Our Marvelous Brains

We had a good group meeting this afternoon to sketch out our History of Educational Media. I hoped everyone left with that "Cumbaya - Good vibes" feeling.

I'm really giving some thought to Gagne's Nine Steps of Instruction and its application in our group's project as well as in my own classroom instruction. Not that many years back, I had the opportunity to attend Pat Wolfe's week-long "Brain Matters" Conference in Napa, California. Pat is an extraordinarily gifted presenter who deftly weaves her stories into the educational implications of the most recent brain research. Before the conference, we were required to read her book of the same name and three others besides.

The quote at Pat's Website illustrates why her passion is to teach us about why the brain matters. "Education is discovering the brain and that's about the best news there could be... Anyone who does not have a thorough, holistic grasp of the brain's architecture, purposes, and main ways of operating is as far behind the times as an automobile designer without a full understanding of engines." Leslie Hart, "Human Brain, Human Learning"

The little bit I've read of Robert Gagne connects in many ways to those readings. At least I recall some of what Pat taught us. Gagne uses the phrase "stimuli activates receptors" and I think of Pat's explanation of how neural transmitters [chemicals] move toward neural receptors traveling from axon to dendrites to axon and across the gaps between in an electrochemical cascade. And all that's just to get their attention.

I wonder in the culture of distraction, impatience, and over-stimulation, in which we all live, whether it's more difficult now to get the learner's attention than in the past.

My Honors English Freshmen are examining Renny Gleeson's TED Talk, where he asks us all to create technology that makes us more human(e). The students have read about Linda Stone's concept of "CPA" -- constant partial attention and its effects. But they've also read articles calling for the use of cellphone technology in the classrooms. They're going to generate information by surveying their classmates and teachers on their usage and attitudes before they compose their papers. This should be interesting. I see among some of them a compulsion to be available all day and night to all the people in their address book. But they have lots of ideas about how they could put their phones to work in class. Don't you just love em?