The work of the remarkable Dan Kamen seems to be ushering in his vision to help veterans. During a presentation he mentioned that the folks from Darpa paid him a visit. They wanted him to improve the alternatives for soldiers returning to America and must recover from the loss of limbs.
They asked Kamen why is it that during the Civil War (when soldiers fought with muskets) when a soldier lost an arm, they gave him a wooden stick with a hook at the end? When a soldier returned from Iraq (where they fought with automatic weapons and Stealth Bombers) having lost an arm, why do they give him a plastic stick with a hook at the end?
So Kamenn took this on. He is rumored to have told his R & D department: "We have a difficult task. I want a soldier with an artificial arm to pick up a grape and transfer it to his mouth without breaking the skin of the grape."
His lead developer said, "Well, that's tough. But we can probably do it."
To which Kamenn responded, "That's not the difficult part. I want him to feel the grape."
His lead developer said, "But that's impossible."
"Yeah," Kamenn said. "Let's get to work."
Now it appears that their work is paying off . . . the impossible is indeed becoming possible. And for our veterans who have given so, so much for us, let's hope this soon becomes reality.
By the way, here is Kamen's phenomenal TED Talk.
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These are just amazing. They remind me of work a former student of mine, Trace\y Mehrkens, used to do. And she still does amazing work. Check out her blog.
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How much fun would it be to work at or attend this school?
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Now this is a fascinating documentary. If it's legit.
I'm afraid if the testing insanity continues, I agree with the final words of this trailer.
Why? Here's why. That is a brutally honest reflection on how one teacher believes high-stakes testing are changing him into a worse teacher. It's a short read and well, well worth it.
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I've always been fascinated by movie trailers. When I routinely attended movies, the trailers were often my favorite part. That was, of course, prior to the internet. Now I have my trusty link to apple's imove trailer site (and the app for my phone), and I can watch them anytime.
I have joked in the past when I used to rent videos that someone should just put out a video of just two full hours of movie trailers.
This link is a really interesting read on the history and evolution of the movie trailer.
The problem now, it seems to me, is that the movie trailers (and this is no surprise in our hyper connected, ADHD, attention span shriveled society) simply give away too much. It's as if they try to cram the entire movie into 120 seconds as opposed to just teasing us into wanting to see the film.
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This reminds me of Seth Godin's Linchpin. Be remarkable. Stand out.
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I'm using this when I go over the College Comp I novel list.
The point of reading two of the classics on that list is not to be entertained (at least solely). The point is to read the best that has ever been written and to be changed. The change that happens in you, might not be a positive or pleasurable one (I mean who is changed for the better as a result of The Jungle or Le Mis or Heart of Darkness?). But you are changed and made more aware.
I need to remind my students of that.
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And here comes the revolution.
Georgia Tech just announced this -
The Atlanta university is making major waves in business and higher education with its May 14 announcement that the college will offer the first online master's degree in computer science—and that the degree can be had for a quarter of the cost of a typical on-campus degree.
It doesn't seem all that long ago that if you were considering an online degree, some folks chuckled at you. But not anymore. And that's a very good thing.
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This, sadly, was the first time I heard of this concept. I love it. I especially love this line - It’s the mayor’s endorsement of collaborative consumption — the exploding new economy based on access instead of ownership.
Personally, I thing sharing would be a good throw back for us. The need to consume and consume and consumer more and more and more, I hope, runs its course.
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I first head of this from Simon Sinek's TED Talk, but it'll be interesting to apply this (The 5 Types of Technology Adopters) to our faculty as we embrace 1:1.
And for those who won't bother to click on the link, here they are
1. Innovators
2. Early Adaptors (where I think I fall)
3. Early Majority
4. Late Majority
5. Laggards (as Sinek says, these people only have touch tones phones because they can't buy rotary phones anymore!)
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And look out Mark Bauerlein, if you hated the Millennials, here comes generation iY.
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