A Lighthearted Conversation About Learning Culture

Nolan Bushnell, creator of Atari and CEO of Speed to Learn, sat down with DLD Chairman Yossi Vardi in what turned out to be an entertaining round of equal parts teasing and talk about how to improve today’s learning culture.

Nolan Bushnell’s round with Yossi Vardi was lighthearted and entertaining without losing focus of the issue at hand; computers and education.

Faced with the Vardi’s teasing, Bushnell got a laugh and a half, as the round progressed.

However, Bushnell stayed on course. His views on modern education are perhaps controversial, but the computer game legend does make a compelling argument. 

“ADHD is misspelled - it’s actually boring teacher syndrome,” Bushnell began, outlining his ideas.

The traditional system, he continued, is not up-to-date on what kind of learning processes are needed to keep students engaged.

Here, the education system could learn from computer games. Get rid of lecture and homework, and introduce individual learning styles. Incorporate notions of different learning cultures, and add the power of computers, and you have a winning recipe for an education revolution.

Bushnell’s Speed to Learn initiative aims to do just that. Teachers cannot handle the difficult levels of students, but computers can. Through using software that mimics the structures of computer games, initiatives like Speed to Learn can speed up education processes and help the individual students fulfill their potentials. 

“Matching difficulty with ability,” Nolan said, “Makes teaching fun.”