Sunday, 1 December 2013

Learning, computers, and the human mind

Originally published to eBridge on Saturday 28 January 2012

I've fallen behind with the discussions this week with being away, but I should be able to join in more fully from now on.  It's been an interesting week because I attended the Learning Technologies conference, with an incredible fusion of ideas floating around. Ray Kurzweil and Jaron Lanier presented flip sides of the technology aspect, with the ideas of technological singularity and a new form of humanism resonating particularly strongly.

But the most interesting talk had to be Dr Edward de Bono's. With more touch-screen and multimedia technology than you can shake a stick at floating around, the old master took us all back to school with nothing more than an OHP and pens. Learning to use our own minds more effectively is the single most important skill that we can master, because otherwise we will be dumbing ourselves down so much that even the most powerful supercomputers won't be able to bring meaning to our lives. More thoughts on this to come...

No comments:

Post a Comment