I watched several interesting videos by various speakers who shed great and divergent information about the brain, learning, ethics, respect, motivation, and ideas for change. I was definitely inspired and am glad I have a chance here to use my "synthesis mind" (Howard Gardner) to make sense of it all.
1. Sebasian Seung - "I am Connectome" was an interesting Ted talk about how the brain functions. He discussed how personal identity changes as we age because the movement or shedding or growth of neurons and synapses. Neural activity is the basis of all consciousness. He compared the Connectomes to a river flowing through a valley. The river forms the valley, but the valley changes the nature of the river over time. It is always daunting to discuss brain function because it is so complex and sometimes really difficult to grasp. I do know that it is important to keep all this amazing information in mind when teaching students.
2. John Seely Brown - "New Culture of Learning." His premise is that learning is personal and is socially constructed through experience. He states that "nothing beats study groups" because people learn best when working with others. Digital media helps in learning mastery because so much is available to learn that used to be always redone and replicated. He believes that digital media "generates exponential learning."
He is a believer in group work and experimentation. He talked about the surfers in his neighborhood who became experts through intense group collaboration and trial and error. He likes MMOGs. His thoughts are them are that they are an amazing collaborative outlet and learning happens both in and on the edge of the games.
He had a chart of man as knower (traditional) vs man as maker (inquiry). Answers should always become questions. His thoughts on context as content are fascinating. Crafting context to get desired results. He talked about "deep tinkering" that works wonders for changing context. He thinks that blogging is great means of "joint context creation."
I find it all very interesting, especially the joint context creation of blogging. This could apply to social media of all kinds.
3. Howard Gardner "5 Minds for the Future." They are
Gardner notes that all 5 minds do not necessarily fit each person perfectly or the same. He thinks we are having an "ethical meltdown." He talked about "The Good Works Project," which he has created with other people. He cited the ethics needed in the digital age. They are:
He is a really interesting and brilliant man.
4. Sir Ken Robinson "How to Escape Education's Death Valley" Robinson speaks of our culture of standardization in schools. He speaks of the need for broad education and less testing. He speaks about other education systems (Finland, Singapore, South Korea, etc) which make sure that teaching and learning is individualized. They also put great status on the teaching profession. Investing in teachers is not just an expense, but an investment.
They also devolve control of education systems to the local people. Education in the US is based on an industrial process, which should just run on its own. But education is about people who do or do not want to learn and knowing that everyone's story is unique.
Education is human. Culture of schools is absolutely important. He brings in the Death Valley metaphor: there are always seeds of possibility, waiting for change. With great leadership, climate control...creating a climate of possibility.
Create a movement and a revolution.
Love this guy!
5. Dan Pink "The Puzzle of Motivation" Pink's premise is that rewards do not work. He states that science has known this for years, but business (and in our case education) has ignored this and has continued to offer extrinsic rewards, which stifle creativity and innovation. Extrinsic rewards do not work for 21st tasks. Rewards narrow the ofcus. Solutions always lie on the periphery, which is largely ignored when looking for instant answers. The best workers/students need:
All of the above do not fit into an extrinsic rewards system. If you do "if...then" kind of work, those rewards do work, but those do not exist so much in this century.
He spoke about the Google "20% time" concept which has brought about an amazing amount of innovation. He discussed the Encarta model vs. the Wikepedia model.
Very interesting video.
Then, we read the article "Can Creativity be Taught" by August Turak. He is discussing a person he admired greatly named Louis Mobley, who had six premises for success in thinking creatively. They are;
All of the above are inspirational to me and make me think profoundly about my practice as an educator. It is no longer even a remote option not to acknowledge all that has been said and know they are all correct in each of their exploration into how people learn, create, and interact with their own universes. Gardner was very good because he dealt with a very big issue...respect and ethics. We are woefully unprepared for what is going on in our students' homes/computer screens/personal interactions with peers. It is excellent to have someone, like Gardner, who is widely respected for his acknowledgment of multiple intelligences, to come and discuss and name respect and ethics as two important parts of the human mind. These need to be nurtured and grown.
I love the intrinsic vs extrinsic rewards system discussion. We all get this from students..what will I get if I do such and such. Many of our students and their parents function only in the extrinsic reward world. This definitely makes for some very selfish and one-dimensional people. It is time to change that mindset.
Ken Robinson repeated a lot we read in Darling-Hammond, but it is good to hear it over and over. Teachers in the US needed to be treated as investments and not expenses. Students need to be honored as individuals and not data!
1. Sebasian Seung - "I am Connectome" was an interesting Ted talk about how the brain functions. He discussed how personal identity changes as we age because the movement or shedding or growth of neurons and synapses. Neural activity is the basis of all consciousness. He compared the Connectomes to a river flowing through a valley. The river forms the valley, but the valley changes the nature of the river over time. It is always daunting to discuss brain function because it is so complex and sometimes really difficult to grasp. I do know that it is important to keep all this amazing information in mind when teaching students.
2. John Seely Brown - "New Culture of Learning." His premise is that learning is personal and is socially constructed through experience. He states that "nothing beats study groups" because people learn best when working with others. Digital media helps in learning mastery because so much is available to learn that used to be always redone and replicated. He believes that digital media "generates exponential learning."
He is a believer in group work and experimentation. He talked about the surfers in his neighborhood who became experts through intense group collaboration and trial and error. He likes MMOGs. His thoughts are them are that they are an amazing collaborative outlet and learning happens both in and on the edge of the games.
He had a chart of man as knower (traditional) vs man as maker (inquiry). Answers should always become questions. His thoughts on context as content are fascinating. Crafting context to get desired results. He talked about "deep tinkering" that works wonders for changing context. He thinks that blogging is great means of "joint context creation."
I find it all very interesting, especially the joint context creation of blogging. This could apply to social media of all kinds.
3. Howard Gardner "5 Minds for the Future." They are
- Disciplined minds
- Synthesis minds (Darwin was the greatest synthesizer). This is putting information together to hold on to it. Can you share it with someone else?
- Creative minds (Einstein and Virginia Wolfe). There needs to be some irreverence and an ability to keep at things despite failure.
- Respectful minds Giving others the benefit of the doubt. This begins at birth when we see how people treat one another.
- Ethical minds Requires abstract attitude and obligations. What are the requirements of my roles: citizen, teacher, parent, sibling, etc.
Gardner notes that all 5 minds do not necessarily fit each person perfectly or the same. He thinks we are having an "ethical meltdown." He talked about "The Good Works Project," which he has created with other people. He cited the ethics needed in the digital age. They are:
- identity
- privacy
- ownership/authorship
- credibility
- participation.
He is a really interesting and brilliant man.
4. Sir Ken Robinson "How to Escape Education's Death Valley" Robinson speaks of our culture of standardization in schools. He speaks of the need for broad education and less testing. He speaks about other education systems (Finland, Singapore, South Korea, etc) which make sure that teaching and learning is individualized. They also put great status on the teaching profession. Investing in teachers is not just an expense, but an investment.
They also devolve control of education systems to the local people. Education in the US is based on an industrial process, which should just run on its own. But education is about people who do or do not want to learn and knowing that everyone's story is unique.
Education is human. Culture of schools is absolutely important. He brings in the Death Valley metaphor: there are always seeds of possibility, waiting for change. With great leadership, climate control...creating a climate of possibility.
Create a movement and a revolution.
Love this guy!
5. Dan Pink "The Puzzle of Motivation" Pink's premise is that rewards do not work. He states that science has known this for years, but business (and in our case education) has ignored this and has continued to offer extrinsic rewards, which stifle creativity and innovation. Extrinsic rewards do not work for 21st tasks. Rewards narrow the ofcus. Solutions always lie on the periphery, which is largely ignored when looking for instant answers. The best workers/students need:
- Autonomy
- Mastery
- Purpose
All of the above do not fit into an extrinsic rewards system. If you do "if...then" kind of work, those rewards do work, but those do not exist so much in this century.
He spoke about the Google "20% time" concept which has brought about an amazing amount of innovation. He discussed the Encarta model vs. the Wikepedia model.
Very interesting video.
Then, we read the article "Can Creativity be Taught" by August Turak. He is discussing a person he admired greatly named Louis Mobley, who had six premises for success in thinking creatively. They are;
- Traditional teaching like reading, testing, lecturing and memorization are worse than useless. Non-linear learning is better for fostering creativity.
- Becoming creative is unlearning rather than learning.
- Creativity cannot be learned. You must become creative.
- The fastest way to become creative is to hang around creative people.
- Creativity correlates with self-knowledge. It is impossible to overcome biases if we do not know they are there.
- Permission to be wrong.
All of the above are inspirational to me and make me think profoundly about my practice as an educator. It is no longer even a remote option not to acknowledge all that has been said and know they are all correct in each of their exploration into how people learn, create, and interact with their own universes. Gardner was very good because he dealt with a very big issue...respect and ethics. We are woefully unprepared for what is going on in our students' homes/computer screens/personal interactions with peers. It is excellent to have someone, like Gardner, who is widely respected for his acknowledgment of multiple intelligences, to come and discuss and name respect and ethics as two important parts of the human mind. These need to be nurtured and grown.
I love the intrinsic vs extrinsic rewards system discussion. We all get this from students..what will I get if I do such and such. Many of our students and their parents function only in the extrinsic reward world. This definitely makes for some very selfish and one-dimensional people. It is time to change that mindset.
Ken Robinson repeated a lot we read in Darling-Hammond, but it is good to hear it over and over. Teachers in the US needed to be treated as investments and not expenses. Students need to be honored as individuals and not data!