TftD #13

Why is it that in spite of the fact that teaching by pouring in, and learning by passive absorption, are universally condemned, (educators) are still so entrenched in its practice?

Education is not an affair of 'telling' and being told, but an active constructive process.

-- John Dewey, Democracy and Education (1916)

Story and Data Visualization

An interesting white paper by Robert Kosara and Jock Mackinlay about the potential relationship between Story and data visualization.

...Stories package information into a structure that is easily remembered, which is important in many collaborative scenarios when an analyst is not the same person as the one who makes decisions, or simply needs to share information with peers. Data visualization lends itself well to being a communication medium for storytelling, in particular when the story also contains a lot of data. 

TftD #12

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

-- e.e. cummings

TftD #11

The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don't tell you what to see.

-- Alexandra Trenfor

Richard Feynman's Ode to a Flower

I'm not sure which came first, Feynman's take or Richard Dawkins' Unweaving the Rainbow (or perhaps they are complementary but independent), but this is a beautiful illustration of a perspective that's always resonated with me.

TftD #10

Thought for the Day:

A deep, unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something.

-- Unknown

TftD #9

Thought for the Day:

When I went to school I did not learn anything much which I now remember, except for this hidden message:

Every major problem in life has already been solved; because I'm a kid, I don't yet know the answers; the answers are in the teacher's head, or in the textbook; the aim of education is to transfer the answers from the teacher to me.

That hidden message from my school, I eventually realized, was not only crippling, it was wrong.

The world is not an unsolved puzzle, waiting for the occasional genius to unlock its secrets. The world is an empty space waiting to be filled. That realization changed my life. I did not have to wait and watch for the puzzles to be solved, I could jump into the space myself.

It is more exciting to know that you are creating a world than to feel you are merely replicating it.

-- Ricardo @ wakeuptiger.blogspot.com