R and D and Education
A recent issue of the Economist had two articles–in different sections of the magazine–that together point to the a central dilemma facing American education: the fact that we have an economic and technological advantage today, but won’t necessarily in the future. That’s why we have to think about education in new ways for a changing world.
The first article points out that American research universities are the the most desirable destination for international students looking to study abroad–often the cream of the crop of intellectual talent.
The second article is on a new OECD report:
Every year around $1 trillion is spent on research and development (R&D) in computing, telecoms and electronics; America accounts for over one-third. But while corporate R&D in America and Europe grew by 1-2% between 2001 and 2006, in China it soared 23%…. As a percentage of GDP, China’s corporate R&D spending is almost on a par with the European Union’s (around 1%).
Further:
Even the topology of the internet itself is looking less American. In 1999 around 90% of Asia’s international internet traffic passed through America; in 2008 the share dropped to 54%…. It is yet another example of how the technology industry, once dominated by America, is becoming truly global in nature.
The math isn’t hard to do after that….
Baby counting
Just a small tidbit, noted without much comment here, on early–indeed, very early–numeracy. It turns out that even a newborn baby will show increased interest in prompts (in this case cards with dots on them) where the number of stimuli changes. So cards with different numbers of dots are more interesting than cards with different placement of the same number of dots.
In other words, as Kant suggested, there may be certain categories of things (number, space, time) that we are "hard wired" to perceive.
The question, of course, in the old nature versus nurture debate, is how much hard wiring do we need to develop complex thinking? The answer is probably very little. Just enough to be able to start seeing patterns in the world around us, and, even more important, to understand that other people are using patterns to communicate with us. Much of the rest we develop through experience–we learn–by trying to do things in a world of patterns and turning to others to get help when we are stuck.
Which is, of course, why computers are so important and so powerful: they make it possible to create new (virtual) worlds with new patterns of experience. And that, in turn, is why it is important that young people have constructive experiences in dealing with these new patterns….
