The Illinois Model

There's no value in collecting blocks unless you're connecting them to build something awesome! Witty replies. Sexual sins. Optimal learning environments. Renaissance Men. Better understanding of mistakes. Great Zinger!  Buster Benson humorously discusses the use of witty responses used to embarrass or expose an opponent in dialogue. I see zingers used in social media arguments all the time. In an age of digital anonymity, it seems zingers are more and more popular, with less respect and less intent to find middle ground. The points are adding up and the divide is widening. Thoughts?  The Physiophobe: Modern Man Against Reality.  Professor Anthony Esolen uses the word physiophobe to describe a person who fears the way things are. He uses the concept of sexual sin to explain his rationale, but his argument can be extrapolated into a wide array of applications, fields, or topics. The claim that we manipulate the way things are should challenge the way we think abou...

In the story of the doctor who attended police SWAT school , one of the skills that I identify in adaptive people is the ability to triage.   In emergency medicine, triage is the process of a hasty evaluation: to determine the threats to life of an injury or illness,  as compared to another patient,  balancing the potential for reward or success, due to an increased demand on limited resources . Imagine a fully staffed, but empty hospital emergency department. No patients. Doctors and nurses sitting around...waiting. In walks an injured person. There is no triaging going on here. It's purely an evaluation and investigation - followed up by all-hands-on-deck response. On its face, the process might look the same as triage...but it's not. There is no second or third patient splitting the attention and resources of the medical staff. Triage is a comparative process. It plots two or more things against each other. It ranks problems and opportunities according to...

There's no value in collecting blocks unless you're connecting them to build something awesome! Pink toy bricks. Cognitive biases. Affective learning. Jerks. The power of "yet" in learning. Why pink LEGO might be bad for girls.  Dr Christian Jarrett writes about some "experiments" run with boys and girls and with colors of their building bricks. (I used quotation marks around "experiments" because it sounds like a bunch of crap.) My kids play with LEGOs - with sets that include rocket ships, ice cream trucks, race cars, princess castles, hot dog stands, superheroes. Then when my kids are done, they go off and play with dolls and Nerf guns. What do these research projects tell us about gender and the roles associated with it?  Overcoming the Biases That Come Between Us. Hunter Gehlbach talks about stereotypes, opinions, echo chambers, and more. He discusses cognitive biases...and why they exist: survival and efficiency. I liked this piece b...

There's no value in collecting blocks unless you're connecting them to build something awesome! Academic publishing. Abu Ghraib. Sports team captains. Amateurs. Learning myths. Social Sciences Publishing: Time to Stop a Meaningless and Wasteful Game.  Yiannis Gabriel gives a glimpse behind-the-curtain of publishing academic research. He claims the drive to be published in watering down the collection of research studies. This motivation is also adversely affects the teaching side of academia - where less experienced teachers are being put in front of classrooms.  Joe Willis talks at WINx Chicago 2017.  Joe Willis of TeamOne Network did an 18-minute TED-style talk. He shares his experience in the US Army, dealing with the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib prison embarrassment. Joe discusses his commitment to the cause, and how it negatively affected his relationships outside the Army. His lessons include identity, character, leadership, moral direction, and more. I'm pro...

We were in the final weeks of the police academy. All of us students, who had not yet earned the privilege to wear full uniform, were seated in a lecture...in various stages of slideshow coma. Through a side door walked one of the academy supervisors - an intimidating veteran cop, quick to point out the fault and slow to praise. I'm not sure I caught him smiling even once, not even under his full walrus-styled gray mustache. He was all business, all the time. We all sat up straight, eyes straight ahead. Then he called out the name: " Hayes! " My name. Why the heck did he want me? No one had ever been called out of the middle of a class like that before... What followed was a one-on-one lecture in a sterile conference room. A conversation that that started in a way I have not forgotten: I'm not exactly sure why, Hayes, but the class listens to you. Everyone is a little anxious to graduate and hit the streets. There's a lack of concentration. I need you ...

There's no value in collecting blocks unless you're connecting them to build something awesome! Student empowerment. Gamification. Incestuous Amplification. Special Forces selection. Broadening systems perspective. Implicit racial bias. What can you connect with your current base of knowledge and understanding? The Five Biggest Fears that Kept Me from Empowering Students.  John Spencer is a college professor and former middle school teacher. He explains the anxiety of turning over the classroom controls to his students. The infographic that lists his particular fears is one that really hit home with me. They were exactly those fears of mine as I shifted to student-led formats in police training classes and programs!  The art and craft of making board games for the CIA.  How can we (or  can  we?) use games to learn new workplace skills in adulthood? Charlie Hall brings us inside the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for a glimpse of their use of games ...

There's no value in collecting blocks unless you're connecting them to build something awesome! Product management. USMC drill instructors. Change is not hard. Biased algorithms. Expertise. Here are the pieces that I enjoyed this past week: Making Good Decisions as a Product Manager . Brandon Chu talks decision-making, risk management, prediction, and confidence levels. While his environment is different than most of my readers and followers, it certainly has a great deal of cross-over value. I'm not a supporter of the whole percentage thing...but I completely understand his use of the numbers to convey a point. What I find interesting is the discussion on time . How can we manipulate (or extend) time in our respective fields? Teaching United States Marine Instructors New Tricks: Developing Adaptability Through Experiential Learning .  Fred Leland is a former Marine and retired police lieutenant. He moderates workshops for police trainers and USMC instructors/office...

Today, the recurring story in my social media feeds is that of police body worn cameras outfitted with facial recognition software.  And I have but one thought: American government is not ready for this. In the last decade, nothing has complicated American policing as much as the deployment of body worn cameras. When are they turned ON? When are they turned OFF? What about during civil protests? Can police record First Amendment activities? What are the Fourth Amendment concerns?  Can officers watch the video prior to report writing? How about before interrogation about wrongdoing? What if the officer is involved in a citizen's death? When can the videos be released to the public? Who determines what is edited out for privacy? What about buffer zones that go back in time and record? How are innocent persons' privacy protected? When can video be used in courts of law?  How about for police internal investigations? What if _____? The list goes on and ...

There's no value in collecting blocks unless you're connecting them to build something awesome! Fake science. Police & social media. Decision games. Automated work. Increased memory. Here are five pieces that I found valuable this week: Power Poseur: The lure of lucrative pseudoscience and the crisis of untrustworthiness of psychology.   James Coyne describes a trend where junk science is used or exaggerated to sell products. The brunt of his article is aimed at Amy Cuddy's research on power posing and the effects on testosterone and cortisol levels. Coyne's piece is a skeptical view into research, evidence-based, and marketing fields.  Chris Hsiung - WINx Chicago 2017 . In this 18-minute TED-style talk, police Captain Chris Hsiung of Mountain View CA Police Dept discusses government use of social media. In the heart of Silicon Valley, MVPD is a pioneer in their use of social media to further strengthen their relationship with the community. Having met Chris...

I'm writing from the premise that some really, really(!)  smart people tend to be terrible at connecting with their audiences. This isn't a claim that every academic ignores the power of emotional storytelling....but rather a generalization garnered from years of being put to sleep by boring lecture after boring lecture.  You smart people have some great ideas, insight, and projects that should be shared with us working folk. But something is missing in the way you talk to us. Sometimes, we shut you down before you even start speaking. Let's start with what should be the simplest step: the slide deck . While platforms like  Prezi are gaining popularity, m any presenters take comfort in the linear format of PowerPoint or Keynote to develop visual aids. (Personally, I'm partial to Apple Keynote.)  Here are two fundamental concepts of slide theory: You should not be useless without your slides. Your slides should be useless without you. I follow professio...