Posts Tagged 'Education'

Beyond Millennials: Information Overload and the Alpha Generation

Posted on December 22nd, 2021 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion, Impact and Symptoms, Individual Solutions

Image credit: Peter Merholz on Flickr. Are we running out of alphabet? We have Generation X (born 1965–1980), we have generation Y (a.k.a. Millennials, born 1981–1996), we have Generation Z (1997–2012)… so what shall we call today’s children, born (mostly) to millennial parents after 2012? Actually, no worry about running out of letters: not all letters are in the Latin alphabet. The Chinese script has enough ideograms to last us for millennia… but before we go there, there is the Greek alphabet, now gaining fame for naming Coronavirus variants, and indeed the post-millennial cohort are now officially “Generation Alpha”. So.. Read more

Learning to code in an information-flooded world

Posted on October 1st, 2020 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

The world around us keeps changing, and many of the changes are caused by, or related to, Information Overload and the instant access to limitless information resources. Recently I’ve come face to face with one more instance of this fact. I’ve been programming computers – sometimes for work, but more often for fun – for over four decades. I’ve written programs on mainframes, minis and micros. I’ve done it in maybe a dozen languages, including Fortran, Algol, Assembler, BASIC, C, Forth and C++, and with the exception of the first two I always learned them on my own. So with.. Read more

A License to Mail?

Posted on February 27th, 2019 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

A glaring omission Consider: there are many potentially harmful activities that require a special license or permit. For example: Incompetent driving can harm people, so you need a license to drive. Incompetent medical practice can harm people, so you need a license to practice it. Incompetent lawyers can harm their clients, so you need a license to practice law. And so on. Heck, even James Bond had a license to kill, implying that other secret agents did not. SO: Writing email can harm people, so you need… No, you don’t. In fact, anyone can send email in an organization, no.. Read more

How Smartphones are Harming our Children – and What to Do About It

Posted on January 31st, 2019 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion, Impact and Symptoms

When will they ever learn? Observation: people and organizations are much more eager to adopt new technology than they are to think about its potential damage. This gap gave me the basis for a 25 year career as a computing productivity expert: I realized that Intel, my employer at the time, was happily rushing towards a major mess by giving employees every new computing and communication capability without doing the required advance analysis of how they should use it. We gave users email, and were soon hit by email overload; we gave them modems, and the work/life barrier was toppled.. Read more

Science education – what I learned in Sardinia

Posted on December 2nd, 2018 · Posted in Off-topic

Just returned from a wonderful trip to Sardinia, Italy, where I saw some cool things related to the dissemination of science education, so I thought I’d share. I was invited by FestivalScienza Cagliari to deliver a lecture about Alan Turing and the future of AI – in Italian, mind you – which was a challenge not to be refused. This I did successfully, drawing a lively interaction with the audience and a subsequent interview in the TV news journal – evidently the lecture made everybody think, as well it should, given where AI is headed. But while I was there.. Read more

What Can We Do About our Teens’ Smartphone Addiction?

Posted on December 30th, 2017 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion, Impact and Symptoms

An interesting audience question I had just finished delivering my lecture on Information Overload at a hi-tech company and was taking comments from the usual group of attendees that approach me after everyone else has left – these are usually the best comments, since they come from people interested enough to stay and wait their turn. And this time I had a surprise. A man asked me whether I give such lectures in schools, targeting kids in their mid to late teens. These are the members of Generation Z (what will we do next, one wonders, now that we’ve run.. Read more

New Insight Article: How a Hi-Tech Company Can Engage in K-12 Education

Posted on July 10th, 2013 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion

One of the most praiseworthy things a company can do is help nurture the next generation of the communities in which it operates, by engaging in K-12 – especially school age – educational activity. There are numerous ways to do this, starting with simple money donations and ending with sophisticated, lively joint activities that apply the company’s people to do good in the local or national education system. Over the years I’ve been involved in K-12 programs in numerous ways, from when I took charge of creating Intel’s college relations activity in Israel in the early 90’s, through personal action.. Read more