Collective Intelligence for Leadership and Innovation

On summer 2014, I went to a seminar in Harvard Boston Club: Harvard Global Systems. While I was in Boston I visited my former colleagues at MIT and I learned about MIT center in collective intelligence. I become fascinated with it. Their definition is simple "The MIT Center for Collective Intelligence brings together faculty from across MIT to conduct research on how people and computers can work together more intelligently and on the underlying scientific questions that help make this possible." 
I began researching about it, I read the book made for Harvard professors called "Collective Genius"  The art and practice of leading innovation. This is something I was thinking all along. The thing is it didn't occur me to called "collective intelligence" - I was calling it 1 + 1 = 3 or group synergy or something else.  I have to admit collective intelligence is much better name and have a deeper meaning. 
Something that caught my attention after hearing Malone talk (he is the founder of MIT center of collective intelligence) was to learn  that Interpersonal skills are more important than you think (yikes!) watch his presentation: Malone. As an Introvert myself this is revealing, and we can learn, and I have learned through the years to improve my interpersonal skills, believe it is not easy.  I was very happy to heard Susan talk about the Power of the Introverts- Now introverts have to develop more interpersonal skills- Susan you need to answer Malone!.
Please watch both videos and learn in what areas they agree or contradict each other.
In addition, Use the materials provided in class to discuss your role as a leader of an organization to support a collective intelligence to lead innovation, and the role of technology in all of this.

Academic Analytics: the uses of information management in higher education

Accreditation in higher education is a collegial process based on self and peer assessment for public accountability and improvement of academic quality. If you would like to learn about the nuts and bolts, I would advise you ,to begin reading The council for Higher Education Administration (CHEA) have published an excellent “accreditation toolkit”. http://www.chea.org/accreditation_toolkit/accreditation_toolkit.pdf ] Technology has played a big part. Faculty and administrators have used several apps, software and web-based programs to support, not only their reports, but to collect data for accountability. The major section is to collect student evidence of learning. During the last year, my knowledge of technology has been my ally. I have created reports for accreditation institutions, have review my students learning status, also have used to improve my lessons. I am constantly looking for the “new thing” that can make my life easier either with assessment reports or my lessons. There are several software’s that supports teaching and assessment. Diane Oblinger (2012) presented several options in her presentation in Educase 2012 Accreditation in higher education is a collegial process based on self http://www.chea.org/pdf/2014_Presentations/Oblinger%20PowerPoint%20Presentation.pdf In the last decade, Higher Education administrators have looked for web-based resources that help with their projects. This is in the section of academic analytics. In the business world, we have called it, Business Intelligence. It is how we use the technology in education. Academic analytics comprises several technologies. These are used in the seven key areas of higher education: Advancement and fundraising, business and finances, budget and planning, institutional research, research administration, and academic affairs. Mostly used in extraction and analysis of data (~50% of academic analytics are used in this area), are analysis and monitoring of operational performance (~18 %) and decision making (5%). How would you explain what you use or someone you know, is using technology in any of the key areas of higher education? Would you mention what kind of technology are you using? (i.e. tableausoftware, taskstream, etc).

Assistive Technology for English Language Learners

The ESL population in the United States has been on a steady rise in recent years. The language needs of these and other ESL students have motivated teachers to seek new and innovative ways to educate these students.According the the IES The percentage of public school students in the United States who were English language learners was higher in 2010-11 (10 percent, or an estimated 4.7 million students) than in 2002-03 (9 percent, or an estimated 4.1 million students). Learning English can be very difficult and frustrating at times. Apps on iPads and tablets are great ways for students to practice English and have fun while doing it. For practicing grammar rules, apps like Grammar Up allow students to test their knowledge on specific topics (verbs, prepositions, etc.). The app also keeps track of students’ progress and allows them to skip questions by shaking the tablet. Best Colleges Online offers a list of 16 apps for ESL students, ranging from basic letter instruction to pronunciation guides. Students can also play classic games like Scrabble and Boggle on mobile devices. Assistive technology is not only used for students with special needs. But also they are useful to help English Language Learners. If a child is determined to need assistive technology for English language learners, there are plenty of tools available to streamline the process for everyone involved. The following are a few effective assistive technology tools: The SOLO Literacy Suite With Read:OutLoud, a reading comprehension supportive text reader, spelling tools and a draft writing kit, this package offers a little bit of everything to help those trying to improve their language acquisition skills. WorldWordExchange.com The World Word Exchange is a new approach to language learning online .

Assistive Technology

Assistive technology (often abbreviated as AT) is any item, piece of equipment, software or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. People often think in physical disabilities but these technology is also available for students with emotional disabilities. Last semester while I was teaching 7669 Practicum in Educational Technology, one of my students decided to explore an area I wasn't familiar, Assistive Technology for Emotional Disabilities. Please listen this podcast to Ms. Burgan in a Brooklyn School who teaches 1211 classrooms, that means the students take standarized tests. Her students have emotional disturbances and learning disabilities http://www.internationalprofessor.com/documentation/interviews/emotinaldisab.m4a The teacher in the podcast works with Assistive Technology, in this case using Ipad. She is use a macbook, LCD projector, and project in their ipads. She mentioned several Apps. Dragon Dictation, Pretzi - she consider this was good for indeed presentation, padlet. There is ATIA Online Professional Development and conferences. I found out that there is a webminar and seminars in their website http://www.atia.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3859 Please listent to the podcasts or webminars, and add any interesting information about Assistive Technology

The Best Research Paper

As a professor, I am proud when my students receive research awards. Almost 10 years ago, I was about to teach my advanced research methods class in a doctoral program. The course is focused in quantitative methods. I asked myself, why people write research? Well, to change policies, to improve settings, to learn. Now what happened when you write a paper and nobody reads it...nothing!. After giving some thought I decided that will be incomplete teaching/learning experience to ask students to write a paper, and then give them a grade. The learning experience has to culminate when the student is able to present the paper in a peer reviewed conference (not in class!) or published in a journal. His or Her work will be read it, discuss it for several people, and forever, posted in his / her resume. That program begins in 2005...next year, we will have the paper number 100 produced in this class. Check them out in my website http://www.internationalprofessor.com/cv/index.html Students have presented in India, France, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Canada, and the United States. In the United States, students have gone to Las Vegas, Seattle, Florida, New York, Connecticut, and counting. I am proud of them, they have received several awards: Best Paper in IBEC conference, Czech Republic, Best Presenter in One Voice International Conference in New York, Best Case Study in IBEC Conference in India...and so on. The course requires several meetings and reviews of the paper before the paper is actually approved to be sent to a conference. I am writing this blog, because now I am teaching an online course that requires research, how can I repeat this success in an online course? That’s what I am up now. I have begun with Skype meetings, phone meetings and preparing some guidelines. I found this interesting blog that discusses 22 ways to teach research skills. I may explore some of them. What ways of synchronous/ asynchronous communication do you think I can use to assure the contact and feedback to the students papers?

First Class Guest Speakers in your Class! - No Travel required!

I was teaching Organization Theory II in the doctoral program at Dowling College. I got an idea, to ask the students to interview leaders that possessed a doctoral degree and have applied their dissertation findings to their work and/or life. I have invited successful alumni to participate and be interviewed. The results are coming this weekend! I can see the effects already...Networking...mentoring...and learning...! I also asked them to read two books among other materials, one was "The Princessa, Machiavelli for Women" by Harriet Rubin, and the other was The Art of the War by Sun Tzu. Students needed to review the books in different organizational perspectives, such as decision making, communication, and so on. And it happens..what it usually happens when you are in a room with a 135 IQ plus (ok now they will argue that it is a more...or what about Emotional Intelligence, and then, question the validation of the IQ or IE within different cultures...Do you see what I mean? ha ha ha ).

 These future doctors, females and males, foreign and nationals, various ages, races, and ethnicity..enter into a DISAGREEMENT!, They all have different analysis of the book!...yep...the classroom was a war zone..  You can hear comments such as
"In my country,...." "Females are..." "I am a young person who belief..." We were all laughing and interpreting the books under our own perspective... Hey, humor is requirement in this class....
Someone asked, Dr. Morote, What exactly Harried Rubin was thinking when she said "Use your body as a weapon"...? ; Dr. Morote, when Sun Tzu talks about "terrain", is it like organization culture? well, that's it, I said. STOP. I cannot write to Sun Tzu (he passed away more than two thousand years ago) and ask him...but I can write, right now to Harriet Rubin...and she can respond for herself!
Amazingly, Ms. Rubin responded to our call, and we will be interviewing her this coming Sunday..Isn't that exciting? Since this is blog is about technology, now the question is, What is the best technology to communicate one - to many? She won't be able to travel in person...
update: Our guest speaker was in an area of no Internet, we chose to use  a speaker-phone devise
Have you ever attended a world class speaker in your class? Describe the experience interviewing with Ms. Rubin.

Useful Websites for Teaching

As an educators we are always looking for good info to use in our classes. Sometimes we create our own lessons, or sometimes we use others --for example-- videos prepared for others teachers or organizations. I believe that a good teacher should be able to look for the resources he/she needs as well as create her/his own. For example for videos you can go to: http://www.teachertube.com http://youtube.com https://www.teachingchannel.org/ https://www.khanacademy.org/ There are so many websites, and depending on the topic, teachers should find the ones are useful for their classes. You can google them, ask them or use your favorite search engine. Which ones are your favorities?