Os gordurosos gigantes e os ratos da cidade baixa

Elio Moreno, sábio professor e excelente amigo, contava um conto recorrente: gigantes comiam numa mesa de fartura e abundância e nós, ratos, ficávamos felizes quando caiam migalhas maiores, sem nos dar conta de que - grandes ou pequenas - eram migalhas.

Há uns 3 anos eu me achava o rei da cocada porque "ganhava bem".

Education 2.0 - new roles for a new era -> Part 1: What is Web 2.0?

At the 2010 10th edition of the ABCI Conference I presented my view on the implications of the new interactive way of using the Internet. Here is a brief summary of what was discussed at the workshop.

Part 1: What is Web 2.0?

Not a long time ago the maximum range a regular person could give to his or her opinion on a topic was determined by their geographical conditions: if one could reach an abundant number of people in a few miles, that would be one's audience.

When radio set in there was a significant change in terms of reaching a wider number of listeners. TV gradually made its way into an even greater number of devotees and then the Internet, now present not only on bulky desktop computers but also at every handheld device one could possibly imagine stretched the boundaries of communication to practically every human being on Earth.

Sobre crianças, possibilidades, ciência e mentiras

Incrível como uma criança pode ser uma fonte inesgotável de dados científicos. Se você alguma vez tiver a chance de filmar uma criança de uns 5 ou 6 anos de idade brincando, faça-o! Dessa filmagem você poderá coletar dados para mais do que uma dissertação de mestrado. Apenas 15 minutos de observação de uma criança podem levar um adulto a cogitar idéias sobre como ela pensa, sobre como ela percebe as coisas, sobre como as regras são importantes, sobre a maneira como a linguagem se constitui, enfim, sobre um sem número de questionamentos.

Quando a Idéia muda o mundo

A Idéia vivia sozinha em seu canto e a idéia era uma só: MUDAR O MUNDO. Ela era pequena e simples e ao mesmo tempo grande e misteriosa. A Idéia era também perigosa porque mudar o mundo sem saber por quê era algo assustador e então ela se sentia sozinha e com medo. Foi aí que conheceu o Ideal!

Um alô do Pacca

Olá a todos, como vão? Espero que tudo esteja muito bem.

Meu nome é Felipe Pacca, escrevo em português, diferente do meu amigo César Marques e esse post tem como objetivo me apresentar para todos e dizer o que espero com esse blog.

Basicamente, espero aqui compartilhar minhas idéias em curso, ou idéia sem curso (como o leitor preferir), sobre educação, jogos, marketing, recursos humanos e quaisquer outros interesses estranhos e pseudo-não-compatíveis. Pretendo aqui postar apresentações de cursos e palestras já realizados, lançar idéias para que eu mesmo desenvolva novos projetos e também criar/auxiliar meu caro amigo César, alguém bastante sintonizado, em novos cursos e palestras.

Então é isso, sejam bem-vindos e nos cobrem para que coloquemos sempre novos materiais.

Um grande abraço do Fleb (eu mesmo, Felipe Pacca)

"Use the Force, Luke" or B is for Blindness

I was listening to a song I love and I suddenly remembered using it once with an advanced group of students. Lost in contemplation of my old memories I awoke with a bitter taste in my mouth: the lesson had been dreadful, nobody could actually understand what the song was about and I got myself thinking "How could it be so hard?”. Then I moved back to when I was planning the lesson and started to understand.

Mistake #1: it didn't take me a long time to decide which song to take to the class. I liked it, they would certainly love it, right?
Mistake #2: without any care for listening to the song while following the lyrics I simply took them from a website and randomly chose some words to take out and created a gap filling exercise with no purpose in mind.
Mistake #3: The very first time I played the song in class they already had the lyrics and their task was to fill the gaps.
Mistake #ZERO: I thought I was teaching a wonderful lesson!

The awful revelation of all of these mistakes is that they happened so often and for such a long time in my teaching career because I couldn't see them. I was completely unaware of the problems, though I suffered when seeing students struggling to survive my lessons. I was like Luke Skywalker at the end of "Star Wars - Episode IV: A new hope", knowing I had to hit the target, looking at the data at the computer screen but unable to shoot right into where I was supposed to.

Obi Wan's voice told young Luke: "Use the Force, Luke" and he turned off his computer screen, looked inside and took a shot! Bang! Death Star is destroyed and Darth Vader was sent away until the next instalment of the series! I can see now what Obi Wan's words meant: Looking at the data is crucial, but if you don't look inside at your beliefs when teaching, if you can't see what's wrong with your delivery and admit that things could work better, there is no way to hit the target.

If you are not willing to look at your own misunderstandings, you won't ever understand. It takes some courage to face the enemy inside and a lot of extra guts to overcome it. But one can only get somewhere beyond when one admits having done something wrong.