Innovation in Education

Innovations in Technology can Help Prospective Students Attend the Right School

The Harvard business article "The Social Network - College Edition" by Tom Dretler, addresses the fact that one out of three college students will transfer at some point in their college career. Tom explains that universities and colleges in the U.S. need to to use technology to give perceptive students an accurate feel and description of what they can expect from the school, and the area around the school. Tom explains the disconnect between what the potential student think the college or university is like, and what it is actually is like. He explains that M.I.T. and Boston University are being proactive in providing blogs written by students you can view, and games you can play to get a better feel of the school and its surroundings.

Boston University has an array of student and faculty videos for prospective students.

Boston university has informed videos on their site, where you can see Boston University students unbiased opinion about their school. They also have all kinds of videos of students, professors, and alumni talking about athletics, faculty, internships, dining, housing, and many other aspects of the school. They even provide current students typical weekly schedule. Boston university site is different from other universities admission sites, because it is so interactive. The site does not just provide statics or facts about the school. They go in depth about the city life in Boston, and the student life at the school. They do not just talk about the general features, for example, the video below is of BU students, giving tips and opinions on fashion at BU.

Check the Boston University admissions site for yourself 

http://www.bu.edu/admissions/you-at-bu/

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has student and faculty write blogs, about what ever is on their minds. 

M.I.T. is also a step ahead of other schools in my opinion; in helping potential students out if their school is right for them. Similarly to Boston Universities student interaction videos, M.I.T. also has this but in blog form. But rather than talking about one specific thing about the school,  M.I.T. students and faculty are paid to talk about anything they want. Students and faculty blog about anything, from eating to much nutella to how they spend their friday nights. I find this blog very innovative, because students faculty are able to write about anything they would like. Unlike other schools where students will only talk about the school itself, and its surroundings, when students and faculty are able to write freely you get their unbiased opinion. Also you hear about things that you would not be able to hear about on a tour, or just through looking at videos or information about the school. For example one student blogged about how a lot of students enjoy this new song called gangnam style, and students all over campus are starting to dance to it.

Check out M.I.T.'s student written blogs
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs

Overall both of these schools have been and need to be very innovative in providing a sense of the atmosphere at and around the school. Because both of these well known schools attract students from all over the world, and some are unable to tour the school in person.


Pick your location wisely.

Picking the right college is debatable the most important decision in your life. Not only will you be attending the college for four years, but there is a good chance you will be starting a family and spending the rest of your live in the same general area where your college is located.

On sites like college board, for example you can view general information about the school like, the size of the school,  the majors,  the location, the tuition, required GPA and standard testing scores, tuition etc. Depending on your GPA and standardize testing scores, you will have choose of location, do you want to be close to home, or do you want to travel.  If you want to attend college far away it might be hard to visit the college, depending on your circumstances.

This is where potential students need to relay on the internet to get all their information about a school they can no visit in person. school, but the problem is so many kids are transferring, and their exceptions of the school are different from what the school is really like. This article explains that there should be more innovations online, giving more details about the school and the area the school is in. I agree with this author, that there should be more resources available online to give you more of an in depth feel of how the college really is. Especially for well known schools that have kid traveling from all around the world to go to schools like Harvard, Boston University, Stanford and Texas University, just to name a few. I think in the near future people will start to attempt  to make websites similar to college board, but more interactive with the current students and faculty at the school talking to the prospective students more directly through video chat. As oppose to just viewing pre made video tours about the college.

Below is a video by Boston University, about freshman just arriving at the BU.

Clark University

I am currently attending Clark university in Worcester Massachusetts. Because I only live a hour away from Clark I was able to visit the school multiple times. I knew just about everything I needed to know about the school, but the main concern I had with the school was if I was going to get along with the students there, which I think a lot of people are concerned with. You can visit the school and take a tour a see the kids in the school, but except doing that there is not really anyway you can tell if you will get along with the kids there. Clark is such a well known school people travel all around the world to attend, in fact fifteen percent of the students here are international. This makes it hard for students to visit from far away places, so they need to relay on resources online to learn more about the school. Clark university has many videos online of students explaining what the school is like, but the problem is a kid from Texas but be giving his opinion of this school, and his opinion might be different from a kid from Chinas prospective of the school.

Improving Clark Universities admissions site, by matching current students with prospective students based on their hometowns. 

One thing I would do to improve Clarks admission site is connect current students and prospective students based on where they lived for the majority of their life. For example, if a prospective student is thinking about attending Clark form California, then they will connect with a current student at Clark that is originally from California. This way they can share their similar experiences, and the current student can tell the prospective student what the differences and similarities between Massachusetts and California. They can talk about weather, the type of people in both places, overall atmosphere of the state, and many other things. I would suggest they can chat by video, or online chatting. Since commutation through online video is becoming more popular, I would suggest having multiple prospective students all video chat with the current student at Clark at the same time. I would also connect potential transfer students to Clark and students who are currently at Clark that transfered there. Overall I would connect more current students with prospective students through live communication.


Clark Universities admissions site
http://www.clarku.edu/admissions.cfm

Link to the article I am referring to- "The Social Network - College Edition" by Tom Dretler
http://blogs.hbr.org/innovations-in-education/2011/03/the-social-network-college-edi.html

New Innovative Golf Tee

                         


The golf industry is growing.
The golf industry is over a 75 billion dollar industry. The golf industry is bigger then all of these industries: motion picture and video, spectator sports and news paper industry. Over 28 million people play golf, in America alone, and the industry will only get bigger."By 2016, the US golf course revenues will grow at a CAGR 3.75% led by positive growth in golf facilities and operations" (marketresearch.com).

Golf is a Competitive sport.
The few times I played golf, I found it extremely competitive. Even though you may only hear of golf tournaments like the PGA tour, there are thousands of golfers competing in smaller tournaments across America, in hopes of making to the professional level one day.

The equipment you use in golf we effect your performance.
 Like any competitive sport, athletes want the top of the line equipment to to maximize their performance. In golf I think the equipment the golfer uses is extremely important, Unlike other sports like basketball or football where for the most part everyones equipment is the same, and the sport provides the football so to speak. But in golf everyones equipment is different. You will see a dramatic difference in your performance if for example, you use a low end golf club compared to a high end golf club. Since golf is so competitive everyone wants the top of the line equipment; to get an edge on their competition.

The golf tee is a important factor that golfers sometimes ignore. 
The type of golf tee and the way you place your golf tee in the ground, has a huge impact, on the direction and distance of your ball. For example if your golf tee if slightly titled left then the ball will most likely not go in a straight direct. If your golf tee is slanted forward your golf ball will mostly like not travel as far as your were hoping. 

The problem with the traditional golf tee is it does not have a strong base. 
The traditional golf tee has just one stake in the ground, and the golf ball is barely balancing on the top of the tee. If there is wind for example the ball might slightly move in certain direction, with out the golfer noticing. Since the traditional golf tee only has one stake, the one stake could be loose in the ground, for example if the ground is wet the golf tee will be loose. This effects the shock of the ball in your swing, and therefor in will affect how far the ball travels. 

The solution. 
I came up with a solution for perfecting the tee. With my Perfect Tee (name is tentative), you will increase your distance and accuracy. The solution is simple, put more stakes in the ground, which will make the tee more sturdy, and therefor tee will not be affected by the weather. It will stay in place improving your shots accuracy. The Perfect Tee will have four stakes in the ground, as oppose to the conventional tee, which only has one stake. 

The second advantage The Perfect Tee has is its absorption of the shock. With the conventional tee there is only one stack in the ground making it less stable, and it prone to move around especially on wet grass. As I stated if the tee moves even a little, so little you do not even notice, it can affect your shot by many feet in a certain direction. With The Perfect Tee the tee will have four stakes in the ground, which will keep the tee in place, and therefor will keep the ball in place.  

A good analogy to The Perfect Tee and the conventional tee would be like building a bridge. The builders want the bridge to be as stable as possible, so the bridge does not move due to weather. And if the bridge does not move either will the car on the bridge. But imagine the car has too travel in a straight line across the bridge, even the slightest movement, in the right or left direction, will affect the cars performance. You can apply the same concept to a golf tee. 

Conclusion
The slightest move of the ball can effect your shot. The Perfect Tee is more stable making your shot travel further and increasing your accuracy.

Sources 

http://www.marketresearch.com/AM-Mindpower-Solutions-v3771/Global-Golf-Participation-Growth-Forecast-6769044/

My Grandfather's Business

                                    Poly Hangers

Threw out my child hood, I got to see my Grandfather's self run business evolve and gain more and more business. My Grandfather has a pattern on a innovation he created, that he named poly hangers. The name is self explanatory. Poly is used at construction sites to stop dust and dangerous chemicals from spreading into other parts of the construction site. Poly hangers hang poly at construction sites, without damaging the walls you are hanging them on. An alternative to poly hangers would be to use staples or duck tape, but as you those things but cause damage to the wall. As you can see from the pictures below poly hangers do no harm to the walls. They simply are adjusted around them. 

Employees 
My Grandmother

Products
There are four different poly hangers my Grandfather sells. Each hanger has their own benefit, For example hanger number one Supports one or more layers of poly in front of walls. And hanger number four Supports poly from roof joists, pipes, and other building components. 

Poly-Hanger 1 - $125/Box of 100
 



Poly-Hanger 2 - $135/Box of 100

Poly-Hanger 3 - $285/Box of 100
 

    

Poly-Hanger 4 - $265/Box of 100

  










One new product my Grandfather added is the leak diverter kit. The Kit "Diverts roof and other leaks to an out of the way location to avoid creating dangerous wet floor conditions and to avoid disrupting customers and business operations."
Leak Diverter Kit - $250



Customers
My Grandfather sells about 50 percent of his products to distribution companies, who  order in bulk different products in the construction category. They then market them and sell them to different construction companies. 

International Customers
At first my Grandfather was hesitate to ship internationally. Because of the risk of the product being copied. As his sales grew, and with the internet and communication evolving, he decided to look in to it. He got in contact with a guy from France who was interesting in buying in bulk. They talked over the phone and my Grandfather was able to sign a contract with him. Currently about half of my Grandfather's sales are shipped to France. Also he made an option so people can view his website in French.

Marketing and Future Plans 
As my Grandfather's company grew so did his market expenses.  As of the past couple of years, he spent thousands of dollars each year making flyers to promote his products. That he puts in the package with the hangers, he also hands them to manufacturing companies where they give the flyers to construction companies. As of now he does not do any online marketing. As of now I am not sure if my Grandfather has future plans or if he is just not telling me them. But I do know that there is no need to change if you do not have to. My Grandfather told me his business is gradually gaining more profits each year, and if Mitt Romney becomes president my Grandfather told me his profits will be even higher. 






For more information please visit my Grandfather's site at 
http://www.polyhangers.com

Dale Carnegie and Steve Jobs

Dale Carnegie


Dale Carnegie was born in Maryville Missouri on November 24, 1888. Through out Dale's life he lectured people and wrote many books on: interpersonal skills, public speaking, self-improvement, and salesmanship. Through 1915 to 1962 he wrote many books, but the one he is most famous for is How to Win Friends and Influence People. The title of this book is self explanatory. Dale's main idea in the book is that you must change yourself, before you can change peoples perception of you. Dale Carnegie did not learn from anyone. He naturally had excellent interpersonal skills in my opinion, but as he explains in his book you do not have to be a naturally good speaker you just have to do the small things, that give off good vibes to the person you are listening or speaking to. For example two little things that he mention in his book  How to Win Friends and Influence People are 1. Smile and 2. Remember that a person's name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.  Dale Carnegie inspired and changed many peoples lives for the better. He definitely made a positive mark on the world. Founded in 1912, and still running there is a Dale Carnegie Training, that more than 8 million people have completed, and is in more than 80 countries.   

While refereeing to Dale Carnegie's 1936 book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" Warren Buffet said in an interview, "I do not have my diploma from college I do not have my diploma from graduate school, but I have my Dale Carnegie diploma. Because it changed my life" Warren Buffet is one of my idols and someone that is a extremely hard worker and very successful, so for him to say that makes me want to read some of Dale Carnegie books, when I get the chance.

"Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have."

Steve Jobs

As you probably know the late Steve Jobs was known for his extremely successful business Apple. Steve Jobs was not only a genius, but he had a extremely good presenting and interpersonal skills. He had a way to keep the audience always in awe in during his presentations. One big theme all of Apple has, and Steve Jobs does a great job of, is making everything simply. Steve Jobs makes everything from is presentation to his stores to his products. For example on his slide shows he will have one picture and maybe a couple bullet points. This puts more of the focus on him and how he presents himself instead of the information. Steve Jobs also knows his products inside and out, even though his presentations are more general, so the audience can understand them. I have no doubt in my mind that he knows just as much about all of his products, as anyone else in the company. 

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.''

 

Steve Jobs and Dale Carnegie Common Themes 

Dale Carnegie failed to mention anything about presenting your self in a certain way, in other words dressing nicely. I think dressing nice should be secondary, to how you present your self and what you are saying. For example, in all of Steve Job's presentation he will always wear jeans with a black turtle neck. This makes the audience focused on the presentation and the information he is saying instead of focusing on the presenter. One other thing that they both preach is that you must show emotion when you speak. If you are really passionate about your topic you will show emotion. This has a huge impact on the listeners. Dale Carnegie and Steve Jobs general principles of presenting and managing people will never change. 

One other common theme both Steve and Dale preach is do not be afraid to fail! Failure will only help you succeed in your future endeavor's. Learn from your mistakes.

Dale Carnegie

"Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success."

Steve Jobs
Below is a video I find very inspiring. It is a video of Steve Jobs talking about failure. 

"Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. "

Both Steve Jobs and Dale Carnegie both agree that you must love what you are doing in order to be successful.

Dale Carnegie

"People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing."

 Steve Jobs Stanford University Speech (2005)

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

Differences 

One main difference that I found was that Steve Jobs was actually talking about a product he made, while Dale Carnegie just had simple guidelines for public speaking. One thing to keep in mind when you are presenting is that, you can take all the public speaking classes in the world, but if you do not know your product or project inside out then, it will affect your presentation. Unlike a lot of CEO's Steve Jobs made everything from the stores to the actual IPOD, so everything about his company inside and out. To conclude read Dale Carnegie's book  How to Win Friends and Influence People  but more importantly know what you are talking about. 

Conituum

                                               
Myles Penniman
9/30/12


The best way to find out about how a company is ran, is to know who is running the company. That is why I read these two articles about Adam Byrant, the chief executive of conituum, and Gianfranco Zaccai, the co-founder of conituum. 
I admire both of these guys, because of their passion to innovatate. Also because they have created well known projects and innovations. 




Adam Byrant-Chief Executive
I found the article "You Can't Find the Future in the Archives" by Adam Byrant, very useful and informative. The article was an interview with the chief executive from Continuum Harry West. I think the best way to find out how a company is ran is from their higher ranking employees like the chief executive, Harry West. After reading the interview I get the feeling that conituum is a very well ran company. Harry West mentioned he is very supportive of his employees ideas. I got the feeling even before I read this, when I saw in the website under team it had pictures of all of the employees in alphabetical order. The page made it look like everyone had an equal responsibility in the company. I think this is very important to do, because in a company he have to let the best ideas win. And it does not matter if it comes from the CEO or a intern. 

Gianfranco Zaccai-Co-founder 

After reading "The engineer of Everyday Objects" by Ellen Gamerman, the first paragraph read, "Industrial designer Gianfranco Zaccai is lying in a hospital bed. But he's not sick. The fake hospital room sits in his company's offices, placed there to help find new ideas for a health-care client." After reading this I thought to myself this guy is either crazy or an extreme hard worker and innovator. Gianfranco stresses the importance of being in the situation and looking at things from different angles. For example, "As you can see Mr.Gianfranco does what ever he can to innovate. Mr. Zaccai's work requires him and his staff to pretend to be a lot of things: a Chinese parent (for Pampers diapers in that country), a basketball player (for the Reebok Pump sneaker), a bargain hunter (for a plastic Target shopping cart)

Capabilities and Clients 
Essentially what Continuum does is they help people improve their innovative ideas. One thing that I found unique about the company was they have so many areas of expertise. Everything from brand experience to product design. Also by looking at their staff I can see their employees had degrees in a variety of fields. I think it is a good thing that the company has a wide range of experts in different fields. Because if all of the employees studied the same thing, they will all think similar, and it is good collaborate with people who think differently than you, so they can criticize and help your idea. 

Observation before innovating
Conitnuum has worked on a array of projects. They have worked on designing lobby rooms in hotels, to make the hotel more profit able. Also they worked with proctor and gamble to create the swiffer. Just to name a few. The thing that I get out of the projects, that I read was you have to observe before you can innovate. For example, for the redesigning the lobby of the hotel project, the team has to have artichetures on the team, but before you can build a new lobby you must have people that study and observe people's habits. 









Articles I am referring to-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/business/harry-west-of-continuum-on-defining-your-companys-future.html?_r=2&ref=business
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903999904576470091454779676.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

Itunes and Ipod Presentation Conclusion

     Myles Penniman

     9/29/12                                           

                                                                     

                                

             For my creating culture of innovation class on tuesday, we had to pick a innovator or innovation and present a ten minute slideshow on it. I chose to do my presentation on the invention of itunes and the Ipod.

After finishing this project I was astounded by how much impact and effort Steve Jobs had in apple products. Unlike other CEO's of other big compaines, Steve jobs not only presented the finished product he designed it. Steve Jobs did everything from deciding the price of a song to designing the apple stores layout. 

The common theme with all apple products is simplicity and design. The ipod is a perfect example of this. Unlike a lot of the music players at the time, that had a lot of buttons, the first generation Ipod only a one simple wheel. As they improved the models of the Ipod, they would only get lighter and slicker. For example the first ipod weighted over two ounces, and the ipod shuffle second generation only weighed 0.55 ounces. The simplicity of the ipod only got simpler, from the ipod wheel to only one simple button on the ipod touch. 

There was a lot of things I already knew but even more things that were new and fasinating to me. Some interesting facts I learned were,

-Apple bought SoundJam MP and re named it itunes.

-The iPod's wheel technology can measure changed in position greater than 1/1,00th of an inch.

-By 2007 the Ipod accounted for nearly half of all apples sales.

-Ipod batteries can last between 14 - 28 days if they are not used at all.

Depending on the model of iPod, the battery will continuously play music for between 8 - 20 hours if fully charged.

-The worlds most expensive Ipod was auctioned off at a charity auction for $40,000

Samsung VS Apple Article Response

Myles Penniman

9/20/12

After reading the article "The Way Forward for Samsung, and Innovation" by Sohrab Vossoughi, in the Harvard Business Review, I thought it was very one sided. The author tends to lean towards Apple's favor a little more. For example the author writes "The act of performing a task with an iPhone is fulfilling, delightful, and trustworthy, and Samsung gets this." After I read this quote I thought, wow thats a little much. Everyone is not in love with using an iphone like this guy seems to be.

The last line of the article reads, "The real impact of the Apple verdict is to make it clear to the whole world what forward-looking innovators have known for some time: that following is no longer the safest bet in consumer goods." I fully understand the authors main point, which is that in order to be successful you must come up with your own ideas and products. Essentially he is saying you can not steal from other innovators. The author is all for apple, but the late Steve Jobs even said it himself  “Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal” Steve Jobs did not play by the rules in life or in business! It is important to innovate by yourself but it is also important learn from other people. You do not have to completely copy them, but you should look at there ideas and inventions and see what you can learn from them. 

I do not think Samsung should have been accussed of anything. The author brings up a quote from an expert that reads "devices using a different navigation mode would be like "cars with square or triangular steering wheels." The analogy reveals more than the expert intended. Circular steering wheels are standard on cars because steering requires rotating something in a circular path. It's the most effective geometry, not because of human perception, but the unchanging reality of rotational motion." This is a great point the expert brings up. To say that another phone company copied something that is so general, like pitching to zoom on a phone is absurd. 

Overall I disagree with the jury's decision and the author of this article. The idea of pitch to zoom is to general of an idea to copy. I think this quote explains it better than I can: "devices using a different navigation mode would be like "cars with square or triangular steering wheels."

Below is a picture of Apples "trademark" idea "pitch to zoom"

Below is a nice display of what Apple is suing Samsung over.

Here is a little bit better explanation of what happened during the trail.

Sources 

iphone vs Samsung phone picture

http://1.androidauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/apple-samsung-patent-claims.jpg

Apples pitch to zoom picture

http://www.technocrates.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ipad-auto-pinch.jpg

"Samsung ordered to pay Apple $1bn" video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cZudrPG_1I

Article I am responding to

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/09/the_way_forward_for_samsung_an.html

 

7 Sources Of Innovation By Peter Drucker

                                               
Myles Penniman
9/16/12

After reading the 7 sources of innovation I thought it was great advice for someone like me who aspires to run a business someday. Here are the 7 sources of innovation written by Peter Drucker. Every innovator and business should keep these in mind.

1. First off is The Unexpected. The Unexpected is exactly what it sounds like, you have to expect the Unexpected if you want to have a successful business. The unexpected could mean failure, success, surprised, ECT. You must be ready for anything. The whole market could change dramatically by peoples unexpected decisions. A good hypothetical example of this would be if the whole electron market was down really bad in the stock market for some random reason. If you are a electronic company like say Best Buy you must adjust.

2. Second is something called Incongruities. Incongruities is basically thinking differentely. Not only thinking differentely from your competitors, but also thinking differentely from society. What I mean by this is you must find a creative idea to sell, and you can only do this by thinking differenelty to discover a new invention or idea. When I think of thinking differentely Steve Jobs comes to mind and all of his inventions. A good example of this would be how Steve Jobs and apple created the Iphone it was one of a kind at the time, no one else combined both music and a cell phone in one. Manoj Bhargava                                                                                                                                             3. 

3.Third on the list is an idea called Process need. Process need is similar to Incongruities in that you must think differentely than the everyone else. If there is a glicht or something missing in society or in a business you must find a innovative way to fix it. For example the creator of 5 hour energy Manoj Bhargava noticed that more people were consumming caffinated drinks. And in turn more people had to wait in line at stores that supplied coffe. Manoj Bhargava was innovator in that he created something that you can drink right away and did not take a while to drink nor did you have to wait in line to get the drink.

4. Fourth is called Changes in Industry and Market Structures. This topic is related to the "Unexepected" if you are a business owner you must expect the unexpected in your indurstry or market. Other business's  from within or even from with out your market could change your market. To make things simple I will stick with the 5 hour energy example. When Manoj Bhargava created 5 hour energy the whole caffene market was changed, more and more people were now buying small less expensive energy drinks rather than coffe. This meant that Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and other coffe industries had to adjust because of change in the market.

5. Demographics is esstiannly the change in population. For example the change in amount of kids riding bikes, change in amount of men over 50, change in amount of African Americans in America, ECT. These changes in Demographics change the way innovators run their business. A hypothetical example of this would be if we annexed mexico then the hispianic population in the U.S. would rise. If spanish people consume a lot of coffe then the coffe market would change, and in turn it would also effect other markets for example the bagel market would be affected because if more people buy coffe more and more people might stop by to get a bagel as well.

6. Sixth on the list is Changes in Perception. Perception is the way people perceive something. In the business world the general public might perceive a industry a certain way that could be good or bad. Perception changes over time. For example 50 years ago people did not know the affects of tobacco. So now more and more people are staying away from cigarettes so there is less advertising.

7. Last but not least is New knowledge. New knowledge of technology both scientific and non scientific. Business owners must be in touch with todays technology to run their business. There are new discoveries all the time that could affect your business. For example if the U.S. discovered they have a bunch somewhere in the U.S.! Oil companies would start digging to get the oil.

To follow these 7 rules written by Peter Drucker takes discipline and commitment. Some innovators do not take the time to stop and think about their surrounds and how the market is changing around them. This was a great learning experience reading these 7 sources/rules and, I will be sure to keep these sources in my mind when I run my own business someday!
Below is a informative interview with the author himself Peter Drucker.