Innovations Missing Piece

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My top 5 learning tools

1.Google
Do I really need to elaborate on that?  Wanna learn something? Just Google it!

2.Twitter
Twitter is my favorite learning tool. I call it my professional-development-on-the-fly. People or instances I follow contribute to my daily knowledge acquirement. Links to posts, websites or other materials are tunneled 24-hour a day to my Twitter page. I suggest you not limiting your Twitter usage to entertainment only. I agree its great to follow movie stars and singers but at the end of the day they do not contribute to your development at all.

3.YouTube
You really get videos of everything on YouTube. The number one video sharing portal has 13 hours of videos uploaded every minute! Apart from music videos and movie trailers, you are sure to get a great share of training materials as well. Great deal for visual learners, like me.

4.Slideshare
On Slideshare.net you can browse and/or upload PowerPoint presentations. Most of the topics I looked for up to now were found on this portal. Going through slides is a quicker way to acquire knowledge compared to reading thousand of words in a book. You can either download the slides, share them or embed on your site/blog. On Slideshare you can also get ideas on creating attractive PowerPoint slides for your presentations.

5. LinkedIn Groups
I've joined several groups of interest on LinkedIn where I interact with professionals around the world. Topics or questions raised by anyone in the group are answered and debated by numerous experts in the field. Here you can learn from professional expertize in a collaborative way. Discussions in groups are presented in forum-like structure, which makes them easy to follow and participate.

What is your favorite online learning tool?

Why Wiki? pt1 (Education)

You might probably know by now that I have a weakness for Wikis. I've been surfing on the Wiki waves for the last 3 years now with no sign of boredom - quite surprising for someone like me who usually dumps already-conquered areas away, looking for new adventures. But Wiki is such a  powerful magnet that  keeps pulling me towards it. Wiki is a major component of Web 2.0 and has numerous applications in various fields. My like for Wikis is however justified and I will walk you through three fields where Wikis can be used.

1. Wiki as a learning/teaching tool.


In this connected world, our students have change radically. Bearing an open mind towards technology, they embrace it and never miss an opportunity to venture with new online tools. Introducing a Wiki in an educational environment is undoubtedly a brilliant way to engage students thus enhancing the learning process.

• Very often when asked to create a website for a class project students freak out and have to rely on others with knowledge of  HTML and web editors tools. Using a Wiki brings this task to as easy as pie. The Wiki syntax is simple to learn and students can spend more time on the contents rather than learning how to code webpages.
• Imagine an assignment when you have to collaborate on a single topic and having to push the same word document to everyone in the group one by one waiting for each to append with new elements. With a Wiki group work has never been so straightforward. Through a simple 'edit' button, anyone can change the content via a simple web browser. Thus, the webpage keeps everyone updated at all times without waiting for the latest version of the document to come back.  This is a time saving factor in the sense that duplicate ideas are quickly dealt with.
• Teachers find it a great way to track the progress of their students in given assignments. The history page gives more than just an overview of the participation of the students in a given group work. It helps track down the contribution of everyone in the paper. Wiki also allows the teacher to see if a student is going off track and help him by editing and/or suggesting new ideas or other resources.

Next >>>  2. A great collaborative and communication tool.

Learning to Learn

Hi there!


This mind-map will guide you through the process of learning. There is unfortunately no shortcut and every step is important. I created this mindmap using a smokin' online tool called SpicyNodes. Here is what they say: "SpicyNodes is fun because it is visually engaging, intuitive, and gratifying to visitors." And I think the product speaks for itself. Try it on your website or blog, or like me to mindmap and convert knowledge into visually enhanced diagrams.
Enjoy.
                                                                  

Source: http://home.clara.net/rod.beavon/learning.htm accessed on 12 February 2009

Linking Memory Method - Never forget a shopping list

I finally decided to finish and post this article - which stayed way to long in my drafts. Lemme present you a really cool technique to improve your memory, as well as to impress your friends by remembering ANY list for a whole lifetime. Yes this is possible and am gonna prove it to you right now ;)

How would you do if I gave you a list of 25 objects and 5 minutes to remember them? And write them back in the same sequential order presented? I will illustrate the technique by showing you I would proceed with the following list of 6 objects: Ball, Monitor, Table, Motocycle, Pizza, Lightbulb.
The Linking Memory Method first consists of finding visual metaphors for the items to remember. Easy, we all know what these look like, don't we? So, converting the words into images in our minds should be give us something like that:

Secondly, we have to make association with the above images. We'll  take the first image and associate it with second one, the second one to the third one.. until we reach the end of the list. Here you have to let your imagination run free. Let the images sing, dance, swim, fly, grow out of proportion or become as small as ants.

Lets associate the ball to the monitor. We can imagine a football flying at full speed crashing into a monitor. The images in our head should be real like, as if we were seeing it in front of us.

Next is the table which we have to associate with the monitor. We can think of a VERY VERY big screen which is too big for the table on which it is laid on. And as a result, one of the table's foot breaks.

You should not spend a lot of time thinking about the scene. Usually the first which comes in your mind is the best one.
We continue on with the motorcycle and the table. We can visualize a top sport motorcycle but as small as an  ant trying to pull a table down. Next is the motorcycle and the Pizza where we can think of a disgusting pizza being delivered or a motorcycle sliding because of a pizza lying on the screens. Lastly we can imagine hundreds of bulbs as ingredients dancing in a large pizza.

Be creative as much as possible. It is proven that the more ridiculous and funny things are, the easier it becomes for remembering them. So, do not hesitate to be illogical. Compared to Rote Method of Memorization (which is the process of memorizing by repetition), Linking Memory is most effective.

Using this technique frequently will help you develop a new type of out of the box thinking and above all recall things in a new manner.

Easy? What did I tell you :) Trust me, you only have to practice this method a few times to enjoy a great memory. It can also be applied to memorizing many more stuffs and above all its fun! As for me, if ever we meet in a supermarket with my shopping cart full, it doesn't mean I am buying anything. I got my shopping list memorized already at home.