No longer active here . . .
I'm not blogging on this site right now.
You'll find more about me elsewhere:
See you there!
BJ
Audio evokes stronger emotions than photos
I love digital photos. I carry a camera most everywhere, and I take a few thousand shots each year. These images bring back memories and emotions of the moment.
But I've found that audio messages are even more powerful than photos. Not so long ago I started re-listening to some YackPack messages I've stored from my family. I found that their voices -- their comments and stories -- brought back the emotions more dramatically than my photos.
Wow. This was a surprise.
I wonder if this is true for most. When it comes to capturing memories and emotions from the past, which works better: audio or images?
This would make an interesting study.
Email from Iraq hurt family unity
I recently met an Air Force officer who was a commander in Iraq. He told me his story . . .
While away from home he sent email faithfully. Once in a while he was able to phone his family. After a few months he started noticing that the phone calls got shorter and more awkward. His kids didn't have much to say to him. He was becoming a stranger.
The commander believes (and I agree) that email is the likely culprit. Despite his frequent emails home, he failed to engage his kids emotionally over time. Without this emotional connection, they drifted apart.
Would the commander have been better off not using email, relying solely on infrequent phone calls? Perhaps.
Email gives the illusion of connection without real substance underneath. Using email to nurture relationships is sort of like eating fast food: Your stomach feels full, but your body is not getting nourishment. Over time, this creates bigger problems.
YackPack offers what the commander needs to stay close to his kids. I hope he'll use it.
Teaching requires emotional connection
The best teachers are those who connect emotionally with their students.
Whether it's in kindergarten storytime or a graduate seminar, real learning takes place only when emotions are part of the experience. Why? First, teachers motivate their students through emotions. Next, when teachers understand a student's emotional reaction, they can better tailor their approach. Great teachers know how to do this (and great coaches do too -- just watch 'em!).
Of course, someone can read facts from a printed page and memorize them. But in my view that's not genuine learning. Learning is behavior change. In other words, when you really learn, you do things different. People that don't learn keep doing the same behaviors over and over.
Much of the time the teaching/learning process looks something like this . . .
emotional connection --> motivation --> trying new behavior --> learning (behavior change)
-- BJ Fogg
YackPack and Oprah
I like Oprah. I never watch her on TV, but I do try to learn from what she writes.
My favorite is Oprah's little book "What I Know for Sure." You can read this gem in 30 minutes, but to deeply understand probably takes years. The pages are full of wisdom.
"The happiness you feel is in direct proportion to the love you give" -- yep, I say.
"If you don't know what your passion is, realize that one reason for your existence on earth is to find it." -- I know my passion, and it makes every day fun, not matter how hard.
"Failure is just a way for our lives to show us we're moving in the wrong direction, that we should try something different" -- that's startup wisdom right there.
Is there any other web 2.0 CEO out there that reads Oprah?
At Yackpack, Oprah is a natural fit.
My parents yacking from Africa
My parents are in Ghana right now doing humanitarian medical work. They are using YackPack to stay in touch with my entire family. Yesterday my dad yacked to say they are doing fine. This morning my mom yacked us to give us details about the people they are meeting.
The YackPack audio is crystal clear.
I'm listening again to my mom's yack as I type this now. I'll send her something back, of course. What can I say that will make her smile? Maybe I'll play the guitar and talk about my garden weeds. That might amuse her, especially given how lousy I am on the guitar.
Crafting a mission statement -- finally the torture is over
I'm sure many companies feel a bit tortured coming up with a mission statement. We did.
We thought about hiring a consultant and doing retreats offsite. But we didn't have the money or the time. We just kept working on YackPack, and from time to time someone would put our general sense of mission into new words. But we were neverly completely happy with it (sometimes I wondered if we should give this one more millisecond of thought . . . who says you need a formal mission statement?)
By some miracle and without really trying too hard, someone came up with a simple sentence we all like: "We help people use the power of voice to build relationships."
When I shared this sentence with the whole YackPack team, everyone's face lit up. Don't get me wrong . . . there were no bolts of lightning or speaking in tongues. It was just a feeling we all had: "Yep, that's exactly right."
At YackPack we've always had a mission. Now we have a statement too.
Improve your grading with YackPack
I finally put together a short movie that shows how you can use YackPack to make grading easier and more effective. This method has made my life as a teacher much, much easier.
http://yacklearning.net/education/grading/grading.html
You'll find more about YackPack in education at the YackLearning.net.
Enjoy!
Genius Kids Use YackPack for Math
This week my team learned about an online math program for gifted kids that uses YackPack to communicate. As we listened to some public yacks they've shared, we were amazed and amused. As 10-year-old voices explain solutions to tough math problems, it sounds like Einstein overdosing on helium.
For more on the program, see their site at Math Scene Investigation.
I'll check into posting some audio here so you too can be amused and amazed. Until then, you can hear how happy the school board folks are about this program
YackLearning.net -- YackPack for educators
Since our launch we've had a good response from educators. But we've never catered to them . . . until now.
We just launched a site that shows how YackPack (and audio messaging in general) can be used in learning and training. We call this topic YackLearning.
You'll find the site at www.YackLearning.net
I welcome your feedback and suggestions. I even welcome your critiques.
