Naace Strategic Conference 2007

Dr Martin Westwell, Deputy Director, Institute for the Future of the Mind, Oxford University

Children today are exposed to a vast array of technology whilst they are growing up. What effect does this have on the way that young people think, behave and learn? Can we control the direction in which these technologies are taking us?

How do we ensure that the introduction of ICT will help to deliver learning objectives? When and why does it fail? Looking to the future, how will learning change modify our brainwaves through the use of computers? Scenarios such as this may sound like science fiction, but the technology is with us now or is just around the corner.

Notes on what was said:

You have more connections between your brain cells when you are 4 years old. While in old age we lose these connections. The more we use these connections the more we deveop them. What does this tell us about learning. Repetition is important as it reinforces these connections. Emotion is also important. Being motivated changes the biochemistry in the brain.

How do we turn information into knowledge, is we are going to have a framework for thinking , how can we incorporative this into learning, now we are in an information rich, rather thanan information poor, question rich society.

Too much information can be debilitating.

What we should be thinging about is think about using the information in a useful way. Why did you link those two sites togeth? As the internet moves on, the internet is moving away from provifing information, but for expressing your won interests in a motivating way. Socialisation – using it as a tool to facilitate social networking. The research splits into two stands – 1) it makes people more socially aare, 2) it makes them more socially inept.

Not the technology, but the way that you use it. – Cyber bullies just have a better way of bullying.

We get a lot of questions, from the media, and here are on the answers. Yes kids brains anre different today; kids do not read less due to internet use; kids that are internet users spend more time doing their homework;

Study taking 48 undergraduates, Group A and B were given the same video game to play at the same time. $100 at stake for each group to be the best. One was given a violent version and one non-violent.. Then they were given the prisoner’s dilemma – those playing the violent game were 7 times more likely to exploit than those that played the non-violent game.

Another study tested surgeons. Those that were video game players gave 37% fewer errors, and 27% faster. Ok games help with hand eye coordination, but there is something much more subtle going on here.

Study 3 – differences between Medal of Honor, and Tetris. Those that play Medal of Honor changes the way that you give attention to visual awareness – they are more able to assess a scene.

What this means for developing, say elearning and Learning Platforms, - we need to concentrate on increasing ‘attentional capacity’. But for gamers, the pot is only half full, they will look outside the task for more.

What we do know is while we are using your working memory, some of your executive control, and makes you more distractable.

Television – The Flynn effect. Back in the 130s the normal IQ was set at 100.. If were do the same tests in the 1930s, then the average is 120, and 25% would be exceptional. Where has this come from? If you plot height – taller people are ’smarter’. But this is not necessarily the case. What’s changed is that we are more able to think in a more visual way – perhaps due to television etc. The truth is the minds of people are different – the environment is different, we think in different ways. Television today is much more cognatively demanding.

Out brains are different to what they were in the past, it is as simple as that. Some say it’s all in the genes – it’s clearly nonsense. You are dealt certain cards, but these can be and are changed. Study of mice genetically altered to have Huntingdon’s. Those kept in an enriched environment meant less got the disease. Their brains were rewired and did not develop the disease.

What of the most stimulating thing you can do is interact with others. Parental engagement is all important of course.

Blue light – receptors in the eyes release a neutral transmitter to wake you up. Florescent light contains a lot of yellow, with little blue.

Multi-sensory approach clearly has an effect, but visual and kinaesthetic learning styles is nonsense;
Exercise – no basis for more exercise improves
Drinking Water – being dehydrated is poor, drinking more has no impact beyond this;
Science has nothing to offer what education is for – whether we are lighting the candle ot filling a bucket.

So Learning Platforms needs to think about what education is for?

What about over enrichment? Eg a talking story, with a ‘read me’ mode and a ‘let me play’ mode. The children preferred the latter. Even though this increased motivation, but it did not increase cognition.