Web-Connected Minds: Connectedness, Constructivist Learning, & Brain Plasticity
Take an inside look at highly effective education programs that blend online and offline learning while incorporating the latest brain research and instructional methodology. For more than two decades, Yvonne Marie Andres has been a leader in integrating technology and content-driven collaboration to improve student achievement. This session will showcase highly effective education programs from around the globe that are blending online and offline learning, while incorporating the latest neuroplasticity findings and Constructivist Learning methodology. Brain plasticity or neuroplasticity refers to the brain's unique ability to constantly change, grow and remap itself over the course of a lifetime. Neuroscience is finding that digital media and our connectedness are affecting the brains of people of all ages, altering our attention, communication, socialization and learning. Brain imaging studies and cognitive neuroscience continue to give a clearer picture of how individuals respond to sensory stimuli and perform cognitive tasks. This has allowed for a better understanding of the brain's neural systems and how they relate to focus, learning, memory, and creative problem solving. Brain plasticity has significant implications for our entire education system, but, especially for those with learning disabilities and for aging citizens. How do we translate this knowledge of neuroplasticity into success for all learners? Technology is enabling a new form of connectedness that has greatly impacted the way we learn and the way we communicate. Individuals can no longer independently learn all they need to know and in a globally connected world, there is enormous value in using online tools to collaboratively connect and learn with others. How can we help teachers transition from traditional learning to new learning tools and experiences (e.g. Flexbooks, blended learning environments, collaborative projects, co-created content, global exhibitions and competitions, and virtual field trips) -- and move to the next level of online use the collaborations, people connections, and social interactions become as important as the information resources? Constructivist Learning theory finds that people learn best when they are involved in the construction of their own knowledge, when they create artifacts that serve as evidence of what they have learned, when they share those artifacts with an audience and they receive peer feedback. How important is media literacy, as students become content creators? Presenter will describe several innovative programs being implemented by schools around world that: • Improve student engagement • Incorporate 21 century skills, global awareness and workforce preparedness • Employ brain-friendly strategies to improve student achievement • Maximize and maintain student attention and focus • Promote executive function development and organizational skills • Tie instruction to future learning and creat
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (17)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Web-Connected Minds: Connectedness, Constructivist Learning, & Brain Plasticity
- 1. ISTE 2012
- 2. Your Brain Before My Session
- 4. Looking for the Next Best Thing? It’s Not What You Think!
- 5. Constructivist Learning Connectedness Brain Plasticity
- 6. Neu-ro-plas-tic-ity • Neuroplasticity is re-wiring of brain pathways • Neurogenesis is growth of new neural networks 1. Beginning of life when the immature brain develops 2. Through adulthood when something new is learned 3. In case of brain injury to compensate for lost functions
- 7. My Questions 1. What are specific examples of how the increasing knowledge of brain plasticity might be practically applied to learning and public education for students ages 5-25. 2. How can we employ technology to take advantage of the positive aspects of brain plasticity?
- 8. Mental Practice Alters the Brain
- 9. Digitally Altered Brains Q. Is Google making us stupid? A. We remain largely ignorant of how the internet is changing us.
- 10. Brain Plasticity: Good News Bad News Gary Wilson The Great Porn Experiment
- 11. Brain Friendly Learning Attributes • Attitude • Focused Attention, Cognitive Engagement, Mindfulness • Emotional Engagement • Physical Engagement • Repetition (10,000 hours rule) • Memories Vs Memorization • Novelty (Brain Snacks) • Social Feedback
- 12. Constructivist Engagement Learning Evidence Audience Feedback Video
- 14. Brain Friendly Classrooms Global SchoolNet
- 19. Brain News Forbes: Billionaire Paul Allen Pours $500 Million Into Quest To Find The Essence Of Humanity In The Brain CNN: The Human Connectome Project is giving neuroscientists a new perspective on the connections in the brain and how they communicate with each other.
- 21. ISTE 2012
- 22. Brain Friendly Resources • New Brain Science http://www.nicabm.com/thebrain2011/ • Rick Hanson - How To Change Your Brain http://youtu.be/tAv_CWz969g • How The Brain Rewires Itself http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580438,00.html • 10 Brain Tips to Teach and Learn http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/07/03/10-brain-training-tips-to-teach- and-learn/ • Whole Brain Teaching http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/ • How Recent Brain Research Can Inform the Design of Online Learninghttp://www.thejeo.com/Meyer%20Final.pdf • Educational Neuroscience http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_neuroscience • Brain Matters: A Study Guide http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109073/chapters/A-Study-Guide-for- Brain-Matters@-Translating-Research-into-Classroom-Practice-%282nd- Edition%29.aspx • Exercise for the Aging Brain Studies http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/exercise.html#exerciseaging
Editor's Notes
- This is the typical brain
- I know that my message is not going to be popular with vendors and gadget lovers. I am NOT here to tell you about the next best thing…. The latest, greatest, ground-breaking, innovative technology that is going to transform learning.I am here to tell you about the BEST thing that has been around for at least 30 years…. Global SchoolNet,which was started by teachers to help low achieving students, has a 30 year success record of offering schools project-driven collaborative learning opportunities - which support constructivist learning methodology, future thinking strategies, global education and career development -- with strong links to leadership and project management principles.Our message and methodology I believe that misuse of technology in schools is worse than no technology at all.
- There are two ways that we learn. Interaction and RepetitionWhat is meant by Connectedness, Constructivist Learning & Brain Plasticity? Why are these things important and how are they impacting education?
- Became interested 2 years ago when a family member had a strokeYou can change your mind, to change your brain, to change your mind.Not only can the brain learn new tricks, but it can also change its structure and function--even in old age.The brain is not, as was thought, like a machine, or “hardwired” like a computer. Neuroplasticity not only gives hope to those with mental limitations, or what was thought to be incurable brain damage, but expands our understanding of the healthy brain and the resilience of human nature.
- The Brain That Changes Itself, Norman Doidgehttp://www.normandoidge.com/normandoidge.com/MAIN.htmlTrain Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves, Sharon Begleyhttp://www.mindandlife.org/publications/train-your-mind-change-your-brain/Possible to change the structure and function of the brain, and in so doing alter how we think and feel?In late 2004, leading Western scientists joined the Dalai Lama at his home in Dharamsala, India, to address this very question — and in the process brought about a revolution in our understanding of the human mind. In this fascinating and far-reaching book, Wall Street Journal science writer Sharon Begley reports on how cutting-edge science and the ancient wisdom of Buddhism have come together to show how we all have the power to literally change our brains by changing our minds.The Woman Who Changed Her Brain, Barbara Arrow Smith Younghttp://www.thewomanwhochangedherbrain.com/
- 1. Mental Practice Imaginary piano playing.It was a fairly modest experiment, as these things go, with volunteers trooping into the lab at Harvard Medical School to learn and practice a little five-finger piano exercise. Neuroscientist Alvaro Pascual-Leone instructed the members of one group to play as fluidly as they could, trying to keep to the metronome's 60 beats per minute. Every day for five days, the volunteers practiced for two hours. Then they took a test.At the end of each day's practice session, they sat beneath a coil of wire that sent a brief magnetic pulse into the motor cortex of their brain, located in a strip running from the crown of the head toward each ear. The so-called transcranial-magnetic-stimulation (TMS) test allows scientists to infer the function of neurons just beneath the coil. In the piano players, the TMS mapped how much of the motor cortex controlled the finger movements needed for the piano exercise. What the scientists found was that after a week of practice, the stretch of motor cortex devoted to these finger movements took over surrounding areas like dandelions on a suburban lawn.The finding was in line with a growing number of discoveries at the time showing that greater use of a particular muscle causes the brain to devote more cortical real estate to it. But Pascual-Leone did not stop there. He extended the experiment by having another group of volunteers merely think about practicing the piano exercise. They played the simple piece of music in their head, holding their hands still while imagining how they would move their fingers. Then they too sat beneath the TMS coil.When the scientists compared the TMS data on the two groups--those who actually tickled the ivories and those who only imagined doing so--they glimpsed a revolutionary idea about the brain: the ability of mere thought to alter the physical structure and function of our gray matter. For what the TMS revealed was that the region of motor cortex that controls the piano-playing fingers also expanded in the brains of volunteers who imagined playing the music--just as it had in those who actually played it."Mental practice resulted in a similar reorganization" of the brain, Pascual-Leone later wrote. If his results hold for other forms of movement (and there is no reason to think they don't), then mentally practicing a golf swing or a forward pass or a swimming turn could lead to mastery with less physical practice. Even more profound, the discovery showed that mental training had the power to change the physical structure of the brain.Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580438,00.html#ixzz1ySAH66lh
- Conversations have changes. How many of your conversations end with I will send you the link.We get our news in 140 chars and our movies in 3 minute clips.Online education could prevent mental decline and be a lifesaver for seniors
- Addiction: Bothgood and badOur senses are receiving an estimated eleven million bits of information per second, while we are conscious of only forty.D. G. Myers, Psychology, Seventh Edition, (Holland, MI: Worth Publishers, 2004)TEDxGlasgow - Gary Wilson - The Great Porn Experiment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zif0_60b3WUHave our brains evolved to handle the hyperstimulation of today's Internet enticements?
- Attributes listed not in order of importanceMeaningful connections moves things to the long term memoryThe factors that are mostclosely aligned with the growth of new neurons are stimulation, novelty, close relationships, apositive attitude, and exercise (Quartz and Sejnowski, 2002, pp. 242-250)Brain researchfinds that when one is focused on vision, that portion of the brain activates. It also reduces theactivity in regions of the brain responsible for other senses. In addition, attention may beimportant for helping new connections take hold in the brain by repeatedly firing a set ofsynapses so that they become stronger.
- We can learn alone. But, collaborative learning is deeper. Having an audience and getting feedback is important. Musicians and Tennis players play better with others…If our brains are constructed by interacting with the world, this may provide some modestsupport for why constructivist learning has a powerful influence on student learningBecause the world changes in uncertain but predictable ways, we are forced tolearn from the past and make plausible predictions about the future. “Brains are prediction machines that use information gathered from past experience to predict future events important for survival” (Quartz and Sejnowski, 2002, p. 101). Changes in ourenvironments therefore create and reinforce a brain that is built to handle, adjust to, understand,predict and propose changes. Create and evaluateAudience, Peer reviewFunny videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QWBh9ALWf0
- lumosity.com/bloghappy-neuron.com
- Billionnairehttp://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2012/03/21/billionaire-paul-g-allen-donates-300-million-in-brain-research-to-understand-what-makes-us-human/2/Scientists to build 'human brain': Supercomputer will simulate the entire mind and will help fight against brain diseasesRead more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2130124/Scientists-build-human-brain-Supercomputer-simulate-mind-exactly-help-fight-brain-diseases.html#ixzz1ykGNB0cqhttp://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/01/tech/innovation/brain-map-connectome/index.htmlThe Human Connectome Project is giving neuroscientists a new perspective on the connections in the brain and how they communicate with each other.