Tag: education
-
It takes the time that it takes
It takes the time that it takes. We are suckers for speed, enthralled by unnecessary fast focus. The ideas get introduced. The work gets done. The advice goes noticed. We consume, produce, and disconnect. The revelations occur at rest. The chase for the security of doneness makes us insecure. The bridge to certainty remains broken,…
-
Connecting tiny pieces of information
The internet was made for aggregation. The abundance of information is impossible to swallow and puzzle out ourselves. So we, in tandem with AI machines and social media curators — pluck the highlights and the most useful stems. Collecting artifacts online is an educational experiment, a place where peer-to-peer networks share bytes of genius. Most…
-
Still ignorant, not stupid
A lot of people get dumber after college. It’s not entirely their fault. A job takes up all their time. Besides spending time with family and friends and doing chores — getting on with the business of living — a lot of free time is spent on staring at lite brites for entertainment. “We think…
-
Seeking ignorance amid uncertainty
Curiosity is a powerful tool. It makes us question our surroundings and compels us to ask why things work the way they do. It kicks the mind into exploration. But the addition of courage takes curiosity a step further; it tries to fill the void through hands-on experimentation. These small tests are fuel for failure in…
-
The loose gate of attention
Attention works like a loose gate. We can’t always control what information sneaks in, nor can we parse the data so it makes sense coming out. We grind away at the information life throws at us, some of it tangible and worthwhile but most it nonsense. Like a Google search, the stuff worth keeping is…
-
The design of the classroom from 1750 to today
The design of the classroom is a technology, and you can interpret that in a lot of different ways. Architects can make that look more, and less, typical. But the point is the instruction, the interaction in the classroom, not that it looks more like a circle or more like a square or whatever else.…
-
Prime the pump of knowlege
Curiosity doesn’t come out of nowhere. It is instilled through tidbits of knowledge. No kid’s going to pick up crayons and draw without first seeing how they’re used. Humans need a range of information in order to prime the interested pump. After an initial introduction, the rest is up to them to follow up on…
-
Take the information you need and throw it away
There it was, knocking at the door of imagination and begging us to take it for a walk. The mistake we all make is assuming we have all the information we already need. After all, Google spits up all the answers. But just because every grade school has an art class doesn’t ensure that the…
-
This professor describes the future educated person
Dear digital denizens, please rest easy. That so-called ‘internet addiction’ you have is an evolution of what humans have been doing along — curating, collecting, and sharing. We just do it with more often with the assistance of our screens. According to professor Kenneth Goldsmith at the University of Pennsylvania, “an educated person in the…