Entries categorized as ‘Social ecology’
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.
- Surveys of time, truth, causality, and meaning, (the root concepts of logic, knowledge and thinking)
- History and theories of the self, mind and consciousness (roots of knowledge pt.2)
- Introduction to thinking processes
- Introduction to types of problems (problem-literacy)
- Problem-solving methods
- General introduction to knowledge
- General ethics
- History of culture (local culture)
- World cultures (see general anthropology)
- General sciences
- General humanities
- Advanced problem-solving (another source)
- Focused disciplinary concentration (this depends on the discipline)
- 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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Categories: Cultural studies · Educacion Multidisciplinaria · Education · Integral intelligence · Interdisciplinary education · Multidisciplinary education · Multispectives · Social ecology · Sustainable societies · Thinking · Transdisciplinary Education
Tagged: Philosophy of education
Quoting Don Norman from a recent article on CNET
“…We, as people, we should not care about the technology. We should care about the benefits it gives us…”[1]
It’s moments like these that I am reminded why I am a fan of Norman.[2]
Personally, I would like to see more cultural criticism of technology, and more philosophy of technology as it relates to culture in general.
There are plenty of gadget blogs and tech magazines out there – most of them feel like shopping catalogs.
As a culture we are focused too much on the bits of technology and we often forget to look at the big picture – how technology affects our cultures.
For example, how does the invention of a new browser affect our freedom of speech? freedom of movement in digital-space? freedom of communication with privacy? etc. These questions are a lot more interesting to me.
[1] CNET – Tech Design with Thought.
[2] Who the hell is Don Norman any way? – short answer, he is a design professional and cognitive science professor that promotes user-centered design. If you want to learn more about him – Here is his Wikipedia page
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-Daniel Montano
Categories: Social ecology · Sociology · Sustainable societies · Thinking
Tagged: Philosophy of Technology
The current issue of New Scientist Magazine has an interesting article that compares selfish behaviors with altruistic behaviors and produces a theory of how group-oriented collaboration has a track record of survival.
“ALTHOUGH a high standard of morality gives but a slight or no advantage to each individual man and his children over the other men of the same tribe… an advancement in the standard of morality will certainly give an immense advantage to one tribe over another.”In this famous passage from The Descent of Man, published in 1871, Charles Darwin perceived a fundamental problem of social life, and a possible solution. The problem is that for a society to function, its members must perform services for each other. Yet members who behave “for the good of the group” often put themselves at a disadvantage compared with more selfish members of the same group. If so, then how can altruism and other prosocial behaviours evolve?The solution, according to Darwin, is that groups containing mostly altruists have a decisive advantage over groups containing mostly selfish individuals, even if selfish individuals have …”
The link below links to a page that contains the same text as above. To read more a subscription is necessary. The print version of this issue is worth it’s price as it has a few other articles of interest.
Source:
Evolution: Survival of the selfless – being-human – 03 November 2007 – New Scientist
New Scientist Magazine: Current Issue contents >
Related in this blog:
Beyond Abraham Maslow’s Pyramid of (Individual) Needs >
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect
Categories: Problem-solving · Social ecology · Social entrepreneurship · Social theory · Sociology · Sustainable societies · Urban Design
I’m reading Gregory Bateson’s book, Mind and Nature. Bateson was an anthropologist, sociologist, second order cyberneticist and philosopher. In this book Bateson wrote an accessible philosophy that acknowledges issues in science and in popular forms of thinking.
I would recommend this book to anyone that likes this blog. Mind and Nature proposes transdisciplinary studies as an effort to greater understanding. Mind and Nature also questions the lenses we use to interpret our world. It points out presuppositions built into some of those lenses. All of this is done in plain, accessible language.
Two full chapters of Mind and Nature, available free online >
Mind and Nature. A Necessary Unity on Worldcat.org >
Gregory Bateson in Wikipedia >
An independent review of Mind and Nature >
Bateson, G. (1980). Mind and nature a necessary unity. Toronto: Bantam Books.
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect
Categories: Critical Thinking · Cybernetics · Philosophy of Mind · Social ecology · Social theory · Sociology · Systems Theory · Systems thinking · Thinking
Quoting Al Gore from a blog post on the Identity unknown blog:
“Current, the media company I co-founded six years ago with my partner Joel Hyatt, just last week launched a new web site that integrates television and the Web in an unprecedented way. It provides, as never before, a platform for citizens to make the media their own.One of the features I’m most excited about on Current.com is called Viewpoints. Viewpoints is a virtual town hall where you can share your opinions, in video, about the issues that matter in the 2008 election: from global warming to government eavesdropping, and many more.This digital town hall is already bustling, and you can find viewpoints from me and from a lot of people, including the candidates running for President. Come and listen to their positions and, more importantly, tell them and the rest of the world what you think!”
Link
http://current.com/viewpoints 
Source:
Identity Unknown (blog): “Al Gore: Announcement of Viewpoints…a new website from Current” >>
Related in this blog:
Reading List 10/11/2007 (includes The Assault On Reason, Companion to Philosophy and Social Intelligence.)
Green.TV >>
Categories: Communication · Critical theory · Cultural anthropology · Cultural studies · Politics · Social Networks · Social ecology · Social entrepreneurship · Social innovation · Sociology · Sustainable societies
“Morning Edition, October 12, 2007 · The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans earned more than 20 percent of all income in 2005. That means the richest Americans have surpassed the highs of the booming 1990s, according to the latest data from the IRS.
The numbers provide more proof that inequality is rising in this country. And they help explain why many Americans report feeling economic distress despite overall economic growth. Scholars say that’s partly due to the switch to a service and technology-based economy. Now economic rewards go to skilled workers, and, of course, to those on Wall Street.”
Source:
NPR : Inequality Rises in the U.S. >>
The Wall Street Journal: “Income Inequality Widens” >>
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect
Categories: Social ecology · Sociology
Somewhere among the big pile of tags I use on this blog there’s one called “social-ecology”. I created this tag in order to classify stories and thoughts about how our built-environment, (urban design and the dynamics within it) affect our society.
My goal here is not only to raise awareness but also to trigger innovations that address these newly recognized challenges. This shows how seemingly unrelated factors actually have complex co-causal relationships.
This is systems-thinking in action.
“NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People who are worried about crime in their neighborhood tend to have worse physical and mental health than their peers who aren’t as concerned about being crime victims, UK researchers report.”The study highlights the importance of the neighborhood, the local environment for health,” Dr. Mai Stafford of University College London told Reuters Health. “It shows that fear of crime is not just an emotional response.”People who are more afraid of crime aren’t necessarily at greater risk of being victimized, Stafford and her team point out. But they were less likely to exercise, see friends, and be involved in social activities, all of which are important to maintaining physical and mental health, the researchers found.”
Source:
Fear of crime may erode physical and mental health | Health | Reuters
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-Daniel Montano
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Keyword: Daniel Montano, Dan Montano, user experience design, information architect
Categories: Psychology · Social ecology · Social theory · Sustainable societies
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