EDUCATION EVOLVING

For some time I've been accumulating interesting articles on learning and the human brain. Today seems like a good opportunity to offer a grab bag to readers. Check out the summaries and investigate the links which pique your interest.

The Link Between Creativity and Eccentricity. We all know people who are weird but not necessarily creative. Yet many highly creative people are eccentric. What's the link? "Some of the biological vulnerabilities that predispose individuals to disorders are shared by some highly creative individuals. These individuals are more open -- thanks to latent inhibition, for instance -- to novel, creative ideas than folks whose mental filters do suppress scores of irrelevant information. However, they're protected from psychopathology by traits such as high IQ and increased working memory capacity." See the article for a more thorough explanation.

When should you teach children, and when should you let them explore? The upshot from one experiment -- when adults provide instruction prior to introducing children to a new toy or activity, the children spend less time playing than when they're allowed to discover the toyor activity's potential on their own. This makes intuitive sense to me. When I was very young, I had to invent my own games, and I believe my imagination is richer for the experience.

Which isn't to say that there is no place for adult guidance and inspiration. Witness Children Full of Life a video showing the bond of affection and enthusiasm between grade school students and their former home room teacher in Japan. The express intent of the class was to encourage a life of happiness, and to foster mutual support and affection between the students. A very touching narrative.

How the Internet is Revolutionizing Education shares a number of initiatives which incorporate online learning into traditional education, especially at the college level. Will access to the Internet replace a college degree? Unlikely. But it is becoming an essential tool to add further dimension to higher learning. Some class assignments are performed and submitted exclusively online. Much class content is available free on the Internet, without having to purchase expensive texts. And question-and-answer sessions conducted via Skype or email sidestep the limitations of traditional professors' office hours. None of which replaces the value of face-to-face, realtime interaction between instructors and students. Still, in a very different but still relevant context, Abraham Lincoln said, "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is pile high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion."

On a different note, Creationism in the Classroom: A Tragic State of Affairs describes the most recent skirmish between those who advocate teaching creationism in science classes, and those who advocate teaching only evolution. The article lays out the arguments for each side, with emphasis on why so many people feel threatened by (another way of saying "do not understand") evolution. Bottom line, in this observer's view, creationism is a religious belief, and should be taught in a religious venue. Evolution is a scientific principle, backed by many decades of rigorous research and irrefutable evidence, and should be taught in science classes. Any attempt to mingle the two detracts from both.

Project Implicit is an ongoing psychological study about the unstated assumptions and associations we all carry with us. You can click on the link for a demo, or to participate. Your results may well take you by surprise.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not include a link to TED, an astonishing resource for learners of all ages. As Wikipedia describes, TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is "a global set of conferences .... formed to disseminate 'ideas worth spreading'. The TED website offers live streaming of addresses on "an increasingly wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture." That's a lot of ground, so be careful -- you may become ensnared and spend hours exploring and learning. Here is a link to the TED homepage, and here is a link to a particular presentation on bioluminescence in nature. Have fun !!

Fabulous Ideas: Kitchen Accessories In Kids Rooms!

Have you thought about shopping in the kitchen aisle for kids rooms? Here are a few ideas I gathered showing ingenuity using kitchen accessories in kids spaces. How about using a magnetic knife holder (without the knives) as a car storage strip holder?  I would bet this is an easy way to get kids to put away those magnetic cars. Heck, I would make sure all the kids play cars were magnetic...

Image from here.

Magnetic strip covered in ribbon - used to hold art (also notice the curtain rods holding buckets full of art supplies).

 Image from here.

This is none other than Bekvam spice racks from Ikea (only $3.99). Perfect for a small wall - each one measures 16.5 inches long. Bekvam spice racks come in the natural color only - these bright colored spice racks were painted.

 Image from here.

Painted spoons (chalky milk paint) hung on a wall sure makes a sweet statement! 

 Image from  here.

Baking sheets painted pink turn into a sweet magnetic memo board. The Dollar store is the perfect place to purchase baking sheets; make sure to buy nonstick or else it will be difficult getting the paint to "stick". Rolling pins as jewelry holders... who woulda thought???

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

Thank you to all the men and women who have served our country and who are now serving our country!! Let's not forget those who bravely gave their lives serving our country. Sacrifices are still being made for freedom and liberty.

GAMES / WOMEN IN ORCHESTRAS

GAMES. In her provocative new book Reality Is Broken, researcher and game designer Jane McGonigal presents a paradigm shift in our assumptions about what is possible in our lives -- at home, at work, in our relationships, shaping a better world. As she asks in the introduction, "Gamers want to know: Where, in the real world, is that gamer sense of being fully alive, focused, and engaged in every moment? Where are the bursts of exhilaration and creative game accomplishment? Where is the heart-expanding thrill of success and team victory? While gamers may experience these pleasures occasionally in their real lives, they experience them almost constantly when they're playing their favorite games.

"The real world just doesn't offer up as easily the carefully designed pleasures, the thrilling challenges, and the powerful social bonding afforded by virtual environments. Reality doesn't motivate us as effectively. Reality isn't engineered to maximize our potential. Reality wasn't designed from the bottom up to make us happy.

"And so, there is a growing perception in the gaming community: Reality, compared to games, is broken."

If you look upon games, especially online games, as mere escapism or a waste of time, think again. As psychologist Sonja Lyubomirksy said in her review of the book, "Reality Is Broken is the most eye-opening book I read this year. With awe-inspiring expertise, clarity of thought, and engrossing writing style, Jane McGonigal cleanly exploded every misconception I've ever had about games and gaming. If you thought that games are for kids, that games are squandered time, or that games are dangerously isolating, addictive, unproductive, and escapist, you are in for a giant surprise!"

McGonigal identifies four defining traits shared by the best games --

~ The goal is the specific outcome that players will work to achieve. It focuses their attention and continually orients ther participation throughout the game. The game provides players with a sense of purpose.

~ The rules place limitations on how players can achieve the goal. By removing or limiting the obvious ways of getting to the goal, the rules push players to explore previously uncharted possibility spaces. They unleash creativity and foster strategic thinking.

~ The feedback system tells players how close they are to achieving the goal. It can take the form of points, levels, a score, or a progress bar. Or, in its most basic form, the feedback system can be as simple as the players' knowledge of an objective outcome: "The games is over when ... " Real-time feedback serves as a promise that the goal is definitely achievable, and it provides motivation to keep on playing.

~ Finally, voluntary participation requires that everyone who is playing the game knowingly and willingly accepts the goals, the rules, and the feedback. Knowingness establishes common ground for multiple people to play together. And the freedom to enter or leave a game at will ensures that intentionally stressful and challenging work is experienced as safe and pleasurable activity.

Sprinkled throughout the book are fourteen Reality Fixes, concepts from gaming which are applicable to real life. For that is the ultimate message of Reality Is Broken -- not that we should seek to escape from the drudgery of work or an unfulfilling personal life, but rather that we can improve our work, enrich our personal lives, and ultimately (in multi-participant mode) we can better the world by applying those qualities which make gaming so successful and appealing. Consider: In the United States alone, there are 183 million active gamers (individuals who play computer or video games an average of thirteen hours a week). Globally, the online gamer community counts more than three times this number, as a conservative estimate. This is a wealth of talent, commitment, and imagination begging to be tapped. A few forward-thinking research, humanitarian, and conservation groups are doing just that, through well-designed massive multiplayer games (MMGs) which serve the needs of humans and nature, as McGonegal documents. When we feel that we have a stake in a work or a community project, when we are engaged by being shown not only our small part but also the larger goal, and when our ideas are sought out for achieving those goals, we become more than cogs in the machine. We design, own, and enjoy our participation in life. What could be finer?

ORCHESTRAS. In his 2005 book Blink, prolific writer Malcolm Gladwell examines our ability to gauge what is really important from a very narrow period of experience, a process he calls "thin-slicing". Gladwell explores a range of situations in which we make snap judgments, and clarifies the unconscious mental processes at work. In a previous post I made oblique reference to the precepts in Blink in the context of police work. In parting tribute, I'd like to quote another passage, this one set in another realm entirely.

"The world of classical music -- particularly in its European home -- was until very recently the preserve of white men. Women, it was believed, simply could not play like men. They didn't have the strength, the attitude, or the resilience for certain kinds of pieces. Their lips were different. Their lungs were less powerful. Their hands were smaller. That did not seem like a prejudice. It seemed like a fact, because when conductors and music directors and maestros held auditions, the men always seemed to sound better than women. No one paid much attention to how auditions were held, because it was an article of faith that one of the things that made a music expert a music expert was that he could listen to music played under any circumstances and gauge, instantly and objectively, the quality of the performance. Auditions for major orchestras were sometimes held in the conductor's dressing room, or in his hotel room if he was passing through town. Performers played for five minute or two minutes or ten minutes. What did it matter? Music was music. Rainier Kuchl, the concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic, once said he could instantly tell the difference with his eyes closed between, say, a male and a female violinist. The trained ear, he believed, could pick up the softness and flexibility of the female style.

"But over the past few decades, the classical music world has undergone a revolution. In the United States, orchestra musicians began to organize themselves politically. They formed a union and fought for proper contracts, health benefits, and protections against arbitrary firing, and along with that came a push for fairness in hiring. Many musicians thought that conductors were abusing their power and playing favorites. They wanted the audition process to be formalized. That meant an official audition committee was established instead of a conductor making the decision all by himself. In some places, rules were put in place forbidding the judges from speaking among themselves during auditions, so that one person's opinion would not cloud the view of another. Musicians were identified not by name but by number. Screens were erected between the committee and the auditioner .... And as these new rules were put in place around the country, an extraordinary thing happened: orchestras began to hire women.

"In the past thirty years, since screens became commonplace, the number of women in the top U.S. orchestras has increased fivefold .... What the classical music world realized was that what they had thought was a pure and powerful first impression -- listening to someone play -- was in fact hopelessly corrupted .... In Washington, DC, the National Symphony Orchestra hired Sylvia Alimena to play the French horn. Would she have been hired before the advent of screens? Of course not. The French horn, like the trombone, is a 'male' instrument. More to the point, Alimena is tiny. She's five feet tall. In truth, that's an irrelevant fact. As another prominent horn player says, 'Sylvia can blow a house down.' But if you were to look at her before you really listened to her, you would not be able to hear that power, because what you saw would so contradict what you heard. There is only one way to make a proper snap judgment of Sylvia Alimena, and that's from behind a screen. (Pictured below is Sarah Willis, who plays French horn with the Berlin Philharmonic.)

"Before the advent of blind auditions, the percentage of women in major symphony orchestras in the United States was less than 5 percent. Today it's closer to 50 percent."

The thrust of Blink is not to suggest that all snap decisions are misleading. Rather, the book explores the processes going on in our brains, as well as our cultural assumptions, to guide us in deciding when "thin slicing" is adaptive, and when it is not. It is an invaluable distinction.

gizamimi pichu

gizamimi pichu, originally uploaded by playerkanv.

Pikachu stationery pokémon

la esencia de pokémon 10, originally uploaded by faseextra.

Very cute Pikachu artwork stationary

Ash Ketchum

Ash Ketchum, originally uploaded by Gage Skidmore.

Photo by Gage Skidmore


Costume of Ash Ketchum, Pokemon With Pikachu on hat Via Flickr:
Ash Ketchum of Pokemon at the Phoenix Comicon in Phoenix, Arizona.

Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere.

Oshawott - Attack of the Giant Pokemon!

Oshawott, originally uploaded by Minhimalism.

Via Flickr:
May 28, 2011

Had a bunch of fun at VGC, but I'm mad at myself for not doing better. I guess I shouldn't procrastinate too much next time, but oh well!

MEMORIAL DAY / MILITARY WOMEN

MEMORIAL DAY. This is one of two days each year (the other being Veterans Day) which finds me reflecting on my time in the military, and on war, and on memories both painful and poignant. Memorial Day has become a time of retail sales, car races, barbeques, and fireworks .... all of which miss the point. The crass commercialization of our holidays leaves me sad. It is a time to honor those of all generations who died in military service to the nation. It is a time to recall that not all casualties are marked by a gravestone. War inflicts a terrible cost in lives lost, innocence lost, sometimes sanity lost. Only those who've been through it understand fully the language of conflict and grief. That does not excuse the rest of us from reaching out to express our gratitude. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times someone has told me "thank you" in the 42 years since I came home from Vietnam .... and still have fingers left over. Most of our society has learned from that particular war, and now honors returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Which does not ease those veterans' burdens entirely, but it's a step in the right direction.

MILITARY WOMEN. Serendipitously, today's Washington Post features an evocative article, Five Myths About Women In Combat. The piece is by Jane Blair, a Marine officer and veteran of the Iraq War. Written with authority and credibility, her views closely parallel my own when it comes to placing gender restrictions on military service. Here are the myths which she addresses --

1. Women are too emotionally fragile for combat.

2. Women are too physically weak for the battlefield.

3. The presence of women causes sexual tension in training and battle.

4. Male troops will become distracted from their missions in order to protect female comrades.

5. Women can't lead men in combat effectively.

Blair does an excellent job of discrediting those myths, and documenting her assertions. Click on the link to learn more.

How To Make Pom Pom Tissue Flowers

image from MarthaStewart.com

Paper flowers are such an easy creation you can make with tissue paper. They're fun, vibrant and colorful - a great way to decorate for a party or room decor. If you need to purchase tissue paper, Nashville Wraps is a great source with an array of colors. I've ordered many items from this company and they don't disappoint! A 24 sheet tissue pack is $2.50, which works out to be about $1.25 per large flower. Martha Stewart sells the pom pom kit - if you would like to purchase the kit. Remember the darling nursery room post last week with all the flower pom poms? In case you didn't see:

 Tissue paper flowers

Here are easy step-by-step instructions to make giant paper flowers:



Step 1

Take 8-10 sheets of tissue paper - lay on a flat surface. I used 20" x 30" sheets. Starting at the short end, make a fold at least 1.5 inches wide. Simply fold accordion-style - flip tissue stack over and make another fold. Continue folding until you get to the end of the tissue. Make sure to press firmly creasing with each fold.

Step 2

Wrap a pipe cleaner (or florist wire) tightly around the center of your folded tissue.



Step 3

Make two cuts at the very end of the stack to make a point or round it - depending on the look you want. Repeat on the other end.



Step 4

Gently pull each piece of tissue towards the center of the flower, separate each tissue sheet from the others one at time. Fluff and fiddle with the tissue until the desired shape is found. These flowers are approximately 18" in diameter.

The size of the tissue sheets determines the size of the tissue flowers.

                                

   Light Pink Bulk Tissue Paper   Tissue Paper  Pink 20" x 30"    Hot Pink Tissue  20" x 30" 



 



                                   

      20 x 30  Tissue Paper          Martha Stewart Pom Poms       Tissue Paper White 20" x 30"



repost ; )

NASA / UNIVERSE MAP / WORLD PROGRESS

NASA. In a surprise announcement, the U.S. space agency NASA revealed that our presence in space won't end with the last space shuttle launch in June. Rather, after decades of treading water in near-Earth orbit, the agency will once again focus on manned exploration of deep space using four-person crews aboard MPCVs (Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicles - click on image to enlarge) on missions lasting up to 21 days. Since it can dock with the International Space Station, it will be capable of multiple missions without having to splash down and re-launch for each mission. The MPCV is a stepping stone toward reclaiming the grand vision first voiced by President John Kennedy in 1961 -- the manned exploration of the moon, the solar system, and hopefully beyond.

It's about time. NASA continues to be woefully underfunded compared to the massive hemorrhaging of federal funds used to support Wall Street, oil wars, and tax breaks for the wealthy in this country. Our priorities require a thorough reorganization, from the ground up.

UNIVERSE MAP. Here's one of those gee-whiz curiosities -- the most complete 3D map of the universe to date. In the 2D version seen below, distance is color-coded, with purple dots indicating nearby galaxies, and red dots indicating more distant galaxies. The text at the link explains how this imagery can be used to better understand the motion of our own Milky Way galaxy (whose presence partially blocks our view of the universe, explaining the apparent dark band across the middle of the image).

WORLD PROGRESS. Finally, check out this link to an impressive computer-generated visualization of how the world's nations have shifted in human lifespan and income during the past 200 years. The narration and graphics are fascinating, and at first blush, one gets the impression that prospects for the human race are pretty good. But the data are over-simplified, and do not take into account the rapidly increasing gap between the wealthy few and the poorer many (whether individuals or nations). Still, it is a fun exercise to watch.