I’ve submitted my topics for the upcoming WordCamp Toronto 2013. Here’s your chance to be a part of it and have your say. Chime in!
Discussion Notes from WordCamp 2013 Planning Meetup | WordCamp Toronto 2013 @ Humber College.
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#TEDTuesday – Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!
Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution! | Video on TED.com.
As many of you know, I’ve been doing some courses at Athabasca University. One of the assignments has given me new drive to do the #TEDTuesday feature once again, and I’ve found a great focus in Education and Technology specifically. I know these are two of the three letters that are TED, but really, I’m showing where they meet and how they change the way we learn… and teach.
Here once again is the infamous Sir Ken Robinson. A great storyteller, very entertaining and extremely inspiring.
[ted id=865]
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#FF Lyndon Johnson
Lyndon and I run into each other all over the place. We’ve met up at a couple of Citizenbridge meetings, a forum at Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University on Entrepreneurship and most recently at ProductCamp Toronto which I did a #FF post on a couple of weeks ago. I’m happy to say that this is happening more frequently.
I always joked that he looks like Mark Holmes, lead singer of the 80’s band, “Platinum Blonde”. He even has the accent to back it up. I swore to friends of mine at the Retro Road Show that I was going to bring “Mark Holmes”. When I finally got him out to one this past Saturday, my friends had to do a double take. He had such a great time, he wonders why he hasn’t gone to one before now. I know I’ve hooked a regular!
He and I have had some really great conversations about public relations, marketing, politics and even retro music. A couple of days ago, we had an awesome exchange on Twitter about @Indie88Toronto and @RickAstley. Being the retro fan that I knew he was, I had to share my discovery with him. Loved his response!:
@tantienhime it’s never going to give it up, never going to let us down. Never going to run around and desert us!
— Lyndon Johnson (@lyndonJJ) July 24, 2013
We’d also met up in Waterloo a couple of times and I’ve read quite a few of his posts regarding BlackBerry’s marketing failures. However, his post on “The Problems with Social Media Narcissism” definitely hits home with me and is something I have been saying for months since LinkedIn introduced endorsements. I haven’t kept up with his blog lately (he blogs a lot!), but I’m going to make it part of my everyday reading from now on. I should have added it a long time ago.
At ProductCamp Toronto last weekend, we attended each other’s sessions (we both gave talks, but he won the best talk in his category). He never stepped on people’s toes, rather supported a point that was made or gave great examples.
He has some really interesting things to say and is also a great listener. Follow his tweets @lyndonJJ personally and his company Think Different[ly] @THINK_Lyndon. I know you’ll all enjoy.
Have always enjoyed this profile pic of Lyndon -
#TEDTuesday – Ken Robinson: How to escape education’s death valley
I have been learning about the American legislation “No Child Left Behind”. Sir Ken Robinson gives an interesting spin on it and says that they are basing it only on the STEM areas. But it should include the arts, physical education and humanities as well.
Teachers shouldn’t just simply teach. They may not be actually fulfilling the duty of teaching. They need to encourage learning. This idea is similar to the idea that Sugata Mitra proposed in his talk that I presented a few weeks ago.
He also talks about the irony of alternative schools being called “alternative” because of the personal touch that these schools apply to their students. These are students that were either at risk of leaving school or had left and this method is meant to encourage them to stay. Why is this alternative and not the norm?
Sir Ken Robinson is entertaining as ever. I hope you enjoy as much as I did.
[ted id=1738]
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#FF James Burchill
James Burchill’s Twitter Photo James Burchill is a great source of knowledge. The other night at Social Fusion Networking Oakville (#sfnOAKV), we had a great discussion about email marketing and some of the new rules around your email marketing lists. He has built an amazing community around free networking; great venue, great incentives, great networking and great people.
I attended James’s first “Business in Burlington” in January, 2012 on the suggestion of David Hills. I had just moved to Hamilton and was still finding my way around. At this first meetup, he had close to 100 people, and it didn’t stop there. A short time later, he launched the Oakville branch and then the Niagara one, all of which are extremely successful, pulling in over 100 people at each meeting. These latter two chapters have had some challenges with venues, but that hasn’t stopped them. James keeps everyone informed and asks for assistance through numerous channels including Twitter, LinkedIn and Meetup, which he uses for getting discussions going and informing people of the events.
Since attending the first one, I’ve tried to make every Social Fusion event (the new branding name from Business in…) that I can get my hands on. I always meet great people and make great connections. In January, one of the members, Mason, knowing I enjoy doing Origami gave me some wonderful washi paper and never asked for anything in return. I made him a crane in appreciation that he carefully put in his car after I gave it to him in Oakville this week. Just good atmosphere and great friendships.
Follow James Burchill on Twitter and join us at one of the Social Fusion events!