Crisis?

1 min read

Is student loan debt really a crisis?

Research by the New York Federal Reserve Bank found that 35% of students with less than $5,000 in debt defaulted within six years, twice the rate of students with more than $100,000 in debt.

Additionally, these students with low debt amounts and low earnings are disproportionately likely to be dropouts. Sixty-three percent of students who started college in 2003-04 and defaulted on their loans by 2009 were college dropouts, while students with a bachelor’s or associate degree were only 4% of defaults.

Battling “permanent receptivity”

1 min read

The value of unplugging in the Age of Distraction

There is also something sadder at work. The constant messaging, emailing and cellphoning, especially in public places, may be less about communicating with the people on the other end as about signaling to those around that you are so busy or so important, so connected, that you exist in more than just the here and now, clearly a diminished state of just being.

There’s greater status in being highly connected and constantly communicating. This may explain why many people speak so loudly on their cellphones in public places.

Sometimes it seems that our use of devices and social media is about chasing after something, distant from us, that will alter the spot where we are. Disconnecting for periods of time may be a bit Zen - simply being in the moment, where we are, and who we are. I find myself struggling to do this myself.

Eight key media literacy concepts

1 min read

GENERAL PRINCIPLES IN MEDIA LITERACY

We know about the world primarily from the media. But the media don't simply give us the world. They interpret reality, tailor it, perform it. In order to be responsible citizens, we need to be media literate. To help you engage in that process, here are eight "key concepts" of media literacy.

Mediactive by Dan Gillmor

2 min read

 Mediactive is an ebook by Dan Gillmor

At the risk of being too cute, I’ve mashed together two words— media and active—that describe my goal in this book, website and accompanying materials: I want to help you become mediactive.

At the very least, the payoff is that you’ll be able to navigate the rapids, to better sort what you read (view, hear, etc.). If you’re like most people, you’ve been mostly a passive consumer of media, and I want to help you to become comfortable as an active user. I want to help you minimize the chances that you’ll get bamboozled, or worse, by the incorrect or misleading material that’s all over the Internet (and, all too often, in what people call “mainstream media”), and to help you find trustworthy material instead.

Being media literate underpins network literacy. As we interact with and get information from more individuals, some of whom we are only tangentially connected to, a critical eye is necessary. We no longer go through "trusted" gatekeepers who will vet all information for us - we need to take that responsibility upon ourselves.

Working out loud vs. presenting out loud #netlit

1 min read

Lessons from Harvard vs M.I.T. - Center for Creative Leadership

Kleon suggests that we all hold back our work for too long, waiting until it is polished and perfect and presentable to the world. But the truth is, people learn just as much from the process you use to do your work and the lessons you learn along on the way.

Working out loud requires being vulnerable, because it means admitting you don't have all the answers. What might happen if you work out loud and someone else realizes that you are going about it all wrong? Hopefully, they let you know a better way, and you can learn, as a result. 

Why network leadership is like gardening - Gen. Stanley McChrystal talk - #netlit

1 min read

Gen. Stanley McChrystal | Commonwealth Club

His leadership credits during his 34-year career include serving as a four-star general, former leader of the Joint Special Operations Committee and a former Green Beret. Come hear him speak about leadership in our changing world.

The military is often thought of as the quintessential hierarchical organization. In this presentation to the Commonwealth Club of California, General Stanley McChrystal (Retired) talks about transforming his command into a team of teams or network, and why a rigid hierarchy is incompatible with todays complex environment.

If the military can recognize the problem and undergo such a transformation, why can't many other organizations?

Change vs. Stability - not a problem, a polarity - deal with it

1 min read

Are You Facing a Problem? Or a Polarity? - Center for Creative Leadership

A problem is something that can have a right — or best — answer; a solution exists. But a polarity is a dilemma that is ongoing, unsolvable and contains seemingly opposing ideas. We usually think of them in adversarial terms: growth vs. consolidation; short term vs. long term, innovation vs. efficiency, centralization vs. decentralization, change vs. stability.

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“A polarity is a pair of interdependent opposites — if you focus on one of those to the neglect or exclusion of the other, at some point in time you dip into negative unintended consequences,” he explains.

Too often we force people to choose sides, as if only one decision is the right one.

On the necessity of group boundaries for effective networks. #netlit

1 min read

In social networks, group boundaries promote the spread of ideas, study finds

But when group boundaries are eliminated entirely, people have almost nothing in common with their neighbors and therefore very little influence over one another, making it impossible to spread complex ideas.