To the Stars
Some key concepts relevant to TMA03 with referenced notes per course materials, and definitions restated in my own words…
KEY CONCEPTS (P3)
• appreciation
• appreciative systems
• boundary interactions [Read more…] about Key Concepts Relevant to TMA03
How We Find Out Things is important. Intelligence is the ability to find things out about a situation or subject, and to apply what we have previously found out to a new or novel situations or subjects.
Machine Learning does this through methods of Computational Statistics. It is powerful, but we still need to be there applying our own Intelligence & Sense-making abilities to ensure the results are logical & consistent with what we would expect.
As Ramon y Cajal, Spanish biologist and father of modern neuroscience, noted in his excellent book of advice for novice scientific researchers (1999), the key stages of a scientific investigation are (1) observation, (2) experimentation, (3) working hypotheses, and (4) proof. [Read more…] about How We Find Out Things
Some reading materials (highlighted = likely useful for TU812 TMA03):
Chapters 1-3 of A Mind for Numbers are especially helpful in providing helpful information and additional exercises related to the materials of Module 1.
A key theme of part three of the systems module TU812 is ‘learning about learning’, and this course on Coursera by Dr Barbara Oakley – which covers that from one angle – came highly recommended: http://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn. It’s subtitled ‘powerful tools to help you master tough subjects’, which is definitely the kind of help I need right now with this systems course. The MOOC course is, I believe, in the top 3 on Coursera, although it’s worth pointing out the focus is on helping you with mathematical or scientific subjects. Yet the ideas and study tips should be extendable across to more abstract and wordy subjects (the ones I struggle most with).
Two Types of Thinking: Focussed and Diffuse
If we understand something about how the brain works, we can develop and deploy strategies to help us learn more optimally. As humans we have two thinking modes – with Dr Oakley refers to as ‘focussed’ and ‘diffuse’. These are mental states where we’re, respectively, concentrating really hard on something (like reading & note-taking from a course text) or allowing our minds to wander and day-dream (which is, of course, my preferred mental state!). Another way to think of the two different states is that focussed is looking at the details (a church within the landscape), while diffuse is looking at the much bigger picture (drinking in the whole scene as far as the eye can see). [Read more…] about Learning About Learning