Assignment-1: Perovich

Kamvar

–The measured thing becomes the important thing. But some things are very difficult to measure–the ones that are easy may not be truly important to our purpose, but yet as the metric they gain value and risk becoming the purpose. How to we tie people to the purpose behind the metric instead of the metric itself? Can we? Lots of metrics (or then we have no time for anything but measuring?) There can be fame/glory in “winning” the metrics, which makes them very tempting and short-term profitable to game. (e.g. standardized tests w/NCLB) Metrics as a way to create legitimacy (becomes self-reinforcing?).

–The idea of tool-centric activism resonated with my experience in international development and environmental health. Using education as a means for change was part of the goal in both cases. In international development, tools could be a huge help (e.g. functional blackboard to teach with) yet you also often saw an excess of tools that lacked people, or tools that were poorly delivered or designed for the circumstances. For example, un-staffed medical posts and schools left totally empty or drug shipments with dosing instructions in Italian. Also, even good tools need to gain some currency in society to be fully adopted and effective; this is non-trivial.

Engelbart

“Clinical psychology seems to provide clear evidence that a large proportion of a human’s everyday activity is significantly mediated or basically prompted by unconscious mental processes that, although “natura” in a functional sense, are not rational. The observable mechanisms of these processes (observable by another, trained person) includes masking of the irrationality of the human’s actions which are so affected, so that few of us will admit that our actions might be irrational, and most of us can construct satisfying rationales for any action that may be challenged.”

–It’s interesting to consider the ways that this fundamental irrationality can be leveraged in learning (or already is? classroom management techniques, motivation, emotional side to learning)

“After all, we spend great sums for disciplines aimed at understanding and harnessing nuclear power. Why not consider developing a discipline aimed at understanding and harnessing “neural power?” In the long run, the power of the human intellect is really much the more important of the two.“