Cognitive tourism

I usually help people from anywhere visit Silicon Valley to learn about myths, secrets, and everyday life. Since I rarely go to a new location, my next trip will be to Osaka, Japan—a place I have never been to, nor any place in Japan. My last trip to Asia was to Singapore more than ten years ago. I had previously gone to Korea some years earlier. 

It is my time to practice what I teach. It is a fantastic experience to live the learning experience one more time. I took my bucket list to review all the places that I want to visit in the future. While I reviewed it, I found that places like Japan and China are the most significantly different places in the world. Anything I want to explore and learn will be very different from the places I have been to.

When planning the trip, the first element in my mind is to have a goal to achieve. The purpose of the trip is to teach the workshop “Disruptive Learning Experience” that was invited by the Mirai Innovation team. This workshop is happening in Japan and is attended by Mexican students and academics interested in learning brain, robotics, and technology-related subjects to catch up with Japan's state of the art. The program lasts one month and has multiple sessions, subjects, and speakers. 

I will deliver my workshop in 10 2-hour sessions over ten days. I plan to schedule time to prepare for the next-day sessions and participate actively in the other sessions as a learner to gain the knowledge and experience available in Japan. 

As part of my day-to-day activities, I will register my learning experiences, looking for my disruptive learning experiences, so that I can use my own learnings as references to share with my audience while I am teaching the workshop.

Then, the learning purpose of my trip is to learn how to have a disruptive learning experience in a context full of knowledge about robotics and brain-related subjects, inspiring the participants to get deeper into these technologies. 

Creating an environment that provides a disruptive learning experience for the audience while the instructor is also experiencing a disruptive learning experience is a way to potentialize the process and keep the context open for learning. There is no better opportunity to teach what you learn. It sounds out of our minds, but the experience refreshes us on the goal of the workshop. 

How do we complement the disruptive learning experience? We prepare the trip in advance and look for what can be discovered during the trip. 

What is the uniqueness of Osaka? With use the help of the following sources to discover the city:

• Watch some videos on YouTube and Netflix.

• Use AI—To whom you should be: ChatGPT creates a list with a local file to bring to your device, while Gemini creates the map in a Google Map that can be opened online. Gemini also provides links to each attraction and a picture of the place.

• I asked my friends: 

  • Friends are your trusted advisors. My Friends Humberto and Mirna, who recently explored Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara, are your guides. Their firsthand experiences and insights will enrich your trip planning and give you confidence.

  • Alberto has been there, and he is going before. My trip will be after Alberto stays there.

How do I explore the location to discover what is new in a location? 

First, to collect information, designing my trip will start. Jobs to be done are:

• Define the learning goal for the experience

• Identify the places, activities, events, and cultural elements that interest me.

• Create a schedule to participate, visit, or learn more

• Assist or participate in the activities.

• Register the learning experience 

• Process the learnings

• Assimilate and share the learnings.

This is just the beginning of the learning experience. We need to keep working before the trip, then enjoy the trip and return to share what we learned.