We are at risk of just moving our brick and mortar classrooms to the “metaverse”. To create truly transformative experiences we must go much deeper - with old or new technology.
Great article. 100% agree. The best products often use existing technologies and/or repurpose them. I didn't know the concept of "productive uncertainty". It reminds me of "creative problem-solving" which can significantly improve intelligence ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7709590/ ). These are problems such as: “I was captured by a band of outlaws—said a famous explorer—and their leader had my hands and legs tied up so that 1could not move. They did not gag me up though, and I was able to use my mouth freely. The leader of the gang hung a piece of bread exactly five centimetres away from my mouth. He then laughed and said: "If you manage to eat this piece of bread, I’II set you free. He knew that I could get no help. Also, in order to ensure that I cannot roll over or move closer to bread, they tied me to a tree. Nevertheless, I managed to free myself. How?”
When kids are trained to solve these problems (that are more like games) they increase their scores at regular "intelligence" tests ("find the perimeter of a rectangle" style), even though they haven't been trained for that. So as you said, it's really about "learning how to learn".
Besides primary/secondary education, with the increase of life expectancy, people need more continuous training and these concepts will also be useful for adults.
Great article. 100% agree. The best products often use existing technologies and/or repurpose them. I didn't know the concept of "productive uncertainty". It reminds me of "creative problem-solving" which can significantly improve intelligence ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7709590/ ). These are problems such as: “I was captured by a band of outlaws—said a famous explorer—and their leader had my hands and legs tied up so that 1could not move. They did not gag me up though, and I was able to use my mouth freely. The leader of the gang hung a piece of bread exactly five centimetres away from my mouth. He then laughed and said: "If you manage to eat this piece of bread, I’II set you free. He knew that I could get no help. Also, in order to ensure that I cannot roll over or move closer to bread, they tied me to a tree. Nevertheless, I managed to free myself. How?”
When kids are trained to solve these problems (that are more like games) they increase their scores at regular "intelligence" tests ("find the perimeter of a rectangle" style), even though they haven't been trained for that. So as you said, it's really about "learning how to learn".
Besides primary/secondary education, with the increase of life expectancy, people need more continuous training and these concepts will also be useful for adults.
Also, have you tried https://brilliant.org ?
amazing !
thank you very much for this post.
Thank you for reading Saleh! Glad you enjoyed it.