Learning in the 21st Century

Book Review of Digital Minimalism by Peter Schutte I just finished reading Cal Newport's, ‘Digital Minimalism’ and I wanted to record my thoughts while they are still fresh in my head. So here it goes ... The book is a succinct and well researched piece of writing that takes a critical look at the way in which modern society uses digital communication tools. Its central point is that in the age of the attention economy, where smartphones act as modern day billboards and multinational IT firms have massive incentives for us to continue to increase our usage. We need to think more critically about how we use these new communication tools and the roles we allow them to play in our lives.  A particularly illuminating thought that comes across, is the conceptualisation of a point at which more digital communication means less high quality and productive human life. A useful analogue with the economic principle of diminishing marginal returns is also drawn. As well as the related questi...

I just finished reading Andrew Yang's, ‘War on Normal People’ and I wanted to record my thoughts while they are still fresh in my head. So here it goes ... This book looks at the way in which the the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) over the 21st century  will affect the economy and the jobs of the people in it. A key theme is that if we leave our current capitalist system unchecked during this change, it is likely to end up with many people being left without jobs and massive disruption to the fabric of our society. The book serves as both a warning to society as well as an outline of the changes that need to be made, in order to adapt effectively. It’s written from the perspective of Andrew Yang, a once corporate lawyer and entrepreneur who started the Venture for America Initiative and is now running for the office of the president of the United States of America. Yang writes with a refreshing honesty and grit, from the perspective of someone who has been in the tr...

1.    The 20 Time Project How educators and parents can launch google’s formula for future-ready innovation 2.  The Second Machine Age:  Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies 3.  The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined 4.  Sully: My Search for What Really Matters 5.  Long Walk to Freedom:  The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela 6.  Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead 7.  Unschooling Rules: 55 Ways to Unlearn What We Know About Schools and Rediscover Education 8.  The Alchemist 9.  Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition 10.  How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It

Link to full  MindMap Recently I finished reading the book Deep Work by Cal Newport after hearing it referenced in one of my favourite  Ted Talks . It deals a lot with the issue of using our time in productive ways and especially limiting our use of technology to things that actually add value to our lives and education. It definitely helped shape an awareness in me, that not every tech tool that seems useful is worthy of my time. Time is our ultimate scare resource and so we would should allocate our time, including our technology usage in a way that is most conducive to us reaching our goals.  It’s well worth a read in the context of how our modern lives are being saturated with technology and how we as individuals need to set appropriate boundaries to deal with this.

12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School My Summary: I recently read a fantastic book that I am going to refer back to as I design my future learning engagements. It  was well researched and easy to read. And  it does a great job of highlighting how much the structural elements of the brain are always at play when learning is happening. The 11 brain rules mentioned can be summarized into the following subsections: Exercise Survival Wiring Attention Memory Sleep Exploration Gender Sense Stress Vision If you are involved in learning or education then this book really is a must read!