On Sun, 21 Nov 2010 07:27:38 -0800, Annette Taylor wrote: >This link was posted on the pod list today so some of you have >probably seen it; but for those of you for whom it is new, it >supports what we have probably all seen in the last decade: >the hypnotic? addictive? lure of the internet for our students >when they should be studying. >http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?pagewanted=1&hp
Michael Smith mode on: I was going to read it but it was too long. Does anyone have a tweeter version of the article? Michael Smith mode off. A quote provided in the NY Times news summary email is this: |"Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping |to the next thing. The worry is we're raising a generation of kids in |front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently." |MICHAEL RICH, executive director of the Center on Media |and Child Health, on how digital technology affects children. Now, I may be wrong or I misunderstand my pop neuroscience but isn't Rich's concern unfounded? True, students and young people may find it more reinforcing and/or interesting to engage in various digital media -- especially short form -- but if we believe in the plasticity of the human brain throughout the lifespan, isn't the brain being continually rewired (neurologist Richard Restak, of author of "Receptors", "The Brain", and "The New Brain", says in the latter that the brain is so plastic that parts of it are different after a lecture relative to its state before a lecture)? If experience continually rewires the brain, shouldn't the concern be with behavioral and environmental control to make sure that certain skills are developed and maintained, like reading novels in book form? If "Vishal" can only read 43 pages of Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" in two months (the article is unclear whether he was reading it in paper form or ebook format), might this be more about more poor contingency control (i.e., lack of reinforcing book reading) than a rewired brain that is incapable of handling novel length narratives? I can appreciate the concern that there may be a lot of young people who are incapable of reading a complete novel or be as focused on tasks as some adults like but it ignores the kids who are into the Harry Potter books, the Narnia books, and many other book series. How are these kids able to read such thick and complex books if all they can attend to are tweets and text messages? Too bad the article didn't interview any yeshiva students, especially those in high school which would be the appropriate comparison group. These students also make use of digital media (at the very least, the "modern orthodox") as well as devoted Torah study and the study of other texts. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=6646 or send a blank email to leave-6646-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
