After reading “Curse of Knowledge”, I found myself in a predicament of before agreeing and disagreeing with some of the claims Brain Harris made.
While I agree that there will always be different methods of teaching that need to be used for different students, and while this based on both their prior knowledge and their preferred learning styles, is the teachers knowledge really a hinder? Shouldn’t we be looking at this “problem” in a more positive light and commending the teacher for having a number of different tools in their teaching tool belt to over come the problem? While the teacher may find it more difficult to go back to the moment when they had less knowledge about a topic, would they not already be prepared with a number of different activities, explanations and models to be able to apply this to a number of different students within their class?
I love that Lauren has the same idea.
I finished this article feeling overwhelmed by the idea, so I would love to hear everyone else’s thoughts on the topic.
Jaimi
jaimibarrett 
For me knowledge is both a “curse” and “power”. Given my knowledge I continue to under-estimate the length of time and the nature of the troubles that #edc3100 folk will have getting started with the course. I find myself really having to pause and reflect. There are always steps/assumptions that I find myself not thinking about, but which are confusing for others. It’s one of the factors that makes it harder to design effective learning experiences.
Thank you for your comments David and I do agree that it may be difficult to over estimate what you think your students will know, especially in your case where you are working with a ever changing medium. I do like to think the knowledge does give you the power though, as your knowledge is telling you to reflection on your teaching to ensure effective design.
Hi Jaimi,
I think the ‘curse of knowledge’ is potentially a very problematic issue for educators. And I use the term ‘potentially’ because I believe that it can definitely be overcome. Possibly through simply having an awareness of the phenomenon itself, as you point out in your comment above where you mention that David has the awareness to reflect on the impact of his own ‘curse of knowledge’ in this course.
I agree with you 100% – its only a problem if you choose to shove your head in the sand, close your eyes and hope for the best. I think reflection is such an important step to ensure the knowledge is not a curse.