How I learnt (almost effortlessly) all the capital cities of Asia ! (Part 1)

Sometimes learning has to be tedious!

Learning is a very complex process which demands implication, curiosity, agility of the brain, and of course a lot of personal work.
Though some concepts require personal input and understanding of a subject, sometimes the basics of learning are way much more straightforward!

Sometimes, learning is just about... well, learning something by heart! It may sound awkward, but that's the plain truth. Some things have to be known by heart if you want to progress in your knowledge of a particular field.

Take for example, geography. Of course, the real purpose of geography is to study in detail how our world is organized and get a deeper understanding of how some civilizations work, how they evolve and make the best of the environment in which they live.

But how can you even analyse some geographic situations if you don't know where the cities are? How can you discuss with any of the experts if you're not even able to name the cities? You'll simply not be able to get yourself understood!

My point is that there is no real learning process without involving at least some basic (and stupid) learning by heart step.

Everything that you have learnt so far relied heavily on such knowledge.

Literature?
Impossible to study if you don't know how to read! Impossible to be taken seriously if you don't know how to write without making spelling mistakes. Guess what? These things, you learned in school... by heart.

Calculus? Algebra? Differential geometry? Sure all these things rely exclusively on brain work, don't they?
Sorry to send you stroll but don't you think you'd better learn the numbers first? Also, I'd highly discourage you to try proving something without knowing at least the most important theorems that have been established by spirits smarter than you. It's not useful to reinvent the wheel!

Can you find some field of knowledge which does not require learning basic stuff by heart? If you can, I'd be very pleased to know (please reply in the comments section).

Now that things are clear: how can the Internet help us perform this annoying step easily?

The answer... will have to wait until next post!

I'll present you with a very nice online tool to learn all kinds of things by heart without too much hassle!

Stay tuned!

Circuit Scribe: Draw electronic circuits instantly!

If electronic circuits traumatized you when you were in high school...
If you're a geek who'd like to design a new robot as easily as sketching it on a piece of paper...
If you'd like to build your own iPad... out of a sheet of paper...

If you'd simply like to have fun with lots of exciting eletronic devices such as LEDs, transistors, photoelectric sensors or buzzers...

Then you'll fall in love instantly with Circuit Scribe! The guys at Electroninks Incorporated have developed an amazing new rollerball pen which writes with conductive ink. It allows you to design complex electronic circuit by simply sketching them on a perfectly normal piece of paper.

They have launched a Kickstarter to collect funds for the project to be comercialized. Check out their video!

  

I think this new technology could revolutionize the way electronics are taught at school. Before, students needed electronic wires, batteries, lights, resistors to make experiments. Therefore, experiments were only done at school. With this conductive ink, students will be able to design electronic circuits at home, directly on their exercise book.

Isn't it exciting? Can you imagine other applications of this fabulous ink to education ?

A new era for education !

Thanks to the Internet, the entire world has now access to completely new and revolutionary ways of teaching and learning.

Forget the usual grind of taking the bus to school everyday and get bored doing tedious exercises:  now is the time learning has become fun, exciting, easy and universal !

Although they might not be fully developed yet, the technologies that will make this possible are already there and they are going to shake up our entire vision of education.

I'm very excited by all the fantastic possibilities that the Internet will offer to
the field of education.

The aim of this blog is to share with you some interesting education-oriented projects which already exist on the Internet. I'll try to give you an overview of what the future of education might look like, through the examples of several innovative online courses or tools for online learning.

I'd really appreciate your comments and ideas on each article: together, let's try and catch a glimpse at what education might become in a few years or decades! What do you think?