Teaching is too important to do alone.™ That’s why the IDEAS Learning team is preparing for the national launch of TeacherStudio™, our new worldwide professional learning community allowing teachers to see, hear, and collaborate with exemplary educators in action. Through a unique combination of networking technology, rich-media, and proprietary tools, TeacherStudio™ allows educators from member districts to come together anytime, anywhere to share ideas, receive mentoring, and learn best practices. We’ll be manning a booth with our sales partners (eSchool Solutions) at the National Staff Development Conference held this year in St. Louis, December 5-9.
The product, designed and developed by IDEAS, is currently being alpha tested by teachers and administrators in Seminole County (Florida) Public Schools. We are so thankful for the efforts of their district instructional technology team, led by Diane Lewis. Diane and her team have provided us with myriad suggestions throughout the year for how to make the product better, and they’ve been wonderfully tolerant as we have gone through the development process.
Just before Thanksgiving, we also signed the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township in Indiana as our first Pilot district. We are excited to begin the rollout there and to connect their users with those from Seminole County so they can begin sharing classroom best practices immediately!
We’re also looking for other districts who might want to use the product FREE OF CHARGE throughout this school year. Check out http://www.teacherstudio.com/ to learn how districts are using the product. You can even drop us a line if you’re interested in attending a Webinar by clicking on the “Request More Information” link on the website.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
The Future of Education
IDEAS is wonderfully eclectic. We are often working on a new kids website, a highly technical immersion center for a government or corporate client and an organizational transformation program for a fortune 500 company all on the same day. That diversity is what leads to the extraordinary opportunities we get to interact with world-class professionals. We are as we speak in the woods of Kiawah Island in South Carolina participating in a two day think-tank with some leading superintendents and educational reformers. We are having a very robust session built around a new protocol for teaching teachers better skills called The Power of Teaching developed by our old friend Joey Wise. Part of the work today is sharing the progress of our new TeacherStudio (http://www.teacherstudio.com/) on-line professional network with this top user group. We got a lot of good feedback and its always awesome to see how the right group of minds can co-create given the presence of a compelling need and an opportunity to fill it. It helps when the place is beautiful too!
Monday, November 16, 2009
The Worst Presentation EVER
Last week we sat through a PowerPoint presentation and as we watched and listened all we kept thinking was that we wish they had hired us to help them. Right there, within 5 minutes of sitting through their presentation, we could make the decision that this was not a company we wanted to work with. The presentation was sloppy, the presenter didn’t know their talking points, the visuals were busy when they needed to be straightforward and it was boring when it needed to be flashy. It had made an impression on us, and it was not good.
The best thing about PowerPoint is that it’s easy for just about anyone to use. The worst thing about PowerPoint is that it’s easy for just about anyone to use.
Which brings me to my point, our company has been helping businesses with their communications and branding efforts for many years, for as long as we have been in existence. Over the years we have seen that some of our clients have chosen not to use us for this type of work as they try to reduce costs by moving to in house resources. And let me tell you, presentations like the one we sat through this week have proven to us what a bad idea it is for them to do.
There’s a difference between "can do" and "should do" when it comes to communicating your brand. Just because someone in your office "can" create a PowerPoint deck doesn’t mean they "should" be the one to create your PowerPoint. I can write a script but what would take me a day would take a writer an hour. I can edit on an Avid or Final Cut Pro but that would take me weeks when a professional editor could do it in a day. That plus the quality would be better.
The point is, we tell our clients to do what "they" do best and let us do what "we" do best. If you want the presentation that represents your company to be done by someone who does it on the side, you need to accept the results you get. Or you can hire us and have it done by someone who does that kind of work every day and has done it for years. It may be one of the safest decisions you will make.
The best thing about PowerPoint is that it’s easy for just about anyone to use. The worst thing about PowerPoint is that it’s easy for just about anyone to use.
Which brings me to my point, our company has been helping businesses with their communications and branding efforts for many years, for as long as we have been in existence. Over the years we have seen that some of our clients have chosen not to use us for this type of work as they try to reduce costs by moving to in house resources. And let me tell you, presentations like the one we sat through this week have proven to us what a bad idea it is for them to do.
There’s a difference between "can do" and "should do" when it comes to communicating your brand. Just because someone in your office "can" create a PowerPoint deck doesn’t mean they "should" be the one to create your PowerPoint. I can write a script but what would take me a day would take a writer an hour. I can edit on an Avid or Final Cut Pro but that would take me weeks when a professional editor could do it in a day. That plus the quality would be better.
The point is, we tell our clients to do what "they" do best and let us do what "we" do best. If you want the presentation that represents your company to be done by someone who does it on the side, you need to accept the results you get. Or you can hire us and have it done by someone who does that kind of work every day and has done it for years. It may be one of the safest decisions you will make.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Denver Snowstorm and IDEAS (Part 2)
Two weeks ago a team from IDEAS went to Colorado to present at a seminar and got caught in the early season snowstorm. We wanted to close the loop on the trip so here's part two of their travels. We have been playing with our StoryJam product this year to broaden the offering to fit different client needs. The idea behind this one was to see if we could use our tools to help the Colorado Association of Leaders in Educational Technology imagine and nail down a compelling story for the future of a broadband network across all of their schools. As luck would have it, the same storm that plagued our team getting to Denver wreaked mayhem on the attendance at the host conference (NASB) and it didn’t back off on CALET one bit.
By 5PM the day before the gig, our prime contact and fearless leader Denise Shorey was stuck n Phoenix and couldn’t get to Denver till just before start time. We told her not to worry, worked with the convention center to verify the room set-up (Bob's past life as an event-guy comes in handy. Its nice to be able to read a BEO and know how to ask nicely for a direct box for computer audio) and showed up loaded for broccoli (can you tell Bob wrote this blog, he's a vegetarian and would never point a gun at a nice bear!) Out of 12 confirmed and an additional 25 rumored we got a grand total of…8. It worked like magic. Everybody engaged, they got a great creative result, we validated a new half-day format for a StoryJam-type product and still made our flight back to Orlando to rest up for trick-or-treating. We also got a lot of interest from school districts around the country in our new TeacherStudio product (http://www.teacherstudio.com/). More later on that.
By 5PM the day before the gig, our prime contact and fearless leader Denise Shorey was stuck n Phoenix and couldn’t get to Denver till just before start time. We told her not to worry, worked with the convention center to verify the room set-up (Bob's past life as an event-guy comes in handy. Its nice to be able to read a BEO and know how to ask nicely for a direct box for computer audio) and showed up loaded for broccoli (can you tell Bob wrote this blog, he's a vegetarian and would never point a gun at a nice bear!) Out of 12 confirmed and an additional 25 rumored we got a grand total of…8. It worked like magic. Everybody engaged, they got a great creative result, we validated a new half-day format for a StoryJam-type product and still made our flight back to Orlando to rest up for trick-or-treating. We also got a lot of interest from school districts around the country in our new TeacherStudio product (http://www.teacherstudio.com/). More later on that.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Audio A & Stage Update
It's been two weeks since I did a detailed update on the Audio A & Stage construction so here's where we're at. This has definitely been a different construction process than we had for the rest of the building back in February & March. For the original build out we drew it out and if we got to a point where something wasn't really working, we just changed it on the fly. For the audio build out, it is such a precise design and was put together so scientifically, that it has to be built exactly the way it was designed or the acoustics will be altered. In the original build out if we needed to move a door a couple inches, no big deal. For audio, when we found out we needed to move a door, we needed to move a cinder block wall so we didn't have the move the door. In the original build out if the builder could find a material a little cheaper then great, save some money. In the audio build out, if the builder could find 5 materials cheaper, too bad, the room was designed knowing the exact make up of the materials spec'd.
If you look at the new walls built for the new Audio A they are almost as long as my arm from shoulder to finger tips. The obvious question is WHY?!?! When we first started the process our acoustic designer came here and did all kinds of measurements to determine how much material and air was needed to get the appropriate acoustics for what we were trying to accomplish. Building inside an existing building is good because a lot of the building stuff is already done but at the same time it's bad because you're stuck with what you have. So in order to achieve the acoustics and sound isolation we need, it was scientifically determined that we needed X layers of materials for the walls. The east side wall includes a double layer dry wall that already existed. Then the new wall includes 3 layers of 5/8" drywall then 2 layers of 5/8" sound board on top of 6" of insulation. The west side wall includes 5 layers of 5/8" drywall, 2 layers of 5/8" sound board, 6" of insulation plus 2 inches of air. The back wall of the room has 3 layers of 5/8" drywall then 2 layers of 5/8" sound board on top of 6" of insulation. Then the back also has 24" of airspace with sound absorbing insulation hanging inside the 24". All of these walls will then have the framed soft walls. Every time they put another layer up all of the seams are also caulked so there's no sound seepage through the walls and when one layer goes up the next has the seams off set so none of the seams line up which would possibly allow sound to seep through. Each time a layer goes up we look at each other and say "is that it?" and thus far it has not been, they keep adding layers but we think we're all done. Next up is the soft walls. They begin being framed up today then once they are framed the fabric gets stretched over the frames to give the room a finished look.
Speaking of fabric, our designed gave us renderings a couple months back of what the room will look like. The room looks great in the renderings but it was all one color. We didn't know if we could change it so we were ecstatic to find out we could add more color. For the front of the room we chose black fabric. Our thinking behind that was that the projection screen needs to be the focal point of the front of the room. We want the rest of the room to sort of go off in to infinity. We didn't want someone looking at the screen but having their eye caught by the walls around the screen. The ceiling gave us a similar concern so we went with a dark gray for the stairs of the ceiling. The back, however, is where we could lighten things up and add color. Under the chair rail, we went with a lighter textured gray and above the chair rail and on the ceiling in back we went with a bright bold red. From day one in the building we wanted to have some red but in the rest of the building we couldn't make it work so we were happy to be able to incorporate some red in Audio A. Then there are multiple client workstations in the room. In the front of the room we went with a textured middle gray for the counter tops. In the back we went with a textured black. We think the back workstations in black will look really good with the red and gray fabric around it. For the flooring, the back of the room has a raised platform for clients. We matched the edit suites in the building by going with the same color and design that we previously chose. Then for the main floor of Audio A we went with a wood planking in a Honey Oak finish. For those who have been in our building in the lobby and lounge we have dark brown wood planking. It's a great look and is very durable so we went with the same material but different color in audio.
On the stage side, we will be repainting the cyc so it's a clean white. Then the new wall on the stage will also be white. We have the extra large, extra think rug that was on our old stage so that will be on the floor. Then we have gray fabric fiberglass panels that will hang on the non-shooting walls on the stage to help the acoustics. In addition, as part of the Audio A build out we are having some 6 ft. custom mobile sound baffles being built that will be positioned in the room depending on what we're recording. Beyond that, it will be trial and error testing the acoustics. Once the construction is over we will do some recording, take it in to our acoustical measuring devices and determine what other acoustic tricks we need to do for shooting and recording. We have done some internal recording in there already even with the Stage in construction disarray and the sound is good so we are very confident that when we're done doing what we're planning the sound will be excellent on the stage as well.
So there you go. That's the update. Things are coming along very well. A little slower than we had hoped for but when designing such a precise room it's better to be accurate than fast. We have done 3 webisodes on the audio process as well as lots of construction photos. You can see them all on our new home website www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome
If you look at the new walls built for the new Audio A they are almost as long as my arm from shoulder to finger tips. The obvious question is WHY?!?! When we first started the process our acoustic designer came here and did all kinds of measurements to determine how much material and air was needed to get the appropriate acoustics for what we were trying to accomplish. Building inside an existing building is good because a lot of the building stuff is already done but at the same time it's bad because you're stuck with what you have. So in order to achieve the acoustics and sound isolation we need, it was scientifically determined that we needed X layers of materials for the walls. The east side wall includes a double layer dry wall that already existed. Then the new wall includes 3 layers of 5/8" drywall then 2 layers of 5/8" sound board on top of 6" of insulation. The west side wall includes 5 layers of 5/8" drywall, 2 layers of 5/8" sound board, 6" of insulation plus 2 inches of air. The back wall of the room has 3 layers of 5/8" drywall then 2 layers of 5/8" sound board on top of 6" of insulation. Then the back also has 24" of airspace with sound absorbing insulation hanging inside the 24". All of these walls will then have the framed soft walls. Every time they put another layer up all of the seams are also caulked so there's no sound seepage through the walls and when one layer goes up the next has the seams off set so none of the seams line up which would possibly allow sound to seep through. Each time a layer goes up we look at each other and say "is that it?" and thus far it has not been, they keep adding layers but we think we're all done. Next up is the soft walls. They begin being framed up today then once they are framed the fabric gets stretched over the frames to give the room a finished look.
Speaking of fabric, our designed gave us renderings a couple months back of what the room will look like. The room looks great in the renderings but it was all one color. We didn't know if we could change it so we were ecstatic to find out we could add more color. For the front of the room we chose black fabric. Our thinking behind that was that the projection screen needs to be the focal point of the front of the room. We want the rest of the room to sort of go off in to infinity. We didn't want someone looking at the screen but having their eye caught by the walls around the screen. The ceiling gave us a similar concern so we went with a dark gray for the stairs of the ceiling. The back, however, is where we could lighten things up and add color. Under the chair rail, we went with a lighter textured gray and above the chair rail and on the ceiling in back we went with a bright bold red. From day one in the building we wanted to have some red but in the rest of the building we couldn't make it work so we were happy to be able to incorporate some red in Audio A. Then there are multiple client workstations in the room. In the front of the room we went with a textured middle gray for the counter tops. In the back we went with a textured black. We think the back workstations in black will look really good with the red and gray fabric around it. For the flooring, the back of the room has a raised platform for clients. We matched the edit suites in the building by going with the same color and design that we previously chose. Then for the main floor of Audio A we went with a wood planking in a Honey Oak finish. For those who have been in our building in the lobby and lounge we have dark brown wood planking. It's a great look and is very durable so we went with the same material but different color in audio.
On the stage side, we will be repainting the cyc so it's a clean white. Then the new wall on the stage will also be white. We have the extra large, extra think rug that was on our old stage so that will be on the floor. Then we have gray fabric fiberglass panels that will hang on the non-shooting walls on the stage to help the acoustics. In addition, as part of the Audio A build out we are having some 6 ft. custom mobile sound baffles being built that will be positioned in the room depending on what we're recording. Beyond that, it will be trial and error testing the acoustics. Once the construction is over we will do some recording, take it in to our acoustical measuring devices and determine what other acoustic tricks we need to do for shooting and recording. We have done some internal recording in there already even with the Stage in construction disarray and the sound is good so we are very confident that when we're done doing what we're planning the sound will be excellent on the stage as well.
So there you go. That's the update. Things are coming along very well. A little slower than we had hoped for but when designing such a precise room it's better to be accurate than fast. We have done 3 webisodes on the audio process as well as lots of construction photos. You can see them all on our new home website www.ideasorlando.com/ideasnewhome
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