What is the Internet? Nice intro / reminder
June 27, 2009
Nice advert by BT, giving us a sense of what the Internet is. We use it in training sessions sometimes.
Now you need never wonder what that little groove called under your nose in called…
How many people in your organisation / community could do with understand what the Internet is? Tailored, experiential training sessions available.
Scholarships available for next course
June 19, 2008
| 30 June, 2008 | ||
| 5:00 pm |
Our Social Media for the Third Sector course is starting soon. Keep 11 July free for the group learning day, and make a commitment before early July so we can work with you on your learning needs analysis.
That’s if you want a taste of a truly educational, capacity building package, and not just a quicky training day.
We are looking for two motivated people / organisations to award 80% scholarships for Part One (and potentially, Part Two).
If you ‘get’ that social media is essential knowledge to:
- build stronger relationships with your stakeholders
- get attention online and in real life
- raise funds
- collaborate creatively and build innovative approaches to social and environmental challenges
.. then apply here.
Find out all about the way we give and support real learning here.
Any questions, just pick up the phone and talk to Libby on 07968 687 107.
As of today, there are still places available, and we won’t decide on the sponsored places until 30 June. But the earlier you apply, the better.
Let’s make our minds up for the future
May 23, 2008
I love Howard Gardner, as only a pedagogy geek can. I love the way his mind works, about how he helps me see others for who they are. His theory of multiple intelligences has been helping personalised learning develop for decades.
Howard’s work first came to me attention when studying early learning in Italy – in the Reggio context. The fact that he has maintained a deep, ongoing dialogue with the Reggio teachers makes my faith in his wisdom as solid as gold.
Today, I was delighted to hear of a lecture series he gave at our new “guild” – the RSA in London last April. Thanks to Teachers TV, Howard’s examination of “the mental capacities needed for the future in a globalised world” is available to all.
The kinds of minds he suggests should be cultivated are three cognitive ones: the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind and the creating mind, and two that deal with the human sphere: the respectful mind and the ethical mind.
Gardener discusses how these can be best nurtured, and points out some of the inevitable tensions created between them.
After the lecture a group of teachers discuss how these ideas are used in practice in the classroom today.
Social Media – A Learning Journey
May 9, 2008
Suggestion 1: Think of your blog and other social media in this way.
Suggestion 2: Always relate things back to the real world, meeting yourself and others face to face.
RSA (Renewal, Sharing, Advancement)
May 7, 2008
Gra and I went up to the Royal Society for the Arts recently to hear Charlie Leadbeater talk about his new book We Think. We were also keen to find out more about the RSA as they have approached me to become a Fellow.
Mum bought a copy of We Think while she was visiting… keen to get her head around the space we are in, and perfect for her ilk, among others. There are many major ommissions and doesn’t come much from deep, personal experience (Charlie doesn’t blog or facebook), but is a fine point of reference for many at this point in time. I am recommending it widely.
Highlights of the evening were…
Blogging as Gardening
Talking with Charlie and Tessy Britton afterwards about blogging. Our message that “the first audience for your blog is you” (blogging as a reflective, learning tool or private/public path on which to travel) got Charlie mentioning “zero-audience blogging” and gardening as a metaphor for why and how some people blog, ie. the cultivation of your blog is a meditative pleasure in itself, towards the cultivation (and harvesting?) of the self… plus others can stroll by and enjoy it too.
Mary Harrington (aka Seb Mary) from School of Everything has talked about this in the past and present too. Interestingly, her garden is out back and not visible to others except when invited in. Mine’s a bit like that too. Maybe I could do with a bit of improvement out front (aka let’s finish the upgrade!
What’s Happening in The RSA
Looking around the crowd afterwards, I spotted Felix Velarde from Underwired. (To be honest, I was just looking for a model to do a nice juxtaposition shot and vox pop, note: interesting facial hair and piercings). He had many positive things to say about the benefits of RSA membership, as did Tessy, who we spent an expansive evening with.
The RSA, it turns out, are making special efforts to attract new media folk, new paradigm folk to their hallowed halls. When I first got their letter, I thought it was a mass marketing effort. Turns out they are serious about engaging Fellows (erk, the feminist in me gasps) in opening up debate and moving forward a very progressive, authentic, connected vision.
There is much emphasis on education which resonates deeply Glad to see Roland Meighan and friends trying to keep them on track as outspoken agitators working from within… Ian Cunningham is also a Fellow.
They are about “removing the barriers to social progress” and state their recently revised manifesto challenges as:
- Encouraging Enterprise
- Moving Towards a Zero-Waste Society
- Developing a Capable Population
- Fostering Resilient Communities
- Advancing Global Citizenship
If we were courting each other, I would have to say the feelings are strongly reciprocal and we will be getting hitched, if for no other reason that to follow Richard Sennett’s call in The Craftsman to cultivate our skills and higher self in the company of like-minded people.
I used to think the UK was impossibly BIG. Now the multiple connections between RSA, School of Everything, Richard Birkin (Biff), Ian Cunningham, Richard Sennett, Michael Fielding, Tessy, Roland, John Grant, Andy Gibson, Seb Mary, MA in Person Centred Education, blogging, progressive education, and Everything are so rich in the potential patterns they create – it’s almost fractal in it’s beauty. Feeling very connected and safe within the spaces opening up and the paths between them. In permaculture terms, there is edge, there is diversity, the soil is rich, the system is in harmony.
Spring has sprung.
Blogging for Change Agents
March 4, 2008
Are you driven to make a positive difference in the world?
An entrepreneur, social / environmental ethical enterprise, charity or other third sector organisation?
Do you see the internet as (perhaps) a powerful vehicle for making positive things happen in the world?
Do you want to make your mark in the world?
Have you ever wondered if blogging might help?
We all hear about blogs a lot, but can they really make a difference? We say yes. As dedicated activists and change agents, we’ve looked very carefully at the world of blogging and social media before deciding to specialise in it.
“If I was running the biggest company in the world I would simply use a blog…let’s change the world one conversation at a time.” (Full thread here.)
Will McInnes, Founder – Nixon McInnes
Blogging offers an amazingly cost effective and growthful way to engage with your stakeholders and create online interest in what you do.
Plus search engines like Google rank blogs highly. One of our clients went from no web presence to a top online ranking in their sector within two weeks of starting.
Doing it authentically creates loyalty, connection and genuine relationships. It also helps you and your organisation learn, grow and pool together valuable creativity and intellectual property.
To find out more, read our free e-book on the Essence of Authentic Blogging.
We have a long association with “social / eco enterprise / ethical business” and founded the Sustainable Business Network in 1999. We have worked as activists and entrepreneurs, campaigning for issues from climate change to human rights and media literacy.
After generous feedback on our blogging courses and consultancy last year, we decided to make a commitment to your sector in 2008.
In the next month we want to hear what your sector wants from a blogging training package that is tailored to meet your needs, not just another off the shelf, one-size-fits-all scenario.
We will be talking with a range of people to refine our course outline.
We know people can make a difference. We know the internet has massive potential to connect. With our words, ideas and passion, in engaged dialogue with our key stakeholders – good things can happen.
Blogging is certainly in demand, and we think, rightly so. Web 2.0 is a very exciting space to be in… ripe with potential, especially for smaller organisations that want leverage.
So let’s hear from you!
The draft package outline (including outcomes, benefits, costs and structure) is here.
Sponsored Places
There will be a sliding scale from 20-100% course reduction to make it affordable for smaller enterprises, so get in touch if you would like to nominate for a sponsored place.
More resources for social/eco enterprises….
Do Schools Kill Creativity?
February 5, 2008
We have so much to learn from children. We have such a need to protect their natural risk taking and creativity.
Sir Ken Robinson’s beautiful TED talk. If you haven’t seen it yet, you simply must. Creativity, education, the meaning of life… there’s something for everyone in this profound, short, very funny presentation.
Key points (of agreement)
- Creativity is as important as literacy (duh!…round of applause)
- We are educating children OUT of their creativity (so true). Clearly, we need to change this.
- Schools are still Victorian and basically work as very protracted preparation for university entrance.
- Professors, being the highest in the educational system, both lead and role model the system.
- They are heads on bodies, disconnected from the whole.
- We need to cultivate a fuller picture of what education is and can be.
- This must include the head and the heart and the body, even the spirit.
- The effective cultivation of creativity “adding value with original thinking” is essential to being human, at work, at play.
Three cheers for Ken. You are quite lovely and spot on with how you see things.
Blogging at LIFT08
January 31, 2008
Next week I will be dedicating some time to a few long lost passions.
1. Eating fondue.
2. Inviting time, space, stimulation, reflection, dialogue to motivate my curiosity for how we learn and create
3. Learning, creating (well, not so long lost)
4. Blogging at the level we encourage others to.
Actually, they gave me a free ticket to attend, so I really HAVE to blog it. Do unto others and all that.
Since things took off for Authentic Blogging last year, I have to admit to feeling a bit of a fraud. Every week we talked with people about the potential of reflective blogging – and barely found time to walk the talk. No excuses now. Time to put down some real stuff for the Authentic Blogging book.
From 6-9 Feb I will be at LIFT08 in Geneva, then taking a train around the alps to just kind of be in the world, gaze in awe, maybe stop somewhere and yodel. Write. Breathe. Write.
It’s a rawther special happening by all accounts, gathering together the likes of speakers Andy Reisinger (Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore), Naked Scoble, Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow and many other lovelies besides. In so many ways the LIFT folk model the way we want to see people coming together in the shared, co-construction of higher thinking, feeling and creating. Hyperlinks subverting hierarchy all the way… I cringe as I name drop the big guys we all respond to (or not), as I espouse the more egalitarian wisdom of the crowd.
Sure it will get a bit techy at times and I will wish my uber-geek Gra was sitting in my ear like a babelfish from time to time. It will be strange being away from my little family, Gra, Bea and Maxi the Cat. But I am guessing that the people, the novelty, the conversations, giggling at the Svizz-ness of it all will keep the baying wolf of homesickness at the door for a few days at least.
There are still some tickets available if you want to join up. It’s going to be amazing.
More to come…
Any offers of somewhere to stay in Geneva or advice on which train journey to take are most welcome indeed!
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