R.I.P. Hans Rosling ~ Edutainer Extraordinaire

Pancreatic cancer has laid low Hans Rosling, the Gapminder co-founder and my favorite public health statistician and data edutainer extraordinaire.  He has many remarkable TED talks and other videos online, but I personally favor his appearance at TEDIndia speaking on Asia's Rise where he compares global growth over 200 years and predicts exactly when India and China converge with the rich!

MIT Media Ventures ~ Thurs 10a-12n Spring '17

UPDATE: Due to MIT's snow closing, our kickoff class was Thursday morning 10a-12n February 16th, 2017 in Media Lab E14-633.

Our MIT Media Ventures ~ Media Lab Entrepreneurship & Digital Innovations class surveys a broad landscape of emerging media technologies interwoven with live- and historic-cases of intre- and entrepreneurship-based on new media ideas, culminating in a term project. The core goal of this Action Lab offering is for students to gain increased understanding of how emergent media and digital innovations translate into commercial reality and transform society.

We survey case examples of both successful and failed businesses and generally grapple with the difficulties of deploying and diffusing products and as a means of exploring a range of business models and opportunities enabled by emerging Media Lab and related innovations. This year we will be especially emphasizing urban innovations, personal data rights, health, civic engagement, financial service innovations, mobile transactions, and social media generally with special focus on social networks, quantified self and society, AI, robotics, automation, and data analytics. Join us at first class Thursday morning 10a-12n February 9th, 2017 in Media Lab E14-633.

MIT Media Ventures ~ Thurs 10a-12n Spring '16

Our MIT Media Ventures ~ Media Lab Entrepreneurship & Digital Innovations class surveys a broad landscape of emerging media technologies interwoven with live- and historic-cases of inter- and entrepreneurship-based on new media ideas, culminating in a term project. The core goal of this Action Lab offering is for students to gain increased understanding of how emergent media and digital innovations translate into commercial reality and transform society.

We survey case examples of both successful and failed businesses and generally grapple with the difficulties of deploying and diffusing products and as a means of exploring a range of business models and opportunities enabled by emerging Media Lab and related innovations. This year we will be especially emphasizing urban innovations, personal data rights, public health, financial service innovations, mobile transactions, and social media generally with special focus on social networks, quantified self and society, and "Big Data" analytics. Join us at first class Thursday morning 10a-12n February 4th, 2016 in Media Lab E14-633.

Teaching Teachers ~ PEN Hands-On in Ghana!

Our MIT alumna Dr Heather Beem and team ran a big handful of workshops this past Summer 2015 for over 300 science teachers in Ghana, introducing them to the Practical Education Network (PEN) method of providing inexpensive, DIY physical experimental examples of the concepts taught in the standard core primary and secondary school curriculum!

Expert-Generalists ~ Broad & Deep Life Learners

Michael Simmons surveys Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger's various qualities and finds him to be an Expert-Generalist like these others...

LEGO Brickumentary ~ Sharing a True Toy Story!

A LEGO Brickumentary coming soon; trailer here!

Snow Pros ~ Competent Removal vs Shitshow

Watching the local yokels here in Boston keep pushing snow around from street to sidewalk (and then back again) and dealing with it in what is surely the most incompetent possible fashion, inspires our visit to places that actually know what they're doing. First, Montreal... (But don't Get Plowed by the Canuck Mob while you're at it!-)

Next, Helsinki... Norway... Netherlands... Italy... Japan... Finally, stop your excuses, here's Hokkaido, Japan...

Dogs On the Inside ~ Transforming Prisoners...

Neatorama's Lisa Marcus shares about Dogs and Prisoners Learning Valuable Lessons from Each Other in a documentary film called Dogs On the Inside...

"Filmed in a Massachusetts prison, follows the story of stray dogs in the community who were rescued and placed with prisoners at a minimum security prison. Before their rescues, the dogs were likely on a path to be euthanized in shelters. The goal of the program is for the prisoners to develop empathy and loving feelings toward the dogs, who in turn learn to trust humans in spite of any troubled histories they may have suffered. It seems to be situation benefiting both the dogs and the inmates."

MIT Media Ventures ~ Thurs 10a-12n Spring 2015

Our MIT Media Ventures ~ Media Lab Entrepreneurship & Digital Innovations class surveys a broad landscape of emerging media technologies interwoven with live- and historic-cases of inter- and entrepreneurship-based on new media ideas, culminating in a term project. The core goal of this Action Lab offering is for students to gain increased understanding of how emergent media and digital innovations translate into commercial reality and transform society.

We survey case examples of both successful and failed businesses and generally grapple with the difficulties of deploying and diffusing products and as a means of exploring a range of business models and opportunities enabled by emerging Media Lab and related innovations. This year we will be especially emphasizing urban innovations, personal data rights, public health, financial service innovations, mobile transactions, and social media generally with special focus on social networks, quantified self and society, and "Big Data" analytics. First class is Thursday morning 10a-12n February 5th, 2015 in Media Lab E14-633.

Resilience Dividend ~ Boston's Prep, Readiness...

The Guardian excerpts Judith Rodin's The Resilience Dividend: Managing Disruption, Avoiding Disaster and Growing Stronger in an Unpredictable World...

"The city of Boston proved it had developed an exceptional state of readiness for a citywide disruption when, on the afternoon of 15 April, 2013 -- Marathon Monday, as it’s known there -- two improvised explosive devices detonated on Boylston Street. Although the attack was unanticipated and unpredictable, Boston had been getting ready for just such an event for more than a decade -- through network building and streamlining communications to improve awareness, undertaking situational drills and exercises to fine-­tune integration, and finding and adapting best practices from colleagues worldwide to bring in a broad range of ideas and solutions. [...] Being prepared is not a matter of luck [...] It was a matter of carefully and methodically building the char­acteristics of resilience that enable an effective response to crisis. Resilience is not only about responding to shock and stress. It is also about learning and continuing to adapt and grow because of the ex­perience. This process of “revitalisation” can further increase your readiness for sub­sequent disruptions, find opportunities that emerge from what you have learned, affect positive changes, and build even greater resilience (“the resilience dividend”)."

Educational Games ~ SimCityEdu by GlassLab

BBC Future asks Can games create an education fit for the future? and teach systems thinking and more...

"Video games usually get in the way of homework. GlassLab, however, is a collaboration between educators and technologists. Uniting commercial game studios and educational groups the aim is to embrace gaming technology to transform the learning process and make it more relevant to the demands of the 21st Century."

Effective Lessons ~ J-PAL on Edu Investments...

From last year's Science special issue on Grand Challenges in Science Education here's MIT J-PAL Executive Director Rachel Glennerster speaking about her teams piece on The Challenge of Education and Learning in the Developing World summarizing lessons from randomized control trials (RCTs) of programs that aim to improve the learning outcomes of school-age children...

Math In Your Feet ~ Learning #'s by Dancing!

Thanks to MIT friend Birago Jones for spotting Math in your Feet...

"An integration of two separate but highly complementary paths of inquiry. Percussive dance is a sophisticated, precise, and physical expression of time and space using foot-based dance patterns. Mathematics has been called the ‘science of patterns’ initially developed to understand, describe, and manipulate the physical world. Math in Your Feet leads students through the problem solving process of creating their own dance patterns. Along the way, they increase their understanding of mathematical topics."

College Bound ~ Graduates Beating the Odds!

Todd Feathers of the Globe spotlights the very compelling Students who had been written off now heading to college...

"College Bound focuses its attention on those considered unlikely to succeed. They seek out dropouts, gang members, inmates, and others with setbacks in their past and aggressively push them toward college. [...] The paths taken by the students to reach Wednesday’s graduation ceremony are filled with heartbreak and hard choices. [Says rising graduate Sanjoana Fernandes-Centieo] “I am so proud about myself because I struggled so hard,” she said. “It’s not the end, it’s just one step to continue my education."

This is epic and I salute the graduates as well as their supporters!

Girls Coding ~ BBC on Hackathons for Youth...

"In New York, the BBC's Samira Hussain caught up with 12-year-old Nia Johnson at the "Black Girls Code" Hackathon to find out why she loves learning about computer programming."

Printeer ~ 3DP Tools for Kids & Schools Kickin'

Our MIT Imaging & Fabrication Ventures class alumco Mission Street Manufacturing led by Brian Jaffe and team are now Kickstarting their Printeer!

"Unlike other 3D printers, using Printeer doesn't require advanced technical or engineering skills. For starters, you don't need to learn CAD (computer aided design) software, a professional-grade tool that is required to generate the 3D designs used by other 3D printers. Printeer design software is different in the following ways: (1) It runs on iPad, a platform most kids are more comfortable with than a PC. (2) It can be learned in about 30 seconds. (3) It doesn't require any intermediate steps between design and 3D printing. No PC, no complex software, no fancy configuration settings. Just touch the "print" button and watch it go."

KIBO ~ KinderLabs Kids Robo Kits Kickstarting!

FYI, KIBO from KinderLabs are programming robots for kids!

"[KIBO kits are] specifically designed for young children aged 4-7 years old. It is different from any other kit out there because it appeals to both technically minded kids and those that connect more to arts and culture or physical activity. Young children learn by doing. Children build their own robot with KIBO, program it to do what they want, and decorate it. KIBO gives children the chance to make their ideas physical and tangible -- exactly what their young minds and bodies need. And KIBO does all this without requiring screen time from PCs, tablets or smartphones."

Kickstarting now...

Filmmaker IQ ~ Cinema History & Techniques!

I just stumbled across John Hess and colleagues great work at Filmmaker IQ, an online film school exploring cinematic topics in-depth! Here's three examples of their stuff, starting with The History of the Movie Trailer... The Origins and Formatting of Modern Screenplays... Hollywoods History of Faking It ~ The Evolution of Greenscreen Compositing...

Roominate ~ Building Toys for Creative Girls!

I just heard MIT Professor Emeritus Rod Brooks of iRobot and now Rethink Robotics fame speaking this morning about his venture experiences. He was particularly proud of his MIT alumna daughter's company which is making Roominate -- building toys encouraging all girls to be creative artists, architects, engineers, and visionaries! Alice Brooks is clearly a chip off the old block;-)

"The Roominate line is designed by Alice and Bettina -- two engineers out of Caltech, MIT, and Stanford on a mission to get more girls interested in engineering. They believe that early exposure through toys will inspire the next generation of female technology innovators. They designed Roominate to get young girls to have fun with STEM, while building hands-on skills and confidence."

Undercover Bosses ~ Great Reality TV Show...

I've written about Undercover Boss before, but it's so good a concept that I had to spotlight a bunch of episodes again! And yes I know there's something a bit contrived about settings with video cameras, with bosses dispensing largesse (sometimes), and the inherent promotional nature of the show. Nevertheless, I do think it illustrates an important but otherwise near impossible connection between everyday employees and the top of these organizations. First, boss Ron Lynch from Tilted Kilt... Second, boss Joe DePinto from 7/11... Third, boss Don Fertman from Subway... Fourth, boss Dave Rife from White Castle... Fifth, boss Coby Brooks from Hooters... Finally, boss Larry O'Donnell from Waste Management...