Breakfast of Champions

There were 9 faculty who set their alarms early enough to attend a Faculty Forum at 7:00 a.m. today.

Shelly Farha graciously made arrangements for "breakfast" to be served to entice attendance. Attendees not only ate breakfast burritos, coffee cake, and fresh fruit, but they also saw a demonstration of a free online social bookmarking program called "Delicious" given by yours truly!

Some facts:

Every two or three years the knowledge base doubles

High School graduates have been exposed to more information than their grandparents were in a lifetime.

Only 15% of jobs will require a college education, but nearly all jobs will require the equivalent knowledge of a college education

There will be as much change in the next 3 decades as there were in the last 3 centuries.

To make an automobile takes 40% ideas, skills and knowledge and 60% energy and raw material. To make a computer chip takes 98% ideas, skill and knowledge and 2% energy and raw material.

These facts point to the importance of life-long learning and adaptability.

So how does this tie into "Delicious"?

The ability to see other users bookmarks creates a "social" atmosphere. You can readily see who created each bookmark and Delicious provides access to that person's other bookmarked resources. It encourages you to keep coming back to a particular person's bookmarks as well as prompt you to add them to your network. You take advantage of others research, and you have found more meaningful research in a shorter amount of time by utilizing the resources of others.

Delicious gives you practice in organizing information, as well as put you on your way to sorting, synthesizing and evaluating what you found.

Lots of "Food for thought" to consider--but the plus was-no calories or trans fats!!