Organizing for Change

I am asked all the time about open-source programs, resources, and other free alternatives for things that can be prohibitively expensive. Don't get me wrong, sometimes there are easy answers. Big companies will offer generous discounts to educational institutions, non-profit organizations and even individual educators. However, as we also know, sometimes, there is a significant barrier when talking about access to knowledge. Let's step back for a minute and think about what is necessary versus what is desired. Of course, "free" always sounds better and seems more desirable. However, what does free really mean? After all, most of us understand that there is some inherent cost to everything. The real question is more about who is paying that cost and what are we willing to accept? Below, we will explore three primary sources of "free" resources and talk about the implications and tradeoffs involved. For our purposes, we will look at publicly available r...

Just recently, I achieved a milestone that was not even initially a goal when starting my YouTube Channel . After all, I was not a professional video editor. I had no background in YouTube or video production, other than working in the educational space with recorded lectures, instructional design, and educational technologies. Beyond wanting to develop my skill set and as a hobby, I thought YouTube and blogging might be a good way to share some useful information for professionals looking to better organize their time and work lives. Again, I had no idea that this might be something people would really subscribe to. I was really inspired to try this by several people in the e-ink space when I was researching my eventual purchase of the Supernote . Right before turning 50 in December of last year, I decided to jump in and try to create something. Admittedly, my first few videos were rough, and not something I feel was my best work. I started with a 4K document camera that doubled as my...