‘Five Minds for the Future’ by Howard Garder

When you look into the future what do you think about? How do you see yourself? How has the world changed – for better or for worse? Personally, I know that I wouldn’t have thought about the types of mindsets that are needed for the eras to come, and this is where Garder is introduced. He delves into the world of unpacking the five mindsets that you will need and should develop if you want to thrive into the future.

1. A disciplined mind: A mode of cognition that characterises a specific scholarly discipline, craft or profession. This mindset knows how to work steadily over time to improve one’s skill set and understandings. This is all about training to perfect a skill.
2. Synthesising mind: Takes information from disparate sources and goes on to further understand and evaluate that information objectively. This mindset will become more and more crucial as the amount of information we come into contact with rises substantially.
3. Creating mind: Puts forward new ideas, asks unfamiliar questions, conjures up new ways of thinking, which brings them to unexpected answers.
4. Respectful mind: Welcomes differences between human individuals and between human groups.
5. Ethical mind: Ponders the nature of one’s work, and the needs and desires of the society in which we live (These last two mindsets deals with our relations to other human beings).

The reading goes onto explore these mindsets in education, suggesting how imperative it is to have the correct foundations, for people to build on these mindsets and become the minds of the future – ready for what is to come.

Gardner states, “We should be concerned with how to nurture these minds in the younger generation, those who are being educated currently to become the leaders of tomorrow”. This quote links me to the Media 6 report topic that my group chose: Developing the future of augmented reality through education. Our report constantly unpacked new teaching methods and learning outcomes, and this reading made me think about how these mindsets could potentially be taught through this technology and have a greater impact. My report focused on children learning their materials through Augmented reality, and this having profound effects on not only the child, but also the teachers and parents. This is acting as a domino effect. What if these mindsets could be developing throughout their learning environments, preparing them for the future through augmented reality. This reading suggests that the building blocks to these five mindsets need to be taught in educational institutions for a successful future for individuals, and the report shows how young children grasping their learning materials through augmented reality at a young age are showing higher engagement levels, and more positive outcomes for their future in learning. Are these mindsets easily taught in regular school environments? Maybe because this idea is differentiated from the rest, working the mind with the technologies of the future, will only positively impact the minds needed to thrive in this new digital age upon us. 

Judy Wajcman writes a piece relating to the idea of lost time. I am constantly relating with idea of time escaping us, not enough hours in a day to finish what we set out to do, life can be so fast-paced, and if you stop you will get left behind. This reading illustrates ways of slow and fast time and what that means within our technologically driven society.

It suggests that computerisation, telecommunications and transport has been linked to the growing sense of time pressure, and life seems to be so much more rushed. All you have to do is stand on the corner of La Trobe street and Swanston street and you will be in the middle of a technological stampede. People walking, running, shoving, all in a hurry to be somewhere but never looking up from their phones to get from point A to point B. “We live in an acceleration society in which technological acceleration produces an ever-faster pace of life”.

As we all ponder the ways of time (how can we manage it, how can we make it stop, how can we have more of it), the reading suggests that the key to understanding this complex relationship between technology and time is the concept of temporal sovereignty – and this gives us the ability to allocate your own time. You would think that maybe you just have to turn your phones off, or put away your laptop for the night, however Wajcman states that instead of going on this digital detox diet to actually embrace “the emancipatory potential of technoscience to create new meanings and new worlds, while at the same time being its chief critic”.

This digital age provides society to rethink the standardised terms of the ideal work-life balance, with the relationship between “technological change and temporality is always dialectical: the simultaneous production of fast time spaces with those of remarkable slowness”. It suggests that their is a disjunction between the cultural allure of speed, and our experiences of always feeling rushed. Technology is suggested to be aided society in a way that progress us into the future of the digital age, and it is not actually out to defeat us. I am not sure what side of the fence I am on with this.

‘So good they can’t ignore you’ by Cal Newport

As I am writing this I am quite inspired, just the way Newport was inspired by the musician and the comedian. People are always telling you do something that you love and you will never work a day in your life again, or always do what you love and don’t settle for anything else. I agree with the reading when it suggests that this just invites unhappiness and ambiguity to the lives of those thinking or being told this. It is a way for people to be always looking out for what they love, and if they don’t love it they become unhappy very quickly. It is constantly confusing you and what you want to do with your life, or what you are put on this earth to do. You are constantly asking who you are, and what you think you should be doing. Sometimes, this can set you up for disappointment. I have read this piece and have gone away changing my mindset, especially in my final semester at university. I get quite anxious as to what I want to do and what I love, so that I can decide my career path. I am constantly asking myself who am I?

There are two types of mindsets, the craftsmen mindset and the passion mindset. The craftsmen one is about focusing on what you value you’re producing in your job. Stop focusing on the little details and focus instead of becoming better. If someone keeps thinking how can they better themselves, people are going to come to you. This mindset is the foundation for creating work you love according to Newport and is about what you can offer the world. The one quote that stood out the most was “BE SO GOOD THEY CAN’T IGNORE YOU”. It is so competitive out there and it is one of the things that frightens me the most. Why should someone choose to employ me over someone else, well the quote above is why. This is a great motivation to be the best, not necessarily in the eyes of others, but how you see yourself.

The passion mindset is about people thriving by focusing on the question of who they are, and connecting that to what they love most. It is based on what the world can offer you. It seems to communicate that you need to find something you love doing and you will be forever happy. But for people that don’t find this straight away it can be confusing and disheartening. People are constantly in search for who they are, myself included, and sometimes you are left not knowing anything.

Cal Newport sums up this reading by saying you adopt the craftsmen mindset first and then the passion follows. This is something to always remember.

Bower. M, Howe. C, McCredie. N, Robinson. A &  Grover. D 2014, ‘Augmented Reality in Education – cases, places and potentials’, Educational Media International, Vol 51, No 1, Routeledge

This paper was originally already annotated to focus on the educational side of augmented reality technology. The research that was conducted within the group diverted the focus in the direction of student created technologies which this article evaluates and has evidence to support the positive benefits and feedback from its findings. The data was conducted by having students from year 8 through to year 11 participate in an Innovations Centre Project that aimed at exploring augmented reality and its potential in education. In preparation to this task students took part in an introductory workshop that involved a background overview of augmented reality, examples of how it could be used and a technical explanation. The students spent four days designing and developing their augmented reality experiences under the supervision of their teachers. There were various outcomes of what the student’s outcomes were, those being: the interface design enabled users to tap on different overlays that were strategically placed around the artwork, where the user can then find out about history, materials and designs; and the other one looked at the emotional relationships with the aim being to create an experience that represented the mysterious, intriguing and spiritual nature of the artwork. These are all examples that will be closely looked at when writing the final report. It is a new path to look at, investigating how education is positively or negatively impacted by students designing the future of their learning outcomes. This paper investigates the idea of giving this creative reign on students and allowing them to engage with the materials they are learning about, and how they can connect with these materials on a more intimate level.

Agarwal. C & Thakur. N 2014, ‘The Evolution and Future Scope of Augmented Reality’, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Vol 11, Issue 6, No 1, India 

This paper evaluates the research being done within Augmented Reality, suggesting new ways of partnering this with technology in day-to-day tasks. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using this technology, and how various fields, including education, are already using Augmented reality. It suggests that “augmented reality enables computer generated virtual imagery to exactly overlay physical real world objects in real time”. Argarwal and Thakur outline the history and trends of augmented reality which is beneficial information towards the group report, giving us background facts and data. This piece holds information that will be used to develop the main ideas of the report, with the section of enabling technologies being the key points. After explaining this, the paper looks at display technologies being a limiting factor in the development of augmented reality systems. There has been no successful attempts at this, which is vital information that the group needs to know. Looking at education in the article, it suggests that augmented reality applications can supplement a standard curriculum with elements such as text and audio being available to students through the technology. The limitations however are the portability and outdoor use, tracking and calibration, latency, depth perception, data density, social acceptance and adaptation and long-term use. To have the ability to transform disciplines such as education, augmented reality must push past these limitations in order to be successful. These are things that the report will be looking at closely. This article explores in depth evaluations of different displays, the tracking techniques (tracking user’s viewing orientation), user interface and interaction, existing applications, the development of new applications and the limitations of augmented reality technologies.

‘The Informal Media Economy’ by Ramon Lobato and Julian Thomas is an eye opening insight into the media industry and future employment. Coming into the final semester and reading a piece like this is scary, it is unsettling knowing that there is two sides to the industry – the pretty and the not so pretty. Looking at media from the outside there seems to be this gloss about it, people only seeing the glitz and the glamour, however for many people involved in the labour of production and distribution, it is all relatively repetitive, lowly paid and informal work – which means it has a real downside. I saw this when I was working with a magazine for work experience. I love collecting magazines and reading them – the glossy covers the clean pages throughout – however when I worked for them, the gloss disappeared very quickly. You see what goes on behind the scenes, the declines, the stress, the pressure of creating something amazing every time you write. These accusations in the reading however, seem to just apply to freelancers, going from job to job.

A big section of this reading was the creative labour debate as there is an increasingly prominent concern for media research. “A growing academic literature has explored current working practices in cultural and media industries  building on longer traditions of labour analysis from the political economy of communication tradition, economic geography and areas of social science”. The reading talks about the people that are most affected by these concerns, which are the ground level employees, the ones at the bottom of the food chain. It is strong awareness that separates the ‘gloss’ of a creative lifestyle or career from the reality of working within the industries everyday. It goes on to talk about many young hopefuls wanting to get a job at the end of their degree but can’t, because people give them work experience with misleading acquisitions or with no intention to hire them again. Some may go months and months without seeing a source of payment, which can be hard – and very unsatisfying when you start venturing out into your chosen career path. This reading was in ways difficult to understand, scary to read the facts about employment within the media industry, but it also just reiterated the points that I somewhat had already gathered.

One:

Bower. M, Howe. C, McCredie. N, Robinson. A & Grover. D 2014, ‘Augmented Reality in Education – cases, places and potentials’, Educational Media International, Vol 51, No 1, Routeledge

The article ‘Augmented reality in Education – cases, places and potentials’ discusses the idea of augmented reality transforming the future for education. It defines the idea of augmented technologies as being real time and virtual objects to coexist in the same space while being interacted with. The evidence suggests that augmented reality “is having immense potential to enhance learning and teaching”. This paper supports the basis of the report as background evidence and research, as it looks at the combination of virtual and real world environments with education. After going into detail about the hardware requirements of augmented reality, the authors explore the topic of interest to the group. They discuss the emerging educational apps using this technology, where teachers can create unique integrated experiences in their classrooms. When the article addresses augmented reality in literature is where the main points have been taken out to help form the basis of the report. It suggests by having this technology in the classroom it will increase student motivation, the contribution between students and their learning outcomes, and the positive effect it is having on their perceived relevance of learning in everyday life. This information enhances the thoughts, concerns and future possibilities with this technology. The literature outlines the pedagogies that it supports, those being constructivist, situated, games-based and enquiry-based learning. In conclusion, this reference indicates how educators are providing their students with new and innovative learning experiences; augmented reality develops and supports lower and higher order thinking skills; and that the utilisation of this technology develops the growth of student thinking capabilities.

Two:

Nincarean. D, Ali. M, Halim. N & Rahman. M 2013, ‘Mobile Augmented Reality: the potential for education’, Department of Educational Sciences, Elsevier Ltd

‘Mobile Augmented Reality: the potentials for education’ reviews the rapid evolution of technology, and the role of Augmented Reality as one of the newest ways to educate. Exploring the ideas of the increasingly widespread technologies, the authors acknowledge the benefits of mobile learning and augmented reality applications. The article dissects the term augmented reality and how it works in conjunction with mobile devices. It is suggested as a “form of virtual reality where the participant’s display is transparent, allowing a clear view of the real world”. The article describes this technology as a physical world feature combined with computer-generated information. As the digital age advances, people are adopting new technologies into educational environments, trying to promote a more cohesive and innovative learning experience. This paper will not be a main point of reference for the report, but will form a basis of pivotal information about augmented reality influencing educational practices. The authors quote “with capabilities of merging virtual and real worlds together have given birth to new possibilities in improving the quality of teaching and learning activity”. This technology is shown to have a positive impact on students, boosting their motivation to understand the content being taught. This article joins the fastest growing technology – the mobile phone – with augmented reality, suggesting that mobile phones play an important role in modern education. This is seemingly the case when we live in such a technologically driven world. This is where the author introduces the idea of MAR (Mobile Augmented Reality), which is leading further into the studies we wish to pursue through the mobile phone in classrooms and the future of learning outcomes.

Three:

Huang. TC, Chen. CC, Chou. YW 2016, ‘Animating eco-education: To see, feel and discover in an augmented reality-based experiential learning environment’, Department of Information Management, Taiwan

This article offers research and evidence supporting augmented reality inside and outside classrooms throughout different educational fields. The research was conducted on a class learning about the environment where “the use of attractive technologies increases students’ willingness not only to learn more about the environment, but to also develop a more positive emotional attachment to it”. This paper writes a detailed and relevant description of the miscommunicated educational information to the real world and the lack of attachments students can have with it (resulting from technology). The authors set out to bring technology and education together as one through augmented reality. This paper will not be a significant research point for the report, however will create a steady point of view towards our argument. This development has lead to further research regarding innovative teaching and learning methods. The article suggests “the integration of digital learning with convenient and fast internet technology has further lowered the barrier of differentiated teaching and helped to overcome time and space constraints in traditional teaching models”. This theory is explained to express the strength real-world exploration has when it adopts the augmented reality technology. This article is effective by introducing the Kolb’s experiential learning theory, where the authors suggest that experience is an activity when people can create and reflect on their personal experiences. This theory relates to the final report and adds another dimension to the reasoning behind augmented reality being introduced to classrooms. The feedback from the students and teachers in the paper is that future work should apply this new teaching model as it receives positive results. In conclusion, “the lack of real-world interactions and exploration makes it difficult for students to develop an emotional attachment or interest”. This paper has suggested various arguments as to why augmented reality is becoming more innovative and accessible in the education department.