Speaking of Memories…

<rant warning–but I promise it will connect to learning>

So every time it snows, like it is in the Lower Mainland right now, I’m semi-traumatically reminded of my 16th birthday present from my grandmother. It was a cherub box and I was seriously disturbed as to why my grandmother was giving me a box with naked winged babies on it. It had a lock on it, so I eventually found a use for it to hide cigarettes or whatever contraband I needed to hide from my parents.

It was not just this disturbing box. The card was equally disturbing. She used a quote about driven snow to launch into a talk about abstinence. I wish I could remember the exact quote, but it had something to do with choices being like footprints in snow. Basically, the choices you make cannot be erased.

Other than this memory being a demonstration of how we process memories (ie. episodic memory is powerful and we forget details as we age), I think this quote that I can’t remember is a great discussion point for learning.

While it’s wonderful, albeit disturbing for me, that my grandmother tried to give me the ‘talk’ for my 16th birthday, the quote was all wrong. Snow can be erased. It melts, it gets shovelled, or others tread on top of your treads. Learning can change your snow patch.

This was definitely not what my grandmother wanted me to get out of that quote. She was hoping for scare tactics to keep me away from premarital sex and teenage pregnancy. While I succeeded in finishing high school without, this was not the result of learning or my grandmothers attempt at teaching.

Learning from mistakes is a powerful thing. These learning events often become defining moments in our lives, as they change us on a deeper, more involved level. These learning events often produce strong episodic memories, as we can recall how we made the mistake and the process we underwent learning from it.

While I cannot recall this silly snow quote that led to my association between my grandmother and snow, I can remember in detail many great learning experiences from that era that we’re the result of teenage mistakes.

Our lifelong learning journey, not choices, are like footprints in snow. We can rub them out, we can build on them, we can shovel them, we can melt them down. It’s really up to you and the opportunities you seek.

 

 

More Thoughts on Technology and Cognitive Science

As I struggled through studying for a recent exam, I realized another impact technology potentially has on cognitive science: memory.

I used to thrive when faced with multiple choice tests. While we can debate about the effectiveness of this type of assessment on learning outcomes, for me at least I’ve always had a good memory and I looked forward to courses with these easy grade boosters. I was one of those lucky students, I’d take notes, but I never needed to use them. It always seemed that the act of just writing things down, wrote these in my brain somehow. How things have changed! For this particular course in question, I chose to go full digital, even choosing to purchase a digital text book which I could use on my smartphone and tablet. While I used the notes function built in the app and even took extra time to study, I found this experience to be a challenge were my old study habits would fail.

Many of you can probably relate to this phenomenon. Just a few years ago, you could probably easily recall many of your friend’s phone numbers by heart, but now you probably find this a challenge or would be completely lost without your smart phone.

This is a widely debated topic:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/14/memories-in-the-digital-age

This article discusses some interesting points on memory in the digital age. Research indicates that the experience I’ve recently had is linked to the fact that much of our information is stored in computers so we have less of a need to remember. While that can be seen as a negative side, as this author points out, through social media and other forms, we’re storing a lot more ‘memories’ than we ever did with our brain. This can allow us to recall experiences we would normally never remember.

This debate has been infused in educational circles.

http://www.bbc.com/news/education-32623794

The above article discusses recent debates surrounding allowed tools in exams. I remember when I was in high school, the use of calculators was a highly debated topic. The same is now happening regarding use of search engines. The argument against the use of these tools is that it prevents students from using memory. Proponents argue that we need to adapt to the digital world and encourage critical use of these tools.

These tools will not disappear any time soon, so learning and assessment of learning needs to adapt to incorporate these tools. If the goal of learning is to be able to adapt skills and knowledge to various situations, the best use of our time is to incorporate these tools in learning. Critical thinking and evaluating information sources are far more important skills in the digital age than memorizing facts.

We still have a long way to go in developing online educational tools that have similar benefits to the traditional face to face classroom. This is no reason to block the tools. It is an amazing thing that these tools are forcing a high order evaluation and critical thinking than traditional route learning. I’m much happier spending my brain power and space on developing critical thinking than memorization.

So while the digital textbook and noting taking has been a challenge, I plan on continuing down this path. My studying habits will need to adapt. And maybe one day soon technology will adapt to reproduce that noting taking to memory experience I once enjoyed.

Preparing for Instruction 4: Right vs Left Brain Myth

Most of us have probably heard at one time or another that people are either right brain dominated or left brain dominated. Righties are supposed to be more creative and/or in touch with their emotional side, while lefties are supposed to be more analytical. How much of this is true?

Very little!

http://www.livescience.com/39373-left-brain-right-brain-myth.html

In this article, the right vs left brain myth is debunked. The root of the myth appears to date back to research done by Sperry in the 1960’s, where he studies patients who had damage to the corpus callosum (the structure that connects the two hemispheres of the brain). In his research he did find peculiarities of certain preferences for one side in patients. This was misinterpreted by popular media to the myth we know today.

Many researchers have since tried to reproduce the results. While brain scans show that there is some grounding to certain types of processing taking place in a particular hemisphere (such as analytic tasks originating on the left side, creative tasks on the right), it is the connection between these two hemispheres that allow us to interpret and make meaning of most tasks.

What does this mean for Learning and Teaching?

As reflective practitioners, I think we need to be aware of these myths and more importantly how these inaccurate popularized myths can affect learners. This is just one example of how analytic and rational thinking gets privileged over creative or emotional thinking. We need to be aware of these dichotomies, as they can affect learner’s self esteem. For an example, someone who is creative might have been labeled a right brainer, so the learner may be uneasy around highly analytic tasks because right brainers are not supposed to be good at them. By being aware of these myths, we help debunk these myths in learners by supporting learners through tasks they may be uncomfortable with.

For further debunking of this right vs left brain myth, checking out Neil deGrasse Tyson speak on this issue:

https://braindecoder.com/post/neil-degrasse-tyson-elegantly-debunk-right-left-brain-myth-1120713524