I have been reading through more of Dave Wiley’s learning objects text book so
that I can claim to be doing something vaguely academic. I’ll
write more about learning objects and how I don’t think they are all
that useful in a bit, but in the mean time my brain is off on another
tangent. I have been thinking more about the educational system
and instruction in general. Throw into that mix the fact that I
am a student and then add in my generally lazy/rebelious/I don’t give a
***| attitude and you get an argument about why we need to have
objects. I got thinking about why it is that we are required to
achieve certain goals in our education. The teacher gives an
assigment – read this book, post to your blog, answer these questions,
learn to use better handwriting etc. Then some students do
well. Others don’t do well. At the end of so many years you
graduate from high school, college, grad school etc and you get a piece
of paper that says you can accomplish objectives. Employers like
this because it means they get employees who can do what they are
told. The higher your grades the better you are at doing what you
are told. This is a great way to produce producers. People
that are educated in this way can stand in line. They can do what
they are told. They can meet deadlines.
I don’t think this produces genius, nor do I believe that it produces
individuals that can become great leaders, entreprenuers,
artists. I think that some people do become those things inspite
of their education, but it is not because of their education.
Great genius comes from realizing one’s own objectives and goals not
from working towards someone else’s goals. I think this is why
open source software works. During the day someone does what they
have to pay the bills. They are accomplishing the boss’s or the
company’s objectives. The motivation is lower than when they go
home at night and work for free on something that they love. They
are interested in their own goals.
I think this is why individuals learn much faster when they are doing
something that is relevant to them. The motivation is high.
Productivity is high. In an ideal world we would all be able to
learn in a way that makes us high.