culture

Hi friends and strangers, please interact with me, not your mobile device

Phone addiction has spread far and wide. I see it amongst my friends, my family, my colleagues, my students, strangers. Really, everywhere. Not everyone, yet, but I'm getting worried. I am an educational technologist. I love technology. I am writing on my laptop while listening to Spotify remote streaming to my TV. But, things go awry when it interrupts our ability to love and interact with each other.

I feel like maybe we're on a pendulum ride that has swung way over to one side, and we'll swing back a bit. I hope so, because I'm not loving blind compulsion to "interact" with our devices. We should control devices, and not the other way around.

This video spoke to me so clearly in exhibiting this phenomenon. I hope you take 2 minutes and 11 seconds of dedicated (no multitasking) to watch it. It's sad in some ways, but so spot on.

Meetings are not work. Work is work.

via youtube.com

Anyone who knows me well knows that I attend a lot of meetings, but I also somewhat hate meetings. I know there is something wrong there, but I've been doing a lot of work trying to get better at leading meetings. The Modern Meeting Standard is a must read for anyone who attends or organizes meetings. Read it, you can read it in under an hour, I promise.

The folks at Liquid Church liked the book so much, that they made this funny little video explaining some of the main tenets. Watch, and enjoy.

Elegantly designed modern-day furniture

via fastcompany.com

Wow, the team that designed the new New York City subway cars and JetBlue's touch-screen terminals now comes out with furniture for the modern office. Designs that are about creating warm, workable, interactive spaces. I love the aesthetics. Read more at FastCompany.

How do you create an effective workspace? Does furniture matter? I think about this a lot when looking at classrooms. Some people are really pushing how aesthetics of a space impact performance. Just think about the average classroom where all desks face the blackboard. It suggests that the info is at the front and is being delivered to the kids - that's not necessarily bad, it is just what the room creates. Do we need to change that? I'd argue generally, yes.

Posted via email from arvind's posterous