Education Addiction

Making Education Addictive (K12 edition)

Jumping Into a New Mindset

Please watch this video :)

• SchoolTube: Ken Robinson on Education Reform (Awesome Animated Talk) (11 min)

Getting Started (Learn about changes coming to education)

I recommend you watch at least 3 of these awesome videos.

• Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From Mistakes (10 minutes TED video -- free)
• Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution! (18 minutes TED video -- free)
• Richard Baraniuk on open-source learning (19 minutes TED video -- free)
• Cameron Herold: Let's raise kids to be entrepreneurs (20 minutes TED video -- free)
• Chris Anderson: How web video powers global innovation (19 minutes TED video -- free)
• Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, two years on (17 minutes TED video -- free)

The next step to explore is to consider what makes video games, cell phones, computers, Facebook, Myspace, and music so addictive to both children and adults. Ponder this.

Check out this article: Video Games Boost Brain Power, Multitasking Skills

The key is this word: immersion. When we play video games, when we're texting our friends, when we're watching a YouTube video, when we are checking out Facebook or Myspace, we become one with it, in what some people would call flow. Music is slightly different, the absorption of music is passive except in participation or total experience (such as a concert).

Books to Read Immediately

I recommend the following three books be read by anyone interested in immersive education (in this order.)

• The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
• Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
• What Video Games have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy

Multi-Touch Immersive Ubiquitous Internet-Enabled Device

This is a fancy way of saying a tablet or cell phone with an always-on Internet connection. These will become widespread and mainstream during the 4G expansion in 2011. 4G multi-touch devices allow for exceptional, immersive learning experiences.

Right now, at the beginning of 2011, the best two devices with true immersive characteristics are Apple's iPad and Apple's iPod Touch.

Google's Android offering is improving but sluggish implementations are preventing full immersion. Hopefully that will be resolved by mid-2011.

The Next Step -- Where to Go From Here

You're going to need to get an immersive device and try it out. Download some apps. Talk about it with your friends, co-workers, and kids. Then, head over to my company, Crazy But Lazy Digital Designs, and see what awesome things we're working on in immersion.