I’ve already made that comment somewhere else a few times, but public outreach would best be handled by incorporating rationality “classes/lessons” into the standard curriculum of schools. All other public outreach initiatives pale in terms of reach and effectiveness in comparison to making it “mandatory” for students. School is the holy grail of public outreach.
Getting something into the curriculum isn’t easy obviously, but it can be done and one easy way in which I can see this implemented is by making a series of well-presented videos on rationality by a charismatic teacher and putting them up on youtube. Not too nerdy/technical, just lighthearted and entertaining/educational stuff.
First point of attack would be getting this stuff into the Khan Academy curriculum, which is a very promising new way of digital learning that is rapidly incorporated by many teachers and students. Personally I project, that Khan Academy (or something like it) will be very successful in the future and is the precursor of what the future of digital education will look like. Khan Academy being the current leader in this field (it’s also being backed by Bill Gates and google) is obviously a much easier target for rationality-infusion than the rigid traditional education system.
We would just need someone who is able to represent and teach rationality lessons in an appropriate way. Volunteers should take a step forward. I’m sure if we play our cards right we might get Khan to adopt our lessons.
I think the future of education will be a cross between Khan Academy and RSA Animate. Khan Academy bugs me whenever he takes time to slowly write down the words that he just said. RSA is basically a polished version that I find much more engaging, it just needs to the structure that Khan Academy has.
I agree that getting rationality courses in public schools would be the most effective way to promote it. I have no idea how to accomplish that, and having optional videos you can find online is… not very different from Less Wrong. (An RSA Animate style series based on the sequences might be very effective).
Yes, the primitive way Khan uses his “virtual chalkboard” bothers me too, but I think the lessons will be updated eventually.
Personally I don’t find that RSA Animate adds that much value in terms of communicating something more efficiently—I find myself occasionally distracted by the illustration process. Personally I think the best way to teach topics like math and all the natural sciences from biology to physics would be a virtual reality setting… imagine putting on glasses and being totally immersed in a kind of virtual reality, where you can see molecules and electrons and where you can manipulate them or take notes in the air (imagine xbox kinect implemented in your glasses, facing outward and tracking your hands).
Not everything would need to be interactive though, the lectures could be 10-15m long and drive home a point with maximum force. (In a way a virtual chalkboard couldn’t). So yes, Khan Academy needs to evolve—but RSA animate style lectures wouldn’t be the most effective for retention and interest, compared to other forms of presenting and interacting with things that could be implemented nowadays if the money and interest was present.
This is going to vary from person to person, and I have no idea what will turn out to work best for the most people. But I strongly prefer RSA—I find it engaging, and the visuals help reinforce concepts through multiple avenues in my brain. Simple podcasts leave me bored, but the visual/audio combo keeps giving me new information at just the right rate.
Interactivity would allow for kinesthetic learning as well. An education program for iPad that incorporated audio/visual/kinesthetic learning styes and could adapt itself to the student’s preferences would probably be ideal.
I’d still strongly suspect virtual reality glasses like these http://www.vuzix.com/consumer/products_wrap310xl.html would be preferable to just tablets (glasses + tablets combo would perhaps be best). Don’t underestimate the value of being “isolated” while watching a lecture.
Monkey don’t see and hear no people → monkey don’t talk to people. To that end virtual glasses would be very powerful for focusing attention and certainly better than simply switching the paper for tablets. With glasses students would be isolated and could focus better than if distracted by everything that’s going on in the classroom. The teacher still can and should of course regularly employ group-work as a counterweight, but right now students just talk way too fucking much about everything that’s not related to learning and a tablet wouldn’t counter that trend.
I’m not discounting VR, I just have no experience with it so I can’t really endorse it yet. I can imagine what an individual or group with an iPad learning application would look like and make predictions about how it would work. I really don’t have a frame of reference for VR goggles.
I’ve already made that comment somewhere else a few times, but public outreach would best be handled by incorporating rationality “classes/lessons” into the standard curriculum of schools. All other public outreach initiatives pale in terms of reach and effectiveness in comparison to making it “mandatory” for students. School is the holy grail of public outreach.
Getting something into the curriculum isn’t easy obviously, but it can be done and one easy way in which I can see this implemented is by making a series of well-presented videos on rationality by a charismatic teacher and putting them up on youtube. Not too nerdy/technical, just lighthearted and entertaining/educational stuff.
First point of attack would be getting this stuff into the Khan Academy curriculum, which is a very promising new way of digital learning that is rapidly incorporated by many teachers and students. Personally I project, that Khan Academy (or something like it) will be very successful in the future and is the precursor of what the future of digital education will look like. Khan Academy being the current leader in this field (it’s also being backed by Bill Gates and google) is obviously a much easier target for rationality-infusion than the rigid traditional education system.
We would just need someone who is able to represent and teach rationality lessons in an appropriate way. Volunteers should take a step forward. I’m sure if we play our cards right we might get Khan to adopt our lessons.
PS: In case you’ve spent last year in a cave, here’s what Khan Academy is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM95HHI4gLk
I think the future of education will be a cross between Khan Academy and RSA Animate. Khan Academy bugs me whenever he takes time to slowly write down the words that he just said. RSA is basically a polished version that I find much more engaging, it just needs to the structure that Khan Academy has.
I agree that getting rationality courses in public schools would be the most effective way to promote it. I have no idea how to accomplish that, and having optional videos you can find online is… not very different from Less Wrong. (An RSA Animate style series based on the sequences might be very effective).
Yes, the primitive way Khan uses his “virtual chalkboard” bothers me too, but I think the lessons will be updated eventually.
Personally I don’t find that RSA Animate adds that much value in terms of communicating something more efficiently—I find myself occasionally distracted by the illustration process. Personally I think the best way to teach topics like math and all the natural sciences from biology to physics would be a virtual reality setting… imagine putting on glasses and being totally immersed in a kind of virtual reality, where you can see molecules and electrons and where you can manipulate them or take notes in the air (imagine xbox kinect implemented in your glasses, facing outward and tracking your hands).
Not everything would need to be interactive though, the lectures could be 10-15m long and drive home a point with maximum force. (In a way a virtual chalkboard couldn’t). So yes, Khan Academy needs to evolve—but RSA animate style lectures wouldn’t be the most effective for retention and interest, compared to other forms of presenting and interacting with things that could be implemented nowadays if the money and interest was present.
This is going to vary from person to person, and I have no idea what will turn out to work best for the most people. But I strongly prefer RSA—I find it engaging, and the visuals help reinforce concepts through multiple avenues in my brain. Simple podcasts leave me bored, but the visual/audio combo keeps giving me new information at just the right rate.
Interactivity would allow for kinesthetic learning as well. An education program for iPad that incorporated audio/visual/kinesthetic learning styes and could adapt itself to the student’s preferences would probably be ideal.
I’d still strongly suspect virtual reality glasses like these http://www.vuzix.com/consumer/products_wrap310xl.html would be preferable to just tablets (glasses + tablets combo would perhaps be best). Don’t underestimate the value of being “isolated” while watching a lecture.
Monkey don’t see and hear no people → monkey don’t talk to people. To that end virtual glasses would be very powerful for focusing attention and certainly better than simply switching the paper for tablets. With glasses students would be isolated and could focus better than if distracted by everything that’s going on in the classroom. The teacher still can and should of course regularly employ group-work as a counterweight, but right now students just talk way too fucking much about everything that’s not related to learning and a tablet wouldn’t counter that trend.
I’m not discounting VR, I just have no experience with it so I can’t really endorse it yet. I can imagine what an individual or group with an iPad learning application would look like and make predictions about how it would work. I really don’t have a frame of reference for VR goggles.
I certainly support the experimentation though.
Word.