Category: Learning

The Future of Education. Review: Coursera “Greek and Roman Mythology”

I finished my first expedition into the world of MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses – this week. I have completed a 10 week course on Coursera run by a team led by Dr. Struck of Penn State University.  The course was titled Greek and Roman Mythology.

How was the experience?

Coursera: top universities courses online for everyone, for free

In four words: Hard work. Enriching. Fulfilling.

Coursera stated up front that the course would require 8-10 hours per week.  I assumed that given how smart I am (yes, the arrogance remains strong…), I would be able to do it in half the time…  but no.  I was wrong.  The course consisted of 1-2 hours of video lectures each week, 3-4 hours of readings and a 20 question multiple choice quiz covering the week’s learning.  Two short essays were required in week 6 and week 9.  I found myself submitting the second essay at 2:34am on a Sunday night.

The course was more work than I had expected.  The quizes required a dedication of attention that was far beyond the mere background watching of TED talks or other educational youtube videos.  The essays encouraged a deeper reflection on the material.

I learnt more in this 10 week online course than in my own university courses.  Firstly because the course is well designed and the structure doesn’t allow me to leave the hard work for the last week of the class.  Secondly, because I truly wanted to read these ancient myths and think about what they mean for us as human beings.

The role of the bricks and mortar university is going to change.  It is already changing. There is still an important role in bringing people physically together. There is still a role in certifying progress, in providing credentials.  However, the process of learning is not well served by 300 people in a lecture hall listening to an academic. Learning online, directly from the best, structured in an optimized digital format is the future of the knowledge and skill learning aspect of education.

What were we learning?

Coursera description: About the Greek and Roman Mythology Course

The Parthenon

“This course will focus on the myths of ancient Greece and Rome, as a way of exploring the nature of myth and the function it plays for individuals, societies, and nations. We will also pay some attention to the way the Greeks and Romans themselves understood their own myths.

Are myths subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Or are they just entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over?

This course will investigate these questions through a variety of topics, including the creation of the universe, the relationship between gods and mortals, human nature, religion, the family, sex, love, madness, and death.”

We read and analysed the following works during the class:

  • Homer, Odyssey
  • Hesiod, Theogony
  • Homeric Hymns to Apollo and Demeter
  • Aeschylus, Oresteia
  • Sophocles, Oedipus the King
  • Euripides, Bacchae
  • Vergil, Aeneid
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses.

My Final Essay. What relationship is at the core of Myth?

This is the last essay that I submitted for the course.  Finished at 2:34am on Sunday night.  Yep, flashbacks to my days of university were frequent 😉

Question: We’ve seen numerous kinds of relationships under scrutiny in the myths we have studied: (1) relationships between humans and the divine; (2) familial relationships, e.g., fathers and sons, husbands and wives, mothers and sons, etc.; (3) relationships between individuals and communities; (4) relationships between the individual and himself/herself. For this essay, you need to decide which ONE of these 4 types of relationships is most important for the myths we have read, and explore why it is so. Of course, a wise person will see that there is at least some importance in all of them, but for this question, you must choose the most important ONE, and then explore why it is.

My Answer: Myth is about the Relationship to One’s own self

The early Romantic German philosopher Novalis said “The seat of the soul is there where the inner and outer worlds meet.” [1] Myth is this meeting between inner and outer world.  As heroes meet gods, kings, queens, monsters and challenges, they discover themselves.

Joseph Campbell speaks of the two paths: the left hand path, and the hero’s journey [2]. The left-hand path is finding one’s role in society. The hero’s journey is a journey of self-discovery.

The most important relationship in the myths that we have read is the relationship between the individual and himself.  The relationships to the divine, to family, to communities are important but serve as a canvas for the hero to discover himself.

Temple at Delphi, the Oracle

The first inscription above the temple of Delphi is “Know Thyself” [3].  Each hero is seeking to “Know Themselves”.

As discussed in the course lecture week 8, the central question of Oedipus Rex is “Who am I?”  Is Oedipus who he is because of land (Cithaeron, Thebes, or Corinth) or genes (birth parents, adopted parents). “Oedipus shows us how our identities can dissolve before our very eyes.” [4]

In the Odyssey, a person discovering themself with the help of the divine is Telemachus.  In Book 1 he is a victim until intervention by Athena allows him to discover his hero, leader aspect.  Upon this transition, he commands his mother: “Nay, go to thy chamber, and busy thyself with thine own tasks, the loom and the distaff, and bid thy handmaids ply their tasks; but speech shall be for men, for all, but most of all for me; since mine is the authority in the house.” [7, line 356]

In the Bacchae, the god Dionysis wonders if he is really accepted by the pantheon of gods. He is different, his rites and rituals are different. Gods are not immune from the process of self discovery. Even gods are not blessed with self belief. They too must find their own identity as they face the challenges of life.

Virgil’s hero Aeneas follows a parallel journey to Odysseus, but with a “Pietas” character that the Roman culture valued highly.  Virgil is writing at a time of Roman Empire and Stability as opposed to Homer at at time of Greek Exploration and Expansion. [5,8] Pietas, or sense of duty, requires that Aeneas finds his identity in a context of an obligation to society.  He is not free to just be himself.  He must find the integration of who he really is with what his society needs from him.

The central question of the myths is “Who am I?”.  Relationships with others are important – me to Gods, me to family (Oedipus), me to society (Aeneas in Games), me to father/mother (Telemachus), but they serve as a canvas for the central relationship, “knowing myself”.
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  1. Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia: Das Allgemeine Brouillon. David W. Wood, Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2007.
  2. The Power of Myth. Joseph Campbell & Bill Moyers: Anchor, 1991.
  3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi
  4. Dr. Peter Struck, Course Notes (Announcements Week 8).
  5. Homer. The Odyssey, A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.
  6. Sophocles. The Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles. Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1887.
  7. Euripides. The Tragedies of Euripides, translated by T. A. Buckley. Bacchae. London. Henry G. Bohn. 1850.
  8. Virgil, The Aeneid, Robert Fitzgerald, trans. New York: Vintage, 1990

Closing Chapters: If you are falling, dive.

When I was 13 years old, American Football became the passion of my group of friends at school in Dublin.  We would play our version of touch American Football up on a tarmac area behind school.

I remember catching the football and running for the end zone.  A member of the other team caught my heel.  I felt myself begin to fall.

In that instant, something wise took over.

I did not resist the fall.  I knew it was coming.  I knew the hardness of a tarmac surface.  I knew I was running at my most full speed.

Somehow, I did not reach a hand out to break my fall.  I did not resist.

In the last instant I found that I had tucked my head under and did a forward roll.  It was a moment where I felt like I separated from myself and something else was in control.  Slow motion.

I found myself completely unharmed.

Everybody on the field came over and asked “How did you do that?  I thought you were going to hospital.  How on earth did you survive that fall?”

If you are falling, dive.

Often most damage is done while resisting the inevitable.

A few years back, I had a business that fell apart.  More damage was done to my health, to the shareholder’s finances, to my life in the process of resisting the fall.

Next time I fall, I hope I accept and commit to the dive.

Fighting the universe is doomed to fail.  Going with the universe, accepting where it is taking me is a little wiser.

I find it so hard to close chapters.  To end a phase and move on.  To declare that a relationship has finished, a business is done, a project is complete is so difficult that I accumulate.

The phoenix rises from the ashes, not from the fire.  New life grows on the death of life.  When a hunter eats his prey, that death allows life.

As I read a book, chapter 1 finishes to allow for chapter 2 to begin.

If you are falling, dive.

Close the chapter.  Let the fire burn, the phoenix arises from the ashes.

How do you close chapters in your life?  How do you move on and let go of the past?  What works for you?  What doesn’t work for you?

Everyone Must Learn to Code

When I was 9 years old, my father brought a Commodore Vic 20 computer home for Christmas.  It came with 3k memory.  It had a keyboard, a tape drive and it connected to a TV.  I still remember sitting in my pyjamas and turning it on.  As a child with nobody to tell me how I should or shouldn’t program, my first attempt was a paragraph in english describing a game.  I was surprised when I reached the end, hit the return key and: “Syntax Error”.

The Vic 20 came with 2 books “Learn to Program BASIC I” and “Learn to Program BASIC II”.  I went through these books by the end of January.  It was more fun writing my own games than playing the ones that came with the computer.

I learnt maths because I needed binary to create sprite graphics.  I learnt quadratic equations to solve for collisions in games.  I learnt basic physics to create realistic missile flight.  Maths in school was easy because I had already learnt it to serve my computer programming hobby.

Computer Programming saved me from boring school lessons

I never paid too much attention at school.  It was generally boring.  I spent a lot of time daydreaming.  I would think through which of Superman’s superpowers would be most useful to escape the boredom of school.  It was always a toss up between flying and laser eyes.

I was lucky.  The traditional school environment was built for my style of learning.  Exams tend to bring out my best performances. I was never good at the sustained effort.  I am best in the hurried sprint to deadlines.

I used to read a lot.  I had read the entire SciFi section of my local library before I was 10.  I would take out my full quota of 6 books and read them in a week.  I had whole collections of Dungeons and Dragons books.  I loved Frank Herbert’s “Dune” (all 7 or 8 books).  I loved Tolkien (LOTR, Hobbit).

Reading is great, but it is not an activity that allows the development of mastery.  You can’t get “better” at reading after a certain point.  You might be able to get a bit faster, but you don’t develop beyond basic reading in any significant way.

I loved sports, but was always a bit small so got pushed off the ball in football or relegated to wing when playing rugby.  My younger brother was superb at any game with a ball, and there is nothing more painful to an older boy than being beaten by a younger boy in sport – even more painful when it is a brother…  and the gap is 5 years.

Computer programming was my first world of mastery.

Computing is taught poorly in schools.  We need a change in the role of computing and style of learning supported by computers in schools.

The Failure of Computing as taught in our Schools

Most school systems teach children how to use Microsoft Office.  They teach students to be users of computers, not creators with computers.

A computer is not a car.  We need people to know what is under the hood as well as knowing what the pedals do.

Programming computers is a wonderful environment for children to explore, test, trial, experiment, hypothesize, fail, succeed…

Programming taught me Important skills.

Any programming language is essentially the same.  Java, PHP, C++, Basic, Python, Lisp…  even Fortran, Cobol or Assembly code.  Master one, you will quickly learn any other.

It teaches you to be clear.  It teaches you how to trace and remove errors.  It teaches you how to test.  It teaches you how to think about systematically solving problems – not one-offs, but full systematic reproducible solutions.

As you grow you learn about building code that scales.  Efficient use of memory. Efficient looping.

As you collaborate you learn to write code that can be easily understood by others.  One half is good commenting, but the other half is using the clearest code to achieve the given outcome.

You learn how to isolate specific parts of the code to test for correct function.

You learn how to describe solutions to other people.

You learn how difficult it is to predict human behaviour.  You learn that human beings will tend to do the unexpected.  You learn that if it can go wrong, it will go wrong.

Everyone must learn to code

I do truly believe that I learnt more in my own self-guided programming of computers than in any classroom.  The social stuff I learnt in the playground and through sports.

What were the teachers doing?

Keeping me off the streets.

"You are not doing that right!"

When someone tells me that I am wrong, what do I learn?

“You are not doing that right!”

“How did you let this happen?”

Do I learn what is intended?

I don’t think so.  I don’t often know what is intended – that I should feel bad or guilty; or that I need to see the world in a different way, act in a different way?  However, what I really learn; being honest is something quite different.

What do I really learn when you tell me I am wrong?

I do often learn one of three things:

  1. You are stupid
  2. You are blind
  3. It is no fun talking to you
Jake Lacaze tells a simple story of a time his mother didn’t tell him he was wrong, but allowed him to learn from a situation.
I have regularly focused on my “rightness” in conversations; and in winning the battle of “rightness”, I lost days of friendship.  
Marshall Goldsmith tells us to question “Is is worth it?” as I begin to get into a proof of how another is wrong.  I can learn to use the Japanese “Yes”:  I hear you, I understand that you see it that way from your point of view; but I don’t accept or deny the statement.  I don’t enter into a battle for truth, only accept that 2 different people are guaranteed to have 2 different points of view.  
There is a story about blindfolded kids and an elephant that I remember.  I am sure you can google it if you haven’t heard it.
If you think you are good at listening without judging try this 1 day listening challenge 😉
So, do you think I am wrong?  Or the bigger question, if you did think so, how could you really engage with me in a way that might allow me to open up to the possibility?

The importance of being Bored

I am terrible at being bored.

I fill my days with a constant stream of activities.

Three days ago, I was with my daughter on a beautiful Costa Brava beach.  We were on a journey to explore the ruins of an ancient 6BC Iberian town on the cliffs (located on the head of the peninsula in the photo below).

We sat for a moment on the rocks to see if we could see some fish or crabs.

And….

I found my hand reaching for my smartphone.

Here I was in a beautiful place, exploring nature, speaking about the time of Egypt and Carthage and what the people who lived 8000 years ago must have been like – and some part of me wanted to check email, facebook, twitter, foursquare…

Why?

I run from being bored.  It requires more effort for me to just sit and think, than to read and respond to emails, create busy-ness.

Do you do “bored” well?  How?

Teaching Manifesto

“A person cannot teach another person directly; a person can only facilitate another’s learning” Carl Rogers

This is how I want to Teach:

  • I create an environment in which participants can learn.  I am responsible for setting the mood in the room.
  • I teach leaders.  I accept zero excuses.  I will never, never, never provide pity.  I expect 100% responsibility of each participant for their actions, their preparation, their interventions, their learning.
  • I know every participant is capable of the growth required.
  • I am neither above or below anyone in the room.
  • I ask people for their specific goals.  I am responsible for ensuring that everyone sees how my course, my teaching, their participation is relevant to their current reality and the problems they face.
  • I am a participant, a member of the group.  I aim to learn alongside the group.
  • I take the initiative in sharing my thoughts, feelings, experiences, reflections in ways which others can take or leave.  I tell stories that participants can relate to.
  • I teach adults.  Everything I teach applies to real life.  All content is judged by its direct application to improvement in the quality of life of participants, during and for as long as possible after the course.  My teaching is a journey of mutual enquiry.
  • I refer to a wide range of resources for learning. I trust participants to read, view, buy, borrow what serves them.
Inspired by the writings of psychologist and educator Carl R. Rogers, guidelines for the facilitation of learning.

More Reading

There is no Freedom without Self Discipline

photo: Markop

Freedom is dangerous without self discipline.

Few people will get anything important done in life without a boss, a parent, a teacher.  It is the removal of freedom that allows creation. Completion requires constraints: deadlines, scope, format…

We chaff at the chains, but they serve us.

My boss is an idiot, but without her insistance I wouldn’t have finished the document.

My teacher knows nothing about the real world, but without his deadline I wouldn’t have written the essay.

My landlord is cruel, but without his insistence on payment of rent I would not have gotten out of the bed, out of the house, into the world, served a paying customer, grown, learnt.

Constraints serve.

Freedom is dangerous without self discipline.

The grain of sand irritates and annoys the oyster, but creates the pearl.

Free your Mind: Writing a Journal.

Would you like lower stress, increased focus, improved memory, faster learning?  Sounds good?  There is one simple 5 minute daily habit that can help.  It will also make you a better communicator.  It might be worth a test?

There are 3 major benefits of keeping a written journal.
  1. Writing slows down time
  2. The past is a great resource, but only if well documented
  3. A journal is a good life habit, increased mindfulness and awareness of the patterns around you

What to write about?  Here are 20 starting questions to reflect on in your journal.

How to do your best writing?  These are some places that I do my best writing.

How about 5 minutes a day for the next 30 days?  Have a go.  If it works, great.  If it doesn’t, burn the pages and send me an email requesting (politely) the return of the 150 minutes that were “wasted” in this endeavor.

I write in a paper notepad with a biro.  This works best for me.  There was a 2 year period where I wrote on a Palm Pilot (1997-1999).  Others write on a computer or iPad.

Do you have a journal?  Would love to know how you do it – what tool do you use?  do you do it at a regular time?  what are the positive benefits that you have seen from journaling?

Imperfect or Mediocre?

NASA photo of Centaurus A that shows the effects of a supermassive black hole.

I just spent the last 60 minutes wasting time.  I sat down at the computer with a clear intention to write an article.  I opened Scrivener, my writing software.  I looked at the blank page…  and allowed myself to open email…  check facebook…  Google+, and have just now surfaced from a 60 minute black hole of drifting wasteland.

Why?

I think I had set myself too high a bar for the article that I was going to write.  I had made the schoolboy error of trying for perfection.  My lizard brain loves moment’s like this, because it is when it can really ensure that I get nothing done.

Aiming for Perfection leads to Doing Nothing.

I am going to go outside and sit in the sunshine with a book.  When I come back, I will set my sights on an imperfect version of the article.

The other choice is keep aiming for perfection and keep doing nothing.  The “Mediocre” choice.

Only two choices here.  Imperfect or Mediocre.

Deliberate Ignorance

There are two types of ignorance: Deliberate Ignorance and Understandable Ignorance.

Understandable Ignorance

A non-financial expert is not expected to know how to calculate discounted cash flow valuations for publicly listed firms.  A European is not expected to know how baseball scoring works.  A non-programmer is not expected to understand the syntax of C++ or php code.  These are cases of Understandable Ignorance.

Deliberate Ignorance

If you work in marketing, you must know the basics.  If you work in finance, there are some basics that you must know.  If you are a programmer you must understand code syntax, optimal code, unit test, system test.  If you manage people, there are some lessons you owe it to your team to know.

As Seth Godin says “People have come before us, failed, learned, written it down. Scientists have figured out what works, and proven it. Economists have gained significant understanding about the long-term impacts of short-term decisions. And historians have seen it all before.”

It is not a company’s responsibility to ensure that you are aware of the basic concepts and important developments in your field.  It is your own.

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