Zotero Handout

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Zotero Handout

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Check out this website I found at this link

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Test video

It must be hot in Iraq.

Class test

History Timeline of Green Self-Reliance - Timeline of Whole Earth Catalog, Victory Gardens Organic Food, Thoreau, Rodale - Popular Mechanics

via popularmechanics.com

Droll and informative.

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Breakthrough Nano Tech Will Boost Solar Power Efficiency : TreeHugger

via treehugger.com

"Inexpensive Nanostructure Film Keeps Photons from Bouncing Off
That's the beauty of science. You discover something new, and then you keep finding new applications for it. Chemical engineers at Oregon State University (OSU) have invented a new way to deposit "nanostructure films" on a variety of surfaces. The obvious use is for eyeglasses; this could make them better and less expensive. But the holy grail here is making more efficient solar panels to reduce the cost of solar power."

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Done: Reduce Task Friction to Get to Task Completion

“If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.” - Dale Carnegie

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

“Done” is a beautiful word.

It means you’ve achieved something, no matter how miniscule, a victory in a world filled with defeats. It is a tiny leap of joy in your heart, not only a step towards something wonderful but actually something wonderful itself.

Done means you’ve won, in a battle against procrastination and distraction and endless boring meetings and the constant requests of others, in the battle against a world conspiring to stop Done from ever happening.

Let’s make that battle easier. Let’s minimize the friction, all the forces against you, and make Done something easy.

Reduce the friction. Grease the slope towards done. Then give yourself a small nudge, and you’re off.

The Friction
What are the things that stop you from getting to done, from even starting on work sometimes? Let’s list a few of bigger culprits:

• Being overwhelmed by having too much to do.
• Too many distractions, such as reading on the web.
• Procrastinating – dreading a task.
• Not wanting to do a task because it’s boring or hard.
• Being intimidated by a large project.
• Tools are distracting or tough to use.
• Fiddling with tools instead of doing.
• Other people, making requests, calling, IMing, emailing.
• Meetings.

Getting to Done
Given the above list of friction, how can we reduce the friction to get to done? I can’t give a solution to every single problem that every single reader faces, except in a general way:

Focus on every single friction, and find a way to reduce or eliminate it.

The more you can do this, the less friction you’ll have. And the easier it’ll be to get done.

Here are just a few examples:

• Eliminate meetings. As much as possible. They’re toxic. Focus on actual work.
• Eliminate distractions. Turn off email notifications, Twitter, the Internet in general. Turn off phones except certain hours. Only check email at predesignated times. Clear clutter. Don’t dawdle on this, though.
• Pick simple tools. Not complicated ones, not ones that have distractions. Best tool for writing? A text editor such as TextEdit or Notepad.
• Make a task really small. Small is not overwhelming or intimidating. It’s easy. You can get to done faster.
• Focus on one thing at a time. Having too many things is overwhelming. What can you do right now that matters?
• Make a project smaller. Reduce the scope. Have it doable in a few days or a week. Work on the other parts when the first part is done.
• Set office hours. Ask people not to interrupt you except at certain times of the day.
• Push back smaller tasks. The other things you need to do that interrupt you. Put them in a text file, and do them an hour before you finish working, so they don’t get in the way.
• Don’t work on boring stuff. Find stuff that excites you. If you can’t, consider changing jobs.

The Art of the Small
As you might have noticed above, small is better when it comes to getting to completion. It’s easier, which is less friction. It’s less intimidating.

But more than that, small tasks and projects are victories. You can quickly get to completion and feel great about it. And that compels you to keep going.

Recently, for example, I launched my new minimalism blog, mnmlist.com. It took three days. One day to buy the domain, set up Wordpress, and find a theme to start from. Another day to tweak the theme to what I wanted and write a few posts. A third day to write more posts and announce it on Twitter and here on Zen Habits.

Three days, and I was at Done. And getting it public was a big motivator, making it exciting and making me want to work quickly and get to completion.

It doesn’t work this way with large projects. Writing a book, for example, often takes at least six months or even more than a year. Which makes it incredibly difficult, so many writers fail. Lots of large projects work this way — they’re hard to finish, hard to motivate yourself, hard to stay excited about.

A couple other examples: I’m writing a new book, called Focus, by writing it in small chunks (I call them beta versions) and making it public. Each version is a small project, but they can all be done quickly. Also, I released the theme of mnmlist.com by tweaking the theme I was using and making it ready for release, in just one day (see below for more info). Quickly got to done, and released it to the public. It was satisfying.

Keeping tasks and projects small means they have less friction, and it’s easier to stay motivated. Keep things simple. Narrow your focus. Do less, have less features, offer less services. Small is better, because you’ll get to completion.

—
Bloggers: I’ve released a Wordpress theme based on my new minimalism blog, mnmlist.com … check it out here: mnmlist theme. It’s free, uncopyrighted, and minimalist, for those who just want to blog without distractions, without anything taking away from their content.

—
Read more about simple productivity, focus and getting great things done in my book, The Power of Less.

-->

via zenhabits.net

Done means you won!

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Nik's Quick Shout

via quickshout.blogspot.com

Some very nice tools for k-doc

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Training intranet editors - the intranet cafe?

via elearningpost.com

GReat idea for communities of practice.

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Fake Rocks, Salami Commanders, and Just Enough to Start | 43 Folders

via 43folders.com

Sometimes I think Merlin Mann is a self-serving swine. Well, actually most of the time I do. Just listen to his voice. But I like this. A lot.

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No Media Kings » How To Enjoy Research

Here’s five approaches to research that worked for me.

1. Choose a research subject that you’re fascinated in — not just something you think would make a good story subject. I’ve been interested in Detroit ever since a brief visit in ‘94, but despite it only being 4 hours away I’d never visited again. Writing a book set there was a great way to spend some focused time learning about the place. Even if I decided not to write the book it would have been time well spent.

2. Talk to people. Let everyone know what you’re researching. Talk to experts & enthusiasts alike. On the phone or in person — email interviews are just work for people. Be social, have some fun, meet some characters and see how far a conversation with a stranger can go.

3. Go places. There’s a million details that even a gorgeous photo won’t expose you to. Get a list of places of interest you’d like to visit and maybe go with one of the strangers from #2. Research as adventure! Shannon and I went to Detroit twice for a few days — she got tons of photo refs, and I got lots of story and character ideas.

4. Niche websites and blogs are good starting places. Especially when they can connect you with people and new places to go. For me it was a good starting point for cultural touchstones like scrappers, 8 Mile, political corruption.

5. Read some books in a style you enjoy. Long form non-fiction generally makes me glaze over (which allows me to daydream about the subject at hand, so admittedly still useful) so I went with some more entertainingly written books. While a bit sensational, Devil’s Night: And Other True Tales of Detroit by Zev Chafets was a compelling read and gave me some ideas about the racial dynamics that are still relevant today, 20 years after it was written.

Final thoughts: in excess, research can be a procrastination method with diminishing returns. But for someone like me, who is more on the make-it-up-as-you-go school, it’s helped bring a richness in ideas and specificity in detail to my recent work — and has been enjoyable to boot.

via nomediakings.org

This is good advice for any researcher with special emphasis on number one.

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Head for iPod Educational Hills--A Beginning Collection of Places, People, and Ptools (sorry)

What I have done here is find a rich blog post, filled it out a little bit with some easier linkages, added a few links, and generally acted as an editor to summarize so that it is a little easier to follow. Sometimes bullet points are best.  What Ms. Weir has done in her original blog post is to model just how you might think out loud as you prepare for classes and prepare to use something new like iPod Touch in the classroom.  She is not afraid to do a little "woolgathering" because you will note in the comments section that this thinking out loud generated lots of good further suggestions.  (There is some discussion these days about the value of comments on weblogs, but I think this post is a good arguments for keeping them  In fact, I have added about half the post from the comment section and learned quite a bit about places to find new apps for the Touch.
So this blog post does three things:
Shows how one teacher noodles out loud about possibilities for her classes,
Shows lots of info about a particular topic--iPod Touch in the classroom,

Shows how to create a blog post from someone else's post.

Planning for the 09-10 School Year | Ms. Weir's Musings

• have started reading a blog by Rob de Lorenzo (an Ontario educator) called “Mobile Learning” which discusses using cell phones and iPods in the classroom
• look for apps that fit your particular units, novels, books, projects, and activities.  There are so many now.
• the Driver’s Ed app (we do a couple short articles about driving and getting your license so this might be an engaging way to have them involved in the class work as well as prepare them for the possible issues they might encounter while driving),
• I think the iTouches could very much have a place here in terms of allowing the students to find podcasts on these in iTunes, having them listen then synthesize what they have learned through the podcasts with what we have been discussing in class and finally have them apply it to a current event in the real world (which they could also find through using Safari on the iTouch).
• There are so many educational applications for the iTouch. If they are 2nd Gen - with the 3.0 iPhone software ($9.95) they practically have an iPhone- so recording for the podcasts will be easy. I applaud you using these in the classroom. You might follow @iear on Twitter (or go to the website) his whole platform is using iTouch & iPhones in the classroom. I’m trying out the teacher app Educate for him. It’s a lesson planner, gradebook, attendance, moodle, and so much more! Good luck this year!!
• The AP Mobile App is wonderful, free source of current events that you can tailor to your area or find world news.
• The Digital Lifestyle website  and they review a lot of Apps and filter through the APP store and provide the best for several categories.
• iTunesU is a fantastic source for content right now. I will be doing a workshop on this at the ABEL Summer Institute in August , as well you can visit ipodliteracy.com.
• I’d use an app like ShoZu or Wordpress to type in a blog post on a class blog.
• Check out youthvoices.net
• I am also interested in bringing iPod Touches into my classroom and have been collecting resources at http://thefilecabinet.pbworks.com under the iPod link.
• The Writer in Me - Writing, Teaching, Living.

Related articles by Zemanta:

• ShoZu and Touchnote Partner to Unleash the Power of iPhone Micropayments
• Article: Ask iLounge 7-24-09
• Kensington Nightstand Charging Dock For iPhone
• Changes in Apple attitudes force changes in Google Latitude

4 Apps for Distributed Teams

• The Four Essential Apps for Distributed Teams - ReadWriteEnterprise

  tags: no_tag

  • Skype and Campfire from
  • The Four Essential Apps for Distributed Teams
  • One: IM & Chat
  • Adium and Pidgin
  • Two: Wiki
  • free software like MediaWiki or DokuWiki. You could also go with a hosted provider such as PBworks, Wikispaces, Zoho Wiki or EditMe. Options for the enterprise often do a lot more than just wiki besides, and the leaders in that sense include Confluence, Mindtouch, Socialtext, and XWiki.
  • Three: Task Tracking
  • trackers like JIRA, Trac, or Redmine.
  • like Basecamp, LiquidPlanner,
  • Four: Web Conferencing
  • WebEx from Cisco, GoToMeeting, and Adobe Connect.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Twitter is not for teens, Morgan Stanley told by 15-year-old expert | Business | guardian.co.uk

• Twitter is not for teens, Morgan Stanley told by 15-year-old expert | Business | guardian.co.uk

  
  

  • Twitter is not for teens, Morgan Stanley told by 15-year-old expert

    • What makes a 15-year-old and his peers expert over the distributed net? Representative or maybe just not grown up enough to put a sentence together or to have a long term interest in anything. - post by tellio
    
    
  • He said teenagers were using more and more media, but they were unwilling to pay for it.
  • "Teenagers do not use Twitter," he wrote. "Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realise that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting Twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). They realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their tweets are pointless."
    • Assumptions here: 1. If it isn't free, forget about it. 2. If its not free on the cellphone or part of the package, forget it. 3. If it is not centered absolutely on one's own self, forget it. 4. If it doesn't get people to look at you or your "brand", forget it. - post by tellio
    
    
  • No teenager Robson knew reads a newspaper regularly since most "cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarised on the internet or on TV". The only newspapers that are read are the cheaper tabloids and freesheets
    • Students don't read dead trees unless they are free/cheap dead trees. Students don't read anything more than they have to. They let others summarize their text for them. Students trust their sources or simply don't question the summarizing "gatekeepers" - post by tellio
    
    
  • prefer listening to advert-free music on websites such as Last.fm to traditional radio.
    • Do not distract me from my free music unless of course it is some viral meme that it is amusing and interesting. - post by tellio
    
    
  • most had never bought a CD
    • With the advent of P2P and browsers that can function as servers, how can "theft" be stopped. What RIAA calls theft, users simply call 'behavior'. Get over it. - post by tellio
    
    
  • Money and time are instead devoted to cinema, concerts and video game consoles.
    • Kids spend money in larger f2f networking constructs as well as large gaming contexts. - post by tellio
    
    
  • Game consoles like Wii, which are now able to connect to the internet and offer free voice chat between users, have emerged as a more popular choice for chatting with friends than the phone.
    • Talk happens simultaneously with gaming. What this might mean is that multiple channels are being considered as the norm. - post by tellio

  • However, young people are the most advertised to, sometimes the most gullible and are being fed brand loyalty from the most early ages. This type of study by one of the institutions responsible for the banking crisis is not in the interests of anyone but the moneyed elite. How long will it take us to ask the question 'How much damage should a company do before we challenge its right to exist'?

    Or do we just welcome the summarised, 30 second attention span, individualistic, false conscious society that these businesses want?

    • In the comments to the article you always get what you were thinking yourself. This one sums up my fear: why is Morgan Stanley so interested in the networked world of teenagers? You can rely on them to be totally opaque to the answer to that question so we must guess. They want to sell them something. - post by tellio

  • "They realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their tweets are pointless"

    I'm not sure he understands how Twitter works...

    Maybe teens feel unnoticed on Twitter because they don't have anything interesting to say.

    • Twittering does require a little of the Biblical notion of throwing bread on the waters--a concept that eludes most narcissistic social networkers (aka 15 year old sons of MorganStanley bosses) - post by tellio

  • It's a boy view.

    My twelve year old daughter and many of her contemporaries are playing fantasy role playing games on PCs.

    It's a privileged boy view - my friends = all teenagers

    • Critique of commentor--he is a boy and therefore privileged by Morgan Stanley. Not sure this follows. - post by tellio
    
    
  • Maybe when they realise that kids this age have little cash and prefer free stuff the penny may drop. Viva la revolution.
    • This is a nice observation that leads to where companies should go. Drop the damned price and you will revolutionize the biz because there is pent up demand in the low price, but not free end. Charge pennies and you will make millions. - post by tellio

On balance the article points to possibilities among teenagers some of which generalizes in my experience and some not.  I think that teenagers are nowhere near as monolithic a group as is asserted by the author Robson yet...I think we do ourselves a disservice to not consider going out to this boundary and scouting around.  And I will.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

test of ubiquity

The Raw Story » Video: Insurance lobby’s secret plan to attack ‘Sicko’ and Michael Moore

via rawstory.com

When will Michael Moore get the Presidential Medal of Freedom?

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Dangerously Irrelevant: Calling all bloggers! - Leadership Day 2009

• Dangerously Irrelevant: Calling all bloggers! - Leadership Day 2009

  tags: 2009, dangerously, Leadership

  • • What do effective K-12 technology leaders do? What actions and behaviors can you point to that make them effective leaders in the area of technology?
    • Do administrators have to be technology-savvy themselves in order to be effective technology leaders in their organizations?
    • What are some tangible, concrete, realistic steps that can be taken to move administrators forward? Given the unrelenting pressures that they face and their ever-increasing time demands, what are some things that administrators can do to become more knowledgeable and skilled in the area of technology leadership?
    • Perhaps using the new National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-A) as a starting point, what are the absolutely critical skills or abilities that administrators need to be effective technology leaders?
    • What strengths and deficiencies are present in the new NETS-A?
    • What is a technology tool that would be extremely useful for a busy administrator (i.e., one he or she probably isn’t using now)?
    • What should busy administrators be reading (or watching)?
    • How can administrators best structure necessary conversations with internal or external stakeholders?
    • How should administrators balance enablement with safety, risk with reward, fear with empowerment?

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Dave Eggers' wish: Once Upon a School

via ted.com

OK, Eggers is a fascinating writer, but I didn't know about this bottom-up pedagogy. Now you know, too.

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Box of Tricks

via boxoftricks.net

This is the downtown of my digital village.

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Untitled

• WKU Writing Project - Writing teachers helping writing teachers

  tags: no_tag

  • Does anyone else feel saturated? LOL! I'm saturated with great information, but not overflowing. I'm making decisions about the tools I'll use in my second grade classroom this year. So far, I've begun to use Twitter. We'll use this as a class to share our great AHA! moments with parents and our community. I've also started a class blog with a separate student account for students to reflect on their learning, much like I'm doing right now. You can read our class blog a

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.