Guide to Finding a Business Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Your Industry

Intitally determine your purpose. Here are some questions you might consider during the process:

• Are you looking to fill an employment position that is temporary or permanent? Is it on or off site? How much travel is required?
• Are you just looking for a short term consultant?
• How much expertise is required?
• Are you just looking for a media contact?
• How much are you going to pay them or otherwise reciprocate their service to you and your organization?

The Journey to Finding Your Subject Matter Expert (SME)
One way is to find a business subject matter expert is to look at people in the Fortune 1000 companies. (find the best companies in a given niche and seek out the people in those companies in the positions and roles you are interested in). Another way to find SMEs, particularly if its for media insight, but also from more permanent jobs is to look for top professors in the area via university media contacts, who can also refer you to other experts.

1) Harvard University
Soldiers Field Boston, MA 02163

2) Stanford University
518 Memorial Way Stanford, CA 94305-5015

3) Northwestern University
2001 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208-2001

4) University of Pennsylvania
420 Jon M. Huntsman Hall, 3730 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104

5) MIT (tie)
50 Memorial Drive Cambridge, MA 02142

5) University of Chicago (tie)
5807 S. Woodlawn Avenue Chicago, IL 60637

7) Berkeley University
545 Student Services Building Berkeley, CA 94720-1900

8] Dartmouth College
100 Tuck Hall Hanover, NH 03755-9000

9) Columbia University
3022 Broadway, 216 Uris Hall New York, NY 10027

10) Yale University
Box 208200 New Haven, CT 06520-8200

11) New York University
44 W. Fourth Street New York, NY 10012-1126

12) Duke University
1 Towerview Drive Durham, NC 27708-0104

13) University of Michigan
701 Tappan Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1234

14) University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
110 Westwood Plaza, Box 951481 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1481

15) Carnegie Mellon University (tie)
5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213

15) University of Virginia (tie)
PO Box 6550 Charlottesville, VA 22906-6550

The third way to find business subject matter experts is to look at authors and mentioned companies in industry publications like Business Week, the Wall Street Journal, Inc, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur Magazines. If your journey is unsuccessful on the industry pub front, you of course could seek out authors and conference speakers. Finally, if all else fails you can leverage the search capabilities and the questioning capabilities on the professional social networking site Linked in to find your business subject matter expert. If all else fails tap your network or a recruiter. And happy trails in your journey to find a subject matter expert thats right for your business needs.

Thanks to US News and World Report who supplied the MBA Business School Rankings.

(credit: gaetan lee)
Neuroeducation: Learning, Arts, and the Brain: John Hopkins University Summit 2009
Along with innovation in education, I’ve been fascinated with brain based education and brain based learning. Along those lines I picked up “Neuroeducation: Learning, Arts, and the Brain: Findings and Challenges for Educators and Researchers from the 2009 John Hopkins University Summit” from the Dana Foundation. This volume summarizes the big research questions and challenges facing art education teachers, advocates, and scientists as they look to identify a vision forward. It includes analysis by leading scientists and experts in the area of neuro-education including the work and vision of professor Jerome Kagan from Harvard along with insight from Guy McKann, Susan Magsamen (of the John Hopkins Neuro-intitiative), Mariale Hariman, Janet Eilber (Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance), and many many others.

The collective intelligence of speakers and participants created amazing insight and inspiration:
• “Art and music require the use of both schematic and procedural knowledge and, therefore, amplify a child’s understanding of self and the world.” Jerome Kagan, PhD in the department of psychology at Harvard University
• “Arts curriculum…allows a number of children to work as a cooperative unit, as when they compose a mural or play in the school band or orchestra.” Jerome Kagan, PhD in the department of psychology at Harvard University
• “The human conscience relies on empathy for others and the anticipation of anxiety, guilt, or shame for violating a community norm. Children need a deeper understanding of these feelings and the arts contribute to this goal.” Jerome Kagan, PhD in the department of psychology at Harvard University
• “What we advocate today in education are two representational languages, math and reading; maybe we should be educating kids to have multiple representational abilities.” Cunningham, PhD and director of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Division of Arts Education as well as the National Arts Alumni Project, the Network of State Education Agency Directors of Art Education, and the NEA Education Leaders Institute
• Discussion highlighted the importance of Brain Targeted Teaching based on the work of Mariale Hardiman
• The rise of the social and emotional teaching model. (see Edutopia article on social and emotional learning as well as delicious links on social and emotional learning)
• The work of Dr. Schlaug and Dr. Winner on the exposure of children to music was likewise mentioned.
• Janet Eilber pointed to the work of Alice Wilnder, Ed D and creator of the interactive and educational program Blues Clues and Think it-Ink It.
• Keri Smith pointed to her book Living out Loud–Activities to Fuel a Creative Life and Kathy Hirsch-Pasek pointed to her work Celebrate the Scribble: Appreciating Children’s Art
• The work of Kurt Fisher at Harvard School of Education and the insight of Dr. Patricia Wolfe and Ellen Galinsky on brain education.
• The work of Dr. Wandell (Dr. Wandell at Stanford’s Vista Lab), Dr. Posner, and Dr. Spelke.
• For five examples of sample studies check out pages 64 and 65 (similar ideas and models may help in arts/creative assessment as well)
• The Partnership for 21st Century Skills
• “We can no longer just teach process and skills. The 21st century classroom is a laboratory for the creation of intellectual content where teachers are actively promoting higher-level thinking.”
• “Educators, policy makers, and researchers also agree that bringing parents into this conversation has the potential to change children’s skills, attitudes, and outcomes.”
• An article by Susan Magasmen at DANA on the John Hopkins’ Neuroscience and the Arts summit points out:

Kurt Fischer, director of Harvard’s Mind, Brain, and Education program, said at the summit,“Everything points to the critical link between schools and home that bridges performance arts, arts appreciation, and arts integration. This link needs to be nurtured so that the arts can contribute fully to the development of future skills, including collaboration and creativity.” He continued, “Without this consistency and integrated support between school and home, it is very difficult for children to succeed in learning the many skills and strategies that they naturally learn from the arts.”

Susan Magsamen continues:

Home is where the arts are typically introduced to children. From lullabies to bedtime stories, finger painting to bucket bands, home is where the arts are used to translate values, ethics, habits, and cultural rituals and traditions. Home is where safe, rich environments are created to allow children to explore, create, and make mistakes. Families and parents bring art experiences to their children through endless interpretations. If parents could be informed how the arts can enhance learning, then researchers, families, and community educators could join together to expand the impact of the arts in the community.

It is the everyday moments at home that offer golden opportunities for parents and families to employ the arts to enhance learning, support homework, gain valuable insight, develop perseverance, reduce stress, and more.

• TS Elliot’s insight that “Anything worth doing is at first impossible” is a metaphor of sorts to understand the collective work in this area–including the Neuro-education Initiative and the Neuro-education Indisciplinary Research Model.

Core Arts Education Advocacy Documents Highlighted at the Neuroscience Summit
• Critical Links: Learning in the arts and student academic and social development (2002) (free PDF download)
• Involvement in the arts and human development: general involvement and intensive involvement in music and theatre arts (1999) (full document in Google docs)
• Champions of Change: the impact of the arts on learning (pdf in browser)
• The Power of Art Study (pdf which loads in your browser)
• Elements of a High Impact Arts Program for Teens from the Surdna Foundation of NYC (pdf in browser).

National Agencies and Organizations Highlighted in the 2009 Summit Book

Americans for the Arts
Arts Edge (@ the Kennedy Center)
Arts Education Partnership
The Dana Foundation
Edutopia
Grantmakers in the Arts
Keep Arts in Schools
Lincoln Center Institute
The National Association for Music Education
National Assembly of States Arts Agencies
National Endowment for the Arts
Neuro-Education Inititative
Project Zero (Howard Garner on the Arts)
State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education
UC Irvine Center for Learning Through Arts and Technology
US Department of Education and the Office of Innovation and Improvement
Young Audiences Arts for Learning

Related Arts Education and Brain Research Resources I’ve Identified:

Summary of Arts and Neuroscience Research from DANA as well as their arts education research.
Learner.org (Teacher Development Resources Sponsored by the Annenberg Foundation)
Arts Advocacy Resources from the Arts Education Partnership
How People Learn (available for free via the National Academies Press and Google books)
Connecting Brain Research with Teaching, MM Hardiman (2003)
Flow by Csikszentmihalyi (summary of flow theory)
Howard Garner: Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice (free on Google Books)
Grantmakers in the Arts Blog
Teaching with the Brain in Mind from PBS
A Whole New Mind, by Dan Pink (Discussion Guide)
Brain Based Teaching Resources from New Horizons
Sharp Brains: Brain Fitness for All
21st Century Skills Book

Making the Case for Education Technology 2.0, University 2.0, and E-learning 2.0

Why should students use advanced technologies like web 2.0 tools in the classroom environment. The following three videos provide incredible insight along with the suggestions for further research at the bottom. Hopefully, this can help those who are forced to answer the question “why should we our students use social tools?” and are attempting to make the case for education 2.0 in the classroom to principles, parents, and other community and government stakeholders.

A Vision of K-12 Today

Social Media Revolution

FYI: the following video is just under 27 minutes, but great insight into the “Net-generation”

“Growing Up Digital” by Dan Tapscott

Note: the video choices were borrowed from Tony’s opening keynote at the ASTD Tech Knowledge 2010 conference which thematically focused on social tools, immersive simulation, virtual collaboration, informal learning, and gaming along with a more traditional focus on training, performance optimization and assessment, and development. Its important to point out that Tony selected only two or three short segments from the insightful Dan Tapscott interview.

See Also:

21st Century Skills
Constructivist Theory
Project based learning
Collaborative learning
Flow and Creativity literature
Motivation and Engagement literature
Self-directed learning literature
Howard Garner/Multiple Intelligences Theory
The case for digital portfolios
Henry Jenkins
John Seely Brown
Tony Wagner
Dan Pink
Wikinomics blog
Almost any TED Talk (although more generally)

Do you have any suggestions for further research?

Jamie Heywood’s talk at TED called “The big idea my brother inspired.” Patients Like Me is a social networking platform, which provides both emotional support for people with MS as well very cool analytics for better health outcomes.

Its truly transformative. Here are a couple other Health 2.0 links and resources from delicious for your enjoyment.

Earlier this summer I created a bare bones Presentation 2.0 Syllabus on a Wiki. In that vein, I’ve created a Public Speaking 2.0 Syllabus on a WordPress blog.

I think this is the first communications syllabus of its kind–its an effort to create:

1) practical activities
2) practical support afterward (virtually & maybe via Facebook group or Ning network)
3) leverage web 2.0 tools in a helpful, relevant, and effective way
4) based on sound educational practice
5) focused on research creativity, innovation, & problem solving skills
6) engaging activities

Once, I have more content developed, I hope to move it to a self-hosted URL. If you have any constructive suggestions, feel free to add your suggestions.

Please remember that I just launched this site in early February 2010, so I haven’t had a ton of time to develop content. That said, please enjoy….

Eight quick take aways from this morning’s keynote at ASTD TechKnowledge 2010 hosted in Las Vegas:
1) Great example of using Lego Mindstorms for simulation of the rapid adaptation used during the 5 year video game cycle.
2) EA pays 10% for audio. However, its 50% of the experience according to gamers.
3) Best learning with human beings. Face to face interaction is incredibly important. (Wii does this really well. He mentioned Sims, Zynga, Pogo, and Active as well as integrating gaming principles.) [This points to the need for blended learning, as opposed to 100% online]
4) Real time feedbacks via data mining. (Telemetry) are critical for product improvement, innovation, and product/market fit. Electronic Arts fixed Madden Football’s goal kicking problem based on data from their analytics.
5) Avoid different scorecards for different audiences.
6) Changing the scorecards changes the company.
7) Its very much about tying it to outcomes and output in a business context.
8] If you need to figure out a low cost solution for metrics start with Google analytics.

I recently grabbed “Slideology” by Nancy Duarte. For those who are in the training industry or other communications industries (ps thats everybody)–I highly recommend it. Duarte is apt to point out that power point is 2nd in multimedia communication technology next to email (I assume that excludes mobile). Here are my favorite 17 tips, techniques, and strategies Duarte points out. I recommend getting it on Amazon, as it will probably cost about $35 at your local bookstore. It is however required reading for creating well designed power point presentations, which are meaningful, clear, and inspiring.

1) Four aspects of a slide are: background, color, text, images.
2) Have fund with ideographs and sticky-pads to brainstorm your slide presentation.
3) Practice simplicity and leverage white space with your slides (experiment with elimination–by getting rid of slide junk)
4) Create audience personas. Perform an audiences needs analysis to determine the goals for your presentation.
5) Pick great colors, including the emotional response you want to create in your audience. (p. 130 to 137 is a simple breakdown of color)
6) Think about the emotional role of typography.
7) Practice the Rule of 3s. This is particularly useful in the context of processes.
8] Leverage contrast (aka juxtaposition) to tell your story.
9) Poloroids to add human element and work great with quotes.
10) Create focus by graying out text or conversely by highlighting particular components of data or graphs.
11) Remember and leverage audience eye movement effectively.
12) Multiple staggered photo layout. This technique is great for chapter slides and adding a human edge to stories.
13) Letter box and modified letterbox (for instance cutting away) helps create unity and uniqueness.
14) Add movement to your slides. (create a motion path–this can also help create organization in your presentation and can be a memory device)
15) Panoramas are one great way to add movement (example: Mark Twain and Marie Curie on p. 190)
16) Leverage appropriate stock photos for backgrounds (to add depth and variety and to tell your story more contextually or perhaps with more unity)
17) You can map processes sideways on a panorama slide series. This technique also has the effect of creating movement in your presentation.

I also enjoyed the focus on illustrations (those can be found on pages 172 and 173). Probably the most useful component was the focus on data visualization and design saavy ways to arrange slides (they can be found on pages 45 to 49).

Have you read “Slideology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations?” Did you enjoy it? Would you recommend it? Whats your favorite presentation tip?

Whether you are a community college or a national university, if you are getting started with problem based learning, this tool should prove to be a helpful resource.
Making Learning Real

Top Free Fonts: Get Your Typography On

Free Fonts on Delicious

Emily Pilloton of Project H Design on the Colbert Show

You can see the video of Colbert’s interview of Emily Pilloton “who wants to fix the world through humanitarian design” at Comedy Central. You can learn more about Project H Design on their website:

Project H Design connects the power of design to the people who need it most, and the places where it can make a real and lasting difference.
We are a team of designers, architects, and builders engaging locally through partnerships with social service organizations, communities, and schools to improve the quality of life for the socially overlooked. Our five-tenet design process (There is no design without action; We design WITH, not FOR; We document, share and measure; We start locally and scale globally, We design systems, not stuff) results in simple and effective design solutions for those without access to creative capital.
Our scalable long-term initiatives focus on improving environments, services, products, and experiences for youth and K-12 education institutions in the US through systems-level design thinking and deep community engagements.

Research on Texting While Driving: Don’t Text and Drive

Texting while Driving increases crash risk 23-fold according to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

In fact, according to a study conducted by Nationwide, respondants overwhelmingly favor a ban on texting while driving.

Additional Resources on Texting While Driving (TWD)
Dr. David Strayer at the University of Utah is one of the leading researchers in this area.

Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Distraction.gov by the Department of Transportation

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

How Can We Provide Aid for Haitian Earthquake Victims?

Read more about Conduit Mission and the Samaritans Purse. You can also donate money directly to the cause.