Group items tagged

Nature springs to life in Nature Conservancy magazine’s digital edition. Featuring the same engaging stories and stunning photography as the award-winning print magazine, plus exclusive photo galleries, videos, audio commentary, interactive maps and more. Explore lush rainforests, harsh deserts and the landscapes in between and discover how people are protecting these extraordinary places.

In the past 30 years, however, the emphasis in many western systems of education has been more on enhancing academic achievement—in domains such as reading, mathematics, and science—as the primary purpose of schooling.

>400 learning strategies: that is, those processes which learners use to enhance their own learning.

A model of learning

Many of them say that current K-12 or K-16 education programs are incapable of making adjustments within the next decade to serve the shifting needs of future jobs markets.

“The most important skill is a meta-skill: the ability to adapt to changes. This ability to adapt is what distinguished Homo sapiens from other species through natural selection.

The nature of this change may require the world to shift to a ‘Post Economic Growth’ model to avoid societal dislocation and disruption.”

Back in 1999, when there were still a few people muttering that the Internet was “just a fad”, the science fiction writer and visionary Douglas Adams wrote an article expressing amusement at the way the mainstream media considered the Internet something odd, and slightly sinister: …you would think we would learn the way these things work, which is this: 1) Everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal; 2) Anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it; 3) Anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really. (Adams, 1999)

As much as some people may yearn for the simpler times of the past, life will continue to move forward as the natural order of society requires.

If we do not take time to understand new information and how it interacts with what we do, we, as a profession, may go the way of typewriters, photographic film, super 8 film, 8 track cassettes, landline telephones, or block-ice refrigeration.

Staying up-to-date, relevant, on information in your own profession is a moral imperative. We can’t expect what we learned as college students to carry us through a 30 or 40-year career.

Given the comments I receive, pro and con, almost every time I write about social media - which range from conspiracy theories about the evil nature of Facebook to the unquestionable perfection of Twitter’s ability to disseminate news - I’d guess that we’re still in the grandiose pronouncements period when it comes to social media.

"For a child who is comfortable socially, [technology] will not change their ability to interact, and they'll use this tool as a way to get even more social," she said. "And a child who's not naturally comfortable socially may turn to these screens to interact, and they won't get practice [face to face]."

The courage to make mistakes is related in some measure to curiosity, exploration, and the ability to speak honestly about a topic and about ourselves.

We are born curious—so what happened?

That is, demonstrating our own curiosity and inspiring and cultivating the natural curiosity in others.