eContent

Marathon - Take 2

For those of you who know me well ... you will remember that I failed at Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota this past June. Even though I should have been inspired to run well in my home town on Lake Superior, the fact that I had returned from a business trip to China less than 40 hours prior to the race's start did not help (including getting sick).

Anyhow, this weekend is "Take 2" on Sunday.  I move one "great lake" over to the shores of Lake Michigan.  I will run the Milwaukee Marathon on Sunday. Wish me luck.

Stanford Business School Webinars

I've received a lot of emails from people looking for less technical webinars, often with a marketing or business development focus.  Here are a couple of my favorite sites (all free):

• Stanford Business School

In addition, MIT World in conjunction with their Sloan School of Business often has business development / strategy webcasts.

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Update on Friday night, September 29th

Laurie Everett (Director of MIT World) is the person who commented about this posting. Just in case some of you don't read blog comments ... she points out that all the MIT Sloan seminars can be accessed at this url. She is good folk!  We've had a number of conversations!

Downloadable University of Washington Engineering Courses

This is really COOL!!!!! The University of Washington has always allowed anyone to attend the live streaming sessions of their engineering classes, but this is HUGE! As of yesterday, with the start of their new academic year, a significant number of courses are available in the following manner:

• Attend live via web based streaming
• Attend "upon demand" via web based streaming

and this is why I am excited

• Attend via ftp download.
• Use this link to access the courses.

Thus, one can download the course and attend off line without any charge (most courses appear to be in the clear and do not require a registration). You won't get academic credit, but you will get the learning. Thus, expand your engineering knowledge in a discipline that is not your strength, or brush up on a topic which is an old friend. Here are this term's courses:

• AA 504 Fluid Mechanics I
• AA 516 Stability and Control of Flight Vehicles\
• AA 527 Energy Conversion I
• AA 530 Mechanics of Solids
• AA 547 Linear Systems Theory
• AMATH 401 Introduction to Methods in Applied Mathematics I
• AMATH 584 Applied Linear Algebra & Introductory Numerical Methods
• EE 502 Introduction to MEMS
• EE 547 Linear Systems
• IndE 518 Seminars on Advances in Manufacturing & Management
• IND E 521 Quality Control in Manufacturing
• MSE 504 Introduction to MEMS
• ME 501 Manufacturing Processes
• ME 504 Introduction to MEMS
• ME 518 Seminars on Advances in Manufacturing & Management
• ME 531 Conductive Heat Transfer
• ME 547 Linear Systems
• ME 556 Experimental Stress Analysis I
• ME 564 Mechanical Engineering Analysis
• ME 588 Dynamics & Vibrations

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Update on September 29th: Response to question about downloadable notes / materials. Sorry, only the lectures themselves are available.

UC Berkeley and Google Team Up

I learned of this via Outklass. The University of California at Berkeley has teamed up with Google to make their course webcasts available via Google Video. This is an extremely interesting development in the world of "open access" to knowledge.

• Google Video: Univesity of California Berkeley Webcasts

Innovation Webcasts from U. Cal Berkeley

If you are trying to better understand the innovation process, the University of California at Berkeley will webcast this Fall a series on innovation, entrepreneurship and technology. There is no charge to attend.

• Overview - Distinguished Innovator Lecture Series
  (see right hand column for speaker schedule)

Note: Access individual lectures via the main Berkeley webcasts site. You will need to look for the specific lectures with the title "Distinguished Innovator Lecture Series". A new lecture should appear about every week.

• Webcasts - Distinguished Innovator Lecture Series

Teddy Bear Is a Killer!

This is on the "up and up". The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department even issued a written warning: "RELEASE OF ANY TEDDY BEARS into the fish hatchery water IS NOT PERMITTED". (their emphasis, not mine)

• Read the full article via CNN

Google Blog Search Screencast

I have created a short tutorial using Wink that demonstrates how to use Google Blog Search to create custom RSS feeds based upon keyword queries you construct. This example uses GreatNews as its feed reader.

• Create a RSS Feed Using Google Blog Search and GreatNews
  (may take a moment or two to load)

Here are two other Google Search Tutorials I've created:

• Creating your own eBooks with Google Book Search
• Create Google Search RSS Feeds Using Google Alert

Finally, I have a series of screencasts / tutorials demonstrating how to use the RSS feed reader, GreatNews. Follow this link.

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Update added on September 26th.

Paul Pival, over on Distant Librarian, asks some great questions about Wink Thus, here are some of my opinions about the software tool I used to create this screencast:

• It's free! (hard to argue with that point)
• User interface is easy to use
• I love the ability to print content to pdf
• The editor easily allows the addition of notes, symbols, and navigation aides
• Audio turns out a bit scratchy when content is published
• Slower load times may be a TypePad issue (i.e. my blog host)

eLearning at Intel

I've started a dialog with Brent Schlenker. He leads the eLearning charge over at Intel. The two of us are definitely not "two peas in a pod"; thus link on over to his blog and learn from another corporate perspective:

• Corporate eLearning Development
  ("Intel Corporate Learning Blogger With An Eye To The Future Of Learning Within The Corporate World")

Random Tags and Links

I have noticed an increasing trend on the part of my fellow professional bloggers to include newly tagged or linked content as part of their RSS feed. Although on the surface this would seem to be ideal as it helps me understand the web content respected peers are monitoring, in fact the result is just the opposite.

I rely upon individual bloggers to help me harvest premium content and ideas. By adding one's daily tags and links to a feed, even with cryptic comments, the information presented explodes. I often have to scroll down the page in my RSS feed reader to see their actual posts. Remember, user interface studies indicate most people will not scroll down a web page.  Thus, you've failed in your attempt to communicate.

Understanding Wikipedia

What is Wikipedia? The obvious answer is an "online collaborative open access encyclopedia" (wow ... that's a mouthful).  However, what really is Wikipedia. Many folks in traditional academia bad mouth it, while others of us sing it's praises. Via Weblogg-Ed, here are some interesting classroom projects where college professors have tried to address this question.

• Wikipedia: School and University Projects

On a side note, I am down in rural Iowa this Sunday morning. It's family weekend at my middle boy's college, Wartburg. I just came back from a five mile run through the corn fields ... saw a red tail hawk attack a bald eagle.  Cool!