Failure

Think back to your experiences in middle and high school. How many opportunities were you given to experiment and “fail” in solving a problem? How could a school work today where students were regularly offered such opportunities?

When thinking about middle and high school there was never an opportunity for me to fail. In my high school passing was 75 and my mother always told be that I had to have above a 90 average or else I would lose certain luxuries. Shirky refers to the effect of failure being the likelihood times the cost. Students will try harder if they know they only have one opportunity. Even though learning through trial and error is important in specified class settings, it is not the way to effectively teach young students (or old ones for that matter). When students realize the effect their failure could have upon them and the likelihood that they could fail they will strive harder when they see the ultimate effects.

FOAF

What professional benefits do you see by investing time into a FOAF-style network?

FOAF is a network style that allows you to connect with your friends, and more importantly, your friend's friends. The title is almost self explanatory: Friend of a friend. This tool establishes relationships between friends and uses a unique identifier to establish these connections. This tool could benefit many people because it does not require a centralized database. People could use the FOAF style to find jobs through the interests and availability of firends. It creates a more personable environment that would help people to connect with people similar to the people they know. Essentially you are connecting with people you dont know, but have a mutual, personal connection with.