Tag: Education

Don’t blame them! It’s not their fault…

Mastin Kipp

Keen insite this morning from Mastin Kipp of The Daily Love…

Many times in relationships we love to blame the other person.

We like to blame them for not loving us the way we want to be loved, or for not making us enough of a priority, or for being too stubborn and on and on.

Then we start giving names to the way we interpret others actions. So instead of saying: “Hey, I’d really appreciate it if you let me figure it out on my own,” or “The way I really feel loved is when you (fill in the blank)”. When we are lacking, we say: “You’re a jerk”, or assume that they don’t love us.

So instead of expressing how we feel, we blame, judge and then convict the other person of being guilty. Then we project our verdict onto them and wonder why they react negatively and then use that negative reaction as further proof that our verdict was in fact, correct.

Instead of blaming and judging, if we can open up, become vulnerable and EXPRESS our feelings and needs, we give the other person an opportunity to course correct and with this new information.

And, if over time we are expressing our needs and feelings and they aren’t being seen, have the courage to pick up our things and leave. That’s the Master’s path – vulnerability and courage.

It might seem scary, but showing emotion and expressing your needs is how you build intimacy. And having high standards and the courage to maintain them is how you make sure that only the best kind of relationships remains in your life.

It’s the mark of a Master to no longer blame the other person, but instead to see the other person as a mirror of his or her own life. It’s the mark of a Master to share his or her feelings, rather than blaming someone else for not meeting the needs that were never expressed in the first place. It’s the mark of a Master who is strong enough to walk away from a broken and unfulfilled kind of love if his or her needs and emotions aren’t being seen. It’s the mark of a Master to be able to also meet the needs of their partner.

When you see the current relationships of your life as not a victim, but as a mirror of your own life, you can begin to take empowered action.

So, you say you want love, yes?

Then whatcha gonna do today? Blame them? Or express yourself and set loving boundaries?

Do you want to keep going round in the dramatic circle of blame or do you want to step into the loving flow of vulnerable expression?

The choice is yours. What’ll it be?

via thedailylove.com
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Most writing could be better.

Not just a little better — significantly better.

If you start out with a solid topic, a good knowledge of your audience, and a reasonable degree of writing ability, you’ll usually end up with a pretty good piece of writing.

But you don’t have to settle for “pretty good.” A little attention to the final details can kick “pretty good” to “magnificent.”

Whether you’re creating blog posts, special reports, sales letters, a video script, email autoresponders, or whatever else, you can take your writing up a level just by applying some simple principles:

via copyblogger.com

I love the first way; write drunk/edit sober. Follow the ‘via’ link to read all 5 ways…

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Sorry for being so goofy lately, but after speaking on ‘Facebook for Fun and Profit’ for ‘Link Greater Green Bay‘ on Wednesday, I couldn’t pass this one up… 

http://www.theonion.com/content/themes/common/assets/onn_embed/embedded_player.swf?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theonion.com%2Fcontent%2Ffiles%2Fimages%2FE-Mom_article_9_1.jpg&videoid=97699&title=Facebook%2C%20Twitter%20Revolutionizing%20How%20Parents%20Stalk%20Their%20College-Aged%20Kids
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An inside look at my morning routine and the tools I use to bring e1evation.com together…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFHGIoLhyQQ

In case you missed it, I’ve covered Google Reader in depth here, Feedly here, Gist here, and Shareaholic here…

btw, I’m aware this not my best video yet, but I’m learning to use Camtasia which is a powerful, but complex tool. Maybe I should read the manual?!

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Dr. D

I recently had the honor of meeting the new president of Marian University, Dr. Steven DiSalvo. The words on the Marian Website cannot do justice to the man I met…

“Dr. Steven DiSalvo currently serves the Marian University community as President. Bringing to Marian a wealth of experience in higher education and philanthropic fundraising leadership, Dr. DiSalvo has a strong foundation in student affairs, student retention, academic programming and institutional development.  DiSalvo earned three degrees, including his Ph.D., from Fordham University in New York, and currently serves as the Board Chair for Fordham’s Center for American Catholic Studies.  Administrative experience at other Catholic universities and not-for-profit organizations, including the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation, have suited DiSalvo well to lead the university in living our Mission and Core Values.” via marianuniversity.edu

It’s a shame the world can’t get to know him in the way I did! Our mutual friend Paul Osterholm (who originally had the vision to connect us in the first place) brokered a meeting in Dr. DiSalvo’s office. We spent the first hour talking about life and experiences only to learn that we were twins separated at birth — in fact, we even lived a few blocks away from one another in Flushing, NY in 1983! That, however, was not what inspired me — it was that Dr. DiSalvo is a man with his feet planted firmly on the ground of a sound experience in business with organizations like IBM and the Joe Torre ‘Safe at Home’ foundation and at the same time, he is reaching for the academic stars at a new and improved Marian University with the lessons he learned at Fordham University. Marian is now blessed with a dynamic, gifted leader who, imho [in my humble opinion], could really take Marian to the next level if he makes the right moves now to rebuild the Marian University brand while building on its strengths…

As expected, Dr. DiSalvo faces many challenges in his new role. Here are a few that seem obvious to me…

  • Marian has a relatively weak brand compared to other colleges and universities in the region
  • It has a reputation as a ‘suitcase college’ — the campus is empty on weekends
  • The community — parents and students alike — are disenfranchised
  • The website is a brochure and the university may not be using the website and social networks optimally

I’m sure there are others, but as a Marian parent these are the ones that jump out at me. Fortunately, there seem to be an abundance of “good, fast, and cheap” answers in the form of ‘thought leadership’ marketing and social media that could help Dr. DiSalvo put out these fires and focus on other areas.

I’m going to share with the good doctor one of my all time favorite New Yorker cartoons and I trust he’ll appreciate the source considering his New York roots…

Since I first saw this cartoon over 17 years ago, I have taken it to mean that the internet has the potential to be the great equalizer and pound for pound, it may be the best place for Dr. DiSalvo to create a solid image of the ‘new’ Marian for the lowest overall cost…

Strategy

If it were my job to meet his challenges out on the internet, here are some of the things I’d consider strategically:

Leverage association resources and learn all I could from what other comparable universities are doing.

Closer to home, I’d ask myself the question “What would St. Norbert do?” SNC has recently won a couple awards for effective use of social media. What are they doing right? Evaluate and emulate…

Marian has several different ‘customers’. Pre-students, students and post-students. They need to deliver messages to the media these customers use that helps Marian sell to prospective students, helps current students stick with Marian, and helps alumni stay with the school, emotionally and financially. ‘Sell, stick and stay‘ should resonate in everything Marian does online and in social media…

Marian could do a much better job connecting parents and students to the school. Our trips to Fond du Lac were usually disappointing; events competing with basketball games, bookstore closed, etc. What a difference it would have made if the school broadcast our son’s basketball games live via Ustream or Qik. Free, but priceless in terms of connecting parents to the school. What would happen if the school actually showcased their student athletes as well?

Furthermore? Many non-profits are effectively using the internet to fundraise online. What is stopping Marian?

Tactics

If it were my job to fix some of these problems, I’d remember the words of the great philosopher Andre Agassi who said ‘Image is Everything’…

  • I’d redo the website as a content management system [blog] and instruct Dr. D and other great thinkers at the university in the fine art of ‘thought leadership’ marketing.
  • I’d sit him in front of a camera and get him to effectively communicate the same passion that got me fired up to write this post.
  • I’d take that great content and I’d connect it to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks.
  • I’d put my star professors and their great content online and expand the borders of Marian beyond Wisconsin to the rest of the world.
  • I’d build real and virtual community around the Marian mission, vision and values using best of the “good, fast, and cheap” tools the internet offers.

Will Dr. DiSalvo succeed? Time will tell, but I’m betting he will and I think I’d like to help. My only regret, however, is that my son, basketball standout Colin Lohenry, only has one semester left…

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“Google Apps is free for schools. It allows students and teachers to create documents
(Word, Excel, PowerPoint), share calendars, chat and more for free on-line. It is an excellent tool to provide elearning.

‘Frantic troubleshooting by an overworked staff versus someone else fixing problems smoothly. A sliver of server space per person versus a five-gigabyte chunk. Half a million dollars versus free. That’s what colleges are faced with as they decide whether to continue running their own e-mail services or outsource them to a professional service like Google Apps Education Edition’ Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/11/2008″ Click the title to read more…

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Does the internet make you happy?

Apparently so say the Brits…

“There are those who believe that too much time spent on the Internet makes people less social and causes them to lose touch with the real world, but a new British study released today found that access to the Internet and the web, and especially to social networks such as Facebook, can improve people’s levels of happiness. The study found that Internet access improves the overall well-being of lower-income users, those with less education and women — particularly those in developing countries — by giving them a sense of freedom and control over their lives. The report, which was prepared for the former British Computer Society — now known as BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, with 70,000 members in over 120 countries — found what it calls a “statistically significant, positive impact on life satisfaction” as a result of having access to the Internet. Elizabeth Sparrow, president of BCS, said in a statement released along with the study that: Too often conventional wisdom assumes IT has a negative impact on life satisfaction, but the research has found the opposite to be true. IT has a direct positive impact on life satisfaction, even when controlling for income and other factors known to be important in determining well-being. The study, which was based in part on original research as well as on analysis of earlier studies on well-being and information technology, found that women, those with lower incomes and those with lower educational qualifications benefit the most from access to the Internet. “Much of the improvement in life satisfaction that arises from information technology flows to those on lower incomes or with fewer educational qualifications – what we might call the ‘disempowered’ groups in society,” the BCS report says.” Source: Yes, It’s True: The Internet Makes You Happier: Tech News «

Not convinced? Watch this…

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/979266267

Now you have proof to offer your family, friends, etc. that supports your internet ‘habit’. :-D

via ScribeFire
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Want a Raise? Find Out What Your Job is Worth

As a blogger, I get paid in bags of stale Tootsie Rolls. Is that good? I have no idea. Actually, I am getting a better idea of what my job is worth now that I have checked out some salary comparison sites. Specifically, I I’ve found out that there are places you can blog where you’re paid in fresh Tootsie Rolls.

If you want to see how your salary compares to the industry at large, be sure to visit MySalary, a site where you can find salary ranges for virtually any career. There’s a lot of stuff on the site — job search and education information in particular — but be sure to click the Salary tab and enter your job title and zip code. You’ll instantly get access to a slew of job titles that are similar to what you searched for.

The resulting histogram shows national averages for salary ranges, like this one for speech writers (I always wanted to know what Ben Stein used to make).

via bnet.com

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’d like to dig a little deeper…

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Kudos to the Catholic Church…

…for the excellent job they are doing with the ‘Catholics come home‘ campaign — a great combination of traditional and new, online media. Discussing this with my good friend Jim Kelleher of Kelleher Creative in St. Louis, I was pleased to see the church hasn’t lost it’s sense of humor, either.

For those of you who didn’t attend Catholic School, the thing that amuses me is the search box. St. Anthony is the patron saint of “lost things”…

;-)

Posted via web from e1evation, llc

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Better than TV

Gin with Muddled Summer Plums
Image by thebittenword.com via Flickr

Interesting perspective on the use of time and intelligence…

“I was recently reminded of some reading I did in college, way back in the last century, by a British historian arguing that the critical technology, for the early phase of the industrial revolution, was gin.

The transformation from rural to urban life was so sudden, and so wrenching, that the only thing society could do to manage was to drink itself into a stupor for a generation. The stories from that era are amazing– there were gin pushcarts working their way through the streets of London.

And it wasn’t until society woke up from that collective bender that we actually started to get the institutional structures that we associate with the industrial revolution today. Things like public libraries and museums, increasingly broad education for children, elected leaders–a lot of things we like–didn’t happen until having all of those people together stopped seeming like a crisis and started seeming like an asset.” Source: Gin, Television, and Social Surplus – Here Comes Everybody

Television is to us, however, what gin was to the British a few hundred years ago and smart people are beginning to take notice…

“Clay Shirky has noticed the trend of talented people putting five or six hours an evening to work instead of to waste. Add that up across a million or ten million people and the output is astonishing. He calls it cognitive surplus and it’s one of the underappreciated world-changing stories of our time.” Source: Seth’s Blog: But it’s better than TV

Think about it! How much time do YOU spend watching tv? How could you use that time to take over your world?

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Framing your social media efforts

When Chris Brogan speaks, I listen. This time I take issue…

“There are three main areas of practice for social media that your company (or you) should be thinking about: listening, connecting, publishing. From these three areas, you can build out your usage of the tools, thread your information networks to feed and be fed, and align your resources for execution. There are many varied strategies you can execute using these toolsets. There are many different tools you can consider employing for your efforts. But that’s the basic structure: listening, connecting, publishing.” Source: Framing Your Social Media Efforts

Why? I think publishing goes BEFORE connecting — your online brand is a big part of what people want to connect to, so I think you have to publish first [after listening of course!]. What say you?

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Are you a ‘friend ho’?

Apparently I am or my college-aged son thinks I am because I’ll friend ANYONE in Facebook! My selectivity actually comes at the list level where I manage all kinds of subgroups. Here are my thoughts on the topic…

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Open source in schools could save the taxpayer billions | ComputerworldUK blogs

Although this post was written in the UK, it’s applicable here…

“In a 2005 report the Government quango Becta showed that schools could effect considerable savings by making use of Free Open Source software such as Open Office. In their study they simply looked at “like for like” software replacement using existing networks and computers.

Since this study we have seen the emergence of the new breed of ultra-portable Linux-based computers aimed squarely at the education sector and the inexorable build of Web 2 services such as Google Apps.

This week the Elonex One, a Linux-based laptop costing less than £100, was launched at the Education Show in Birmingham causing much excitement amongst the visitors and a very serious discussion about how best to support this new breed of Linux laptops in schools.

So much has changed so quickly that a model of Open Source school computing is emerging which could save the UK taxpayer billions of pounds and provide enormous opportunities for the home-grown technology sector based around Open Source software.”

Local school districts would do well to shed their expensive Microsoft licenses and move to open source. Not only would it reduce costs, but it would also breath life into aging equipment as Linux is much more efficient than the bloated Windows operating system. Click the title to read more…

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