Musing about Thinking-1

Oct 052009

Why Thinking Skills = To Solve a Problem or to Take a Decision (or even to think of a new Problem!)

Thinking = Being aware of, and challenging our inherent Assumptions / Perceptions + Figuring out Alternatives + Weighing Alternatives + Choosing Optimal Alternative

Being Aware of, and Challenging Assumptions/Perceptions + Finding Alternatives = Creative Thinking

Weighing Alternatives (i.e. analysis, judgment etc) = Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking skills, I think, can be viewed from three perspectives.

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Timeless Lifeskills

May 15, 2013 at 10:13 am

"Education system should recognise diversity and not be based on conformity, school curriculum should be broad based and celebrate diverse talents, the objective of education should be pursuit of learning and not teaching (not that the teacher is teaching but no one is learning!), teachers should facilitate learning by lighting the spark of curiosity in their learners, role of testing should be diagnostics to improve learning..." - another brilliant talk by Sir Ken Robinson.

Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley | Video on TED.com

http://www.ted.com

Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish -- and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational "death valley" we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of pos...

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Timeless Lifeskills

May 1, 2013 at 1:30 pm

In this article Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, shares his views on MOOCs and the role he sees Wikipedia playing in education, especially in places where traditional encyclopaedias are simply not available. He says, "Our goal is a free encyclopaedia for everyone in their own language."

In my view, even in places where there is easy access to traditional encyclopaedias, looking for information on Wikipedia can provide a very refreshing perspective into knowledge acquisition and comprehension. Try this:

Go to Wikipedia and search for the phrase, “India’s freedom struggle of 1857”.

Those of you who, like me, studied in India will know this event as India's first freedom struggle and Mangal Pandey as our hero (that's what our history school books told us). But visit Major General Havelock's statue at the Trafalgar Square in London and you will find a plaque that reads, “To Major General Sir Henry Havelock K.C.B. and his brave companions in arms, during the campaign in India 1857”, “Soldiers’ your labours your privations your sufferings and your valour will not be forgotten by a grateful country – H Havelock.”

History, is a matter of perspective.

Wikipedia says, “The page ‘India’s freedom struggle of 1857’ does not exist.”

Persist and you will find that the event is instead listed under the heading, ‘Indian Rebellion of 1857’. Why is this so?

Click on the ‘Talk’ button on top left of the Wikipedia page and see the archived history of the page. You will find that a debate has raged for years on the title of the page. Some would like to call the page ‘Sepoy Mutiny’, or ‘Revolt of 1857’, some suggest that these are titles being suggested by imperialists and compare calling this event a rebellion similar to calling ‘American War of Independence’ as ‘American Rebellion’.

Arguments against calling this event India’s first freedom struggle include – debate over the national character of the rebellion which took place primarily in North-Central India and many of the then princesses and maharajas did not take part. Those arguing in favour of calling it India’s war of independence cite that the rebelling soldiers aimed at reviving the old Mughal empire and were not protesting against their own grievances and if not national, the uprising was certainly pan-regional.

Apparently the naming issue was put to vote in 2004 amongst editors of the particular Wikipedia page and the title, ‘Indian Rebellion of 1857’ was accepted as a mutual compromise.

History, is indeed a matter of perspective. Best to study it as human history.

What we consider knowledge itself changes. David Weinberger in his book, "Too Big to Know - Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room is the Room" argues that knowledge takes the property of the medium it is presented in. Knowledge presented in the medium of paper was bounded, scarce, settled, orderly, step-by-step and driven by reason. In the internet age networked knowledge is unbounded, overwhelming, unsettled, messy and linked.

Unlike a traditional encyclopaedia, which was well suited when knowledge was orderly and settled, Wikipedia, with a little digging, can provide multiple perspectives and reveal how an argument got constructed. It is well-suited to the current era when knowledge is messy, unsettled and for every point there is a counter viewpoint available online.

(Thanks to Herschel for pointing me to this BBC link).

Jimmy Wales: 'Dull lectures doomed'

http://www.bbc.co.uk

The boring university lecture is going to be the first major casualty of the rise in online learning in higher education, says Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

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Timeless Lifeskills

April 29, 2013 at 12:53 pm

A discussion on MOOCs, hosted by Charlie Rose (30 mts video). While MOOCs are fast becoming popular and may become the disruptive factor in education in terms of access, reach and cost, the challenges MOOCs will need to overcome include - enriching the learning experience by making it more personalised, self-paced and analytics based, figure out how to catalyse self-motivation to learn, address the issue of certification (certification that is based on assessment of ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-world contexts and demonstrate performances of deep understanding, creativity and innovation), redefine the role of teachers and make their role more meaningful (e.g. flipped classroom model - where students watch didactic videos online at home/libraries and use classroom time for discussion, debate and learning-by-doing) and above all MOOCs need to find a business model that makes them self-sustaining. Will it be targeted advertising model or a sponsored chair on a MOOC?

Tom Friedman puts it nicely - MOOCs are at the Alta-Vista stage of web search, the Google of MOOCs is yet to come. The good news is that the usage data and learner analytics being generated because of thousands of students, from all the world taking MOOCs is pedagogic insights that can significantly enhance the learning experience and help teachers become less Darth Vader and more Yoda!

Want to create your first online course or MOOC but not sure how to go about it? Join a MOOC on MOOC - https://edge.edx.org/courses/edX/edX101/How_to_Create_an_edX_Course/about

Charlie Rose - Online Education

http://www.charlierose.com

A discussion about Online education with Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX; Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania; Joel Klein, former New York City Schools chancellor and CEO of Amplify and Tom Friedman of the New York Times

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Timeless Lifeskills

April 3, 2013 at 4:18 pm

Salman Khan, of Khan Academy, in a conversation with Charlie Rose (20 mts video), discusses how the gold standard of education is a personalised learning experience and how 'flipped classrooms' (where open educational resources, like the Khan Academy, substitute the didactic part of the classroom and classroom time with teachers is used for personalised learning activities) are making delivery of such personalised learning experience at mass scale feasible. He also touches on good teaching being about facilitating the learners become self-directed.

I think 'inspiring learners' is the most important role a teacher can play. Inspiring learners implies taking a learner from being extrinsically motivated (learning for fear of punishment or for external rewards like exam grades) to being intrinsically motivated (learning for the joy of it).

The motivation spectrum goes from 'external regulation' (you don’t want to learn but do it because someone wants you to do to it) > 'introjection' (you learn because it enhances your status) > 'identification' (you don’t really enjoy learning but you do it because you see value in doing it e.g. studying math) > 'integration' (you learn because it aligns with your goals and aspirations) > 'intrinsically motivated' (learning for the joy of it).

According to psychologist Robert White, the master motivator for humans is pursuit of personal competence or mastery. The three pillars of intrinsic motivation as per self-determination theory of motivation, which author Daniel Pink succinctly describes in his book 'Drive' as - 'autonomy' - the urge to direct our own lives, 'mastery' - the desire to get better and better on something that matters to us, and 'purpose' - a yearning to do something larger than our self-interest.

A great teacher or learner facilitator is someone who can 'inspire' learners by firing up their intrinsic motivation and set them forth on a lifelong, self-directed learning journey. The knowledge acquisition part, which is the traditionally accepted role of a teacher, can today be accomplished in many ways, including using open educational resources, serious games, apps and MOOCs.

Charlie Rose - Salman Khan

http://www.charlierose.com

Salman Khan, Founder of the Khan Academy on his book “The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined”

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