An educator's perspective

Helping students think means inspirational teaching, not rote learning

This morning I received the following comment from a colleague regarding the Hyperglossary's value as an educational resource:

"I was an educator in a former life; I especially appreciate your efforts not only to explain theory, concepts, and protocol, but also to link them to related content to help further understanding (and in some cases, spark generative questions).  As both a teacher and a student, I found relational knowledge to be extremely useful when learning a new concept or reinforcing an old concept - a 'best practice' as valuable to seasoned readers as for folks who are still in training."

The Hyperglossary does indeed explain and link things, forming a contextual mesh to help readers position and comprehend new knowledge in relation to old. With the aim of stimulating learning and facilitating personal development, the internal cross-references and links to reference sources are as important as the definitions themselves.

Building on that, the idea of 'sparking generative questions' intrigues me. You could say the Hyperglossary leads people to a new plane or mode of thinking - not just learning facts but understanding, contemplating, appreciating and internalising them, giving them the impetus or inspiration to push on from the known, bravely exploring the unknown just beyond.

Certainly in the course of preparing and maintaining the Hyperglossary, I frequently discover new conceptual and terminological relationships, sometimes tripping over stark discrepancies and wandering into clouds of doubt and confusion in my own mind. I'm a perennial student too! As the field continues to progress rapidly in areas such as AI security and privacy, researching and contemplating new stuff in relation to the old keeps me actively engaged, learning more and posing yet more questions.