Reason to Write…
Time ago there was a thread on TEDC starting with the question ‘why write a book?’. I never wrote much because I always had the feeling what I think, who cares and somebody must think something thru better. Giving an idea, thought more thought.
One reply struck me; ‘You start to write when the thoughts, words, ideas in your head are in the way off life itself. Because off all the thoughts, story systems, word games you are not functioning any longer in life. To your spouse, kids. You need to write it down to get rid off it.
I guess I reached that point some time ago. I need to get rid off the stories in my head.
World Food Dialogue 2017 #SDG12 and #SDG17
The HAS Hogeschool Minor Work on Worldfood Dialogue 2016 was amazing. In the beginning off 2017 we had a followup team students diving deeper into the future off City Region Oss on their possible role in vegetable, diary, meat and animalfood chains off 2040.
Other students from different schools will keep on building on FoodGame Brabant with the goal to get a grip on the future off food wishes and reality, getting closer to a circular economy and understanding a possible 10.000 jobs in 2040.
As it is a “World” Food Dialogue; How are we going to connect FoodGame Oss, FoodGame Brabant to the Global Food Game Dialogue and Actions ?
#SDG12 and #SDG17 are mostly likely to be further investigated first.
– A transparent supplychain economy with feedback loops in the region through best practice #SDG12.
– Partnering up with (possible) players in the foreseen vegetable and livestock chains including #hyperloop logisitcs and #soja plantations with #SDG17
We don’t really…
We don’t really want what we think we desire. I claim this is how things function.
Slavoj Žižek
2020ED : Gamification, Pointification
Nobody told the Kids
Watching Thomas Friedman powerful talk at MIT on his adventure discovering the world became flat while we were sleeping…
The phrase still arousing me, Thomas whispering in the microphone; “… and nobody told the kids“. (That the economic playing field is levelled and we better get used to it fast.) So…Who is currently telling the kids about The REAL World?
Here a throw : Kids, reality is, factories took over routine physical labor, computers routine mental labor and many of our jobs are global. Many of todays jobs won’t be around by the time you turn 20 or so. The messenger has hope for you; There will always be jobs, everybody has the tools to work and the regions with most imagination will flourish.
So the duties to fulfil; Regions give access to tools and help the next generation (AO) to be imaginative. Check.
My App told me what to do next in My Life.
It is early, like 4 a.m. in the morning, my iphone 8 wakes me up.
It’s Pete, the mini-me I send on a quest the other day to find the purpose of my life.
“I found it!” he says with a rotten voice as if my digital assistent was in a bar all night. “The best thing for you, Paul, to do next in life is go to the countryside 25 miles out of the city and start a little farm!”.
Pete his calculations are emotionless logic. Hard-hard facts, numbers are crunched on my potential, potential on all the people in the region and the potential of the region related to the planet. How cool is that?
“With all the logic in the world you come up with that?” I reply. Now I get into a virtual verbal barfight with grumpy Smurf, it seems I ruined his day…
I wonder if this will be the case. (Smurfs on phones outsmarting us). Yet, wouldn’t it be great some things surrounding us would start to make sense again? Some primary logic which makes us, our surrounding, the world tick? An App telling us what the next best (individual) step is to go collaboratively for a ‘better picture’?
Looking at the massive succes of The Smurfs village App.. who knows …
School means Creative Leisure
Somebody told me the word School means in greek and latin ‘creative leisure’… This was the last drop I guess for me; how could we end up from creative leisure to what we send our children to now? The last real music lessons are currently being kicked out in Dutch primary school system… So School actually can’t be called school anymore.. It is a lie to be sued upon. I hear stories from parents their children are so bored they get all nervous sitting the whole day in there. I can imagine spasm is a frequent sight in classrooms.
It is such a mess. And the state is not able to solve it for various reasons. There are very bright individuals in the Ministry of Education though the system surrounding their desk is so vast and segmented, the blood doesn’t flow well. To proof before hand a new method will work is impossible to do. At the same time we see children learning extremelly fast basic skills on the iPad. Also new methods, not tested before. Natural selection takes place in the App Store; good experiments are scaled up, the weak fall off. We can learn from this a lot.
On the bright side!
Maxima Zorreguieta has developed a plan in the light of the right for every child to make music. So maybe we just have to wait until her husband becomes our king, parlement runs out of money so we want the royal house to have more power, than Maxima can create some lasting change in education the way it should be.
Or can’t we wait?
What story will inspire our Children?
Karen Armstrong wrote a small book with the big story on stories; A Short History of Myth. It explores in only 176 pages the place and role of mythological stories in human cultures from tribes to religion to modern society.
I grew up in a village where 0% diversity in ethical background was prevalent. The biblical mythology and nation state history were the two stories clearly presented. Though what is the story in multi ethical schoolclasses in a hyperconnected global village setting? What is the story to lay down the fear and love, self-esteem and compassion of our (future) times? Where is the book? Who can and is going to write it?
I believe we have too, everybody who understands a part of their world should contribute. Somebody is a specialist in waterlilies role and place on the globe should be able to tell this to a 4 or 8 year old. You know the ideal pragmatic achievable car of the near future; children should hear these stories. The stories should get together in a new mythology using narrative principles to tell the story about the world we create for them.
The 90’s exploring cd-roms on ipad4… Soon!
(1) As a parent I see kids growing up with ipad.
(2) And I see Al Gore’s ipad ebook taking off like a rocket.
(3) And I remember all these great cd-rom discovery/exploring titles made in the 90’s which never saw real daylight. Millions have been invested back than. Where are they! I guess all these creators are scratching their head to see if they can get them relaunched on the ipad2, ipad3 or ipad4. I know one place in Salzburg Austria where they are almost ALL being saved in a timevault… So by the time my son is 8, I guess he can play these 90’s titles? I hope.
See Al Gore’s ebook in action and remember the 90’s cd-rom world.
Zoe Weil: Am jealous, I wish I had some solutionist classes in school
Remember school as memorizing symptoms of society, how we calculate and communicate within society? In 250 weeks of highschool (12y-18y) I remember 2 weeks as ‘studium generale’; picking a theme and a challenge and figure out everything you can know about it! That is as passionate as we got in there. Now look at this;
How cool is that kind of education?! I don’t agree school should only be (real world) problem solving, but a better half of all activities would be great. SO in my 2 weeks we almost got to the solutionist part, to actually think of a solution. Though we never made it, after these 2 weeks of general study it was back to dealing with symptoms and tricks again..
Christopher Lloyd: On washing dishes and all matter
Christopher Lloyd was at PINC11 and gave a history lesson of the world any child should get in primary school. It’s the evolutionist philosophy on matter development in 13 billion years. It’s a strong case to use a series of everyday objects (20) in a one day analogy to remember what on earth happened. Watch it for yourself!
Discover Culture by exploring Nature
“A man lives in a village next to a forest. One day he starts to talk to the villagers about the forest. ‘Did you know there are trees growing in there and each autumn the leaves fall, in the winter they look dead, though in the summer great fruits grow on them we can eat’. The villagers say ‘that’s awesome!’, I did not know, thank you, now I can feed my children more easy, I do not need to work so hard on my backyard. The man is excited he helped these villagers, and he figures to tell them more. ‘Did you know the ants can lift six times their own weight and everything is related to each other and he startes to talk about all the relations, bindings there are. The man really understands every little detail of the forest, it’s like Neo in the Matrix, he knows the transcript.”
This story can develop in many ways… The villagers could get overwhelmed by the information, and some will help structuring. Some people might walk away, realizing they know enough to feed themselves. Some people realize the forest can be multiplied and so they do to care for more people.
We would not believe the storyline, however, if the man proclaims the exact order of the trees and all the bindings is the only true way. Other forests, jungles and oases should be burned to be replaced by the one he believes in, understands, masters.
The forest looks to be on it’s own, though is connected to the global ecosystem. One planet. We need forests, matter for our body. We need culture, immatter, for our mind. We need a certain amount of detail to support ourselves, in prosperity we just need to find the fruits as there are enough, in despair we need to understand the forest a bit better because we do not want to turn it into a desert, insanity.
For nature, ‘we’ talk about climate change, local communities talk about the suffering of local forests in fear of hunger. I believe we should think more in this analogy also for the wellbeing of our minds.
As all around we scream; “Look! trees!”
Village Toolkit for New Countryside?
Like the 100 innovations by The Blue Economy I mentioned in earlier post. Here is another one; 50 innovations, Open Source Ecology; a toolkit to sustain your own village from 6.000 euro. So together al list of 150 innovations to sustain my world : ) How many more do we need? I don’t know, but if I have some time left I will analyze them to see where the gaps are.. Than we can start building our new ‘hoods’ taking the best from country and cityside living standards. Ofcourse, a TED vid, how else would I know ; ).
Smart Power, a new narrative
Franklin Roosevelt said; “the greatest thing we have to fear is fear itself”. According to Joseph Nye on global power shifts speaking at TED we can prevent fear of fear by understanding ‘power’ in the long tail context from history to future. It is not the ‘rise’ of China, though the ‘recovery’ of China, something not to be afraid off.
He mentions hard power and soft power. Hard power can be with force, sticks. Or with money, carrots. Soft power is to have people choose a way you want something to go. This is something we need to re-master. Propaganda by governments and marketing by corporations. There is a third which is key, and universal mythological storytelling in modern ways is part of it I guess…
The First Grader – The Right to Learn
National Geographic has come with an interesting film based on a true story of an old man surviving the past and fighting to learn to read. ‘The Right to Learn’ – sentence struck me… Thinking about it for the current world, we also have the right to learn, though what if the language of teaching can no longer be understood by it’s pupils? We have the ability to learn, though the way and what should be learned is not really there… How can you practice your right to learn if the way of learning does not exist?
Ofcourse I am floating here, though when all evidence is there we are not preparing our children for the world we have created, what right can be claimed? The right to understand your culture? To see futures, better futures? How?
Oscar Wilde and ‘friends’ in the streets of Vienna
Somehow the German language sounds good in philosophical quotes. There is a poetic rhythm to it, though a Dutch or English quote remains intense, this type of flow is absent. Walking down the street in Vienna I came across this one:
Don’t see these often in the Netherlands! The true goal is to redesign society from scratch, which excludes poverty. (Original Quote needed).
I found the campaign online here. It’s a series of six for/by the Vienna Museum, they won a prize, so hopefully more quotes will appear on the streets of Vienna.
The six quotes are:
Zeit für ein Zitat – Die Zitate:
“Es genügt nicht die Welt zu verändern. Wir haben die Veränderung auch zu interpretieren.”
Günther Anders 1902 – 1992
“Die einzig revolutionäre Kraft ist die Kraft der menschlichen Kreativität.”
Joseph Beuys 1921 – 1986
“Es gibt Wichtigeres im Leben als beständig dessen Geschwindigkeit zu erhöhen.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“Eine Krise besteht darin, dass das Alte stirbt und das Neue nicht geboren werden kann.”
Antonio Gramsci 1891 – 1937
“Die Liebe ist nicht da, um uns glücklich zu machen. Ich glaube sie ist da, um uns zu zeigen, wie stark wir im Leiden und Tragen sein können.”
Hermann Hesse 1877 – 1962
“Das wahre Ziel ist, die Gesellschaft auf einer Grundlage neu aufzurichten, die die Armut ausschließt.”
Oscar Wilde 1854 – 1900
Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!
In his latest TEDtalk, Sir Ken Robinson explains an evolution in education is not enough, we need a revolution. Some of my field colleagues will say evolution is the only affordable and pragmatic way. At the same time our gut feeling tells us fixing up of the existing system with (gaming) tools and (flexible) timetables will save the day but not the century.
Our kids are in trouble with us, so we better get started with moving from industrial education to organic education!
Gunter Pauli: Got reminded on the Blue Economy
Last week we were at our new children’s doctor practice in Vienna, Dr.med. univ. Reinhard Mitter and he reminded me of the Blue Economy. Busy as a bee organizing our ‘own’ green, blue, red economy, I didn’t look at Gunter Pauli his site for a while. Looking at it now, I realize Gunter Pauli is really up to something important for society, everything is coming together. If you run out of business idea’s, pick one of the 100 he is listing at Zeri
Organic Education? When?
Other than ‘standard’ western education is mostly focused on the development of ‘individual potential’. Instead of a linear path to collectively follow, though an organic, personal path. This sounds great, though most initiatives disappear after extra start-up funding stops, it’s simply too expensive. The one’s which stay standing look perfect, though miss out on a few thinking skills I believe. ‘Special Education’ get’s standard more finance as the children there need ‘special’ attention. This group grows like crazy, but that’s another story… 
The new buzzword is ‘organic education’, individual learning paths, how are we going to finance it sustainably? Ofcourse computers etc will help to cover costs on guidance. But it’s not JUST an evolution on educational material. Yes, Ken Robinson his talk inspired me, it’s greatly motivational and puts the finger on the problem and the challenge, though what is the solution. In the latest Apple in school campaign you see OIPC, or One IPod Per Child supports the idea of individual paths and books success on learning motivation and achievements.
There are all kinds of success stories around the world, starts of ‘revolution’ and somehow it all needs to get together. As teachers opt-out, children are bored and parents are worried, how fast can the ‘switch’ take place?
ISE2020 FILM TRAILER ON VIMEO
The primary school teacher changes his/her role in the classroom. As a necessity, to many drop out and kids are ‘diiferent’, though also as a natural progression. This short film (Dutch only) explores 5 trends and reasons why a primary school teacher will love to ‘teach’ in the near future.
ISE2020 Trailer from Trans(ce) Creatives on Vimeo.
TEACHER, CAN I HAVE MORE TASKS?
Teacher, can I have MORE tasks? Would love to be that kid in school, happy to get homework and ask for more. Greedy smurfs 😉 I did not like homework, it was boring memorizing history and geography stuff.
Can we imagine a primary school in the future where kids love to learn? Why are kids REALLY-REALLY bored? More bored than I was? Going nuts? Needing medication to focus?
Better than Sir Ken Robinson I cannot describe it;”Our Children are Living in the most intensive stimulating Period in the History of the Earth“. We need to find an answer to this challenge. I was asked to write a small article for a pedagogical magazine going to primary school teachers and boards. It’s article for IJsselgroep, Iselinge Hogeschool in the Netherlands: “Teacher can I have more tasks? and why teachers will have precious time left again” (in Dutch page 6-7) It’s the start of my quest in understanding why children are bored in school and why change will happen.
In summary; At home through play children develop 8 of 8 core brain activities. In school only 3 of 8 really get stimulated, ofcourse they are bored. Change is possible, as for the first time in history teachers, parents AND children are screaming for a shift in ‘schooling’.
Click on the link or the image to read the full article.
Teacher is Avatar
Leerkracht als nieuwe Avatar (Teacher being the new avatar), is the subtitle of the new research lab ‘crossmedia didactics’ at Iselinge Hogeschool / IJsselgroep in Doetinchem, the Netherlands, led by Joost Cohensius. The goal is to bridge academic learning wisdom with crossmedia trends from the publishing/social domain. Teachers in primary schools slowly growing into new roles as the ‘industrial’ way of learning no longer fulfills children needs and society demands. The teacher is becoming partly virtual (avatar) and partly ‘conductor’ of learning material and goals. 
Today was the launch of ISE2020 and the presentation of the complete 2010-2012 research and development plan. The setting was state of the art; The ISE2020 Film was shown with real 4D ambilight!
ISE2020 FILM, IT’S A WRAP!
For months we have been working on preparing the shooting days for the new Iselinge/IJsselgroep film. Initiated by IJsselgroep and Joost Cohensius, it is not the ordinary promotional film though a true ‘hollywood style’ fiction short film. 16 minutes, various locations in 3 days shooting; We took over parts of University @Iselinge, Cultural Heritage site @Drufabriek and Primary School Het Timpaan (photo). By ‘coincidence’ we will have the first ‘cinema screening’ on 02-02 as part of the launch of the new Iselinge/IJsselgroep research and development lab/professorship ‘crossmedia didactics’ chaired by Joost Cohensius.
Core of Thinking Skills
Thinking Skills became a popular name for mind skills children need to learn in primary schools. On the one hand teachers talk about them as a simple checklist to put in the mental luggage of children, on the other hand the academics among us can diversify the abilities in a way most other academics need an extra set of thinking skills to understand them.
One day I ended up between the teacher and academic world: My noble task was to think of a game engine supporting thinking skills, teachers would use and academics would accept…v a l o r i z a t i o n…
System Designers like completeness. There is nothing more annoying halfway the trajectory somebody comes in and says:”Ah, forgot about this, this also HAS to be in”. So a game architect as I try to be, I look at Bloom’s Taxonomy. WOW, did I learn all these in primary school?!. Is it complete? Sounds all logical, so could be. But what tells me? At the same time there is a nice list of 8 thinking processes, all look sensible, and I understand them immediately! So if I understand them instantly, more people would I guess. Though as I am a strong believer in yin-yang, leftbrain-rightbrain exchange and balancing, how do these 8 relate to that?
This is the result, there is a logic to it, though that’s a bit more information than suitable for a blog post I don’t want to bore you with. Drop me a line if you want to know more.
The game engine is a work in progress, also just drop me a line if interested.
1 year left for Primary School 2020
A thought; If we want to have solved the basic learning dilemma by 2020, we have 1 year to create the primary school supporting it! As from 2012-2020 the first kids should be on it, testing it. We need to see for 8 years (age 4-12) if it works or not, than it is ‘academically’ correct. This sounds like an impossible challenge, to take a deep breath and change the education paradigm and hope it will work out in 8 years from now… Well, IT IS. We can’t take risks and damage almost a whole generation with an educational experiment.
Different than 10 years ago, teachers, parents AND children demand a revolution. Probably the first time in history. I will write an article in the IJsselgroep Magazine ‘De Wijzer’, imagining the future kid at school. (#Update Feb’11, article published: “Teacher, can I have more learning tasks? (in Dutch, page 6-7)“
Vision Books on 2020
Amazon search results on year numbers :
2010 – 176,494 (lower than 2011, probably because books got ‘old’)
2011 – 206,526 (highest, as we are in it)
2012 – 40,495 (end of the world as we know it)
2013 – 3,587 (when writing about 2012 got too crowded)
2014 – 40,117 (so, what’s that about?)
2015 – 3,255 (that’s a drop!)
2016 – 10,099 (rise…)
2017 – 351 (oops..)
2018 – 397 (ready?)
2019 – 338 (set…..)
2020- 2,328 ‘VISION BOOKS’
Some just have the numbers in the titles, though a tremendous amount 2020 titles are about the brave future ahead of us. 2020 is a nice dreaming number, so let’s all together work towards that! Right? 2020 has been adopted by many company and government officials, so let’s jump on the wave and make it all happen by 2020.
After survival comes dwelling in luxury
And we dwell in luxury, though in the meantime we have lost grip on survival. We highly, more than ever, depend on ‘others’. It is the first time in history we do not have grandparents who have straight access to soil where food grows on. Grandparents in the countryside always had a garden they grow their own food. City grandparents had a straight connection with a countryside farmer, supplying food. We lost this connection. We depend on the supermarket, the supermarket depends on suppliers. 
To be able to pick food in the supermarket, we need money, lots of money. Our distance to food is greater than ever.
Survival also means having a ‘home’, a roof above our heads. We don’t have one, the bank has. And if we don’t pay we are kicked out. Basically without a fultime well payed job we are homeless and hungry. And the price of homes became the amount a bank would lend a young family working 100 hours a week, not the value of resources and construction.
Both a natural phenomenon our own nature is responsible for, to acknowledge and to come with a more sustainable, better alternative.
Paul van Zoggel 