Some Random (maybe) Thoughts on a Sunday

Where should we look first for Did we misunderstand what he was saying? What did he really mean? Where should we look first for our explanations? He had something to offer. Maybe we misunderstood him.

Which part of the system is most important? Which part is learning? System’s Boundary Input Process Output Feedback Loop Environment Systems thinking is still useful. What are the limitations of systems thinking? 1950s… 2009 (complexity?) Others have moved on to abstract thinking. Should we? Should we define something that is going to change tomorrow? Will that add to the confusion if we even try?

Closed Systems == Entropy Bad System’s Boundary Input Process Output Feedback Loop They learned and moved on. Where are they now? Did we? China tried this. It didn’t work.

Rule-Based Systems (Boring) This type of thinking can be automated. Should it be? I don’t know. VALUES Start Here A=B C=D Do we know what these are? Not so sure here. Have you asked? Some have. Have we talked about it? Not so much. Stop Here Read this. He is interesting. Gerald M. Weinberg (2001). An Introduction to General Systems Thinking. Daniel Pink is also interesting.

They have about seven clearly defined layers on top of that. Are we a “1” or “0”? 01010111011001010010000001100100011011110010000001101110011011110111010000100000011101110110000101101110011101000010000001110100011011110010000001100010011001010010000001110000011100100110111101100111011100100110000101101101011011010110010101100100 There are many colors. Computing systems use a “1” or “0” at the lowest layer. They have about seven clearly defined layers on top of that.

Do we practice what we preach? Mager (1984) says Given a personal computer and word processing software, type a memo with less than 10% error. 1. What resources will the learner have available when performing? Be specific with what you mean. 2. What is the learner supposed to perform? 3. How well is the learner supposed to do it? If you ask a learner to jump, tell them how high. If you ask a learner to perform, give them the resources to do it. Have we talked about this lately? More importantly, is that what really matters? Have we evolved past this type of thinking?

Do we really know what this means? It depends Some are here Some are there The theory is based on things naturally distributing around a mean. What are the limitations of this theory? Maybe it depends what we are measuring and how we measure it. There are multiple measures. Are we measuring what matters? Howard Gardner is interesting. Are we listening to him?

Is this a problem? Are we adding to the problem? We need more of this. Right? 2009 Knowledge 1950 Knowledge Are we adding to the problem? How can we be a solution? In 2006 alone Information Information Data 1 quintillion, 729 quadrillion, 382 trillion, 256 billion, 910, million, 270 thousand, 464 Data “Not everything that counts can be counted; not everything that can be counted counts.” -Albert Einstein Do we understand what he means?

Can we govern this? Should we even try? Whisper, whisper, whisper We can’t hear you? If we talk about ideas, synergy can emerge. John Nash is interesting. Here is his dissertation. It is short – 32 pages. What does it mean? Don’t speak math? That’s okay. Draw a picture. It helps. It is creative. Graphs are helpful Graphs are pretty So are colors Can use them with our students? What does this mean? 2008-09 4,851 6,328 It just got a lot bigger -> 1,477 What does that mean?

Do we “really” know what this means? Have we lost sight of what really matters? More importantly, do our students really know what this means?

Is this how you feel? Some of us do. Why are we trying to make meaning of things that have no meaning? Where do we place our time? our effort? our energy? Can we make more complex harmony? Some of us do.

What really matters? We all like thinking and making meaning of our environment. We want to make the world a better place  First we need to make sense of our own environment. That is what he meant.