Start your adventure here!
Enjoying the Adult Enrichment Project? Let others follow your adventures with follower badges!
Each follower badge displays where you interact with the Adult Enrichment Project so your friends can play too.
The follower badges include:
By signing up for the blog, you’ll receive that follower badge automatically. For the rest, please email me to let me know.
Scribd is an excellent site to store and share files — or in their words — social publishing and reading. With over 50 million readers every month as well as more than 50,000 new documents uploaded daily, it can claim to be the largest social publishing company. Others have called Scribd the “YouTube for documents.” While not all content is free on Scribd, the variety of materials there is staggering — from fan fiction to music to activities you can do with your kids.
.
1. Scribd account.
To download or upload items, you must be logged in. If you don’t wish to create an account, you can log in with your Facebook account. This will also allow you to follow organizations and individuals within Scribd who feature materials you want to follow.
2. Learn about Scribd.
Scribd has a few “Scribd 101” files that you can use to quickly get an overview of what is possible on the site. Look through one or more before continuing.
3. Free or not free.
Many of the documents on Scribd are not only free, but you can download a copy to your computer if you wish as long as you are logged into Scribd. Some documents are not free. Some are not downloadable. Look at the difference between the offerings that are “free” and “for pay.”
4. Explore.
You can explore the documents hosted on Scribd or the people associated with them without logging in. In addition, you can further narrow your search to categories, trending and topics. Explore one or more areas on Scribd to find documents that interest you.
5. Browse.
Unlike many readers, Scribd allows you to navigate their documents with your browser’s native functions. This feature works across all web-enabled devices including mobile devices and eReaders. Try browsing a few documents and see how easy it is to move through the document.
6. Readcast.
Readcast allows you to share what you’re reading across other social networks — Facebook and Twitter. This only works if you are signed up with them through your account. Readcasts are also posted in your Scribd feed.
7. Follow and be followed.
As you explore Scribd’s offerings, you’ll find people you want to follow. This is the same as any social media site. To follow (or to be followed) you will need to be logged in. Find a person who has more than one document that interests you and follow them.
8. Tags, collections and more.
Organization makes it easy for readers and search engines to find documents on Scribd. This is done in a variety of ways.
Want others to find your files? When you upload, the information you provide helps others find your documents. Look how others have organized their offerings.
9. Upload.
Upload a PDF you have created. You can do this individually or use the Uploader for Windows with drag-and-drop capabilities. Files that can be uploaded to Scribd include:
10. Revision.
No matter how careful you are, there is a possibility that a typographical error may be overlooked. Your industry or hobby may have changes that you need to include in your document. There are many reasons why you need to update your file. Scribd allows you to update your document without losing the stats already recorded by people who have looked at it. Follow the steps to post a revision to a file you’ve already uploaded.
11. More information.
After uploading or revising a document, you can do a variety of additional tasks to your files from placing them in collections to noting the copyright information. Review the types of information you can include with your files.
12. Selling.
If you are interested in selling your documents, Scribd will handle order processing, collecting money, reporting earnings and sending your payments for 20% of the sale price. You will need to set up a seller account. Read the terms in the Scribd Store seller agreement and determine if this is something you might want to do in the future.
13. Dashboard.
Dashboard is where you can get stats for the files you have uploaded. You can see who is looking at your files, where in the world they are and more. Check out your dashboard and find out what activities have happened with your files.
14. Float.
In July 2011, Scribd launched Float, an iPhone application. It allows you to read and share the digital reading service in coordination with Twitter and Facebook. It also allows you to read content from more than 150 publishers. They are adding mobile devices to this list. See if you have access to Float.
.
For a hundred years, the world has been consumed with mass — manufacturing, advertising and education. We’re at the beginning of a new revolution – the connection revolution. Your chance to change the world has never been greater. Let’s look at the mass and how it is moving to connection . . . and how you can become connected.
.
1. Take a listen.
upmarket.squidoo.com/2012/02/08/we-are-all-weird
This interview with Seth Godin on his book, We Are All Weird, will start you thinking about the Connection Revolution. This interview is about 25 minutes. If you are interested, check out his book as well.
.
2. No choice.
How often have you purchased stuff because “it’s the next thing”? Have you gone Christmas shopping to find that one gift your child (grandchild) had to have? This is big business at its worst – creating an artificial demand to drive purchasing.
3. Full choice.
Do a search online for things you are interested in. Find small businesses that provide what the large ones cannot. These are “niche” businesses. While many “mass” businesses are struggling, these small businesses are thriving. Did you find any niches that were underrepresented? Can you picture yourself starting a niche business?
4. The music industry.
The music industry was controlled by corporations and middlemen with the actual artist not maintaining copyright to his / her music and usually making very little money. Compare it with music today. Many musicians can record their music themselves, eliminating the cost of the “mass” and doing what they truly want. Today’s musicians connect with people interested in their music and have to sell a lot less. Find a musician online that has a small following that you might purchase music from.
5. The publishing industry — newspapers.
Why purchase a newspaper when you can have the news sent to you? You can also decide what news interests you so you’re not overwhelmed with news. The decline in newspapers started before the Internet. How do you get your news? How much do you get from newspapers versus television versus the Web?
6. The publishing industry — books.
Amazon’s Kindle and other ebook readers are fueling the move from expensive print books to lower cost (and more easily stored) eBooks. Check out the Domino Project for a new take on publishing.
If you’re a writer, you can self-publish with sites like LuLu and Smashwords. With everyone able to self-publish, the quality of books will go down as the quantity goes up. Check out a few self-publishing sites and see if this is something you might be interested in doing.
7. SOPA.
SOPA is just one piece of legislation that big business is sponsoring to keep control, to keep the world the way it was, to keep “mass”. Explore other ways the government and big business are trying to maintain control of our lives.
8. Etsy.
www.etsy.com
Etsy is a marketplace for handmade, unique items. In the mass marketplace, it couldn’t exist. Today, anyone can start their own business. Look through some of the businesses on Etsy see if any of these fit your own interests.
.
9. Television advertising.
Television advertising is the voice of mass manufacturing – artificially planting the “must haves” of our lives. How have commercials changed? Sites like Hulu offer free viewing of shows, but commercials are now there as well. The difference is Hulu asks you if the advertisement is pertinent to you. Compare today’s commercials with those of ten, twenty or thirty years ago.
10. Social media.
Social media is all about spreading ideas. From Facebook to Pinterest, we can all connect with friends and spread our likes and dislikes. Even if we do not support a business with purchases, we can share information about it. Look back over your communications online. How many times have you looked at a small business on the word of your online friends?
11. Facebook.
www.facebook.com
Is Facebook the look of the future? Instead of targeting millions of households because you can afford to spend millions of dollars, Facebook allows advertisers to target those individuals interested in the items they are offering by using your likes, profile, etc. For a week, watch the advertising that comes up when you log into Facebook. How many of these ads interest you?
.
12. People as a cog in the machine.
Our current educational system is all about each person learning the same thing so each of us can be part of the machine of mass production. Look at the educational requirements for your state. Think about the classes each student must take to get a high school diploma. How many of these will really help them in the future? What classes would be a better fit for our kids?
13. No child left behind.
This legislation has managed to put a stranglehold on our educational system. The number of charter schools is growing to help the individual over the mass. Read about this legislation and the growing number of alternative educational choices for our youth.
14. Youth groups.
Scouting, sports groups and other non-educational groups are picking up the slack of our failing educational system. Each supports its own niche while some try to cover a variety of skills that our youth will need in the future. Look at one or more youth groups and see what it / they have to offer.
15. College degree.
The cost of a college degree often is more than the cost of a new car . . . sometimes more than a house. This puts a strain on the new graduate who needs a job to pay off the loans or his / her parents who postpone retirement due to the cost. A college degree means you can sit in a class and take a test, but how much translates to the real world? Look at your own life and explore what you learned and how much was a waste of your resources vs. how much you actually took into the real world.
16. Today’s changes.
Universities and colleges are looking for a new ways to provide education and experience. Unlike mass manufacturing and advertising, the educational system is working to move into the connection revolution. Programs like MIT’s Open Course Ware allow you to get education for free. Mozilla’s P2PU (peer-to-peer university) allows people to educate each other. Review the offerings from one of these or the other numerous free courses available online to see what you can find that interests you.
NOTE: One item higher education is looking at is earning badges that highlight skills learned instead of a certificate. Read about “badges for skills” to find out about one possible change to our educational system.
17. Educating our youth.
We need to work to educate our children on the new world . . . the connected world. To help share this idea, we need to understand the connection revolution. We need to give them a view of the world as it is now. As this revolution continues, the world will change and we do not know what the “next big thing” will be. Perhaps it is you or your kids who start the next big change.
18. Connection is key.
The only way to teach connection is to be connected. Look at one of the social media sites you belong to. Learn more about it. Follow what others are doing. Join the conversation.
.
You can follow people who inspire you on the Web. You can learn from them. You can choose to have a conversation. The conversations have never been better.
So, who inspires you?
I’m looking for your recommendations to create a badge program for women and men who inspire us. For women, I’m starting with Ishita Gupta (Fear.less) and Marie Forleo (Rich, Happy and Hot). For men, Seth Godin is one of my favorites.
Post your answer here on Facebook.
Please “Like” us as well so you can continue adding to our conversation.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Adult-Enrichment-Project/118595491548017
We now have a Facebook Fan Page.
Not sure what to do with it yet, but I’ll get there.
For younger kids, field trips are normally limited to a day outing including driving time. As kids get older, field trips last longer including cross-state or even cross-country.
Each of us knows our own community. How often have you wanted to do a field trip, but are unaware of what’s outside your community? By sharing your unique community with others, you can provide experiences that visiting troops might miss.
Together, we can provide opportunities for discovery and exploration for our youth and ourselves. Instead of sharing our stories, we’re providing the opportunity for everyone to have the experiences to create their own.
.
.
1. Sharing my community.
You can share your community by photos and information on events and organizations. Start a database, document or folder with information on the events that happen in your community so you can share this information. Include the following:
If you have additional ideas for your database such as age limitations, group size, etc. include those as well.
2. Free all the time.
Create a listing of free field trip opportunities in your area that may be arranged at any time. Make sure organizations that have offered free field trips in the past did not do it for a specific group or reason so that anyone may be offered the opportunity. Find out if these organizations are still operating. Share this list with your service unit, council or other groups that would find this information useful.
3. Special events.
Some field trip events are special events. These may happen at parks, orchestras, museums, clubs or businesses. Keep track of events that happen annually or on a regular basis. Share these as they are released.
4. Scheduled events.
Some events need to be scheduled to make sure they have the minimum number of participants. Find events that need to be scheduled and share those. Make sure you note any specific requirements, age limitations, etc.
5. Other events.
Find other events that do not fit into the above categories. Determine if they can or should be shared.
6. Photos.
Take photos of various sites in your community. Highlight those areas that are of interest to tourists and locals. Rename your files so you can quickly identify your community sites.
.
7. Determine the area.
You may choose to share your community with other group leaders or a larger group. Decide if your final plan is to cover your city, your county, your state or your council. Can you do this on your own or do you need to recruit help?
8. Sort.
You can sort your area by any of the information in Step 1. Decide if you’ll distribute your information electronically, with printed materials or another means.
9. Printable only.
If you choose to share this only with printable materials (handouts and emailed PDFs), create a template you can share with others so you can combine collected community events into a folder for reference. Determine a way you can notify others about your updates.
10. Private and online.
You may choose to set up an online resource about your community, making it private so only those you invite can join. Discuss this option with others who are sharing their communities.
11. Interactive site.
Create an interactive map of the area you’re covering. Make each area clickable so that it opens a page specifically about an event, city or other smaller area. Provide the information and photos you’ve collected in Steps 1-6. Include links for additional information.
.
12. Badge programs, individual.
List any badge programs available through the events you list and where you can acquire them. For example, many museums offer badges to participants.
13. Badge programs, clusters.
Find or create badge programs for specific sets of activities or locations. Make groups of them so that the design matches, giving kids the opportunity to “collect them all.”
You might want to do all the camps in your council, the museums in your state, parks in your region, etc. Brainstorm ways to honor kids who acquire all pieces of these badge sets.
For example, Indiana State Parks has a pin program where you can earn a pin at each of the state parks. You have to participate in events, explore the park, etc. Earning all of the pins would be an interesting project for a troop or group.
14. Badge programs, group.
Ask your council to provide a badge program featuring the counties or service areas of your council. This can coincide with an interactive map site (see Step 11). A multi-part badge can highlight areas visited within their council, exploring what the others have to offer.
The supplement for this is listed below. It is a patch program from the Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana-Michiana. It is no longer on their site, so I do not know if it can be earned. It is provided as a sample only of what you can do.
.
15. Create your own, local
Create your own community event. Offer it beyond your organization as a recruitment event or service project.
16. Create your own, wide
Create your own community event, offering it to anyone within your organization. In addition to your own event, provide information about other community offerings that are similar that your participants might be interested in.
17. Social media.
Social media allows you to explore communities and create communities. Find out what social media offers and how you can utilize it to share your community. This might be through photo sites like Flickr, sites like Facebook or even special sites set up by your organization.
.
.