The article is one based on research conducted in the field of personal epistemology, research that "examines students' beliefs about the nature of knowing and knowledge." The vague individualistic nature of this field has allowed for a slew of off shoots to arise. It is suggested that readers, particularly students, can over come learning and understanding problems if they know the proper way to approach the problem.
The section on "Beliefs about learning and text comprehension" claimed information came from sources such as phenomenographic studies, and self-reporting questionnaires. Ultimately these different methods lead to the conclusion that students beliefs about what learning actually was, forming new connections between concepts or being able to reproduce the concepts one is taught, impacted the self-regulated learning. Accordingly students that believed in the constructive learning reason were "more likely to succeed in transforming new information and integrating it with their own knowledge."
At this point I would simply like to point out that the study appears to be biased. Students who focus on learning one way are going to "succeed" if they are tested on concepts in a similar manner to the way they learned them while the students who learned through and alternative method would clearly have a reason for not "succeeding" as well as the other students. I wonder how this success is being measure (raises similar debate as modern IQ tests do).
This particular study is answering a question raised after reading the article on change over the next 20 years in East Asian classrooms: what if any is the difference between the students approach to learning in the classroom. It was conducted over roughly 850 students in the 5th and 6th grades of Chinese schools. These students were asked to fill out "the implicit learning questionnaire" adapted specifically for this study from the Canadian version.
Part of the data collect was broken down into a table showing Constructivist beliefs and Reproductivist beliefs on topics chosen by the researchers.
This particular way of categorizing seems very pro-thesis oriented. The data is not being allow to simply lie within the study but is being presented in the data portion in such a way that it could only support the hypothesis. Ultimately, however the study showed "zero correlations for beliefs about learning, self-regulated learning strategies and inferential comprehension." (14) Despite these finding the researchers claim the evidence supports the hypothesis The study showed that many eastern students carry similar beliefs and approaches to learning as western students who have been tested but that these students can often be broken down into the categories of the constructive and reproductive learner.
The study, while it raised valid points about the personal views of students impacting the way the retain and learn knowledge (which is an interesting concept to explore about the approach people take to reading things over the internet) was in my opinion to black and white to be thorough study. Also I personally am not a fan of the survey method (which was used to collect some of the data) as it has been proven to be around 20% inaccurate. As far as I can tell the hypothesis could not have been proven wrong with the methods used, thus making the study invalid. It is encouraging however to see to articles with such high correlation (how East Asian classrooms will be changing over the next 20 years and this).
Monday, January 30, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Reflection on "How East Asian Classrooms over the next 20 years"
The author of this essay opens up with a very logical, affirmative tone. A nice relief from the "distant" emotional tone that I was getting from Carr (that's just something to keep track of as I begin to write my own paper). Tai-Wai Chan opens up his essay by introducing an few assumptions to the reader: 1) In the future, unless radical technological changes occur, schools will still exist, 2) the schools of northern China will likely experience the change first because of deep Confucius roots creating an appreciation of education and educators, 3) This appreciation of education extends to the family structure of East Asian families creating such an appreciation for education parents will go hungry to ensure their children can get quality education. Chan takes an anecdotal approach to expressing his/her ideas in this thesis (anther quality in her/his writing that I liked).
Chan talks about his/her research through the years including his work on a device known as a EduClick "for enhancing teacher-student interaction during the question-and-answer section... I use a device similar to that in my Biology lecture, the iClicker and have heard of some classrooms syncing ipods and ipod like devices for a similar purpose. Some of such technology that Chan talks about future developments as ebooks... devices to replace the written word and clunky modern technology.
Chan presents the idea that the arrival of technology, it's accessibility and practicality in large scale populations (as it is now and will be in a much greater way in the foreseeable future). The first anecdotal story Chan shares with the reader is one of the experimental e-classroom, Ms Liu's class, that Ms. Liu preferred to be called an individualized classroom. That seems to be Chan's positive take on the future of schools and technology, the fusion of technology and education will create a more personalized and individual learning environment. Chan suggests that the eboard (much like a chalkboard is used today) will be phased out by ebooks (textbooks, etc much like the nook, or kindle is being used or perhaps the ipad). This new style of classroom is not going to be a "one size fits all" type of classroom.
Chan goes on to describe the possibilities the eboard might play in the classroom. Creating an environment where students are able to "teach" mini-lectures to create deeper understanding in the students. These active styles of learning as Chan calls them can fall into two categories: individual learning and group learning. With modern technology in the classrooms students will be helping student to understand when the teacher does not have the time to help. Chan's vision talks about teacher's becoming mentors to the students, again returning to an individualized education structure. Hopefully, Chan states, this new structure will help to eliminate social comparisons in the schooling system. "One day, teachers in digital classrooms will speak of classroom equity."
The inequality currently in classrooms creates "dropouts", created from feelings of "failure". This where Chan's argument becomes as follows: The major reason for this feeling of failure is that a small portion of students consistently receives the lowest scores in academic subjects, constantly weakening their confidence and interest.
Chan suggests this may be because of the need within humans, particularly important when in teachers, to be intelligently lazy, or have technology that enables them to have a relatively high productivity level with minimal effort. The interactive technology will constantly keep the students challenged to an appropriate level with adequate help. Chan talks about a classroom where older students are mentoring younger students and everyone is propelling at their own pace.
Over Chan points to a unique future, but he does have a few flaws, in my opinion. The concept of creating equality in the classroom... this does not seem possible. Humans naturally have competition, especially in learning. You can't keep some of the hierarchical structures (grades that do rank people, having math and science be the subjects that are the most pushed in education) and expect other changes to create the illusion of equality. People are different.. and should never have to pretend or be expected to be the same and as long as those differences exist the human mind, which loves to categorize things, will put these into different categories. No matter of reorganization will change this fact, it's how people think. Because I believe in not criticizing without offering a solution, perhaps the problem should be accepted and instead of trying to re-wire the human mind from something it has done since the beginning of time one should work with it. Instead of trying to create equal structures for the children to be "placed" in one should teach children how to handle the different categories... the message that difference are good is a hard lesson but should be the ultimate goal of the moral side of education (along with a few others that may be mentioned later).
Chan also seems to have a false concept of how the classrooms already operate, perhaps there are great cultural differences (this I would suspect is part of the problem). In all the classes I have been a part of if a student had a question they would likely ask others students before they approached the teacher. This is already a system in place, perhaps not taught to teachers but its going on. Also if this becomes the case one has to wonder about the quality of information that the younger kids would be getting. The reason teachers are prized in some societies is their depth of knowledge and the quality of said knowledge. Teacher have taught over and over again the same lessons, each time strengthening their understanding of the subject. If older students have to take on this responsibility how well will they have understandings of these topics, how much time will it be sacrificing from their educational pursuits.
That structure of teaching will create a high degree of integration among the grade levels, growing the sense of community, but lets face it not everyone can teach. Chan's vision is a shinning image that awaits some in the future, I just hope that others will add some organic adjustments to the image.
Chan talks about his/her research through the years including his work on a device known as a EduClick "for enhancing teacher-student interaction during the question-and-answer section... I use a device similar to that in my Biology lecture, the iClicker and have heard of some classrooms syncing ipods and ipod like devices for a similar purpose. Some of such technology that Chan talks about future developments as ebooks... devices to replace the written word and clunky modern technology.
Chan presents the idea that the arrival of technology, it's accessibility and practicality in large scale populations (as it is now and will be in a much greater way in the foreseeable future). The first anecdotal story Chan shares with the reader is one of the experimental e-classroom, Ms Liu's class, that Ms. Liu preferred to be called an individualized classroom. That seems to be Chan's positive take on the future of schools and technology, the fusion of technology and education will create a more personalized and individual learning environment. Chan suggests that the eboard (much like a chalkboard is used today) will be phased out by ebooks (textbooks, etc much like the nook, or kindle is being used or perhaps the ipad). This new style of classroom is not going to be a "one size fits all" type of classroom.
Chan goes on to describe the possibilities the eboard might play in the classroom. Creating an environment where students are able to "teach" mini-lectures to create deeper understanding in the students. These active styles of learning as Chan calls them can fall into two categories: individual learning and group learning. With modern technology in the classrooms students will be helping student to understand when the teacher does not have the time to help. Chan's vision talks about teacher's becoming mentors to the students, again returning to an individualized education structure. Hopefully, Chan states, this new structure will help to eliminate social comparisons in the schooling system. "One day, teachers in digital classrooms will speak of classroom equity."
The inequality currently in classrooms creates "dropouts", created from feelings of "failure". This where Chan's argument becomes as follows: The major reason for this feeling of failure is that a small portion of students consistently receives the lowest scores in academic subjects, constantly weakening their confidence and interest.
Chan suggests this may be because of the need within humans, particularly important when in teachers, to be intelligently lazy, or have technology that enables them to have a relatively high productivity level with minimal effort. The interactive technology will constantly keep the students challenged to an appropriate level with adequate help. Chan talks about a classroom where older students are mentoring younger students and everyone is propelling at their own pace.
Over Chan points to a unique future, but he does have a few flaws, in my opinion. The concept of creating equality in the classroom... this does not seem possible. Humans naturally have competition, especially in learning. You can't keep some of the hierarchical structures (grades that do rank people, having math and science be the subjects that are the most pushed in education) and expect other changes to create the illusion of equality. People are different.. and should never have to pretend or be expected to be the same and as long as those differences exist the human mind, which loves to categorize things, will put these into different categories. No matter of reorganization will change this fact, it's how people think. Because I believe in not criticizing without offering a solution, perhaps the problem should be accepted and instead of trying to re-wire the human mind from something it has done since the beginning of time one should work with it. Instead of trying to create equal structures for the children to be "placed" in one should teach children how to handle the different categories... the message that difference are good is a hard lesson but should be the ultimate goal of the moral side of education (along with a few others that may be mentioned later).
Chan also seems to have a false concept of how the classrooms already operate, perhaps there are great cultural differences (this I would suspect is part of the problem). In all the classes I have been a part of if a student had a question they would likely ask others students before they approached the teacher. This is already a system in place, perhaps not taught to teachers but its going on. Also if this becomes the case one has to wonder about the quality of information that the younger kids would be getting. The reason teachers are prized in some societies is their depth of knowledge and the quality of said knowledge. Teacher have taught over and over again the same lessons, each time strengthening their understanding of the subject. If older students have to take on this responsibility how well will they have understandings of these topics, how much time will it be sacrificing from their educational pursuits.
That structure of teaching will create a high degree of integration among the grade levels, growing the sense of community, but lets face it not everyone can teach. Chan's vision is a shinning image that awaits some in the future, I just hope that others will add some organic adjustments to the image.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Try and do nothing
Just as a self test try the link. It should take you to a website that plays relaxing music and asks you to do nothing for 2 minutes. Can you do it?
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1uiQyb/www.donothingfor2minutes.com/
Also just to see how your eyes are wandering read this:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/8FOkEQ/ifunny.mobi/i4391781/
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1uiQyb/www.donothingfor2minutes.com/
Also just to see how your eyes are wandering read this:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/8FOkEQ/ifunny.mobi/i4391781/
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Possible Articles to read
Ideas:
*Sapir-whorf hypothesis and technology
** blogs.plos.org – “Diverse perspectives on science and medicine”
For list of possible articles see page below
Potential Articles
Buller, David J. Adopting Minds: Evolutinoary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature. MIT Press, 2005.
Cowan, Nelson. Working Memory Capacity. Psychology Press, 2005.
Doidge, Norman. The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of PersonalTriumphfrom the Frontiers of Brain Science. Penguin, 2007.
Dupuy, Jean-Pierre. On the Origins of Cognitive Science: The mechanization of the Mind. MIT Press, 2009
Flynn, James R. What is Intelligence? Beyond the Flynn Effect. Cambridge university Press, 2007.
Golumbia, David. The Cultural Logic of Computation. Harvard university Press, 2009.
James, William. The Principles of Psycholohy. Holt, 1890.
Kandel, Eric R. In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind. Norton, 2006.
Klingberg, Torkel. The Overflowing Brain: information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory. Oxford University Press, 2008
LeDoux, Joseph. Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are. Penguin, 2002.
Martensen, Robert L. The Brain Takes Shape: EarlyHistory. Oxford University Press, 2004.
Schwartz, Jeffery M., and Sharon Begley. The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force. Harper Perennial, 2002.
Sweller, John. Instructional Design in Technical Areas. Australian Council for Educational Research, 1999.
Wexler, Bruce E. Brain and Culture: Neurobiology, Ideology, and Social Change. MIT Press, 2006.
Young, J. Z. Doubt and Certainty in Science: Biologist’s Reflections on the Brain. Oxford University Press, 1951.
The Mind of the Reader
Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. Faber and Faber, 1994.
Dehaene, Stanislas. Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention. Viking, 2009.
Goody, Jack. The Interface between the Written and the Oral. Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Havelock, Eric. Preface to Plato. Harvard University Press, 1963.
Moss, Ann. Printed Commonplace-Books and the Structuring of Renaissance Thought. Oxford University Press, 1996.
Olson, David R. The World on Paper: The Conceptual and Cognitive Implications of Writing and Reading. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. Routledge, 2002.
Wolf, Marvanne. Proust and the Sauid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. Harper, 2007.
Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development In the College Years, A Scheme
Googled, Ken Auletta
Googled, Ken Auletta
The gist of my Independent Study
Independent Study
Question: What is the relationship between the key words selected for an article and the information later associated with the article by the reader, specifically the key words for internet searches as they link with the information people access and retain?
Meeting
Meeting 1 (Jan 18th, 2012): Read The Shallows: What the internet Is Doing to Our Brain, Nicholas Carr, and research four articles that pertain to the focus question. Example might be article on the association of key words in questions to answers, how key words for documents are chosen, etc.) Create annotated bibliography
Meeting 2 (Feb. 1st, 2012): Complete The Shallows: What the internet Is Doing to Our Brain. Develop questions, about learning techniques and the libraries techniques for categorization (the difference between paper and internet) for interviews later. Interview Rui Wang (Anthropology Librarian) and Tim Peters (Director of Information Services). Write a short annotated bibliography/ summary of the interviews and four articles.
Meeting 3 (Feb. 15th): Find three more relevant articles and create annotated bibliography. Contact at least two professors on or off campus whose research shows a link to the focus question.
Meeting 4 (Feb. 29th): Research potential side effects (If information is being limited through keyword searches; what is being missed, who’s choosing it to be missed, alternative methods of organization). Contact two more professionals on related topics. *
Meeting 5 (Mar. 14th): Research potential observation or testing methods, Selected readings from H. Russell Bernard Research Methods in Anthropology.
Meeting 6 (Mar. 28th): Research potential applications of further research in this area. Write a short paper (3-5 pages) on what these might be, suitable to be inserted in the conclusion of a paper.
Meeting 7 (April 11th): Write Background information of introduction and have proof read by three professionals. Final draft of question should be completed.
Meeting 8(April 25th): Assemble all materials into a cohesive package.
Goal: to have the introduction of a research paper, the question, and methods/means of answering the question written in final form for a possible senior project. The final projects should make the conducting of a senior project much easier.
-by each meeting annotated bibliographies will be turned in before meeting, and four articles read by the meeting.
Meeting will be held 3:30- 4:30 PM on Wednesdays, every other week beginning on January 18th and continuing the following dates: February 1st, 15th, 29th, March 14th, 28th, April 11th, 25th.
Review of five chapters from The Shallows:What the Internet is doing to our Brains Part 2
Chapter 3
This chapter discusses the "intellectual maturation... traced through the way we draw pictures, or maps, of our surroundings." (pg 40) This is something to take note of for later use in this study. "[T]he development of our mapmaking skills closely parallel the general stages of childhood cognitive development." (Pg 40) This fact alone could present multiple ways to test the cognitive ability of a child drawing the same map from direction on paper and the directions from the internet, vs the directions read out loud.
Through the development of time as a unit of control over daily life the alteration of thinking patterns also occurred. According to Carr most of humanity was lived through an essentially continuous cycle of time not divided into any type of unit. It was "dominated by agrarian rhythms, free of haste, careless of exactitude, unconcerned by productivity." (Jacques Le Goff on pg 41) The clock is often linked to the fact that we now consider the world to fit into "measurable sequences".
The intellectual ethics are called up considering some of the biggest inventions for man and as Ralph Waldo Emerson put so eloquently "Things are in the saddle/ And ride mankind." The conflict between our tools doing what we do and us doing what our tools want us to is discussed., reminding me slightly of the lefty dilemma. There is a theory that modern man has more right handers in society because the tools that are used in everyday life are made for right handed people, thus the left handers are at a greater risk and die off or switch hands. It has been proposed, and I believe found to be true, that in ancient societies before tools were invented would have had an equal division of handed dominance. This is however hard to prove, and as of yet I have not found a supporting study, because... really how do you determine handedness with out the use of tools.
The question of all this changing in the brain and its impact on grey matter (the stuff that's important for sensory perception, memory, speech, and emotions) is brought into question. With new technology language is changed, and the metaphors people can use to accurately describe a natural phenomenon change. Interestingly an illiterate society was brought up and how literate people have "considerable detachment from feelings or emotional involvement that a non-literate man or society would experience." (pg 57)
This leaves me with the question how much of our society really wouldn't be possible if we were illiterate? I bet a large majority of it could be done without words.
Chapter 4
This chapter focused primarily on the development of writing and writing utensils. Along with this writing was also the development of different writing forms. Original Greek was written in scriptura continua, continuous writing. that required the writer and the reader to "translate" the work while they read. As writing materials became more accessible so did the method of reading it, no longer did you need to decipher to figure out what was being said.
All this emphasis on literacy makes me wonder what happens to those people in today's world that aren't literate. I seem to recall seeing a news special on teenagers in Detroit who where seniors in High School and couldn't read past a 5th grade level. They survived on memory and reasoning, but was it enough?
For an example of scriptura continua reading the following ThethirtythreethievesthoughtthattheythrilledthethronethroughoutThursday.
An interesting fact that Carr points out is:
The natural state of the human brain... is one of distractedness. Our predisposition is to shift our gaze, and hence our attention, from one object to another, to be aware of as much of what's going on around us as possible.
The fact that books required singular focus was a " 'strange anomaly in the history of our psychological development.' " Reading became alone time for every literate individual. Ideas began to be constructed and revised, varying from the norm and growing in numbers shifting the home of power between ideological institutions.
Carr talks about the invention of the Gutenberg printing press and how it truly revolutionized the world, past, present and future. This makes me wonder what people are going to say about the internet years from now. How will hindsight change the image of our present forms.
Carr then delves into the slightly conspiratorial rant. If papers can transmit ideas from one person to the next, prophesied Lee de Forest, some day information (such as political) would be simply placed right in the brain.
Chapter 5
Chapter 5 talks about the convenience of the net. It's simple to translate all information into a series of ones and zeros and takes up very little space to send those series form one place to another. Further more the internet has the advantage that no other information medium has had, it is "bidirectional". No surprise internet use has increased by over 30% in some areas in under 3 years. According to Carr all this usage is dissolving the boundaries between media sources. "Our attachment to any one text becomes more tenuous... Searches lead to the fragmentation of online works... we don't see the forest... (or) the trees. We see twigs and leaves. As companies like Google and Microsoft perfect search engines for video and audio content, more products are undergoing fragmentation that already characterizes written works." (Pg 91)
Like the air we breath, Carr describes the internet of the future as something one cannot help but interact with as it will be a part of everyday life. In the world of the future the printed word, claims Carr, will be pushed aside to make way for more image oriented, flashy forms of communication that will draw the persons attention to them.
This chapter discusses the "intellectual maturation... traced through the way we draw pictures, or maps, of our surroundings." (pg 40) This is something to take note of for later use in this study. "[T]he development of our mapmaking skills closely parallel the general stages of childhood cognitive development." (Pg 40) This fact alone could present multiple ways to test the cognitive ability of a child drawing the same map from direction on paper and the directions from the internet, vs the directions read out loud.
Through the development of time as a unit of control over daily life the alteration of thinking patterns also occurred. According to Carr most of humanity was lived through an essentially continuous cycle of time not divided into any type of unit. It was "dominated by agrarian rhythms, free of haste, careless of exactitude, unconcerned by productivity." (Jacques Le Goff on pg 41) The clock is often linked to the fact that we now consider the world to fit into "measurable sequences".
The intellectual ethics are called up considering some of the biggest inventions for man and as Ralph Waldo Emerson put so eloquently "Things are in the saddle/ And ride mankind." The conflict between our tools doing what we do and us doing what our tools want us to is discussed., reminding me slightly of the lefty dilemma. There is a theory that modern man has more right handers in society because the tools that are used in everyday life are made for right handed people, thus the left handers are at a greater risk and die off or switch hands. It has been proposed, and I believe found to be true, that in ancient societies before tools were invented would have had an equal division of handed dominance. This is however hard to prove, and as of yet I have not found a supporting study, because... really how do you determine handedness with out the use of tools.
The question of all this changing in the brain and its impact on grey matter (the stuff that's important for sensory perception, memory, speech, and emotions) is brought into question. With new technology language is changed, and the metaphors people can use to accurately describe a natural phenomenon change. Interestingly an illiterate society was brought up and how literate people have "considerable detachment from feelings or emotional involvement that a non-literate man or society would experience." (pg 57)
This leaves me with the question how much of our society really wouldn't be possible if we were illiterate? I bet a large majority of it could be done without words.
Chapter 4
This chapter focused primarily on the development of writing and writing utensils. Along with this writing was also the development of different writing forms. Original Greek was written in scriptura continua, continuous writing. that required the writer and the reader to "translate" the work while they read. As writing materials became more accessible so did the method of reading it, no longer did you need to decipher to figure out what was being said.
All this emphasis on literacy makes me wonder what happens to those people in today's world that aren't literate. I seem to recall seeing a news special on teenagers in Detroit who where seniors in High School and couldn't read past a 5th grade level. They survived on memory and reasoning, but was it enough?
For an example of scriptura continua reading the following ThethirtythreethievesthoughtthattheythrilledthethronethroughoutThursday.
An interesting fact that Carr points out is:
The natural state of the human brain... is one of distractedness. Our predisposition is to shift our gaze, and hence our attention, from one object to another, to be aware of as much of what's going on around us as possible.
The fact that books required singular focus was a " 'strange anomaly in the history of our psychological development.' " Reading became alone time for every literate individual. Ideas began to be constructed and revised, varying from the norm and growing in numbers shifting the home of power between ideological institutions.
Carr talks about the invention of the Gutenberg printing press and how it truly revolutionized the world, past, present and future. This makes me wonder what people are going to say about the internet years from now. How will hindsight change the image of our present forms.
Carr then delves into the slightly conspiratorial rant. If papers can transmit ideas from one person to the next, prophesied Lee de Forest, some day information (such as political) would be simply placed right in the brain.
Chapter 5
Chapter 5 talks about the convenience of the net. It's simple to translate all information into a series of ones and zeros and takes up very little space to send those series form one place to another. Further more the internet has the advantage that no other information medium has had, it is "bidirectional". No surprise internet use has increased by over 30% in some areas in under 3 years. According to Carr all this usage is dissolving the boundaries between media sources. "Our attachment to any one text becomes more tenuous... Searches lead to the fragmentation of online works... we don't see the forest... (or) the trees. We see twigs and leaves. As companies like Google and Microsoft perfect search engines for video and audio content, more products are undergoing fragmentation that already characterizes written works." (Pg 91)
Like the air we breath, Carr describes the internet of the future as something one cannot help but interact with as it will be a part of everyday life. In the world of the future the printed word, claims Carr, will be pushed aside to make way for more image oriented, flashy forms of communication that will draw the persons attention to them.
Review of five chapters from The Shallows:What the Internet is doing to our Brains Part 1
Preface (1-4)
In this section Carr attempts to present the idea that medium can highly impact the way people interpret the information being presented. This idea is best put in that, " 'The effects of technology do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts,' wrote McLuhan. Rather, they alter 'patterns of perception steadily and without any resistance.' " (pg 3) A further idea that seemed particularly poignant to me was " ' We are too prone to make technological instruments the scapegoats for the sins of those who wield them.' " (pg 3) At one point the internet is compared to a "juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind." The general tone of the piece is one of slight apprehension, yet a persevering dedication to find out how the internet might truly be affect who people are.
Chapter 1
A theme that seems to weave though out this chapter would be that people, as they lose the ability for "deep" thought and the mental stillness for contemplation they are also presented with easier and easier "bites" of thought from writers on the internet.
Pathologist at the University of Michigan Medical School, Bruce Friedman claims that he has now "almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print." (pg 7) This started me wondering how the reading ability of the current generation has changed from those of previous generations. A quick search on the internet (the irony of the paper shall I suspect be these quick searches allowing tangents to spring up where they once would not have been able to) revealed that illiteracy rates over the past 40 years have been decreasing, though researchers claim they are on the rise once again. (National Assessment of Adult Literacy)
The author mentions three separate authors who recognize that their writing has been altered because of more outside influences however they are unwilling to give up the quick access to information and outside ideas to go back to the old way of writing. I feel that it's necessarily to point out that "the old way" of writing is necessarily the better way. People often hear about changing this and changing that and become apprehensive, in this case we don't need to be apprehensive not yet. The jury is still out on whether or not the internet is detrimental to us.
These authors being posed the question, would they give up the net, inspired a question in me: What would the world be like without the net? How would people communicate quickly? What would be the new mode for transferring information? Surely books would still be "old technology" an we would have some other crazy thing trying to replace them but what would that thing be? I have lived in a world with "the net" to long to even grasp a glimpse of the world without it.
Carr states a feeling of intoxication while online. A feeling that is shared by other according to the anecdotal stories he shares with the reader. The chapter concludes with an interesting thought. Had mankind in trying to create a machine of flesh and blood actually end up creating a "flesh-and-blood word processor" out man? (pg 16)
Chapter 2
Chapter 2 introduces the reader to select moments of the 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. These moments are Nietzsche sharing that he feels his thought have changed since he stopped using the pen, and instead in his advanced years used the Malling-Hansen Writing Ball to express his thoughts.
Carr then goes on to describe the basic functioning of cells in the brain presenting British biologist J. Z. Young to say that cells of the brain may die or grow larger depending upon how they are used. (For further reading on this subject see "Buller does to Evolutionary Psychology what Kitcher did to Sociobiology" "A review of Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature" to be read in further posts)
The research of Merzenich on reorganization after trauma of monkey brains is brought up answering the haunting question of phantom limb syndrome. Merzenich's researched showed that after significant trauma to the "giving" end of sense (say the monkey's hand or fingers) and an allotted amount of time for recovery the brain of these Monkey's would rewire themselves so that the area of the brain previously used by the injured hand is now used by a new location, like the wrist of the monkey. "Virtually all our neural circuits... are subject to change." (pg 26) This finding raises, in my mind, the question of how can anything known in neuro science be accepted as a fact if the facts are about a constantly shifting, adapting, intelligently connecting thing that isn't really what we thought it had been?
The empiricists (we are all born with a blank slate) and rationalists (we are all born with built-in mental templates that determine how we perceive and make sense of the world) can finally be in agreement with a brain that has a plan, but can also "go with the flow".
An interesting example that nearly everyone should have heard of at this point would be the increase in alternate sensations of the blind or the deaf. " 'Neurons seem to 'want' to receive input' " (said by Kanwisher Pg 29) " Neuroplasticity, argues Pasual- Leone, is one of the most important products of evolution, a trait that enables the nervous system ' to escape the restriction of its own genome and thus adapt to environmental pressures..' " (Pg 31)
This plasticity is presented as a possible cause, or reinforcement for psychological disorders, learning disorders, and even addictions. This concept provides a much greater chance at hope for anyone wishing to change one of these things in themselves. In a digression Carr presents "To believe otherwise would, we feel, call into question the integrity of the self". (Pg 38)
"National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) - 120 Years of Literacy." National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a Part of the U.S. Department of Education. Institute for Education Services. Web. 14 Jan. 2012. <http://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp>.
In this section Carr attempts to present the idea that medium can highly impact the way people interpret the information being presented. This idea is best put in that, " 'The effects of technology do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts,' wrote McLuhan. Rather, they alter 'patterns of perception steadily and without any resistance.' " (pg 3) A further idea that seemed particularly poignant to me was " ' We are too prone to make technological instruments the scapegoats for the sins of those who wield them.' " (pg 3) At one point the internet is compared to a "juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind." The general tone of the piece is one of slight apprehension, yet a persevering dedication to find out how the internet might truly be affect who people are.
Chapter 1
A theme that seems to weave though out this chapter would be that people, as they lose the ability for "deep" thought and the mental stillness for contemplation they are also presented with easier and easier "bites" of thought from writers on the internet.
Pathologist at the University of Michigan Medical School, Bruce Friedman claims that he has now "almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print." (pg 7) This started me wondering how the reading ability of the current generation has changed from those of previous generations. A quick search on the internet (the irony of the paper shall I suspect be these quick searches allowing tangents to spring up where they once would not have been able to) revealed that illiteracy rates over the past 40 years have been decreasing, though researchers claim they are on the rise once again. (National Assessment of Adult Literacy)
The author mentions three separate authors who recognize that their writing has been altered because of more outside influences however they are unwilling to give up the quick access to information and outside ideas to go back to the old way of writing. I feel that it's necessarily to point out that "the old way" of writing is necessarily the better way. People often hear about changing this and changing that and become apprehensive, in this case we don't need to be apprehensive not yet. The jury is still out on whether or not the internet is detrimental to us.
These authors being posed the question, would they give up the net, inspired a question in me: What would the world be like without the net? How would people communicate quickly? What would be the new mode for transferring information? Surely books would still be "old technology" an we would have some other crazy thing trying to replace them but what would that thing be? I have lived in a world with "the net" to long to even grasp a glimpse of the world without it.
Carr states a feeling of intoxication while online. A feeling that is shared by other according to the anecdotal stories he shares with the reader. The chapter concludes with an interesting thought. Had mankind in trying to create a machine of flesh and blood actually end up creating a "flesh-and-blood word processor" out man? (pg 16)
Chapter 2
Chapter 2 introduces the reader to select moments of the 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. These moments are Nietzsche sharing that he feels his thought have changed since he stopped using the pen, and instead in his advanced years used the Malling-Hansen Writing Ball to express his thoughts.
Carr then goes on to describe the basic functioning of cells in the brain presenting British biologist J. Z. Young to say that cells of the brain may die or grow larger depending upon how they are used. (For further reading on this subject see "Buller does to Evolutionary Psychology what Kitcher did to Sociobiology" "A review of Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature" to be read in further posts)
The research of Merzenich on reorganization after trauma of monkey brains is brought up answering the haunting question of phantom limb syndrome. Merzenich's researched showed that after significant trauma to the "giving" end of sense (say the monkey's hand or fingers) and an allotted amount of time for recovery the brain of these Monkey's would rewire themselves so that the area of the brain previously used by the injured hand is now used by a new location, like the wrist of the monkey. "Virtually all our neural circuits... are subject to change." (pg 26) This finding raises, in my mind, the question of how can anything known in neuro science be accepted as a fact if the facts are about a constantly shifting, adapting, intelligently connecting thing that isn't really what we thought it had been?
The empiricists (we are all born with a blank slate) and rationalists (we are all born with built-in mental templates that determine how we perceive and make sense of the world) can finally be in agreement with a brain that has a plan, but can also "go with the flow".
An interesting example that nearly everyone should have heard of at this point would be the increase in alternate sensations of the blind or the deaf. " 'Neurons seem to 'want' to receive input' " (said by Kanwisher Pg 29) " Neuroplasticity, argues Pasual- Leone, is one of the most important products of evolution, a trait that enables the nervous system ' to escape the restriction of its own genome and thus adapt to environmental pressures..' " (Pg 31)
This plasticity is presented as a possible cause, or reinforcement for psychological disorders, learning disorders, and even addictions. This concept provides a much greater chance at hope for anyone wishing to change one of these things in themselves. In a digression Carr presents "To believe otherwise would, we feel, call into question the integrity of the self". (Pg 38)
"National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) - 120 Years of Literacy." National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a Part of the U.S. Department of Education. Institute for Education Services. Web. 14 Jan. 2012. <http://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp>.
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