Diplo Learning Corner

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Month: January 2014 (Page 1 of 2)

Bill Bryson’s “A short story of nearly everything”

30/01/2014 /

Most of us think that the history of science is undoubtedly important for the evolution of our society, but, at the same time, incredibly boring. Since scientists and mathematicians who made the history of science, and therefore of the human kind as a whole, are simply thought to be massive geniuses, it is hard to imagine how their stories could be applied in our everyday life. That was the purpose of Bill Bryson, who made it possible to gather the amazing tales of some of the most extraordinary inventions and discovers in our history, showing how ingenuity must be combined with other ingredients: surely passion and hard work, but also fate and even good luck.

The message of the book “A short story of nearly everything” is simple. There are not revolutionary men, but only revolutionary ideas. Success is the result of a complex equation in which ingenuity, curiosity and a favorable context are the main variables.

Bill_bryson_a_short_history

Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bill_bryson_a_short_history.jpg

Effective communication in the 21st Century

28/01/2014 /

Public diplomacy is increasingly challenged by the transformative power of technology and the swift pace of digital progress: an effective online communication needs a careful and creative use of social medias. The UN foundation and the Digital Diplomacy Coalition have dealt with this subject at the end of October by hosting a half-day conference attended by people from all over the world, connected through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Livestream. Eight key – pieces of advice emerged throughout the conversation:

1) Meet people where they are, using multiple platforms to reach different audiences.
2) Listen: don’t just put out your messages, involve your audience.
3) Build a network of networks: a stronger community means a better exchange.
4) Tell stories: data are important but reaching the emotional level is crucial.
5) Tell your stories visually, images make words more powerful.
6) Be authentic, be accurate: being credible is even more important then being fast.
7) Engage your leadership to be active on line, thus helping to shape a social-media–friendly organization.
8) Spur action: specific and relevant reaction means your communication has been really effective.

Read more on:  http://bit.ly/IsTayB

411196422_343c0965a8Image source: Flickr – Paul Shanks

Thoughts That Can Super-Motivate You

23/01/2014 /

The true difference between success and failure is your ability to get and keep yourself motivated:

  • Motivation means choosing to do what you’d rather not do.
  • The most depressing and de-motivating sentences in the world usually begin with the phrase “Someday, I’ll…”
  • Don’t set goals that just excite you; set goals that scare you a little bit. That way they’ll strengthen your “motivation muscle.”
  • What holds people back is fear of failure, but if you don’t take action, you’ll fail by default, so what have you got to lose?
  • You can have whatever you want in life, but nobody is going to give it to you.  Everything of value must be earned.

Read more by Geoffrey James on: http://bit.ly/1hyTGtC

SONY DSCImage source: Flickr – Miles Cave

Cybersecurity: Sharing

19/01/2014 /

The Diplocalendar 2014 realised by S. Baldi and E. Gelbstein is dedicated to “Cybersecurity: Guidelines for diplomats” and is based on the assumption that “Cyberspace is inherently insecure“.

For this month the attention is drawn on “Sharing”

Diplocalendar2014_Page_20Image: Diplofoundation

The set of images used in the Diplocalendar 2014 can also be consulted on Slideshare

Making sure your hard skills shine

16/01/2014 /

Soft skills are becoming crucial for career success as the world gets increasingly competitive. Beyond technical skills, the softer, interpersonal and relationship-building skills are the ones that help people excel at work.

The problem is such skills are often taken for granted and there is far less training provided for them than for traditional hard skills. That’s why it is so important to focus on soft skills training and development.

Check out if you have a soft skills gap on: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCDV_34.htm

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Image source: http://bit.ly/1gvpfUT

How to learn 1,000 foreign words in 22 hours

14/01/2014 /

How much time do we need to learn a foreign language?

According to Joshua Foer, an American journalist who learnt Lingala – a Bantu language spoken in the North West of the Democratic Republic of the Congo-, you just need 22 hours spread over a period of 10 weeks.

He used Memrise, a web app that teaches foreign languages through a game based on the repetition of words and their audio pronunciation. The trick is to assign to each word a “memo”, that can be an image, a sound, a rhyme, a video or just a note on the etymology of the word.

The idea behind Memrise is making the study of a foreign language a fun practice by using the internet as a social gaming and by exploiting the potential of our memory.

Read full article http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/nov/09/learn-language-in-three-months

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