Instead of starting with the very basics of a subject and working up, why not start with something more complex and work backwards? For the most part, the really interesting aspects of a subject are the more advanced aspects.
Equations of current and suchlike ARE pretty boring, even if you are a maths wizard. A robot that rolls around the floor of its own accord is not.
The nature of nouns, verbs, the rules of grammar, is boring. Reading an exciting novel is not.
If "advanced" is the state you would like to reach, it makes perfect sense to immerse yourself in advanced knowledge from the word go. Even if you don't understand it, it is still exposing and getting you used to these ideas, so they won't come of so much as a shock. Certainly, exposure to the *results* of these ideas (e.g. an interesting robot, a great novel) provides you with the inspiration to gain and learn the knowledge, and instills you with the desire to achieve great things of your own.
So how about teaching from the top down?
For example, in a basic electronics course, don't start with the theories and equations. Instead, take a pre built circuit, that actually does something *interesting*. Perhaps a simple wall following robot. Take apart its systems, analyse them in detail, and learn about the various components with respect to the *interesting* working example.
Spending hours on a single piece of electronics might get boring; maybe learn one part in detail, then move onto another gadget to learn another aspect, with a brief overview of each system.
The basics of anything are generally boring, we don't learn for the sake of learning, we learn to achieve a goal or master an art. A pure focus on the tedious basics can crush creativity and put people off learning.
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My personal experience:
1) years of school/university (why bottom up learning is often boring)
2) learning in my own free time (why top down learning is interesting)
I'll expand a little more on (2). As a teenager, I wanted to make computer games, and found the idea of robots and artificial intelligence fascinating.
When I decided to make a computer game, I didn't start off by reading about data types, program flow control, complexity theory. I simply searched until I found a computer programming package orientated towards games, dipped into some tutorials, looked at the source code of the included example games, and started MAKING A GAME!
Of course, the computer code I wrote was badly written, the game had bugs, wasn't all that fun, and in some parts blatantly copy and pasted from other people's code. That was only to be expected. But I was learning.
I kept this up for a few years, finding a goal I wanted to achieve, and through the process of achieving that goal I was forced to research and learn new things.
There tends to be a lot of people in the computer industry with similar experiences. I guess because it's quite a cheap hobby: no expensive resources are required to learn computer skills other than a computer (which most people have anyway) and an internet connection (and time!). In contrast, my interest in robotics has not been developed much: servo motors and microcontrollers cost money!
Equations of current and suchlike ARE pretty boring, even if you are a maths wizard. A robot that rolls around the floor of its own accord is not.
The nature of nouns, verbs, the rules of grammar, is boring. Reading an exciting novel is not.
If "advanced" is the state you would like to reach, it makes perfect sense to immerse yourself in advanced knowledge from the word go. Even if you don't understand it, it is still exposing and getting you used to these ideas, so they won't come of so much as a shock. Certainly, exposure to the *results* of these ideas (e.g. an interesting robot, a great novel) provides you with the inspiration to gain and learn the knowledge, and instills you with the desire to achieve great things of your own.
So how about teaching from the top down?
For example, in a basic electronics course, don't start with the theories and equations. Instead, take a pre built circuit, that actually does something *interesting*. Perhaps a simple wall following robot. Take apart its systems, analyse them in detail, and learn about the various components with respect to the *interesting* working example.
Spending hours on a single piece of electronics might get boring; maybe learn one part in detail, then move onto another gadget to learn another aspect, with a brief overview of each system.
The basics of anything are generally boring, we don't learn for the sake of learning, we learn to achieve a goal or master an art. A pure focus on the tedious basics can crush creativity and put people off learning.
...
My personal experience:
1) years of school/university (why bottom up learning is often boring)
2) learning in my own free time (why top down learning is interesting)
I'll expand a little more on (2). As a teenager, I wanted to make computer games, and found the idea of robots and artificial intelligence fascinating.
When I decided to make a computer game, I didn't start off by reading about data types, program flow control, complexity theory. I simply searched until I found a computer programming package orientated towards games, dipped into some tutorials, looked at the source code of the included example games, and started MAKING A GAME!
Of course, the computer code I wrote was badly written, the game had bugs, wasn't all that fun, and in some parts blatantly copy and pasted from other people's code. That was only to be expected. But I was learning.
I kept this up for a few years, finding a goal I wanted to achieve, and through the process of achieving that goal I was forced to research and learn new things.
There tends to be a lot of people in the computer industry with similar experiences. I guess because it's quite a cheap hobby: no expensive resources are required to learn computer skills other than a computer (which most people have anyway) and an internet connection (and time!). In contrast, my interest in robotics has not been developed much: servo motors and microcontrollers cost money!
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