Do We Still Need to Teach Writing?

Uploaded by cdevroe

I just read a fascinating article where Bill Gates predicts the end of the keyboard.  He says with the advancements in things like touch screens and voice recognition, keyboards will become less and less important.

 So what does this mean for teaching kids how to write?  Do you teach them with paper and pencil?  Do you teach them how to enter with a keyboard? Or, do you teach them how to talk into their computer?

I think some of the best and easiest to understand writing is when someone write the way the speak.  That is if they can articulate their thoughts.  I know that some people are still holding on to their old Royal typewriters and some like the feel of pen and paper.  I’m sure future generations will feel the same about their first computer they could talk to.

I think the world is going to get a lot noisier.

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Our Real Philosophers

 originally uploaded by mquest foto.

While everyone wants to quote Shakespere, Plato and Nietzsche here’s some quotes from the real philosophers of our time.

Yogi Berra..

• “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
• “Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical”
• “I always thought that record would stand until it was broken. “
• “I never said most of the things I said”
• “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded”
• “There are some people who, if they don’t already know, you can’t tell ’em.”
• “You can observe a lot by just watching.”

Gracie Allen…

• “Brains, integrity, and force may be all very well, but what you need today is Charm. Go ahead and work on your economic programs if you want to, I’ll develop my radio personality.”
• “The President of today is just the postage stamp of tomorrow.”
• “This used to be a government of checks and balances. Now it’s all checks and no balances.”
• “When I was born I was so surprised I didn’t talk for a year and a half.”
• “Smartness runs in my family. When I went to school I was so smart my teacher was in my class for five years”

Casey Stengel

• “All right everyone, line up alphabetically according to your height. “
• “Don’t cut my throat, I may want to do that later myself.”
• “Never make predictions, especially about the future”
• “The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided.”
• “There comes a time in every man’s life, and I’ve had plenty of them”

Groucho Marx

• ” A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere. “
• “From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend on reading it. “
• “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. “
• “I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception.”
• “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.” 

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What Can We Learn from Larry the Cable Guy?

The answer, I have no idea.  But what would Christmas be without a little Christmas story from Larry the Cable Guy.  Comments and holiday wishes are welcome.

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Combining Education and Athletics

After 50 years of watching football, basketball and baseball, I’m a little bored with it all.  So in my constant search for something new, this is a sport I find facinating.  I don’t know if it would make a good college or high school sport…might be a little too macho. 

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Test Your Reading Speed

I found this cool site that let’s you test your reading speed on line.  It also tests comprehension.  Here it is.  Try it out.  http://www.readingsoft.com/

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Book Update

I’ve started to get people to interview for my new book.  I’ve been trying to get highly successful people in a wide range of fields.  If you know anyone I can interview in these fields, please email me. 

• Professional sports
• Professional game players
• Military
• Politics
• Firefighting
• Science
• Medicine
• Law

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Cheap Web Conferencing

  I’ve been researching this topic for a while.  If you have fewer than 11 people, here’s how to do it virtually free with students around the world.  The first thing to do is get a SKYPE account.  This allows you to set up conference calls at anytime.  If other people are on SKYPE, you can connect anywhere in the world for free.

A second service called Yugma, offers free desktop sharing and related features similar to Webex or Go to Meetings.  Yugma now has a SKYPE version which puts everything together.  I’m sure there are others that do this as well.  If you know of some good ones, please post them in the comments section.

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WII and Training Applications

  There are some interested new WII devices that my open up some ideas for training.  Certainly can have some interesting ways to simulate or practice.  Click on this Youtube link to see the WII fitness board.  This looks more interesting than doing sit-ups.

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Shrinking Classrooms

All too often classrooms are used for training because if you have them then you have to use them.  It’s also easy to just throw an expert into a classroom.  However, we know from every study ever done on retention that 80% of what we hear as lecture in a classroom is forgotten by the next day or easily with then next week.  So what I find works the best is to pull as much content out of training and put it into some other form sometimes as simple as a job aide.  Then I use classrooms exclusively for application and discussion.  Classrooms are still really good for things that require interactions.

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It’s the Real “Ting”

Check out Arupa’s new book on how to unleash the power of intuition can Ting A Surprising Way to Listen to Intuition & Do Business Better .  It’s about fast, fast, fast learning!

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