Flipping the technology transfer funnel

In The Learning Layer , the concept of reversing the idea funnel is discussed in depth. Traditional innovation processes take many ideas, and through elimination, narrow these down to a few. Flipping the funnel reverses this by breaking ideas into capability components and building on them. Most business ideas are a bundle of two or [...]

Trends

Here’s an infographic from Ross Dawson on Trend Blends to watch as we consider our common futures: I’ve noticed these trends pop up in my readings and observations, for example: Power Shifts Eastward: Clay Burell’s advice for teachers scorned: Teachers have “asked what they can do for their country,” and they do it. Daily. But [...]

DIY is here

Over three years ago I wrote that the future of learning is DIY: With Google you can find most information that you need. YouTube is a quick and easy way to get “learning objects” to the world. Apple gives the essential tools for knowledge workers, and in a nice package. Wikipedia has shown that the [...]

Instruments of Restraint

Almost any technology can be a learning technology, I wrote a while back. It’s how it’s used, not what is used. What’s the difference between a conference room and a classroom? What is the difference between a CMS and an LCMS? A learning technology is mostly about branding  and I’m more interested in non-educational tools [...]

IP Workshop

I attended an intellectual property workshop in Moncton today. It was at the  DDx Health Strategies boardroom, a good location with lots of LAN ports and wi-fi. Of course, I hadn’t brought any devices as I assumed that the place would be locked-down. Lesson for next time. The presentation was good, by a lawyer from [...]

University research and industry projects

I attended the MonctonConnect business collaboration workshop yesterday. The event was sponsored by UNB and started with a presentation by Ken Kent on his joint project with IBM on the improvement of the Java Virtual Machine. They will be hiring 29 students and experienced developers in September. For more information see the CASA site. Vivendra [...]

Synergic3

I had the pleasure of spending the day getting up to date on the Synergic3 project, a joint effort between the National Research Council of Canada, l’Université de Moncton and Desire2Learn. The research agenda covers areas that may be of interest to those working with learning technologies: DDRM – Distributed Digital Rights Management MDX – [...]

Once more, across that chasm

Geoffrey Moore’s analogy of “crossing the chasm” is that any new technology is quickly adopted by innovators and early adopters, but there is a chasm to cross in order to get the more pragmatic majority to adopt the new technology. For marketing, this is the real challenge – can the new product get widespread acceptance? [...]

Heads you win, tails you lose

The Long Tail is one of the most commonly quoted models for business on the Internet: The Long Tail or long tail refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a ‘normal’ or Gaussian distribution. This has gained popularity in recent [...]

Plus ça change

Tony Bates made these recommendations to the University of New Brunswick, “to foster further development of knowledge-based industries in the province”: 1. Greater incorporation of ICT and other 21st century skills (e.g. independent learning, problem solving) in a wider range of programs and subject disciplines. 2. A gradual move from almost entirely face-to-face courses in [...]