And Just Like that: Magically Learning. A Methodology to Make the Most Complex Concepts Easy to Understand

The idea is simple: performing a magic trick consists of doing something that for the public is totally impossible to understand. Otherwise, it would not be very worthy as a magic trick. However, the magician is not usually the smartest person in the room.

But, the key reflection is that if the magician tells the “secret” behind the magic trick… then, the trick becomes trivial to understand instantly! The possibilities of this idea for the design of pedagogical methodologies are powerful: given a fact (the magic trick), it turns out to be something absolutely impossible to understand or something very simple depending on the way how it is explained.

Our speakers, José María de la Torre and Carlos Pastor, have identified which are the elements that the magician uses to be sure that the trick will be hardly impossible to understand by the public, and which are the elements that make the comprehension of the trick trivial when the “secret” is explained.

José María de la Torre Maroto is an “illusionist engineer” and works in Innovation, Strategy, Management and Sales with companies and business schools around the world. He applies methodologies such as ”Illusionist Innovation: how to achieve the impossible in practice” to design business strategies or ”Magic to sell: how to generate ideas in the mind of the public”. Carlos Pastor Paz is telecommunications and electronics engineer and MSc in Universal Accessibility and Design For All. He teaches in different fields from university to primary school.

Together they have created the pedagogical methodology “Aprender por arte de magia” (in English, Magically learning) that they apply on different fields and educational levels. During this seminar we will learn the essence of their methodology and how to apply it to the teaching of any concept difficult to understand. Join the seminar to learn how 6-year-old children can for instance design encryption and transmission protocols or understand what a network topology is in less than 15 minutes. Of course there will be some magic tricks, too!

PLEASE NOTE: participants are encouraged to bring a paper sheet.

People with Harvard ID are welcome to attend in person. Other participants may connect over Zoom.

Register for this event here. Registered participants wo wish to attend remotely will receive a Zoom link.

Speaker: José María de la Torre; Carlos Pastor.

Sponsors: RCC; Innovative Teaching.