A syllabus for the 21st century – (01)

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. – Alvin Toffler

I have been thinking about how education should look like in our 21st century. Here is a list of the types of learning I think are important.

Notice that traditional, disciplinary topics emerge slowly, but not before the introduction of the underlying building blocks of knowledge, (time, truth, causality, problem-literacy, thinking, problem-solving etc).

I am including a few links for each of the topics.

1. Surveys of time, truth, causality, and meaning, (the root concepts of logic, knowledge and thinking)
   
2. History and theories of the self, mind and consciousness (roots of knowledge pt.2)
   
3. Introduction to thinking processes
4. Introduction to types of problems (problem-literacy)
5. Problem-solving methods
6. General introduction to knowledge
7. General ethics
8. History of culture (local culture)
9. World cultures (see general anthropology)
10. General sciences
11. General humanities
12. Advanced problem-solving (another source)
13. Focused disciplinary concentration (this depends on the discipline)
14. Multidisciplinary studies

Related in this blog:

Multidisciplinary education

Peter Drucker’s requirements for education systems

Related elsewhere on the web

A huge list of blogs about education in the 21st century (mostly written by teachers themselves)

21st Century Literacy Specialist

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-Daniel Montano

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Has metacognition arrived in popular culture ?

What is Metacognition ?

“Metacognition is the knowledge (i.e. awareness) of one’s cognitive processes and the efficient use of this self-awareness to self-regulate these cognitive processes (e.g. Brown, 1987; Niemi, 2002; Shimamura, 2000). ( Wikipedia entry for “Metacognition”)

Meta cognition can help us understand that there are many different types of thinking tools at our disposal.

Integrative thinking is one of those metacognition thinking tools.

What is Integrative thinking ?

“Integrative Thinking is the ability to constructively face the tensions of opposing models, and instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generating a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new model that contains elements of the individual models, but is superior to each.

When making a decision, people proceed through four steps:

1. The first step is Salience: what do we choose to pay attention to, and what not? In this initial step, we decide what features are relevant to our decision.
2. The second step is Causality: how do we make sense of what we see? What sort of relations do we believe exist between the various pieces of the puzzle?
3. The third step is Architecture, during which an overall mental model is constructed, based on what we have arrived at in the first two steps.
4. The final step is Resolution: what will our decision be, based on our reasoning?

Integrative thinkers approach these four steps in a very specific way. As shown on the diagram below, in step one they consider more features of the problem as salient to its resolution; they consider multi-directional and non-linear causality between the salient features; they are able to keep the ‘big picture’ in mind while they work on the individual parts of the problem; and they find creative resolutions to the tensions inherent in the problem’s architecture.

Diagram showing the process flow of integrative thinking

(Quote and diagram from Rotman; URL: http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/integrativethinking/definition.htm)

What’s next?

Wikipedia has a page where several types of thinking are documented. Visit it and get familiar with some of the recognized thinking tools you have at your disposal.

Wikipedia: Portal: Thinking

Wikipedia: Entry for “Meta Cognition”

Wikipedia: Entry for either/or thinking (“false dilemma”)

Related in this blog:

Can we have wise innovation?

Types of Thinking

Nonduality and either / or thinking

Explore the category “multispectives” in my blog for related postings.

Bipolar Culture – How either/or thinking affects our societies
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-Daniel Montano

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature

“The Stuff of Thought” explores the duality of human cognition: the modesty of its construction and the majesty of its constructive power. Pinker weaves this paradox from a series of opposing theories. Philosophical realists, for instance, think perception comes from reality. Idealists think it’s all in our heads. Pinker says it comes from reality but is organized and reorganized by the mind. That’s why you can look at the same thing in different ways.

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature – Steven Pinker – Books – Review – New York Times
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect

Nonduality and either/or thinking

“Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense-experience correspond to a logically uniform system of thought…The sense-experiences are the given subject-matter. But the theory that shall interpret them is manmande…hypothetical, never completely final, subject to question and doubt.” – Albert Einstein.

“The world we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far creates problems we cannot solve at the same level at which we created them” – Albert Einstein

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” – Einstein

Nonduality may be a very important term for our time. Since most of our logic systems and most of our knowledge are based on either/or binary thinking one way to move towards a balance may be to recognize the phenomena of nonduality in our systems.

“The term nondual is a literal translation of the Sanskrit term advaita, (meaning not two). That is, things remain distinct while not being separate.”…”Nondualism may be viewed as the belief that dualism or dichotomy are illusory phenomena.” (from Wikipedia)

The nonduality of matter and energy. Matter = energy = matter

Einstein was well-versed in philosophy and I can’t help but to wonder if he was aware of this term. I am inclined to believe that he used nondual thinking in his theory of matter and energy. When Einstein came up with E=mc² he basically explained that matter is energy in another state. Or more specifically, how matter reverts back to energy when you place it at the speed of light.

In pedestrian terms, matter and energy are just two states of energy- just like water, has the states of liquid, solid and a gas. This may be hard to understand when you’re trained to think of everything through either/or thinking. Through either/or thinking you usually get stuck in arguments like: “Well, is it matter or is it energy?”

Multiple states and process
The belief that conceptual duality, nonduality, pluralism and holism are mirrors of the cycle of convergence-divergence. In other words, one process may be incomplete without the other. Together, these tendencies form a cycle. That cycle is just one of many others.

Challenging thingness

Everything is changing – but our human tendency is to attempt to trap everything into boxes, into words, into documents, into static states. Our tendency is to interpret processes as static, one or two-dimensional ‘things’. This is another form of reductionism. The same way we attempt to explain the entirety of life with a single frame of time. Or our tendency to explain the entirety of human experience with a few cells or genes.

Of course, static thinking has functional value but it also has anti-functional value and degrees of value in between. Static thinking may help us in one way but it may hinder and ‘trap’ us in other ways. We need to be aware of this changing dynamic. All elements of life are part of ever-expanding and ever-changing processes – we can deny this – but we do it with high risk.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” -Einstein

Links

Wikipedia: Either/Or fallacy >>

Wikipedia “nondualism” >>

Wikipedia “monism” >>

Wikipedia “reductionsm” >>

Wikipedia “pluralism” >>

Related

Einstein quotes >>
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect

The age of machine-mediated empiricism

Traditional human-based empiricism as we knew it through many years ended with the advent of technology. It shifted and became a hybrid of linear mechanics and phenomenology. Today it is another type of hybrid it, is a hybrid of human phenomenology and digital phenomenology.

Since science leads our concept of reality and science uses quite a bit of technology to gather and interpret data the resulting empiricism is what we may call hyper-empirical.

This name reminds us that the science we produce today is pre-packaged with the limitations and ideologically-based algorithms of our technology. In other words, the limitations of our technology contributes to the limitations of our perceptions – and eventually to the perceptions of our reality.

Our current concept of hyperreality needs to go beyond the concept of the simulacrum. It may go beyond the copy of copies. Today we have to recognize that digital systems are directly involved in the construction of reality itself (a growing trend).

Hyper-empiricism has become the extension of human senses. This is all based on ideas, concepts and assumptions about the way we think. (some of these need to be challenged).

In other words, how we think informs the way we process knowledge, and the way we decide machines should work in order for them to think for us and/or help us think.

The end of pure human empiricism
We need to understand a couple of things:
1. pure (unadulturated) empiricism may not exist. Machines are expressions of philosophies. Science is an expression of philosophies. So are methodologies, interpretations etcc.
2. pure (unadulturated) rationalism (innate ideas), may not exist. As long as we intermingle our innate ideas (cognition) with sense experience and digital empiricism it will be hard to show an innate idea being strictly “pure”.

This means that orthodox attempts insisting in “purity” (on both sides of the binary fence) may be a bit off. The great thing is that we have a mixture of these two in between them.

The new sense organs of reality
I think that both, science and the companies devoted to creating our new “sense organs” (computers) – need to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams that include specialists in many different theories of thought. This in a way will lead to the synthesis of empiricism with other forms of thinking – including forms of thought that are not traditionally considered to be empirical.

Like it or not this is a political process as much as anything else in human sytems. Reality is partially a product of politics. But as long as we are able to think and move, politics will be present. Our awareness of the role of politics in our reality is an essential awareness in our modern consciousness. Not to know this could be a dangerous type of ignorance.

This is why I keep repeating myself: The future of humanity depends on its ability to think (and act) in a humane and sustainable manner.

Products in the post-empirical era
This means that constructing a product is no longer an act of pure innovation but rather an act of transdisciplinary collaborative thinking. In other words, your product may work wonders but as long as it is not evaluated from different perspectives it will not succeed for long. (as you may have guessed I am personally mostly thinking about sustainability-related philosophies that contribute to positive user experiences)

The short version: Transdisciplinary Holism
Another way: Holistic Literacy, Holistic consciousness, Holistic awareness

In more detail: (this is where you start designing..but here are some ideas)
• Holistic education: Encourage transdisciplinary thought across all branches of education and in business.
• Holistic thought and action: balance specialities with transdisciplinary education (in continuous cycles)
• Thought literacy: Everyone should be aware of the hundreds of types of thinking that we have available for our use (see also:Philosophy
• Sustainability Literacy : Learn about sustainability
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect

Are you trained to see by your discipline?

How we visually scan images seems to be somewhat related to the disciplinary training we have; or at least that’s what we learn from a blog posting on Cognitive Daily. In this blog post they compare how an artist and a psychologist scans an image.

If this is indeed the case this may present some support for transdiciplinary learning/teaching theories.

What is Transdisciplinarity? (from Wikipedia)

Transdisciplinary
A transdisciplinary approach dissolves boundaries between disciplines. Transdisciplinarity becomes necessary when the concept or method cannot be understood from within a single discipline and requires the input of many disciplines to be understood. An example is the field research method called ethnography, which was originally developed in anthropology but is now more fully understood with insights from psychology, philosophy, sociology, and other disciplines.

Links:
Cognitive Daily: “Artists Look Different” >>

Wikipedia: Interdisciplinary, Multidisciplinary, Crossdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary >>
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect

Types of Questions (part 2)

Questions beyond traditional text/spoken communication. 
Questions may take on a form that transcends traditional spoken or written communication. This means that an object, a structure, a sculpture, a craft, a piece of clothing, a building, a process, all of these may be constructed as a network of questions or as “inquiry activators” (something that encourages us to ask questions.) Other examples (from the top of my head) objects/experiences that promote ambiguity in perception (e.g. Opt Art, optical illusions; magic acts; experimental films); processes that challenge traditional logic etc. Most conceptual art is structured as question-systems – designed with the goal to activate complex form of inquiry and the emergence of multiple visual and conceptual perspectives. These “staged” or “designed question systems” challenge our minds with questions in formats beyond traditional textual or spoken communication.

Related in this blog:
Types of questions (part 1)>>
Types of Questions

Some art that makes us question our perception/experience of space:
The Paradox of Space and Perception >>

Related and Recommended:
Interactive architecture >>
Interactivearchitecture.org >>
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect

Visual Complexity, postmodern interfaces and multinformation

“VisualComplexity.com intends to be a unified resource space for anyone interested in the visualization of complex networks. The project’s main goal is to leverage a critical understanding of different visualization methods, across a series of disciplines, as diverse as Biology, Social Networks or the World Wide Web. I truly hope this space can inspire, motivate and enlighten any person doing research on this field.”

I may have posted a link to this site before…either way, it’s worth repeating.

The Visual Complexity website features map of complex systems.

The content, graphs and maps remind us that information may be re-interpreted, re-formed, re-presented, re-understood.

I have been privately calling this dynamic transformation “multinformation” to underscore that information may be dynamically transformed into/from:

• process
• light
• pattern
• cycle
• wave
• form
• rythm
• texture
• relationship
• intensity
• motion
• etc.
• (Note: transformation may not transfer “emergent” dynamics.)

What’s the value of these images?

• We may be looking at the future of interfaces. The future of the web.
• Findability will be a complex challenge. I think this is one of the reasons why the fields of Interaction Design and Information Architecture will flourish in the future.
• Teachers can use multinformation to help your students re-understand information
• This is a tool for multispective analysis

Source:

Visual Complexity – http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/

Related Elsewhere:

Strange Maps: http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/

WayFaring: (Personalize your maps) – http://www.wayfaring.com/

NPR: Personal Maps Emerge…” – http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5330820

The Institute of Figuring – http://www.theiff.org/about/about.html

Related interfaces:
http://www.quintura.com/ 
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect

Some systems thinking links and resources

The Well. Fundamentals of Systems Thinking
Diagrams and explanations and links at this location. (The diagram above is from this website).

The Special Libraries Association. Has a short definition of systems thinking.

Center for Ecological Literacy has one of the most accessible introductions to systems thinking.

Margaret J. Wheatley. Writer and lecturer and systems thinker. Founding member of the Merkana Institute.

Applied systems thinking, an academic paper by Curt McNamara.

Systems thinking in Wikipedia

Ecology of being
Peter White uses video, motion graphics and illustrations to teach his understanding of systems thinking.

The Ackoff Center blog Has links to articles that were not available on the web until recently. The center’s website has a number of interestring links. While I haven’t had the chance to read this book by Ackoff it sounds interesting, the title is Idealized design.

Free management library Has some introductory material on systems thinking.

Systems thinking. Has materials labeled “introduction to systems thinking”

Mental model musings. A graphical introduction to systems thinking.

Pegasus communications. Has some clear and accessible content about systems thinking.

Penn State College of Education has an excellent resource here.

A short mention of Whole Systems Thinking from a green design book.

BBC Open University - a short into into systems thinking and problem-solving

System thinking search results on squidoo

Humane Systems Design (a growing group of multidisciplinary links)

[I will add more links to this posting over time]

Highly Recommended:

Wikipedia’s Portal “Thinking” >>

Related in this blog:

The bipolar culture (how either/or logic is used to limit our thought and a diagram of fractal logic networks)

200+ types of human intelligence >>

Fractal logic >>

How to think like Einstein >>

An open thought system? (diagram) >>

Synectics >>

Horizontal and Vertical thinking >>
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect

Systems thinking and intelligence

Quoting a research paper’s abstract.

“Better performing subjects attempted to gain an understanding of the system structure before they proceeded to develop strategies and take action.

The findings revealed a cyclical thought pattern that was consistently followed by better performing participants. This pattern, termed the CPA cycle, consists of three distinct phases of conception, planning, and action.

This research contributes to the fields of systems thinking and complex decision making by integrating knowledge and methodology from several disciplines including psychology, management and IT.

The managerial and organizational implications of the research are compelling and invite further research in this nascent field.”

(Whittman and Hattrup, 2004).

Great but what does that mean for an innovator?

Well, products and features that enhance the user’s ability to use systems thinking may be of value as systems thinking gains recognition on the wider social spectrum.

Services that take on a holistic perspective of their services and user experience should improve and discover new value.

Educators may want to focus on including this type of thinking in their critical thinking and problem-solving syllabus.

Source:

Wittmann, Werner W. and Keith Hattrup.(2004). The Relationship Between Perfomance in Dynamic Systems and Intelligence. Systems research and Behavioral Science. 21, 393-409.

Highly recommended:

Wikipedia’s “Thinking Portal“  >>

Related in this blog:

The bipolar culture (how either/or logic is used to limit our thought and a diagram of fractal logic networks)

200+ types of human intelligence >>

Fractal logic >>

How to think like Einstein >>

An open thought system? (diagram) >>

Synectics >>

Horizontal and Vertical thinking >>
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect