Search Results for: questions

Open Source Education — GELC

May 23, 2006 by Liz

Open Source

We know open source is only as good as the folks who contribute. It can be as successful and adaptable as Linux. It can be helpful as all of the WordPress plugins.

Open source can also get mired in policy and minutiae — you can trust the definition at that link; it’s by the experts on the subject. Such issues have to be what shut down Zeal.com. I had to take the insane Zealot test four times a day for days, until I passed it. The questions were about such tiny details my mind couldn’t absorb them. (See Dear Wikipedia and try being an editor for the DMOZ.)

Enter the GELC

Enter the GELC, something really exciting. The Global Education and Learning Community. Some really smart, talented, experienced people are working together on it. It has the goal of an open source learning curriculum. It could be as powerful as Linux. I sure hope it is. Right now, Dr. Barbara (“Bobbi”) Kurshan, Executive Director of GELC is trying to prioritize some ideas via her blog. [The formatting is mine.]

Several ideas include

a repository to build and distribute open source textbooks – which are probably the first curricula ever developed for teaching and learning

a place for assessing the progress of a learner

a virtual design center for creating a curriculum from open education resources

a repository of courses

and a community for discussion about open source curriculum.

. . . all of these ideas will become part of GELC. But, which one is unique? Which one will make GELC the “thought leader” in the open source curriculum arena?

What would you answer? One comment said, . . . drop this area. It’s a big turnoff currently. Is that what you think?

–ME ‘Liz” Strauss

Critical Skill 5B: Sparking Spectacular Ideas

May 22, 2006 by Liz

Spectacular Ideas

Do you recognize where we are? We’ve been here before. This is the place where I tell you that ideas are already in your head, that it’s a matter of letting yourself have them — not shutting them out. It’s when I remind you that you can be an idea magnet again. I tell you that ideas are waiting for you. I ask you if you’ve started seeing and hearing them.

Whew! Now that the déjà vu is over. We can get on with sparking spectacular ideas.

Caution: Now Entering Liz Think Zone

[Read more…]

Blog-to Show Reminder

May 17, 2006 by Liz

It’s Like an Auto Show for Blogs This Weekend

We’re having a Blog-to Show Saturday and Sunday. Here’s what you do.

Write up a sentence or two about what makes your blog worth visiting.
Write up some advice or a short bloggy quote that you think other bloggers would like to know.
E-mail that information to Liz at lizsun2@gmail.com.

I’ll feature both in a Blog-to Showcase on Saturday with a link to your amazing blog.

It’s FREE PROMOTION For your BLOG. Don’t pass it up.

If you have questions, leave them in the comments section.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Get Ready for the Blog-to Show

May 16, 2006 by Liz

Blog-to Show This Weekend

In keeping with the Link Leaking Blog Rally car theme, I’m thinking it would be cool to have a Blog-to Show this coming Saturday and Sunday. Here’s what you do. Write up a sentence or two about what make your blog worth visiting and some advice or a short bloggy quote that you think other bloggers would like to know. I’ll feature both in a Blog-to Showcase on Saturday with a link to your amazing blog.

It’s FREE PROMOTION for you, your blog, your business, and your brand.

If you have questions, leave them in the comments section. I have a meeting this morning, but I’ll answer them as soon as I can.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Critical Skill 4: Part 4-Process Design Tool

May 15, 2006 by Liz

Designing a Process Step-by-Step

Use this worksheet to gather information when you’re designing a complex process as described in Critical Skill 4: Part 2-Designing a Complex Process and Critical Skill 4: Part 3-A Virtual Process.

The Process Design Worksheet

Fill in as much information as you can before you begin the process design. Then use the worksheet throughout the process to guide you. You can use this form even when you delegate process design to a team that reports to you.

1. The Leader of the Process Design Team will be ____________________________

2. Assign the Visionaries and Explorers. Who are the big picture, global thinkers who will help decide on the work flow? Which stages of the process will each of these team members represent?

Name: ______________________ Stage(s): __________________________________
Name: ______________________ Stage(s): __________________________________
Name: ______________________ Stage(s): __________________________________
Name: ______________________ Stage(s): __________________________________
Name: ______________________ Stage(s): __________________________________

3. What steps will the work follow? Note: This discussion should include the big picture thinkers listed above only at this point. The detail people should not be present. (Take notes on the big picture process discussion using separate pages. Summarize or draw a flow chart to summarize the process the above team designs in the space below.)

The Proposed Process

4. Assign the King’s Guards and Risk Managers. Who are the detail thinkers who will challenge the proposed process design? Which stages of the process will each of these team members represent?
Name: ______________________ Stage(s): __________________________________
Name: ______________________ Stage(s): __________________________________
Name: ______________________ Stage(s): __________________________________
Name: ______________________ Stage(s): __________________________________
Name: ______________________ Stage(s): __________________________________

5. When the process is defined, the big picture people share the summary/flow chart with the detail folks before a meeting occurs with all team members. Any member of the team can list questions and concerns here.

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

6. The Explorers and Visionaries present the process design in detail to the King’s Guards and Risk Managers under the moderation of the leader. Now is the time to find the holes in the thinking — to validate the process and the plan.

When that discussion is complete, the process will stand as a working plan. The entire group should agree that this is the process, until the process doesn’t work, at which time, any member of the group can ask the team leader to call a meeting to adjust the plan.

Process isn’t hard if you take charge of it, instead of letting it drag you along.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related articles:
Critical Skill 4: Part 1-Process Models
Critical Skill 4: Part 2-Designing a Complex Process
Critical Skill 4: Part 3-A Virtual Process
10 Skills Most Critical Skills Series on the SUCCESSFUL SERIES Page

Critical Skill4: Part 3-A Virtual Process

May 14, 2006 by Liz

Picking Up the Gauntlet

If you’re following the soap opera that is Successful Blog, I’m halfway through writing Critical Skill 5 on Originality, as you might know, but along the way I was interrupted with a challenge. Ariane Benefit from NeatLiving.Net wrote an in-depth comment about process and how it works for her, which ended with these statements.

So basically I see the rules you presented that work so well in a corporate setting actually have their counterpart in the virtual, ultimately highly democratic world of blogging.

. . . if my post inspires you to write the virtual version . . . it was worth it. — from a comment exchange on Critical Skill 4: Part2-Designing a Complex Process

I really wanted to leave them on the page and continue on with the piece on originality. It was hard enough writing about process in the brick and mortar world. Still the comment stayed with me. It followed me around the house . . . and popped into my mind every time I went to write about anything else. After all, it had two things going for it. Ariane Benefit is a reader and I have a really hard time walking away from a delicious challenge like that — even when I know it will involve close contact between my head and a few brick walls I don’t need. [Read more…]