instantly tells your five senses everything they need to know about what’s happening outside the edges of the frame–that’s what makes Ericsson’s brief make sense.
House of Radon’s relentless cutting from new interface/location to new interface/location, three dozen times, is an essential part of getting the message across. As more and more innovative companies find themselves “selling” invisible-but-essential ideas, this kind of advertising-as-sensemaking becomes more valuable than any glib “Got Milk?”-style product campaign ever could be. Does every spot need to cram in 30-odd interfaces and locations to make its point? Of course not. But the designers behind this House of Radon spot know that, sometimes, “too much” is just enough.
iBook Author by Apple
There are times in an instructional designer’s life when the game changes and Apple has just changed the game-again. This time it is with their iBook Author. Those who are considering an elearning situation, should consider using this new tool. The ability to interact with the content built in iBooks is amazing for all types of learners. Integrating audio and video right into the iBook allows the learners to integrate with the content.
Anyone who needs a workbook, textbook, manual. job aid, even a magazine, or newsletter should consider this type of learning aid. I will be getting mine soon.
This amazing new [FREE] app iBook Author allows anyone to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks — and just about any other kind of book — for iPad. With galleries, video, interactive diagrams, 3D objects, and more, these books bring content to life in ways the printed page never could.
This application has the ability to drag and drop text, images, graphics, video, movies and more into the template. Apple’s Widgets add Multi-Touch magic to books with interactive photo galleries that bring images to life, engrossing 3D objects you can’t help interacting with, animations that burst off the page, and more.
Another beautiful thing about iBooks Author, it lets you create books that people with disabilities can read and experience. The table of contents, glossary, widgets, main text, and more are built to automatically take advantage of VoiceOver technology. Add accessibility descriptions to any widget or media — including movies and quizzes — so even those with vision impairments can use them.
And you can publish it to the iBookstore or iTunes U or share it with anyone with an iPad.
Jawbone’s UP Release
I follow Fast Company and this is one of those things that is just so fabulous, I wished I had thought of it. UP by Jawbone is a really revolutionary invention. You put on the wristband and then check in with your smartphone to check on: eating patterns, sleep cycles and exercise. It costs $100 and will be available at Apple, Target, AT&T stores, and Best Buy.
Travis Bogard, Jawbone’s VP of product development sums it up perfectly, “Health isn’t about going to the gym three times a week. It’s about the thousands of little decisions that you make during the day. It’s about what you do in between those ‘healthy times.'”
Vintage PinUp Cothing Holiday Wish List 2011
Looking around for some vintage pinup clothing I started to pull together some ideas for the upcoming holidays and then created this Wish List. I hope you enjoy turning the pages and exploring some fashionable ideas as much as I did creating this magazine.
MassCUE 2011: Presentation
Meg Robbins and I are presenting an hour-long, hands-on workshop at MassCUE 2011, Wednesday, October 26. entitled: Motivating students to become self-directed learners. If you want to learn more about understanding “how-to” motivate your students in their journey to becoming self-directed learners, this is for you.
- Learn what self-directed learning skills are.
- Understand what is critical you teach and how.
- Gain tips you can immediately implement into your classroom.
Come join us at the 2011 Technology Conference in the Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts. This year’s theme: Today’s Global Learners = Tomorrow’s Global Leaders = TGL2: What Next?
New Digs: Before and After
While Spring cleaning is usually left to the earlier months of the year, I decided to take on a clean-up project of my own and re-design my own website. I wanted something more dynamite and decided upon the WordPress theme; Canvas. Hers’ what my website looked like before.
MWDesign Website- Before
I built the website in a “test site” and when I was happy with it, I moved it all over to my live site. I am liking the sliding images; representing samples of work I have done, along with the open, clean feel of the new site and the new “light bulb” logo design.
The footers hold video samples and within the site I designed widgets to hold samples of other work I have done.
MWDesign Website- After
Inside, I have loads of samples showing my instructional design work. Have a peek around.
MWDesign Website- After
Ai Weiwei: Sunflower Seeds
In 2010 Ai Weiwei launched a show called Sunflower Seeds at the Tate Modern in London. His work is brilliant on so many levels. Using sunflowers carried a blunt symbolism: Mai Zedong was the sun and the Chinese people were the sunflowers, all facing one direct to receive the nourishing ways.
Being as outspoken as Ai Weiwei is his symbolism of the sunflower is a bit more subversive. He spread more than a hundred million of them, all hand-painted– across the floor of a large hall at the Tate Modern in London. Ai wanted visitors to move freely across the installation, picking the seeds up, moving them around, doing whatever they wanted. I love how he uses common elements of everyday Chinese life and incorporates them into his art. It is also amazing how these porcelain seeds “sound” like the real thing.
Another interesting point is how Ai Weiwei set up the production of the thousands of sunflower seeds. It is done in group style with each person painstakingly painting the sunflower seed stripes. I saw this style of working in many factories I visited back in the late 1980’s.
I did something similar, in 2004, distributing 100 blank journals across Beijing, asking only that people add to them and send them onto others. I was looking for everyday-types of whatever to fill the pages and I got some really interesting returns and had an exhibition at the Academy of Music in 2009.
Sadly, Ai Weiwei who has been a champion of freedom and an outspoken critic of China’s human rights record, has had his Shanghai studio demolished and he was also arrested and detained. Now he is forbidden from giving interviews or using the Internet. Before his arrest Ai was able to send a videotaped speech to the TED conference. You can watch that below. I hope someday, Ai Weiwei will have more of his work shown around the world.
Goodbye Visionary
We need more of what Steve had. He saw something that was simply better than what had preceded it, and he was willing to gamble based on that instinct. That required an ability to think first and foremost as someone who lives with technology rather than produces it.
Jobs is perhaps the greatest user of technology to every live. He was able to think first and foremost as someone who lives with technology rather than produces it.