Difference between revisions of "Talk:Education"
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This actually enables the sort of cross-fertilization discussed above, because it is when you have to do something practical, some project, and you have to draw on all your resources, that you see the benefits of diverse knowledge. | This actually enables the sort of cross-fertilization discussed above, because it is when you have to do something practical, some project, and you have to draw on all your resources, that you see the benefits of diverse knowledge. | ||
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| + | Augmented reality and virtual reality will be applied to education in the future. We already have virtual reality simulators to train pilots etc. Imagine learning something like cooking using a computer that can tell what you are doing at a given moment and displays information and advice relevant to the situation. | ||
== Links == | == Links == | ||
Revision as of 14:25, 12 March 2011
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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.
>> Aldous Huxley's utopian vision in Island featured a school that teaches a subject called 'Bridge-building', which is the study of how all the other subjects fit into each other. Bucky's ideas of comprehensive thinking and synergy are similar.
"Learn something about everything and everything about something"
It's actually astonishing how many great minds have come back to this point: that it is bad to separate areas of human knowledge. Education must create polymaths.
Aldous Huxley quipped that the only reason we divide human knowledge into separate subjects is to make life easier on college administrators. (I think it was Huxley, at least - can't find the quote now.)
Gregory Bateson says it very charmingly here.
It is more than fashionable, it is inculcated by our great universities, who believe there is such a thing as psychology which is different from sociology and such a thing as anthropology which is different from both and such a thing as esthetics or art criticism which is different... and that the world is made of separable items of knowledge in which, if you were a student, you could be examined... and the first point I want to get over to you is that the world is not like that AT ALL."
Steve Jobs too has said it here. He mentions that taking a course in calligraphy turned out to be useful in creating the first personal computers. And that is the key point: even the most wildly different fields of knowledge cross-fertilize in ways you would never suspect until you've tried it. Every one of us has experienced this cross-fertilization in our own life, but the education system actively opposed
Facilities - environment is very important to education. I think there are studies linking things like air quality, brightness, and the presence of natural elements (potted plants etc.) to learning. Find references.
Marian Cleeves Diamond's studies on neural 'enrichment' from a stimulating environment might be relevant here [1]
Stress has been shown many times to diminish learning, and stress is correlated with noise, overillumination and other environmental factors.
Some things can be learned theoretically (e.g. subjects currently taught in schools). These can be done by the open-content learning hub described.
Other subjects require practical learning: cooking, dance or anything physical. Skill-acquisition is different from theoretical learning. Cannot be taught online.
Other thing, like meditation, require repeated experience, but are not exactly skills.
Hands-on learning. Getting students to devise and undertake projects like designing and creating a new invention, social entrepreneurship. Teaches actual life skills of organization and getting-shit-done.
This actually enables the sort of cross-fertilization discussed above, because it is when you have to do something practical, some project, and you have to draw on all your resources, that you see the benefits of diverse knowledge.
Augmented reality and virtual reality will be applied to education in the future. We already have virtual reality simulators to train pilots etc. Imagine learning something like cooking using a computer that can tell what you are doing at a given moment and displays information and advice relevant to the situation.
Links
- Article about 'Khan Academy'
- http://www.kipp.org - has a system modelled from excellent teachers to replicate their methods. Seems to get very good results
- Not open-source as far as I'm aware, but an interesting free collection of university lectures in one repository: http://academicearth.org
- http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/ Lots of information and ideas about how to make education better
Cognitive skills
It is more flexible to teach cognitive skills - which can then be applied to anyhting - than to teach static subjects.
- Critical thinking (video introduction: [2])
- Mnemonics
- Social skills
- Visualization skills
Applying neuroscience to education
Educators would do well to have a better idea of what is actually happening inside the brains of their students. We often diagnose 'learning difficulties' based on vague behavioral traits (e.g. "short attention span"), when we can get a much more accurate picture of what is happening based on brain scans and psychometrics. [3]
- The Arrowsmith School is a step in the right direction; applying neuroscience to understand and remedy weaknesses in cognition, with a program that is tailored to the individual student.
