It's So Simple!...

Just finished reading John Maeda's "The Laws of Simplicity". It should be required reading for all educators, in fact for all learners. A very small book (deliberately limited to 100 pages), it lays out 10 laws and three keys to simplicity (one of which is that simplicity cannot exist without complexity - how else would you be able to recognize simplicity?).

For me the key point of the book is Law 10 - The One - Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful - to me, as an educator, this describes learning in a nutshell. It also supports my position that the future of learning is in the hands of learners and their development of personalized learning environments - the PLEs that I keep going on about.

The Laws of Simplicity are very much an evolving concept and there is a lot of great material at the lawsofsimplicty.com Web site. of particular interest to me are all of the resources John Maeda has added to the site along with his posts on some of the most fascinating designs out there today.

John Maeda has recently been named the next president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Here is probably the most unique presidential acceptance I have ever seen - but it so fits. I can only imagine what great hings are going to happen at RISD with John Maeda's leadership and vision.

I can't encourage you enough to read this book. Now if only I can bring some simplicity to my own life...