Public Information Resources, Inc (PIRI) is the organization that presents the Learning & the Brain conference. Last weekend’s Cambridge, MA conference was the 24th such conference, and PIRI’s President, Dan LaGattuta, said the turnout was the largest in eight years. Indeed, there were so many attendees that the keynotes had overflow rooms, and the Marriott, where the conference was held, filled all of its conference block rooms, which is why I wound up at the Hyatt, an enjoyable mile’s walk from the conference.

Why so many attendees this time round? I am certain it was the enticing topic of  Modern Brains: Enhancing Memory and Performance in this Distracting Digital Age. Talk about a timely topic!

The conference began with three opening keynote talks discussing Modern Minds, Multitasking & Memory. The first talk, Digital Brains and Memory: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind, was given by  Gary W. Small, the Director of the UCLA Center on Aging and the author of the recently published iBrain: surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind. He began by showing this youtube video:

It turns out that Small’s conference talk was quite similar to his talk given at the Center on Aging entitled The Impact of Technology on Your Brain.

As you may know, the developing brain – the brain of children and adolescents – is highly plastic, specifically because it is still developing. The plus side of this is that the developing brain soaks up new learning; the negative side is that the frontal lobes and the amygdala, which manage decision making and emotions, is a work in progress, and will not mature till the early to mid-twenties. Small stated that sixty percent of synaptic connections are pruned during this developmental phase, a “use it or lose it” process. In referencing a Kaiser Foundation study of a few years ago, which found children between the ages of 8 and 18 years spent 8 1/2 hours a day in front of a screen, Small went on to note that if more time is spent in front of a screen, then less time is being spent doing something else, so how will this impact brain evolution?

As one who uses email extensively (though my husband and I recently began “digital-free Sundays” ), I related to Small’s description of “email as an exercise in operant condition”, whereby the consequence of the operation reinforces the condition. The idea is that the hope of getting a useful, positive email, mixed in with all the spam, is what keeps us opening email.

Small touched upon a number of other topics including ADHD (thinking about ADHD kids and tech use is like the chicken and the egg issue, what is cause and what is effect?), sentences and emoticons activate different areas of the brain, and the 2008 Atlantic article, Is Google Making Us Stupid?, from which Small highlighted that we sacrifice depth for breadth and no longer  have to memorize as much information. He also commented on multitasking, saying that we have a perception (actually, a misconception!) that we are able to multitask. In fact, “we are faster but less efficient” as we pay “continuous partial attention” to each of the tasks in which we think we are engaged. This comment on multitasking would be repeated multiple times by multiple people throughout the three day conference.

I found particularly interesting the Net Naive and Net Savvy study, which looked at “patterns of cerebral activation during Internet searching.”  The results suggest that Internet searching could be a useful brain exercise for improving brain functionality.

Small concluded with the following points:

• We should pick and choose what we commit to memory, and choose the right tool for the memory task.
• We should find a balance – digital natives need to improve their social skills and digital immigrants need to improve their text skills.
• Future technology should build on the benefits of face-to-face interaction. (This surely has implications for online learning.)

And for his last point, which I found intriguing, Small suggested that the “immediacy of sharing in social networks may stifle creativity because everyone knows what everyone else is thinking, right away.” Ponder that one!

Thoroughly enjoyed the Learning and the Brain Conference.
More about it in the next few posts.

Meanwhile…

1. view of Boston across the Charles River from the Hyatt
2. crew shells on the Charles, the next morning
3. MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, Wiesner Building
4. same door, different label
5. biker jacket gift from very cool Boston brother-in-law!

This weekend marks another round of the Learning and the Brain conference in Cambridge, MA. For the second time, I have the delight of introducing some of the speakers at Saturday afternoon’s sessions. I am looking forward to hearing all three speakers, and was tickled that they were all part of the same strand, Digital Brains, Technology & Learning. Here are the introductions.

David H. Rose, EdD

In 1984 – before his favorite application, Google Earth, was even imagined, and before IT folks began providing general support for assistive technologies – David Rose cofounded CAST, the Center for Applied Special Technology. Both David’s and CAST’s focus is Universal Design for Learning. With the celebration of kids diversity as the backdrop, UDL aims to improve the accessibility of curriculum and materials for all types of learners.

David is on the faculty of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, and has coauthored several books, including the forthcoming Learning in the Digital Age, which I eagerly await, and this one, Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age, which was the impetus for my school’s opening professional development this past fall.

Please join me in welcoming Dr David Rose for his talk Searching with Google: New Directions in Universal Design for Online Learning.

Kenneth S. Kosik, MD

If you’ve attended this conference in the past, you may already associate Ken Kosik, as I do, with illuminating talks about Alzheimer’s. He is the Harriman Professor of Neuroscience Research, and Co-Director of the Neuroscience Research Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In his spare time, he is the Executive Director of the Center for Cognitive Fitness and Innovative Therapies, also in Santa Barbara, the mission of which is to help people with cognitive decline be able to age gracefully and live fully.

Students and teachers at my school make extensive use of wikis, so I am particularly eager to hear Ken talk about the wikification of knowledge.

And in the spirit of collaborative wikis, please collaborate with me on welcoming Dr Ken Kosik.

Kurt W. Fischer, PhD

The Mind, Brain and Education figure prominently in Kurt Fischer’s world. In addition to being the Charles Bigelow Professor of Education at Harvard, he is the Director of the Mind, Brain & Education program at the Graduate School of Education, the editor or co-editor of numerous Mind, Brain & Education publications, and the Director of the International Mind, Brain and Education Society.

In his capacity as Director of this society, Kurt is leading the movement to connect biology and cognitive science to education.

Please join me in welcoming Dr Kurt Fischer for his talk about Mind, Brain & Emerging Technology to Improve Robust Learning.

Grant Wiggins and his Understanding by Design cohorts define Essential Questions as those questions that

1. invite you to dig down deep into the topic
2. keep you thinking and broaden your understanding
3. let you ponder multiple approaches to the issue
4. give you room to change your mind about the topic
5. grab your recognition and affective networks
6. don’t disappear off your radar when the conversation stops

Michael Wesch (see yesterday’s post)  has some essential questions for educators to consider.

source for first two images: screen shots of streaming talk

source for this image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexragone/4102304516/

~~~

Speaking of photos… celebrating November 1954

]]> http://neurons.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/essential-questions/feed/ 3 synapsesensations prepared for this world what do we need to know for this test weschquestions 1954 http://neurons.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/a-neat-neit/ http://neurons.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/a-neat-neit/#comments Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:45:22 +0000 synapsesensations http://neurons.wordpress.com/?p=1939 ]]>

Want to see how a bunch of IT folks spent November 11-13? November in the NY IS world heralds the gathering of IT folks for the annual NEIT Conference, sponsored by NYSAIS. As arvind noted on ISENET, we are suped up on acronyms… A quick primer:

• NY – New York
• IS – independent school
• IT – information technology
• NEIT – NYSAIS Education & Information Technology
• NYSAIS – New York State Association of Indpendent Schools
• ISENET – Independent School Educators network

Of course, attendees also join in from CAIS (Connecticut Association of Independent Schools), MA (Massachusetts), NJ (New Jersey) and EW (elsewhere). The organizers, of which there are many, superbly manage accommodating 150 or so live bodies, plus any number of virtual attendees, who all share in the mix of keynote speakers, open space sessions, and recreation. Participating is an exhilarating experience!

You can scope out the pictures on Flickr or follow the conversation on Twitter or see the results of many of the open space sessions on the wiki or watch the keynotes.

Among the highlights for me were the professional development session Thursday evening, and Friday’s keynoter Michael Wesch. His name may not be on the tip of your tongue, but perhaps his videos have been in your queue. And if these videos don’t get you wondering, then ponder these questions that Wesch suggests every teacher should be asking.

Using EtherPad, a number of folks took collaborative notes on Wesch’s two part talk. And should you exhaust all of these resources, here is Wesch’s Digital Ethnography site at Kansas State University, which includes the blog, a collection of videos (including the two below), the YouTube Project, and World Sim (social studies teachers, are you checking out this world simulation project!).

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final version)

and A Vision of Students Today

Ken Robinson has said that if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.

In today’s Corner Office interview in the Business Section of The New York Times, Jeffrey Katzenberg discusses how his leadership style has blossomed over the years. He introduces two equations that go hand-in-hand with Robinson’s statement.

original + unique = risky

risky = some failure

His point is that if you want to come up with something (in his case, film ideas) different from what everyone else is coming up with, then you have to be prepared to take a risk. And if you are prepared to take a risk, you have to accept that there will be a certain number of failures.

Hmm, isn’t that a big component of life learning?

As part of a series on “Thoughts on Teaching” for Michigan State University’s Teaching Assistant Programs, an author (article unsigned)  has written about taking risks in the classroom. The author discusses risk taking from the perspective of the teacher, and provides some tips about how to take risks with lecturing (don’t lecture, try another approach), discussion (use the group), and assessment (gather it and respond to it). The author mentions Dr Alice Dreger’s comments given at a MSU Seminar on College Teaching.

According to the author, “the ‘heart’ of Dreger’s risk-taking philosophy is the belief that shared success and failures create trust between teachers and students.”

Hmm, model risk taking and turn the teaching process into a two-way learning process. I like the sound of that!

]]> http://neurons.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/live-and-learn/feed/ 1 synapsesensations http://neurons.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/the-whole-brain-catalog/ http://neurons.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/the-whole-brain-catalog/#comments Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:54:45 +0000 synapsesensations http://neurons.wordpress.com/?p=1928 ]]>

Think of your local Library catalog. Think of a catalog of your favorite sports gear. Think of the old Sears Roebuck Catalog. Now try to imagine a catalog of the whole brain. Scientists at the University of California at San Diego have embarked on the creation of the Whole Brain Catalog, “a client-server platform that provides rich 3-D views for researchers to zoom in, out, and around structures deep in a multi-scale spatial framework of the mouse brain.”

The online support for the Catalog is rich with documentation, images and background information. The Catalog is open-source and you can download it here.

It’s that time again – November is coming, and with it the annual Learning & the Brain conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The theme of this fall conference is Modern Brains: Enhancing Student Memory & Performance in this Distracted, Digital Age.


Given that I have been teaching about computers for 28 years, and given my interest in the brain and learning, I am pumped to see them come together, and most curious to hear what neuroscientists, doctors and educators will be sharing in terms of research and strategies. I am also excited to be introducing three of the speakers on Saturday afternoon. Perhaps this is the start of a trend!

I have just watched this fascinating TED Talk: Henry Markram builds a brain in a supercomputer. (The link goes to a high definition version of his talk.)

Markram is the director of a project that runs on high intensity IBM computers and is called Blue Brain. (Hmm, does the Blue refer to  IBM’s also being known as Big Blue?”) Blue Brain is “a supercomputing project that can model components of the mammalian brain to precise cellular detail – and simulate their activity in 3D.” The graphics, let alone the math and science, are incredibly striking. And after listening to Markram, I couldn’t help but think of a tenth grader at my school who recently attended the Singularity Summit that took place in New York City over the weekend of October 3-4.

The Singularity represents an “event horizon” in the predictability of human technological development past which present models of the future may cease to give reliable answers, following the creation of strong AI [Artificial Intelligence] or the enhancement of human intelligence.

You can read about the Blue Brain Project, also described as “the first comprehensive attempt to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, in order to understand brain function and dysfunction through detailed simulations.” Or check out this SEED article by Jonah Lehrer, Can A Thinking, Remembering, Decision-Making, Biologically Accurate Brain Be Built From A Supercomputer?

What reaction do you have to this possibility? To the stunningly vibrant images?

Embracing Diversity in Learning and Teaching

SIMULATIONS
The purpose of the simulations was to get everyone actively engaged in experiencing what it is like to have a learning issue where something that is normally taken for granted does not function as expected. The simulations also helped get everyone in gear for the workshops that would follow. There were four simulations in total, and each one is listed and explained below.

Simulation 1
A short story is going to be read aloud to you and you will then be asked to respond to some questions about the story. The story will also be displayed on the screen.

Once upon a time, in a country called Clarita, there lived a gadious bemple named Chup. Chup lasied Mormie and together they goppered and morted throughout the dotter of Clarita. Clarita was a rablited fott. From every wesson and vaxter, Chup and Mormie could hetter numally. It was a duffours webbe!

• In what country did Chup live?
• Who lasied Mormie?
• What did they do together, and where did they do it?
• What was Clarita?
• What kind of webbe was it?
• What type of genre is this?

Okay, now for the second set of questions.

• Describe the image of a “gadious bemple.”
• What does the author suggest when she says “Clarita was a rablited fott?”
• What do the verbs “goppered” and “morted” suggest about the view of life shared by Chup and Mormie?
• Explain where the author might be leading us when she writes it was a “duffours webbe.”

This simulation reflects the problems of a student with poor vocabulary. They may be dyslexic, have attention issues, be bilingual or have language comprehension weaknesses. As teachers we can be fooled because we feel that they can answer some questions but just don’t seem to get it when we ask more higher level questions. We then make the assumption that they aren’t very bright and perhaps shouldn’t be in our school–when in reality, they need some intensive work in vocabulary development and support for their reading. These same students may be able to memorize vocabulary for tests but not hold on and inculcate it into their repertoires.

—–

Simulation 2
Please use your paper and pencil to do either A or B as described on the screen. It is your choice which you do, but you MUST use your NON-DOMINANT hand for writing.

(A) Write 3 sentences about your summer. As you write, make the following letter replacements:

every /a/ becomes /n/
every /t/ becomes /b/
every /i/ becomes /h/

(B) Or, solve this problem on paper, and reverse every number so that you are writing its mirror image:

382 x 546 = ?

The reason this is frustrating is that you are not getting the kinesthetic feedback to and from the brain in your non-dominant hand. The reversal of numbers or letter substitutions simulates the lack of automaticity that the writers with graphomotor issues have. It takes over a thousand motor movements to operate a pen or pencil and only two to use a keyboard. And with a keyboard there is no issue with remembering how letters and numbers are shaped.

—–

Simulation 3
We are going to put your working memory through the mill. Pay close attention to the next set of directions because you cannot write them down. You must rely on your working memory to carry out the instructions. We all have long term and short term memory, and we also have working memory.

Working memory is the memory we have for holding on to information while we are using it, such as holding a phone number in your mind while dialing it. Working memory plays a critical role in school, particularly in the areas of written expression and multi-step math problems. Now we are going to do a math activity.

Put your pencils down; this is mental math!

• Choose any 3 digit number whose ones and hundreds digits are different.
• Reverse the order of the numbers.
• Subtract the smaller number from the larger one.
• The result will always have 9 as the tens digit. The other two digits will always add up to 9.
• Now reverse the digits of the result.
• Now add that number to the one before it.
• The final number will always be 1089.

—–

Simulation 4
This last simulation also requires you pay close attention and listen carefully.

Visit the PBS site Misunderstood Minds and locate the link for Auditory Activity, then click try it just below Listening to Directions. Follow the directions on the window that opens.

The fact that the teacher’s voice became muted with the background noise is a very common situation for those with either auditory processing or auditory attention issues. They cannot distinguish the salient voice and focus in on it. These students usually tire easily as they struggle to hear all day long. They benefit from Fm systems and fortunately for us, carpeted, small classrooms.

—–

EXIT CARDS
At the conclusion of each workshop, participants were asked to respond to three prompts on an index card. All of the exit cards for all of the workshops, including the book and movie discussion, were collected and collated into a Google Doc where they were organized by workshop. There emerged several themes which will serve as the topics for our follow-up sessions during the Fall.

The Exit Card prompts:

• List an Ah-ha moment that you had.
• List one question that did not get answered.
• List one topic about which you would like to know more.