educating eric

In the world of social media management, sometimes you encounter people who don't quite get it. And that's OK. But sometimes you encounter the "collateral damage" that those people do. So, here's a brief Public Service Announcement on how Twitter blocking works, and might have unintended consequences for you and the people who rely on you. Here's the background: I had seen an interesting exchange between two Ed Tech personalities: Shelly Terrell publicly complained that someone had @-messaged her (a public "nod" or "head's up" on Twitter and other social media platforms).  She asked that they direct-message her instead. That's a really odd thing to say. Sure, you can use Twitter however you want to, but that's really not what it was designed for. Or, at least, it's unusual to complain that someone is using a key notification feature of it; @-messages were really early innovation and were ...

I'm listening to Beyond the To Do List , and up comes Rob Bell on "Being Present with Rhythm, Routines and Rituals":  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BeyondTheToDoList/~3/ssYjvb7ILZk/ I know not everyone does... but I like Rob Bell. If we spent more time appreciating wisdom rather than vilifying him personally, I think the world would be better off...

Last February I met Darin Delaney at a " social media in small business " event sponsored by the BMO Harris bank branch in Burnsville, Minnesota.  At the time, he mentioned the Social Marketing and Networking Meet Up group that he co-leads, and I was all set to go... until I got sidelined by a cold the morning of.  (One of those "Wake up at 8:00 a.m., make a couple calls and emails to cancel appointments, go back to sleep for what you think will be just awhile, wake up again at 3:00 p.m.) kinds of colds; had I not gotten a flu shot, I'd have sworn it was the flu...) Fast forward to June (June?!?) and I finally made it to one of their monthly events. Today.  (What happened to March, April and May in my world?) I decided that rather than keeping my notes private, I might as well post them publicly.  It's social, right? Featured speaker and social marketing specialist Janet Johnson spent nearly two hours filling us in on Facebook ads.  The case-study was ...

There are a ton of interesting spiritual messages coming up as I'm Listening to The Ray Edwards Show (#233: Cliff Ravenscraft, "I Am Not Spock"): http://rayedwards.com/233/ or "It's Not About the Microphone" (Part Two of Two) Note: This episode is the second half of my conversation with Cliff Ravenscraft, aka The Podcast Answer Man . You can listen to Part One by clicking here. Cliff Ravenscraft is the king of helping people start their own podcast. He's helped thousands of people do it. But wait – there's more… This is fascinating conversation ended up being so far-ranging, we had to make it two episodes. We'll discover… Why typecasting is not necessarily a bad thing. How the musical Hamilton changed Cliff's life – and so many others. The nature of ambition, service, and selfishness. And so much more! Click here to download or listen to this episode now . Links Wow – what a lot of links we mentione...

I FOUND IT! After years of pondering in the back of my mind, I found an article by Clay Shirky that summarizes what I’ve been seeking for years:     From: Larson, Eric M. Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 10:00 AM Subject: Collective Action and "opting out"?   Hi, Clay!  At last week's AllVoices webinar you mentioned a really interesting concept in passing:  That the studies/experiences in the "psychology of collective action" show that that people tend to "opt out" when the participation rates are unknown.   In other words, "Gee, I don't know how big a deal this is, so I guess I won't go" -- which would be the flip side of, "Wow!  It sounds like that thing is going to be popular; I'd better be there!"  (Or maybe, "Gosh, it's going to be a tiny group; I'd better go to help them out"?)     Here’s the closest thing I...

Are the Fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self control) a thermometer, or a thermostat?

Wow. Rare to get hypocrisy (or lies) in writing, but sometimes it happens. If you ever wondered if NameCheap stands by the public claims they make in places like  https://blog.namecheap.com/how-to-report-a-fraudulent-website-to-a-registrar/  here's proof in black-and-white that they don't: Begin forwarded message: From: Nataly Bondarenko < abuse@namecheap.com > Date: April 29, 2016 at 1:37:03 PM CDT To: <emlarson@...> Subject: [#MRO-489-36585]: com-give.com scam site Reply-To: < abuse@namecheap.com > Hello, Thank you for your email regarding the domain name com-give.com . While the domain name does have Namecheap.com as the registrar, we cannot oversee the data being transmitted through its website. We do not own the domain name mentioned in your complaint, we are simply the company the domain name was purchased from. The issue would need to be addressed through the hosting provider to see if thei...

...but also the leaders and followers of Jesus: "Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith." ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭13:7‬ ‭ESV‬‬ http://bible.com/59/heb.13.7.esv

I have a theological concerned with some kinds of "conflict". I agree that it's not inherently un-Biblical, because there's plenty of diversity in the Body and sometimes people aren't thinking on the same wavelength. But in a church, sometimes there are major decisions that aren't by consensus. In that case, is it simply that the minority of the congregation isn't listening to the Holy Spirit?  It can't be that the Spirit is giving two contradictory directions. Listening to River Valley Leadership Podcast (Episode 010: Running From Conflict): http://leaders.rivervalley.org/podcast//episode-010-running-from-conflict Conflict is something that we all face as leaders. It's inevitable. You can't control when it will come up, but you can control what you do in the midst of it. Will you run from it? Or will you lean into the tensions you face to create a space for everyone to be better? Join the podcast cr...

Safer Alcohol ( @saferalcohol ) 3/16/16, 12:42 PM Why Is The Government Hiding A Safer Way To Drink Alcohol From Us? amp.twimg.com/v/f02f1c4b-c5f… I have to admit, Twitter's ad targeting is pretty good, because more often than not when sponsored tweet shows up in my feed.... I find worthy of exploration. That happened this morning when the video clip from "safer alcohol" appeared. It turns out that the organization sponsoring it is the "Coalition For Safer Drinking" and the link is to an informational website at SaferAlcohol.com .  But unless their website simply isn't mobile optimized, which would be unfortunate for an organization advertising on Twitter, there isn't much information on their informational site. And there's no call to action, so other than keeping a note of the site somewhere in my bookmarks (or Evernote or OneNote a text file in Dropbox or some other place I'll lose...

"He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more." ‭‭John‬ ‭15:2‬ ‭NLT‬‬ http://bible.com/116/jhn.15.2.nlt If "every branch of mine" really means "every branch that falsely professes to be mine"... Why doesn't it say that? "Of mine" or "In me" seems pretty clear.

"You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father." ‭‭John‬ ‭14:13‬ ‭NLT‬‬ http://bible.com/116/jhn.14.13.nlt "Fruit is the life of Jesus in you being lived out through you." -Wes Feltner Note that Jesus is doing the doing. The Father is glorified because you asked Jesus (not an idol or whatever), and Jesus does it, not so you have a trinket, but so that the Father is glorified. John has some deep stuff...

It's not just in Acts; Jesus Himself had a ministry to the Greeks, directly and personally... "Some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration paid a visit to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee. They said, "Sir, we want to meet Jesus." Philip told Andrew about it, and they went together to ask Jesus." ‭‭John‬ ‭12:20-22‬ ‭NLT‬‬ http://bible.com/116/jhn.12.20-22.nlt

In an online environment, anything the students do results in some sort of sharable digital artifact. What about classroom activities? A really good conversation is totally lost at the end of a day. But a full discussion board becomes overwhelming to review by the time a course is complete. Who then curates that information to turn it into accessible knowledge?

I just heard a story about browser extensions in chrome that are used to replace one set of words with another, usually for comedic effect. That got me thinking. I have long said that there are affinities between higher education and communities of faith and ministry. (By the way, "Highridge Acacian" would be a great name for a band or academy. Or cemetery. Or maybe a paint color for your kitchen. Thanks, Siri!) Anyway, what my next spare time project will be is to try out one of these extensions and use it to swap words in writings from one domain and see if they can be easily transformed into advice or insight for the other domain. For instance, I love the model of engagement laid out by Man in the Mirror ministries. What happens when you do a find and replace, and take every reference of "men" and turn it into "faculty"? Most men have such and such a concern, in order to reach men effectively you need to do this and that, etc. I bet the...

I'm both intrigue and ashamed to admit that in all my years, I never heard the distinction raised in this episode. Listening to APM: Marketplace Tech (Marketplace Tech for Thursday, March 10, 2016): http://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-tech/marketplace-tech-thursday-march-10-2016 Airing on Thursday, March 10, 2016: On today's show, we'll talk about what's being discussed at SXSW when it comes to online harassment;  we'll talk with  Luna Malbroux, comedian and creator of the EquiTable app; and we'll cover  what goes into winning a game of Go.

See "I'm An Evangelical, And I Don't Support Ted Cruz": http://thefederalist.com/2016/01/14/im-an-evangelical-and-i-dont-support-ted-cruz/

"And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, "'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed'— for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." And when they had prayed, the place in which they w...

I figured I'd share a couple pictures of my whiteboard setup. One single-pane patio storm door, still in its original frame, is down in my basement: It's an aluminum frame that could probably be modified to be edge-lit? But what I did in my den upstairs is just remove the frame from the other door and mount it to the wall with mirror clips: The clips are just screwed into the studs - extra ones on the bottom since the weight is bearing down, and the top ones just keep it from tipping off the wall: Yes, it's a good look for the 60s/70s vibe I love; I can admire it from my knockoff Eames chair under my pole lamp next to the Neil Armstrong boot print that hung over my crib.

Falwell Jr. endorsed Trump? Of course. When the Democratic Party returns to its core identity of "speaking for the voiceless", it will prioritize that value over its value of "sexual liberty at all costs". At that point, it will protect unborn humans as strongly as it protects unborn Bald Eagles. And when that happens, Christians will realize that the Democratic Party has a Christlike compassion for human needs, while the Republican Party has a Christlike understanding of human nature. And then, the "political fight" will be a fair one. Until then, Falwell and his ilk would much rather vote for a wall-builder than a baby-killer, and our political process goes nowhere. #UnpopularOpinion

The Brutalism of Ted Cruz: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/12/opinion/the-brutalism-of-ted-cruz.html This indictment stands not only against Ted Cruz, but against every self-described "Christian Conservative" I've ever met: > "Cruz is a stranger to most of what would generally be considered the Christian virtues: humility, mercy, compassion and grace. Cruz's behavior in the Haley case is almost the dictionary definition of pharisaism: an overzealous application of the letter of the law in a way that violates the spirit of the law, as well as fairness and mercy." I'll be blunt: In an effort to pursue and celebrate sexual liberty, the Democratic part (which is usually the champion and voice of "the little guy") has abandoned the responsibility to represent the unborn -- who, while inconvenient, are (by any scientific measure) biological humans whose only rights limitation is by virtue of their physical location. If they were Bald Eagles nesting...