Curiosity and Learning (and Robots!)
I came across an interesting article the other day when I was Googling the word "Curiosity" because, well, what better way to use Google than to just type in a word and see what you get? It was published in a Web Magazine called Nautilus. The title is "Curiosity Depends on What You Already Know," but what grabbed my attention was the title it showed up under in my Google search results: "Robots and Babies Both Use Curiosity to Learn."
How awesome is that?
I teach a Web Development Bootcamp, and one of the things I stress to my students is my absolute belief in the power of curiosity. The article puts curiosity on par with hunger, thirst and sex drive as a driving motivation for doing the things we do -- despite the fact that there is no extrinsic reward associated with is as there is with eating, drinking and procreating.
Apparently, it's quite common for animals to trade rewards for information -- that is, given a verdant environment filled with food and drink and potential mates, they will venture out from that ideal patch of resources to discover what else is out there.
The part about babies and robots explains how babies' attentions are drawn to events that are familiar, but not too familiar. When presented with an option of viewing something that is more likely to be surprising, they are drawn to that rather than something more predictable. I won't try to explain all the details of how they determined that, read the article!
A researcher applied those same principles to teach a robot how to pick up and drop a plastic cup without ever instructing it how to do so or even telling it that was the goal. The robot instead was given algorithms that created a need in its system to acquire a reward. Certain activities that resulted in surprising outcomes fulfilled that reward, and the robot used in the experiment, motivated by that drive, embarked on a journey of discovery that enabled it to learn how to move and eventually interact with a nearby plastic cup. It's really quite fascinating. If you have clicked on the link above to start reading that article by now, here's another chance.
Okay, now that you've read the article (and if you're anything like me, several others on the site because, well we're curious!) you might have a deeper understanding of why I say curiosity is so important to learning. In my class, I give the students a verdant patch of knowledge, the basics of HTML, CSS, JavasScript and other elements of the MERN stack. The ones that stray from that patch, that seek out new rewards through the process of discovery are the ones that inevitably get the most out of the class, and ultimately their careers.
How awesome is that?
I teach a Web Development Bootcamp, and one of the things I stress to my students is my absolute belief in the power of curiosity. The article puts curiosity on par with hunger, thirst and sex drive as a driving motivation for doing the things we do -- despite the fact that there is no extrinsic reward associated with is as there is with eating, drinking and procreating.
Apparently, it's quite common for animals to trade rewards for information -- that is, given a verdant environment filled with food and drink and potential mates, they will venture out from that ideal patch of resources to discover what else is out there.
The part about babies and robots explains how babies' attentions are drawn to events that are familiar, but not too familiar. When presented with an option of viewing something that is more likely to be surprising, they are drawn to that rather than something more predictable. I won't try to explain all the details of how they determined that, read the article!
A researcher applied those same principles to teach a robot how to pick up and drop a plastic cup without ever instructing it how to do so or even telling it that was the goal. The robot instead was given algorithms that created a need in its system to acquire a reward. Certain activities that resulted in surprising outcomes fulfilled that reward, and the robot used in the experiment, motivated by that drive, embarked on a journey of discovery that enabled it to learn how to move and eventually interact with a nearby plastic cup. It's really quite fascinating. If you have clicked on the link above to start reading that article by now, here's another chance.
Okay, now that you've read the article (and if you're anything like me, several others on the site because, well we're curious!) you might have a deeper understanding of why I say curiosity is so important to learning. In my class, I give the students a verdant patch of knowledge, the basics of HTML, CSS, JavasScript and other elements of the MERN stack. The ones that stray from that patch, that seek out new rewards through the process of discovery are the ones that inevitably get the most out of the class, and ultimately their careers.
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