Pokemon Go freaks me the hell out . . . or well augmented reality and VR freak me out

Jean Baudrillard (1981)

Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory—precession of simulacra—it is the map that engenders the territory

If you've seen the Matrix you've been sensitized to these ideas.

This greatest sci-fi movie of all time (yes I said it Star Wars fans) is based on Baudrillard's work (in the first movie Neo hides a flash disk in a copy of Simulacra and Simulation) along with that of Plato (his allegory of the shadows in the cave) and Descarte (evil demon thought experiment).

If you don't know what these are check it out here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacra_and_Simulation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_demon

Plato, Descarte and the Matrix ask how we can know that our experiences are in fact reality and not shadows in a cave, the work of an evil demon or a false reality presented by Artificial Intelligence while our bodies are lying in vats.

"Baudrillard claims that our current society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that human experience is of a simulation of reality."

Are we moving then towards a 'hyperreality' where we cannot distinguish simulation from reality?

The simulacrum conceals the truth, the simulacrum becomes the truth. We live no longer in the territory but rather in the map.

Working title

Working title: Educating the whole child / Environmental Education / Killing Descarte 

Education, when considered for the role it plays within a culture, serves most basically as a right of passage. A means by which the values and norms, along with knowledge, are passed on to the next generation. The prevailing values within our western society, those of consumerism and materialism (in the lay and philosophical sense) have led us to an environmental crisis. This crisis, which threatens to grow into ever bigger proportions can only be solved with a shift in the consciousness of society.

… this means that we need to bring the psychological dimension into our discussions about the environmental crisis. After all, the human psyche is the source of the crisis as well as our only hope for viable ways through it. The environmental crisis is a crisis of consciousness. 

Chalquist (2007)

The origins of this way of thinkning can be traced back to Descarte and the mind body dualism he created within Western thought

Cartesian dualism has left a heavy legacy in terms of how we think about ourselves, so that we treat humans as minds within bodies rather than mind/body unities. … Related to this is a dualism that is embedded in how we think of children in schools; we focus on the soundness of the mind, with the sound body treated as an afterthought.

(Paechter (2004)

Thus educating the ‘whole child’ involves more than a transmission of knowledge and skills. The learner must create meaning for themselves, not only as a rational mind, but also as a being, an organism in the world. 

Although education has traditionally focused on the development of skills and acquiring knowledge, the cornerstone of any educational system is the initiation of members into the society and the creation of a ‘whole’ person. Noddings (2005) here reminds us of an important aspect of what an educational system should strive to produce, happy individuals;

Great thinkers have associated happiness with such qualities as a rich intellectual life, rewarding human relationships, love of home and place, sound character, good parenting, spirituality, and a job that one loves. We incorporate this aim into education not only by helping our students understand the components of happiness but also by making classrooms genuinely happy places.

Schooling, while cognitively challenging and growing children also has the dual role of initiating young human beings into the society. This includes learning the norms and values of the culture, what is valued and what is not. Thus there can be little separation between the type of individual we require schools to produce, and the wider society as a whole. The traditional conflict theory of schooling would argue that there is a direct correspondence between the arrangement of schools and society.

…until society is fundamentally changed, there is little hope of real school reform.

(Sadovnik, A. R., Cookson, P. W. & Semel, S. F., 2006)

Thus the schooling system serves the greater ideology of the society. Our Western, capitalist, consumer driven culture requires a constant input of producers and consumers.

The environmental crisis we face can only be solved through a change in the overall ‘zeitgeist’ of our society. I would argue the role, or rather responsibility of the education system, which serves to tutor new members of the society is to counter this consumer mind-set which has led us to this point.

Environmental education should involve more than simply knowledge regarding the issues we currently face regarding the degradation of our environment. Real change in this area requires a fundamental shift in the current world view. The roots of this worldview can also be traced back to philosophical dualism, a view of the mind, and consequently man as separate from nature.

Thus what is required as a society is a re-examination of the ideologies which have brought us to this point. Although capitalism has most definitely fuelled technological development, our current linear system of production is quite simply not sustainable on a planet of limited resources.

Bibliography

Chalquist, C. (2007) Speech delivered at "Voices for Change," organized
by students at Sonoma State University.

Noddings, N. (2005) What does it mean to educate the whole child? Educational Leadership, 63(1).

Paechter, C. F. (2004) “Mens Sana in Corpore Sano”: Cartesian dualism and the marginalisation of sex education, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 25:3, 309-320.

Reveley, J. (2013) Enhancing the Educational Subject: cognitive capitalism, positive psychology and well-being training in schools. Policy Futures in Education, 11(5).

Sadovnik, Alan R & Cookson, Peter W & Semel, Susan F., 1941- (2006). Exploring education : an introduction to the foundations of education (3rd ed). Pearson/Allyn & Bacon, Boston.

Weber, M. (2002). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: and other writings. Penguin.

Jiu-jitsu and the One Room Schoolhouse.

In his book “The One World School House, Education Reimagined” Salman Khan makes the case (among the many other compelling arguments he makes for educational reform) for the ‘One Room Schoolhouse’. This refers to the seemingly out-dated model of the big red schoolhouse, as one might see on a farm. Children of different ages are placed together in the same class. Modern approaches to this can be seen in the Montessori method, which does the same with some stratification. Our traditional model of age group cohorts is so ingrained in the educational system that many take it as self-evident.

“To state what should be obvious, there is nothing natural about segregating kids by age. That isn’t how families work; it isn’t what the world looks like; and it runs counter to the way that kids have learned and socialized for most of human history. Even the Mickey Mouse club included kids of different ages, . . . The older ones take responsibility for the younger ones. (. . .) The younger ones look up to and emulate the older ones.” (p.192-193)

This approach relies on other assumptions espoused by Khan; That the traditional model of ‘receptive’ learning, where students are passive recipients of broadcast type lectures should be replaced by active learning where students are encouraged to engage with their learning. In this view there is not set path where groups of students are moved along all at the same pace (in theory anyway), but rather students learn at their own pace and review or advance at their own speed.

This approach is analogous to what happens in a jiu-jitsu class. Students of different levels are grouped together, and while there may be an instructor, everyone is at the same time a teacher and a student. While learning and practicing new techniques, students simultaneously learn and teach, helping their partners hone their skills by providing feedback and advice. It is an approach that is more relevant when one considers how different body types (read different learning styles) lend themselves to certain approaches. The tall skinny guy shows the other tall skinny guys what works for him, while the nimble smaller ones brainstorm on how to beat their larger classmates.

Ownership of the learning process is the common denominator between the ‘One Room Schoolhouse’ and the ‘One Mat Jiu-jitsu academy’. Students need to engage with their learning; the one size fits all approach bores those ahead of the pack and leaves behind those who learn at a slower pace. The best approach as always, has been to learn by doing, whether on the mat, or in the classroom.

Salman Khan: Before founding his Khan academy www.khanacedmy.org , he was a hedge fund analyst. He’s also worked in venture capital and engineering at Oracle and several Silicon Valley start-ups. Khan hold an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was president of his class, and three degree from MIT.

‘The One World School House Education Reimagined. Salman Khan’ Hodder & Stoughton. 2012.

If you are interested in beginning the journey of self-development that jiu-jitsu brings and you live in the Stellenbosch area, check out: www.thepowerplant.co.za which offers excellent coaching and training partners.

Just some prezis I've done recently.

1. Learning techniques, good for a Life Orientation lesson but also good for any high school level grade class.

https://prezi.com/3xzq8kvyt9cl/learning-techniques/


2. English specific lesson. The 6 types of essays.

https://prezi.com/ep_prt_xtpqg/six-different-types-of-essays/


If you're unfamiliar with how Prezi works;
    It's free to use but anything you create is freely available online for anyone else to use. You can privatize your prezis by paying a fee (a kind of crude copyright if you will), but it functions very much like a community of creators and consumers freely exchanging information.

The Tim Ferriss Show Peter Diamandis on Disrupting the Education System

Peter Diamandis touches topics such as the possible future role of artificial intelligence in education, as well as how the availability of information can democratize and "de-monetize" education.








He is also Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation. which encourages in me a kind of childlike wonder at the possibilities for innovation and a utopian future.

Physical literacy

Minister of Sport and Recreation, Fikile Mbalula, July 2014.

“Our consistent call to have physical education de-linked from the subject life orientation, and made a stand-alone subject has been ignored and disregarded. We strongly and firmly believe that physical education is key to ensuring that sport at schools becomes an integral part of the curriculum."


I would disagree with the minister on 2 points, the first with reference to the curriculum statement on life orientation:

"Life Orientation is the study of the self in relation to others and to society. It is a unique subject in the Further Education and Training Band in that it applies a holistic approach to the personal, social, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, motor and physical growth and development of learners."

-National Curriculum Statement

Department of Education

A separation of the physical education component from the rest of the life orientation curriculum would not contribute to the development of a holistic person. It is precisely the integration of the physical along with the intellectual, emotional and spiritual that would serve to create holistic individuals. To this end I would argue that rather than dividing the teaching load, life orientation teachers should aim to show learners the connection between their body and mind. 

Secondly, although sport is a great vehicle to introduce physical activity to learners, this should be a tool used in a larger framework rather than an end in itself. What should be at the heart of the physical aspect of the curriculum is a focus on basic human movement patterns. Able bodied learners (and adults) should be able to perform a range of basic human movements, many of which are often neglected in our desk ridden, electronic lifestyle. From this starting point different sports can be introduced to learners who would hopefully develop a love for movement and the social aspect of sports. 

Exposure to sports is secondary to having students who can move well and keep their bodies physically healthy. Most important is an understanding of the connection between the physical and the mental. An understanding that our mental and emotional states are often influenced by our physical bodies.

A creative piece

On the Ontology of Being

"I think therefore I am"

This dualism Descarte has left western thought with glorifies the mind, thought, consciousness? over the body.

But what of Being?

In the Western mind we tend to conceptualize consciousness as a product of our physical manifestation. But is this mistaking the image of a process for the process itself. Are neurons firing in the brain, the origins of consciousness, or merely a representation thereof?

Consciousness does not proceed the physical, however the former seems to be possible without the latter, as when we dream. But yet we look out onto the world from the perspective of a body. The experience of consciousness is always from the perspective of a body, a being.

So what of being? What of the felt experience of being an organism? A being, a primate, a human being.

The body, this apparent generator of consciousness influences consciousness. The 'master' influenced by its vehicle and vice versa.

Thus we are not a mind within a body, but rather a mind body system. A manifestation of consciousness. The incarnation of the mind at large.