568 - Elliott off to Jail, Woz Shows Nerds Can Dance, New US CIO (Department Changes)
March 10, 2009 Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie - March 10, 2009.
#568 - Updates on Learning, Business & Technology.
54,671 Readers - http://www.masie.com - The MASIE Center.
Host: Learning Systems Roundtable - Chicago - April 15 & 16
1. Going to Prison Tonight.
2. New CIO of America: Perspectives on Collaborative Technology.
3. Go Woz - Nerds Dancing & Smiles.
4. Free Webinar on Social & Informal Learning.
1. Going to Prison Tonight: At 5:30 pm today, I am heading to jail. It wasn’t triggered by a crime that I did. I know everyone says that but, in this instance, it is all about learning. Tonight, I am observing a “Seven Habits” class at a medium security prison in our area. Inmates are taking this Covey class to prepare them for the realities of returning to society in a few months/years. In a country with as large a prison population as ours, the “employability” of these men and women is a complex challenge. I had to go through a month of pre-screening to be able to visit and observe in the classroom tonight. I’ll share my impressions in a future TRENDS.
2. New CIO of America - Perspectives on Collaborative Technology: Last Friday, President Obama appointed a new Federal CIO, Vivek Kundra. He immediately came out with a number of provocative proposals for building a “collaborative and open technology” platform for all Federal agencies. Kundra has been the CIO of Washington, DC and is interested in building the equivalent of a Facebook for each citizen, where everyone can select the level of information feeds that will confidentially come to a personal, secure site. For example, a TRENDS reader might want to track Federal spending on learning, the forward value of their Social Security payments, votes by their Congresswoman and feeds from NASA and OSHA. Within hours of his appointment, he held a conference call outlining how technology could be used quite differently. This is an interesting example of corporate CIOs to consider. Read or listen to his conference call: http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/03/vivek-kundra-federal-cio-in-hi.html
3. Go Woz - Nerds Dancing & Smiles: Last night, I sat on our couch and watched Steve Wozniak - “Woz”, the co-founder of Apple and a fellow nerd, Segway owner and Judge for FIRST Robotics - make his first appearance on “Dancing with the Stars”. Whether you can stomach the show or not, it was a lesson about learning and nerds. OK, dancing in shorts and black socks was a bit too close to home and Woz did not impress the judging panel with his slick moves, but it was a great moment to see the joy and humor that he brought to the task and watch how he is using this as a life learning experience. Oh, and we filmed a clip of 7,000 students at the FIRST Robotics meet in Boston this weekend cheering him on.
I was impressed by two of his quotes from rehearsals: “dancing is analog” and, at one point, he needed a “five-minute ‘thinking’ break.” You can follow his perspectives on the learning curve of this experience at his website, http://www.woz.org And, don’t forget to vote for him on behalf of Nerds around the world!
4. Free Webinar on Social & Informal Learning: Next week, I will be hosting a free webinar, along with Jay Jamrog (one of the HR experts of the world), on Social & Informal Learning. For information and reservations: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/195339614
Yours in Learning,
Elliott Masie
Contact: emasie@masie.com
Upcoming MASIE Center Services & Events:
* Learning Systems Roundtable: April 15 and 16 - Chicago
* Learning & Government Briefing: April 28 - Washington, DC
Information and Registration at http://www.masie.com