Navigating Change
My primary responsibility
Bob Goodwin, Engineering Manager at Anaconda Nickel Ltd, tuned into my struggle late one evening driving home from the world's largest laterite nickel refinery. It was the 19th month of commissioning - nursing the plant into full production - we were tired and hungry and I was reflecting on the challenges of remote FIFO work - finding the balance between career, marriage and parenting. Bob made a statement that has lived with me for years ... "sometimes our greatest contribution to society is to produce, healthy, well adjusted children".
Bob was right. Being a good father and giving our children a good start, is our primary legacy in a rapidly changing world.
My daughters are now 26 and 23 and they contribute to society with genuine honesty, respect, justice, compassion, resilience and constructive problem-solving skills.
Daughters get their identity, self worth and values predominantly from their father*. Our world has some big challenges and both daughters are equipped to make a significant difference.
It's now my turn.
*See ... The Fathering Project - Dr. Bruce Robinson - Why Fathers Matter - Research et.al.
iCapisce.com - solving cognitive load
iCapisce was born out of personal experience.
The Directors of iCapisce and the iCapisce Foundation have multiple degrees, masters, diplomas and the odd Cert IV or two. Our studies span Architecture, Commerce, Change Management, Economics, Human Behaviour, Media, Law, Project Management, Science and even Theology.
All of us have children and some of us have grandchildren navigating an education system that seems to be falling behind world standards.
From our own experience we know that class time could be more effective if there was a way to learn the language of the course before the teacher started using it. Many times, particularly early in a subject, we've been thrown off by terms and concepts that go straight over our head. We have no concept or picture of what that term might be and we miss the important parts of the lesson.
We set about to fix that by creating iCapisce. We intentionally set out to create an animated, multi-modal, glossary of terms. And it worked. However, by version 3, a learning platform emerged for terms, phrases, formulas, equations, shapes, patterns, sequences and even stories.
Furthermore, during customer testing, we found that teachers were not only using it for pre-reading but also class reading, class activity, group discovery learning and pre-exam revision.
It's humbling.
iCapisce v3.4.2 is now ready for commercialisation ...
iCapisce & Cognitive Load - Why (YouTube)
iCapisce & Knowledge Acquisition - What (YouTube)
iCapisce & Elaborative Rehearsal - How (YouTube)
iCapisce & Knowledge Acquisition - What (YouTube)
iCapisce & Elaborative Rehearsal - How (YouTube)
The Smart Country - a community cause
The Democratisation of Education.
Teachers, principals, academics and students have all had input into iCapisce. I've listened, watched, designed, shaped, tested and tweaked the core product thoughtfully taking into consideration needs AND wants. iCapisce is now ready for everyone in the community to contribute content.
iCapisce is a community education platform. iCapisce topics are created by you - authors, teachers, students and genuinely concerned members of society. It's a platform for sharing reliable, accurate content suitable to the age and stage of development of each student.
iCapisce follows a Learn-Practice-Play-Test methodology. It effectively moves topic content from sensory memory into short term memory and then on into reliable long term memory.
In a pedagogical world, iCapisce works equally as well with Constructivists, Flipped Learners, Evidence Based Teachers and Explicit Direct Instructors. We see strengths in each methodology. It's all about the age and stage of development of the student and the desired end-point of the education process.
We're seeking individuals and practitioners from all disciplines to engage with:
Primary schools
Secondary schools
Tutors, coaches and parents
Indigenous language groups
Indian Ocean neighbours
South Pacific neighbours
Universities and technical colleges
Registered training organisations
Professionals, consultants and contractors
Corporates, governments and standards bodies
The elderly and those at risk of early, mid and even late stage dementia.
We want your help to crank up our education system and claim the title of the Smart Country. We have a long way to go.
Smart Aging - ameliorating cognitive decline
iCapisce is being used to ameliorate the impact of cognitive decline. iCapisce restores and maintains memory and thereby rebuilds confidence in daily life. iCapisce can't fix the biological causes of dementia, but it can reduce the impact and keep people operating confidently in families and local communities without the pain and confusion.
Indigenous Languages - preserve + teach + rebuild
Language is the enabler to preserve and rebuild indigenous culture. iCapisce is being used to capture indigenous phonics, words, phrases and stories in a form that can be reused in a multi-model learning platform.
Indigenous Languages is a repository for every indigenous language including words, phrases, stories, books and publications in reusable, teachable form.
Indigenous Communities captures the history, customs, law and services offered by each language group.
Indigenous Life celebrates the art, artifacts, events, music and seasonal culture in each community.
Life in prison can sometimes be more attractive than life on the outside.
44% of Caucasian men reoffend
54% of young men reoffend
72% of Indigenous men reoffend
LifeBlood is a community reintegration program for ex-prisoners on the Atherton Tablelands, Queensland.
LifeBlood is all about volunteers creating safe community houses, safe farm employment and safe job training programs where 'graduates' can catch their breath, learn new skills and ease their way back into society over 12-18 months.
LifeBlood is a grounding, "give-back" project. I love it. I love working with a group of committed Australian volunteers who care deeply for those who have made some sub-optimal choices in life.
A website to break the chains of homelessness, prison recidivism, unemployment and modern materialism.
An excellent introduction to the key characters and messages of The Bible through a series of short 4-5 minutes animations. Watch one or binge watch them all. Your life will be changed courtesy of the The Bible Project.
Warning
This is a multi-week spiritual growth program.
You will need a notepad, pen/pencil and a private space.
I recommend seeking prayer support and mentor coverage each day.
You could be in for a bumpy ride.
Building Better Men
Building Better Families
Building Better Communities
LifeBlood Projects is a men's group on the Atherton Tablelands committed to community change. We get together for breakfast on Saturday mornings to learn life's lessons and go on to do volunteer projects around town. We build stuff, fix stuff, and maintain stuff with plans, budgets, schedules and regular 'customer' communication.
Helping men coming out of prison is very valuable. Dissuading young men from entering prison is even smarter. It has a much lower cost for each person, their family and society.
The Prison Prevention Project is a joint initiative between LifeBlood Australia and The Restoration Centre in North Richmond, NSW. It's all about learning to make better choices earlier in life.
The goal is to create a network of programs on the east coast of Australia that intervene in young lives before they disappear into the misnamed "correctional" system.
'Christian Psychology' is a working party to explore Biblical foundations for use in practical psychology. Base texts include M.Scott Peck's "The Road Less Travelled", Cloud & Townsend's "Boundaries" and Bessel van der Kolk's "The Body Keeps the Score".
Solid foundations and healthy boundaries are invaluable when working with street kids, prisoners, spiritually afflicted and all human beings embarking on a journey of psychological, relational and spiritual growth.
IF God is love ... disciplined love ... then perhaps our quest lies in building healthy, respectful self awareness and healthy, respectful interpersonal relationships with an emphasis on giving rather than taking.
Modern psychology would agree that personal fulfillment is not found in pursuing our own desires. Rather, fulfillment is found in truly helping others grow.
This website is a practical explanation of Christ's commission in Matthew 28:18-20 to go and make disciples.
Discipleship is not about 'witnessing'. It's not a dump-n-run numbers game. It's not a legalistic pressure game. It's a commitment to someone else's growth and development, in Christ, for eternity. M. Scott Peck calls that love.
Discipleship takes time.
Navigating Change
Navigating Change will become my legacy project.
Every human navigates inflection points in their life. Those changes happen approximately every seven years. Some of those change s can be dramatic and lead to relocations, career changes and even divorce. Some produce consolidations.
The impact of dramatic change can be ameliorated if we understand what's really going on developmentally, psychologically and hormonally. Much of our behaviour is predictable and can be moderated with knowledge thereby reducing the impact on family, partners, fellow workers and personal finances.
Here's a big-picture view of what's ahead in Navigating Change ...
Dr Michael Heiser is an old testament Hebrew scholar who reinstates the original message of the Bible written by Hebrews to Hebrews, several thousand years ago.
He unravels the subtle messages of the bible that got lost in translation between the Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Old English versions of the Bible. What he unpacks adds extraordinary depth to the reason why Jesus came to reclaim and redeem His creation.
Other websites ...
Completed
Providential Homes - Operational Review
In concept / design phase
Atherton Horses Helping Humans - AthertonHHH.org
Bethel Church @ Pinnacle Pocket
In Perspective - a community communication tool.
My Bloodline - Building Better Fathers
Navigating Change
Not started
PragmaticPlanners.com