Cognitive Flexibility Memory aka Photoshop of the Mind

Do you think your technology use has affected the way you think and learn?  

Yes. Absolutely. I went back to school in 2004 and that was a time in which technology was really making serious in-roads into education. We were using Blackboard, heavily using email, and my undergraduate degree was in Science Education. We utilized technology in a variety of ways in the lab. No longer did I write papers with a pen and paper (or word processor/typewriter) like I did in the late 80’s. I could type my thoughts out about as fast as I could think them (as my typing speed improved). I wonder if that was the cause of Nietzsche's change in writing style when he moved to the typewriter? Maybe he was actually processing his thoughts at a faster rate than he did with a pen and paper? I could see an argument both for and against this (think about speaking a response vs. writing out a well-articulated response to someone's question).

If so, has the change been positive or negative?

I, too, have experienced the difficulty in engaging with long-texts. I’m working to get my habits of mind back to being able to engage with those longer texts (out of necessity - otherwise I might never finish this program!). I enjoy the snippets of information on the web. Twitter gives me a tremendous amount of information. I engage with only some it deeply. However, it has exposed me to so much more knowledge than I would have been able to see without it (twitter). Learning on the web (isn’t everything web-based now days?) is a bit like being a public education student. You get a tremendous amount of information and only some of the it sticks. To use Carr’s example, public education is much like the pancake. Students cover a huge breadth of subjects yet their shallow understanding of those subjects can often be problematic. Without going too far on a tangent, I attribute this problem more to education’s woes in testing (data-driven nature) rather than students’ inability to think deeply.

What ideas do you have for how the design of technology could facilitate positive, rather than negative, changes in human thinking and learning habits?  

I’m not entirely sure that I have anything new to add to the design of technology. I enjoy utilizing technology to encourage collaboration and get students to engage with (the instructor and) one another in new, deeper, more meaningful ways. That said, one big piece for me is to have students access knowledge (the internet) and do something with that information. An example might be to pull something from the news (say a natural disaster) and have students analyze it from a scientific (conceptual) point of view, a resilience (recovery) point of view, and a moral worldview. As Spiro pointed out, have students engage with a single mini-case from several different conceptual standpoints. While reading this part of the 1990 text excerpt, I kept thinking about Photoshop. If you are at all familiar with PS, you know that it works with layers. So you take several layers (each of which could stand on its own) and lay them on top of one another to form an image (which could be completely separate from the layers). The best part about this CF theory is the “multiplicative” nature of it - the sum of the parts being greater than the whole (which applies to one of my favorite physics theories, too).

For example, how can technology promote cognitive flexibility, or any other positive consequences you can imagine?

If I may digress a bit here, in education (specifically K-12) administration (including all elected officials) feel that education is a well-defined domain. They have taken a decidedly reductionist theory of education. One which can be simplified to a series of standards, lessons, and tests. This strategy absolutely will equal greater student achievement. However, practitioners (present company included) likely/hopefully recognize that education is an ill-structured domain. I recognize that there are exceptions to this idea. Young learners who are learning language or writing will eventually arrive at the same destination (a literacy of some degree in writing or speaking). However, when those two skills are required to be applied to life (e.g. a paper or a speech analyzing some big concept in history/business/education/philosophy) we begin to enter a domain which is ill-structured. In fact, isn’t this what education as a whole looks like? We have a series of processes that teachers are required to learn, tests they have to pass, several concepts and educational philosophers they should know (well-structured) and then they are turned loose in a classroom with a group of students and are expected to teach them the ideas, concepts, skills, and knowledge (well-structured - well defined destination with a clear roadmap to get to said destination) they need to know to be successful in life (ill-structured). Additionally, it doesn’t take long to look at the Common Core State Standards to know that we are expecting students to be able to work in an ill-structured domain (connections between subjects), yet how often do we give them the opportunity to do so?

So, what about technology? Our students are (by and large) connected (at a minimum through a smartphone) to the largest body of knowledge ever compiled in the whole of human history. Using technology and mini-cases (Spiro) we have the ability (and I would say the responsibility) to engage students in opportunities to construct their own connections between concepts, ideas, and events. Those concepts, ideas, and events are the layers of the Photoshop image before it has been “flattened” (where all the layers are combined and are no longer parts, but are integral to the whole image) and the connections are the entire image. These “images” constructed by students make up their entire knowledge base (about anything) and are akin to a collage of images (stored in their minds), with a series of layers (many of which may not be in the students minds, but part of the web/body of all human knowledge).

Social Media in the Classroom

Today is the second of what I hope will be many days of work at SNU. Friday was the official first day, but that was time spent in Human Resources with a little bit of running around and meeting with the Director of Online Learning. She got me a broad overview of the grant and it's purpose; so at least I have a vague idea of the direction we are moving.

I'll be spending some time today in faculty workshop. I'm going to be doing some PD with faculty about using Social Media in the classroom. Seems like pretty standard fare if you've been reading my blog for very long. However, it occurred to me that the powers that be want me to teach the faculty something new. These are the people who were my teachers, mentors, & professors (and continue to be so). It just struck me as odd.

I'm going to organize my thoughts here a little bit.

A few of the biggest things I like about Social Media in the classroom is that it can bring new perspectives in (through non-class members sharing), it expands the boundaries of the classroom (again, engaging people outside the classroom in conversation), and it can extend the amount of time students spend learning your content (by continuing the conversation outside the 50 minutes see your face each day). I'll spend a bit of time talking about a few of the tools available and how to integrate those.

As I write this, I'm thinking specifically about faculty who are late adopters (or non-adopters) and I can see them looking at me with skepticism. What in the world is that about? These people know me. Many (dare I say most) of them, I have a pretty good relationship. In fact, that was what I stressed in my interview. I already have significant amounts of currency in my relationship accounts with many of these folks. So what am I worried about? I know there are going to be some who don't "buy it" who are not (and maybe never will) drink the technology Kool-Aid.

Facebook - It's a great way to extend the time you can interact with students. According to TechCrunch, 85% of them are using the site already. That statistic is from 2005, so I would imagine the number is much higher. You can create a group for each class. You could post materials and put reminders there about assignments, due dates, or even just a word of encouragement. The great thing about it is that you don't have to friend your students. As the teacher (or the student) you post on the group wall and it shows up in the news feed of everyone else. It's like seeing all of your students outside of class and talking to them about class.

Twitter - Twitter could function similar to Facebook in that it uses status updates to carry on a conversation about class/content. However, there are no groups. But there are hashtags. If you create hashtag for your class and have your students tweet using that hashtag. For instance, if you wanted to see what conversation is happening right now about Education, you could look here. If you are on twitter, the "Discover" button at the top is a hashtag search. If you have never heard of a hashtag, it is analogous to a keyword search. If you have ever searched for an article in a database using a keyword, you already understand how to use hashtags. They are simply searches for keywords in the conversation that is happening on twitter. It's simply a way for you to focus on what a particular subject of conversation. If you aren't sure what a hashtag might look like for your classes, I teach an Earth's Natural Disasters Class. It starts next week, so it's a winter class. My hashtag could be #ENDwint12. I could then have students use that hashtag everytime they tweeted anything related to class and I could easily search for it.

This strategy is especially useful for things like reminders, changes, canellations, etc. You can also use it as what is called a "backchannel". This idea is akin to passing notes in class, but you are able to see it. It gives students the option to ask questions, make comments, etc. without interrupting what's going on. These are very useful during formal presentations, but could also be utilized in the classroom.

Twitter has a 140 character limit. Imagine asking students to synthesize an entire semester's worth of learning in your class into a single tweet? You might be surprised at the results.

Google+ - I could probably share for an entire hour about each of these tools, but Google+ probably has the most functionality. It has components of both Facebook and Twitter. The great thing about this one, is that since SNU is a Google Campus, all students and faculty are already on Google+. They need only click their name at the top right hand corner of the page (when logged into email) and then click "Join Google+" and set up their profile.

In Google+, you have what are called "circles". This would be very similar to a group on Facebook. You add people to circles. They have no idea how you have your circles arranged. They only see that you have said something. You simply choose which circles you send your update to. If I had a Physical Geography circle, I could add students. When I write an update on Google+, I simply choose my Physical Geography circle as the group to with which the update is shared. Like all update services, you can share links, photos, or places.

One other really great thing about Google+ is the Hangouts function. You create a hangout and it becomes a virtual space for you to interact via webcam and voice with people who come to your hangout. Think of it as office hours without students having to actually walk into your office. This is fantastic for you if you teach online. You can still interact with students even without them being at your physical location.

This is my starting point for what I'm going to talk about this afternoon. What have you been doing with Social Media in your classroom? I'm certainly open to ideas to share!