Anti-government protesters prepare catapult that will fire flaming debris. Image from Al Jazeera English.This ID is of an undercover security officer who tried to start a fight, he was apprehended but not hurt, however, he said he was paid to come and start trouble. (via Al Jazerra English)
Anti-government protesters, who’ve been occupying Tahrir Square for the last week, fought off pro-government protesters yesterday in a vicious turn to the insurrection in Egypt. The army stood out of the way, and the police were no where to be found, except for reports that some captured pro-government rioters had police identification cards on them.
Although there was some shooting, the battle was mostly fought with impromptu weapons: rocks, Molotov cocktails, knives, and swords. Then there were the horses, camels and catapults.
Pro-government camel-man charges photographer and anti-government protesters. (via the Daily Dish)
A number of horsemen were pulled off by the anti-government portesters and beaten (WARNING: the video below is quite vicious).
A main street leading into Tahrir Square by the Egyptian Museum was completely covered in broken rocks, which had been used as weapons. (via Al Jazeera English).
Progressive approaches to education focus on students taking ownership of their education. It works in education, it works in economics, and it works in politics too.
Protesters are also working with students and the army to protect the priceless antiquities at the Egyptian Museum and the books at Bibliotecha Alexindrina.
(via TotallyCoolPix) 08. An Egyptian Army soldier greets protesters as he stands atop an armoured vehicle in Cairo January 29, 2011. Egypt's president gave the first indication on Saturday he was preparing an eventual handover of power by naming a vice-president for the first time in 30 years after protests that have rocked the foundations of the state. REUTERS/ Goran Tomasevic
One of the more interesting observations from today’s reenactment of the ongoing protests in Egypt, was the almost instinctive eagerness of, at least some of the simulated protesters, to want to confront the simulated army.
70. A demonstrator (L) argues with police during a protest in Cairo January 28, 2011. Police and demonstrators fought running battles on the streets of Cairo on Friday in a fourth day of unprecedented protests by tens of thousands of Egyptians demanding an end to President Hosni Mubarak's three-decade rule. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis (via TotallyCoolPix)
One protester, who’d been given the role of “angry student demonstrator” was extremely eager to get in the face of the army.
We were, after all, playing a simulation game, and that particular student had been told that he was angry, frustrated with the lack of opportunities, and all riled up. However, the way the actual Egyptian protesters are dealing with the army is really important to observe. They’re treating them like the friends and brothers they actually are: taking them in, rather than fighting against them.
I did have one of the protesters offer to hug the “army”, so, in the end, I hope the message that co-option can be much better than confrontation.
We reenacted the Egyptian protests today. Each student in the group of protesters was assigned to represent a different demographic. Their signs (adapted from The Best Egypt Protest Signs From Around The World) were created to be representative of the different sub-groups (to the best of our ability to tell):
College students and young, recently graduated people are important parts of most democratic protest movements.Probably student protesters.Middle class protester with young child.Veiled protester, representative of the strength of religion-based organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood in the protests.
Buzzfeed has an excellent collection of photos from the protests themselves. For example:
03. A protester reaches out as a soldier holds a child during a demonstration in Cairo January 29, 2011. Thousands of angry Egyptians rallied in central Cairo on Saturday to demand that Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak resign, dismissing his offer of dialogue and calling on troops to come over to their side. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih
We had presentations on current immigration issues today, and, just coincidentally, NPR had an article on the lead singer of Bright Eyes taking political stands against laws like Arizona 1070.
Part of an Egyptian pamphlet created as a guide to protesters. Image links to the original, Arabic version.
This guide for the modern protester was created, in Arabic, as part of a guide for the for the protesters in Egypt. It’s amazing just how much it tells, not just about the protesters, but about the people and equipment, as well as their goals. I particularly like that, next to the scarf to protect from tear gas, and the pot lid to defend against rubber bullets and battons, there is also a rose:
A rose so we can show that we can do as we ought to and join together in the most peaceful way possible.http://montessorimuddle.org/wp-admin/media-upload.php?post_id=3932&type=image&TB_iframe=1&width=640&height=578
— Unknown author (2011). Translated from the Egyptian protest pamphlet
The Guardian also has another picture from the pamphlet in an article that really tells a lot about the authors’ objectives.
Describes Harlow and Deci‘s original studies that came up with the idea of intrinsic motivation. Note: Maslow (of Hierarchy of Needs fame) was Harlow’s student.
Three basic types of motivation (drives):
Motivation 1.0: Biological (need for food, drink, sex)
Motivation 2.0: Extrinsic (e.g. getting paid)
Motivation 3.0: Intrinsic
Chapter 1: Extrinsic versus Intrinsic Motivation
1. Wikipedia: a success almost entirely because contributors are willing to invest their time and energy for no reward; the very definition of intrinsic motivation.
Note: Despite my own challenges with students using Wikipedia as a reliable source, we use our own classroom Wiki extensively. Giving students projects with a clear goal in mind, but great freedom in execution (like the choose your own adventure stories), seems to tap into the same spirit that motivates the Wikipedia contributors.
2. Social operating systems: the basic, often invisible, assumption on which society runs.
Note: Good metaphor, but he explains it as if the development of our understanding of motivation paralleled human evolution/development. Pre-social humans were driven primarily by the biological imperative, like large animals still are, he claims. I am very uneasy about this sort of lazy extrapolation given how much we’re learning that differences between humans and animals are no where near where we thought they’d be, particularly given the social organization of many animals. He also ignores cross-cultural differences: different societies value self-actualization and other intrinsic motivation characteristics much differently than the WIERD one he seems to be describing.
3. Introduces behavioral economics (mentions Ariely): Humans are not anywhere near to being ideal, rational economic agents.
4. During the industrial revolution, work was mostly algorithmic (a worker could follow a clearly defined set of steps to get their job done), while now it’s mostly heuristic (workers have to come up with new things).
algorithmic work is being replaced by software and outsourced really fast (that’s globalization for you)
p. 30 – U.S. job growth – 30% algorithmic, 70% heuristic.
Note: Pink claims that heuristic work can’t be outsourced “generally”. He apparently wrote a book about it: A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. I may have to get that one, because, while I can see automation eliminating most algorithmic work, I don’t know why heuristic work is so difficult to outsource. Certainly there are local, cultural issues that would make things like advertising campaigns difficult for outsiders (and teaching would probably be hard to outsource too because most people don’t want to send their kids overseas for school), but a lot of other stuff is not that difficult for some creative person somewhere else to do; the world is, after all, Flat. Heuristic jobs are still going to be more abundant than algorithmic, but going heuristic no magic bullet: global competition is still going to be a major factor in the future.
Chapter 2
Baseline rewards: the basics people need in a job that earns them a living. Salary, a few perks, some benefits etc.
Below baseline rewards there is little motivation.
Above baseline rewards extrinsic rewards can be counterproductive.
Work vs. Play: Mark Twain: “Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.”
When rewards don’t work:
When they are expected (see also post on Praise and Rewards) (called contingent rewards). If you do this, you’ll get this, does not work.
Deci et al., 1999: “tangible rewards tend to have a substantially negative effect on intrinsic motivation.”
Since different student learn better in different ways, would it make sense to separate schools and classes by different learning styles? A countervailing argument, and the one upon which my Montessori middle school program (which is based on the Coe model) is predicated, is that students need to learn about different ways of learning and be able to interact with peers with different learning styles because creative endevours, especially in the future, will rely heavily on making connections between diverse fields and groups. The importance of having students interact in a diverse environment is particularly important if we can observe that students will, eventually, self-select in different fields based on their native talents, which are related to their learning styles. Students with a mathematical aptitude may tend to become engineers, more so than their peers.
So intellectual and cognitive diversity is important, yet the program also requires some uniformity. I’ve heard that, in general, students without experiences in Montessori-like environments can have a hard time adapting to the Montessori Middle School because we expect an awful lot of independence and time management that students are often not exposed to in traditional schools.
At any rate, accounting for learning-style diversity is essential, and sometimes I wonder if today, with so many more opportunities and temptations available for early specialization, if we’re not seeing further diversification in the cognitive continuum. What precisely is the point where students should begin to specialize. Matt Might model (pictured below) has specialization of education beginning at college, but it really starts earlier, at least in high school, but I wonder where the is the most appropriate initiation actually is. Historically, at least, kids were apprenticed at a very early age.
