Friday Campus Connections

Join us every Friday to see how connectedness shows up in “real-world” stories and scenarios.  Here are 5 articles, blogs, or other resources that illustrate the power of connectedness.  Of course, we’ll keep blogging away too.  We hope you’ll stop back by on Monday, to see our newest post.  And don’t forget to follow us on twitter (@Ice_Inst_Org).  Happy Friday!

What Is A Learning Ecosystem? (10 Minutes)

A learning ecosystem is an omni-channel, multi-modal system that includes all necessary support, resource, and context options by which people learn.  In a formal context, such as a college or university, the learning ecosystem is typically a mix of people, technology, and other infrastructure, leading to certifications and/or degrees for students.  But all of these stakeholders require balance.  The key to an effective learning system is stasis.  The term ecosystem becomes crucial in this context as it connotes interdependence.  In any ecosystem, stasis is reached when interdependence of a (typically) complex system or network is balanced between organisms and their environment.  

Jeff Borden giving a keynote address in Germany

Impression Management – it’s more important than you think…

Profiles are more and more a crucial component of our lives.  It’s not quite as reported today as it was five years ago when we were still figuring out just how profiles worked, but the web is littered with reports of people who lost jobs, scholarships, marriages, or worse, because a profile was not private enough, a person had multiple profiles, or because someone shared a profile of another person without their permission.  Those things still happen, they just aren’t newsworthy anymore.  But just because our information hungry brains also crave novelty doesn’t mean this isn’t an issue.  Especially for younger parts of our society.  It’s called impression management and it’s worth talking about.