Commenting on Topics with Connected Points of View
Don Gorges
Visual Communications in Educational Resources,
Open Design, Creative Services, Marketing
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HMH CMO, John Dragoon, sat down with CMO Essentials to discuss the challenges of recreating a distinctive and established brand. http://spr.ly/6042BVDAC
(Re)Creating a Distinctive and Relevant Brand – CMO Essentials
A few weeks back, I got in touch with John Dragoon, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), to see if I could get his voice on CMO Essentials. Working as he does for a publisher, or so I thought, I wanted to get his take on the old saw that “Marketers need to think like publishers.”
When I mentioned this angle to John’s director of corporate communications, she told me, “We have made a very concerted effort to move away from positioning ourselves as traditional ‘publishers.’ Today, HMH is a learning company specializing in content and media for lifelong learners.”
My first response, naturally, was to think, “I knew that thinking like a publisher was bad advice! Even publishers don’t think of themselves as publishers!”
My second response was, “OK. Maybe we can talk about that rebranding process,” which she and John agreed to do.
Don Gorges
__”At the end of each year, Webbmedia Group Digital Strategy applies our forecasting model to surface the most important emerging trends in digital media and technology for the year ahead. We’ve just published our annual Trend Report, and it features 81 notable trends and more than 100 companies and people to watch in 2016.” Amy Webb WebbmediaGroup-2016-TechTrends.pdf _ webbmediagroup com/2016-trends _
Philanthropist, principal establish rare book collection
Principal Daniel Woolf always intended to donate his rare book collection to Queen’s University. He was inspired to accelerate that plan, though, thanks to the generosity of Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist Seymour Schulich.
“When I met Mr. Schulich, we discovered a shared interest in rare books. Because we’re both passionate about sharing this material with the broader academic community, we agreed to give our collections and create the Schulich-Woolf Rare Book Collection,” says Principal Woolf, who provided items from his collection for an exhibit by Queen’s Library in 2014. “This collection will serve to enrich the teaching and learning experience at Queen’s and support research activity across the broader academic community.”
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EDUPUNK:
YouTube
“EDUPUNK: Where it came from and where it’s going now” a mockumentary
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.frog design’s Tech Trends for 2016 http://buff.ly/1O6nGIu
TechTrends 2016 | frog
With the start of a new year, the exciting question is: What technology trends will radically transform businesses in 2016 and beyond? At frog we help our clients digitally transform their businesses by identifying emerging technologies and realizing their potential. Here are 15 technology trends driving companies to reinvent themselves.
Don Gorges
__Creators / designers will find this video, What is SmartBook? _ https://lnkd.in/eJKZehr _ offers more in-depth description and visual reference of the user experience _ note this iteration of SmartBook is a single textbook page format, rather than a format optimized for screens _ https://lnkd.in/e8S7jA7
McGraw Hill’s New Personalized Learning Authoring Product
SmartBooks are based on a technology developed by a company called Area9, which was acquired by McGraw Hill in 2014 (although the company used the technology in products for several years before then and purchased a twenty percent equity stake in 2013). The heart of the platform is a set of algorithms designed to optimize the commitment of knowledge to long-term memory.
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“Competition is a powerful force for education” – Our CEO John Fallon explains why purpose and profit do go hand in hand, and why we’re ready to be held to account for our impact, because “If we fail at that, we fail as a business.”
A year of helping to make progress
We at Pearson are a company of nearly 40,000 people proudly working for learning, for employability and yes, for profit.
Competition is a powerful force for innovation, and that is no less true when it comes to education. Business has an important role to play in K-12 and higher education, investing in research and new products that might not be possible otherwise.
We recognize not everyone agrees that commercial enterprises have a role in educating children. Some question whether a sense of social purpose and a profit motive can go hand in hand. At Pearson, they always go hand in hand because the profit we make is the by-product of making a useful and meaningful addition to society.
We don’t shy away from public debate around education policy or the quality and content of our products. When it comes to our role in the lives of people as important as classroom students, we should be scrutinized. That’s why earlier in the year, we posted the full transcript of our Annual General Meeting to share openly our goals and thinking and our willingness to hear criticism. You can read the full transcript online.
Don Gorges
__Why the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a Good Deal for Canadian Innovators Commentary by Richard C Owens _ MLICommentaryOwens-12-15-final.pdf
Why the TPP is a good deal for Canadian innovators | Barry Sookman
Richard Owens, a Toronto lawyer, adjunct professor of law at the University of Toronto, and the former Executive Director of the University of Toronto Centre for Innovation Law and Policy, has published an important commentary on the TPP titled “Debunking Alarmism Over the TPP and IP: Why the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a Good Deal for Canadian Innovators”.
The article, published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, surveys the IP and e-commerce chapters of the TPP dispelling errors and aspersions about them and concluding that “It would be terrible if public debate were so undermined by misinformation as to seriously threaten such an important deal.” He also provides helpful analysis of key Articles in the treaty explaining the rationale for their inclusion and arguing that they will benefit Canadian innovators. He is also complimentary about Canada’s success in the negotiations stating “In any event, one is hard-pressed to point to Canadian concessions in Chapters 14 and 18. Even the one significant change, to the 70-year copyright term, also benefits Canadians.”
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How Houghton Mifflin Harcourt moved from product to platform | PCWorld
Open Educational Resources Grants – Simon Fraser University
Sponsored by the VP, Academic, the SFU Library and the TLC jointly provide small grants to support the adoption of Open Textbooks and other Open Educational Resources (OER) in SFU courses. These grants support faculty members wishing to redesign courses using OER as primary course materials. OER adoption is one way to address textbook affordability for students, and to encourage local development and adaptation of high quality open resources for use in SFU courses. In addition to the funding provided by these grants, in-kind contributions from the SFU Library and the TLC will assist recipients in locating, evaluating, and adapting high quality Open Resources as an alternative to expensive commercial course materials.
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Give the gift of experiential learning with ChangSchoolTalks master classes, main stage talks, and Brain Dates! Use promo code HOLIDAYS for $75 off the regular full-day ticket price: http://ow.ly/W2Nk6
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2015 Lamplighter Visionary Award recipient Christine Willig explains how we apply research, innovation, and learning science to help all students reach their full potential: https://lnkd.in/erD9Xv2
Focusing on the Future of Open Educational Resources (OER)
The future integration and successful use of Open Educational Resources (OER) are linked to four key elements in their development and adoption: building commitment, assuring quality, unbundling and language diversity. With these in place, OER can reach its potential for students, faculty/instructors, and colleges and universities.
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Great stuff!
Mentorix and Joubel in strategic partnership on interactive learning tools and interoperability
I am excited to announce that Mentorix and Joubel have entered into a strategic partnership. The Joubel team are the founders behind H5P one of the most promising new standards enabling CMS’s and LMS’s to exchange and create rich learning content running across all devices. H5P also includes support for other important international standards such as the xAPI.
Eurekos the Next Generation Digital Learning Environment by Mentorix will integrate the H5P standard extensively and combine the innovative and intuitive user interface of Eurekos to empower teachers and learners to create anything they can imagine – easily.
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Globally recognized eLearning consultant Tony Bates appointed distinguished visiting professor
December 16, 2015
Tony Bates, distance education technology consultant and professor, has been appointed distinguished visiting professor at Ryerson University. Bates will join The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education to provide strategic direction for online and technology-enhanced program development. During his appointment with The Chang School, it is anticipated that Bates will also engage the broader Ryerson community.
“The continued design, management and development of eLearning and distance education is a huge priority for Ryerson,” said Chris Evans, interim provost and vice president academic. “I am pleased to welcome Tony Bates to Ryerson. The digital education strategies he will bring to this growing area of education will be an asset to the entire university.”
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This is an exceptional spot. Beautifully written. Acted. And shot. Hats off.
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Open Access and Academic Freedom
__Paul Stacey posted the second in a series of six Medium articles connected to the research underway about open business models __ https://lnkd.in/e_wHkm5
Maximize Abundance — Made with Creative Commons
This is the second in a series of six Medium articles connected to the research underway by Creative Commons for its Kickstarter-funded book about open business models to be published summer 2016. This work has three parts. Part 1 explores how open businesses models are based more on abundance than scarcity. Part 2 continues that exploration with an eye to how abundance affects design and development of open business model strategies. And finally, in Part 3 we get down into specifics around how open business model organizations generate revenue to sustain and thrive.
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It’s time to grow a pair. Let’s hear it for dads.
Envy men. Because if advertising is any indication, there’s never been a better time to be one.Marketers have long mined the clichés of womanhood to deliver the bottom line. Dove’s Real Beauty trope has had a healthy 10-year run and counting. Various female themes have run the gamut from insecure teens to moms as the unsung heroes, toiling stoically in the laundry room, making thankless dinners, all the while inspiring their children to Olympian heights (P&G). Tears well in our eyes just thinking about their selfless maternal nobility. After we reach for our handkerchiefs, we reach for our wallets. Advertisers know that putting mom on a pedestal wins. It’s a well-worn path to your purse.
Well, it would appear the tide has turned. It’s daddy’s turn to sell, and sell he does. Fathers seem to provide – somewhat ironically – the motherlode of creative inspiration these days. Testosterone is shilling everything from pants and cereal to Citroëns and running shoes.
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The Power of Personalization
Quad/Graphics Debuts Unlimited Full-Page Hyper-Personalized Versioning for Complex Direct Mail Formats |
| Direct Marketers Can Now Reach Individuals Cost-Effectively and on a Mass Scale With Company’s Uniquely Configured Digital Color Wide Web Press, Powered by QRelevant – a Proprietary Workflow Engine |
Don Gorges
__sorry, I know you’re way too busy to watch 25 ads but see – ‘Puppyhood‘ – for a smile _
CELEBRATING THE YOUTUBE ADS OF 2015
The best of ads of 2015 have made us all laugh, cry, think and feel inspired. YouTube has partnered with The Webby Awards to select 25 of the most iconic ads of 2015, based on this year’s YouTube Ads Leaderboard.
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Adobe’s Record Revenue Proves Successful Business Transformation Is Possible
As we watch organizations like IBM, HP and EMC struggle to transform, Adobe is an interesting contrasting case. It went from selling boxed software to a cloud subscription model in shorter order, and judging from its financial report that came out last week, it’s done quite well making that leap.
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Authors: Fair Dealing In Copyright Law If Ill-Defined Is Prejudicial To Writers
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__”Fair dealing is so vaguely defined in the bill, according to Degen, that it had immediate negative consequences for Canadian authors. Schools went ahead and copied entire chapters, entire stories, poems, and entire articles. One of the key findings of the study, Harnum said, is that without licensing income, many Canadian publishers will not only reduce their content output, but many may choose to exit the educational publishing market. Degen said that although the bill’s intent was to save student money on books, it has not had the expected results, as education costs in Canada have raised in recent years, both in fees and in course packs.”
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Why are most textbook prices rising when technology is getting cheaper? https://lnkd.in/d28P93r
The Rising Costs of Textbooks
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__yes, technology enables innovations. yet credibility suffers when mixing facts with fiction – did you tell these folks average cost of textbooks is $1500 per semester?
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Phil’s handcrafted calendar for Gay Lea Foods
Phil was given carte blanche in building an advent calendar and creating the art that adorns each door. If you look closely at the distressed quality of the construction …
My 2015 Holiday eCard — Putting the X back in Xmas!
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Facing the Facts: Four Common Objections to Digital Textbooks (EdSurge News)
[-] According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, college textbook prices have risen a shocking 1,04…
Introducing Wikity
hapgood.us
I show how you can work in Wikity in the video below. In brief, the idea is other people’s investigations or explanations of things feed into what you are exploring; you add your bit to that and feed it forward for others to use. At the same time, since people work in their own space, everybody gets to keep control of their own process, built to achieve their own ends
more recently,
Markdown added to Wikity
Pearson is a lesson in how tough the education sector really is
If things get much worse in the US for Pearson, the financial pressures could start to tell
__Stephen Downes “What do I conclude? The good news is, there’s a lot of free and open content out there. But there are some serious questions that need to be asked. First, most of the so-called ‘free’ licenses counted come from very few sites, and these are sites where only the ‘free’ license is used. Second, it seems clear that, when given a choice, most people choose a non-commercial license.” it’s good advice to look at the source data . . . _ https://lnkd.in/ecV-jaz __ https://lnkd.in/eQehY4B
Stephen Downes on the State of the Commons Report
__Visual communications Simplifies complex concepts. Encourages online learners to organize key ideas. Boosts knowledge retention. __ https://lnkd.in/erMU5NF
Visual Thinking In eLearning: What eLearning Professionals Should Know – eLearning Industry
How To Use Visual Thinking In eLearning.
top 3 Visual Thinking Benefits In eLearning
__The following letter to the editor was submitted to Maclean’s Magazine in response to its Nov. 30, 2015, online story, “Why colleges are increasingly being seen as the smart choice.” – which was “short on data and big on tired myths,” according to Paul Davidson, President and CEO of Universities Canada. __ https://lnkd.in/eNbSYEC
Students need meaningful data when choosing postsecondary education – Universities Canada
The following letter to the editor was published in Maclean’s Magazine on December 11, 2015 in response to its Nov. 30, 2015, online story, “Why colleges are increasingly being seen as the smart choice.”
By Paul Davidson, president and CEO, Universities Canada
To the Editor,
Today’s students need meaningful data in making decisions about postsecondary education and careers. Unfortunately, Carolyn Abraham was short on data and big on tired myths (“Why colleges are increasingly being seen as the smart choice,” Dec. 1), missing the reality of Canada’s need for all types of skills, knowledge and credentials to achieve its economic and social potential.
Commenting on Topics with Connected Points of View
Don Gorges
Visual Communications in Educational Resources,
Open Design, Creative Services, Marketing
Don Gorges
__Several months after joining HMH, in 2012, John offered a very in-depth explanation about the rebranding of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in a video titled “Revitalizing A Storied Brand” _ the video is embedded in this Design-focused article which described the thinking around the new corporate ID and the tag – Inspire curiosity _ http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/triangle_is_as_triangle_does.php#.VnnHnVKRTRK _