I always find it interesting to know what others are reading, how the book(s) have impacted the reader and what’s next on the reading list. I recently asked the TiER1 team to share with me what they’ve been reading this year and what they plan to read in 2010. The list included the following:

• The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly
• Microsoft Project 2007: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore
• A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne
• Augustine and the Catechumenate by William Harmless
• Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch
• Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill
• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
• The Magic of Thinking Big by David J.  Schwartz
• China Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World by Ted C. Fishman
• Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel C. Dennett
• Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware by Andy Hunt
• The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web by Tamar Weinberg
• Enemy at the Water Cooler: True Stories of Insider Threats and Enterprise Security Management Countermeasures by Brian Contos
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
• The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone SDK by Erica Sadun
• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink
• The Alchemist by Coelho
• Quiet Leadership by David Rock
• Schrödinger’s Rabbits by Colin Bruce

Some of our team members also listed some children’s books that have been hits at home:

• Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
• Book of Animal Riddles by Bennett Cerf and Roy McKie
• Children’s Bible

Our team also has a few books at the top of the reading list for 2010. These include:

• Fearless: Imaging Your Life Without Fear by Max Lucado
• Story and Simulations for Serious Games: Tales from the Trenches by Nick Iuppa and Terry Borst
• Coaching With The Brain In Mind by David Rock

Tell us what you are reading and what you recommend.

The PBS Special The Music Instinct is an excellent television program. It features interviews with Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, David Rothenberg, and many others discussing the impact of music on the brain and for learning. This program, which premiered June 24, may or may not still be available at your local station but there is a series of 5 online videos that may also be helpful:

• Are Human’s Wired for Music
• Parkinsonsism and Music’s Ability to Heal
• The Importance of Early Musical Training
• How Music Can Change the Brain
• Scientist Oliver Sacks on Musical Cognition

Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the moustache, highlighting men’s health issues – specifically prostate and testicular cancer.

According to the Movember Web site,

The idea for Movember was sparked in 2003 over a few beers in Melbourne, Australia.  The guys behind it joked about 80s fashion and decided it was time to bring the moustache back.  In order to justify their Mos (Australian slang for moustache), they used their new looks to raise money for prostate cancer research… never dreaming that facial hair would ultimately lead to a global movement that would get men talking about a taboo subject – their health.

A Mo Bro starts Movember – the month formerly known as November – clean shaven, and grows a moustache all month long, garnering support from friends and family in the form of donations.  What’s more, a Mo Bro is a walking billboard for the cause as his new look opens the door for him to talk about cancers affecting men – making the moustache a symbol, much like the pink ribbon is for breast cancer.  Each Movember culminates in a Gala Partè in major cities around the globe where Mo Bros dress up to match their Mo, channeling the likes of Tom Selleck, Gandhi and Ron Burgandy, vying for the ultimate accolade:  Man of Movember.

While growing a Mo is left to the guys, Mo Sistas (women who support their guys) form an important part of Movember by recruiting Mo Bros, helping to raise funds and attending the highly anticipated Gala Partés.

This Movember, the money raised in the U.S. will be split between the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

This year TiER1 participants rasied $175.00for Movember. To date, Movember has raised $47 million globally making it the world’s largest charity event for men.

Mark, Roman, Jeremy, and Craig

Of course, you can still make a donation if you’d like at the Movember Web site

Evernote is a great tool for taking notes and keeping them where they are easy to access. The team at Evernote has teamed up with Eye-Fi to create a solution that has a lot of implications. This video demonstrates the power of both tools.

Back in college my friend Byron introduced me to M.C. Escher, the artist famous for some unique perspectives on symmetry and his mathematical prints. Some of his most popular works include Belvedere, Waterfall and Ascending and Descending. These three (and many of his other works) provide unique perspectives of a 3D world on a 2D canvas.

The M.C. Escher Web site has provided some interesting “Virtual Rides” through these three works to help see the perspective Escher brings out in his work. The Virtual Ride through Belvedere gave me a new appreciation for this work, which I never gave much thought to before. And the Virtual Ride through Waterfall is equally interesting. As for the Virtual Ride through Ascending and Descending, I thought it was somewhat less interesting, but maybe you will see something in it I haven’t yet seen.

If you have any interest in Escher, these Virtual Rides are worth a few minutes of exploration.

How do you think different unique perspectives like these from Escher, help us to see real life differently?

Earlier today I stumbled upon Tom Barrett’s ICT in my Classroom blog. Tom presents creative ideas for using technology in a classroom environment. His examples are based on work he’s doing in his school system but many of them would relate to other types of training and education.

One article I found particularly interesting is how teachers are using a Flip video camera in the classroom.

If you have other ideas for using a Flip video camera in a classroom, share them with us.

Over the past few weeks at TiER1 we’ve been discussing how to improve our blog. Through this process we’ve had discussions about content ideas and various content types. We’ve also discussed strategy and structure as we consider how the blog fits with our overall Web and communication strategies.

During this process we discovered two articles that added value to our discussions:

The first is How-to Create the Perfect Company Blog by Ben Yoskovitz at the Instigator Blog. In the article Ben discusses four types of content:

• Thought Leadership
• Industry News and Summaries
• Diggbait
• Company News

Of Diggbait he writes, “Hitting the front page of digg is no easy feat, but there’s no reason you shouldn’t try. To do it well you need to understand what folks on digg (and other social media/bookmarking sites) want, and how to promote content successfully on digg. Company news or anything too related to your company won’t work, it will come across as “too corporate.” Think about a resource post or a controversial post related to a hot topic in your industry.”

I think Ben is right about Diggbait. Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen the TiER1 blog begin to receive traffic from social bookmarking sites. Social bookmarking users will link to valuable resources and hot topics that are presented on teh blog.

Ben also writes, “The best company blogs will always publish a combination of these posts, blending them in naturally.”

The second article is Nine Signs of an Effective Blog Post by Darren Rowse at Problogger. The nine criteria he describes are:

1. The headline draws in the readers
2. A concrete detail or visual illustrates the benefit promised in the headline
3. The lead expands the theme of the heading
4. The layout is clear and skimmable
5. The post covers the topic in logical sequence
6. The post is persuasive
7. The post is interesting to read
8. The post is believable
9. The post asks for some action

Today, my favorite one of his criteris is “The layout is clear and skimmable.” I don’t believe readers will necessarily read an entire post unless it really grabs their attention. A good skimmable and clear layout always help me determine if I will read a post, particularly if the post is long. But this is also important for short posts, that need to catch the reader’s attention and let them know why the post is important.

Darren’s post is an excellent example of a clear and skimmable article.

If you have discovered articles that are particularly helpful to your blogging, please share them with us.

Chris LaBelle, an instructional designer and multimedia developer at Oregon State University, recently posted a review of 9 Educational iPhone applications, including:

1. Touch Physics
2. Kindle for the iPhone
3. Abc Pocket Phonics
4. iSeismometer
5. The Chemical Touch
6. AroundMe
7. iReadMusic
8. USA Presidents
9. Weather Radar

In the review, he describes some of the advantages of the iPhone apps such as “seamless, motivational learning that is fun, kinesthetic and fully accessible.” Mr. LaBelle’s article appeared on the Electronic Papyrus blog on October 6.

There are many ways a blog can fit into your Web strategy. Some organizations are using these tools to communicate with their employees, cutting down on email traffic. Others are using blogs to publish information about products and services.

When Lincoln Trail Career Centers decided to modify their Web site the team began with a fresh strategy with the goal of providing better information for their constituents. This new strategy included the launch of a new blog and a Facebook page.

The LTCC marketing team knew the blog would

• Improve search engine placement
• Enhance the dialog between LTCC and Web site visitors
• Provide for a way to quickly publish important items
• Provide a historical record of articles for those who may want to get caught up
• Provide powerful blog visitor reports including visitor numbers, referring web sites, and search terms used to find the blog

It was also important that the Web site and blog be integrated so the two channels could compliment one another. In order to do this, TiER1 used RSS feeds to publish blog content on the Web site. The RSS feeds relied on the categories used on the blog to control which sections of the Web site published blog content.

This strategy has helped LTCC have an integrated Web strategy that leverages the content managment strengths of a WordPress with the a Web site that is flexible, creative and targetted for its audiences.

There are many more approaches that can integrate a blog into an overall Web strategy. What are the most effective approaches you’ve seen? What other ideas do you have for a robust blog strategy?

• Frozen – language that is always the same. For example, the Lord’s prayer, wedding vows, etc.
• Formal – The standard sentenece syntax and word choice of work and school. Has complete sentences and specific word choice.
• Consultative – Formal register when used in conversation. Discourse pattern not quite as direct as formal register
• Casual – Language between friends and is characterized by a 400-800 word vocabulary. Word choice general and not specific. Conversation dependent upon non-verbal assists. Sentence syntax often incomplete.
• Intimate – Language between lovers or twins. Language of sexual harassment

• Formal-Register Story Structure moves from beginning to end with a plot, where the plot is the most important part of the story. 
• Casual-Register Story Structure could begin with the ending or the part with the most emotional intensity. In this format stories are told in vignettes with audience participation. The story typically concludes with comment about the character and his/her value. In this structure, the most important part of story is the characterization.

• How does this difference in approach to story structure impact learning sequences and activities?
• How can instructional designers and trainers help those more comfortable in the Casual Register Story Structure increase their comfort with the formal register structure used in formal training?

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=202219814

YouTube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZSQVENiUMM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-k7vWvCeeM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqkgu7HQ1qc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw3AOuVfqbc&feature=related

Articles:

http://www.ahaprocess.com/files/PovSeriesPartsI-IV.pdf
http://www.ahaprocess.com/files/Article-WhereDoWeGo.pdf
http://www.ahaprocess.com/files/Moving_from_MC_to_Sit_Pov_03032009.pdf