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Active and Passive Idleness

The pleasures of urban populations have become mainly passive: seeing cinemas, watching football matches, listening to the radio, and so on. This results from the fact that their active energies are fully taken up with work; if they had more leisure, they would again enjoy pleasures in which they took an active part.

In Praise of Idleness, Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell wrote on the use of idle time in 1932. Back then there wasn’t even television or the Internet. Nevertheless, people still seemed to find plenty of ‘passive’ activities to fill their time. What would Bertrand write now? Almost 90 years after In Praise of Idleness, the options of ‘passive’ activities to spend our leisure time have grown exponentially. We watch reality shows, read status updates on social media, follow influencers, read about the lives of celebrities, and so on. Passive pleasures. We are mere spectators of what other people are doing and creating. We are professional watchers. [Read more…] about Active and Passive Idleness

Online Learning Is Here to Stay

By Walter Freiberg

Online learning is not the next big thing, it is the now big thing.

Donna J. Abernathy

As many other authors and specialists, Abernathy claims that online learning is here to stay. But, what is exactly online learning? And, is it as effective as offline learning?

In this post, I’ll try to answer these questions and share my position in favor of this new way of learning.

A Species of Learners

First of all, let us put this clear: the human species is a species of learners. One of our unique traits is our ability to learn and master different skills. We enjoy learning, and we’re always looking for ways of doing it faster and better. That’s exactly what makes us explore new creative ways of learning, sharing, and teaching.

We’ve been improving and refining our educational methods since always. We can’t help it. As soon as we create something new or develop a new technology, we use that to improve our educational efforts. [Read more…] about Online Learning Is Here to Stay

How to Become a Genius

By Walter Freiberg

Imagine you had a superpower to learn and master anything you want: a language, a musical instrument or any other skill. What would you choose? Think for a moment. What would you learn if you were talented enough if you had whatever it takes to get really good at anything you choose? What if it were possible for you to become a genius?

We’ve been told that geniuses are born like that. We’ve heard so many times that talent is innate: you either have it or you don’t. Is this really the case? Many learning specialists affirm it’s quite the opposite. They say that talent is the result of a lot of hard work and good practice throughout many years. In this article, I will share with you some facts and data to prove this point: that it is possible to become a genius. [Read more…] about How to Become a Genius