Knud Foldschack og kravet om normalitet

Jeg kan varmt anbefale at læse Politikens interview med Knud Foldschack, hvor han fortæller, hvordan en meget hård barndom har givet ham en forståelse for alle dem, der ikke lige har styrken til at fungere i et super effektivt konkurrencesamfund. Det er en rystende historie, men den er fortalt konstruktivt og uden fordømmelse. 
Her er et citat: 
"Alt er bygget op på, at vi skal tilbage til det traditionelle arbejdsmarked. Men hvorfor skal alle nødvendigvis det? Hvorfor er det en fuldkommen indiskutabel sandhed, at vi alle sammen straks skal i arbejde? Hvorfor er det ikke et mål at sige, at vi skal have et godt liv? Tænk på indvandrerkvinder, der kommer fra en verden, hvor de har set deres mødre blive skudt eller deres mænd blive tortureret ihjel. Hvorfor er det ikke et mål, at de skal yde f.eks. ved at passe på deres børn og så over tid komme ind på arbejdsmarkedet? Hvorfor skal de tvinges i arbejde i henhold til paranoide rådighedsregler? Vores samfunds ufravigelige logik er, at man kun er en del af fællesskabet, hvis man er med til erhvervseffektivt at producere. Og det er jeg simpelthen ikke enig i. Jeg mener, at alle mennesker på denne jord vil præstere og have et godt liv. Og i og med at ingen ønsker sig et dårligt liv, er det jo mærkeligt at påstå, at der findes mennesker, som ikke gider." 

Message for Tiger Mom: It's not all about being rational

Suketu Metha wrote a critique of "Tiger Mom" Amy Chua and her husband's recent book about the triple package of traits that supposedly determine one's success in life. The article was printed in Time Magazine back in february. 

Metha goes to the heart of what "success" and "achievement" means, reminding us that the disciplined and achievement focused approach to life is not always what we need. 

Here's a quote: 
"It's not conformity that makes this country great; it's an individual striking out against the expectations of his culture, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropping out of Harvard, Miles Davis coming out of heroin addiction to produce 'Round About Midnight, the 14-year-old Billie Holiday turning the pain of her childhood into the bluest beauty, Sylvia Plath taking on death with pills and poetry, William S. Burroughs writing from the bowels of his addiction in Naked Lunch; it's Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Cheever and Carver drinking and writing, writing and drinking through their demons. Imagine what American culture would be if American artists had kept a tight check on their impulses.

When people dream of moving to America, it's not just so that they can be prudent, studious, restrained. "

Suketu Metha is the author of the splendid book about Mumbai, Maximum City.

Video-foredrag om scenarie-metoden

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I forbindelse med “Young Digitals” arrangementet i Sønderborg indspillede jeg fornylig et videoklip, hvor jeg forklarer den grundlæggende metode bag scenarier - et af fremtidsforskningens væsentligste værktøjer. 

I det her tilfælde handler det om at undersøge udsigterne for brugen af teknologi i fremtidens undervisningen, men scenarie-metoden kan bruges til alt mulig andet. 

The core of e-learning

E-learning, flipping the classroom, blended learning... it's been exploding recently.
Here are links to three podcast with some central actors in the field:

A presentation by Salman Khan at the London School of Economics

A presentation by Sebastian Thrun from Udacity for the Commonwealth club of California on april 17. 2013

And finally, some interesting critical observations from Nicholas Negroponte, ex-head of MIT Medialab, speaking for the Long Now Foundation. He argues that videoinstructions and online tests are disastrous for learning. He calls it instructionalism. Instead he reminds of the virtues of constructivism; learning by doing and making, and the combination and the combination of theory and practice.
His remarks are concentrated 44 minutes into the programme.

Socializing kids to see themselves as co-creators

Entrepreneurial spirit is not a Danish characteristic. Our culture tends toward the less risky, less offensive approach to life. Much has been said about the need to make our educational system instill a more entrepreneurial culture, and train kids to see starting a business as a real possibility. The discussion often includes the need for leadership.

In typical Danish fashion I would like to suggest another line of thinking: maybe we should go broader. Perhaps what we need is to educate kids to become participants and co-creators, to show initiative, to assume responsibility and contribute – as opposed to passively accepting what ever we are offered in a role as receivers, consumers, and clients.

Once we have that kind of culture among kids, I’m confident that entrepreneurs will emerge. Also, we would have the foundation of a democracy that is not just a matter of saying yes or no, but one in which we see eachothers as participants and co-creators.

School of one - sounds amazing

Anyone interested in how to improve the efficiency of schools is likely to be fascinated by the School of one concept - an experimental program used in New York City. The program is based on targeting online exercises and instruction to students based on their moods and style of learning - using algorithms that are similar to those used to personalize music on internet services like Pandora.
It's presented in this episode of Freakonomics radio. Maybe the presenters gloss things over a bit, but it does sound like School of one is on to something.