learning – Page 8 – ORGANIZING CREATIVITY

Discussing University Teaching With Colleagues: Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting or Quality Circle?

2014-03-14

Short comment whether courses for academics to improve teaching are AA meetings or quality circles.
[show the article]

Using and abusing academic workshops

2014-03-03

Workshops and loyalty, esp. to supervisors if they are the problem you need help with. Also, sickness and ideology, but I repeat myself.
[show the article]

Write like Hemingway — no, not drunk, but better.

2014-02-13

Hemingway is a cool webapp that evaluates your writing in terms of complexity, used adjectives and adverbs, and more. All it takes is a quick copy & paste.
[show the article]

Rooting for Google Glass DIYs

2014-02-05

Some comments on Google Glass, esp. the privacy and discretion issues around it. High potentials and high risks of false information go hand in hand.
[show the article]

Looking Back on 2013

2013-12-21

A short recap of 2013.
[show the article]

Making Money with MOOCs, or: Unrequired Reading

2013-11-29

Some MOOC instructors try to push their books. Recommendations are one thing, but making it "required reading" ... some comments.
[show the article]

Are you happy with your life? And what are your skills?

2013-11-10

There's a good website with tests that are actually useful and well constructed (not the usual psycho-bubble). It's interesting to do a few of these tests, esp. the skills test, and compare the results over time.
[show the article]

Enter the MOOC Masochists

2013-09-12

Not all pain is gain and unless you really like painful experiences, why not leave bad MOOC?
[show the article]

CourseTalk and other things to evaluate MOOCs

2013-09-10

There are countless MOOCs available, yet time is limited. How can you pick a good MOOCs? Some suggestions.
[show the article]

Reactions to Really, Really, REALLY bad MOOCs

2013-09-09

MOOC participants are not students at a university, okay, not only students at a university: They speak up if the course is bad. Looking at a really bad MOOC, there are three counter-arguments against speaking up -- and valid rebuttals of these counterarguments. Also: One of the worst excuses for bad presentation I have ever read.
[show the article]

This is a private blog showing my opinions. If you have an issue with what I write here, either don’t read it or talk to me directly. Don’t waste your time — or mine — dragging my employer into matters where they hold no authority.

The institution I work for, or rather the people officially representing it, have already distanced themselves from this blog. I find this unnecessary, as I’ve clearly stated in the «About this Blog» section that this is a personal blog.

Frankly, I have nothing but contempt for those who lack the backbone to address their concerns directly and instead resort to passive-aggressive tattling to others. Such behavior strikes me as not only cowardly, but also spineless, gutless, and wholly unprincipled. Moreover, these efforts are as pathetic as they are futile.

That said, I might listen if you present compelling arguments and evidence, as constructive feedback is always welcome. Who knows? We might even both gain something valuable from the interaction.

A comment for those seeking to use this site for personal gain: Given the increase in requests, let me be clear. I write on this blog because I want to. It’s my hobby, my playground. Sometimes people point me to interesting products/services and I write about them. But any request regarding ads or sponsored placements ends up the trash without a reply. And if you think something would be of interest, differentiate yourself from the spammers by referring to a posting — in an intelligent way. (I get enough auto-generated mails to identify them immediately.)

BTW, posts can get updated after I published them if I spot spelling errors (not a native speaker) or think a different wording might improve precision and clarity.

This blog is not focused on a single topic, or method. As long as it is relevant to improving creativity (or allowing it in the first place), it's fair game.
Some postings on this blog deal with freedom, as I think that we need freedom of thought, of speech, of association, etc. pp. to solve mankind's problems. Thus, some postings may seem a bit remote when it comes to organizing creativity. Freedom is, however, the bedrock of creativity.
The heterogeneity of the postings can make reading this blog a bit cumbersome, at least if you are only interested in one topic. You can either use the search function (above), or use the categories or the tags to narrow down the postings you see.