Niall Ferguson: The 6 killer apps of prosperity | Video on TED.com

A great resource for economics, history, and global studies: Over the past few centuries, Western cultures have been very good at creating general prosperity for themselves. Historian Niall Ferguson asks: Why the West, and less so the rest? He suggests half a dozen big ideas from Western culture -- call them the 6 killer apps -- that promote wealth, stability and innovation. And in this new century, he says, these apps are all shareable.

Mark Twain

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them. - Mark Twain (attributed)

Seth Godin on the Future of the Library

Via Stephen's Lighthouse.  This is great food for thought:

Yep, gotta love Seth:  The future of the library

“The next library is a house for the librarian with the guts to invite kids in to teach them how to get better grades while doing less grunt work. And to teach them how to use a soldering iron or take apart something with no user servicable parts inside. And even to challenge them to teach classes on their passions, merely because it’s fun. This librarian takes responsibility/blame for any kid who manages to graduate from school without being a first-rate data shark.

The next library is filled with so many web terminals there’s always at least one empty. And the people who run this library don’t view the combination of access to data and connections to peers as a sidelight–it’s the entire point.

Wouldn’t you want to live and work and pay taxes in a town that had a library like that? The vibe of the best Brooklyn coffee shop combined with a passionate raconteur of information? There are one thousands things that could be done in a place like this, all built around one mission: take the world of data, combine it with the people in this community and create value.

We need librarians more than we ever did. What we don’t need are mere clerks who guard dead paper. Librarians are too important to be a dwindling voice in our culture. For the right librarian, this is the chance of a lifetime.”

Read it. Re-post it.

Finnish Library Association

Finland leads the world in education. Maybe this is why. (From Steven's Lighthouse.com)

Don't Eat the Marshmellows

Training

Dilbert shows a lot of wisdom. It's a hard reality that tomorrow's workforce will demand fearless and independent learners. Self motivated people, who pick up new technologies, will have a definite advantage in the world job market. I constantly tell my students that they must be independent, self-motivated learners to survive. In fact, it's the main theme on my library web page. Some listen and some don't.

In a free market system, employers don't waste a lot of time with training. They just hire and keep those who know what they are doing, and like Dilbert's boss, they get rid of the rest. That's why the free market systems are still the only ones who succeed.

Government works in the opposite direction. How many government institutions and school districts spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year on 'training'? When you analyze the new technology training, it has mostly been how to fill out forms on-line. I can't even sit through the classes any more. It's the bane of governments and organizations. I once sat through a mandatory two hour class on how to fill out on-line forms for inter-library loan. What's amazing is that the instructor and many of the students were actually excited about the class.

In the first Men in Black, there is a scene where Will Smith is applying to join the organization. The room is filled with super achievers from West Point, the Marines, NYPD, etc. When filling out the application, Smith is the only one with the common sense to use the coffee table in the center of the room as a writing table. Rip Torn then tells the other super achievers present: "Gentlemen, you are all we've come to expect from years of government training." Will Smith's only negative is his "conflict with authority." He is the epitome of a fearless, independent learner. He doesn't depend on 'training', he just jumps in.

Fearless, independent learners use coaches and instructors as needed, but they don't expect to be spoon fed. In fact, independent learners have a way of using an instructor to their maximum advantage. They quickly get to the heart of a question or issue.

My Argentine tango instructor, Walter Kane, is a fearless, independent learner. Our tango group recently set up a new web site using Google sites (Hudson Valley Tango). Walter has been able to pick up the on-line program with a minimum of instruction from me. In fact, he quickly grasped how to insert text and write in HTML (hypertext markup language) on the site. He lamented that it took him 3 and 1/2 hours to pick it up. It's that willingness to invest the time and effort on a task that separates the fearless, independent learner from the spoon feeder. A spoon feeder will sit through 3 hours of 'training' and come out with nothing. The Dilbert cartoon is right on target.

From TED: 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do

JogLab

Here's a great site to improve memory: 

http://www.joglab.com/

Learning facts vs. creativity

Here is an interesting professional development tip from TechLearning.com: "In fact, the world is changing even faster than schools. Instead of requiring workers who've memorized facts, the workplace needs knowledge workers who can think on their own and who are innovative and creative. This shift will require that teachers adapt their teaching methods. The difference between knowledge and information is that information is what you know and knowledge is what you do with that information." Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader?

I agree and disagree with this statement. An educated person needs a strong informaton base in order to function in the professional world. Memorization is an important part of building this base: In fact, Dr. Yoshiro NakaMats (arguably the most creative individual on the planet) argues for the Japanese education method of memorization up to the age of 20 in order to develop the human brain. See What a Great Idea by Charles "Chic" Thompson. I still find memorization to be an excellent thinking exercise.

In elementary school, I see young students struggle with the creative process, when they lack sufficient factual knowledge of a subject. For example, how can you make a digital story about the Civil War, if you lack an information base. I recall one student came across General John Pope while studying the Second Battle of Bull Run. Naturally, when he did a search on him, he got the Pope. His research project had all kinds of information about the Roman Catholic Pope's role in the battle.

At the same time, I agree with the TechLearning statement that innovation and creativity are the necessary tools for today's workplace. The challenge as an educator is to provide students with sufficient factual knowledge with which to face a world of innovation and creativity.

The Cognitive Age

David Brooks in a NY Times editorial speaks of "The Cognitive Age" as an alternative view of globalization. The fact that technological change is what drives the world, not globalization, is an interesting concept and one that again falls in line with James Burke's connections theory. Each new invention is a trigger that sets in motion a series of changes in the world. The ability to recognize that becomes the cognitive age. Thanks to Mike Eisenberg's post on the Big6 Blog for calling this editorial to my attention.

Google's Literacy Project Page

From Matthew Needleman's blog, here is an excellent reference to the Google Literacy Project Page http://www.google.com/literacy/. "A resource for teachers, literacy organizations and anyone interested in reading and education, created in collaboration with LitCam, Google, and UNESCO's Institute for Lifelong Learning."