Educating for a Posthuman Society

Thanks to recommendations by Netflix and a colleague, my wife and I have started watching Suits. It's a clever show with a protagonist who's eidetic memory allows him to practice law despite having not attended law school. We've only watched a few episodes so far, but it's already clear that this character's memory skills are not enough for him to be a great lawyer.

In a similar way, I would argue that the value of education is not in filling students with facts, but rather in helping them develop the tools to synthesize meaning. Computers are very good at remembering things for us, we need to educate students to accomplish things that humans are uniquely qualified for.

Furthermore, if Ray Kurzweil and others are to be believed, life-extension technologies may soon allow us (or our consciousness) to live forever. Google's Calico project is actively working on idea. We may need to consider what attributes and skills our students, and we ourselves, may need in that sort of future. If you're interested in more about this, start with the Wikipedia articles on transhumanism and posthumanism.

We often hear about educating students for jobs that don't exist yet and the accelerating pace of change, but we're still not sure what that looks like. Will technology become some sort of benevolent babysitter for humanity?

For now, though, I trust my colleague's recommendation more than the automatic recommendations by Netflix.

Educating for a Posthuman Society

Thanks to recommendations by Netflix and a colleague, my wife and I have started watching Suits. It's a clever show with a protagonist whose eidetic memory allows him to practice law despite having not attended law school. We've only watched a few episodes so far, but it's already clear that this character's memory skills are not enough for him to be a great lawyer.

In a similar way, I would argue that the value of education is not in filling students with facts, but rather in helping them develop the tools to synthesize meaning. Computers are very good at remembering things for us, we need to educate students to accomplish things that humans are uniquely qualified for.

Furthermore, if Ray Kurzweil and others are to be believed, life-extension technologies may soon allow us (or our consciousness) to live forever. Google's Calico project is actively working on idea. We may need to consider what attributes and skills our students, and we ourselves, may need in that sort of future. If you're interested in more about this, start with the Wikipedia articles on transhumanism and posthumanism.

We often hear about educating students for jobs that don't exist yet and the accelerating pace of change, but we're still not sure what that looks like. Will technology become some sort of benevolent babysitter for humanity?

For now, though, I tend to trust my colleague's recommendation more than the automatic recommendations by Netflix.

a trip down memory lane to Switzerland

A colleague of mine recently mentioned the ThinkQuest site as a place for students to browse and create projects. Early in my teaching career I was asked to help "coach" a ThinkQuest competition team, and the team made it to the finals in Switzerland. There were three students involved, one from Salisbury where I was teaching, one from Taiwan, and one from Estonia. They were were great to work with, and it was a wonderful experience.

If you're interested, you can check out their creation here: The Learning Curve.

Comment Spam

It seems that comment spammers haven't figured out that their efforts are ineffective. They are still trying to post a paragraph (sometimes copied directly from the post itself) followed by a link to an unrelated website.

Usually I just ignore them and delete without reading, but since I'm usually careful to proofread my writing this one actually made me smile.

---

naturally like your web site but you need to take a look 
at the spelling on several of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling problems and I in finding it 
very bothersome to tell the reality nevertheless I will definitely come again again.

---

The link has been removed, of course, and I didn't allow the comment to go live. However I just thought I'd share an example of comment spam.

Gamification Challenges

If you're interested in learning more about gamification, I set up some challenges for a session at Convention last week. I'm reposting them here. Unfortunately we won't have a leaderboard or group discussions though.

1. Come up with a definition for gamification.
2. Identify the difference between gamified and game-based learning.
3. Consider how you think student motivation might be affected by gamified learning.
4. Consider how you think learner self-efficacy might be affected by gamified learning.
5. Decide whether or not to continue working on these challenges.
6. Read the Wikipedia article on gamification.
7. Do a survey of those around you to see what percentage of them play games (video games, board games, sports, etc.).
8. Reflect and share how gamification might be similar to some things you've tried in the past.
9. Discuss how gamification might affect student engagement.
10. Investigate Csikszentmihalyi's concept of "flow" as it relates to games and/or learning.
11. Find a peer-reviewed academic article on the benefits (or risks) of gamification.
12. Discuss how gamification might align with Inspiring Education, High School Flexibility, and/or Curriculum Redesign.
13. Read about Quest to Learn (Q2L), a public school in New York City.
14. Find and share an example of gamified learning, such as the UofA's EDU210: http://goo.gl/cgoRrt
15. Share online (social media, blog, etc.) an example of gamification, in education or some other field.
16. Explore how "serious games" (also called persuasive games or applied games) are similar to and different from gamified environments.
17. Check out "Games for Change", "Fold.it", and "Play to Cure: Genes in Space".
18. Brainstorm a quick and easy way you (or someone you know) can quickly and easily gamify something.
19. Come up with a list of things to consider when designing gamified activities or environments.
20. Watch a TED talk by Jane McGonigal, Gabe Zichermann, Seth Priebatsch, Ali Carr-Chellman, Tom Chatfield, or Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
21. Read about some of the criticisms of gamification, such as Ian Bogost's "exploitationware", Jane McGonigal's "gameful design", or others who discuss dangers of extrinsic motivation.
22. Have an extended conversation about why gamification might or might not be a good idea.
23. Write about your experiences with gamification (either here or elsewhere) in your blog, journal, social media, or on paper.
24. Come up with three pairs of statements in the form "I used to think _____, now I think _____.

Simon Breakspear - Innovative Learning Environments

I've heard Simon Breakspear speak a couple of times lately, including at Convention last week, and I've been very impressed. Here's a YouTube clip of him talking about "How do the innovative learning environments get created?"

Projecting from an iPad or iPhone

A while ago I wrote about showing your iPad/iPhone on the big screen using iOS 6, but now that most people have upgraded to iOS 7 perhaps it's time for another post.

I you have an Apple TV (or a computer running Reflector) connected to your projector or TV, you can wirelessly project your iPad, iPhone, or iPod screen using AirPlay Mirroring. AirPlay will work from any Apple device (and some non-Apple devices), but the screen mirroring part doesn't work on some older devices.

To start, make sure you are connected to the same network as your AirPlay receiver (Apple TV or computer running Reflector).

Swipe your finger up from the bottom of the screen to access the Control Center. If there's an AirPlay receiver on the network, tap on AirPlay and select which device you'd like to AirPlay to.

Once you've selected an AirPlay receiver, you can turn on Mirroring if it's supported.

If you have AirPlay security enabled on your AirPlay receiver (either Onscreen Code or Password) you will be prompted to enter it.

When AirPlay is active, the top bar of your device will be blue, and you'll see the AirPlay icon  at the top right.

When you want to stop AirPlaying, swipe up from the bottom again, tap AirPlay, and choose iPad.

You can also look for the the AirPlay icon   in specific apps such as YouTube.