Difference between revisions of "Education/Intro"

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−	[[Image:School.jpg|120px|right]]	+	[[Image:School.jpg|180px|right|thumb|Will it look like this in the future? Hopefully not...]] Ignorance is a contributing factor in many of the problems we face today, such as AIDS, pollution and food production. A first-rate education for the citizenry {{wp|Synergy|synergizes}} with every other element of an advanced civilization: scientific discovery happens faster, open collaborative projects grow faster and at a better quality, public health improves, solutions to our problems come faster and ambitious projects like [[Colonising Space|colonising space]] or curing cancer become more and more feasible.
−	Ignorance is a great source of our problems today and '''education''' is obviously hugely important for the continued progress of society.	+
−	How can we help people to become more educated? It seems quite simple {{em}} by making learning truly interesting and relevant to the individual and making proper use of modern media. A one size-fits-all curriculum only benefits the schools and assessment bodies, and not particularly the children.	+	There is no reason whatsoever for education to be a [[Scarcity|scarce]] resource. Education is a resource of information, rather than of physical goods, and reproducing information is free. In a world of universal connectivity, education can be ubiquitous if it is made freely available online. This is a task for [[Open collaborative design|open collaboration]].
−	It is a crime for education not to be interesting. Luckily for every module of every subject there are educators (and others) who are truly gifted at explaining those concepts to other people, for example [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_sagan Carl Sagan] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough David Attenborough] - although of course there are plenty more who are not well known. So it makes sense to distribute this material as widely as possible; one obvious way might be record video footage of these people and make it openly available on the internet, which today is a trivial and cheap task. Of course there would be plenty of people, both material distributors and educators, who might want to do this on a commercial basis, but for the benefit of those learning, this is not the ideal model - it is vital that this material is freely available. Once this free repository contains some great material, it should encourage others to follow suit. Great respect will be given to those that do contribute good material and it is likely that reputation will be the driving factor for quality.	+	It is no secret that the schooling system nowadays is in a crisis. Our schools are based on a factory-line model: a child goes in one end, is processed according to a standard procedure and comes out the other end with a certificate. No regard is paid to the person's interests, curiosity, creativity, passion. Students are taught outdated material from a peculiar selection of often irrelevant or downright boring subjects. Their flexibility and capacity to deal with unexpected, non-obvious solutions are not encouraged, and are often actively suppressed. They are not free to pursue their passions and talents. They are not given the chance to apply their skills in any practical way. And worst of all, most students simply hate school. (One study <sup>[http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/healed/online/Volume_13/Issue_03/pdf/130383.pdf]</sup> found that only 10-33% of students report being satisfied with school. The same study found that most students feel their teachers are uninterested in supporting them.)
−	It cannot be expected, at least initially, for the educators to do this spontaneously, there needs to be a concerted effort to target inspirational individuals and record their material. Anyone would be free to submit material too and as there	+	How can we promote better education? The answer seems simple: make learning truly interesting, more relevant to the individual and make proper use of modern media. An inflexible curriculum only benefits the schools and assessment bodies.
−	There would likely be plenty of bad material, but the good stuff will bubble it way up to the top.	+	It is becoming ever easier to create interactive 3-D environments such as those found in advanced computer games. With the right scripting for interaction and behaviour, these can make a captivating experience where the student hardly realises they are learning.
−	Teachers can then use this resource to help them introduce new subjects.	+	It is a crime for education not to be interesting! Luckily, for every module of every subject there are educators (and others) who are truly gifted at explaining and teaching key concepts. We must make better use of these people in conjunction with open collaboration and the latest technology to disseminate knowledge to all who wish to learn, wherever they might be in the world.
−		+
−	There are teachers and educators for every module of every subject	+
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−	Making the material of the most interesting educators available to anyone. Video and interactive material. Many teachers become learning managers, making sure the students understand what is being explained, supervising experiments etc.	+
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−	What is being explained must be made relevant to the person consuming it. Subjects should be linked together rather than artificially partitioned.	+
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−	The importance of understanding other other people. Understanding other cultures, Empathy etc. <unfinished>	+
−	<noinclude>{{refresh|Education}}</noinclude>	+

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Latest revision as of 12:35, 18 July 2010

Ignorance is a contributing factor in many of the problems we face today, such as AIDS, pollution and food production. A first-rate education for the citizenry synergizes  with every other element of an advanced civilization: scientific discovery happens faster, open collaborative projects grow faster and at a better quality, public health improves, solutions to our problems come faster and ambitious projects like colonising space or curing cancer become more and more feasible.

There is no reason whatsoever for education to be a scarce resource. Education is a resource of information, rather than of physical goods, and reproducing information is free. In a world of universal connectivity, education can be ubiquitous if it is made freely available online. This is a task for open collaboration.

It is no secret that the schooling system nowadays is in a crisis. Our schools are based on a factory-line model: a child goes in one end, is processed according to a standard procedure and comes out the other end with a certificate. No regard is paid to the person's interests, curiosity, creativity, passion. Students are taught outdated material from a peculiar selection of often irrelevant or downright boring subjects. Their flexibility and capacity to deal with unexpected, non-obvious solutions are not encouraged, and are often actively suppressed. They are not free to pursue their passions and talents. They are not given the chance to apply their skills in any practical way. And worst of all, most students simply hate school. (One study ^[1] found that only 10-33% of students report being satisfied with school. The same study found that most students feel their teachers are uninterested in supporting them.)

How can we promote better education? The answer seems simple: make learning truly interesting, more relevant to the individual and make proper use of modern media. An inflexible curriculum only benefits the schools and assessment bodies.

It is becoming ever easier to create interactive 3-D environments such as those found in advanced computer games. With the right scripting for interaction and behaviour, these can make a captivating experience where the student hardly realises they are learning.

It is a crime for education not to be interesting! Luckily, for every module of every subject there are educators (and others) who are truly gifted at explaining and teaching key concepts. We must make better use of these people in conjunction with open collaboration and the latest technology to disseminate knowledge to all who wish to learn, wherever they might be in the world.