@TheNerdologistsElectronic engineering and amateur probably aren’t things you usually hear together, or want to considering the dangerous implications of DIY re-wiring. But while it might not be a good idea to start pulling the circuits out of your electronic devices there are some ways that even an absolute beginner can have fun with electronics. Here are a few examples of some top projects to get you started – remember to look them up on the web afterwards for in-depth instructions and kits to buy.
If you want to start with super basic electronic device manufacture, with an end result that’s really also useful in lots of situations, why not learn how to make some speakers? You might be used to seeing speaker systems with a fair amount of zeroes in their price tag, but for this little gadget you’re talking a few pence. Take an old pair of headphones – like the ones you got with your i-pod and don’t use anymore – and cut the ear buds off so as to leave an exposed wire. Cut some small holes in a pair of paper plates and stick the wires through, then tape that wire to a smooth, stretched piece of tin foil so the wire is touching the foil. Secure the foil to the paper plates, keeping it nice and tight – voila: plug in for a pair of speakers.
Continue Reading →
If you are in the position to weigh out your options when it comes to choosing a graduate business program, then you might be confused at everything available to you. Need some guidance? Here are seven things to look for when choosing a graduate business program:
Accreditation. These days, there are a lot of schools out there offering graduate business degree programs, and not all of them are reputable. This is especially true with correspondence programs, which are not as well regulated as more established schools and programs. Be sure to verify that your school of choice is accredited as a recognized institution by an organization like the AACSB, as this indicates that the program’s curriculum is in line with industry standards.
Faculty. Your mentors have a great impact on your educational success, and you therefore need to research the faculty of any business program you are considering. Who are the people who will be teaching you? What is there experience, and what are their accomplishments and affiliations?
International rankings. Where do the schools you are considering fall in terms of business program quality? You can easily research international rankings online and compare schools side by side to determine which are statistically the most successful at graduating students.
There are few things more depressing than hearing that your app developer has gone into voluntary administration.
Oh no, wait, there are several things:
1. Discovering that the administrator will make $50,000, with the senior making $19K for 60 hours work.
2. Realising that the liquidator will make a further $30,000.
3. Knowing that the administrator and the liquidator are one and the same.
4. Finding out that YOUR money is, in industry parlance, unable to be recovered.
Continue Reading →
It’s almost upon us – the 7th Sydney Latin American Film Festival kicks off on September 6! They have an amazing line-up of cinematic treats for you – everything from box-office hits to ground breaking documentaries, including many award-winning films and Australian premieres. Opening the Festival program will be the internationally acclaimed Argentine film MIA, a deeply moving drama that explores the issues of discrimination and the right to happiness. The festival runs from 6 to 16 September at four venues across Sydney.
Full program at www.sydneylatinofilmfestival.org. Nos vemos en el cine!
FILLIM.com and TheNerdologist have 2 double passes for award-winning Venezuelan film ‘THE ZERO HOUR’ to giveaway. Simply email us festivaltix@fillim.com with “I Love Latin America” in the subject… Include your name and contact details – comp closes 6th of September only winners notified.
The closing date for the 2012 Blue Mountains Film Festival is September 3rd so get your entries in now!
Competition for the coveted ‘Golden Yowie’ has been high this year with entries coming in from as far as Canada & New Zealand.
The three evenings of this October’s festival kick off with the Opening Garden Party at Cafe Bon Ton in Leura on the 11th. Guests will then travel to the first night’s screenings at the Scenic Cinema at Scenic World via the Blue Mountains Explorer double decker bus & a Skyway cable-car ride past the Three Sisters.
The festival wraps up on October 13th with the finalist screenings & ‘Yowie Awards’ hosted by Bob Downe, followed by a trip to the Awards After Party at the Leura Garage.
Tickets are now available for this October’s events. For all festival details & ticket purchases see www.bluemountainsfilmfestival.com
Twenty years ago, mobile learning was unheard of. Ten years ago it was rare and often seen as a method of last resort. Now it seems like you can’t talk about education without hearing about it.
With wider adoption rates of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets, people are embracing mobile learning more than ever before. Once frowned-upon, online college degrees are now available from some of the most prestigious schools, and many schools offer at least one degree with predominately online classes.
At The Nerdologist we think creative people should have access to amazing online resources that allows them to share and sell their work and earn revenue so they can be resourced to go and create more fantastic things.
In an effort to actually make a difference to the world we have built an amazing app that makes these things possible. One of the areas that we are really interested in is film. The reason for this is that film is a medium that allows amazing people to communicate with the world in a really engaging way. It is an excellent way of telling stories, sharing knowledge and inspiring people.
We realised that the current funding and distribution paradigms are not working as well as they could for film makers and by and large online opportunities are not being taken advantage of.
So we created www.fillim.com At Fillim We are determined to make a difference to creatives and producers in the film industry to ensure that the lions share of profits goes back to them allowing film makers to have the financial independence to create their next film! We have structured Fillim so that we do not limit other distribution sources for the films. This way film makers and producers can increase the exposure their films get, and Fillim works really hard to push films out to our rapidly growing networks of film obsessed viewers.
Continue Reading →
How can we bring development to Afghanistan if we don’t have security? It is still the question put to us by backers of our longest war, and we buy it. How indeed, can aid convoys get through if they are being fired upon? First battle the enemy, then build.
But the argument is flawed. Since 2006 Afghanistan has had 27 PRTs (Provincial Reconstruction Teams) and each of these are foreign military led. They have a commander and between eighty to a hundred-and-fifty army personnel and only three or four civilian advisors. This is the development we are sending in. Soldiers. What does the Afghan see coming? Soldiers. What does the Afghan hate most? Soldiers. Continue Reading →
On Tuesday the 13th of March uncluttered white spaces held their 8th IF talk in Sydney at Play Communication Offices
The panel of experts, curated by 6.2 and uncluttered white spaces included Adam Chapnick , IndieGoGo‘s business development mastermind and founder of Distribber.com where he still serves as CEO. Co-founder of creative community The Loop ; Australia’s leading networking site for creative professionals, Pip Jamieson. Pips business partner Matt Fayle, not only cofounder of The Loop but a true Digital Media Pioneer, having worked around the globe in online, mobile and broadcast applications for over 12 years. Co-founder of PLAY Communication, a specialist brand experience agency based in Sydney, Australia Johannes Weissenbaeck and Dan Solo, CEO and co-founder for NERDI, an EdTech Startup based in NYC and Bondi Beach.
The British Heart Foundation have created a fantastic video on how to perform hands only CPR.
It features the actor Vinnie Jones aka Big Tooth Tony from The Snatch working on a dead guy he prepared earlier.
The vid has caused a bit of a stir because it is promoting hands only cpr. The technique has been researched extensively and has been found to be more effective than cpr with rescue breaths for non professionals. This is because there was a large group of people who would not start cpr at all as they did not want to put their mouth on a stranger. By removing this inhibition many more people commenced cpr drastically increasing successful outcomes for cardiac arrest patients.
You might wonder why cpr without rescue breaths is effective. The primary concern for a person in cardiac arresst is that their heart is not pumping their blood. The blood is loaded with oxygen so rescue breaths do not significantly increase perfusion (oxygenation of tissues). Just doing hands only cpr pumps the oxygenated blood around the body and is just as effective for at least the first few minutes. Getting oxygen to the brain as soon as possible is of paramount importance as it prevents the risk of brain damage.
As long as an ambulance is called before cpr is commenced the outcomes are as good or better than traditional cpr.
Check out the video… it’s very cool.
Jemima Robinson is one serious adventurer. She travels across the planet, climbing and snowboarding. Jemima is the Australian Festival Director of the Banff Mountain Film Festival and Adventure Reels Film Festival.
Jemima is intimately involved in the selection of films for the festivals and has an extensive knowledge of the industry. Jemima will be sharing her insights and knowledge on navigating the festival application process and has some great ideas on how to succeed as a film-maker for festivals.
Come see Jemima’s workshop at interesting.eventbrite.com.au on Monday the 12th of March in Sydney.
John Dietz is the co-founder of the Fox Studios based production company VisPop. As a visual effects supervisor on films like 28 Weeks Later, Where the Wild Things Are, Terminator: Salvation and most recently The Hunger Games, John is known for leading large teams with passion and commitment, and delivering results that blow audiences away.
For the past year he and his colleagues at VisPop have been drawing on this blockbuster experience to develop a slate of high concept, visual effects heavy independent films. John is determined to create original, quality content that will resonate with lovers of high spectacle films around the world. He is exploring amazing new ways of creating these types of films outside of the big studios and with the budget of indy film makers.
John is obsessed with great stories and believes that often the best stories are told by the most passionate people. This is why he is so interested in independent film-makers… He knows that it is often these people who have the best stories to tell.
At ‘Interesting’ John will explore the questions that need to be asked to get a high spectacle film off the ground.
Get tix @ interesting.eventbrite.com.au
Simon Sheikh holds the title of Getup! National Director. An amazing amount of influence for anyone to hold. Getup is the community advocacy group who has been instrumental in driving issues onto government agendas since it’s inception. With just shy of 600,000 members, more than all of Australia’s political parties combined, it is one of the most powerful advocacy groups in Australia and takes it’s cues directly from it’s members.
Simon Sheikh has been running the show since 2008 when he took over from Brett Solomon. He has been driving the group forward and has overseen the effective doubling of the membership and the running of numerous campaigns on issues such as climate change, internet freedoms, mining policy & assylum seeker policy including mandatory detention just to name a few.
Simon has used film to great effect and has done an exceptional job at funding the distribution of film for social change. These often take the form of advertisments touting the getup message and are seen by millions of Australians every year.
At ‘Interesting’ on Monday the 12th of March, Simon will be addressing film-making for social change, the vital elements that make up films for this purpose and will be facilitating a workshop exploring these ideas.
For tix go to interesting.eventbrite.com.au
What is resistance? Surely more than anything, it is a form of feedback in its own right, more often than not, provided by people who more than likely know more about the day-to-day ops of the organisation or business than you do. Resistance, can actually be a fundamental element of bringing about change.
To dismiss resistance would be of course dismissing feedback, a vital element of any relationship. Once we embrace resistance, we can find a better solution which leads to effective change. Liz Wiseman talks about multipliers and diminishers. Multipliers being innovative and creative thinkers who solve problems and create teams who replicate that high level thinking. Diminishers do the opposite, whilst they are smart, they keep people at a distance and more often than not, are not aware of it, segmenting teams, pushing back. Multipliers are everywhere and they are critical to any organisation. I urge you to read Liz’s book and search for the multipliers in your business. Continue Reading →
In a world where cultures are judged by the art they leave behind it is just fine to create art for no other reason than to create art. In doing so we are saying something about our culture. We are saying we value creativity, exploration and diversity. These are important concepts culturally and they are of course enduring. Does the same ring true for innovation?
We have never lived in a time with more innovation. It is true that there have been periods when innovation delivered more seemingly important things – the wheel for example… Or more amazing things – Man on the moon and all that… Or more impressive things – The pyramids but when you look at innovation by volume – now is the time.
We are seeing rapidly iterating innovations from companies who are fighting desperately to keep ahead of the innovation curve. As soon as a company ceases to innovate they fall by the wayside and are replaced by leaner faster and more innovative organisations. Continue Reading →
Democracy in essence requires that all members of the society have a say in the decisions that effect their lives. This means that everyone needs to decide what it is they want and then elect those who have the most aligned agenda.
To achieve true democracy people need information so that they can make an informed decision about who they would like to govern them. Sadly our system does not allow for this. Lobby groups often wield fistfuls of dollars to influence politicians and the public that there agenda is not just the right agenda but the only agenda. They often represent minorities yet somehow they have the loudest voice. This system stifles democracy.
Continue Reading →
Every year I have a medical check-up. I get the works done. Blood tests, weight checked, blood pressure
and one or two other things that I’ll keep between myself and my doctor. It’s my way of keeping score and
managing any physical deterioration. I don’t mind growing old – I just want to delay it as long as possible.
Inevitably I’ll ask my doctor how I’m tracking. Inevitably he’ll respond with “you’ll live until you’re 90 at least.”
It’s a game we play. I enjoy it. I think he does too. This time, however, he was in a thoughtful mood and he
followed up with “you realise, of course, that you have less than half of your life left to live. Knowing that,
what would you do today if you knew you could not fail?” It is a very powerful question that got me thinking.
Continue Reading →
Speech by Brett Solomon from AccessNow.org to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs – The Hague
December 9, 2011
Dear Ministers,
I am the Executive Director of Access Now (https://www.accessnow.org). We are a global movement for digital freedom. Being in this room is somewhat of a dream come true, because we, and other civil society organizations who are also present here, have been talking about many of these issues for a number of years now, and to see it all played out here in this room, at such a high level, is a major step. Hilary Clinton and Eric Schmidt articulating so eloquently the importance of digital freedom is a powerful endorsement the importance of these issues. Now, it feels as though we can go forward together.
Fact: While we are migrating online, we are not moving into a civic commons—rather, into a series of shiny and digital private malls. The privatized internet and corporation-owned mobile communication networks are increasingly fundamental to our ability to express our opinion, to seek, receive and impart information, and serve as gateway to all other rights in the digital age.
Because the private sector, essentially, owns the net, produces the hardware, lays the cables, stores the data and manages the networks – and is the sphere that we go to exercise our rights – it is becoming the arbiter of our freedoms. Indeed, as the internet becomes the front line of human rights defense and enjoyment, the question becomes whether the corporate keymasters to that front line really care, and how can we make them care? Continue Reading →
I always thought the chicken and the egg thing was an interesting quandry. Now I am more concerned with actually overcoming the paradox…
I have just launched a startup and am now struggling with chickens and eggs. For the startup to be successful we need content. This sounds simple however to get content we need users who will consume the content so the content producers have an incentive to submit. Heres the problem… To get users we need content.
Sigh – It turns out there is a solution. Not all content producers need there to be many users before they submit content and not all users need large volumes of content before they are satisfied to play. Thus we grow.
So my question is… Where does this leave the chicken and the egg? Well I know the answer. It has nothing to do with chickens! It’s all about lizards & dinosaurs. Everyone knows chickens were descended from dinosaurs so obviously the egg came before the chicken.
Of course whenever you answer a question you always create many more in it’s place.
So what came first – The dinosaur or the egg?
The film industry might have started something it may not be able to reverse when it lobbied the politicians to act as their protectors using SOPA and PIPA. This in turn triggered a response from the tech industry both giants and individuals alike that put a stop to these plans that could have changed the internet as we know it today.
The film and music industry need to understand that they cannot and will not stop piracy by trying to lock down the internet and turn to persecution and prosecution.
The basic bad attitude towards internet citizens has started a revolution coming straight from the heart of Silicon Valley from the likes of Paul Graham (Y Combinator) that seek to destroy Hollywood.
Although the destruction of Hollywood and the likes of Rupert Murdoch may be a while away their power will slowly be eroded by an entire race of Internet citizens rebelling against the bullying and the unjustified force being used to control the market and consumption of digital goods.
As time goes on we will see the rise and rise of independent Film and Music makers using the internet and independent services to sell their products rather than having to deal with the big studios. They won’t do this just to make a bigger profit but they will do it as a sign of respect towards their fans, a way to break away from decades of control that has overcome these industries in the name of profit.
www.nerdi.com
Save the date! New York Law School’s Institute for Information Law & Policy and Berkeley Law’s Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic are pleased to present Innovate / Activate 2.0. The event will take place April 20-21, 2012 at Sutardja Dai Hall on the campus of beautiful UC Berkeley. The conference will run from 2-6 p.m. on Friday, April 20, and from 10-4 p.m. on Saturday, April 21.
About the event: Intellectual property regimes seek to benefit society through a variety of incentives, from improving access to encouraging innovation to preserving public knowledge. However, evidence has been building to suggest that there are substantial flaws in the design and implementation of various IP regimes, leading to failures in policy and harms to the public. As a result, active communities have formed to address these shortcomings and the important issues they raise, such as the tension between free speech and efforts to expand copyright’s scope and enforcement tools; the importance of fair use and follow-on creativity; the role of alternative licensing systems such as Creative Commons or the GNU Public License; the appropriateness of patent protection for software and business methods; and the conflict between overpatenting of pharmaceuticals and broad access to medicines and diagnostic technologies. But there’s much more that can be done. Continue Reading →
While teaching film studies at IQRA University in Lahore a number of years ago, a young student in the front of the class put up his hand and asked me a question. ‘Sir, all I want to do is make Pakistani version of The Matrix.’ While applauding his ambition, I could not help thinking his sights were set a little high. Not being one to douse enthusiasm and well aware that passion can build the seemingly impossible, I encouraged him to keep his dream alive. After all, in the 1950s to 1970s when his father was young, Lahore was blockbuster capital. Continue Reading →
Be warned… this is a techy one.
15 years ago autofocus for SLR’s got good. Really good actually. I started to be able to focus faster, more accurately and more often than with a manual focus camera. A small part of me was sad that the older ‘analog’ technology was being superseded but the simple unavoidable fact was that autofocus worked. I could take photographs of birds flying toward me and the camera could find a sharp focus and keep up with the movement. Continue Reading →
Hi Dan, you have founded Nerdi, prior to this you were in a role as Clinical Educator with the Ambulance Service of NSW. Why the change, the desire to create and invent your own business?
I’ve always had a really strong drive to make a difference. It’s why I became a Paramedic. As a Paramedic you can make a profound difference to a small number of people each week. In the beginning I was buzzing all the time. It’s so rewarding to help people in that way
As my skills improved I realised there was always more to know. The better Paramedic education was, the greater impact Paramedics could have. I became a Clinical Educator as I knew I could have a much bigger impact in the community if I could lift the quality of Paramedic education. Instead of affecting a limited number of people each week I could indirectly affect hundreds or thousands through my students by improving their clinical knowledge and thus the treatment they administered to their patients. Continue Reading →
Dr. David Wiley is Associate Professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham Young University. He is also the Chief Openness Officer of Flat World Knowledge and Founder and board member of the Open High School of Utah. He was formerly Associate Professor of Instructional Technology and Director of the Center for Open and Sustainable Learning at Utah State University.
As co-founder and CEO of Sun Microsystems, one of the predominant companies of the first Internet boom, Scott McNealy was a huge proponent of open source software.
Since leaving Sun in 2010, McNealy has turned his focus to the world of education through non-profit Curriki.org and startup Wayin. The former was started inside Sun, applying open source principles to the world of education, creating a wiki environment for teaching materials for K-12 classes. The latter is a Q&A platform that can be utilized by teachers to create a more interactive learning environment.
Last week, McNealy went to CES to keynote the HigherEdTECH Summit to talk about how technology can transform the education space. Mashable had a chance to catch up with him beforehand, where he told us about his current projects, the role he sees digital playing in the education space and his view on key technology trends.
Check out the video above for McNealy’s provocative thoughts on the road ahead.
It’s so good to see a film coming about the lives of teachers…
The film Detachment looks amazing with seriously good casting and a brilliant story.
It’s been a long time since there was a film about teaching inspiration. Not including the latest re-make of Flash Dance and the genius known as Step Up (which I actually quite enjoyed), the last really interesting film that shone a spotlight on teachers was of course Dead Poets Society. We are talking 1989 here… That is a long time between drinks. Why is there so much time between mainstream teaching inpirational films? Are we not focussed on teaching and learning as a community?
It’s so fascinating that teachers have more contact with our children than we do and yet they are seriously under-represented in main stream cultural commentary. You get a room full of teachers together in any school – public or private, rich or poor, urban or rural and you will hear the most amazing stories about families, students, teachers and humanity. You will hear about prejudice, brilliance, terror and success. You will meet inspirational people, dejected people, ambitious people. What an amazing wealth of inspiration this group have to share.
I’m looking forward to seeing this film to remind me that the lives of teachers are more than just the 8 hours a day they spend with our kids. These people have the power to change lives and many of them do.
Have you ever thought about what happens to your brain when you learn?
From a physiological perspective it’s all about the neurons in your brain. Connections form as you learn and knowledge is born. This process becomes more difficult as you get older however people tend to be more focused learners as they get older so the motivational difference can out-way the physiological limitations. Continue Reading →
The Nerdologist is looking for a brilliant young person to create a 2 minute animation masterpiece…
We can offer great exposure as the animation will be seen by thousands.
This is a fantastic opportunity to promote your talents.
We need to make an animation showing just exactly what it is we do.
If you can do this… email me on dan@thenerdologist.com
Cheers
Dan
Update…
We found our creative genius in Cameron Ralph. Thanks Cameron we love your work!
Reading Robert Scoble’s blog post on how launching a startup outside of the USA is much easier than it used to be, prompted me to think about our journey in the world of startups.
After building a prototype and running a small closed Beta program outside of the USA, we received very encouraging results. Despite the fact that my co-founder and I come from a technology and product development background of many years with many contacts in the industry, we found it extremely difficult to open doors and create opportunities at a local level.
Sir Ken Robinson on education paradigms. This is fantastic.
Are we getting smarter because we have increased access to knowledge on account of search engines in our pockets?
In 1974 when someone said “I wonder why…” we had to conduct ourselves differently compared with the process now. To have this question answered, if nobody in the immediate vicinity happened to know the answer, it required at the least a trip to the bookshelf to scroll through the “World Book” encyclopaedia. If you were not lucky enough to own this generous albeit culturally biased tome then a trip to the library was in order.
The energy dilemma
So i’m not sure you are aware that 10% of all U.S. energy is controlled by thermostats (and over 50% of your household energy bill). That’s the equivalent of 1.7 billion barrels of oil per year. But in most homes the thermostat is an unassuming beige box. It doesn’t matter if it’s a manual or complicated programmable thermostat, we do with it what we’ve always done: get up, walk over to it, and change the temperature. Every few hours. Every day. 1,500 times a year.
It seems that Jay Z and Warren Buffet are concerned about our economical future and as a result are educating children about money matters. They use a fun and engaging medium, a cartoon for television with the hope of educating children on how to make better decisions in life and recognise their entrepreneurial potential.
Together they are worth over a whopping 39.5 billion dollars so they seem like worthy mentors and are well educated on the topic themselves. The first episode shows Jay Z inviting a lucky group of students into his office to congratulate them on their hard work and achievements. He then lets them in on a few tips on how to be successful in life and make a whole lot of money, something that we don’t exactly think about when we are children.
The Hall Pass Tour is a series of high energy concerts designed to encourage underserved students to pursue higher education through the use of music. After the successful launch in New York City, the program begins a nationwide tour and has sixteen schools on board. The tour has enlisted the support of Kickstarter, the premier crowdfunding site for creative projects.
Apart from the main act, students have the opportunity to be the opening act. Hall Pass holds auditions at the participating schools with the best music act selected. They then have the opportunity to share their college and career aspirations and inspire their peers.
When the subject of “who is the greatest athlete of all time” is discussed one person’s name regularly comes up. Not Michael Jordan. Not Tiger Woods. Not Don Bradman. Or Michael Phelps. Or even Wayne Gretzky. The name that comes up is Muhammad Ali.
There is no doubt that Ali was a superb athlete. He won a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics and then held the world heavyweight boxing title three times between 1963 and 1978. His record, which occurred during the golden age of heavyweight boxing, is unmatched by any other boxer.
The trick to attaining “work life balance” is to do something you love for work.
Be passionate about it. Make work part of your life with your family and friends. Get them involved with what you do so they can share your life with you.
One of the plus sides of this is a huge increase in productivity. You will have access to your work/passion at 2am when you dream of a fantastic way of doing something you can get up and do it. In a normal work environment it is ludicrous to consider doing this but when you are passionate about work this is a fantastic positive. You can talk, brainstorm, strategize with your peers all day or night about the best way to create, inspire and achieve your goals. Build a community of colleagues, friends and family who are invested in what you are doing because they are invested in you as a person.
Blur the boundaries between work and play.
Life is better that way.
The Indian government has just released $35 tablets to 100 students as a trial…
This is part of the government’s tech strategy designed to create a cohort of tech savvy citizens. Consider what a global force India will be when the entire next generation will understand and leverage devices like this.
One enormous advantage of this sort of device is that they are putting the potential for modern education in the hands of the masses. The strategy is in place to familiarize a generation with tech however the real gains will be made in the increased access the students will have to excellent international and local educational content.
This first device is no doubt slow and has stripped down features however do not underestimate the power of millions of these things in the hands of the Indian student. A very exciting prospect indeed.
Believe in your self.
Stay up all night.
Work outside of your habits.
Know when to speak up.
Collaborate.
Don’t procrastinate.
Get over your self.
Keep learning.
Form follows function.
A computer is a Lite-Brite for bad ideas.
Find inspiration everywhere.
Network.
Continue Reading →
To revolutionize education, it needs to be delivered in a more tailored way to every student. It is nonsensical to expect students to excel and love learning about the things they have no interest in. It is possible to teach by wrapping the learning in the things that each student is passionate about? That would be amazingly effective. Students would become obsessed with learning. Continue Reading →
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me—Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful—that’s what matters to me.”
-Steve Jobs
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
The fear of failing…
Teachers unwittingly spend a great deal of time socializing kids into being afraid to fail. It’s not dangerous to fail at something. The danger is born out of being afraid to fail.
Think about the most amazing innovations of our times. Every truly unique one had a person innovating and driving them forward on a huge pile of failure. These failures were the grit and strength of the final amazing innovations. Continue Reading →
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
There is an upwelling of educational tech startups…
Some say Khan started it (not the Ghengis one… the Sal one) but really it started well before Kahn.
Actually it probably started on chunks of stone way back in the days of the Cave people. They painted on walls and for the first time were able to create a story that was not just passed down by parents to children around a campfire. There was an ongoing documented history. Continue Reading →
The Nerdologists are a group of passionate, innovative and generally excitable people who love education, tech, innovation, philanthropy and changing the world.
We are all about education and learning. Education is an amazing area that is rapidly changing. You will find loads of interesting posts, links and related info.
Cheers
The Nerdologists
