05 FEB 2016 by ideonexus
The Problem with How We Teach Math
Why do some children find Math hard to learn? I suspect that this is often caused by starting with the practice and drill of a bunch of skills called Arithmetic—and instead of promoting inventiveness, we focus on preventing mistakes. I suspect that this negative emphasis leads many children not only to dislike Arithmetic, but also later to become averse to everything else that smells of technology. It might even lead to a long-term distaste for the use of symbolic representations.
...Folksonomies: education mathematics
Folksonomies: education mathematics
1 
notes
notes09 NOV 2015 by ideonexus
The Russian Religion of Spaceflight
The space programme was presented as the result of the great work of the proletariat. The Moon, a 1965 film by Pavel Pavel Klushantsev, presents a future in which Soviet people live a life of peace and progress on the colonised moon, thanks to the technological advances capable under communism. We had made it to the stars and, as the saying went, “there was no bearded old God there”. Only science. Only the Soviet system.
Space themes were woven into everyday life, into endless festivals ...
1 31 JUL 2014 by ideonexus
Couples as Socially-Distributed Cognitive Systems
In everyday life remembering occurs within social contexts, and theories from a number of disciplines predict cognitive and social benefits of shared remembering. Recent debates have revolved around the possibility that cognition can be distributed across individuals and material resources, as well as across groups of individuals. We review evidence from a maturing program of empirical research in which we adopted the lens of distributed cognition to gain new insights into the ways that remem...
1 21 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
Entertaining Work is a Moral Issue
I’m not the first person to notice that reality is broken compared with games,
especially when it comes to giving us good, hard work. In fact, the science
of happiness was first born thirty-five years ago, when an American psychologist
by the name of Mihály Csíkszentmihályi observed the very same
thing. In 1975, Csíkszentmihályi published a groundbreaking scientific study
called Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. The focus of the study was a specific kind
of happiness that Csíkszentmihályi ...Folksonomies: gamification
Folksonomies: gamification
1 notes
notesIsn't this also a matter of perspective? Don't we need to look at life like a game?
The problem is that real-life isn't like a game. A really tough programming problem doesn't match my skills, they can go far beyond them.
Education is ENGINEERED, so it can be like a game.
31 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
Science Manipulates Language to Make it More Precise
Let us consider two spheres moving in different di-
rections on a smooth table. So as to have a definite
picture, we may assume the two directions perpendicu-
lar to each other. Since there are no external forces
acting, the motions are perfectly uniform. Suppose,
further, that the speeds are equal, that is, both cover
the same distance in the same interval of time. But
is it correct to say that the two spheres have the same
velocity? The answer can be yes or no ! If the speedo-
mete...The example is "velocity" which in common parlance is the same as "speed," but in science it means "speed and direction."
25 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
Science and Everyday Life Cannot be Separated
You frequently state, and in your letter you imply, that I have developed a completely one-sided outlook and look at everything in terms of science. Obviously my method of thought and reasoning is influenced by a scientific training – if that were not so my scientific training will have been a waste and a failure. But you look at science (or at least talk of it) as some sort of demoralizing invention of man, something apart from real life, and which must be cautiously guarded and kept separ... 1 notes
notesA good passage from Rosalind Franklin covering science and spirituality.
29 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
The Gas Lamp Brought Networked Collective Life
Wolfgang Schivelbusch (1995) argues that one of the most important
transformations of networked urban life came with the rise of the gas lamp.
The introduction of gas ended the autonomy of oil lamps and candles whereby
each household effectively supplied its own energy needs. Gas represented the
industrialization of light, transforming households into nodes of a centralized
power source, linking the domestic and intimate to larger structures of capital
and the state. In this way, Schivelbusch...Folksonomies: collectivity communalism
Folksonomies: collectivity communalism
1 notes
notesBefore people became dependent on the grid, they were independent and autonomous.
29 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Yu-Gi-Oh! Mixes the Real with Fantasy.
Trading cards, Game Boys, and character merchandise create what
Anne Allison (2004) has called “pocket fantasies,” “digitized icons . . . that
children carry with them wherever they go,” and “that straddle the border
between phantasm and everyday life” (p. 42). The imagination of Yu-Gi-Oh!
pervades the everyday settings of childhood as it is channeled through these
portable and intimate media forms. These forms of play are one part of a
broader set of shifts toward intimate and po... 1 notes
notesSimilar to Magic the Gathering, with the player being the real and the cards the fantasy.
29 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Geology is a Healthy Science
Apart from its healthful mental training as a branch of ordinary education, geology as an open-air pursuit affords an admirable training in habits of observation, furnishes a delightful relief from the cares and routine of everyday life, takes us into the open fields and the free fresh face of nature, leads us into all manner of sequestered nooks, whither hardly any other occupation or interest would be likely to send us, sets before us problems of the highest interest regarding the history o...Folksonomies: geology
Folksonomies: geology
1 notes
notesIt gets you out in the open air and trains you in virtues of observation.
17 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Science is Not Separate from Life
You look at science (or at least talk of it) as some sort of demoralising invention of man, something apart from real life, and which must be cautiously guarded and kept separate from everyday existence. But science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. Science, for me, gives a partial explanation for life. In so far as it goes, it is based on fact, experience and experiment. 1 notes
notesQuoting Rosalind Franklin.
