Artistic Thinking: Week 8 Read and React

Artistic Thinking: Week 8 Read and React.....

The iBrain v/s My Brain

      While reading the iBrain chapter I couldn’t stop wondering about how well or not well did my brain develop and what did my mom do or not do and how was the environment when I was developing my neural pathways? I plan to ask my mom, and my sisters, questions to see what, if anything, my mom remembers from her pregnancy and what she and my sisters remember from my early years. In the chapter from iBrain they speak of the affect on the newborn of how... “Too little brain stimulation during this period will lead to the formation of fewer synapses: too much could lay down faulty synapses and maladaptive neural circuits…overstimulation can affect a child’s brain development negatively as well."  And they go on to say this kind of activity can overwhelm a child’s neural circuitry, “leading to low self esteem, anxiety and distractibility” (iBrain, pg 27)      (OH gee, so is that the reason Im the way I am?)
I find brain science fascinating and I am always interested in how I can improve my own or at least keep it in tiptop shape.

In relation to this class and everything we have explored; this information comes at the right time to even-out the playing ground and lay down some ground rules. The iBrain chapter is presenting the x-ray, or in their case, the MRI image for all of us to study and reflect on. They are saying this is the digital immigrants’ brain “on” books, hand writing, face to face social cues and empathetic emotions that may have a hard time relating to or catching up with the digital natives’ brain “on” instant gratification, multi-tasking, hard wired, self absorbed techno-Crack. As educators, parents, mentors and role models, in general, it is good to learn about these scientific findings to help us better understand where our digital natives are coming from and how their iBrains operate, process and gobble up technology with a large appetite for always wanting more. To help keep them balanced and properly nourished we need to first learn how to speak their language and then guide them in the process of seeing the Big Picture and how it affects them and they affect it.

“Multitasking allows digital natives to instantly gratify themselves and put off long-term goals. The competing simultaneous tasks often provide a superficial view of the information being presented rather then in-depth understanding…. Chronic and intense multitasking may also delay adequate development of the frontal cortex, the area of the brain that helps us see the big picture, delay gratification, reason abstractly and plan ahead.” (iBrain, pg.32) In Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind, he too speaks of how globalization and outsourcing has left us with more time on our hands to be creative and play, but if digital natives do most of their playing online, “The neural circuits that control the more traditional learning methods are neglected and gradually diminished. The pathways for human interaction and communication weaken as customary one-on-one people skills atrophy” (iBrain, pg. 21)

 My brain might have had a slow start or an over stimulated beginning, leaving it with some hurdles to maneuver over and around, but after reading this, I feel lucky and satisfied that I am a digital immigrant with a midlife elastic brain. Finally I am optimizing all the information and experiences over the years and my brain has graduated, even before I have!