Blogphilosophy: learning is a way out of life's options given at birth

Life is a long strand of actions, choices, forced decisions, or results that can be causes themselves and causes leading to results... my learning path cannot be called normal nor without its challenges, nevertheless, I made it. Meaning: I got out of a precarious place, I left chaos behind me. I now have a job, a house, a partner that loves and loved me even when the chips were down. I survived and all of a sudden I realized when looking what happens in the world today ... life was easy.

If you have ever been poor, or challenged, or have fallen victim to one of the many temptations that lead to a life of misery and complexity, you know why at a certain point you pull yourself together and start learning. For if you had to fight for a long period of time, simply to keep on living, there is only one way out. Granted, a way out that has many faces, but the same at its core: learning.

We learn to get out of the mess we are in, or - less dramatic and urgent - to improve our lives. In the first case, we cannot but learn the hard way.

Yesterday I got word that one of the children from the day care center my son is at, will be banned. Her parents no longer have the money. They are in debt. Having been poor, I picked up certain familiar traits indicating financial challenges creeping up on them. Nothing big, the last thing any of us want is that poverty becomes apparent at first glance, but nevertheless those of us who have been there, see it.
That little girl of not even two years of age will now stay at home. Her family situation is tough and with no quick fixes.As soon as finances become a heavy burden, family life gets harder. Everything becomes a discussion. Tensions arise. Everything becomes a priority, and sadly every choice deletes another priority. So here she is, that little girl, amidst dire straights, no longer at a nanny for 7 hours a week. She was at ease at the nanny. There she got organic fresh food, a good and safe shelter, and positive stimulation's. During every day at the nursery that little girl would learn from her peers, have no or less worries for a big part of her waking day. Now, she will be out. And once a child is out of daycare in my region, it is almost impossible to get back in. Because she will now be home, the chances of her parents being able to earn extra money diminish as well... she risks being caught in a downward spiral simply because of her position since birth.

In the same week I heard that the 21 year old Somalian athlete Samya Yusuf Omar, who carried the Olympic flag for her country during the Beijing games perished. Dead because she was on a path to improve her living conditions, her chances. She wanted to compete during the London Olympics and had the potential, but ... on her way to find a coach (she did not get funds in her own country), she died during a shipwreck, while escaping her living conditions in an attempt to increase her chances, attain her full potential. Living conditions she tackled were undoubtedly plenty: sports, endurance, perseverance, creating chances ... unfortunately her birth chances put her in a difficult starting position and because of that, at a certain point she embarked on a fatal trip in a raggedy ship, heading North to Fort Europe.  

The thing is, learning is not simply getting a degree, having some paper indicating you went through hours of books, assignments... For the most of us learning is the only way out of personal challenges, and its a hard road without guarantees. And what is worse, hardly any of us get to learn what it takes to learn. Learning takes a lot of unwritten skills. That is why learning in any form is so dear to my heart. I need to believe that when we all pitch in, we can make a change. Create more chances... not to become the president or prime minister of any country, but to attain peace of mind, or peace all together.

In the meantime my son has two mothers watching over him, both of them now working in education. We know the benefits of education and of the simple act of learning. We know how the system works, what the pitfalls are and why simply learning to learn will improve his chances for a healthy, happy life. For us, he does not need to become anything else but a happy human being, able to find his way. Not sure if it will work, but ... at least there are increased chances. Would not it be lovely to create these chances for all of us?

Using transparency to get citizens alert and active, or how Christian Kreutz influenced my thinking

It has been a very hectic period over the last couple of weeks. A tight workshop, planning a facilitator training, a short course with a lot of online activity, budget hassles, my master starting up … and this kept me from writing posts on a regular basis. I was also in an existential dip on blogposting.

Lucky for me I had one fresh and inspiring encounter at the middle of these chaotic weeks: meeting Christian Kreutz. His blog has been an inspiration for the last couple of years and all of a sudden I had the chance to meet him in Brussels.

Engaging citizens by analyzing (internet) data – civil society
We had an informal meeting, but a lot of what I learned from him made sense and sharpened my overall thinking on the use of websites and the internet to get civil society moving.

So what did Christian say that I found so enlightening? He simply said that we have all this data at our fingertips (google statistics, geo information, …), and all of these available data could be used for the better of society and its citizens.
In the past he has been writing about it. He wrote on metrics for social networks and what really happens, focusing on knowledge sharing and learning, he wrote about 6 innovative mashups for transparency, in which you could see the impact certain decisions have on the social fabric of regions (I was especially struck by the Healthcarethatworks – website that shows the New York City wide status for hospitals and its disproportionate impact that recent hospital closures have on low-income communities.) and his most recent post was on maptivism as a new approach of activism (based on the estimate that as much as 80% of data contains geo-referenced information. So, a lot of information can be displayed through maps. Digital maps allow easy ways to present large amounts of data and reduce complexity.)

The internet started out as a Utopia for me. It would benefit people around the world and make the globe a better place. With the increased absorption of internet initiatives into corporate environments, some of that euphoric belief in the WWW disappeared. But after reading the possibilities posted by Christian and after our talk in which he put forward the extra’s a transparent use of existing data (both on regional, national and international level) could bring… I am again a radiant believer. He gave a wonderful and simple example to get people interested in their own social environment. What if we take the data from a specific part of a city and open this data up to the citizens, e.g. people could see where trash bins are located, light poles are implemented, benches are placed... if city council than wants to change the outlines of that specific areas, or do something to create a better living space for all its citizens in that location, it could show the citizens what is already there, and ask them how they think their living area could be improved. I agree that a lot of debate could come from this, but coming to a consensus as a group can also adds to the social fabric of a region. All this data is already available, but in many occasions very little is done with it.

Christian Kreutz blogs qualitatively, which makes his blog a gem, check it out. He is thinking about going fully into consulting, so if you feel the need for a very professional, citizen-oriented web-analysis-expert, send him a note.

If you know of any data being used to make society more transparent, let me know, I would love to get more ideas.

7 places teachers can turn your expertise into cash online today

So building upon the previous post on identity and personal marketing I am adding this very practical way to earn some extra bucks while exploring social media sites and getting cracking with your expertise and softwares for audio/video teaching.

WiZiQ offers public sessions about a lot of topics (basics of Linux, basic German…) and one of the latest public sessions that can be viewed for free (after registering for free as well) is this session:
“7 places teachers can turn your expertise into cash online today” by Meri Aaron Walker (English spoken).

The core of the presentation is to be ‘Thinking seriously while imaging wildly’ as to get new ideas on how to take advantage of the global marketplace as a teacher. Teachers have always added value to a lot of learners, but with the new international connections, teachers are starting to sell their services worldwide. Meri takes the viewer on a tour and points out some of the opportunities teachers can dive into nowadays. Although there are a lot of new opportunities time is a constraint in many cases.

A lot of learners are increasing their online learning time. To prove this dictum, Meri asked the learners from a session to give examples of their number 1 favorite online knowledge marketplace? These were some of the examples that were given (and take a look at these great! Resources):
Learning times
Curriki
WiZiQ
Nicenet
Verbalplanet
LearningPlanet

Here are the 7 organisations that Meri mentions to make money from as an online teacher. If you register yourself for these 7 places you can take start offering your services and start to make money for yourself. These sites are set-up with teachers in mind = people that sell learning products.
If you are an adept of written reports, you can get a copy of the report on which this presentation is based at Meri’s blog. Where you can send your hottest educational question on Web2.0 and you will get a copy of the report for free (38 p report = ok deal):

freeIQ
Social networking site on which people sell the information they know something about. (like DVD’s on how to train for basketball, how to repare your car …). It works also by putting up your profile (only a profile, you do not need a website or similar). You can post audio, video, pdf-files and you can give them for free or ask money for them.

LivePerson (used to be Kasamba)
Give advice in all areas of expertise, to give counseling/tutoring/technical programs...
With an interesting profiling section: you chose your area of expertise and your profile connects immediately to a per minute charge if people want to connect to you. This is based on a rigourous process. With a widget to put on your social networking pages. (23% for livePerson).

Mindbites
Especially focussed on tiny video lessons, so mainly a self-publishing portal connected to a social market place. The videos are linked to credits (1 credit is 1 $ 60). Membership for mindbites is free and they have a great training program on how to edit a 60 seconds promo video. The first 60 seconds of your video lesson is free for all learners, so that interested parties can check out what the video will be like. (a bit like the incomparable Lynda.com videos).
What is interesting on this site is that you can give the mindbites the possibility to donate your money to your favorite sharity.

Current
A video site (Al Gore site J ) More educational content than youtube. Content that is posted in Current is linked to direct.tv, warner… so what current offers all users is if you start posting your videos, if you express your views on camera, current gives you instruments to improve your audio and video. If you video is chosen by the current-editors, you will get money for them.

Revver.com
This site pays you per person that is watching your video. So this can add a bit to your income.

Metacafe.com
This site also pays you per person that is watching your video.

Skype prime
A special division of skype, that allows people to connect to you through skype (paid by the minute) to get access to your expertise.
(similar is Wengo (more European and Middle East))

Teachers pay teachers
Free membership. You can search and buy or sell materials that are based on your specialist topics. 30 day free trial period for you selling. So you can see if there is (29 dollar annual fee to become a member). Paid out on a quarterly basis. This site is being used extensively by home teaching parents.

We are teachers
Free social profiling with a knowledge market place (video, audio…). Teachers that are sharing their expertise and that exchange specialist knowledge. Nice stuff: pageturning widget.

Of course what gets to me is whether or not I should ask money for any expertise I might have. Some days I feel like I should, at other days I feel that knowledge should be free to all and should be dispersed to all at no cost. Most of the time I am promoting the second option, but now and again I see what my bank account look like and I am in trouble with my ethical principles.
Thank you very much Meri Aaron Walker!

Remixing the web for social change, Kenya for peace

Report Acts Of Violence or Peace In Kenya

Take just a little time to support an African initiative that brings the Kenyan situation to the Kenyans, by the Kenyans. This is social media that breathes engagement and the promise of a strengthened future.

In April I am giving a presentation on how the use of social media in emerging countries is reshaping the world at the Annual Gathering of the eLearning Guild. Thanks to Juliana who posts the great Afromusings.com blog, I came across this great mash-up application that is keeping up with what is happening in Kenya.

Since the last elections Kenya has seen a lot of violence, which is now hopefully settling down. In the past we could watch the news, sigh because of the content and … do nothing. Nowadays and especially through social media the world has changed. We can choose our news and our actions.

Ushahidi (which means witness in Swahili) is a mash-up application which gives people live access to post their information and experiences. This African initiative is partly using crowdsourcing and building on existing initiatives to give the people in the streets a way to get their voices heard. The great thing about this initiative is that it does not only focus on riots but it also asks people to submit peace initiatives that have been started. The initiative works closely with the red cross and ngo's in Kenya to make sure the information they get is cross referenced.

You can support this initiative by voting for it. Ushahidi has entered the Netsquared Mashup Challenge and you can vote for this particular initiative by registering at the Netsquared site, register and vote (you can vote by clicking the ‘+’ next to the Ushahidi initiative). I know it’s a hassle to have to register before you vote, but it is greatly appreciate it if you did.

Just imagine this software mashup in areas that suddenly have to cope with an epidemic... this will make the physicians/nurses/researchers life much easier.

Social media is changing the face of the earth… well, at least if the people let it be changed.

hope: a lifting post: how dreams motivated learning

What if at the age of 45 you loose your memory, your job, and you barely stay alive? It happened to Garth Murray. He sunk into a life which was dominated by sleep until ... his sleep came up with the answers. Sometimes it does not take more then part of the brain to come to the rescue and give visions of techtales and push a person into some heavy informal learning that reshapes life itself.

Thanks to Simon Young, a New Zealand journalist that is into social media I found myself reading Idealog. While I was reading through the headlines one story snapped my attention: Daydream Believer, the story of Garth Murray who designed a new audio (= speaker) system that reshapes the audio world. Although his memory was shattered and he became a hyperacusis (= a collapsed tolerance to everyday sounds), that same brain came up with visions on how a new design of speakers would enable him to filter distortion from audio. Because he knew nothing about audio or speakers, he started learning it himself (he did talk to a specialist to help him on the way) and he began building the design that appeared in his vivid, vision like dreams. It is quite a story and it gave me hope.

It also made me think that in crisis situations, the only thing that gets us out is informal learning, because it is the natural way to learn. Formal learning only covers standards or basics or paths that have been walked on.

If you are interested in Garth Murray's speakers: Theophany Loud Speakers.