Wearable gadgets, gamification, and learning analytics are three of six technologies that will have a major impact on strategic technology planning in higher education in the next five years, according to the latest NMC Horizon Report released by the New Media Consortium and the Educause Learning Initiative.

The annual NMC Horizon Report, released jointly by NMC and the Educause Learning Initiative, focuses on the key technology areas that researchers have identified as applicable to teaching and learning and likely to have a major impact on educational institutions within the next five years, broken down into near term, mid-term, and longer term. The report is designed to help education stakeholders grasp new and emerging technologies, identify issues involved with them, and see specific examples of their implementation in higher education. The report also identifies "critical" challenges facing education in the near future.

HOW DO YOU COME TO TERMS IN TRICKY CLIENT NEGOTIATIONS? DAVID SHERWIN, A LEAD DESIGNER AT FROG, LAYS OUT A PLAN OF ATTACK.

The following is an excerpt from Success by Design: The Essential Business Reference for Designers by David Sherwin (HOW Books).

When first striking out on their own as businesspeople, many consultants and designers don’t know how to bargain or strike a deal. Consider this story from Ted Leonhardt, cofounder of The Leonhardt Group and a consultant for design businesses. What would you do in this situation?

Innovation is not a solo sport. It requires rich ecosystems we call Rainforests. Relationships, trust, and culture are what drive growth. In the Rainforest Revolution, we showcase leaders who are building ecosystems, and we provide practical insights for entrepreneurs, economic developers, executives, policymakers, investors, professionals, inventors, and other innovators.

Today we feature one of Silicon Valley's leading "Rainforest Revolutionaries"... Tim Draper. Tim lives and breathes the philosophy of the Rainforest in all of his work. Tim is the founder of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and a pioneer in the venture industry through the DFJ Global Network, which now reaches over 30 cities around the world. His new passion, Draper University, is a school for mentoring the brightest 18-26 year old entrepreneurs, whom he calls "heroes."

More evidence that start-up culture isn't just a coastal phenomenon: Research shows these cities are hopping with tech expertise.

Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley still get most of the attention now, but a slew of unexpected cities are aiming to give those areas some serious start-up competition.

Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado, for example, believes that his state has what it takes to become the country’s next technology hub. On Wednesday he announced a partnership with prominent state business leaders to create a $150 million venture fund supporting entrepreneurship.

I just listened to a a Radiolab interview with Henry Heimlich.

It was quaint to hear Heimlich describe the invention of the Heimlich maneuver, testing it on an anesthetized dog using a chunk of meat tied to a string, jammed down the dogs throat. And his earlier invention, the Heimlich valve, developed for the battlefield to stop chest injuries from collapsing lungs.

Less quaint was Heimlich's advocacy of using his maneuver to treat asthma, cardiac arrest and drownings. And horrifying was his theory that infecting AIDS patients with malaria could cure them of AIDS. OK, the theory wasn't so horrifying, but his repeated human trials in Mexico and Africa certainly were.

What do superachievers all have in common? Authors Camille Sweeney and Josh Gosfield set out to find the answer with their book, The Art Of Doing: How Superachievers Do What They Do And How They Do It So Well. They interviewed dozens of superachievers from all professions and found some underlying traits that they share.

Who said college was a time for sitting in class?  Go start a company instead!

It’s odd that so many people think college students can’t start kickass companies: they can and they have!

What even cooler is this:

Universities are now starting to actively promote and encourage entrepreneurship in its students!

If you’re a college student, the number of free resources available to you is second to none.  Maybe you don’t know about them because you listen to your professors talk all day long about brushing up your resume to get some stupid corporate job…

With over 60 years of experience in employment services, Manpower can help you adapt your staff levels to match your manufacturing workload, while maintaining quality, efficiency, and safety. With proven sourcing and screening processes, specialized skills assessments and training tailored to your worksite, we’ll place qualified people to cost-effectively support production, while minimizing risk and maximizing quality output. And much more.

Elon Muskhas outrageous dreams. The PayPal co-founder and serial technology entrepreneur was interviewed here today at a packed SXSW Interactive (SXSWi) keynote session by former longtime Wired magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson, who described Musk’s life as "insane." To which Musk replied matter-of-factly, "my life is very busy."

That might be an understatement. Musk's current resume speaks for itself.

Every investor is looking for the “dream team” of executives to put money on. Often I find that experienced investors scan ahead to the management page of a business plan, even before they read the product description. That’s how important the people are. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) role is usually considered second only to the CEO, because financials are critical.

In fact, about 25% of CFOs make it to the CEO position, although not necessarily in a single step, like Marcel Smits at Sarah Lee foods. The latest Crist Kolder report finds that the percentage of new CEOs who have prior experience as a CFO hit an all time high during the recent financial crises.

I believe that groups coming together to make tough decisions driven by consensus tend to make poor decisions.

This is especially true in startups where speed matters and where there is a need to constantly calibrate direction and where these decisions can have existential outcomes.

"I'm a geek, I'm a nerd and I'm proud to say it," former basketball star Shaquille O'Neal tells Mashable by phone in Atlanta, taking a break from packing for his business trip to South by Southwest Interactive.

Yes, a business trip. While Shaq — whom you may forget has a master’s degree in business administration — is best known for his slam dunks on the basketball court, he now wants to be recognized as the guy who helped usher in something special into the tech world.

A Mayo Clinic study has concluded that patients with implanted cardiac devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators can safely drive or ride in an electric car without risk of electromagnetic interference (EMI).

The study, titled “Hybrid Cars and Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators: Is It Safe?” is the first of its kind to address the interaction between these devices and electric cars. It will be presented at the 2013 American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session in San Francisco on March 9.

The average Sparefoot employee is 30 years old; a full five years my senior. So on the rare occasion when I have to let someone go, it can be difficult breaking the news to someone more experienced than myself. It is the one part of my job that I absolutely despise, but it is one of the most important things a CEO can do. This is how I tackle it:

(Wo)Man up

If you are uncertain as to whether or not you, the CEO, should be the one to fire an employee, the definite answer is: yes, you should. I am a firm believer in transparency with my employees, and if I have a manager do the firing, how can I expect my team to trust me? I’m the one who hired them, so I should be the one to let them go. I understand this is not a plausible approach for every organization–many are simply too large. But for medium-sized outfits, I believe this is the best practice. Sure it’s awful, but you need to suck it up and be a good leader.

While Q4 2012 saw a bit of a funding slow down, Q1 is off to a better start including nearly $1.8 billion of deals I'm sharing with you today.

You can download the details on all 50 financings here 

http://www.cbinsights.com/reports/CB%20Insights%20-%20Top%20Deals%202013%20-%20XII.xlsx

Periodicals and blogs across the United States really seem to enjoy publishing articles about the best places for recent college and university graduates to find jobs, live, and hopefully thrive. Rarely, though, do they ever turn their attention toward options that may lack the glamour, but seriously need the talent and the money young professionals provide for the local economy. In an effort to draw attention to specific economic and career needs, many cities have launched — or desire to launch — projects to draw this precious (and, of course, lucrative) demographic away from the usual spots. Each one sports a different strategy, and watching the results trickle in over time will certainly prove fascinating.

John Paul II connected with the flock like no pontiff before him. Pope Benedict dipped a hesitant toe into Twitter. But it's the next Pope who will truly have to deal with a social-media reckoning.

Marketing and religion are almost as uncomfortable in the same sentence as politics and religion. As the world is about to have its next Pope, social media will play a role before, during, and after his appointment.

It seems every big milestone gets the label of being the first social (fill in the blank). We’ve had elections, Super Bowls, and Olympics. Even the recent Oscars have changed because of social media. But we haven’t had a social Pope--yet.

“In the Studio” welcomes a co-founder of a company which went public, a native Texan who studied engineering in Silicon Valley and business on the east coast, and who, upon returning to the Valley to begin investing, encountered a different path than he originally anticipated.

By now, everyone in the Valley knows or knows of Mike Maples, a co-founder of FLOODGATE. What they may not know, however, is how difficult it was, despite his success with Motive, the company he co-founded while in college and went public, to return to the Valley and embark on the next career he imagined for himself. Maples wanted to be a VC, so he was offered EIR positions at two firms, but never full-time employment. During this time, he also noticed a gap in the investment market between individual angel investors deploying their own money and larger, institutional venture capital firms, who wanted to write bigger checks. This experience gave Maples the idea for his investment firm, which is now FLOODGATE, to fill in the gap with a smaller institutional fund. Maples’ insights, company intuition, early-stage dealmaking abilities now speaks for itself, with early stage investments in companies such as Zimride (Lyft), Wanelo, Ayasdi, Weebly, Reputation.com, Playdom, Okta, ngmoco, Modcloth, IFTTT, digg, Chegg, BranchOut, Bazaarvoice, and many others. And, a little company called Twitter.

As an entrepreneur, your greatest enemy is time. With a small team and an innumerable list of things that need to get done, you quickly come to the realization that when you’re not working on the project, progress isn’t being made. As a result, you focus your efforts on the areas that add the most value to the business, while making sure other parts don’t catch fire in the meantime. Productivity and prioritization are two key tasks that can make or break a startup.

In such a pressured environment, it’s easy to make decisions that prioritize the business over fitness and personal health. While this may be necessary from time to time to deal with emergencies, when it happens consistently, it becomes a problem.

Washington, D.C., is known for its cut-throat politics and its power players. What many do not know is that D.C. is now a hub for business innovation. With an established cultural presence, a burgeoning food scene, and a growing startup presence, D.C. is a great place to start a business.