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Friday Linkage: Gap years, self-care, and student debt
Just a few things that caught my eye over the past week… Don’t go to college next year: Take a gap year instead “Taking a gap year speeds our development by upsetting these patterns. Trying to occupy another person’s way of life in a different culture—living with a new family, speaking the language, integrating into a community, perhaps…
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If online education hasn’t already saved your university, it probably won’t
Online education is absolutely necessary. Excellent online education is even more important. For many students, it’s going to be a welcome alternative, especially when someone figures it out enough to create a holistic, quality, interactive learning experience. But universities need to realize that it won’t be the saving grace for every institution. Here’s why: In…
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Tough love on self-care
You can’t care for or lead others unless you care for and lead yourself. It’s counterintuitive but true. You think you’re being selfless when you push yourself beyond healthy limits (in time, relationships, rest, working out). But you’re setting yourself up for failure and letting everyone who relies on you down. In fact, sometimes we…
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Focusing on the difficult part of innovation
In creating a new project, the essential step is isolating the difficult part and focusing on that. The easy parts are important and they take work, but they tend to take care of themselves if the core engine is working. Wikipedia: find people to volunteer to become editors AirBnB: find people to put great houses…
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Assessment lessons from The Lean Startup
Assessment is a hot topics in student affairs, but in most places, there may be more talk than action. I think this comes from two problems with the process: Runners Don’t Take Photos and the Dusty Binder Syndrome. Runners Don’t Take Photos is simple. The woman running the race isn’t the one stopping to document the…
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Quote: Brené Brown on technology
“I curse technology then I get to “FaceTime” with my 3 year old niece, and I’m like, “This is the best thing EVER.” … I guess technology is like fire – you can keep yourself warm or you can burn down the barn. It’s all in how you use it (or how you let it…
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Dan Ariely on MOOCs and the future of higher education
Behavioral psychologist Dan Ariely, author of books like Predictably Irrational, speaker at TED, and professor at Duke, just kicked off a MOOC through Coursera with 144,000 participants. He talks about the experience in an insightful interview. This section on the future of higher education was particularly interesting: I don’t think that the future of the…
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Innovation in student affairs – where do you see it?
I’m looking for examples of innovation in higher education – particularly student affairs/student life – and I need your help. Innovation is a tricky word. Maybe it brings to mind images like Disney’s “house of the future,” sending a rocket to Mars, or Steve Jobs introducing a phone that will revolutionize the mobile phone and…
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Quotes: On changing the world and being a leader
Two unrelated but interesting quotes. (And they’re real. I’ll leave April Fools Day to folks like YouTube or Gmail) “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have…
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Data + Intuition = Success
Ok, I’ll admit there’s a lot more that goes into that equation for it to work in real life. But it’s a start. Here’s what Jason Kottke says at the end of a post about expensive products that lose money but show the company cares about excellence (think the Corvette and Mac Pro): Normally I’m…
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Yahoo, telecommuting, focused work, and higher ed
There’s been a good amount of chatter over Yahoo’s kibosh on telecommuting. They’ve called everyone back to the office. Work from here, or don’t work. Some people think it’s great. Others think it’s a move backwards. A few things stand out: Every workplace is different. Programmers who can be evaluated on productivity and lines of code may not…
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On curiosity
“Questions are places in your mind where answers fit. If you haven’t asked the question, the answer has nowhere to go. It hits your mind and bounces right off.” – Clay Christensen
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Donald Miller: If you’re rushing, something is wrong
I appreciate a recent post from Donald Miller about how they work at Storyline. He says he’s worked with people and companies where everything is urgent. Emails need a response today. Plans change at the last minute. He says that’s a sign something is off. Rush happens, but it’s not always necessary. Crisis happens –…
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Stress and indecision
Bobb Biehl says that 85% of stress is caused by either indecision or lack of control. What three things are causing you the most stress right now? Of those three, which are stressful because of indecision? Lack of control? If it’s indecision, the way forward is to act. Decide and move or collect the additional…
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Follow delight
I should have changed the plan as soon as we got in line. Peter Pan is clearly one of Disneyland’s kids’ rides, but my son looked at the line and said, “no no no.” Being the good parents that we are, we told him he would love it and worked to amp him up for…
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Jon Sampson 