After I wrote the post about how to Find Full length Videos, I put together a bookmarklet that finds videos about a word or a phrase that are selected in the page. A bookmarklet is a piece of code that is saved as a bookmark. When clicked, it performs some action (rather than just taking you to a bookmarked website). to use the bookmarklet, simply drag it to your bookmarks bar (or right click it and save it to your bookmarks). When you see a word or a phrase that interest you, select them with the mouse and click the bookmarklet. Continue reading “A Bookmarklet to Help You Find Videos Online” »

Recorded lectures are one of the most valuable learning tools available online. The web is full of them – starting from universities that publish full courses (see YouTube – Education – YouTube EDU), through recorded conferences (see for example Semantic Universe on Vimeo), to privately made tutorials. Here is a way to easily find lots of full length videos on any topic that interest you. [Update 1/14/2010] There's a bookmarklet for that.

Continue reading “Find Full length Video Lectures on Any topic” »

The video below is a nice animation of a lecture by Dan Pink. It talks about the things that motivate people, and especially knowledge workers (my wording). The interesting thing it reveals is that in activities that are highly cognitive (versus mechanical), it is not money that motivates us, but the following three factors:

• Autonomy - the ability to be self directed, that is, control our activities rather than being managed.
• Mastery – the urge to be better at stuff we do. The example given in the video is of people who play instruments just for fun, and not for money.
• Purpose – making a contribution to something transcendent.

I think that the most interesting practical suggestion in the video is this:

Pay people enough so that monIey is not a consideration anymore, and then making sure the three motivation factors are satisfied.

Continue reading “Video – The Three Factors That Motivate People” »