Post by Mike--LFAC on Aug 22, 2013 12:03:01 GMT -5
Well, I am lukewarm on this online CAM stuff! I do appreciate the inputs of those who took the time to join the discussion.
Let me wrap up with two thoughts from two different books I have just finished.
First, Daniel Kahneman's book--Thinking Fast and Slow. Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, looks at the human thought process and breaks thinking into two separate systems--System 1 and System 2. Kahneman (2011) writes, "System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control" (p. 20). On the other hand, System 2 "allocates attention to effortful activities that demand it, including complex computations...associated with...concentration" (p. 21).
Try this experiment in your next class to demonstrate the two systems. Ask for a student to start walking around the perimeter of the class. As she is walking around, ask a few simple questions--what did you have for lunch, what is 2+2, etc. Now, ask a question that takes mental effort--what is 765 x 456? Watch what happens. About 90 percent of the time, the student will stop dead when asked the hard math question. Why--System 2 has kicked in and it takes large mental effort. This tells the brain to stop any unneeded activity and focus on the question--walking is not needed!
What this has to do with the classroom is--try and get the students to go beyond the superficial and nearly instant response to discussion questions. Make them engage System 2 thoughts--make them actually concentrate. Kahenman's book is a great read and also helps explain the style of thinking catered to by the media--1 inch deep! Oh, for a similar read in a shorter version--try The Psychology of Judgement and Decision Making by Scout Plous (1993).
The second book, which I am only halfway through, is The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver (2012). The concept of the book is why so many predictions go horribly wrong. Silver starts out with the housing crisis and illustrates how the rating agencies only missed the housing bubble by a mere 20,000%. One of the points made early in the book is that, as information increases, it is more difficult AND more important to be smart consumers. Silver (2012) notes that "the human brain is remarkable [and] can store perhaps three terabytes of information...about one-millionth of the information IBM says is now produced in the world each day" (p. 12). Silver warns that unless "we work actively to become aware of biases we introduce, the returns of additional information may be minimal--or diminishing" (p. 13).
Think about the Google approach to research--quick, easy, and not wrong, but certainly shallow and incomplete. Again, we need to force deeper cogitation on topics when developing assignments or formulating discussion topics. If we do not, who will? Silver ends the introduction of his work with an idea that greater communication actually leads to less informed and more partisan populace (Silver, 2012). Part of our job, regardless of the course, is to create/reinforce critical thinking, well informed citizens--otherwise the pendulum may never return!
Thoughts?
Let me wrap up with two thoughts from two different books I have just finished.
First, Daniel Kahneman's book--Thinking Fast and Slow. Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, looks at the human thought process and breaks thinking into two separate systems--System 1 and System 2. Kahneman (2011) writes, "System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control" (p. 20). On the other hand, System 2 "allocates attention to effortful activities that demand it, including complex computations...associated with...concentration" (p. 21).
Try this experiment in your next class to demonstrate the two systems. Ask for a student to start walking around the perimeter of the class. As she is walking around, ask a few simple questions--what did you have for lunch, what is 2+2, etc. Now, ask a question that takes mental effort--what is 765 x 456? Watch what happens. About 90 percent of the time, the student will stop dead when asked the hard math question. Why--System 2 has kicked in and it takes large mental effort. This tells the brain to stop any unneeded activity and focus on the question--walking is not needed!
What this has to do with the classroom is--try and get the students to go beyond the superficial and nearly instant response to discussion questions. Make them engage System 2 thoughts--make them actually concentrate. Kahenman's book is a great read and also helps explain the style of thinking catered to by the media--1 inch deep! Oh, for a similar read in a shorter version--try The Psychology of Judgement and Decision Making by Scout Plous (1993).
The second book, which I am only halfway through, is The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver (2012). The concept of the book is why so many predictions go horribly wrong. Silver starts out with the housing crisis and illustrates how the rating agencies only missed the housing bubble by a mere 20,000%. One of the points made early in the book is that, as information increases, it is more difficult AND more important to be smart consumers. Silver (2012) notes that "the human brain is remarkable [and] can store perhaps three terabytes of information...about one-millionth of the information IBM says is now produced in the world each day" (p. 12). Silver warns that unless "we work actively to become aware of biases we introduce, the returns of additional information may be minimal--or diminishing" (p. 13).
Think about the Google approach to research--quick, easy, and not wrong, but certainly shallow and incomplete. Again, we need to force deeper cogitation on topics when developing assignments or formulating discussion topics. If we do not, who will? Silver ends the introduction of his work with an idea that greater communication actually leads to less informed and more partisan populace (Silver, 2012). Part of our job, regardless of the course, is to create/reinforce critical thinking, well informed citizens--otherwise the pendulum may never return!
Thoughts?