Exciting Curiosity

You can learn a lot from dogs

Be More Dog! This video from O2’s recent advertising campaign sums up the whole of Exciting Curiosity’s philosophy in one minute…

As O2 say:

…you can learn a lot from dogs, to them life is amazing. Balls are amazing. Sticks are amazing. Chasing your tail is amazing… Our world is full of great technology ready and waiting for us to enjoy.

I have had the pleasure of working with a number of educators over the past few weeks, opening up the wonders of creating books, movies and music on the iPad, teaching and learning with each other using techniques previously unimaginable, and showing the wonder of iCloud to gasps of excitement and general wonder! Helping educators to ‘be more dog’ is fun, enjoyable, always entertaining, but most of all a complete pleasure.… Read more...

Keeping it simple – technology and learning

I can understand why a lot of people shy away from ‘technology’. Instead of being introduced to technology naturally, like using a device to play a game or perform a task that you know it will help with (and I mean any device, Spectrum ZX, Sega, washing machine) the first experience of computer technology for many people was because they were told to use it. Pre-iPad, the first computer experience was probably some sort of desktop computer. Their experience was of words, buttons, icons, abbreviations, menus, and all else that didn’t make immediate sense. One ‘wrong’ click was often a disaster, and for a lot of people it put them off for life. These experiences lower your self-esteem and dampen our natural curiosity – you become afraid to try anything new or push a button for fear of breaking the whole thing.

For me, the iPad changes everything. I’ve worked with a load of different technologies, and still do, but the technology that has had the greatest, most excited, most positively transformational response so far has been the iPad. Since the iPad came along I have had the joyous experience of introducing educators to ways in which this device can … Read more...

Why are there no seatbelts on a bus?

Question from 6 year old: “Why are there no seatbelts on a bus?”

Good question. I don’t know. 8 year old offers answer that because there are seatbelts on a coach but not on a bus, it must be that a bus goes slow enough that you don’t need them, because a coach can go on the motorway and so goes faster and you do need them.

Here is some information from childcarseats.org.uk:

“Buses used for public services generally do not have seat belts because their construction will not allow seat belts to be installed with adequate safety. And they are designed to carry standing passengers.” (That last sentence would match up with 8 year old’s answer…)

You can read more about how to stay safe on a bus without seatbelts here.… Read more...

Who found out that water was good for you?

Question from 8 year old: “Who found out that water was good for you?”

Good question! After discussion, we thought that it must have been since the start of time, because people would realise that when they drank water they were fine, and if they didn’t drink it they were not well. Here’s a section on the Discovery Channel about why we need to drink water. Although how did we know this at the start of time? I don’t know! Any ideas?…… Read more...

The power of a musical experience – Part 2

Friends and I were discussing yesterday how playing and experiencing music together with other people, in bands, orchestras, choirs, whatever group, is a magical experience. When I’m playing in a group I always feel that we’ve got on a train, and once it gets going we’re not stopping until we reach the end of the journey. We’re a unit, yet we’re still individuals. When we’re in that moment, we’re creating something that is so much bigger than the group. So what is that thing that makes 2+2=5? Where does the extra 1 come from?

For years now I’ve imagined that my (completely imaginary) PhD thesis would been on the phenomenon that is stadium singing. As I’ve carried this idea around with me for so long I knew it would have already been done, and a friend told me yesterday of a Coursera class in Model Thinking where these sorts of things are touched upon. (The next class starts on October 7th if you’re curious about using models to make sense of the world around us. I’ve just signed up – thanks AN, and thank you technology!) I can understand when a group of 10 or 100 people making music together … Read more...