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One thought on "How does it feel to think?"

Profile photo of Yin Wah Kreher Yin Wah Kreher
January 19, 2015 at 3:45 pm Edit

I don't think in music. It's fascinating that you can identify a particular tune that guides (facilitates?) thinking. When I need heavy mental effort, I need total silence. :-) It's interesting how different people think and feel when they think. Like you, I've never thought about my feelings when I think. It's after thinking that I may feel various emotions, or not. Feel free to drop by my thoughts on this. I wrote a post on it: http://justywk.blogspot.com/2014/06/thought-vectors-how-thinkaholic-feels.html

" also share a lot of your concerns about specifics, but I think I've found a way to work my brain around it. You're absolute right; we've been conditioned to think in terms of exact numbers. We're used to being told our posts should be 200 words with 4 paragraphs and exactly 8 links to external sources, so that's how we've learned to function. I think this class has been great for me to retrain my brain to think creatively rather than within the confines of instructions. For length, I just make sure I answer the question. I ask myself if I feel that my answer is appropriate, or if I should go into more detail. It helps me if I stop focusing on the grade (as hard as that is) and instead focus on the assignment itself. If I can answer the question with detail in two sentences, I feel like two sentences is a perfectly fine entry. Most of the time, my entries are 2-3 paragraphs. I just write down what I'm thinking, rather than trying to filter through "Is this what Dr. Becker wants to see?" I think my work looks a lot better when I'm focused on what I think looks respectable, rather than trying to mold myself to what I think others may expect of me." h/t Jon

Yin Wah Kreher says: February 13, 2015 at 8:10 pm Edit I love how you are thinking. I can see your thoughts connecting from "I used to think…" to "Now I think…" There is also other dimensions of comparative thinking going on here. Keep on thinking and sharing your thoughts!

"Design thinking is an approach to innovation that combines human desirability, business viability, and technical feasibility to develop solutions to society's everyday problems. By putting people at the center, designing thinking and the human-centered design process ask innovators and leaders to tackle problems from multiple perspectives, especially those of people whose needs and desires are at the core of any problem. "

Understand first the purpose of gesture. It's more important than you might think. Intents, ideas, emotions, desires, decisions, wants, urges - they all originate within our unconscious minds. Once the unconscious mind has cooked them up, the next thing that happens is that you begin to act on them. Only after you begin to move does your conscious mind kick into gear and become aware of what's going on.

You need gesture, in fact, in order to know what you're thinking. Literally. Stifle your gestures and limit your thinking - your conscious awareness of what's going on in the depths of your mind.

"But we also need to think and question and explore and understand, so that we can take up our particular responsibilities as educators as well as our general responsibilities as human beings. I might be wrong in my thinking, but I'm not going to stop thinking and putting it out there because that too, is an act of resistance."

"Yet on the level of thinking of our Silicon Valley overlords, aspects of my cognitive abilities that are absolutely central to my educational success are taken to have literally no value at all. In educational research, perhaps the greatest danger lies in thinking "that which I cannot measure is not real." The disruption fetishists have amplified this danger, now evincing the attitude "teaching that cannot be said to lead to the immediate acquisition of rote, mechanical skills has no value." But absolutely every aspect of my educational journey - as a student, as a teacher, and as a researcher - demonstrates the folly of this approach to learning." True I think but echoed to greater and lesser extend by the educational system which helped create those who run Silicon Valley. h/t Dan Meyer

"When I suggest sketching as a visual thinking tool, I often I hear "I'm not an artist" or "I can't draw." While I understand the hesitation, I'm here to tell you that the artistic quality of your sketches is not the point. The real goal of sketching is functional. It's about generating ideas, solving problems, and communicating ideas more effectively with others. "

Kind of what I was thinking for #DS106 and the upcoming VCU MOOCs- only using the mother blog for more than just Twitter and thinking through a couple other display options. 

These people don't use/think about Twitter the way I use/think about Twitter.

Bet you never thought of the adjective "cool" when writing your syllabus. In case you want to start, this syllabus is very cool. I will be following this class as they publish their writing openly. I am optimistic that the teaching & learning will be pretty cool.

" This course is not one in which an instructor feeds you information and you regurgitate it for a good grade. You (the student) and I (the instructor) are almost certainly going to disagree on some things, and that's just fine (see the Grading section below). It's probably easiest to think of this course as a small, independent publication/think tank focused on the concept of 'cool'. Your job is to look carefully and thoughtfully at the world around you, and produce a series of essays that would help a potential reader understand your stance on what 'cool' means to you. You'll be using the process of writing and editing to help you define, and refine, that stance for yourself. You're also responsible for helping your fellow writers do the same. " h/t Stan

Not that I think there's much actual merit in the "find your voice" theory, but you've just conflated being a good (that is, literary) writer with being an employed writer, and also your "voice" with grammatical minutiae. Read any essay by Benjamin and you'll find it unmistakable, no matter what the format of publication. Perhaps it's time to stop longing for the day you find your own voice. The second-worst kind of writing is committed by those struggling to find their voice (the worst kind being by those who think they have found it).

"Be deeply curious about the world around you. Become aware of your thoughts and learn to think about thinking. Practicing metacognition will help develop a sense for the tricks your mind plays, and how to overcome them. With this awareness, learn to overcome automatic processing. When confronted with something new or unfamiliar, withhold judgment; if you see something you don't understand in the negative space, go with it and see where it leads. Remember that impossible geometry exists, and your mind is constantly trying to force you to see things that you already know how to see. It's learning to see the unseen that makes this practice valuable! Be aware of the limitations of the labels that have been applied to the world. Keep in mind how small the grid of words is compared to the wordless plane. Opportunity exists where words don't exist, yet. Learn to sit with Keats in uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts without grasping for conventional explanations. Allow time to visit the fantastic and the unconventional, and become aware of the moments when you're avoiding staying in these contexts. Meditation can be essential here."

At the end of each day, I sit and I think about everything that I had learned from morning till night and I transform it into a "Daily Doodle." By combining studying and drawing, each doodle acts as a learning tool and a creative exercise. Please note that I am still in the learning process and that my doodles may not be accurate. If you find any errors, please send me an email so that I can learn from my mistakes! (michiko.maruyama@gmail.com)

Andrew Ilnicki teaching computational thinking in the incubator

"Dr. Moorman conducted a study focused on what meaning VTS had for students exploring how they used VTS in patient care.  Guided by a series of 3 questions, a facilitator chose a work of art and asked students the following questions: 'What is going on in this painting?' 'What are you seeing that makes you say that?' (requiring students to give visual evidence), and 'What more can you find?' (requiring them to look again and scaffold off of others' comments).  Students found their observational skills improved and that they were more open to hearing other's opinions.  They found that they were more likely to give detail to back up observations in their clinical situations and listen to others during report. They also found they used the same line of questioning that the facilitator used when they were seeking more information during clinical rotations during patient care.    "

We had a faculty member who took our students to the VMFA every year for this exercise. The students loved it. I didn't understand its point at the time, but this makes a great deal of sense.