Category: Productivity/Innovation

Open Source Brings Collective Creativity To The Intelligent Edge

Business/Innovation, Digital Industry, Innovations, Productivity/Innovation

The idea of open source is not new. Ideas around the power of collectives to share, iterate, and effectively innovate together in near virtual space arose in the mid-eighteenth century, during the heyday of the age of enlightenment, with groups like the Lunar Society in the UK. The Lunar Society met roughly once a month in Birmingham, at the epicenter of the industrial revolution, as a collective of great minds, including both of Charles Darwin’s grandfathers.

They explored, shared, and broke barriers across disciplines together because they had the space in which to do it, and as a byproduct they gained great energy from discovering the possibilities of the world around them. For anyone who has attended an open source event, this description may sound familiar.

The Lunar Society of the 1790s is in many ways the very essence of open source community. Getting the very best ideas, working together, reacting and sharing together in real time. One major difference, though, is that the Lunar Society was very exclusive by nature, while today’s open source community is not. It is truly open. We live in a vastly more complex and expansive world than Birmingham in the 1790s; the power of the opportunities today is global, and mostly still forming.

With billions of devices running autonomously, computing, sensing, and predicting zettabytes of data, there are endless possibilities for what business ideas and technologies will thrive on the intelligent edge. Only an open source strategy can work in this environment: millions of people, ten of millions of ideas, maybe billions of combinations of code.

Open source for the intelligent edge

An effective intelligent edge will require a robust infrastructure that can handle low latency, high availability, and bandwidth demands. This infrastructure will include three key components: a cloud platform for running applications, analytics to monitor the health of the platform and services, and an orchestration layer to deploy and manage services across a distributed network.

There are five basic ways for companies to obtain this infrastructure: build it themselves from scratch, buy a proprietary solution from a vendor, build it starting with open source, buy a vendor-supported open source solution, or use infrastructure as a service (IaaS).

In a recent survey we administered across 500 respondents in France, Germany, Spain, the UK, and the U.S., a relatively small percentage selected “build your own from scratch,” and a few more selected “vendor proprietary.” The majority selected an option where open source plays a role, whether in IaaS, do-it-yourself (DIY), or vendor-supported options. IaaS was the #1 choice for all three elements (cloud platform, analytics, and orchestration). The rest were split between one of the other flavors of open source (DIY or vendor-supported).

It seems most people aren’t interested in building and/or managing their infrastructure themselves. 34% of business in the U.S. cite “lack of internal skills or knowledge” and “bandwidth constraints on people’s time” as the biggest barriers to adopting intelligent edge technologies, followed closely by “additional investments in associated technologies are unclear” and “lack of internal business support or request.” Open source options give these companies the benefits of the solution without having to shoulder the burden all on their own.

If building and supporting your own infrastructure is core to your business, then building from scratch might make sense — but even then, chances are you may still use open source components. With 180,000 open source projects available with 1,400 unique licenses, it just doesn’t make sense not to use open source to some degree.

Two key reasons why open source is so pervasive

The popularity of open source is not surprising. For one thing, you get to tap into a technological hive mind. There is some debate, and many variables, but estimates put the number of open source developers worldwide somewhere north of 20 million. Open source communities attract a wide variety of people who are interested in participating in a particular piece of technology, with communities and projects running the gamut in terms of size and scope, depending on the focus and maturity of the project.

The common thread is the community of people who are contributing and reviewing code in an effort to make the project better. Generally speaking, the more applicable the code is to a variety of use cases and needs, the more participation you might see in the community. So with open source projects you get to leverage some of the smartest people on the planet, and they don’t have to be on your company payroll.

The second reason for such widespread usage of open source — related to the first — is the fact that you don’t have to do it all yourself. It’s a pretty common scenario for a development organization to use open source code as a component of a larger solution. By leveraging that open source component they can save hundreds if not thousands of work hours by not having to develop or be the sole maintainer of that piece of code. It also allows the organization to focus on their value-add.

Not just a groovy codefest

Open source derives its success from community, and just like in any community, some boundaries and agreed-upon rules to play by are necessary in order to thrive. It’s one thing to download a piece of open source code for use in a personal project. It’s another to use open source code as a critical component of your company’s operations or as a product you provide to your customers. Just because you can get open source code “for free” doesn’t mean you won’t make an investment.

Open source projects need focus, attention, and nurturing. In order to get the full value from the community one must be an active member of that community — or pay someone to be an active member of the community on your behalf. Being active requires an investment of time and resources to give a voice and listen to other voices on a steering committee, discuss priority features to work on next, participate in marketing activities designed to encourage more participants, contribute quality code, review code from others, and more. Leaning in is strongly encouraged.

Open source technology offers a tremendous opportunity for collective creativity and innovation. When like-minded people gather together for a focused intellectual purpose, it’s energizing to the individual and can be hugely beneficial to the organization. Whether the open source code is part of an IaaS, a component of something you build, or part of a vendor-supported solution, it is a tremendous asset you can use to push your company’s value-add forward to better meet your customer’s needs.

Matt Jones

Matt Jones VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL ENGINEERING

Matt Jones is responsible for the global R&D team at Wind River. In this role, he leads the delivery of innovative products that are enabling and accelerating the digital transformation of our customers across market segments, ranging from aerospace to industrial, defense to medical, and networking to automotive. With nearly 20 years of experience in the technology industry, he oversees the development of the Wind River portfolio to expand the company’s reach in both new and existing markets.

He was previously at Virgin Hyperloop One, where as Senior Vice President he led the Software Engineering teams; tasked with providing all the software needed to manage, control, and operate an autonomous hyperloop system. This included embedded software and electronics, networking, cloud data and services, as well as customer-facing applications. Prior to Virgin Hyperloop One, he was chief product officer at moovel Group, Daimler’s mobility solutions company. Before moovel, he was director of future technology at Jaguar Land Rover. He also serves as Chairman at GENIVI Alliance, and was a member of the Board of Directors at The Linux Foundation.

He holds a Master of Engineering, Electronic and Electrical with Management, from the University of Birmingham.

Source: Open Source Brings Collective Creativity To The Intelligent Edge

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Critics:

Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. It most commonly refers to the open-source model, in which open-source software or other products are released under an open-source license as part of the open-source-software movement. Use of the term originated with software, but has expanded beyond the software sector to cover other open content and forms of open collaboration.

Generally, open source refers to a computer program in which the source code is available to the general public for use for any (including commercial) purpose, or modification from its original design. Open-source code is meant to be a collaborative effort, where programmers improve upon the source code and share the changes within the community. Code is released under the terms of a software license. Depending on the license terms, others may then download, modify, and publish their version (fork) back to the community.

Open source promotes universal access via an open-source or free license to a product’s design or blueprint, and universal redistribution of that design or blueprint. Before the phrase open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of other terms. Open source gained hold in part due to the rise of the Internet. The open-source software movement arose to clarify copyright, licensing, domain, and consumer issues. 

Agriculture, economy, manufacturing and production

Omega Unveils Two Watches For The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Business/Innovation, Content Marketing, Innovation/Devices, Productivity/Innovation

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Omega has concluded its 50-year anniversary celebration of the historic Apollo 11 moon mission (at least for now) and has now moved on with an event that is just as important with the Swiss watch brand’s heritage.

Wednesday, July 24, is exactly one year till the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and to mark this occasion Omega, the Official Timekeeper of the Olympic Games, has unveiled two limited edition watches: the Seamaster Aqua Terra Tokyo 2020 and the Seamaster Planet Ocean Tokyo 2020.

Seamaster Aqua Terra Tokyo 2020 Limited Edition

For this sporty Tokyo 2020 model, Omega has introduced the collection’s first ceramic dial crafted with a polished blue finish laser engraved with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games emblem. The 41mm stainless steel timepiece includes a sapphire crystal caseback with a transferred Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games emblem.

Limited to just 2,020 pieces, the watch comes with a structured blue rubber strap and includes an additional stainless steel bracelet in its special presentation box. The watch is powered by the Omega Master Chronometer Calibre 8900, which the watch brand says delivers the Swiss industry’s highest standard of precision and magnetic-resistance.

 

Omega designed this watch as a “patriotic Seamaster with a true Japanese touch.” The 39.5mm stainless steel case has a white ceramic bezel ring with its diving scale in Omega’s trademarked Liquidmetal. In tribute to the year of Tokyo 2020, the number 20 on the bezel is filled with red liquid ceramic.

The polished white ceramic dial continues the Tokyo theme with a “lollipop” central seconds hand—with the round end is in red varnish, which represents the flag of Japan.

Also limited to just 2,020 models, this timepiece is driven by the Omega Master Chronometer Calibre 8800 and features a sapphire crystal caseback with a transferred Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games emblem. It has a white leather strap and includes a stainless steel bracelet and additional NATO strap in its presentation box.

Omega has had a long association with the Olympics Games as the Official Timekeeper 28 times since 1932. This association will continue for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Over the years Omega’s timekeeping technology has significantly improved. For example, in its first stint as official timekeeper for the Los Angeles Games in 1932, Omega arrived with 30 split-second chronograph pocket watches. For the 2020 Games, the watch brand will bring a team of timekeepers hauling up to 450 tons of equipment. During this time Omega introduced several milestones in timekeeping. They include the following:

* A photoelectric cell was used for the first time at the 1948 Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Also known as an electric eye, it works by having the two photo cells aligned with the finish line. As a runner crosses the line, the beam is blocked, and the electric eye sends a signal to the timing console to record the runner’s time.

* The Omegascope introduced the concept of real time in televised sport by superimposing numbers on the bottom of a screen. It was first used at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.

* The touchpad for swimmers was introduced at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. This allowed a swimmer’s hands to stop the clock.

* Omega Scan-O-Vision was introduced at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France. It was used for speed skating and could measure time to the nearest thousandth of a second as the skaters crossed the finish line.

* An electronic start system, consisting of a red flash gun and sound generation box, replaced the traditional starting gun during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.

* In 2012 Omega introduced the Quantum Timer, which can measure time up to one millionth of a second. There is a maximum variation of only one second for every ten million seconds.

In addition, Omega serves as the Official Timekeeper for the Paralympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Anthony DeMarco

In a previous life I was an award-winning daily newspaper reporter who moved to business and trade magazines and who now specializes in high jewelry and watches for publications around the world. My first magazine job was with a design and architecture trade publication where I received a first-hand education and appreciation of how good, innovative design can make the world a better place. It’s something I take with me while traveling the world and writing about the finer things in life. In addition to this blog, you can find me at my “Jewelry News Network” blog and facebook page, on Instagram @jewelrynewsnetwork and on Twitter @jewelrynewsnet.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonydemarco/2019/07/25/omega-unveils-two-watches-for-the-tokyo-2020-olympic-games/#17e70dcef09d

3 Things Coca-Cola, AWS And Smartsheet Taught Me About Innovation

Business/Innovation, Health/Medicine Innovations, Innovation/Devices, Innovations, Productivity/Innovation, Teaching Innovations
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In today’s market, companies that are not constantly evolving or changing go extinct very quickly. Back in 1950, the average age of a company on the S&P 500 was 60 years old; today, it’s 20. With so many companies failing, disappearing, or getting consolidated, transformation is critical for businesses seeking to survive, let alone compete and win.

To be successful in product innovation, start with the customer and work backwards to determine the products you need to design and build.Smartsheet

Some companies are really good at transformation and continuous innovation; disruption is built into their DNA. Others struggle with their legacies of success, becoming overly focused on self preservation, which leads to slow decision making and aversion to risk.

But it’s not impossible for large companies to reinvent their business; indeed, it’s essential for their survival. During the course of my career, I’ve been fortunate to work at three amazing companies — all very different — each of which has been integral in transforming their industry.

Through these experiences, I learned important lessons about innovation and business transformation that can be applied to almost any company. Here are three critical keys to success:

1. Start with the customer

To be successful in product innovation, start with the customer and work backwards to determine the products you need to design and build. Only by truly understanding your customers can you deliver products that they will love.

When I worked on Coca-ColaⓇ Freestyle, we knew we had to start with the consumer and figure out what they wanted, so we did a ton of research. We started with focus groups in five different cities, five groups per city, all different age groups and demographics. The insights we gathered in these sessions informed our quantitative research, in which we ultimately talked to more than 7,000 consumers.

By truly understanding consumer preferences, we were able to build the Coca-Cola Freestyle in a way that appealed to consumers, with striking results: Installing a Freestyle machine led to increased beverage sales for restaurants by 17- 20 percent, and increased Coca-Cola sales volume by 30-40 percent in those locations. What’s more, about 25 percent of consumers who knew about Freestyle told us that they chose which restaurant they went to based on whether it had a Freestyle machine!

To innovate at Smartsheet, we set out to understand what problems our customers are trying to solve and then build solutions that help them do that. Smartsheet is a cloud-based work-execution platform that makes it easy for anyone to get work done without having to wire together a bunch of other tools. Today, most of the companies chasing this market overestimate the technical bar that most business users can clear, which results in overly complex products that are not easy for most business users to adopt. At Smartsheet, we really focus on how we can meet the needs of the average business user.

Every time we build a new product, we start by writing a document called a “PR/FAQ” (Press Release/Frequently Asked Questions”), which outlines what we’re going to build — and why — before we actually go to code (an exercise I brought with me from Amazon.) This means we create the story that we want to tell customers on the day the product launches — before we actually build anything. Then, we iterate on the press release until we like what it says about the product and how it solves a problem for the customer. We validate it with existing customers. Only when we’re satisfied that what we have is the right product definition do we begin work on building the proposed product.

2. Small independent teams move faster

Once you determine what to build based on research and customer feedback, assign a small team to the project and empower them to make decisions and innovate. Keeping the team small and focused helps prevent scope creep and eliminates the management overhead required to coordinate work across a large group. It is important to establish mechanisms for the team to escalate when they need help, but try to limit the amount of energy the team has to expend reporting up. This will speed innovation.

To develop Coca-Cola Freestyle, I built a small dedicated team that was completely isolated from the rest of the organization. We reported to a board of advisors on a quarterly basis but were empowered to make decisions without having to ask for permission.This was pretty game-changing, as it allowed us to move fast, experiment and learn, and be singularly focused on capturing the opportunity we saw in the market.

Coke’s idea of isolating a small, scrappy team to work on product innovation is the Amazon model as well. In fact, Amazon has a name for it: a “two-pizza team.” Almost every new service that starts at Amazon starts with a two-pizza team — a team small enough to feed with two pizzas.

Small, scrappy teams can help you make better decisions by forcing you to make trade-offs based on the constraints faced by the team. They’re better able to innovate quickly and course correct as needed to keep the project on track.

3. Take a long view

Another key to supporting innovation is to take a long view of the business. Rather than expecting an immediate return on an innovative new idea, focus on how you’ll develop the product to best serve your target market.

At Amazon, they take a very long view of the business. When we launched a service at Amazon, no one was pushing us with the question: How fast can you get to profitability? Instead, the discussion was framed around:

●    What’s the market you’re going after?

●    How much of the market do you think you can serve with the MVP (Minimum Viable Product — the first, solid foray to market)?

●    Where do you think you’d go after that?

Rather than worry about getting a very quick return on investment, the idea is that if we build meaningful, compelling products, we’ll figure out how to make money over the long term.

At Smartsheet, we not only take a long view of our business, but also encourage our customers to do the same. For example, when customers come to us for a solution, we try to understand the problem they are trying to solve or the pain point they want our help to address. This deep understanding enables us to build solutions that are both opinionated and flexible. We bring best practices to the table, along with a real point of view on ways that our customers can change how they work, and how we can help their businesses innovate faster as they navigate a constantly changing market — now, and into the future.

Gene Farrell Gene Farrell Brand Contributor

Source: 3 Things Coca-Cola, AWS And Smartsheet Taught Me About Innovation

TrendyCom Multi – All-In-One Profit Solution Does What NO OTHER Tool Can! Uncover VIRAL Buyer Trends On MULTIPLE Platforms

Creativity/Productivity, Product Creator App, Product Directory, Product Marketing, Product Page Creator, Productivity/Innovation

Don’t make sales …And SPEND money instead of making it! If your products aren’t selling … it’s probably not your fault. The people to blame are the unethical ‘dream sellers’ that offer you software & ‘systems’ promising to make you a millionaire …..But instead of delivering, you get buggy software & outdated methods … Often delivered by shady vendors that have never had success in eCommerce themselves. What really separates successful eCom marketers like us from the 95% that fail.. is the products we sell! If you want to be part of the top earning 5%……Read more…

Source : http://trendycom.co/

These 5 Innovative AI Companies Are Changing The Way We Live – Rosie Brown

Artificial intelligence, Business/Innovation, Content Marketing, Innovations, Productivity/Innovation, Teaching Innovations

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It’s 2018 and the world doesn’t quite look like a scene from “The Jetsons.” However, technological innovation spurred by advancements in computing has allowed for artificial intelligence to bring significant changes to the way businesses operate, impacting our everyday lives. Here are five industries impacted by AI…….

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nvidia/2018/11/01/these-5-innovative-ai-companies-are-changing-the-way-we-live/#2dc9a60e5a7f

 

 

 

 

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Always Protect The Downside – Darius Foroux

Business Hacks, Business Leadership/Strategies, Business Psychology, Business/Innovation, Content Marketing, Creativity/Productivity, Positivie/Thought, Productivity/Innovation, Profitability/Productivity

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What’s a big goal or dream that you have? Do you want to start a business? Become a fulltime author? Travel the world? Become financially independent? Change careers?I bet you’ve thought about it, and at some point thought, “I’m not sure I can achieve that.”If you’re anything like me, you always think about risks that are involved with making a big move in life. And that’s not a surprise. We’re collectively risk averse. We truly hate risk. I’ve never met someone who said, “I love to lose everything. But what can we do about our risk aversion? If you think about it, most of us are put off by fear. You think of doing something, consider the risks, and decide not to do it. Here are some examples……….

Read more: https://dariusforoux.com/protect-the-downside/

 

 

 

 

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Swiss Startup Aims To Help Paralyzed People Walk – Matthew Herper

Business/Innovation, Content Marketing, Health/Medicine Innovations, Innovation/Devices, Innovations, Productivity/Innovation, Startup News

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A group of scientists associated with GTX Medical, a Swiss medical device firm, published new evidence yesterday that using electricity to stimulate the spinal cord can help paralyzed people regain some walking ability. The new results, published yesterday in Nature and its sister journal Nature Neuroscience, show that using patterns of electrical stimulation allowed three men to regain the ability to walk with training. Unlike previous studies published in Nature Medicine and The New England Journal of Medicine, which used continuous electrical signals, not pulses, two of the men maintained the ability to walk even when the stimulation device was turned off……..

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2018/11/01/swiss-startup-aims-to-help-paralyzed-people-walk/#75cb0e4a7557

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Working From Home? No Problem Here’s How To Be Productive – Shelcy V. Joseph

Content Marketing, Creativity/Productivity, Home Business Course, Home Surveillance, Job/Career Trends, Productivity/Innovation, Profitability/Productivity

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While many people would choose to work from home if they could, some actually prefer going to the office every day. One of the reasons being that they find it easier to focus at their desk, than when they’re in pajamas, working with a laptop on their bed. And it makes sense. When you’re left to yourself (without the scrutiny of your boss and other people at the office), staying disciplined and productive can be a challenge……

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/shelcyvjoseph/2018/09/15/working-from-home-no-problem-heres-how-to-be-productive/#56f69a934a95

 

 

 

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How To Improve Your Digital Journey With The Right Partners – Derek Klobucher

Business/Innovation, Content Marketing, Digital Currency/Market, Digital Marketing, Digital Money, Digital World, Innovation/Devices, Innovations, Productivity/Innovation, Teaching Innovations

Compared to a classic IT solution, [partnership] enables you to go much further along the way in a short period of time,” Carlo Schots, from The Netherlands-based IT service provider Ordina, stated in a video shown at SAP Leonardo Now last month. “Together they enable you to innovate digitally.” Ordina partnered with SAP to help Brussels-based telecom Proximus expand its fiberoptic network, shipping materials from a central warehouse to contractors and subcontractors spread across the country. Proximus used some of SAP Leonardo’s intelligent technologies to…….

Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2018/09/21/how-to-improve-your-digital-journey-with-the-right-partners-video/#1cd590056567

 

 

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7 Ways to Achieve High Levels of Classroom Productivity – Lee Watanabe-Crockett

Children/Kids Education, Classroom Management/Teacher Reasearch, Content Marketing, Graduation Issues, Ideas/Advices, Informational Technology, Learning/Knowledge, Life Assistance/Life Study, Management Hacks, Management Strategy, Online Marketing Study/Strategies, Personal Skills/Tech, Productivity/Innovation, Profitability/Productivity, Skill Management/Business Skill, Social Interaction/Collaboration, Students Education

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When it comes to classroom productivity, the ideal classroom is a happy one. It means students are creating solutions and projects that have meaning and purpose. They gladly take initiatives and assume responsible ownership of class time. Above all, it means students are loving their learning.

Achieving high levels of classroom productivity means making sure students are interested and invested in tasks that develop higher-order thinking and problem-solving abilities. Not only are they involved in constructive pursuits and being given mindful assessments, they are learning independence and accountability and having a blast doing it. Now that’s learning with a purpose.

The joy a teacher gets from knowing students look forward to coming to class is indescribable. It’s one of those things you have to experience to understand. The good news is every teacher can have that feeling. These classroom productivity tips are applicable to many classroom environments. Hopefully, they help you in yours.

7 Pathways to Better Classroom Productivity

It’s easy to confuse productivity with speed of output. That’s not the essence of being productive. We can complete 100 trivial tasks in a day and say we were productive, but is that really true? What do we have to show at the end of the day? What have we done besides waste time on unimportant matters? Can we say “I really accomplished something today” and mean it?

Productivity isn’t about “getting stuff done.” It’s about getting stuff done with purpose.

You can always tell the level of interest students have. It can be used to help you measure productivity levels:

  • Are students focused and engaged?
  • Are they happy and attentive?
  • Are they asking deep, meaningful questions?
  • Are they excited about showing the results of their work?
  • Are they talking about their work with peers and parents?
  • Are they challenging themselves and each other to improve?

These are all traits of a productive classroom. Granted, there’s no specific formula for higher productivity. You can, however, use critical observation to decide what approach you could use

1. Build a Safe Space

Everyone deserves the chance to learn in a supportive environment. This applies to both intellectual and emotional classroom elements. Any classroom should make every student feel welcome. Maybe this means a time for peer-to-peer orientation. You can give students time to get to know each other and connect personally.

It could also mean creating a class mission statement of some kind. The focus of this would be things like:

  • We always support each other in and out of class
  • We always encourage each other and remain kind
  • We are a judgement-free classroom where all are welcome
  • We show we care by setting an example for the whole school

Begin learning adventures with the notion that learning is meant to be enjoyable. Part of this is creating a comfortable and supportive classroom. Anything that impacts a student positively in your classroom will help boost their productivity. Take some pointers from Brian Van Dyck, a middle school teacher in Santa Cruz.

2. Give Students a Say

Students are no different from anyone else. They like to know their opinions count for something. Letting students weigh in on how to use their class time can be valuable to fostering a productivity mindset. Don’t worry, this approach doesn’t mean they’ll waste time without supervision. You can do this while still keeping the structured direction central to any classroom. Open with questions geared toward productivity with breathing room:

Open with questions geared toward productivity with breathing room:

  • How do you feel your time would best be spent on today’s work/assignment?
  • What’s the one part of (insert project here) that you feel you need to focus on?
  • If you’re ahead, how can you help someone else with today’s work?
  • What do you think should be done first, and last?

Obviously, you as the teacher have the final say. That said, some heartfelt answers from students can help you choose how best to spend the class time.

3. Focus on Guiding Questions

As the work begins or continues, keep them thinking. Our modern students love to be challenged. Keep them guessing and thinking by asking about their projects. Show an interest in what they’re doing.

  • Why did they choose to approach the project this way?
  • What speaks to them about it?
  • If they’re stuck, how can they switch direction?
  • Do they feel there is any way they can make it even better?

4. Always Be Available

From time to time, students will struggle and this will happen on many different levels. When it does, they’ll need support and encouragement. They’ll get stuck, and that will give rise to technical questions, concerns, and doubts. They’ll feel pressure to keep up with their classmates. They’ll feel inadequacy, confusion, and frustration. They’ll feel like what they’ve done has been a waste. They’ll feel these things and a lot more.

Students are no different from anyone else. They like to know their opinions count for something.

Sometimes they’ll look for every reason to quit when they know they should go on. It will feel to them like the world is ending. It can happen with schoolwork and with personal matters. Eventually, it will likely all find its way into the classroom environment. Fortunately, that’s the heart of change.

With an open mind and the right words, you can turn that all around. Never be far away, because you’re still the best guide students have in their school experiences.

5. Encourage Collaboration

This is a hallmark of the modern student. They are natural-born collaborators and love working in groups. The secret to successful collaboration is when students are drawing on their individual strengths. They then find ways to harmonize those strengths in a group setting. A group work aspect to any classroom almost always means good things in terms of classroom productivity.

6. Offer Good Distractions

Every teacher knows that too many distractions in class can be harmful. Distractions, however, can be beneficial depending on the type. If they’re scheduled in the process, it’s even better. In this sense, they become more like rejuvenators and focus-sharpeners.

Here are some examples of beneficial distractions in class:

  • getting up to stretch, move around, and focus on nothing for a moment
  • eye/stretch/exercise breaks if working on computers
  • have students quickly check in with where they’re at on projects
  • story/joke breaks for some quick comic relief
  • schedule an assignment-related Q+A with a surprise class visitor

Here are some more great “distraction” ideas from Dr. Lori Desautels.

7. Let Students Self- and Peer-Assess

Self- and peer-assessment support comes from both students and teachers. Encouraging reflection and self-assessment adds a powerful dimension to learning. It reduces a teacher’s workload and lets students effectively demonstrate understanding. Students are honest in their assessment of their performance and that of their peers.

With this kind of assessment, students’ insights and observations are valued. It helps them understand the process of their own learning. It also reinforces the importance of collaboration.

Reflective practice is something both students and teachers should engage in. It lets you consider your actions and reflect on decisions. It solidifies learning concepts. It also helps you consider and plan future processes and actions.

 

 

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