Supercool School

Supercool School Presenting at DEMO Spring 2010 (Video)

The Supercool School Family is growing - meet Brandon Timothy Middleton

Brandon joined the team and the supercool movement for better education. The following interview is dedicated to him:

Before you start reading ... you should start the soundtrack that goes along with that post.
Click here to get to Brandons playlist.

1. Brandon we are really proud to have you on the team with us. Besides having an awesome personality & passion you bring a great mix of experience to the table. Tell our readers briefly about you.

Well Brandon the engineer is from Chicago, IL, studied Electrical Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, graduated and came to Silicon Valley to work for Cisco Systems for 3 years.  I stopped that and now I'm doing IT consulting with a handful of non-profits and startups that deal in education in one form or another.  This is where my passion lies, in educating others.  Brandon the musician is also from Chicago and performs with 4 Bay Area bands.  I am a hip hop lyricist, pianist, drummer, and bassist by night. So it's pretty Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with me.

2. What are the epiphany moments of your personal learning history?

 In the summer of 2008 I had a bit of an epiphany while listening to motivational speaker Kevin Carroll (author of What's your Red Rubber Ball?).  I was faced with this truth: while there are many things that I CAN DO, there are a lot fewer things that I WANT TO DO, and even fewer things that I SHOULD DO.  I was challenged to find the things that I SHOULD be doing, so I've made it my mission to identify my passions and pursue those things with all my heart.  It's been so much more rewarding than what I had been doing and it's a lot of fun to challenge others to do the same. This approach has yielded better work, greater satisfaction and a lightness (happiness) that comes from doing things that you enjoy.

3. What is your vision of the future of global education?

My vision is pretty far out: a blend of traditional classroom mixed customized online educational resources (games, interactive activities, etc.) that give learners a good baseline for what they SHOULD know but also gives them a big chunk of what they WANT to know. Giving people what's interesting relatable to them does in fact keep them engaged and it helps them to learn better/faster.

4. Why did you decide to join Supercool School?

I feel that Supercool School is the platform that will facilitate what I've laid out as my vision. The ability to create autonomous Social Knowledge Networks is just what we need to help aid learners in this day and age.  I joined to help contribute to an effort that I think will be a part of the standard practice for learners in the future. This work definitely falls into what I SHOULD be doing.

5. What are some Supercool Schools you would like to learn at?

I am very much enjoying Startup School right now and would like to actually create a Music School of my own since I'm a musician, songwriter and producer.  I've also been keeping an eye out for the Educators 2.0 school.  But overall I'm excited to see what schools pop up in the near future, it's all so very interesting.

Connect with Brandon:

:: www.facebook.com/brandon.middleton

:: www.twitter.com/bware218

:: www.myspace.com/brandontimothy

Bjoern Lasse Herrmann _ new supercool activist

Dear supercool friends,

my name is Bjoern Lasse Herrmann. I am another German dude fighting for a better "education for the future". In the coming weeks I will join Steli and Ramin posting on the supercool blog and keep you up to date with everything around and beyond supercool school. Also I will write about learning and education in general. I am looking forward for a fruitful discussion.

Science Tower, Moscow 07

I was fascinated of supercool way from the beginning. I am by heart a passionate learner and have always been a radical in the "learning institutions".

The learning of the "like minded" and the "democratization of learning" are two missions supercool school pursues. I can feel how Supercool School will change the institutional education as we know it today. I believe everybody is experiencing the intense philosophical discussions about education based on very different understandings of the definition of education and learning. This discussion shows me that the structural and mental change is under way. To some of us intuitively some traditional goals of education as the replication of "god given knowledge" (Bible ;-)), the process of social adjustment (Francis Bacon) or the guarantee of conformity among soldiers (Prussia/Japan) appear to as a dangerous atavism that is still very present in our education systems and our mindset. But the evolution of our education institutions left an aera that has been dominated by strong hierarchies (at least in the Western World) and is now heading towards something new. I believe supercool school will one driver of this supercool change for a better and more democratic learning!

Join The Supercool People Group @ YackPack

I created a group @ YackPack.com for everyone who is interested in Supercool School and wants to become a part of the Supercool Family. YackPack is one of the best tools to communicate & stay connected I´ve seen for a while - you gotta check it out for yourselves! It´s really supercool ;)

Right now we are 20 people in the Supercool People group - if you want to get in you can leave a comment here and I´ll send you an invitation ( unfortunately, that´s the only way how you can join our group - I have to send you an invitation). Seeya there ( or better, hear you there ;)...

Prof Dan O´Shea reminded me about focus...& friends

I had the honor of brainstorming this morning with Prof Dan O´Shea. I called him on the phone to talk about education, technology and Supercool School and we instantly liked each others ideas and had a very inspiring time together.

He made some very important suggestions about focusing on the resources we´ll need to make this project succeed. I think that Supercool School will benefit highly from his skills since he is the one who created the world's largest online education technology database with 10,500+ web-link citations.

You can read more about him on his blog or join his social network at ning. I am happy to have him onboard @ Supercool School and am looking forward to work with him in the future.

But he´s not the only one who has recently become a part of the Supercool Family. I just don´t come around to blog about all those other amazing personalities who joined us to help with this project and the conversation this morning reminded me about how amazing all of you guyz really are ( and of my bad conscience;) ).

So may I introduce you briefly to the Supercool Gang. I´m sure you´ll read much more about those guyz in the near future on this blog. Here you go...

Andreas Wild - IT Student @ University of Stuttgart
Euripidis Kitsos - IT Student @ University of Stuttgart and Co-Founder of peopleized.com
Halil Mandal - Supercool Evangelist and Co-Founder of peopleized.com
Lefti Hatziioannou - Supercool Evangelist
Ruth Schoellhammer - Supercool Media Expert & Consultant
Thomas Schoellhammer - Supercool Critic and creator of xlibris.de
Daniel Muehlbrett - Supercool Designer and owner of designtunes.de
Florence Meihel - Supercool Enthusiast and blogger
Mihaela Lica - Supercool PR Consultant and blogger
Ramin Assemi - Supercool Copywriter and Thai Massage Expert
Shariq Muhammed - Supercool Marketer and Niche Marketing Expert
Majk Vujevic - Supercool Camera Boy and Supercool Friend
Burhan Kotel - Supercool Merchandising Guy and owner of diewerbeprofis.com

Bert Salzman - Supercool Supporter and Academy Award Winning Filmmaker
Peter Haslam - Supercool Supporter and blogger
hj - Supercool Supporter and founder of ukini.org

...and all of the supercool people who support us joining the community, writing blog posts, making interviews, sending emails etc...

Without all of you dreaming the supercool dream, this project wouldn´t be worth anything!

Karma and Camembert: Talking To A Buddha On Broadway

On my flight from Paris to San Francisco I met a very special individual. We instantly liked each other and talked for over 9 hours about life, philosophy, god, education, meditation and cheese.

We decided to do a little interview on the airplane about some of the things we talked about. He is just too cool and brilliant as a story teller to not be presented on the supercool blog. I apologize for the bad quality of the video but the content is really worth it.

Bertram W. Salzman is a filmmaker, Academy Award winner, author, educator, meditation trainer and true bohemian. But more important - he is a great soul. You can learn more about his film career here. If you´re interested in his book "Being a Buddha on Broadway" you can learn more about that here.

Bertram wanted me to include his email address so if anybody has any comment or question you can send them directly to him at [email protected]

Shane - A sick little boy with a big dream

Shane is a 7 year old cancer patient and he has 1 wish for his birthday
on May 30 2007. He wants to break the Guinness world record for the
most number of birthday cards received.

We can help and make a difference in the life of this kid by taking action
and sending him a postcard filled with power & love!

Think about how the world of this little boy will change after he broke the world record -
YOU CAN TOUCH HIS LIFE and help - with a simple birthday card.

I just caught myself thinking I will send him the postcard tomorrow- but tomorrow means NEVER so I decided to take action NOW - You can go to Yoodoo to create & send the card within 3 minutes to Shane - c´mon! Just do it :)

Here is the birthday card I just send Shane ( I hope he likes it):

 

Thank you Peter for making me aware of this beautiful story

You can read the whole story here.

And you can go to Mike at Ordinary Folk to see a video of Shane.

Andreas Wild - A Supercool Programmer!!!

Andi is a very important part of the whole supercool family - although he would never admit it.
Right now he is a IT student in Stuttgart and responsible for integrating dimdim ( classroom software ) into our new website. He is the most sophisticated programmer at Supercool School and a very smart and nice guy.

And although we don´t know each other that well - his believe in this project is big enough to help without ever asking for anything in exchange. And that´s saying alot about his personality.

I am sure that Supercool School will benefit alot from his skills and input and I´m looking forward to work closer with Andi.
I hope that this will become one of those business partnerships that turn into a lifelong friendship.

And last but not least I want to say THANKX for all your help and support! Andi - you are truly supercool!!!

Ruth and Thomas - Supercool Bavarian Backup!

I want to take a little break to introduce you to Ruth and Thomas:

Ruth just "jumped" right into our little Supercool Team and already proved to be invaluable for us! She has the right Supercool Attitude and power to make a difference and that´s the kind of people we wanna have on board!

I have to say a big "thankx" to you for being a little "crazy" and investing your time & skillz into this insanely great project :-)

...but she also has something that NOBODY else at Supercool has...

a husband ( do you hear the "sketch-drum" kicking? Trrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....tshaaang!) ;-)

It´s such a bad joke. Sorry!

Anyway - the important thing here is that Thomas is a web designer and  has long experience in the programming world. And exactly THIS IS WHAT NOBODY of us has! So I´m very excited to meet Thomas this weekend in Munich and see for myself that he too is a loony and willing to help Supercool School take off!

So a big "thankx" in advance goes out to you Thomas! I´m looking forward to meet you tomorrow!

As you can see the Supercool Family keeps growing...

Support the movement! Tell all your crazy friends about us! Maybe they like it ;-)

 

Supercool Teacher Ilker - Finally a Math Man!

Ilker is a young man who helps other classmates with their math problems for fun!!! Now I believe this says alot about him.

Now he discovered Supercool School as a way to help even more people with their Math problems and do it in a smooth & cool way - from home & over the net!

I welcome him to our Supercool Family and I´m looking forward to his classes - I´m sure he´ll rock the place & help alot of desperate pupils...

You can check out his Supercool Class here.

Much power to you!

Steli Efti, Education Revolutionary