How Humans Learn

Creative Next: AI Automation at Work

How do we best learn? Design philosopher Stephen Anderson joins Dirk and Jon to explore various ways that people learn. The conversation spans kinetic learning, games as educational tools, and traditional theories like Montessori.

The sciences are learning more about us and our world at a ferocious pace. One of the wonderful consequences is we have a clearer idea of how we, ourselves, can best learn. Capital One’s Head of Practice Development Stephen Anderson joins Dirk and Jon to explore leading edge learning theory, particularly as applied in professional environments.

Memorable Quotes

"By and large we are social creatures and we learn best together."

"There's plenty of research showing when we use our whole body, we're more likely to remember stuff. So if someone was teaching me as a student, that teacher would encourage me to stand up and use my whole body."

"So I look at Minecraft as an example. And I know Minecraft is quite explicitly being used in education now, but even before that, Minecraft is a learning environment. It's created first and foremost as a play space, but precisely because of the under specified nature of the game."

"As prices come down in cameras and projectors, imagine if every light bulb in our house could project onto a surface and also see interactions. So now virtually all surfaces become interactive. So you can be at your cutting board and cutting something and getting feedback around like this slice of meat should be a little bit thinner or thicker or whatever. There's that sort of, again, you see these timeless ideas of feedback loops though, and interactivity and playfulness."

"In Montessori, a core idea there is hands on learning, let kids play with tangible things. So you learn fractions by cutting up a slice of cheese or you play with these counting beads where a bead represents the ones unit. A rod of 10 beads is a tens unit, a square, which is 10 rods or 100 beads represent hundreds units and so on."

"As long as we've learned how to learn, we knew where to go to get that information or to find the answer, I would say learning how to learn and developing a love of learning. If you can get that right, then the rest will follow."

"So if you take almost a biological or evolutionary point of view, we're all these physical embodied creatures, we've got this brain, this organ that looks for patterns and makes connections."

"it's almost like we spend 12 years teaching students up to actually get to play with math and do all the fun stuff and that they're done. Right. So it'd be like spending 12 years working at batting practice and never actually getting to play a game."

"Especially as the world gets more complex, especially as we have more global systemic issues, I think there's a whole bunch of literacies that I would add to or make sure they're woven into the curriculum."

Mentioned in this episode

Airtable

Minecraft

Codepen

JSFiddle

Glitch

Montessori Schooling

Who You'll Hear

Dirk Knemeyer, Social Futurist and Producer of Creative Next (@dknemeyer)

Jonathan Follett, Writer, Electronic Musician, Emerging Tech Researcher and Producer of Creative Next (@jonfollett)

Stephen Anderson, Head of Practice Development, Capital One (@stephenanderson)

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Sponsors

GoInvo, A design practice dedicated to innovation in healthcare whose clients are as varied as AstraZeneca, 3M Health Information Services, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. www.goinvo.com

Design Museum Foundation, A new kind of museum, they believe design can change the world. They’re online, nomadic, and focused on making design accessible to everyone. Their mission: bring the transformative power of design everywhere. You can learn about their exhibitions, events, magazine, and more. www.designmuseumfoundation.org

BIF, As a purpose-driven firm, BIF is committed to bringing design strategy where it is needed most - health care, education, and public service to create value for our most vulnerable populations. www.bif.is