Twist Our Words

While browsing through one of my favorite programming websites, I found this little gem called Twist Our Words at http://twist.channel4.com/. This site allows you to select words that BBC personalities have said that can be formed into a speech.

Downloads - Gapminder.org

Downloads - Gapminder.org

AFT - A Union of Professionals - Ask the Cognitive Scientist

AFT - A Union of Professionals - Ask the Cognitive Scientist

Jeopardy Style Game in Flex

So, one of my favorite YouTube channels is by mikenku, Mike Lively from Northern Kentucky University, because he knows Flex, Flashbuilder and Actionscript (Adobe Flash) and can explain it like few people can. Well, I was looking at some videos the other days and stumbled across this gem at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd5ZFMpqVBg or you can watch the video below. You can also find the program and code at http://code.google.com/p/flexjeopardy/downloads/detail?name=jeopardy.zip&can=2&q=

The Trivium - Classical Education

The Trivium or the classical education involving grammar, logic and rhetoric has begun to stage a comeback especially with the religious. The only problem with this education is that it is really a false proxy. (Proxies allow people to take shortcuts so they don't have to actually go through the work of determining competence.) Logic is great but science is better because science requires evidence, logic does not. The courts also prefer evidence to logic as well. It is important to remember that the Trivium didn't stop slavery, the Inquisition or the Holocaust.

When it comes to learning, everyone is an expert.

When it comes to learning, it seems, everyone is an expert without any knowledge. Learning styles represent an excellent example of this problem. People learn from experiences that are meaningful and not based on the mode of learning.

Here is an excellent YouTube video from Dan Willingham a cognitive psychologist from the University of Virgina.

The Seven Limitations of Expertise

Experts don't make good teachers for the following scientifically based reasons.

1. Domain Limited - Experts are limited to their domain and that expertise does not extend to other domains.
2. Overly Confident - Experts over estimate their abilities when it comes to their field of expertise.
3. Glossing Over - Experts gloss over information that they believe is irrelevant; therefore, missing details that may be necessary to solve a problem.
   
4. Context Dependent - Without contextual clues, experts are not that accurate.
5. Inaccurate Prediction, Judgement and Advice - Experts fail to predict how quickly novices will learn something.
6. Bias - Experts are biased toward their domain
7. Inflexible - Experts can adapt but often prove inflexible when changes are deeply rooted.

Source: Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (PDF of Chapter)