I like this excerpt from Krista Tippett’s interview with Maria Popova, curator of the wonderful Brain Pickings [Thanks to the Centre for Teaching] Culture needs stewardship, not disruption. … We seem somehow bored with thinking. We want to instantly know. And there’s this epidemic of listicles. Why think about what constitutes a great work of art when you can skim … Read More
Derek Cabrera and Teaching Thinking with DSRP
Derek Cabrera is an impressive character – superbright and does good social entrepreneur work. He’s also decided that thinking can be taught with something called DSRP – Distinctions, Systems, Relationships, and Perspectives. His new book “Thinking at Every Desk” looks interesting , especially in the knowledge that teachers like Jennifer Orr seem to be getting great results with it … Read More
Situation puzzle – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A man walks into a bar, and asks the bartender for a drink of water. The bartender pulls out a gun, points it at the man, and cocks it. The man says "Thank you" and leaves. What happened? Source: here
Reinventing British manners the Post-It way
Design thinking goes like this: firstly, immersion, whereby the designers research the problem by plunging themselves into it – talking to the people they're trying to help, working with them, interviewing experts. Secondly, synthesis – whereby they gather together their findings and look for patterns. Third, ideation – brainstorming solutions to the real problems identified by stage two. Then comes … Read More
Critical Thinking
Not a bad video to show some of the children.
Umberto Eco: The lost art of handwriting
writing by hand obliges us to compose the phrase mentally before writing it down. Thanks to the resistance of pen and paper, it does make one slow down and think… It's true that kids will write more and more on computers and cellphones. Nonetheless, humanity has learned to rediscover as sports and aesthetic pleasures many things that civilisation had eliminated … Read More
Lateral thinking overrated
a number of detailed reports of scientific discovery, artistic creativity, and invention are available, including Darwin’s notebooks on the development of his theory of evolution, Watson’s report of the discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule, Picassos preliminary sketches for several of his most famous paintings, and Edison’s notebooks on the invention of the kinetoscope. These examples are covered … Read More
Proof, Dodgy Theories and Disconfirmation
We’re pretty bad at theories, it seems, because we don’t really look for disconfirmation. In Dan Gardner’s book Risk, he recounts an experiment done to show this that was conducted by Peter Watson. The challenge is pretty simple: given 3 numbers in sequence, can you figure out what the rule is? Participants were allowed to write down 3 different numbers … Read More
Dealing with Internet Waste
If you assume that the internet, blogosphere et al are complex systems, what might their waste be? And how might we “recycle” it better? One of the many things I’ve learnt from Steven Johnson’s Ghost Map, is that waste recycling is a hallmark of almost all complex systems. System Recycling Cities Composting pits used in Knossos, Crete 4000 years ago. … Read More
Tolstoy on conversation, action and theory
From Isaiah Berlin’s wonderful Hedgehog and the Fox: People were preoccupied by personal interests. Those who went about their ordinary business without feeling heroic emotions or thinking that they were actors upon the well-lighted stage of history were the most useful to their … community, while those who tried to grasp the general course of events and wanted to take … Read More
- Page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2