Over the past few months, I've gotten a chance to participate in several learning tracks through places like Coursera, EdX, Harvard, MIT, The University of Michigan, Duke University...and several others.
The study/work has centered primarily around Front End Development. I've had forays into Python, Java, C, C++, Ruby, SQL, etc. as well. R has been a particular problem because my Statistics knowledge is a bit (okay, quite) rusty, but it's coming back slowly. It's like riding a bike, they tell me. They lie.
A bit of explanation will serve us well about here, I think. Allow me.
One of the reasons I began this journey was medical in nature. I am disabled. I am past 60 years old. This is NOT what I believe most recruiters would consider to be a "great" profile for a ... well, anything. Strokes and heart attacks and blood clots, OH MY!
Strokes. Stick a pin in that.
The only recognizable consequence of having had a CVA (Cardio Vascular Accident, aka stroke) is that I no longer possess much short term memory. My brain and my body both betrayed me at about the same time. I have been and remain determined to do as much as possible to correct that particular problem by challenging myself to A: Increase my short term memory (learning can be great for that!) and B: Refrain from throwing bricks through my television set as I watch the news.
Stress is my enemy.
Learning is not, nor has it ever been stressful for me; it has been liberating. Learning is, for me, great fun. So is teaching others.
Looking at the profile, and desiring to use this "borrowed" time to the greatest benefit, I have pursued what was for me a new area of learning endeavor: Data Science.
It has taken just a bit of a jaunt towards web development. Putting small pieces together into a recognizable whole IS the purpose of Data Science. Web Development has this same expected outcome.
Recently, I heard about a unique teaching paradigm, and a very unique learning paradigm that goes with it. I was surprised only in that the educational institutions I have created in my lifetime, whether "brick and mortar" or exclusively online learning experiences for others have followed a similar paradigm that many have found preposterous: right up until you measure the quality of the teaching, the learning, and the result in successful student graduates. For many years, it was a fool's errand according to my fellow educators.
My educational "philosophy" is one of social constructivism. If you follow the link, you will find a mostly readable explanation of the concept.
In it's most fundamental form, social constructivism is an educational philosophy that says that students learn something new best when they begin from where they currently exist (The usual model begins learning with an "empty vessel" approach: a bucket to be filled.) from many perspectives: socially, educationally, etc. This also includes experientially. Students coming into a new learning experience, or a new learning environment (adult online education, for instance) fear a lot of things, even as they bring an entire toolbox they trust with them. Why not use it? I believe we should whenever possible engage students as fellow participants on a shared journey that they control, not me. That is, in a very severe nutshell, social constructivism. Perhaps you can see the obstacles for acceptance in the formal educational world. Why does this matter? To me? Now?
If I am to see the result I seek, it will ONLY be through an educational experience based upon a foundation of social constructivism: I am their poster child. How does one ever hope to find such a paradigm in such a structured world as the world of Computer Science generally, and Data Science specifically? Hopeless, right?
Pretty much, until about two years ago. Then this "new" educational philosophy started gaining traction. The primary reason that became true had to do with the result the paradigm yielded: Successful learning leading to some truly phenomenal results. I'm proud to say that my work saw a much larger than usual percentage of them across the board with "my" students. I spent 20 years proving this paradigm for myself (and others), and have become convinced of it's success.
Meanwhile, the educational dilemma was sweeping the nation. Budget cuts, closures, horrific test results all played an important role. My educational products had none of these difficulties. I (and my companies) were paid extremely well, mind you. My fellow teachers bought into the concept (which is why they worked with me), my students not only excelled IN class, but they excelled, as graduates in their chosen fields of endeavor. Immensely. Writing students became, for instance, published authors, poets, screenwriters, journalists, bloggers, etc.
Suddenly, I had a desperate need to become just such a student if my life was to have value as I described it. My journey through several institutional offering were, at best, a hybrid of the old with the new. This while faculties and administrators wrestled with the fears of insignificance, rising costs, etc. The idea of the "flipped" classroom, once novel, suddenly became the norm. Distance learning became a successful strategy when everyone involved gave it a fair shot. Every organization I listed at the beginning of this harangue was one I experienced mostly, if not entirely from the confines of my home office, and that purely from necessity.
I was, am and will always be an enthusiastic and highly motivated learner--and teacher. One of the companies within The kybudman Group is, in fact, a learning institution specifically designed for the adult learner in an exclusively online presence. Don't tell me what I cannot do. Get out of my way; I'm busy doing it! Yes, even now.
I have been introduced to an extremely bold, and quite exclusive learning opportunity that will, I fully believe, take me a very long way toward my goal of becoming a successful data scientist. More about that in my next post.
I think this is huge. I think you will think it is huge, too when you learn about it.
Stay strong!
Bud
