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Monday, February 14, 2005 |
The Visual Learning Style as a Kaleidoscope.
There is a restlessness afoot among some parents and educators who feel
that visual learners are neglected in the school system. So, you may
ask, does brain research support such a thing as a 'Visual Learner'?
Yes. But it's not a single type. Visual learning is more like a
kaleidoscope than a single shade of a color. That's because there is a
remarkable diversity to the organization visual abilities in the brain.
Expertise at visual learning may mean a preference for learning by
seeing visual relationships or pictures, a preference for learning by
reading text, expertise at translating verbal information into visual
pictures or imagining visual permutations, visual sensitivity to
detail, color, texture, or motion, or a spectacular memory for visual
information. A visual genius may have capabilities in one, several, or
all areas of visual ability.
The
picture above shows the differences in brain activation patterns in
adults vs. children (aged 7-10 years old) performing a verbal task in
response to a target word flashed on a screen. The children appeared to
respond much more powerfully in their visual cortex than adults.
 
Another
area at the front of the brain comes into play when solving the visual
Tower of London puzzle. What might we conclude from this? Giftedness in
visual abilities may not be 'global'. It's important to look for
patterns and clusters of talents- and see that there are great
variations among gifted visual learners.
Age-Related Processing Differences
Tower of London Visual Problem Solving By Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide. [Edubloggers Links Feed]
10:10:43 PM  Google It!.
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Your Future Taxpayers. 90% of US College Students Own a Cell Phone and Other Mobile Stats “In 2000, just over 33% of US college students had cell phones on campus, according to a national survey by Student Monitor. In the fall of 2004, nearly 90% did. [via ItFacts] On this same page from ItFacts is a mile long list of ‘Mobile usage statistics’ from around the world. Here are just a few: -- 171.2 million Americans have cell phones
-- 300 million cell phone subscribers in China by the end of 2004
-- 36% of personal calls are made from cellphones…
-- 75.5 Americans to use SMS by 2007…
-- Americans send 2.5 bln text messages a month“ [textually.org]
You can tell yourself that these trends won’t affect libraries, but you’d just be burying your head in the sand. [The Shifted Librarian]
10:09:26 PM Google It!.
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Boys and Reading.
Some of the gender differences noticed by fMRI raise some possibilities
about why boys might read differently from girls. Language does tend to
be more one-sided in men compared to women (see figure below),
accounting for why boys may be more vulnerable to language difficulties
following birth trauma.
 But
even gender-related differences in emotional memory (yesterday's post)
could explain some of the differences in reading preferences that
educators have noticed throughout K-12 education.
A quick survey
of the bookshelves of almost any elementary school classrooms reveals a
heavy preference for fiction and 'school' stories, although boys prefer
non-fiction, fantasy, humor, and science fiction. Could the preferences
that boys and girls have be due to the gender differences in emotional
memory? Would girls be as interested in situationally-based fiction if
they didn't have as powerful emotional memories as they do? How about
boys? Would boys be as uninterested in fiction if they had more
powerful emotional memories? Something to think about...
If you
have a reluctant boy reader, stock up on non-fiction titles, adventure
stories, technology, and fantasy. Favorite reads can be a vital way to
encourage a reluctant reader. Often if there is quite a bit of
technical language to learn at first, this special interest can give a
child a foothold in further language learning.
Helping Boys to Read Well and Often. ERIC Digest.
Boys and Books
Helping Boys Become Better Readers, Better Students, Better Guys
Gender Differences in Learning and Emotional Memory
Men Do Hear -- But Differently Than Women By Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide. [Edubloggers Links Feed]
9:54:45 PM Google It!.
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New Web Site for Academics Roils Education
Journalism. The Chronicle of Higher Education - in this
article accurately described as "stodgy and resistant
to change" - has been shaken up and now faces new
competition as two former senior staff - Scott Jaschik and
Doug Lederman, the editor and managing editor of The
Chronicle - left after 20 years to form their own online
publishing venture, Inside Higher
Ed. The best news about this new publication is
its commitment to accessibility: "You don't need an
expense account any more to get the best news, information
and career services... All of our content is free."
Worth noting: "The Chronicle grossed $33 million in
advertising revenues and $7 million in circulation revenues
in 2003." By Lia Miller, New York Times, February 14,
2005
[Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily]
9:52:57 PM Google It!.
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ODRL Initiative Requirements Working
Draft. From the good people at the Open Digital Rights
Language (ODRL), who are working on version 2 of the
specification: "The phase of actively gathering
requirements is now closed. The main focus of the Version 2
working group is now to create the new specification
documents." This link is to the requirements document.
By Ranato Ianella and Susanne Guth, ODRL, February 14,
2005
[Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily]
9:50:58 PM Google It!.
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Repositories. The quality of this preentation is a bit unever
(some of the diagrams absolutely need interpretation) but
the author makes enough good points that it is worth a
view. The 'The Next Wave' diagram on slide 5 should be
noted by the LMS industry. The observation that
"publishers will go direct" is well taken, as is
the recognition of personal publishing. And the duplication
of content depicted on slide 9 gets right to the heart of
why I prefer the open, distributed approach to learning
content. By John Townsend, IDEA Summer 2005, February 9,
2005
[Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily]
9:49:48 PM Google It!.
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Repositories. This presentation introduces you to the
Australian Research Repositories Online to the World (Arrow)
project, an Australian repositories initiative, as well as
detailed diagrams of the Flexible Learning Framework and
the Tasmania Learning Architectures Project. Some
alternative ways of viewing the E-Learning Framework and an
interesting 'wheel' diagram depicting types of
repositories. By Kerry Blinco, IDEA Summer 2005, February
8, 2005
[Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily]
9:48:42 PM Google It!.
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© Copyright 2005 Bruce Landon.
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