Category Archives: brain

brain, Philosophy

Collaborative Learning

The title of this post easily rolls off my tongue and down to my fingers as I type. It is not new to me or other educators and has been predominant at the forefront of teaching since before the push for cooperative learning in the late 1980’s and 1990’s. Personally, I’m very much a loner and hadn’t thought much about the need for collaborative learning until yesterday when a news feature about Hole-in-the-Wall Education Ltd. brought it to mind. Information from the website for this group http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/index.html  follows:

“Hole-in-the-Wall Education Ltd. (HiWEL) is a joint venture between NIIT Ltd. and the International Finance Corporation (a part of The World Bank Group). Established in 2001, HiWEL was set up to research and propagate the idea of Hole-in-the-Wall, a path-breaking learning methodology created by Dr. Sugata Mitra, Chief Scientist of NIIT. . . . [it} was first tested in a slum in Kalkaji, New Delhi, in 1999. The experiment was replicated in two other rural sites in the same year. The first adopter of the idea was the Government of NCT of Delhi. In 2000, the Government of Delhi set up 30 Learning Stations in a resettlement colony. . . . “

At first I scoffed and said to myself, “this is nothing new.” Yet, I still listened. Finally, I gleaned from the news story that Hole-In-the-Wall revolves around the idea of four or five students gathered around one computer trying to learn something or answer a specified question. This minimalist approach to computer learning gets much of its punch from the fact that there is only one computer. The students must communicate and share ideas rather than working independently. This certainly isn’t a new idea, but many of our learning arenas have gotten to the point where it seems each and every student sits at his or her own computer terminal and communication, if it exists regarding the learning, flows through cyberspace.

Incubating about the above information, I wondered why I’m not applying it to my current fascination with design work. Where is my think tank? Where is my hole in the wall setting? Consider the value of designers from various facets of work coming together to answer a question, solve a problem and/or brainstorm new uses for materials. We often do these things independently, but do we spent enough time engaged in collaborative learning? I, for one, do not.

I do see collaboration through various chat groups, but find this usually amounts to a question followed by responses from others about what they have used in a given situation. This is not collaborative learning. This is one person telling another what has previously worked. In a think tank, ideas come together to create something new to everyone. From intensive creativity training, I know that an ultimate idea can be garnered from simply watching the body language, eye movement or vocal inflection of another person, something we can’t get from computer chat. Often, we don’t even connect the thought with that person, yet it comes to us just the same.

Many designers are expertly engaged in social networking via the computer. It is an essential part of our business. What might happen if we stole two or three hours from this once or twice a month for collaborative design work wherein we were not trying to learn or make something, but simply trying to develop new ideas or techniques? This collaboration would be process based rather than outcome based. It would be a designers think tank. It could be an acrylic artist, a sculptor, a wire worker and a metalsmith. It might be a seed beader, a polymer clay artist, a fiber artist and a scrapbooker. It could be any combination of people interested in collaborative learning.

At a minimum, a designer think tank would provide a thinking challenge and brain stimulation. Perhaps a few dendrites would strain to branch and some of us would be removed from our comfort zones. I know that to stretch and grow in my work, I much be a bit uncomfortable and experience a little mental pain. I need to get into a situation where I don’t readily know the answer. Perhaps some hole-in-the-wall design collaboration might just do the trick. What do you think?

brain, Diversions, Philosophy

Can You Trust Oprah: Credibility About the Brain

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My husband took me out for breakfast this morning. It wasn’t a special day and he hadn’t committed any sin; he just took me out to eat. Yes, he’s a good fellow! Afterwards, we wandered through the bookstore, relaxing as we looked at magazines. Although I normally only look at jewelry design periodicals, today, I picked up a copy of Oprah’s magazine. It seemed to call my name. Hurrying to get on to the other jewelry magazine I had grabbed, I quickly thumbed through the Oprah pages and a picture of the brain caught my eye. The single page of information was divided into regions of the brain, but it was while I read about the hippocampus (No that’s not a school for hippos!) that I questioned the credibility of the article. The information stated that “Arthur Kramer, PhD,. . . show[ed] that exercise actually makes your hippocampus bigger. . . [perhaps] increas[ing] the number of capillaries in the region, which in turn helps new cells grow. “

Upon reading the above information, I basically dismissed what I had read, in the article, since I previously learned that we don’t “grow” new cells, but rather form additional connections. Past learning caused me to question the credibility of the article. Since credibility has to do with the believability of the source, I was quite sure that now I didn’t trust Oprah.  Of course Oprah didn’t actually write the article, but isn’t she responsible for “her people”? Why would THEY print something that was incorrect? That’s when it hit me . . . maybe I was the one who was incorrect.

It didn’t require much of an online search to learn I was the problem! The past few years of research have led researchers to believe that some neurogenesis IS possible. Halleluiah. I thought that I could only branch new dendrites, but now I know that I can actually generate new brain cells in my hippocampus. Here’s the only problem. Dr. Kramer says that one must sweat at least three times a week for this to occur. He’s talking about good aerobic exercise as opposed to simply walking into the grocery store in the Texas heat.

Now, as I sit in my comfortable chair and think about regular aerobic exercise, I’m wondering if I really need those extra neurons in my hippocampus. Those I have seem to have worked pretty well; but what about the cells that are being sloughed off? Hmm . . . maybe I do need to work out . . . let’s see, treadmill? stationary bike? jogging? . . . I’m going to have to sit right here in this comfortable chair and figure that one out.