Entrega II: Cómo hacer una buena entrada en tu blog.

1) Elige un tipo de letra. Para comparar que tipo de letra vas a utilizar, usa http://www.typetester.org. De inicio compara las fuentes que blogger te permite utilizar. Typetester es una de varias aplicaciones que puedes utilizar para comparar diferentes tipos de letra o typefaces, para más info busca aquí: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-tools-compare-typefaces-choose-font-work/

2) Agrega subtítulos y redacta tu idea principal en el primer párrafo. Según estudios de usabilidad, existe un patrón de lectura de posts en blogs que asemeja una F, siendo el primer párrafo el lugar que siempre se lee. Es frecuente que los usuarios no lean los posts completos. Asegurate entonces de que la idea que quieres transmitir quede en el primer párrafo.

3) Agrega títulos, subtítulos y si aplica viñetas. Esto dará orden a tu post y mayor legibilidad. El punto 2 y 3 son consejos del siguiente post con consejos sobre usabilidad: http://mashable.com/2011/09/12/website-usability-tips/

4) Otros tips. Si quiers modificar los colores asegurate que sean colores que combinen, para ello utiliza el círculo cromático que viene a continuación:  http://www.worqx.com/color/color_wheel.htm

5) Si quieres tomar fotos con tu cel, aquí algunos buenos consejos también: http://iphonephotographyschool.com/

The five elements of effective thinking. A specific and concrete way to be creative.

This is a resume from the book, written like a recipe to practice each of the principles in a simple way. The authors relate each principle with a basic element proposed by ancient greeks: earth, fire, air, water. And they include the quintessential element. Something that does not change. The change itself.

Por Helgi Halldórsson from Reykjavík, Iceland (It is thinking about our thinking) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], undefined

The first principle is Earth: Understand deeply simple things. “ Extraordinary people are ordinary people thinking different”.

• Exercise 1: Do you know truly the essentials?
• Open up a blank document
• Make an outline
• What is missing?
• Compare with the internet.
• How can you fill gaps?
• Exercise 2: Find the essential.
• Step one: Identify and ignore all distracting things.
• Step two: Analyze the central issue and apply this insights to the larger whole.
• Example: 9 bull drawings from Picasso.
• Another example: “Raise children to become independent thinkers which take responsibility for their life’s decisions ” is the essence of parenting.
• Exercise 3: Say it like you see it. If you are writing an essay read literally what’s written.
• Exercise 4: What everybody believes is not always actually true. Galileo and the gravity experiment with two balls of different material.
• Exercise 5: Defend the opposite. If you are a republican go to a democrat event.
• Example: the Niels Bohr approach to discover quantum mechanics. One day quantum mechanics exist, the next day  it doesn’t.
• Exercise 6: See what is missing. How can you see what is truly invisible?
• Exercise 7: Add adjectives to the object. Example: “non individualized education” was the origin of the MOOCs.

The second principle is related with fire: make mistakes. “Let the errors be your guide”.

• Exercise 1: Fail 9 times, in the 10th you’ll be right.
• Exercise 2: What is correct?
• Exercise 3. Have two default reactions to mistakes.
• Step one: let the mistake lead you to a better attempt.
• Step two: ask if  the mistake is a correct answer to a different question.
• Exercise 4: Have a bad day and learn from the that.
• Exercise 5: Going to an extreme.
• Example: be minimalist. If you had all the money and the time what will you do to improve your math class? Go to Paris and measure the Eiffel tower angles. Answer: go out of the classroom to teach real world mathematics principles.
• Exercise 6: Face intellectual challenges. Try something difficult.

The third principle is related with air.  It is raise questions.

• Exercise 1: Teach to learn. When you teach you have to ask what is the student’s motivation? What are the basic examples? On what aspects should I focus? What are the underlying themes? What are the important details?
• Exercise 2: Perform problems on the same environment.
• Exercise 3: In class. Talk to your neighbor and ask two questions.
• Exercise 4: Be the official questioner of the class.
• Exercise 5: Find the correct question.
• Example 1: The incorrect question is: How can I make material easier for my students? Instead: What should the goals of education be? Develop critical thinking and communication skills.
• Example 2. Constantly asking questions its a mindset with tremendous impact.
• Example 3:” How can I be successful?” is not the correct question. Instead What is success for me?
• Example 4: “How can I Improve my grades?” is incorrect. Instead How can I think better to understand more deeply.
• Example 5. “How can I solve the traffic?” is not a good question, instead “How can I use this time effectively?” is.

The fourth principle is related with water. It is “Follow the flow of ideas”. Every advance can be a launchpad for a better investment.

• Exercise 1: Iterate ideas. Example: 39 drafts from Hemingway.
• Exercise 2: Every subject is an ongoing journey of discovery and development.
• Exercise 3: Ask, what is next?
• Exercise 4: A look back. The earlier material will come easier, clearer and meaningful because you will see its significance through later work that came from it.
• Exercise 5: One small step: our ideas are only tiny variations of what has been thought before.
• Exercise 6: I begin with and idea and then become something else. Picasso.
• Exercise 7: Once you have it think how can I improve it?

The fifth principle is the quintessential principle. The ancient greeks thought about this element as something that doesn’t change, but the change itself.

• The reason happiness is so hard it is because it is so easy.
• Exercise 1: Adapt the habit of improvement.

This is a resume of the book and the exercises recommended for authors to think effectively. Lets follow this advice to be a better person.  

PS: This is my first post in English.