Thinking Visually

A talk that emphasizes visual thinking


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eLearning must be Social

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Digital Technologies offer new ways of creating learning content. It provides all the options from old media with added power of user interactivity. The digital media also offers zero cost of reproduction and very modest cost for distributing the digital learning content. However, these are not the only benefits because with the introduction of social networking iot is now possible to establish a virtual social learning around this digital learning content.

Jay Cross on eLearning.

He talks about the new learning paradigm. Especially the introduction of Social Learning within the realm of learning.

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Science of Presentation

The Slidecast describes the principles of Cognitive Science and how they can be used in developing effective presentations.

The Science Of Presentations

View more presentations from Kevin Gee. (tags: gee kevin)

Switch to full screen mode of presentation by clicking on the full screen icon at the bottom of the presentation. Also each slide has an associated narration. Use your computer's sound system to hear it.

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Leadership and Social Intelligence

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Daniel Goleman is an internationally renowned psychologist. He is the author of one of the best selling book "Emotional Intelligence". This book was instrumental in bringing back the role emotions play in our day to dealing with people. It identified emotional intelligence as one of the keys in promoting harmonious relation among people and groups. Also its role in improving the learning abilities of the troubled kids.

He has extended his ideas to include "Social Intelligence". He talks about the role of leadership and how biology plays an important role in creating effective leaders.

The notion that effective leadership is about having powerful social circuits in the brain has prompted us to extend our concept of emotional intelligence, which we had grounded in theories of individual psychology. A more relationship-based construct for assessing leadership is social intelligence, which we define as a set of interpersonal competencies built on specific neural circuits (and related endocrine systems) that inspire others to be effective.Source: Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership

The studies in Social Neuroscience is revealing the inner working of the human brain. They are also studying the attributes that some one a good leader. It seems that good leaders show a good deal of empathy towards the people. There is a mirroring effect between the good leaders and the followers. This also highlights the role mirror neurons play in establishing emphatic relationships.

Perhaps the most stunning recent discovery in behavioral neuroscience is the identification of mirror neurons in widely dispersed areas of the brain. Italian neuroscientists found them by accident while monitoring a particular cell in a monkey’s brain that fired only when the monkey raised its arm. One day a lab assistant lifted an ice cream cone to his own mouth and triggered a reaction in the monkey’s cell. It was the first evidence that the brain is peppered with neurons that mimic, or mirror, what another being does. This previously unknown class of brain cells operates as neural Wi-Fi, allowing us to navigate our social world. When we consciously or unconsciously detect someone else’s emotions through their actions, our mirror neurons reproduce those emotions. Collectively, these neurons create an instant sense of shared experience.Source: Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership

The leaders and followers almost mirror each others body language when the two are in full agreement over the course of future action to move the organization forward.

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Eye Tracking Studies by Google

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Video by Google about eye tracking studies showing how eye tracks the search results on a web page.

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Cooperation and Fairness in Monkeys

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The traits of cooperation and fairness are the bedrocks of human social organizations. There has recently been lots of interest in the origin of these traits.

Are these traits are unique to human? Probably not. Here is a BBC video that demonstrate both of these traits in monkeys. The first part of video narrated by famous Richard Attenborough shows cooperation between two monkey subjects while the latter half of the video shows a sense of fair play between two monkeys.

Games for Visual Thinking

Visual Thinking Games

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How We Decide

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Stephen Colbert talks with Jonah Lehrer, the author of the book "How We Decide". The talk focuses on the issues of rational and emotional decision making. Especially how the two mode of thinking support each other. It is another way of saying that humans are not rational creatures but are rationalizing creatures who use rational decision making as a tool.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Jonah Lehrer

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Funny Political News

Christian Bale Parody
Joke of the Day

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Social Networks, Biology, and Emerging Computer Mediated Human Interaction

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What it means to have friends on social networks such as Facebook? It is a new kind of computer mediated human interaction. It is obviously different from the kind of face to face interaction we have been used to in normal social situations.

What is it really when some body you tried to befriend on Facebook and they ask you a question do I know you?

Here is a discussion between Albert-László Barabási and James Fowler on this issue of networks how they develop and what are the limits on these networks.

Click to play the video.

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