Wendy :: Blog

I'm very excited to be attending the Brain and Learning Conference this May in Cambridge Mass. 

http://www.edupr.com/ 

I am particularly interested in Dr. Nancy Andreasen from the University of Iowa College of Medicine.  She will be speaking on "The Neuroscience of Genius".

Dr. John D.E. Gabrieli from MIT will be presenting "Rethinking Feelings:  an fMRI Study of Cognitive Regulation of Emotions".  I'm most interested in how the fMRI was applied in this research.  

You can find the complete list of topics at http://www.edupr.com/brain14.htm

 

I'm starting to feel a little guilty about all this "free" time I've had since the holiday. This semester I will be working on an analysis of Distance Learning Articles, a practicum in Blogging and iMovie, and refining an article (Pedagogical Implications of Brain Research for Digital Natives). I will be attending a "Learning and the Brain" seminar in May. I'm hoping to make some good contacts and learn a lot. http://www.edupr.com/

Writing can be such a humbling experience. I received some great constructive feedback on my first major literature review. At the same time, I know how long I worked on it and how much I struggled with it. Any negative comments feel like having someone call your baby ugly. (Now I just sound like a whiner.) Ok...I feel better. I've never been much of a writer, but I'm also finding that it can be quite therapeutic.

Back to the task at hand.
I'm thinking of narrowing my topic to structured multitasking. The problem is that there is so little research available. I may have to move out of the education realm and see what's available on adult multitasking. I also have a hard time keeping a linear stream of consciousness with this topic. I keep jumping back and forth between the details of scientific research and how I already think this could be applied in the educational environment. Ah well...time to walk away from this for a while.

It is quite difficult to be objective when reviewing my own work. I'm so close to it that I confuse what I thought about doing with what was actually included in the paper. I should have written more about my criteria for including certain literature and excluding others. I should have provided more detail around the methodology of individual studies included in the review. It was also difficult for me to separate the features of a literature review from those of any other type of research paper. This has been a valuable learning experience. I can't imagine doing this much work on a topic for which I have no interest. That would be excruciating. I hope to have the opportunity to explore the impact of computers on the brain further in future courses.

I must admit it has been difficult to keep up with regular blogs. But, some great things have happened as a result. First of all...I have to THINK about what I think. One of my favorite sayings is "Don't believe everything you think." Now, I have to turn that on myself. I've also met some interesting people. One interesting fellow PhD student from New Zealand shared her similar educational interests as well as her knitting hobby. This is a great place to post theoretical views and ideas. I hope to try very hard to keep this up beyond my Foundations course.

Reading my classmates' literature reviews has been a very good experience for me. I see areas where I can improve and get some affirmation for those areas where I'm doing a good job. I also appreciate being forced to critique the work of others. In order to be fair, I have to be thoughtful and thorough in reading the paper. This is not something I would likely do on my own. I would have very good intentions, but it would fall low on the priority list. I feel honored to be working with such an intelligent and diverse group.

I've finished reading "The New Brain: How the Modern Age is Rewiring Your Mind" by Richard Restak. This is an easy read that pulls together some of the latest brain research. It's clear that many new discoveries have been made possible by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fmri). This technology is prompting many new studies and research, especially in the area of identifying the parts of the brain responsible for different functions.

I must have a bizillion hours into this project. I believe I have finally narrowed down the titles I'm going to include in the literature review. But, my annotated bibliography is all over the place. Thank goodness for this hurricane (apologies to our friends to the south who are getting hit harder). I have another day to get this finished. Anyway, I've turned to "Scholars Before Researchers" by Boote and Beile to help direct my efforts. Oh yes, found another book to order from Amazon - "Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter" by Steven Johnson (I agree with Joe...every book and article has a by-line.) Dr. Dawson sent an article that referenced Susan Blackmore as a researcher from Oxford who has apparently writes on new technology's effect on conscieouness. I searched on her name and found books focused on consciousness and the meme. Making a note to check that out after I finish this bibliography. :-)

Since the eBooks were not cooperating, I mosied over to Amazon and made some purchases to add to my research library. "Brain Matters: Translating Research into Classroom Practice" by Patricia Wolf, "The New Brain: How the Modern Age is Rewiring Your Mind" by Richard Restak, and "Brain Literacy for Educators and Psychologists" by Virginia W. Berninger. I figure they will be useful for this literature review and helpful resources on future research projects. Luckily, I was able to buy them used.