Figuring Things Out

Professor Eleonor Dockworth, cognitive psychologist and pedagogue, describes learning in a perfect Deweyian manner: "figuring things out".

We all shouldn't forget that figure is synonym of design, so to figure out (which means understanding, learning, thinking) means in some way designing, designing in our minds. Any more proofs needed of the connection between designing and learning?

¿Occupy Harvard?

Economic students walked out a class at Harvard in solidarity with the Occupy Movement. It is normal that the students, who are going to live gloomy lives thanks to it, feel uneasy with the promotion of principles that have cause current global crisis. But that is not that clear.

The faculty chosen as a target was professor N. Gregory Mankiw, a New Keynesian economist that advised George Bush and has written some of the most important text books on the subject. University politics are always unpredictable. Not so long ago, Harvard Crimson celebrated the return of former president Larry Summers, previously fired for sexism, and one of the main responsible for laissez-faire fever. Now, a Keynesian gets the punch. In a previous post (The responsibility of Number One) I compared the reaction of the London School of Economics and Harvard in front of ethically controversial cases. It's in Spanish here.

In spite all the trouble this event may cause, it is encouraging that Harvard students think that "Harvard students will not do that anymore. We will use our education for good, and not for personal gain at the expense of millions." Here is the link to the news by the Universtity of Phoenix and here by Harvard Crimson.

Learning Revolution at Harvard

The only way to go ahead changes is improving learning.

Harvard, again, has taken the lead: transversal knowledge among the whole university, ICT, Mobile Learning, etc. It is not just a matter of having funds: those 40 million dollars could have been spent in so many fashionable items far away from pedagogy.

Responsabilidad de los Nº 1

Es llamativa la diferencia entre Harvard y la London School of Economics a la hora de afrontar sus reponsabilidades como institución.

Al expresidente de Harvard, Larry Summers, expulsado por sexista ("diferencias innatas") y máximo responsable de la política de desregulación que ha llevado al desastre económico actual, le han devuelto su cátedra y le alaban sus brabuconadas. En la LSE, el director dimite para no perjudicar la imagen de la escuela con sus asesoramientos a Gadafi.

Mi idea de cómo las instituciones punteras deben afrontar éticamente la crisis que necesariamente contribuyeron a crear va más por lo que hacen los británicos: "I do beg your pardon". En el este link está la carta de renuncia de Sir Davies así como la reacción de la LSE a su implicación con el déspota libio. Por otro lado, tenemoa lo que sigue que es lo que dijo en su día Summers cuando se cargó el New Deal de Roosevelt (Ley Glass-Steagall) en 1999 cuando era Secretario del Tesoro de Clinton:

“ Hoy el Congreso ha votado a favor de actualizar las normas que rigen los servicios financieros desde la Gran Depresión y reemplazarlas con un sistema apto para el siglo XXI. Esta ley de dimensiones históricas ayudará a las empresas estadounidenses a competir mejor en la nueva economía”

El The Harvard Crimson recoge y celebra la vuelta de Summers con "ambos pies sobre el escritorio". Finalmente, este último link recoge de que va eso de montar las patas sobre la mesa: se trata de testosterona, de sentirse poderoso, de apostar "doble o nada" (con nuestro dinero, claro) ...

Master de Arquitectura de Michigan Nº 1

El Máster de arquitectura de Taubman College ha desbancado a la GSD de Harvard, y su decana, Monica Ponce de León está en la lista de las 25 personas que mejor enseñan y dirigen en USA.

La GSD no se ha dormido en los laureles y ya había contratado a Moshen Mostafavi, cabeza clara donde las haya, para enderezar el rumbo de la coleccíon de estrellas de Cambridge. Todo esta información proviene de Designinteligence, que habla de la "promesa por confirmar" que es la nueva IE School of Architecture.

Está claro que la competencia en el ámbito académico, como el dinamismo, se demuestra andando.

Smart Power

This 18' talk of ex-dean of Harvard Government School is cheering up. We need certain amount of optimism also to keep us going. The main message: yes we can do something.

Crisis in Slow Motion

Crisis is not over, it does not matter what politicians keep on saying around the world. For example, banks are going to give the biggest bonus ever: after all, their executives made them win tons of money without big punishments from the government or the public. The news at The Guardian confirms this.

On the other hand, the bests universities have also their responsibilities in all this madness. Larry Summers is an example of the connexions between Academia, Wall Street and Government: the news at The Chronicle confirms this too.

Neither universities, nor great business schools, have given any explanation about their complicity, maybe because it is taking place right now, almost in slow motion.

Gastronomy and creativity

elBulli, the best restaurant in the world for the 5th time consecutive is not so because it does better what others do, but because it does totally new things: it investigates in pure creativity. In that sense we all can profit from the way Ferran Adria and his team work. They have a list of 23 principles in their Synthesis of elBulli Cuisine which could be subscribed by everyone involved in creative tasks. Harvard has seen the technical side of it. Maybe the creative stand, clear when one learns about the whole history of the restaurant and its research, is a much more coherent interest with an activity pleasure oriented as molecular gastronomy. True progress (because it articulates harmoniously contradictory aspects of the human being) has appeared when we all thought it was dead in a new form of art: gastronomy.