Cracker Barrel Triange

This is how you go about proving your genius when it comes to the Cracker Barrel Triangle Peg game . . . watch closely young grasshoppers.  Don't say I never gave you anything :)

B

Facebook Essays (3/3)

So this is the last essay question I chose to write about to show Facebook that I wasn't napping during Rhetoric 105 in college.  Check it out . . . and let me know if my grammar is ok  :)

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO IMPROVE K-12 EDUCATION IN AMERICA?


I am particularly passionate about K-12 education in the U.S., specifically the areas of learning and literacy.  It’s no secret that U.S. performance in the arena of education has declined by international standards over the last 15-20 years.  China and India have successfully equipped their young people and have graduated large numbers of engineers and computer scientists over the last two decades.  As a result of their solid educational foundation, many highly sought-after jobs are going to these graduates.

There is much room for improvement in this area for K-12 students in the U.S.  Changing our attitudes about how to deliver education to our students is a necessary step if we are to regain respect and credibility as a nation.  It is a very exciting time to be focused on this issue because we are at a critical turning point as citizens of the 21st century thanks to the Internet.  There is an important shift in the way information is being created, consumed, and distributed.  This analog to digital shift has been embraced and exploited to some extent by different industries globally, but by and large U.S. K-12 education has yet to experience the full effect of what’s helping to change and transform other industries.  Investing in the idea of Education 2.0 (web-enabled, active, community-based learning) is imperative if we are going to empower ourselves and our children to be key contributors in the 21st century.

This issue of K-12 education matters a lot to me because I’ve seen over and over the major implications that educational foundations (both solid and shaky) have had on people throughout their lives.  A good education is the foundation for so much in our daily activities.  From job opportunities to our social interactions, what we’ve gathered from our education informs our decision making and helps us put into context almost every situation that we find ourselves in.  If we accept this notion as true, how could we as a country not invest in educational infrastructure to stay at the cutting edge in this space?  We owe it to ourselves and our families, the opportunity to build the best educational foundation possible.

Overall, I believe we’ve failed to engage our K-12 students.  The activities that draw them in, such as video games, mobile devices, and social networking are not embraced as learning tools and therefore are not embedded into their curricula.  The old command-and-control approach still dominates in schools today.  The teacher dictates the content while the students listen (or daydream) and then the homework is assigned to determine whether the knowledge transfer was successful.  I liken this to riding a bicycle across the country in an age where airplanes are prevalent.  So much more could be done if we changed our content and delivery methods.

I am dedicated to contributing to the ‘new wave’ of curriculum design and educational content delivery which I think will become standardized once the technologies that are available today make their way into K-12 classrooms.  I get excited every day about being able to deliver better solutions via new technologies to students and educators all over the world.  There are interesting methods being researched at the moment that counter the conventions of our established and traditional educational framework.  Infusing gaming and competition into curriculum, using collaboration and community to deliver term papers, encouraging students to blog and publish online content, and using social networks for planning events and calendaring; these are all unconventional methods that are being rolled out at this very moment.  My sister invited me just this week to join her Ning social network as part of a homework assignment for one of her sociology classes.  These technologies are slowly but surely finding their way into classrooms all over the world.

Creating best practices and guidelines around this new wave of Education 2.0 ideas will help to standardize it in K-12 schools.  The end result will be an educational system and an experience that caters more to the culture and preference of this generation of learners thereby giving the students a richer and more valuable educational foundation.  This will translate into more job opportunities, better social interactions, and a wider lens with which to view the world as these individuals go about making their everyday decisions.  The issue of education matters so much to me because I truly believe that I can be a part of the solution that will translate into a much better experience for thousands upon thousands of kids who are becoming more and more apathetic towards their schooling and overall educational experience.  If my hypotheses are correct and I am able to realize my dreams in this area, I will be able to win back the attention and interests of these boys and girls.

this concludes my 3 part series relating to the Facebook Beta-tester position . . . 

good morning, good afternoon, and good night

Facebook Essays (2/3)

WHAT ARE WOMEN LOOKING FOR IN RELATIONSHIPS?


So I just got married February 14th, 2010.  I thought that I knew what women wanted in a relationship.  As it turns out, I knew what she thought she wanted in a relationship.  Let me explain the difference between what a woman wants and what a woman thinks she wants in a relationship.  Follow me.

It is a very interesting world that we live in these days.  The society that we're a part of is full of outside stimuli that guide our every thought and decision.  It's a gift and a curse for a woman because as you may or may not know, women like well designed, extravagant, expensive, cool and shiny things (e.g. the engagement ring that I gave her made her go bananas) and they also sometimes find it hard to come back down to earth once they begin to engage in these whimsical worlds revolve around the things they like (e.g. fashion and jewelry and reality tv and if I go on with this list I might not finish this question).

So when looking for a stable relationship women sometimes forget that they are actually a part of two distinct worlds.  One where reality is far far away, where things just work together, where they look 'hot' every hour of every day, where seemingly every day is their birthday and they can do no wrong.  The other world is the one that men live in where logic is king, sports is priority, and if you can't afford it then you probably shouldn't buy it.  Attempting to reconcile these two worlds day by day is what helps a relationship between a Martian and a Venusian to survive and thrive (check out Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus if you didn't get that reference).

So put simply what I thought women wanted initially were the basics: food, shelter, faithfulness, and fun.  What I've found is that women say they want these things but there are more things too. They let on that they would be truly happy if they could just get these simple things.  But I submit that that is a falsehood.  As a man, there is so much more that you must provide and if you fail to realize this then maybe you should take a twenty second timeout and think about what you're doing in your current relationship (disclaimer: if you're married you can't take that timeout, you don't have any left . . . just keep playing).

The thesis and bottom line to all of this is that women want your time and attention.  If you can't afford to give them that then the food, shelter, faithfulness and fun won't make one bit of difference.  I was very proud to provide these things and very baffled to find out that they didn't mean as much to her as I thought they would.  Venusians need lots of hugs and kisses, walks in the park and extended visits to organic grocery stores, and lastly lots of engaging and affirming conversation with eye contact included.  If you can provide this then you will be able to level up in the game of relationship, and if you can't then you'll end up starting the level over with woman after woman after woman.  So let the games begin.  God speed and good luck to my fellow men out there.

just one more part to go . . . part 3 coming right up

:)

Facebook Essays (1/3)

So Facebook is looking for beta-testers for their new products and they want you to do some essays as a part of their screening process.  Here are some questions I answered . . . it was a very introspective afternoon for me actually :)

WHY IS CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY A JOKE?


In light of the BP oil leak incident, a lot of questions about corporate and government responsibility have come up.  People want to know who is responsible for this and how this could have happened if the private business (BP) was paying attention to what was going on.  The answers to these questions amuse and sadden me at the same time because depending on who your news source is you will find 360 degrees of opinions.

It seems that if you have enough money, you can pay your way to putting yourself in a positive light.  In this money hungry world that we live in, greed trumps integrity (from what I've observed) which makes it impossible to believe 100% of what anyone  has to say about anything.  Since the sentiment about the news, which people take as absolute truth, varies from channel to channel people end up becoming puppets of whatever their favorite flavor of news media is.

So why should I believe you if money can make you call the truth a lie and vice versa?  It is no different with (some) corporations.   The idea that everyone is a puppet makes the idea of believing in a system of corporate responsibility laughable.  Believing what the big company tells you might not be the best idea, unless you do your research first and find that your facts match theirs.  But wait who did you go through to get your facts?  That's right another big corporation.  So who can you trust?  Read on.

On the other side of the spectrum that is why we have faith and hope.  Without at least a little of it everybody would be down in the dumps all the time.  We must do our part with honor and respect and then have faith in our world that other people are doing the same to make this place we inhabit a better place for years and years to come.  Ask good questions, do your research, and hope for the best.  That is all.

stay tuned for part 2 . . .

Smelling the Roses [Picture Poetry]

[begin prose]

Sometimes I need to stop . . . 

From whatever I'm doing . . .

Job that I'm working . . . 

Dreams that I'm pursuing . . . 

Pause for a minute and just halt the confusion . . .

To step away is to see that it's all an illusion . . . 

My generation has come up with this conclusion . . .

They label you as worthless unless you're moving . . . 

You're nothing unless you're high functioning, hustling, doing . . .

No motion unacceptable slow motion is for losers . . .

I asked for more fast but beggars can't be choosers . . . 

Now that I've come to terms . . . 

With what I am and what I can . . .

And cannot do, I'm feeling like the plan . . .

In these last days and times is for me to understand . . . 

How to make more people smile and to be a better man . . .

If not for me for my fam I suppose . . . 

Stay tuned as I try to be honest with myself . . . 

To be still before God and to stop to smell the rose . . .

[terminate prose]

Amen

Playing Around w/ TweetMySong.com

mic check 1 2 1 2 . . . first single getting airplay in Ghana

:)

stay Living Loving & Learning

Getting Started w/ Supercool School Pt. 2

So here's second part of what you should do when you first sign up for Supercool School . . . click this link and be enlightened.

How To Get Started w/ Your Supercool School Pt. 1

Take a look at this link below to get the very first things you should do after you sign up to have your very own Supercool School. Stay Tuned for part 2.

Just Found Out about Prezi.com

Google Apps: In a Nutshell on Prezi

And my my my is it awesome or what!!!

That is all for now . . . check out www.prezi.com and as always continue to

Live --> Love --> Learn

Wedding Slideshow Snippets

So I'm getting married on Valentine's Day . . . that's like 6 days from now. Here are some photos that will be on the slideshow. I love technology. Makes things easy.

 
 
 
 

Live Love Learn as always,

B.

Video Games For Learning Pt. 1

So recently I've been digesting James Paul Gee's "What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy" and I wanted to document some of the principles in it to serve as a reference point for me in my educational projects. Very good info for designers, teachers, system architects, and of course gamers.

Oh last thing, the definition of SEMIOTIC DOMAIN is this "any set of practices that recruits one or more modalities (images, equations, symbols, sounds, graphs, artifacts, etc.) to communicate distinctive types of meanings."

Here are the first 12 principles:

1. Active, Critical Learning Principle: all aspects of the learning environment(including the ways in which the semiotic domain is designed and presented) are set up to encourage active and critical, not passive, learning.

2. Design Principle: learning about and coming to appreciate design and design principles is core to the learning experience.

3. Semiotic Principle: learning about and coming to appreciate interrelations within and across multiple sign systems (images, words, actions, symbols, atifacts, etc.) as a complex system is core to the learning experience.

4. Semiotic Domains Principle: learning involves mastering, at some level, semiotic domains, and being able to participate at some level, in the affinity group or groups connected to them.

5. Metalevel Thinking about Semiotic Domains Principle: learning involves active and critical thinking about the relationships of the semiotic domain being learned to other semiotic domains.

6. "Psychosocial Moratorium" Principle: learners can take risks in a space where real-world consequences are lowered.

7. Committed Learning Principle: learners participate in an extended engagement (lots of effort and practice) as extensions of their real-world identities in relation to a virtual identity to which they feel some commitment and a virtual world that they find compelling.

8. Identity Principle: learning involves taking on and playing with identities in such a way that the learner has real choices (in developing the virtual identity) and ample opportunity to meditate on the relationship between new identities and old ones. There is a tripartite play of identities as learners relate, and reflect on, their multiple real-world identities, a virtual identity, and a projective identity.

9. Self Knowledge Principle: the virtual world is constructed in such a way that learners learn not only about the domain but about themselves and their current and potential capacities.

10. Amplification of Input Principle: for a little input, learners get a lot of output.

11. Achievement Principle: for learners of all levels of skill there are intrinsic rewards from the beginning, customized to each learner's level, effort, and growing mastery and signaling the learner's ongoing achievements.

12. Practice Principle: learners get lots and lots of practice in a context where the practice is not boring (i.e. in a virtual world that is compelling to learners on their own terms and where the learners experience ongoing success). They spend lots of time on task.

So this wraps up the first dozen. I will hopefully be able to use these in my future pursuits and projects in relation to online education, educational gaming, and the like. That is all.

as always continue to Live, Love, and Learn . . .

B

Playing w/ Intua Beatmaker Again

When I'm alone in my room sometimes I stare at the wall and then I jump on my phone and make some music for y'all!!!

:)

In the Hotel, Can't Sleep

It was like 4am and I just needed something to do . . . please don't judge me, it was late.

:)

B

Brandon Plays w/ Beatmaker for iPhone

So I got done with my work a little earlier than I anticipated today and decided to throw together a video of an app that I've been enjoying for a while now, Intua's Beatmaker. I make a quick beat in this video, drop a verse, and show you another beat that I finished up on earlier. Enjoy it.

SMART Phones vs. PTSD & TBI

I've been tasked with putting together a computer basics curriculum that would benefit the American wounded warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan. These men and women have served their country with honor and are looking to take on a computer trade in the service or out in the civilian world. There are a couple of challenges to pulling this curriculum together: (1) most of these soldiers have very limited knowledge about technical matters (2) most of these soldiers suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and/or Traumatic Brain Injury. These disorders make it difficult to focus on tasks and they also make it hard for soldiers remember things. So taking that knowledge into account, I am going about my journey of creating something that would benefit an individual in this condition.

Let's talk about what SMART phones can do to help us out here. I will use the iPhone as an example just because I have one and we have been given 30 of them (thank you Apple) to carry out this pilot with the soldiers. I am playing around with the concept of using apps for learning. I firmly believe that apps can be a nice way to introduce/demonstrate/reinforce course material. Working under the assumption that this approach isn't flawed we proceed.

In learning something new there are a couple of things that always take place: (1) the new concept is defined and explained (2) the learner's knowledge of the facts around the new concept are repetitively exercised/affirmed (3) the learner's knowledge about the new concept is tested by demonstration of procedures (exams, lab experiments, etc.). So if we take a look at the iPhone at these three stages we are able to see that there are apps out there that address the needs of new learners for each stage. Let's go stage by stage and sample some apps that would help our soldiers.

STAGE 1: A new concept is defined and explained
Almost every app out there has some sort of explanation to help guide you as you use it. I play a lot of game apps and part of my ritual before playing for the first time is checking out the tutorial. This should provide a high level explanation of the major concepts of the game and visual reinforcement for the user so that the app (in general) is understood. This stage can be likened to a professor delivering a lecture to a class of students. High level concepts are described, but much of the low-level work is left out. Some examples of apps with high-level tutorials are Tic Tac Toe Ten and Bailout Wars. Tic Tac Toe Ten has a tutorial video while Bailout Wars has a couple of slides to flip through for users to understand how to play. The main point of this stage is to introduce the learner to the concept and to provide any background knowledge about the concept that would help the learner digest it easier in the stages that follow.

STAGE 2: the learner's knowledge of the facts around the new concept are repetitively exercised/affirmed

So at this stage the learner has become familiar with the definitions of words that relate to the concept at hand. He/She should be able to recite a canned (memorized) response to very high level questions concerning the concept in question. This stage can be equated to a professor giving out homework once the lecture has been given. The learner now has to wrestle with the concept and do exercises and problems that reinforce the knowledge from the lecture. Apps like Kaplan GRE Exam and Cram fit this stage perfectly. Both apps allow the learner to drill himself/herself in a repetitive manner until the objectives are met. For the Kaplan GRE Exam app the objective is to learn words and their definitions. For the Cram app, a learner can create flashcards on any subject matter and drill themselves until they have internalized the concepts. The notion of repetition and drilling is a very key component in acquiring information and retaining that information.

STAGE 3: the learner's knowledge about the new concept is tested by demonstration/explanation of procedures

At this stage most of the heavy lifting has been done by the learner. This stage is the equivalent of a written or an oral exam. The learner's knowledge of the concept is now revealed for what it is just as long as the examination is detailed enough. An app like SAT Practice Tests (math) is a perfect example of this examination concept. In the app, the learner must answer multiple choice questions from the domain of geometry, algebra, and trigonometry. There is really no faking it (unless you happen to be an awesome guesser). For the most part, the hard work from Stage 2 (or lack thereof) will come to the surface when demonstration or explanation are required. Research shows that learners who have the best grasp of a concept are individuals who can teach others how to do the very thing that they just learned. The aim at the end of the SMART phone activities would be to get the soldiers to teach each other the very concepts that they have just internalized themselves. If we are able to get to this point then our objectives have been accomplished!!!

More to come in the future ... check out the apps above if you get a chance ... we'll see you soon

B

Playing With Aviary's Myna Software

Take Me Back.egg on Aviary.

Flash under the covers . . . Protools meets EC2 . . . Thursday awesome!!!

mr. live love learn

Playing With Flash CS4

So I spent the night tonight playing with my trial version of Adobe's Flash CS4. I am determined to learn how to master graphics and animations so that I can begin to build all of the educational software products that I have sitting in my brain. Stay tuned.

LiveLoveLearners . . . BEHOLD MY FIRST FLASH CS4 OFFERING!!!

A HOW TO OF INTEREST: Creating Social Media Protocols for Non-Profits

THIS IS PART ONE (I think):



I am taking the scientific approach on this one. My HYPOTHESIS is that if I can sample enough Social Media policies from respectable organizations, I can piece together a pretty solid document for my organization to abide by. I have been conducting a little EXPERIMENT and have been sampling the practices and experiences of some of my peers. My OBSERVATION is that without proper guidance, people will make their own rules and do their own thing. This is sometimes fine if these individuals aren't working toward a common goal. As it turns out, most organizations actually are working toward a common goal so guidance is actually needed. My CONCLUSION therefore, is this: every organization (large and small) should make making a Social Media Policies document a priority. Without one your people will make up their own rules and anarchy will ensue.

Here are some useful links on various topics around Corporate Social Media Policies . . . from some of the respectable organizations that I mentioned.

CISCO

RIGHT NOW

GOVERNMENT

WORKPLACE FAIRNESS

INTEL

Official Website Unveiled: Tic Tac Toe Ten

It's finally here y'all . . . Thanks to ChiefMoney Designs for partnering with me to bring this all together. God bless y'all. Let's continue to help get Tic Tac Toe Ten on the map. Here's the link to the site if you want to check it out: http://www.tictactoeten.com/

Happy Independence Day everybody, have a blessed and restful holiday!!!

B.M.

Couple of Music Videos From Past Performances

check me out y'all . . .

more to come in the future for sure :)

stay living loving learning . . . PEACE