I'm on my way out the door to a conference and have a bunch of things in my "blog this" file that I wanted to clear out. So today is Link Love Day. I'd suggest a quick scroll through the topics to see if anything catches your fancy as these are really random.

On Management
The Cranky Middle Manager has a new podcast on managing 4 generations at work. Good stuff if you're working with:

• The Silent Generation--born 1933 through 1945
• The Baby Boomers--born 1946-1964
• Generation X born--1965-1976
• The Millenials--born 1977- 1998

Manager Tools also has a new podcast up--Part One of a two-part series on how to make a job offer.

Can managers learn something from the thinking errors that doctors make? That's the provocative question Harvard Business School Professor James Heskett asks in How Do Managers Think?

A Possible New Source of Funding and Volunteers for Nonprofits?
The NYT has an article on Doing Good on Company Time:

Companies have been using off-site meetings and retreats to foster a sense of camaraderie among employees for decades, but obstacle courses or golf tournaments are becoming as dated as guaranteed frequent-flier upgrades to first class. Today, more corporations are turning to hands-on volunteer projects to get their people motivated and working as a team.

It occurs to me that a forward-thinking, entrepreneurial nonprofit might be able to take advantage of this movement by actively seeking out companies to engage in these kinds of volunteer activities and coordinating them for a fee. Not only would you get volunteers, but you'd also get some unencumbered funding.

On a related note--here's a lifehack article on how to fit volunteerism into your day. A rewrite based on your organization could be a good marketing tool.

"In Class, I Have to Power Down"
Last week I posted about the NYT article chronicling the movement in some schools to get rid of their 1-to-1 laptop programs. Now this article from The Guardian (UK) points to why it's a bad idea. As one student commented:

"At school, you do all this boring stuff, really basic stuff, PowerPoint and spreadsheets and things. It only gets interesting and exciting when you come home and really use your computer. You're free, you're in control, it's your own world."

As if we needed any more reasons for kids to shut down and feel that school is completely irrelevant to their learning.

Also check out David Warlick's post on the NYT article and how it feeds into professional development.

On Being More Creative as a Blogger (or just in general)
Problogger Darren Rouse has run a couple of good articles in the past few days on creativity. First, where do creative ideas come from? And then another on  the 9 Attitudes of Highly Creative People. I'm pleased to note that I possess several, although "optimism" is definitely still a challenge. Lifehack also has a helpful piece--How to Become a Creative Genius.

On Personal Learning and Personal Learning Environments
Without a doubt, the most popular post I've written here was the one on My Personal Learning Environment. The nice thing is that it has led me to a whole bunch of other work that people are doing around the concept. A few I've found recently:

• Ray Sims asks Why Personal Learning Environments? To my mind, he comes up with some pretty compelling answers. Also interesting is The Human Node in PLE: Learning How to Learn.
• Graham Atwell's recent presentation at a conference in Denmark. It includes a podcast of his remarks.
• Sarah of Blogging English is having her Italian ESL students create mindmaps of their own personal learning environments as part of their final class projects. What a great idea for encouraging lifelong learning!
• Although new, SkillsFeed looks like an interesting addition to the personal learning toolkit. It lets you create and share microlessons on virtually any topic. Has some possibilities.

What Are People Doing Online?
A few days ago I blogged about the new Pew "Typology of ICT Users" report. But before that was a post from David Wilcox on how far people engage online. Some interesting stuff on the degree to which people participate in web-based activities. I particularly like the "Ladder of Disclosure."

On Reinventing Yourself and Taking Risks
I thought this TechCrunch article on how HotorNot is ripping apart their business model and taking a huge risk was really interesting. I couldn't help but wonder if nonprofits would consider doing something similar. Yes, they have the capital to take a huge risk, something nonprofits generally can't count on. But it's the mindset I find really intriguing. Without risk there is no reward. I have to believe that there's a lesson in all of that for us.

OK--enough link love for today. Time for me to pack and get out of here.