Infokus

FLASHCARDS
In the video clip above, my wife is teaching baby Salma new words using voice narrated Flashcards. The cool thing about apps like My First Words, is that you can also record your own voice, and even create your own Flashcards. Cool!

If you notice, baby Salma is not satisfied by simply watching passively my wife clicking the NEXT button. Instead, she wants to grab the iPhone (Ownership), so that she can hold it and play with it herself. We all know what happens, when babies dont get what they want. However, what about students?

In other words, when we teach or facilitate learning, we should perhaps provide more opportunities for students to explore learning, and take ownership of their own learning process, which is often more inspiring than being told what to do for 15 weeks per semester.

99.999% of us love to learn, but how many of us like to be taught? Or have you ever been inspired to learn by following instructions?

Think about it!



LADYBUG
Baby Salma simply loves Frank Letos Ladybug Ladybug Song, which she sings (and claps her hands) along in her own baby GAGA language.

Yes, what if we could learn boring stuff through songs and poetry? Wouldnt that be cool? Here is a reasonably convincing example:

But then again, is it worthwhile spending so much time and effort to create a learning song covering perhaps just one concept? I suppose we could instead empower students to create their own learning songs. Or perhaps they could mind map their learning into a rap song. I wouldnt mind a rap song teaching me history!

Alright, my baby Salma 36-second video clip and short reflection is not going to award me with giving a TED Talk. However, if I catch every moment of my daughters life for the next 3 years using multiple cameras wired up in my house, requiring 20 terabytes of storage, so that I can understand how she learns a language... WOW! Too late! MIT researcher Deb Roy did just that, and then he (or his research team) parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch his son "gaaaa" slowly turn into "water."

In other words, it will be thrilling to listen to Salmas "Ta-Ta" turn into "Apple" over the coming days, weeks, or perhaps months. Perhaps the iPhone, or coming iPad 2 (to me!) might speed up the learning process.

I skipped iPad 1, as I usually keep away from first versions of anything, but I will probably invest in iPad 2 when it comes to Malaysia (officially!). Based on my kids (3) obsession to play games with iPhone, I suppose I will only be able to use the iPad for self-learning when they all are asleep!

Although, I am no fan of having babies or young kids stuck in front of an iPhone or iPad (or mobile devices) all day (Hint: Radiation and Glasses!), I suppose a few minutes a day learning something useful wont harm too much. Would it?

What do you think? :)