Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.[1][2] Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument.[3] In more casual speech, by extension, "philosophy" can refer to "the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group".[4] The word "philosophy" comes from the Ancient Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom".[5][6][7] The introduction of the terms "philosopher" and "philosophy" has been ascribed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras.[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy (more)

Chirag Kulkarni: 5 Non-Traditional Education Systems Doers Should Consider (Alternatives To A College Degree) (more)

George W Bush program on Educational Reform. Driven mainly by Standardized Test-s. (more)

Wiki Page structured like a relatively coherent document. Contrast to ThreadMode.

There's the standard Wiki Name rule, but there are lots of annoying cases which make me crazy. (Please don't generate new pages by clicking on brackets!) The goals of this page are: (more)

the label for a Wiki page that attempts to support an ongoing discussion among people, vs a coherent statement (known as Document Mode) (more)

Mike Caulfield has discovered Christopher Alexander's Pattern Language model (see Alexander Patterns), and is chewing over how it could apply to Course Design. So if the patterns are the same, how do designs end up different? Because you start with different constraints... Your students have certain backgrounds, various strengths. Your institution has certain facilities and your technology has certain affordances. Just as a limited number of grammar rules produce an infinite number of sentences based on the needs of the moment, so learning design patterns combined with the circumstances and aims of instruction can produce infinitely expressive learning designs... What excites me about this is it is a way to combine research and practice without succumbing to an industrial paradigm. (more)

SciFi writer, Futurist (more)

D3 JavaScript Graph Drawing FrameWork. (more)

Venkatesh Rao on why you're not an Artisan (Artisanal). Thinking through the implications of the whole artisan-crafts-guilds meme in the future-of-work (Economic Transition) debates led me to an odd conclusion: the future is significantly brighter (or less bleak) than people realize. So long as you stop thinking in terms of crafts and aim to practice a trade instead, there is more work for humans than people realize. (more)

EBook guru (more)

a tedious, unpleasant task - Paul Graham http://www.paulgraham.com/schlep.html (more)

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy in which students learn about a subject in the Context of complex, multifaceted, and realistic problems (not to be confused with Project Based Learning). The goals of PBL are to help the students develop flexible knowledge, effective Problem Solving skills, Self Directed learning, effective collaboration skills and Intrinsic motivation (Thinking Tools).[1] Working in groups, students identify what they already know, what they need to know, and how and where to access new information that may lead to resolution of the problem. The role of the instructor (known as the tutor in PBL) is that of facilitator of learning who provides appropriate scaffolding and support of the process, modelling of the process, and monitoring the learning.[2] The tutor must build students confidence to take on the problem, encourage the student, while also stretching their understanding. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem-based_learning (more)

Does text therapy actually work? (mental health) (more)

Amber Case is the Director of Esri's R&D Center, Portland, where she works on next generation location-based technology. Previously, she co-founded Geoloqi, a location-based software company acquired by Esri in 2012. She recently worked on Map Attack! an urban geofencing game based on Esri technology. (more)

someone who does Self Directed Learning?

Donna Wentworth is excited about Dave Winer's WebLog plans at Harvard Law School. True education benefits from as few barriers as possible between the learner and the raw ingredients of learning: access to a generous and diverse library of information and opportunity for the novice to converse meaningfully with the Expert. In my view, what we do when we link to others "in-the-know" (e.g., Blog Roll) is engage in a Self Directed, modern-day ApprenticeShip. Imagine, for example, the benefit to a Home-School-ed child (Educating Kids) of a network of Harvard weblogs in which students and faculty not only engage with eachother but also with the world of experts that inform their studies.

Continuing Medical Education (more)

Paul Graham on "Why Nerds Are Unpopular". Telling me that I didn't want to be popular would have seemed like telling someone dying of thirst in a desert that he didn't want a glass of water. Of course I wanted to be popular. But in fact I didn't, not enough. There was something else I wanted more: to be smart... Bullying was only part of the problem. Another problem, and possibly an even worse one, was that we never had anything real to work on... Public school teachers are in much the same position as prison wardens. Wardens' main concern is to keep the prisoners on the premises. They also need to keep them fed, and as far as possible prevent them from killing one another. Beyond that, they want to have as little to do with the prisoners as possible, so they leave them to create whatever social organization they want. From what I've read, the society that the prisoners create is warped, savage, and pervasive, and it is no fun to be at the bottom of it... I didn't really grasp it at the time, but the whole world we lived in was as fake as a twinkie. Not just school, but the entire town. Why do people move to suburbia?... As far as I can tell, the concept of the hormone-crazed Teenager is coeval with suburbia. I don't think this is a coincidence. I think teenagers are driven crazy by the life they're made to lead. Teenage apprentices (ApprenticeShip) in the Renaissance were working dogs. Teenagers now are neurotic lapdogs. Their craziness is the craziness of the idle everywhere... The cause of this problem is the same as the cause of so many present ills: Specialization. As jobs become more specialized, we have to train longer for them. (I don't agree - BS)... When groups of adults form in the real world, it's generally for some common purpose (Shared Goal). The leaders end up being those who are best at it. The problem with most schools is, they have no purpose (Product Oriented Unschooling)... Since the group has no real purpose, there is no natural measure of performance (FeedBack) for status to depend on. Instead of depending on some real test, one's rank ends up depending mostly on one's ability to increase one's rank. It's like the court of Louis XIV... I lost more than books. I mistrusted words like "character" and "integrity" because they had been so debased by adults. As they were used then, these words all seemed to mean the same thing: obedience (vs Subversive)... I don't think it would work to turn them back into apprentices. Adults in past times didn't have teenagers as apprentices because it made the kids' lives Meaningful. They did it because it made economic sense. And it just doesn't anymore. Like mothers, teenagers have been left high and dry by the receding waters of Specialization...

Kevin Dewalt EBook on Lean Startup Customer Development (more)