Tag Archives: YouTube
RT @majoos_emlyn: Another one of my idols Dr. Michio Kaku and his ideas on transhumanism. https://t.co/SztBX5eXgO #mscedc
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Video: This Will Revolutionize Education
I stumbled upon this highly informative opinion piece by one of the leading education channels on YouTube, Veritasium.
To me it resonates with Sian Bayne’s criticism of TEL in that technology does not enhance learning per se but is rather yet another medium used within education.
After thinking about a more appropriate term for our field I would suggest “Digitally Facilitated Education”. The term Facilitated shifts the focus back to education instead of technology. At the same time it incorporates the promise that technology can support the act of education by breaking down barriers that stood in the way in the pre-digital world.
If we look at the tech industry today we can reasonably deduce that it follows the mantra that technology works best when it removes itself from the equation and just works, allowing us to focus on the things we want to do. It strives to facilitate our lives. In our field, education remains our goal, technology just needs to get good enough to get out of the way and let us reap the benefits.
Video: The Strong Magnet in My Finger
In David Eagleman’s talk on the Future of Being Human (see my previous post) he mentions that biohackers have already started to experiment with adding additional senses to their existing ones. One particularly interesting form is to implant a small neodymium magnet in one’s fingertip. In addition to being able to lift small metal coins and paper clips the person (or more appropriately the cyborg) presumely starts to be able to sense electromagnetic fields. Apparently shopping mall entrances can be felt particularly strongly.
Although practical use cases for this type of body modification seem to be rather limited I’m still intrigued and would love to know what it would feel like to have an additional sense.
Video: The Future of Being Human
While reading about transhuanism this week I stumbled upon this incredibly fascinating and mind blowing talk by neuroscientist David Eagleman about the future of being human. In it he describes his theory of the “Mr Potato Head” model of evolution: our senses are merely input devices sending electrical signals to the brain. All we have to do is send electrical signals through one of our existing sensory channels. The brain, after being exposed to these electrical signals for a couple of weeks will then automatically start to make sense of the information. Thanks to the phenomenon of sensory substitution disabled people might soon be able to regain lost senses but the possibilities are endless. We might even be able to add on additional senses such as night vision, infrared signals, electromagnetism or even completely abstract information such as twitter sentiment or stock market data.
Highly recommended talk.