Tag Archives: cognition

Knowledge and Imagination, or Knowledge vs. Imagination?

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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I’m reading The Philosophical Baby in my free time*, hoping to understand more about the great learning experiment I’m a part of for the upcoming years.

The most profound insight I’ve gleaned so far is that knowledge actually enables imagination, rather than restricting it.

Alison Gopnik:

Conventional wisdom suggests that knowledge and imagination, science and fantasy, are deeply different from one another — even opposites. But…the same abilities that let children learn so much about the world also allow them to change the world…and to imagine alternative worlds that may never exist at all…

I agree instinctively, yet I see counterexamples every day. At what point — and why — does expertise stop enabling imagination, and start preventing us from seeing new ideas?

* That’s why, after reading for one month, I’m bringing you a quote from page 21.

Back-to-School TLC (Thinking, Learning, and Computers)

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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umb-logoYesterday was the first day of fall classes for UMass Boston distance students, and this semester I’m taking a course called Thinking, Learning, and Computers from the school of critical and creative thinking. Doesn’t that sound cool? It’s an elective, outside of my normal department, and I’ve wanted to a class from CRCRTH for a while now.

Having taken almost 2/3 of my coursework for my M.Ed., I’ve taken a lot of classes on learning design, but I’m hoping to approach things from a little different angle with this class. I’d like to get more basic in some senses… pay even more attention to what happens personally, cognitively, with the learner when using a computer as the teacher (or as an intermediary between a the learner and teacher).

I’ll probably post some musings here as the semester progresses…