Andy Matuschak: Designing Education

Admin on 10/04/2020

Podcast with David Perell

Developing ideas over time

Good knowledge work is the ability to absorb and develop ideas over time.

But there is no good way to do reflective work for knowledge workers. Should learn through deliberate practice. No set and agreed knowledge to be learned, no objective measures of correctness, no an established teaching practice.

Poor feedback loops for reading skills, not obvious that you aren’t absorbing.

How to get new and interesting ideas in front of yourself. Design for weird inbounds.

How do you structure a note taking system that gives life to ideas?

Collect small observations. Evergreen notes are atomic, durable.

It’s a search problem, and success depends on where you start.

Can’t right notes that are about a specific topic or solve a specifc problem.

React to impulses and whatever interests you.

Write for specific people.

Affordances transparently suggest an objects use and constraints.

Profound design shapes your perception in ways you may not even be aware of.

Visible design for safety. Undo where possible.

Learning about tech in schools

Admin on 01/04/2016

I was chatting to an old school friend about how we’re both in jobs that we couldn’t have even imagined when we were at school. Back then, the Internet become mainstream and sending an email was a big deal.

It made me think about tech education in schools and wonder whether teachers get the message across to their students that whatever subject they are learning they need to learn how to use technology, that whatever job they get when they are older it will involve technology.

Entrepreneurial Schools

Admin on 01/05/2013

Heard a brief thing on the radio about encouraging students in schools to be more entrepreneurial by starting a business with £10. It started me thinking how they could do that.

If I were them I would leverage the community aspect of the school to provide stock to sell and as customers. I’d set up an Ebay shop that would be stocked with items donated by students, parents and teachers. However, to make better use of the school community and encourage people to keep providing stock (there needs to be a part of the strategy that considers sustainability), I’d award points to each of the donors based on how much the items they donated sell for, e.g. 1 point for 1 pound. These points can then be redeemed at the school for things like free tickets to school plays.

Of course, it would be promoted via the usual social media channels that kids love, ifttt’d from ebay to FB, TW, IG, etc. The points system could be run on Mailchimp so that everyone involved gets regular emails telling them how many points they have earned and what products are for sale this week.

So, what would the £10 be spent on? The postage of for the first round of items sold until you’ve got some profit to pay the delivery on more items.