An Open Letter to Umair Haque, Applying for Revolutionary Status
Dear Umair, Your Open Challenge was intriguing. Your manifesto required action. We would like to apply for “revolutionary” status under your definition. If you have not yet found your five projects to advise, we humbly submit ours for consideration. We are a start-up determined to organize the world’s education. The data model of education needs […]
Step 2 Red Rover Admin Set up Video Guide – Inviting Group Leaders
Setting up Red Rover for an institution is broken down into 3 steps: Step 1 – Set Up Your Personal Account** Step 2 – Invite Group Leaders** Step 3 – Invite Regular Students** We currently have around 90 schools** at various stages of setting up. Though we’ve worked hard to make sure setup is quick […]
More Assumptions and Beliefs for Red Rover
The goal with this is to state our ideas plainly. Or failing that, put out some rough drafts of thoughts to get to plain later. All of these ideas get baked into the software and strategy. With a list, our advisors and stakeholders can be clear on what they agree with and what they don’t. We can then focus the discussion and learn.
It Will Be Amazing, If People Use It . . .
I got a very straightforward question on Facebook today from a staff person at a very large school: About your software: do you have evidence that students will use it? How do you suggest schools get students to do that? (Just wondering if students would see this as one more “hoop” to jump through and […]
It’s Little but Nice to See
Just over four years ago we officially started Swift Kick by filling out all the legal paperwork. We received a certified notice, bank accounts, and EIN number. Then we went to Facebook to add Swift Kick as a company, but Facebook rejected us and said we needed to submit a request to become an official […]
What’s the Responsibility of the Digital Consumer
Most of the conversations I’ve read about the importance of digital identities (here and here) put the responsibility on the producers of the information to be more aware of what they are posting online. Like teaching students about their digital identity so next time the student will pause to think about what they post online […]
Why Students and Faculty Sometimes Miss Each Other
The current crop of adults grew up in a world of physical identity where behavior was modulated according to where someone was. The audience was clear. One could swear in front of friends – Not at school. The current generation of students grew up in a world largely influenced by digital identity were the reality, […]
Please Stop Buying and Building Walled Gardens For Higher Ed
There was an article a few days ago in the Chronicle with the headline “Colleges Create Facebook-Style Social Networks to Reach Alumni.” The first paragraph claims “hundreds of college alumni associations have begun to offer their own online social networks . . ” To me, this seems like a very sad waste of time and […]
It’s Not a Technical Challenge, It’s an Education Challenge
Getting to an engagement increasing social and academic recommendation platform for college is not a technical challenge. That part is mostly sitting in the open. It’s an education challenge.
The Randomness of How Students Currently Meet at College
While keeping tabs on some student blogs in my RSS feed, I came across a video** about some students who met in college and started a band. What caught my eye was when one of the band members talked about how they initially met: VIDEO FILE NO LONGER AVAILABLE I think most people would agree […]