Computers, The Brain, and Education
Have you heard about new technology changing our brains? From an educational perspective, if this is true, is it a good thing or not?
According to Prensky (2011), the brains of digital natives (people who have never experienced a world without digital technology) are different from the brains of digital immigrants (people who are not digital natives). And the way that digital natives process information is essentially different compared to the way digital immigrants process information. Prensky doesn't provide direct evidence for this but makes conclusions based on observations and logical reasoning as well as neuroplasticy research. In terms of education, what Prensky's ideas are leading to is that teachers need to understand the way digital natives process information in order to better meet the needs of their digital native learners. Do digital natives really process information differently? Would understanding these differences make designing instruction for digital natives more effective?
Carr (2010), suggests that we are comforted by the idea that the only effect that technological media have on us had to to with how we use those media. Carr was criticizing our tendency to not closely examine the way the Internet, in particular, affects how and what we things, how we behave, and how that affects the physical "wiring" mechanism in our brain. Similar to Prensky (2011), much of Carr's position is based on research into neuroplasticity. He makes a convincing argument that it is not only babies and children but the adult brain also has great ability to change and adapt. And the way that our brain is changing and adapting to the Internet is a negative change. Instead of retaining information, we depend on the Internet to provide instant information about a multitude of topics. Also, adaptation to the fast pace of media representations and our adaptation to shifting through fast presentations of information, often comprising several different topics, makes it more difficult now maintain focus on one topic for very long.
The people at Epipheo made a video about this (which you can see below). And for those of us with short attention spans - the video is less than 4 minutes long.
If all of what Nicholas Carr says is true, then essentially, this represents a negative adaption for education. So what do we do now? Do we need to protect ourselves and our students from this negative adaption? Do we need to restrict Internet use? Do we need to find strategies to better help students focus and retain information? Does our education system need to change by recognizing that retention of massive amounts of information in our brain is no longer required since it is all at our fingertips? Should we focus on teaching students how and where to find information efficiently instead of how to effectively remember information? Do we need to make our instruction more vivid and fast paced, preferably using technological media, to engage students who always seem to be bored or distracted in class? I think these types of questions are important in considering research that is relevant for learning with media in today's world.
Carr, N. (2010). The shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains [Kindle edition]. New York: W. W. Norton.
Prensky, M. (2011). Do they really think differently? In M. Bauerlein (Ed.), The digital divide: Arguments for and against Facebook, Google, texting, and the age of social media [Kindle edition]. New York, NY: Penguin.
According to Prensky (2011), the brains of digital natives (people who have never experienced a world without digital technology) are different from the brains of digital immigrants (people who are not digital natives). And the way that digital natives process information is essentially different compared to the way digital immigrants process information. Prensky doesn't provide direct evidence for this but makes conclusions based on observations and logical reasoning as well as neuroplasticy research. In terms of education, what Prensky's ideas are leading to is that teachers need to understand the way digital natives process information in order to better meet the needs of their digital native learners. Do digital natives really process information differently? Would understanding these differences make designing instruction for digital natives more effective?
Carr (2010), suggests that we are comforted by the idea that the only effect that technological media have on us had to to with how we use those media. Carr was criticizing our tendency to not closely examine the way the Internet, in particular, affects how and what we things, how we behave, and how that affects the physical "wiring" mechanism in our brain. Similar to Prensky (2011), much of Carr's position is based on research into neuroplasticity. He makes a convincing argument that it is not only babies and children but the adult brain also has great ability to change and adapt. And the way that our brain is changing and adapting to the Internet is a negative change. Instead of retaining information, we depend on the Internet to provide instant information about a multitude of topics. Also, adaptation to the fast pace of media representations and our adaptation to shifting through fast presentations of information, often comprising several different topics, makes it more difficult now maintain focus on one topic for very long.
The people at Epipheo made a video about this (which you can see below). And for those of us with short attention spans - the video is less than 4 minutes long.
If all of what Nicholas Carr says is true, then essentially, this represents a negative adaption for education. So what do we do now? Do we need to protect ourselves and our students from this negative adaption? Do we need to restrict Internet use? Do we need to find strategies to better help students focus and retain information? Does our education system need to change by recognizing that retention of massive amounts of information in our brain is no longer required since it is all at our fingertips? Should we focus on teaching students how and where to find information efficiently instead of how to effectively remember information? Do we need to make our instruction more vivid and fast paced, preferably using technological media, to engage students who always seem to be bored or distracted in class? I think these types of questions are important in considering research that is relevant for learning with media in today's world.
Carr, N. (2010). The shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains [Kindle edition]. New York: W. W. Norton.
Prensky, M. (2011). Do they really think differently? In M. Bauerlein (Ed.), The digital divide: Arguments for and against Facebook, Google, texting, and the age of social media [Kindle edition]. New York, NY: Penguin.
Comments
Post a Comment