What is unpuzzle?
unpuzzle is an upcoming online social media that makes it easy to learn anything through the use of the unpuzzle learning methodology. As someone who has self taught many skills, I have gained huge confidence in my ability to learn anything through the use of the unpuzzle learning methodology.
What is the unpuzzle learning methodology?
unpuzzle learning methodology takes a big chunk of knowledge (an image, video, audio, text, webpage, code snippet) and breaks it down into lower, easier levels of knowledge which are also represented by the aforementioned digital media. The level to which a big chunk of knowledge is broken down is different for everyone.
For example, if we take two individuals — one who has worked in the construction industry and one who hasn’t and we offer to teach them how to build a bridge, the level to which both of the individuals break down their learning is different. Obviously the one who has worked in the construction industry has established levels of knowledge about how to build a bridge throughout his years of experience whereas the other individual doesn’t. unpuzzle learning methodology therefore aims to break down big chunks of knowledge into very small, understandable chunks of knowledge so that individuals can identify the level they’re at and progress accordingly.
Example 1: High school & University Course
When you enrol in a math course to learn something new, you are given a course outline that details the topics that will be covered. It also lists the textbooks you will need to read. In your quest to learning, you open the textbook and complete reading chapter 1. Once you have read this, you have collected some new information. In the unpuzzle world, you have collected a bunch of puzzle pieces. For example, each word in chapter 1 can be considered as a puzzle piece. Each image in chapter 1 can also be considered as a puzzle piece. Each equation can be considered a puzzle piece. Essentially, you collected a bunch of puzzle pieces that you will use to answer the questions that are listed at the end of chapter 1. The questions at the end of chapter 1 is one big puzzle. In order to solve this big puzzle, you need to collect enough puzzle pieces to make sure you understand the concept and can answer the question accordingly.
When you get stuck on any given question, you refer back to certain parts of chapter 1 to help you solidify the concepts which eventually help you solve the question that you were stuck on. After finishing chapter 1, you move to chapter 2, using the same method. Read, collect new information, connect that new information to previously learned concepts to solidify your understanding and use this understanding to answer questions. The more puzzle pieces you collect and connect, the better your chances are of answering questions correctly. The more questions you answer correctly the higher your mark will be.
When you are trying to understand a concept through reading the textbook, you may get stuck somewhere and use google for new insights that can fill in the missing gaps that needed to be filled for you to understand the concept. In the unpuzzle world, when you are solving a question, you are solving a puzzle. As soon as you face a question, you ask yourself:
Do I have enough puzzle pieces to solve this puzzle? If you don’t you refer back to your textbook or google or ask your friend for help for the missing puzzle pieces.
How is the unpuzzle learning methodology useful?
A way to visualize your knowledge
unpuzzle methodology is useful in helping you organize the knowledge you keep in your mind because you have a visual interface to work with. It is very hard to visualize knowledge because knowledge could be anything. However, having a visual interface of knowledge can help in organizing, retaining and building on previous knowledge.
Whenever I am learning something new, for example, Javascript — a computer programming knowledge, I convert the word “Javascript” into a big puzzle. What I mean by converting is, I visualize a big puzzle planted in a football field that requires millions of small puzzle pieces to understand Javascript. These small puzzle pieces are information I gained in the past few months and the information I will gain in the future. Visualizing my understanding in the form of puzzles and puzzle pieces have taken my ability to digest hard concepts to unprecedented levels.
What if some people can’t visualize like you can?
This is why I am trying to build an online social media that allows you to collect knowledge from videos, images, text, code snippets, and other forms of digital media. You will not just be collecting knowledge but you will also be able to break that piece of knowledge down into several simpler pieces of knowledge that can be used to connect to other pieces of knowledge. When you do this, a puzzle wheel is formed that outlines the main piece of knowledge you are trying to learn and its several levels of simpler knowledge. In the unpuzzle world, you will be taking a big puzzle in the form of a video, image, text, audio or any other digital media and break it down into several puzzle pieces at various levels. This will allow you to visualize the knowledge you have gained and the knowledge that you need to gain, thereby allowing you to collect and connect puzzle pieces.
How is knowledge broken down into several smaller pieces?
This is done through annotation. Think about Wikipedia. Usually, each article in Wikipedia has links to other wikipedia articles, which in turn have links to other wikipedia articles and so on and so forth. Basically, Wikipedia allows you to break down a piece of text into several other pieces of text. Wikipedia only deals with text. unpuzzle will not only break knowledge that is delivered through text with other pieces of text but also with videos, images and other forms of digital media. You could be learning from an article that breaks down into several smaller chunks of knowledge in the form of videos, images, audio, text, code snippets and other forms of digital media. Every digital media posted on unpuzzle can be annotated to other forms of digital media.
How will video annotation work?
Video annotation will work similar to the annotation feature that exists on YouTube. However, when jumping from annotation to annotation on YouTube or Wikipedia, you get lost of what you were trying to learn initially. These platforms are also not intelligent in predicting your missing gaps and offering you puzzle pieces that fill those gaps. unpuzzle will be smart and will provide a way for you to visualize the annotations in the form of a puzzle wheel.
How will image annotation work?
Every image will have an x and y coordinate. This x and y coordinate will be used to locate a specific part of an image that can be broken down into several other forms of puzzle pieces, such as an article, videos, images, text or audio.
How will audio annotation work?
Audio annotation will work similar to SoundCloud, except you are able to create several puzzle pieces from one audio puzzle piece. The several puzzle pieces that descend from the audio puzzle piece can be in the form of videos, audios, image, text or code snippet, which can again be broken down into smaller and simpler pieces of information.
How will text annotation work?
Text annotation will work similar to Medium and other text annotation tool where each word or a chain of words can be broken down into other forms of puzzle pieces such as video, image, text, code snippets, or other forms of digital media.
How will code snippet annotation work?
Same way as the text annotation does, with extended features. For example, each line of code can be converted to a puzzle that descend to several levels of puzzle pieces.
How will the unpuzzle social media be different from other learning platforms such as Udemy, Coursera, Lynda, YouTube, etc?
The most popular systems allow you to deliver a course that contains information in the form of videos, audios or text. No system exists right now that allows you to annotate to other forms of digital media which can be further annotated to other forms of digital media. This is how unpuzzle is different because whatever is uploaded or created on unpuzzle — a YouTube video, or a video/audio you uploaded or an article you created or code snippets you uploaded — can be converted into a puzzle that breaks down into several other forms videos, images, audio or text.
And because puzzle pieces can be visualized, missing gaps will be easier to identify not just for the unpuzzle system but also your friends and connections. This accelerates the collection and connection of knowledge that you can use for practical benefit.
This article is not finished. I will add some images and animation that will clarify some of the problems that unpuzzle is trying to solve in due time.