How Do We Learn? A Zine! (+ thoughtdump)

Hi all!  I'm back from my trip to DynamicLand, where I spent a couple weeks in THE FUTURE or at least the research lab that's trying to do that.  Next week, I'll post some videos I recorded + a short writeup about DynamicLand, in case you're interested in what a more humane vision of technology looks like / cool interactive shtuff

In the last week, I've also been thinking and re-thinking a lot about my approach to making educational things.  How can I teach things better?  So, I spent a week binge-reading as many papers on learning/memory I could find -- and, here's what I've learnt about the science of learning... as a zine!

(if you don't see the above images, or want links to the references, click here.  also, here's this zine as a tweet, for your sharing pleasure)

So, why've I been obsessed with the science of learning recently?

To be honest, I'm not satisfied with my interactives.  But in a (hopefully) healthy, growth-mindset-y, here's-what-i-can-do-to-improve kind of way??

<THOUGHTDUMP>

First off, I feel my interactives are good introductions to ideas, but they don't actually let you practice putting those ideas into action.  (e.g: it's not like The Evolution of Trust actually teaches you how to "do" game theory!)  This is despite the fact that games are a really good medium for letting people practice & master skills!  (think about what complex skills the games Portal and Braid teach you in a few hours!!)

And secondly, I feel like I'm getting too comfortable in my current method of making explorables: linear, single-player, tour guide of a simulation, slap a sandbox at the end.  In the poll I posted last month, I proposed six ideas that (mostly) tried to break my usual formula, by having them be multi-player, or role-playing/dialogue-based, or something else.  I want to spend 2018 experimenting with these other approaches!

But for now, short term: next month, I'll focus on making The Wisdom and/or Madness of the Crowds!  (my project about network theory + group behavior)  I'm blown away by how much y'all liked just the prototype alone!  I think, with Crowds, I'll have an opportunity to address the two challenges I listed above.

Here's the new design philosophy I want to try out with Crowds: you practice skills by solving problems.   In contrast, all my previous explorables are problem-free sandboxes.  Sandboxes still have their place, but I think -- given the science of learning, plus my own personal experience of how I've learnt things -- that solving meaningful problems may be a far more effective way to teach things.  (and after you've gained a basic foundation, then sandboxes are useful, because then you can meaningfully create your own goals)

So what "skill" will I teach in Crowds?  Well, jeez, I won't make you a certified network scientist in half an hour -- that's a skill with a zillion sub-skills like model creation, data collection, statistics, visualization, etc etc -- but I think I can teach at least one important sub-skill: how to design a network.  Specifically, how to make a network of humans that can spread good information, resist misinformation, be robust yet flexible, be diverse yet unified.  Because, whether you realize it or not, you already design a network: the network of your peers, friends, the people you influence and are influenced by.  A collective brain.  Which, after playing this game, maybe you can make that collective brain smarter, kinder, better.

Maybe.  That's the hope, anyway.

So yeah that also addresses my two challenges, in that 1) it teaches an actual skill, and 2) it's slightly different from the way I've been approaching my work for the last four years.  Win-win?

</THOUGHTDUMP>

Whoo, I hope you enjoyed that giant wall of text!  That's my behind-the-scenes thought process.  Would you like to get more updates with this kind of design-process stuff?  Or maybe that'll too much, and you just want updates of actual milestones & new stuff?

Let me know what you think of, uh, any of this!

<3,
~ Nicky Case