Twigmore » Peter Baer

Twigmore Releases Alpha of Self Improvement App!

Peter Baer — Fri, 14 May 2010 19:01:54 +0000

We recently released an alpha of the Twigmore Facebook app. You can access it from the Twigmore home page. It is meant to help insight seekers quickly find proven thought leaders in a topic of interest. Once you’ve found a thought leader you want to learn from, we’re planning to provide the tools for you to connect with them (starting with video). Love your feedback and don’t forget to post your twigs!

Slowdown in Economy Leads to Bartering Professional Services

Peter Baer — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:16:50 +0000

Interesting NY Post article on people in NYC using their skills as currency. One woman used yoga and pilates sessions to ‘purchase’ everything from logo development to photographs for her web site. She even bartered for squash lessons for her two children. Even the city itself is getting into the act. Just this month the Bloomberg administration launched a time-banking initiative, as part of a larger effort to encourage volunteerism. This ties in nicely with Twigmore’s vision to help people find, connect and twig from thought leaders (e.g. think of us connecting a thought leader on nutrition with one on relationships).

New Advisor Nisreen Shocair

Peter Baer — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:41:56 +0000

Twigmore would like to welcome Nisreen Shocair as an advisor. She is the President of Virgin Megastore for the Middle East (VMME). Nisreen has built the Virgin brand across the region by incorporating local and international consumption trends into the shopping experience. She has also held positions at Blockbuster Entertainment, Sony Music, Bertelsmann AG and Hearst Entertainment. We’re looking forward to her input on everything from brand building to addressing international markets.

New Advisor Dr. Vanessa Dennen

Peter Baer — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:17:35 +0000

Twigmore would like to welcome Vanessa Dennen as an advisor. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems at Florida State University. As a researcher, Vanessa studies online discourse and communities of practice. Her primary teaching areas include program evaluation, learning theory and designing interactive courseware. She has a Ph.D. in Instructional Systems Technology and an M.S. in Educational Psychology (Learning & Cognition, Inquiry) from Indiana University. We couldn’t be happier to have her involved in the company.

New Advisor Lloyd Bromberg

Peter Baer — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:01:46 +0000

Twigmore would like to welcome Lloyd Bromberg as an adviser. Most recently he was the Director of School Programs for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Lloyd also served as Director of Social Studies and Director of Staff Development for the New York City Public Schools. His experience will be invaluable in helping us develop our service. We are very excited to have him on board and look forward to working together.

Federal Effort to Push Junk Food from Public Schools

Peter Baer — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:33:23 +0000

NY Times article says the Obama administration will begin a drive this week to expel Pepsi, french fries and Snickers bars from the nation’s schools in hopes of reducing the number of children who get fat during their school years. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says that any vending machines that remain in schools should be “filled with nutritious offerings to make the healthy choice the easy choice for our nation’s children.” We think it’s interesting that Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss is involved, given the fact that Coca Cola is based in his home state.

Yale Faces $150 Million Deficit, Forced to Make Cuts

Peter Baer — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:34:36 +0000

NY Times article on Yale University announcing that it’s planning a number of steps to close a remaining $150 million budget gap, including cutting staff, freezing salaries for deans and officers, reducing the number of graduate students — even turning down all thermostats to 68 degrees. Richard C. Levin, Yale’s president, and Peter Salovey, its provost, said the measures are necessary because of the drop in the endowment to $16.3 billion last June from its peak of $22.9 billion in June 2008. Many other elite universities have been affected by the economic downturn as well.

Apple iPad vs Kindle DX: Which is Better for Education?

Peter Baer — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:08:29 +0000

Interesting PCWorld blog on the pluses and minuses of each device. The author points out that if the iPad doesn’t succeed as a consumer electronics device–its initial target market–it may find a successful second career as an electronic textbook reader. The fledgling e-textbook market looks promising, and there’s little competition right now aside from the Kindle DX, which has undergone a few university trials in recent months, including one at Princeton University. It seems likely that new technologies like these will be useful in educating more efficiently.

Experts Say a Rewrite of Nation’s Main Education Law Will Be Hard

Peter Baer — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:37:28 +0000

NY Times article on President Obama holding out the hope of overhauling the main law outlining the federal role in public schools. Since it was put in its current form by the second Bush administration — and renamed No Child Left Behind — it has generated frequent and very divisive debate, partly because it requires schools to administer far more standardized tests and because it labels schools that fail to make progress fast enough each year as “needing improvement.” That category draws penalties and has grown to include more than 30,000 schools. There doesn’t seem to be any way this will get done prior to the November elections. Hopefully next year the Republicans and Democrats will put politics aside and work together to improve the school system.

New Program Combines Technology and Community Service

Peter Baer — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:18:01 +0000

e School News piece on students putting their tech skills to work in the community through the Service & Technology Academic Resource Team (START) program. The program, launched by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and Microsoft Corp., aims to create a new kind of collaboration between students and teachers through technology-focused service learning. Partnerships between companies like Microsoft and the US public school system make a lot of sense.