Supercool School

Dr. Randy Pausch, Carnegie Mellon CS professor, Dead at 47

Noted Computer Science professor Randy Pausch passed away today after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Dr. Pausch was a founder of the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University and worked on the Alice program, an animated educational system for high school and college students.

It’s not difficult to find educators in CS who are as personable as Dr. Pausch was but it is definitely rare to find one filled with such kindness and an undeniable love for life.

His last lecture was and continues to be quite a youtube phenomenon. If you haven't seen it yet, it's about time...

Happy 90th Birthday To Nelson Mandela!

The founder. A guy with a mop...

I had a very interesting conversation with a cab driver the other day who asked me what I was doing after picking me up at the office at 4am in the morning. I told him that I'm a startup founder. After that we had a very interesting little conversation. Here's what happened...

Cab Driver: So you OWN the business?

Me: Yeah!

Cab Driver: Oh, I didn't realize that without your mop!

Me: Huh?

Cab Driver: You see, I used to sell cheap paintings to restaurant owners in the city. One of the first things I learned from an older sales guy was to look for the guy with the mop when I enter a new restaurant to make a sale.

Me: Why that?

Cab Driver: Because chances are, he will be THE OWNER of the place...hahaha...and man I tell you the rule works. 9 out of 10 times it WAS the owner of the restaurant...

Me: Hahaha...this is by far one of the BEST ways to describe the work of a founder:

It's the guy with the mop. Doing whatever it takes, no work beneath him, no task to dirty if it needs to get done...

We had a good laugh and exchanged some other interesting stories and theories at 4 am in the morning. I just love to talk to cab drivers. Many times you can learn alot if you're only willing to listen.

The Best Of EduBlogger Event07

Since we announced the EduBlogger Event08 yesterday on the blog, I thought it would be a good idea to present you guyz the best of last years event. Here are the posts of our virtual speakers in 07:

hj barraza on Decentralised Learning Services for Developing Countries

Jon Bennett on Differentiation for Dummies

Florence Meichel on New technology and knowledge accessibility

Peter Haslam on The Need for Self-Directed Learning

Liz Strauss on The Ergonomics of You

Michael Beck on Long Term Memory / Human Computer Storage Techniques

Joshua Hwang on Zen of Studying

TONNET on Socialnetworking Phenomena & the Impact on Education

Steve Dembo on Is anonymity critical to the success of the edu blogosphere?

Steli Efti on The 7 lessons we learned at school that could possibly ruin our lifes

And Tiara Shafiq on Alternative Education and EduBlogging

As you can tell we had alot of fun last year and some high quality discussions! It looks like this years event will be an amazing day too so stay tuned as we're going to reveal the speakers of this years event during the next week....

Much power to you!

Steli Efti, The Supercool Principal

Anouncing EduBlogger Event08 on August 23rd

Building on the success of last years EduBlogger event, we are proud to organize "EduBlogging Event 08" next month on Saturday the 23rd of August!

12 blogger involved in new education projects will publish a text or video post about their take of an aspect of education & new technologies on our blog and All of you are invited to engage in a vivid Q&A session and discussion afterwards.

We are still selecting the bloggers who will participate in this event, so if you have an interesting idea or perspective please contact us at max@supercoolschool.com

We are positive this will be a supercool and inspiring event bringing together some of the most innovative thinkers in the online education space - so mark your calendars Saturday August 23rd is when the educational revolution unfolds yet another chapter. Stay tuned as we're going to announce the virtual speakers during the next week...

Much power to you!

Max Senges - Supercool Housemeister

Steli Efti - Supercool Principal

Supercool Video Conversations

I just stumbled upon seesmic again and i have to say that i quite like the social atmosphere of having a conversation over video. What do you think, should we think about integrating seesmic into supercool school?

Max Senges - Supercool Housemeister

Being supercool means not being afraid to look like a fool

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting
your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for dreams,
for the adventure of being alive… [1]

I say come and share with others what really gets you going!
Come to supercool school to offer & request classes, to learn with others about the things that matter most to you!

[1] The Invitation, inspired by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Native American Elder, May 1994; Quoted from SQ: Spiritual Intelligence the Ultimate Intelligence by Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall)

Max Senges, Supercool Hausmeister