Jun 23 2011: Adora, your ideas are overly idealistic in a number of senses. It's simple to propose a system where each student can study at their effective level but it's quite difficult to build. It is obvious that school systems need to change. They will likely be forced to change or simply put out of business by private non-profit schools.
That aside, the issue at hand in this talk is that boys are not girls. This is fairly straight forward and easy to understand. Even with the system you suggest, it fails to take in to account this very simple concept. It would only slide up and down to meet grade levels. This does not produce engagement. The speaker is suggesting that boys need to be more actively engaged because they are being pushed out in to the cold at the moment as the things that they are marketed are frowned upon in society - specifically grade schools.
Jun 15 2011: Holly, perhaps you should approach it a physical illness and explain it from that angle instead of a mental illness which holds the actual stigma. If one were to draw parallels between bipolar and diabetes it might show a lot of people that they are not so different. They are both real pains. They both require constant management.
There is a real disconnection between public perception of mental illness and the reality of mental illness; that reality being that mental illness is simply physical illness. This all helps beg the question of "Why do we treat people with mental illnesses different?"
Jun 8 2011: I think you misunderstood. You also make some assumptions about happiness.
He said his mother died and all he had were some titles for the film. His head just wasn't in the project. He basicaly said he never did it.
The assumption I think that you make is that only happy people should be able to explore this subject. Is there an argument that an unhappy person might be best fit to try and understand happiness?
In looking at the above question, who has a better understanding of how to BECOME happier? The person who is happy? or the person who is sad?
The happy person has less to look for. They are happy. The sad person can more easily feel what makes them happy. They have to be actively looking for it however. This is perhaps why he encourages writing in a journal toward the end.
Nov 17 2010: I don't think Wolfram is correct in sayin that step 3 should simply be replaced with computers. This is a bad idea that leads to a generation or more that doesn't understand the fundamentals of calculation. He addresses this and very poorly defends it in his presentation.
I DO think that there are applications that can help engage students to see visually what is very difficult to visualize without computers. Some of the examples shown at the very end are examples where students would be more inclined to learn the calculation and have a more thorough understanding if they could simply "play" with the formulas in a visual fashion.
There NEEDS to be a compromise between Wolfram's idea of computation and the current methods of teaching computation. He's not entirely incorrect but his methods would be more destructive to math in the long run. He admits this in part by saying it shouldn't be called math. This is a short admission to the fact that one MUST learn calculation.
Nov 17 2010: I have to agree with you Geron. It's a fundamental problem with what I saw Wolfram presenting and a fundamental problem that Asimov even presented in one of his short stories. In short? Asimov's story talked about the over use of computers and the fact that people had simply forgotten how to multiply. This may be extreme, I admit, but it worries me when individuals say "We should do computation on computers or calculators".
I think students would be more engaged in doing the computation by hand if it had "meaning". If one of your students had a real world basis and interest in the problem itself, doing the calculation would be less painful. I know this from experience as a student who hated mathematics but loved code breaking. I didn't mind doing the math by hand when it came to code breaking but I hated doing calculus problems with zero meaning.
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A reply on Talk: Ali Carr-Chellman: Gaming to re-engage boys in learning
That aside, the issue at hand in this talk is that boys are not girls. This is fairly straight forward and easy to understand. Even with the system you suggest, it fails to take in to account this very simple concept. It would only slide up and down to meet grade levels. This does not produce engagement. The speaker is suggesting that boys need to be more actively engaged because they are being pushed out in to the cold at the moment as the things that they are marketed are frowned upon in society - specifically grade schools.
A reply on Conversation: Is there a cure for bipolar disorder? Will we ever overcome the stigma?
There is a real disconnection between public perception of mental illness and the reality of mental illness; that reality being that mental illness is simply physical illness. This all helps beg the question of "Why do we treat people with mental illnesses different?"
Best of luck,
Ryan
A reply on Talk: Stefan Sagmeister: 7 rules for making more happiness
He said his mother died and all he had were some titles for the film. His head just wasn't in the project. He basicaly said he never did it.
The assumption I think that you make is that only happy people should be able to explore this subject. Is there an argument that an unhappy person might be best fit to try and understand happiness?
In looking at the above question, who has a better understanding of how to BECOME happier? The person who is happy? or the person who is sad?
The happy person has less to look for. They are happy. The sad person can more easily feel what makes them happy. They have to be actively looking for it however. This is perhaps why he encourages writing in a journal toward the end.
Just my thoughts..
A comment on Talk: Conrad Wolfram: Teaching kids real math with computers
I DO think that there are applications that can help engage students to see visually what is very difficult to visualize without computers. Some of the examples shown at the very end are examples where students would be more inclined to learn the calculation and have a more thorough understanding if they could simply "play" with the formulas in a visual fashion.
There NEEDS to be a compromise between Wolfram's idea of computation and the current methods of teaching computation. He's not entirely incorrect but his methods would be more destructive to math in the long run. He admits this in part by saying it shouldn't be called math. This is a short admission to the fact that one MUST learn calculation.
A reply on Talk: Conrad Wolfram: Teaching kids real math with computers
I think students would be more engaged in doing the computation by hand if it had "meaning". If one of your students had a real world basis and interest in the problem itself, doing the calculation would be less painful. I know this from experience as a student who hated mathematics but loved code breaking. I didn't mind doing the math by hand when it came to code breaking but I hated doing calculus problems with zero meaning.