Marcus' i+1 Journal

[Marcus]

Bottom post of the previous page:

I do like the Explorers Encyclopedia as a means of connecting information together, it is a different direction than what I had thought to go in. Having such a communally curated source does remind me of wikipedia, but this would be a little different since it isn't just text articles. What I was thinking of when I was talking about the issues with just reading a textbook is the fact that textbooks have to be extremely broad to be as applicable to as many people as possible. This is especially true with the more technically complex areas of study. For example, in the area of Molecular Biology, even the most basic sounding of processes can involve a myriad of steps that must be understood to truly grasp exactly what is occurring. On the other hand, Not everyone needs to know everything about everything that occurs in every part of every cell at every time during the development and lifetime of an organism. One thing that I think would be really cool gets back to gamifying knowledge. If we had a digital game representation of a highly detailed compendium of technical and scientific knowledge it would be rather difficult to navigate in much the same way that traditional textbooks can be difficult to navigate. One solution to such a problem would be to devise a system by which one could plot a course through the dungeon, so to speak. For example, if one wishes to investigate something like, for example, adult onset diabetes, one would need just a few pieces of information to start: What one already knows about the subjects and the endpoint one would need to reach in order to fully understand the specifics of diabetes. A quick query would reveal to the student that diabetes is a disease resulting from insensitivity to insulin that can lead to damage in the islet cells responsible for producing insulin. In this case our digital representation of knowledge is associated with a virtual world of interconnected areas, each of which focuses on specific topics and which may be traversed and interacted with to gain a better understanding of the topics themselves. Since the topics connect to one another in a logical manner we can create a map that would function in a way analogous to the table of contents of a textbook. The benefit to the digital approach over that of a textbook is that with the textbook the information is laid out in a linear fashion from front to back, with a fairly definite order defined within. In the case of a textbook a new student may end up going through the entire book when they really only need to go through 4 chapters, but with a digital world that has multiple paths one could take it would be intuitively possible for one to take the starting and ending point and then work backwards from the end point to determine which path to take by focusing on the topics that one must grasp in order to be able to comprehend the knowledge presented there. That is to say, since new discoveries in science and our understanding of the natural world builds upon previous discoveries, we can look to the prerequisites to understand the most complicated topics to determine what we would need to learn immediately before the end of the journey and so on, until one arrives at the point where the student currently is. As for yesterday, I did a good amount of study again, but did a little more molec bio than linear algebra, so I am going to try and aim for a more even balance today.

[Marcus]

I thought I had submitted a post yesterday, but I guess I didn't actually hit post. I managed to get some work done and have some good discussions, so overall, not bad! The day before that I got even more stuff done before getting tired of working at around 23:30!

[Marcus]

Yesterday I ended up making less progress than I have normally been making on account of a minor mathematical error. Luckily I was able to figure it out and understand why I got it wrong, so I can't completely write off any progress I made!

[Marcus]

Yesterday went well, I managed to get through multiple sections in each textbook despite both being fairly informationally dense! I am sure it will only get easier from here, right?

[Teacher]

Communally-Curated Encyclopedia
I do like the Explorers Encyclopedia as a means of connecting information together, it is a different direction than what I had thought to go in. Having such a communally curated source does remind me of wikipedia, but this would be a little different since it isn't just text articles.


Issues w/ Current Knowledge Acquirement
What I was thinking of when I was talking about the issues with just reading a textbook is the fact that textbooks have to be extremely broad to be as applicable to as many people as possible. This is especially true with the more technically complex areas of study.

For example, in the area of Molecular Biology, even the most basic sounding of processes can involve a myriad of steps that must be understood to truly grasp exactly what is occurring.
On the other hand, not everyone needs to know everything about everything that occurs in every part of every cell at every time during the development and lifetime of an organism.

Gamify Example: Learning About Adult On-Set Diabetes
Plot A Course Through a Dungeon
1) One would need just a few pieces of information to start:
A) What one already knows about the subjects
B) What endpoint of knowledge you want to get to about the subject

2)
A) Starting Point: Diabetes Is A Disease
B) End Point: How Is It Caused and What Does it Cause?

Your Journey Takes You To:
How: Resulting from insensitivity to insulin
What: That can lead to damage in the islet cells responsible for producing insulin

a virtual world of interconnected areas, each of which focuses on specific topics and which may be traversed and interacted with to gain a better understanding of the topics themselves.

Create a map -> ala table of contents of a textbook.

+textbook the information is laid out in a linear fashion from front to back
-May end up going through the entire book when they really only need to go through 4 chapter

+with a digital world that has multiple paths
-the starting point
-the ending point
-work backwards to determine which path to take

[Marcus]

Communally-Curated Encyclopedia
I do like the Explorers Encyclopedia as a means of connecting information together, it is a different direction than what I had thought to go in. Having such a communally curated source does remind me of wikipedia, but this would be a little different since it isn't just text articles.


Issues w/ Current Knowledge Acquirement
What I was thinking of when I was talking about the issues with just reading a textbook is the fact that textbooks have to be extremely broad to be as applicable to as many people as possible. This is especially true with the more technically complex areas of study.
.
.
.
-the ending point
-work backwards to determine which path to take

Oh man, much obliged! That is much easier to digest and very clearly highlights exactly what I was trying to say. Sometimes I have ideas and go to write them out and end up with a fairly dense block of text that is not necessarily that easy to approach, but the formatting you did there really makes it pop! I will be attempting to write out more ideas or expand upon them here as I do my journal updates to keep from losing them! Yesterday was fairly difficult to get enough stuff done, I ended up spending a lot of time reading, but didn't get much out of it as a whole.

[Marcus]

Yesterday I managed to get quite a bit of reading done once more, but I did end up getting bogged down by the extreme number of details in some of these sections. I really should work on getting better at identifying sections I do not need to thoroughly investigate!

[Teacher]

Communally-Curated Encyclopedia
I do like the Explorers Encyclopedia as a means of connecting information together, it is a different direction than what I had thought to go in. Having such a communally curated source does remind me of wikipedia, but this would be a little different since it isn't just text articles.


Issues w/ Current Knowledge Acquirement
What I was thinking of when I was talking about the issues with just reading a textbook is the fact that textbooks have to be extremely broad to be as applicable to as many people as possible. This is especially true with the more technically complex areas of study.
.
.
.
-the ending point
-work backwards to determine which path to take

Oh man, much obliged! That is much easier to digest and very clearly highlights exactly what I was trying to say. Sometimes I have ideas and go to write them out and end up with a fairly dense block of text that is not necessarily that easy to approach, but the formatting you did there really makes it pop! I will be attempting to write out more ideas or expand upon them here as I do my journal updates to keep from losing them! Yesterday was fairly difficult to get enough stuff done, I ended up spending a lot of time reading, but didn't get much out of it as a whole.

Yep, I am the same way!

And it was such a great idea I thought it deserved a breakdown so that we could better remember it and implement it!

Maybe you should cross post it to the App sub-forum so it doesn't get lost amongst your posts here?

Also: what would you recommend to read as a primer to a molecular bio noob like myself?

[Marcus]

I definitely will consider doing a cross-post so as to keep it from disappearing! If you want a really basic primer that is fairly easy to read (since it is in comic book form) there is always the manga guide to molecular biology, I can help you find it if you want.

[Marcus]

I have not been as academically productive this week as I was last week, however I have also been spending quite a bit of time working on cars, so I guess it all averages out! Tomorrow I should be able to finish car work and then get back to focusing on solidifying knowledge!

[Marcus]

I made some progress yesterday, finishing up two sections, and then managed to finish the vast majority of all car work today as well as managing to get in a couple sections of reading!