Archive for category: Of interest

You are here: / / Of interest

ThreeJoy Discusses Future Engineering Education Challenges in Trieste

/in /by

ThreeJoy president, Dave Goldberg, is in Trieste, Italy this morning as part of a panel on “Future educational challenges for scientific and technical professions.”

Along with the international prominent guest David Goldberg, co-founder and co-director of iFoundry, the round table will host a panel of italian speakers, representative of local academic institutions and professional associations.

The participants will present the general situation respect to their experience in the schools of engineering and associations they come from, discuss about the main obstacles encountered in implementing reforms and share the best practices and ideas of what has already been done around the world, as well as propose a possible course of action.

Earlier in the morning, Goldberg delivered a lecture entitled Innovation and Collaboration through the Eyes of a Longtime Genetic Algorithmist as part of the program of UM12, The modeFrontier Users Meeting (here) run by Esteco, a provider of computer-aided design software located in Trieste.

More information about the panel is available here.

Retooling Engineering Education Culture with the Keystone Habit of Listening

/in , /by

Cover page of Duhigg's book, The Power of HabitI’ve been reading Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit (here) and i was struck by a story about Alcoa Aluminum and Paul O’Neil’s installation turnaround of a dysfunctional culture one person at a time.  More detail is available in the book, but the short version is that O’Neil insisted on a focus on safety at a time when profitability was challenged.  Many thought O’Neil was deranged and expected him to spend time working more directly on cutting expenses and increasing margins, but O’Neil was crazy like a fox, and he knew that a focus on safety would act as a keystone habit to realign the culture with exactly those things that would make the company profitable.

Ever since reading these passages, I’ve been sitting in the question as follows: What keystone habit or habits would effect the same kind of foundational realignment of engineering education culture?  After some reflection, I’ve concluded that the answer is listening.  The reason the current state of engineering education affairs sustains itself is that teachers aren’t listening to students, students, increasingly, aren’t listening to teachers, and as a result, their is almost no feedback to drive change in the needed directions.  The creation of listening universities, listening colleges, and listening polytechnics around the world would create the possibility of real change without the usual pitched resistance or backsliding once change is in place.

Over the last 18 months, ThreeJoy has developed a new kind of short interactive training seminar called NLQ or noticing, listening, and questioning. NLQ can be used in a short standalone mode or in concert with other building blocks to create a very effective change enhancing program for a variety of educational transformation outcomes.  Contact deg@threejoy.com for more information, and start creating the listening school of the future, today.

Engineering Education and the Power of Vulnerability

/in , /by

The more I’ve worked with schools around the globe for the transformation of engineering education, the more I’ve come to understand that all the important variables in that transformation and in the process of change itself are emotional ones.  In the following video, Brene Brown discusses her work on shame and how it led her to a greater understanding of the role of vulnerability in happiness.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o

The lessons of this video (here) resonate with successful change practices at Olin, at Illinois, in Asia, Europe, and South American, and part of the secret sauce to effective education change is to pay more attention to the compassion, connection, courage, and vulnerability as discussed by Dr. Brown.

Relaunching ThreeJoy Associates’ Blog

/in /by

This week inaugurates the launch of ThreeJoy’s blogpost email syndication.  Subscribers will receive weekly updates of ThreeJoy blogposts delivered to their email address.

This new service also inaugurates a rechristening of this website with an attendant rejuvenation of editorial content. Over the coming weeks articles will appear on a variety of subjects, including favorite stories from engagements around the world, principles and case studies of effective academic change, articles of interest to those in work or personal transition, and books and other resources of interest to those interested in effective educational and personal transformation.

To sign up to receive these updates go to the home page (here) and enter your name and email address.  Feedback is always welcome and we’d love to hear from readers at deg@threejoy.com.

Has the Internet Changed Your Brain?

/in /by

OnlineCollege.org’s, 15 Big Ways The Internet Is Changing Our Brain , can take you inside on how scientists have begun to note that the internet has not only served to fulfill our brains’ curiosities, but also rewired them.  The internet has provided us with a wealth of knowledge, but also a wealth of junk.  But how does that impact our brain?  Take a look at these surprising theories.  The shortened form of the list appears below: 

1.       The Internet is our external hard drive

2.       Children are learning differently

3.       We hardly ever give tasks our full attention

4.       We don’t bother to remember

5.       We’re getting better at finding information

6.       Difficult questions make us think about computers

7.       IQ is increasing over time

8.       Our concentration is suffering

9.       We’re getting better at determining relevance

10.   We’re becoming physically addicted to technology

11.   The more you use the Internet, the more it lights up your brain

12.   Our brains constantly seek out incoming information

13.   We’ve become power browsers

14.   Online thinking persists even offline

15.   Creative thinking may suffer

How has the internet impacted the way you think?

Push forward with self-determination

/in /by

Bev Jones writes about self-determination at Clearways Consulting. Why is it that some people can make one more step and push forward to reach a goal?  Bev Jones shares the personal story of Municipal Judge-elect Gayle Williams Byer who exemplifies self-determination.  Whether fighting breast cancer or  staying in a  tough election, self-determination moved Gayle Williams Byer forward:”You dig really deep when you don’t want to and you decide to take one more step.”

Read the full article here.

Resolution for the new year: learn to draw

/in /by

Brian Bomeisler’s class, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (here), can take you from childlike images to actually drawing your portrait in five days. See my before drawing on the first day of class

and my drawing on the last day of class:

If you’re interested in more information about these classes a schedule is available here.

Keeping winning streaks alive

/in /by

Bev Jones writes about winning streaks over at Clearways Consulting:

Why is it that some people can go from success to success, while others stumble fairly quickly, then seem to spend more time down than up? Of course luck can help, but the people who keep landing on their feet tend to have something in common. The perennial winners don’t take success for granted — they keep hustling, even in the good times.

Read the full article here, follow Bev Jones at clearwaysconsulting.com, or on Twitter @beverlyejones.

A list of leadership lists for 2011

/in , /by

Its the end of the year and time for lists. The following is a list of lists concerning leadership for 2011:

  • The best leaders of 2011: Washington Post (here), Harvard/USNews (here), Time (here)
  • The best leaders in educational technology of 2011: EdNet (here)
  • The best leadership books of 2011: Washington Post (here), leadershipnow.com (here)
  • The best blogs for future leaders of 2011: onlinecolleges.net (here)
  • The best leadership development programs of 2011: leaderexcel.com (here)
  • The ten big development goals for 2012:  greatleadershipbydan.com (here)

For those interested in broader coverage of 2011 lists of lists the list here may be of value (or maybe not).