The Slow Cognition Movement
What if…? What if schools moved more toward paced education, as a model for how we ‘do school’? The design strives for a certain harmony…a balance of tech and non-tech that is deeply intentional. Imagine “Not-Spots” as ‘destination areas’ within your school. Perhaps they’re even personal, at times, as in: can I use your not-spot? What if…we were intentional about slow cognition, in terms of creating a movement?
Nine Lies About Work
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure…that just ain’t so.” This quote, which opens the tome Nine Lies About Work by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall, frames an important issue—namely: we think that we know a number of things ‘for sure.’ Reality, however, may be otherwise. Nevertheless, we continue to insist that we know things ‘for sure.’
The 4iR and Its Discontents
Like many, I find the 4iR concept fascinating; it pushes me to contemplate how education (let alone ‘society’) might adapt. In my darker moments, I envision education being squashed by the 4iR because we are rarely timely in our response to such transformations (with some notable exceptions). In my more optimistic moments, which is where my mental musings tend to live, I question whether the entire thing is a load of rubbish. In other words, have we overestimated the impact and utility of those technological elements (AI is a great example) that represent the 4iR? Have we reduced ourselves to a world of algorithms to the extent that we are willing to let the algorithms programme our lives, effectively leading to a conformist society…a sort of monoculture?
Our Bigger Dream
In Eastern philosophy, there is a great question posed: what is the nature of this age? What is the nature of our age? I submit that it is the globalisation of superficiality. Being ‘friends,’ for example, can mean one thing in a bricks-and-mortar school, whilst meaning something entirely different in the largest country on planet earth, Facebook. Lest you think I am joking, consider that Facebook has borders (virtual, bandwidth all around you), it has a population, it has rules of conduct (terms and conditions of use), it exhibits a certain ethos. I’m not providing a value judgement; I am only looking at it, as an entity. It should shock you, at least somewhat, that I would want to categorise Facebook as a nation. Yet, what is the nature of our age?
Innovation Nonsense
We are awash in a world of absolute nonsense insofar as the word innovation is concerned. There exists a remarkable euphoria in education around the term, intertwined with an ignorance as to its meaning, and therefore, usage. What do I mean?