One of my favourite Youtubers, and someone that I have learnt a lot from is a young man called Bucky Roberts.
Bucky dropped out of college, because he found that it wasn’t for him; most likely because this way of learning did not allow him to pursue his insatiable curiosity.
After dropping out of college he became interested in computers and started to read a lot from books about the topics that interested him. During his quest for more information he realised that Youtube videos were a great learning resource that allowed him to learn faster, and this gave him the idea that he could also teach others what he knew by using this platform.
His video channel ‘The New Boston’ now has almost 4,000 videos, over 870 thousand subscribers, and over 2 million views. He is the boy who dropped out of school who now teaches the world.
I soon realized that these videos were something more than just another cat video on YouTube. They were a gateway to a higher education, for free. While Universities and Corporations were charging like crazy for people to receive an education, people could come and watch my videos and get the same information for no cost at all. I decided that this is the way it would be. An education should be free for everyone who desires one. It should not be a business. And quickly, that became my goal. (quotation source:
http://blog.briangallimore.com/2012/12/02/bucky-roberts-and-thenewboston-org/)Bucky has a very engaging and relaxed way of communicating complex concepts, so I often use his computer science videos to help my students grasp programming concepts. He has just launched a new collaborative website which houses all of his video content and other related videos on topic areas such as Computer Science, Science, Maths, etc. You may find something useful here for your classes.
One of the things that makes Bucky stand out, and one of the motivators that has allowed him to be such a productive learner is that he never stops asking himself questions. The question below is typical of one of his questions:
Does the Universe have memory?
This picture represents a single point in time. We know that the very next moment this baby will either:
· a) continue to travel up (if it has just been thrown)
· b) travel down (if it was already on the way down)
From this one picture alone, there is no way that we can tell which is going to happen. However, if we had another picture from before, then we would be able to calculate not only which direction the baby was traveling but also how far. I guess my question is this: How are objects in the Universe able to travel along such a predictable path without any knowledge of their previous location?
Bucky’s story is one that should point out to us that not everyone will fit into the traditional mould of education, and perhaps that the student who has most trouble staying in their seat may have the potential to become your most productive learner – given the right learning conditions.
This is why we need to keep asking ourselves the questions:
Are there any curiosity blockers in place in my learning environments?
How can I best fuel this student’s curiosity on this learning topic?
How can I encourage my students to ask more questions?
How does the learning within my classroom relate to the way my students learn at home?
Remember the main curiosity blockers.
If we can collectively find answers to these questions then we will be well on the road towards developing a ‘curiosity’ centred learning environment.
Information sources: http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Bucky_Roberts_%281987%29 http://blog.briangallimore.com/2012/12/02/bucky-roberts-and-thenewboston-org/ https://www.thenewboston.com/forum/topic.php?id=5822 https://www.thenewboston.com/ https://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston
The cat that lived 