Some Random (maybe)Thoughts on a Sunday

Did we misunderstandwhat he was saying? What did he really mean?

Where should we look first for our explanations?

He had something to offer. Maybe we misunderstood him.

Input Process Output

System’s Boundary

Feedback Loop

Environment

Which part of the system is most important? Which part is learning?

Systems thinking is still useful.What are the limitations of systems thinking?

1950s… 2009 (complexity?)Others have moved on to abstract thinking. Should we?

Should we define something that is going to change tomorrow?Will that add to the confusion if we even try?

Closed Systems == Entropy

Input Process Output

System’s Boundary

Feedback Loop

China tried this.It didn’t work.

They learned and moved on. Where are they now?Did we?

Bad

Rule-Based Systems (Boring)

Start Here

A=B

C=D

Stop Here

This type of thinking can be automated.

Should it be? I don’t know.

VALUES

Do we know what these are?Not so sure here.Have you asked?

Some have. Have we talked about it?

Not so much.

Gerald M. Weinberg (2001). An Introduction to General Systems Thinking.

Read this. He is interesting.

Daniel Pink is also interesting.

01010111011001010010000001100100011011110010000001101110011011110111010000100000011101110110000101101110011101000010000001110100011011110010000001100010011001010010000001110000011100100110111101100111011100100110000101101101011011010110010101100100

Are we a “1” or “0”?

There are many colors. Computing systems use a “1” or “0” at the lowest layer.They have about seven clearly defined layers on top of that.

Do we practice what we preach?Mager (1984) says

Given a personal computer and word processing software, type a memo with less than 10% error.

1. What resources will the learner have available when performing?

2. What is the learner supposed to perform?

3. How well is the learner supposed to do it?

If you ask a learner to jump, tell them how high. If you ask a learner to perform, give them the resources to do it. Have we talked about this lately?

More importantly, is that what really matters? Have we evolved past this type of thinking?

Be specific with what you mean.

Do we really know what this means?

The theory is based on things naturally distributing around a mean.

What are the limitations of this theory?Maybe it depends what we are measuring and how we measure it.

There are multiple measures.Are we measuring what matters?

Howard Gardner is interesting.Are we listening to him?

Some are here Some are there

It depends

Is this a problem?

Data

Information

Knowledge

Data

Information

Knowledge

1950

2009

Are we adding to the problem?

How can we be a solution?

“Not everything that counts can be counted; not everything that can be counted counts.” -Albert EinsteinDo we understand what he means?

1 quintillion, 729 quadrillion, 382 trillion, 256 billion, 910, million,

270 thousand, 464

We need more of this. Right?

In 2006alone

Can we govern this? Should we even try?

Graphs are helpful•Graphs are pretty•So are colors•Can use them with our students?

What does this mean?

2

)1( nn

Don’t speak math? That’s okay.Draw a picture. It helps.

It is creative.

4,851 6,3282008-09

Whisper, whisper, whisper

We can’t hear you?If we talk about ideas, synergy can emerge.

It just got a lot bigger -> 1,477What does that mean?

John Nash is interesting.Here is his dissertation.It is short – 32 pages.What does it mean?

Do we “really” know what this means?

Have we lost sight of what really matters?More importantly, do our students really know what this means?

Is this how you feel?

Some of us do.

Why are we trying to make meaning of things that have no meaning?

Where do we place our time?

Where do we place our effort?

Where do we place our energy?

Can we make more complex harmony?

What really matters? We all like thinking and making meaning of our environment. We want to make the world a better place First we need to make sense of our own

environment.

That is what he meant.