The Technium – A Conversation with Kevin Kelly

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40 pointsFuturebot3 comments

While somewhat obvious when you think about it, this point is rarely addressed:

> You can't learn calculus just hanging around people who know calculus, you actually have to study it. It may be that for us to really master the issues of attention management, critical thinking, learning how technological devices work and how they bite back, all this techno-literacy may be something that we have to spend several years being trained to do. Maybe you can't just learn it by hanging around people who do it or else just hanging around trying to learn it by osmosis. It may require training and teaching, a techno-literacy, and learning how to manage your attention and distractions is something that is probably going to require training.

Yes, the ability to focus is one of the most important traits of successful technologists. How do you teach it? I think it has to be more a case of lighting the fire with-in. Any successful program has to have the learners start to ask and answer their own questions (sometimes with guidance, sometimes with the all-important persistence of focus) - not be guided by rote teaching.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

Quite interesting, but there are only facts, no recommendations how to avoid new issues, that may appear in future

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