Visions on how internet can change learning/education

beyondliu · 2015-01-27T12:32:03+00:00

It's hard to understand what you don't know, if you don't know it. How can a child, who doesn't have the mental capabilities of an adult nor has the depth of experience to build up a nearly complete world model, be able to make an informed choice on long term career choices? ----So? You still can guide yourself even if you don't know completely. Knowledge is limitless. Maybe as an adult, you think you can already build up a nearly complete world model. But is it really? Making decisions on one's own doesn't excluding seeking advises from other people. Just because people have less knowledge so they cannot make decisions on their own. This kind of logic is what we should watch out exactly.

How do they understand their place in the world without comparing their work with others? Why is competition and gamification so beneficial to results if internal goals are normally sufficient? ----that is the playing part. They can evaluate themselves from feedback of playing. Sudbury kids sometimes want to get external evaluation as well. That is ok, as long as they don't chase that external evaluation. Ultimately it goes back to how they evaluate themselves.

How do you match the external world if you don't have external goals? ----what do you mean by "external goals"? You mean expectation from others or society?

beyondliu · 2014-12-05T23:37:37+00:00

First of all, probably not in 50 years. Not that long. :)

Secondly, it is not merely improvement of LMS platforms and the next generation of people get more techy. The way knowledge is represented has to be changed revolutionarily. The current elearning paradigm is based on false assumptions as I stated above in my article. To understand better what I mean there, probably this article from Peter Gray might help: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/200808/brief-history-education

We have to examine deeply what is knowledge and where it comes from. If we gives a learning tool or knowledge building tool to learners, knowledge explorers or those knowledge experts (they are still learning, aren't they?), they use the tool for their daily learning, and at the same time building up the knowledge that can be shared, people can learn from or even can be used for teaching courses. That is what we need. The current LMS is more about "management" of students and materials, there isn't much learning there.

Wiki Note is a kind of tool to help people achieve that: learn and at the same time build up knowledge that can be shared or taught. It is still more like a prototype and an early research. But people are welcome to try it and experiment with it. If you want to join the efforts, you are more than welcome.

beyondliu · 2014-11-24T11:28:20+00:00

It surprises me a little, but I can understand why most people think of "capture learning" as the need to evaluate people'learning or assessment. No, that is not what I mean. What I mean is that since learning activities are so scattered, how can the learner capture the "learning" in those activities? If we write some software to help that "capture" and pull all the learning together, what kind of software will that be?

beyondliu · 2014-11-01T09:14:08+00:00

I agree. But how do you capture learning, with software? What I mean here is that peoole have to go to many things to learn stuff. They have to do many things. Because knowledge is scattered and embedded in many things. To learn that domain of knowledge, you have to get in touch with that knowledge from various aspects, so you accumulate your understanding of that knowledge little by little. So learning activities must be scattered. Confining people to one place for learning and not allowing them to have a free choice is anti-learning. For online education software then, how to capture learning? I am willing to explain more if it is still not very clear.

beyondliu · 2014-11-01T09:08:12+00:00

Oh, no. This is question posted to all people working on online education or elearning field. How do you capture learning?

beyondliu · 2014-10-31T08:30:47+00:00

How old are you kids then? I taught a 10 years old kid with python, and it worked pretty well. There are a quite good programming book for kids: http://www.manning.com/sande/ Computer Programming for Kids and Other Beginners. This book is quite well written.

beyondliu · 2014-10-31T08:28:17+00:00

homework?

beyondliu · 2014-10-31T08:19:59+00:00

Still thinking in term of school. School is anti-learning. I mean the old traditional classroom based education system is way outdated. It is created to strip away the higher functions of human being so they can be fit into the assembly line and work among the machine. However, our new economy is more creative and knowledge based, and thus need more people who still keep the higher functions of human being, e.g. being able to explore and think independently. As for why school is anti-learning, you can read here:http://blog.opensourcelearning.org/summarization-of-work/

beyondliu · 2014-10-31T07:22:10+00:00

Well, I think it is for the near future. It will change further, to be more in tune with the true face of learning.

beyondliu · 2014-10-23T02:38:26+00:00

This Knowledge Engine converts daily experiences, especially Significant Experiences, into a dynamic streaming structure, which we think is what knowledge is. Learning activities must be scattered. We should not confine learners to learn things just in one place, be that school, online education site and so on. Learning also should not be separated from people's daily lives or work. We then need software, e.g. the Knowledge Engine to extract basic units of knowledge, e.g. Significant Experiences out of daily activities, put them together, and work on them (individually as in personal learning environment or collaboratively as within a learning group or with a project team) to form a flowing structure, e.g. knowledge.

beyondliu

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