Tag Archives: cognitive era

What IS “Critical Thinking” anyway?

One of the important skills for the future, which all kids need to develop (according to a growing number of researchers and forecasters), is ‘critical thinking/problem solving.’ But what is critical thinking, and how do you learn it? Critical Thinking is… crit·i·cal think·ing  noun the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form aContinue reading “What IS “Critical Thinking” anyway?”

Cognitive Computing Age – think beyond school PART 1

Thanks to Bruce Dixon of Pecha Kucha Santa Barbara for choosing me to be a presenter at the February event, which happend last night! It was a difficult-but-very-useful-and-rewarding exercise to pare down my ‘big idea’ to 20 slides, 6 minutes 40 seconds (Pecha Kucha is 20×20= 20 slides, 20 secs per slide). I got someContinue reading “Cognitive Computing Age – think beyond school PART 1”

Takeaways from Sal Kahn’s talk – Education Reimagined

Teri Moore, author of The Secular Homeschooler– a Nonreligious Guide for Helping Kids Build Competence, Independence and Ethics Outside of a School Environment (and a personal source of insights for me on how to engender real, outside-the-box learning), asked me to tell her about the recent talk I went to – Sal Kahn from the Kahn Academy:Continue reading “Takeaways from Sal Kahn’s talk – Education Reimagined”

Human Skills for the Machine Age

One aspect of the way one learns and researches in ‘Modern Times’ is that it’s disjointed and non-linear…and sometimes old school?  Today, for example, sitting on the shelf in the GEM office, was the 2014 book “The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress and Prosperity in a time of Brilliant Technologies,” by Erik Brynjolfsson and AndrewContinue reading “Human Skills for the Machine Age”

Do you know your child’s ability gaps, and what are you doing to help?

I’ve been diving into the current and future skills gap, and what I need to do as a parent outside of formal schooling to supplement my kids’ learning. There’s no way I’m counting on public education to provide the skills, learning and character traits they’ll need to thrive as the Cognitive Era advances. What about you?

What Should We Teach Our Kids, Now that Knowledge is Obsolete? Part 2

To follow on this initial post, as well as this one and this one, I’m getting somewhere when it comes to understanding the skills that are mission-critical for the Cognitive Era. It is rather like drinking from a firehose, going out and searching online, following a million breadcrumbs in various directions! A lot of whatContinue reading “What Should We Teach Our Kids, Now that Knowledge is Obsolete? Part 2”

What Matters is What You Can Do with What You Know. (modern skills)

Quoting Will Richardson: The source of true differentiation between people now lies in figuring things out as opposed to finding things out – As author Tony Wagner says, “It no longer matters what you know. What matters is what you can do with what you know.”