2017 California Literacy Symposium - Jim Johnson

The Digital Age & Brain-Based Learning

Implications for 21st Century Learners

Dr. Jim Johnson Point Loma Nazarene University

School of Education Department of Psychology [email protected]

www.pointloma.edu/JimJohnson

Cell (text): 619.701.1759 Linkedin: Dr. Jim Johnson

Facebook: Jim Johnson

Twitter: @DrJDriven

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.pointloma.edu/JimJohnson



Connecting with 21st Century Learners

This is a Two-Day workshop . . . But we only have an hour . . . YIKES!!!

I study brains . . . Mostly brains that don’t work like most others!

So let me take a few minutes to share what’s in my head – and then lets’ jump into your head – fair???

I was asked by my three new MHEd friends at dinner last night – Steve – Deb and Yvette – ? . . . How did you get started doing this? The answer: a very bright young 7th Grader in 1971 named Mary Pozza who

hated her life and hated school and thought she couldn’t learn

And she became my teacher – I was confused – why couldn’t she learn

So I went back to school and learned . . .

There is a difference between School and Learning and even more importantly – the way Brains work is different for each person and effects their perspective on school and on learning

Reading, speaking, & writing ------- Understanding LANGUAGE & WORDS

Understanding CONTENT & TEXTBOOKS ------- Understanding CONCEPTS

Learning how to succeed in SCHOOL ------ sometimes really different than LEARNING

2 Dr. James E. Johnson, All Rights Reserved Not To Be Duplicated Without Permission of Author

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What is important for me to know today? WHY is it important for me to know it?

Hint: What YOU Question and Think and Believe – Matters!

1. Questions - about Teaching and Learning and Life

2. Principles - Fundamental truths that serve as the

foundation for a system of belief or behavior

3. Self Awareness and Self Reflection

Notice what you Notice

And learn from it !!

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Teaching and Learning and Life as a Practice

Effective Practices

• Start with clear Expectations (what is to be anticipated)

• Are aimed at created Outcomes (targeted, not accidental)

• Are Formative (developmental, sequenced, and experiential - learned by doing things over time)

• Are Social and Traditioned, yet open to innovation

• Sustained over time

So how do Teaching practices . . . connect with Learning practices . . .

Connect with Life Practices? - With Me? - With Learners

By the way we THINK and BELIEVE !!!!

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What do we “know” about Learning

1. Rogers A. Structure of the Mind

2. Freud B. Thinking / Knowing / Learning / Teaching

3. Skinner C. Person-centered therapy

4. DrJ Beginning Lecture Concepts D. Behavioral Theory

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So what can or do we “learn“ from looking at this list??

1. Understanding is not important – memory and matching patterns is the key

2. Students “learn” quickly in school it is all about figuring out how to do

school without necessarily learning.

3. Learning is not from what is said, or what is in the syllabus or curriculum guide, or what are the assessment standards

4. What is learned comes from the structure of the instruction and

the assessment process or patterns – the PRACTICES

What if . . .

• What if we changed the way we think about our teaching?

• What if we changed the way we think about learning?

• What if it changed what we think and do in a classroom?

• What if it changed what we think and do in our lives?

What would it take to make our teaching practices . . .

• become learning practices . . .

• become life practices ???

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What if . . . to What is!

Effective Learning for Millennials

involves

Engagement and Community

leading to Personal Connection

With CONTENT & PROCESS that Matters

Brain Based Learning --- Effective Communities of Practice by Ethane Wenger

Imagination --- Participation --- Reification --- Repertoire --- Hospitality

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The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change Timothy D. Wilson, PhD

“if we want to change people's behaviors, we need to try to get inside their heads and understand how they see the world—the stories and narratives they tell themselves about who they are and why they do what they do.“

9

My outcome/target:

The world we have created is a product of our thinking. It cannot be changed without

changing our thinking Albert Einstein


1. Foundational Stuff .………………….. Things to think about

Digital Data and Why Brains are important to Educators

Neurobiology - Brain Research

Thinking/Learning Information Processing Concepts

Digital Age concepts

2. Application in Connecting with 21st Century Learners

Conclusions

Challenges

Considerations

10 Dr. James E. Johnson, All Rights Reserved

Not To Be Duplicated Without Permission of Author 1/26/17

Underlying Principles of

Accommodation (adapted from Peyton Goddard)

• Assume Competence

• Always seek the least damaging of any dangerous assumptions

• Think about levels of support versus labels, classifications, and inabilities

• Don’t remove people who don’t fit in – seek solutions for engagement

(it’s like Reverse Musical Chairs – add chairs – keep people seeking new ways to insure ALL who are present have a place)

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So why is this important??? Digital Data – brain-based learning

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• It’s personal – this is their world

• Kids brains today are different than yours and mine – so we need to have schools teach differently to reach them

• Differentiation with tech/media interventions can make a difference

Educators are in the only profession whose job is to change the human

brain every day.

David A. Sousa, How the Brain Learns


Windows of Opportunity as a Child’s Brain Matures









Conclusions

Challenges

Considerations



The Brain FUN FACTS

1. Your eyes blinks over 10,000,000 times a year!

2. About half of our brain is involved in the seeing process? Humans are very much visual animals

3. People generally read 25% slower from a computer screen compared to paper

4. Your brain generates 25 watts of power while you're awake---enough to illuminate a light bulb.

5. It's not your brain that's hurting when you get a headache – your brain can't feel any pain – it has no pain receptors

6. About 12% of people dream in black and white

7. It is estimated the human brain produces on an average day 70,000 number of thoughts

8. Laughing at a joke is no simple task as it requires activity in five different areas of the brain


1/26/17

http://people.howstuffworks.com/laughter3.htm

http://people.howstuffworks.com/laughter3.htm

The Brain INTERESTING FACTS

1. What we now know about the brain, we have learned mostly in the last 6-10 years – due to the increased quality of neuro-imaging

2. The average adult human brain weighs three pounds and uses 20% of the body's oxygen

3. The brain is composed of over a trillion cells

4. Neurons represent 1/10th of the total number of cells – 100 Billion

5. Most of the cells are glial cells – Greek for glue – they hold the neurons together and act as filters for harmful substances

6. 30,000 neurons fit on the head of a pin

7. Each neuron has tens of thousands of dendrites (Greek for tree)

8. A neuron can transmit between 250 and 2,500 impulses per second

9. The synapse gap between a dendrite and another neuron is about one millionth of an inch


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10. An electronic impulse through the neurons can move the entire length of a 6-foot adult in 2/10ths of a second (almost 300 mph)

11. There are nearly 100 different neurotransmitters that have been discovered so far

12. There are 30,000 neurons in the auditory nerve

13. There are 1,000,000,000 neurons in the optical nerve

14. The brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text

15. We now “know” that the frontal lobe does not develop fully until about age 22

16. Although the brain accounts for only 2% of the whole body's mass, it uses 20% of all the oxygen we breathe. A loss of oxygen for 7-10 minutes can result in significant neural damage.

17. Approximately 20% of the blood flowing from the heart is pumped to the brain.

18. There are a 100,000 miles of blood vessels in your brain


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19. Neurons multiply at a rate 250,000 neurons/minute during early pregnancy.

20. During the first month of life, the number of connections or synapses, dramatically increases from 50 trillion to 1 quadrillion. If an infant's body grew at a comparable rate, his weight would increase from 8.5 pounds at birth to 170 pounds at one month old.

21. A child's ability to learn can increase or decrease by 25 percent or more, depending on whether he or she grows up in a stimulating environment

22. Your brain stopped growing at age 18.

23. After age 30, the brain shrinks a quarter of a percent (0.25%) in mass each year.

24. Oxytocin, one of the hormones responsible for triggering feelings of love in the brain, has shown some benefits to helping control repetitive behaviors in those with autism.


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http://www.sfn.org/index.cfm?pagename=brainBriefings_loveAndTheBrain

Highlights of brain research • The brain contains about one hundred billion cells that can make trillions of

connection, so never underestimate the capacity of learners.

• Emotions drive attention, meaning, and memory. There is an optimal emotional state for learning called relaxed alertness, marked by an effort to eliminate fear while maintaining high challenge.

• The brain is a novelty seeker, and this is especially true now. Today’s young brains have responded to technology by changing their functioning and organizations to accommodate the large amount of stimulation occurring in the environment.

• Windows of opportunity exist for important periods in which the young brain responds to certain types of input such as math and logic. What is learned while a window is opened will most likely be learned masterfully; however, the brain’s plasticity allows learning to occur for our entire lives.

• There is an estimated 10 to 12 year lag between the development of the brain’s limbic area that controls emotions and the frontal lobe, the executive control center. Consequently, emotional regulation capability is not fully operational during adolescence.

• We remember best that which comes first, and second best that which comes last. This is known as the primacy-recency effect.









Conclusions

Challenges

Considerations



Brain-Based Perspective

of Learning

Learning is a

holistic, integrated and complex process

involving all the senses, cognition and emotions

and with relevance to real life.


An Information Processing Model

E

N

V

I

R

O

N

M

E

N

T

SIGHT

HEARING

TOUCH

SMELL

TASTE

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

SENSORY

REGISTRY

Immediate Memory

Working Memory

OUT OUT OUT

Sense & Meaning

Long-

Term

Storage

Convergence Zones

Cognitive Belief

System

Attention

Perception Perception

23 1/26/17 Dr. James E. Johnson, All Rights Reserved

Not To Be Duplicated Without Permission of Author

Neurobiology & Thinking/Learning concepts

• Three Main Components of an Information Processing Model

• INPUT – Stimuli/Senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste)

– Sensory Registry

• PROCESSING / METACOGNITION – Attention

– Perception

– Memory

• OUTPUT

• All sensory information is sent by the Thalamus and is checked with past experiences in the hippocampus to determine the degree of importance

• All this is done in a millisecond

• This process is called perceptual or sensory filtering



Neurobiology & Thinking/Learning concepts • There is a difference between Long-Term Memory and Long-Term Storage

• Long-Term Memory refers to the process of storing and retrieving information

• Long-Term Storage refers to where in the brain the memories are kept

• How do things get into Long-Term Storage?

• The Working Memory connects with past experiences and asks 2 questions: – Does this make sense? – does it fit with my world view – how I think the world

works?

– Does this have meaning? Relevance to me?

• If both sense and meaning are high – the likelihood of Long-Term Storage is high


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As you read this - Think about it !!

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.


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How many different geometric shapes can you find in this picture?



1/26/17 29 Dr. James E. Johnson, All Rights Reserved Not To Be Duplicated Without Permission of

Author

Did you see the vase or did you see the two faces- each facing one another? Or did you see both?

This part of the perception process is related to figure-ground perception

With your partner(s) – list an example of where and how this impacts learning for a student?

figure-ground perception

• the needed skill to do well with “Where’s Waldo” type activities

• Also a key component of academic learning

• Reading, and processing material from a printed page

• finding one object among many on a page

• Finding key material in a visual projection.

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So which is longer?


Well, the truth is -

they are both the same length.

Thus we now experience another aspect of perception

depth and context

Look at the next slide, which is longer?

the width of the back wall (Line A)

- or -

the width of the carpet in the front of the picture? (Line B)


Author

You guessed it -- they are the same length

Now look at what your brain did –

• Perception

• Prior Knowledge

• Memory

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Which is longer?

Line A

or

Line B

(click again to check your answer)


Perception, Prior Knowledge and Memory follow a pattern --

Schemas - patterns, connections previously established - in processing

STROOP EFFECT

• Notice the effect of our understanding, memory, and schemas on the way we

process this set of visual cues.


STROOP EFFECT

TELL ME THE COLOR OF THE FOLLOWING SYMBOLS

As quickly as they appear on the screen –

call out the color

How fast can you do this?


STROOP EFFECT

•T y i •W U [ •/ 3 X


STROOP EFFECT

Okay you are ready now to really do this

TELL ME THE COLOR OF THE FOLLOWING SYMBOLS

As quickly as they appear on the screen –

call out the color


STROOP EFFECT

•GREEN

•PINK

•BLACK 1/26/17 43 Dr. James E. Johnson, All Rights Reserved

Not To Be Duplicated Without Permission of Author

Why would non-reading pre-schoolers do better at this than a college graduate?


Reading, Schemas,

and Perception

• Notice the effect of our understanding, memory, and schemas on the way you

process this set of visual cues.


FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT

OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH YEARS OF EXPERIENCE.

Count the number of times the letter “F” appears in the following sentence.


If you counted:

• 3 = Average

• 4 = Above Average

• 5 = Very Good

• 6 = Genius


FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT

OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH YEARS OF EXPERIENCE.











Conclusions

Challenges

Considerations



The Millennials have always had

flat screen TV !

93% of U.S. adults/teens own a cell phone

The average number of text messages sent per month by a U.S. teenager – 3,853

90% of the 200 billion emails per day are spam

The computer in your cell phone…

Is 1,000,000 times cheaper

Is 1,000 times more powerful

Is 100,000 times smaller

Than one computer at MIT in 1965

52 1/26/17 Dr. James E. Johnson, All Rights Reserved Not To Be Duplicated Without Permission of Author

Dr. James E. Johnson, All Rights Reserved Not To Be Duplicated Without Permission of Author

The “Millennials”

Twitch speed

• This generation operates at twitch speed. Kids accept as normal that they’ll have instantaneous access to information, goods and services at the click of a mouse.

• They expect to be able to communicate with anyone or anything at anytime, anywhere day or night.

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The “Millennials” Digital Natives / Digital Immigrants

Digital Natives • Born 1980 – 1999 -- around 70 million-strong

• Need multiple inputs to focus

• They have grown up digital – it’s their native tongue – a language in which they are digitally fluent.

• They are, as Marc Prensky describes them, digital natives.

• For this generation, there’s never been a time when computers, the Web, cell phones, and all of the other digital wonders haven’t existed.

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Digital Immigrants

• Digital Immigrants - born pre-1980

• Paper trained

• In today’s world, they are foreigners or at best, as Prensky describes them, digital immigrants who speak and hear digital with an accent.

• Like all immigrants some are better than others at adapting to the ways of the new country, but like all immigrants, they retain some degree of accent from the old country.


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Digital Immigrants

• As digital outsiders many of our generation, are distracted and disoriented by multiple, simultaneous, information sources and random access.

• We try to use old mindsets to do new things.

• We may use the digital tools, they’re not always intuitive and their use does not always come naturally.

• We’re DSL - We speak digital as a second language.


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The Millennial “Family” • According to David Walsh from Media Family, in a week in the life of an average

school-age child they spend 1/2 hour with dad, 2 1/2 hours with Mom, 2.2 hours doing homework, 1/2 hour reading for pleasure and more than 25 hours – the equivalent every 7 days of a full time job or week of school - watching TV.

• 62% of school-age kids have TV sets in their own bedroom

• 82% of American kids play video games on a regular basis - an average of 8.2 hours a week.

• As a result, over 70% of dollars spent by children and teenagers on toys are for electronic games.

• Among married-couple families with children, 96.7 percent had at least one employed parent; both parents worked in 60.6 percent of married-couple families. Apr 22, 2016

• Parents today spend 40% less time with their children than parents did just 30 years ago, and much of that time with our kids is spent watching TV and movies.

• The scarcest resource for many families today is not time but attention. Consequently, there’s a growing void in kids’ lives that needs to be filled.

Understanding Digital Kids: Teaching & Learning in the New Digital Landscape © 2004 The InfoSavvy Group Page 6 of 27

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Application in Connecting with 21st Century Learners

Conclusions

Challenges

Considerations


Context for Youth Ministry

Personal – what you bring to the table today

You have to “know” the students – they are different

You have to know the “world” they live in – information will double every 30 days by the year 2020

You have to know yourself - Self Awareness and Reflection are a key discipline in life development


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Conclusions, Challenges, Considerations

Conclusions

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Understanding how our brains work

The Digital Age – 21st Century Learners

Finding Purpose

Living a life with –

Integrity – public and private

Transparency

Professionalism


60

Conclusions, Challenges, Considerations

Challenges

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Learners today truly face a world of change

All Learning Modalities are Addressed

Bloom’s Taxonomy Revisited – a New Look Towards

Creating

E.P.I.C. Approach to Reaching 21st Century Learners

Accommodative Variables

Five Basic Components of Brain-Compatible

Instruction

Four Summative Principles

Dr. James E. Johnson, All Rights Reserved

Not To Be Duplicated Without Permission of Author 61

Conclusions, Challenges, Considerations,

Considerations

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Take Responsibility for my life???

Is that legal??

Dr. Johnson


• Learning - is difficult when contrived/forced

• Remembering - is easy when the brain is in charge

• Comprehending - the brain enjoys bringing understanding

• Thinking - the main business of the brain

• Imagining - the brain loves to create and dream

• Recognizing Patterns - the brain enjoys order & programs

Focus on the

Six Things The Brain Does Well Frank Smith


Author

Neurobiology & Thinking/Learning concepts

• Three Main Components of an Information Processing Model

• INPUT – Stimuli/Senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste)

– Sensory Registry

• PROCESSING / METACOGNITION – Attention

– Perception

– Memory

• OUTPUT

• All sensory information is sent to the Thalamus and is checked with past experiences to determine the degree of importance

• All this is done in a millisecond

• This process is called perceptual or sensory filtering



Characteristics of 21st Century Learners

• Need to Know -- Learners need to know why they need to learn the information before they begin the experience

• Self-Concept -- Learners need to protect the facets of their self-concept which speak about their

ability to be responsible for their own lives and decisions

• Life Experience -- Learners have accumulated valuable life experience which is different both in

quantity (added years of cumulative experience) and quality (greater number of roles, i.e., parent, spouse, worker, etc.) than that of children

• Readiness to Learn -- Learners become ready to learn only when they judge that they need to

know to help them meet the challenges of their real-life situations

• Orientation to Learning -- Learners orientation comes from the need to use information

meaningfully to make their lives easier or more productive so they are problem or task-centered rather than subject-centered children and Learners integrate new information most effectively when it is presented in the context of real-life situations

• Motivation to Learn -- Learners derive motivation primarily from internal forces (need for

improved quality of life, improved self-esteem, etc.) Most normal Learners want to grow, but often fear of losing self-esteem in the traditional classroom or student-like exchanges so these experiences are avoided.


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The brain is a pattern-seeking device which is designed to operate

in a rich environment of seemingly random and chaotic input.

The learning process is not necessarily logical or sequential; each

of each of us learns in a highly individual, mainly random way,

always adding to, sorting out, and revising all input.

Most useful information is embedded in a program.

Learning is the extraction from confusion of meaningful patterns

(not from clarity or simplicity).

Learning is the acquisition of useful programs. A program is a

fixed sequence for accomplishing some end - a goal, objective or

outcome. the basic cycle of a program is: 1) evaluate the

situation, 2) select among stored programs, 3) implement a

program, 4) observe feedback -- recycle to step 1.

Principles of Human Learning Leslie hart


Author

All Learning Modalities Are Addressed

AUDITORY “I Hear It”

VISUAL “I See It”

KINESTHETIC “I Do It”

Bloom’s Taxonomy


E.P.I.C. APPROACH TO REACHING 21st Century Learners (Adapted from Leonard Sweet, M3 Conference, 2002)

Experiential <-->

Participatory <-->

Image-rich <-->

Connective


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• Differences occur between learners and for

the same learner over time

• Four Accommodative Variables

RATE

STYLE

CONTENT

ENVIORNMENT

ACCOMODATIVE PRACTICES

70 70 Dr. James E. Johnson, All Rights Reserved Not To Be Duplicated Without Permission of Author

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(

FIVE BASIC

COMPONENTS

OF

BRAIN-COMPATIBLE

INSTRUCTION

adapted from Karen Olson / CA Institute for School Improvement)

CHOICES Student participation is vital and active

A democratic principle and practice

Leads to ownership in learning

TRUST A Non-threatening environment

A reciprocal relationship

No fear of failure

ADEQUATE TIME Relieves frustration

A need for the sense of completion

Assists in "connectivity"

ENRICHED ENVIRONMENT

Learning is experiential - engages students

Use of patterns and procedures - not rules

Mirrors real life

MEANINGFUL CONTEXT

Provides for manipulation of information

Focus on projects (Dittos do not dendrites make)

Collaboration and immediate feedback

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Rev: 4.6.09


• 1. Understanding the importance of prior knowledge

– Influences on worldview

– Influences on learning

– Influences on the learning process

– Requires a contextual reference for learning to occur


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• 2. Intentional instructional design

– Research-Based for effective application to academic settings

– Cross Cultural and Across Curriculum Content to broaden perspective and application

– Interactive by design

– Establishes relationships between presenter/listener, instructional process, and content


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• 3. Intentional integration of Social Process

– Interactive dynamic of presenter/listener socialization

– Interactive dynamic of listener/listener socialization

– Interactive dynamic of listener/broader community(s) socialization

Dr. James E. Johnson, All Rights Reserved

Not To Be Duplicated Without Permission of Author 74 1/26/17

75


• 4. Intentional Planning of Transference

– Planning for higher level thinking skills

– Use of diagrams to assist in Concept Map development

– Effective use of Procedural and Terminal Closure techniques

– Effective use of media and other methods to reach the diversity of age and multicultural participants


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DrJ Media and Tech Apps and Resources

https://www.smore.com/371u3-drj-resources










Dr. Jim Johnson Point Loma Nazarene University

[email protected]

www.pointloma.edu/JimJohnson

Cell (text): 619.701.1759

Facebook: Jim Johnson

Twitter: @DrJDriven

Linkedin: Dr. Jim Johnson

Web: DrivenByPrinciple.com

Email: [email protected]



http://www.drivenbyprinciple.com/
