George Nantwi's blog

Effectiveness of Twitter as a Promotional Tool

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:52:30 -0400

In light of today's EdLab Development & Research meeting about NLT promotional ideas and our overall marketing efforts around our various projects, the video below presents research on the effectiveness of Twitter as a marketing tool.

Europe Gets in on the Moocs Movement

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:20:37 -0400

The European Commission, in conjunction with the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU), recently announced it would be creating Europe's first set of mooc offerings. These initial offerings would be handled by several open universities across all of Europe: Western Europe (e.g. France), Eastern Europe (e.g. Lithuania), the Mediterranean (e.g. Turkey) and Israel (technically in the Middle East but due to political reasons, has membership in many European organizations). The courses are offered on one single platform, OpenUpEd, and its free of charge though some courses and institutions require payment from interested students upon completion if they want a certificate.

The Rise of the Adjuncts

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:53:09 -0400

This article in the Atlantic highlights a rising phenomena in higher education: the rise of the adjunct professor (see chart below). What implications does this have for the future of higher education, especially considering the rising costs for students?

Building the Ideal Marketing Team

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 23:24:39 -0400

As the EdLab ramp up its outreach efforts for several of our many offerings: publications (i.e. NLT), products (i.e. Survey Sidekick), and grants (i.e YoungArts MasterClass), we’ve all been thinking about building a team dealing with specific aspects of the outreach efforts for each offering. The author of this article highlights five things to look for when hiring people to form the ideal marketing team:

Realize there is no such thing as a perfect team.
Invest in 'students.'
Look for marketers who are strategic and tactical.
Always hire for culture fit over skill.
Plan for the next big challenge.

What other characteristics should we look for when hiring or putting together the ideal marketing team for our offerings?

Wanted: Teachers for YoungArts PD Videos

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 10:43:29 -0500

We are looking for teachers in three subject areas (Humanities, Math & Science, Visual & Performing Arts) to create professional development videos for the YoungArts MasterClass study guide. If you know any educators in junior high school and high school who might be interested, please let me know so we can reach out to them.

We are hoping to create something similar to this pilot below:

MOOCS and the Developing World

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 10:49:55 -0500

I took a course, Economics and Educational Development, here at Teachers College this past semester and one of the topics we discussed in detail was government expenditure on education, especially tertiary education, in the developing world. Enrollment in public universities in most developing nations is almost exclusively linked to one’s economic class. Since there are very limited public university slots, those few that are available is allocated based on test scores, and quality of secondary education, etc., all of which are correlated to one’s family income. Governments in these nations spend a huge amount of resources financing few universities that are mostly attended by the higher-income population and thus creating a situation in which the poor is essentially left out.

As more prestigious institutions continue (in some cases begin) to offer their courses for free on the web as part of the massive open online courses, or MOOCs movement, a large number of participants in those courses are students from the developing world. In this article, the writer notes this phenomenon using the case of El Salvador, a nation of over six million citizens with just one public university serving 50,000 students. Students there have been flocking to moocs as an alternative or to supplement their education.

Startups Leading Job Creation

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 23:43:48 -0500

A new report by the Kauffman Foundation claims startups and new firms (created within the past two years) are leading the way in hiring and job creation following the recession of 2008. According to the study, “four out of every 10 hires at young firms are for newly created jobs, much higher than in older firms”. Though young firms may be leading the charge in job creation, employers at those firms earn less than those at more established firms. As we think of ways to promote Research Broker as well as the eventual “launch” of Launchpad 39, how can we keep in mind this shift in hiring? Is this a consequence of the recessions or a real shift where startups will become a primary source of jobs?

Promoting YoungArts MasterClass

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 23:15:05 -0400

As we get ready to launch the YoungArts/MasterClass website, we’ve been thinking about how best to promote the study guide via social media and viral marketing. As some of you may know, YoungArts is a national program based out of Florida that chooses the best high school students in nine performing arts areas such as cinema, jazz, photography and dance, among others to perform in a series of workshops with “masters” in their respective field. The moments between the students and the masters were captured for the HBO Masterclass series that serves as the inspiration behind the study guide.

Frank Gehry and Mark Zuckerberg

One of the featured masters in Masterclass sessions is architect Frank Gehry, best known for his elaborate designs such as the Guggenheim in Spain and the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and more recently as the lead architect for the ongoing Dwight E. Eisenhower memorial in Washington, D.C. Gehry was recently chosen by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to expand the company’s new campus in Menlo Park, California. Dubbed the West Campus, the new facility will house all of Facebook’s engineers.

The Teacher Network

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 07:10:32 -0400

We’ve started mailing out hard copies of the UFR curriculum to those who registered via the UFR site as well as to members of organizations such as ASCD, NCSS and NASSP. This fall will be the first full school year where educators across the country (and some globally) will be teaching the curriculum. In addition to receiving the hard copies, all educators teaching the curriculum can sign up to create a blog for their classroom via the Teacher Network. The Teacher Network is a series of interconnected blogs that allows for educators to create lessons and activities from the materials in the UFR curriculum and affords students a chance to comment, vote and ask questions. It also serves as a repository and an additional resource for all educators interested in or teaching the curriculum. Educators can sign up for their own classroom blog by creating an account on the UFR main site.

We want to start promoting the Teacher Network and get as many educators on it as possible. Since we will be working on a Teacher Network for the YoungArts/MasterClass grant as well, it will be really great to have a sound, consistent and effective plan to reach out to educators. There are several lessons already up on the Network so please browse go through them, watch the video below on the Teacher Network and share any ideas or suggestions you have about promoting the Teacher Network.

UFR in the News

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 12:25:38 -0400

Barry Elias, a weekly contributor to Newsmax on topics that include economics, public policy and politics, and an economic policy analyst to Dick Morris, a former political advisor to President Clinton, recently wrote a piece about the UFR curriculum to raise awareness about the importance of the subject. Elias focuses primarily on the need for high school students, who he sees as the instruments of change for our country in the coming years, to draw conclusions based more on inquiry and critical thinking and not on the very partisan political discourse in Washington.

Pursuing Your Passions

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 23:30:44 -0400

The YoungArts/Masterclass project essentially encourage students to “pursue their passions,” whatever it may be. In this op-ed for Time, Dan Edmonds, VP of Research and Development at Noodle.org, notes that having a non-academic “passion” has essentially become a college admissions requisite. He states that most students who do have a passion tend to devote a large amount of time to it while finding passions for students without one has become a task for parents and guidance counselors. The greater question then becomes how do you find or motivate students to pursue a passion and stick with it? More importantly, as Edmonds accurately points out, parents want to urge and encourage passions that will make their children an attractive candidate for admissions. For instance, students would not want to highlight video games as a passion even though they may devote a considerable amount of time to it and may have even mastered it.

How to Plan Meetings

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 23:48:21 -0400

In light of the collaborative tone of Group Genius and the equally collaborative nature of the presentations, this excerpt from Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success, a book by Ken Segall, a close collaborator of Steve Jobs, sheds some light into Jobs’ simple but successful approach to meetings at Apple: less is more. Meetings have become an essential part of much of the work we do here at the EdLab and they all differ in size for various reasons.

Do you agree with Segall's assessment of planning meetings and workgroups and how do you usually plan meetings that you lead here at the EdLab?

The Fiscal Summit

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:54:06 -0400

After dinner on our first night in DC, Manav, Demetri and I decided to catch the Devils and Rangers game before calling it a night. A rainy morning couldn’t dampen our mood for the Fiscal Summit. After checking in and enjoying the continental breakfast, we proceeded to the Mellon Auditorium for the opening remarks by Peter G. Peterson. This was followed by an interview with Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner by the Wall Street Journal’s David Wessel. Next up a video screening of several politicians addressing the many fiscal issues facing our nation. Michael A. Peterson, President of the Peterson Foundation delivered the keynote speech of the summit, “A Better Economy, and A Brighter Future: America’s Case for Action.”

Former NBC Nightly News host Tom Brokaw and former President Bill Clinton were next up on stage to discuss “Bridging Divides and Building Consensus.” President Clinton stayed after the discussion to talk to members of the crowd and signed a copy of the UFR curriculum for us. He was the only panelist throughout the day to do so. After a brief break, the first panel discussion, Finding the Political Will to Act, was moderated by Politico’s John F. Harris and included Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), Representative Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Kathleen Hall Jamieson (Director, Annenberg Public Policy Center) and Patricia Murphy (Political Correspondent, The Daily Beast/Newsweek).

Teachers College Games Festival

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:12:41 -0400

The Games Research Lab / Communication, Computing and Technology in Education Program and Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology is co-sponsoring the TC Games Festival this Wednesday, April 25, from 4-8pm on the 1st Floor of Everett Lounge. Below are more details:

TC Games Festival
Date: Wednesday, April 25
Location: 525 W 120 St., 1st Floor, Everett Lounge
Time: 4-8 pm

Facebook link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/409912769019606/

Stop by to play educational and real-world impact games designed by Columbia students and faculty Educational/Real-World Impact Games Festival: Featuring Scholar's Quest and over a dozen educational game projects.

Theme: Can YOU make a difference with games?

Opportunities to interact and get involved with game-based research projects. Enjoy free food and win prizes like a Kindle!

Please join us for the Teachers College Games Festival! Explore a variety of game designs and research projects about language learning, physical chemistry, nutrition, math, climate change, ethics and more. Games include digital, non-digital, mobile and real-world action games. Special guests include Bernard Yee, Bungie Game Developer and Adjunct Professor of Game Production and Design. Sponsored by the Games Research Lab / Communication, Computing and

No Pulitzer for Editorial Journalism

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:10:10 -0400

In Kate’s recent blog post about this year’s Pulitzer Prize, Fred noted in one of his comments that the committee didn’t award winners in fiction this year and gave some reasons for the exclusion. In this piece for the Future Journalism Project, former EdLabber Jihii Jolly notes the other category that didn’t receive a winner this year: editorial writing. She gives a detailed explanation of the Pulitzer prize selecting process and how a plethora of online mediums might or has potentially changed the way folks on the Pulitzer committee see editorial journalism.