Thoughts and Opinions

Put this to practice.

Technology Discrimination

Does "Equal Opportunity" mean equal results? I just read a few articles about encouraging women to participate professionally in the sciences. While I agree the industry ought to be open to anyone, I don't think it's necessary to entice people of a specific demographic unless there is a direct correlation to their ability in the field. The best solution: Make it equal and open to everyone, and let people's natural tendencies flow their course.

A Play Thing

The future is small.

This little Rasberry Pi computer will set you back 35 bucks—if you can get one. They sold out within 2 hours of being available online. But why? Why are people in such a tizzy over this mini computer?

Because small is sexy. It's creativity. It's the New American Dream. And for the Geek, it's open-source. The computer market has become flat, and the price to play the game just dropped to $35.

Teaching Through Innovation

I pose to you today the conundrum of education: How do you present decades of information to a student so they learn the critical principles of a subject but question that learning enough to explore new ideas? I'm a Computer Science major, and much of our learning takes the form of lengthy programming projects contrived by the professor to teach a principle well-known by industry professionals. The following is an alternative approach to teaching these principles as well as real-world problem solving skills.

Give students a unique real-world problem to solve (or let them find their own if they are capable.) The problems posed to students may be in a similar realm of study (e.g. web security, social communication, mobile-programming, computer graphics, etc.) giving the professor opportunity to teach current industry practices. Students' grades would be based on the performance of their end product and an explanation of their methodology.

Teaching students to innovate is especially important in the fast-paced world of technology where anybody can be the first to do anything. You can do anything given the chance, and I'd be really interested in seeing what a group of college undergrads could come up with.

Creative Education

What are you talented at? Writing? Drawing? Playing Music? Playing a CD? Making money?

I've found a love for scientific problem-solving, art, and procedural graphics. The only down side was that I wasn't even aware of its existence until I was 21 and in my second year of college. Is there a way to reorganize public education such that the natural interests and talents of students are discovered and emphasized? Watch this video from Sir Ken Robinson for more on this idea.

And my next question: Is technology the answer to helping students find their creative spark? I love new technology. It's exciting and flashy, but it will ALWAYS lack the human element. One truly dedicated teacher is of greater worth to a student than any amount of computers, projectors, iPads, or flash-bandeezles that you could come up with.

My opinion: technology in the classroom is only truly advantageous to a student when skillfully used (or left unused) by an inspired teacher — not to mold a child's interests, but rather to bring out their natural talent.