Making connections...

This week was a busy one.  I began to make connections between the readings from this week and past week.  I did struggle a bit making the connections between the Davidson reading and the Johnson video.  Interestingly, I think it might have been due in large part to the difference between a very complex two-chapter reading assignment and a 16 minute dynamic video presentation.

After I thought about it, I realized that it says something about myself as a learner.  Shorter is better and the dynamism of an individual presenter and voice made the content easier to process.  I think in the coming weeks, I am going to see if I can do things a little bit differently for upcoming readings.  Making the content more interactive for myself and asking myself to make connections along the way will, I hope, help me to process the information and make the information immediately relevant, instead of waiting until the end to try and make the connections.

Or I could borrow one of my friend's babies to recreate the observations that Davidson makes about baby Andrew?  I would probably get distracted, talking in baby talk and changing diapers, so maybe not.

As I was looking at the wikis we have been creating, I began to think that already, my brain is processing information differently.  When I was reading the text, I was getting bogged down in the visual expanse of the print.  Where were the links?  Where was the handy embedded video showing the Cymbalta commerical?  Is it true that even my 45-year old brain, programmed in my early childhood by books and 1970s television (such as it was), has been changed by my exposure to digital information and the Internet?

Many studies seem to focus exclusively on the infant, child and adolescent brain.  I am going to start looking for some information about how our adult brains have changed since the wide-spread use of the Internet.  This seems like it would be an important thing to know as I continue my work with adult learners.

Perhaps I will start with this article:

The Internet: is it changing the way we think?