Having followed Brain Research since the early 90’s I have been excited by the amount of new information coming out regarding learning and education. It seems that the greater our technology the greater our understanding of how the brain works. Now, for many this only makes sense, but it not until you realize the advances that have lead to this new knowledge base that you fully begin to comprehend what the future could hold.
That future could include a prescriptive educational program for every child based on his/her brain scan results that takes into account not only his/her genetic disposition, but also the environmental factors that are at work as well. Every student is impacted by so many different stimuli and new brain scans can now begin to show how those stimuli map the brain and learning as a whole. I shutter to think what my brain might map out like, but I did have chance to get a glimpse of my 6 month old son’s brain’s inner workings recently as he participated in a cognitive studies research program at Duke University in NC. It was amazing to see how active his brain was and how much he could already process at such a young age. This included differentiating between dots of various numbers and shapes.
I recently did a presentation called “Understanding Your Students’ iBrains” and was thrilled with the response. The presentation can be found here in case you are interested and much of the information is based on research coming out of UCLA and Harvard. I also use material from the books iBrains: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind and Brain Rules. However, I would also encourage anyone interested in the subject to read Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns.
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