Research While Researching?

Last Friday, I watched a student taking notes onto notecards from a database article he had printed out. He also had the internet up and was googling people and information from the article on which he was taking notes. I watched him for a few moments, thinking that this is best of both worlds - students researching from database resources and using the internet to further research or understand the information he was reading. Fantastic! I will probably explicitly teach this as a strategy on our next paper. Here's the new issue, though: As I watched him, I noticed that he began to take notes from the Internet source right off the screen, but writing the notes into the note cards that were linked by a code to the database article he was reading. I told him that taking notes from the internet source was fine (after he evaluated it), but that he would need to link that notecard to a bibliography source of the web site from which he was taking the notes. So, while it was inspiring to watch a student further educate himself, I am finding another level of instruction about this proces is needed.

Neuroscience - the iBrain

This month's Scientific American Mind issue contains an (Oct./Nov. 2008) article by Gary Small (dir. UCLA Memory & Aging Research Center) and Gigi Vorgan (also Small's wife) "Your iBrain: How Technology Alters Your Mind" offers some interesting research about how your brain processes conventional reading differently than internet surfing (information gathering). Essentially, the experienced ("computer-savvy") Google searchers showed activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (left front part of brain) while the "computer naive" subjects did not. When the "computer-naive subjects" were exposed to five one hour Google sessions over five days (remember, these subjects are in an MRI tube!), these subjects quickly developed the same neural activity in that left frontal area that the computer-savvy users had at the baseline. According to researchers, this suggests that "the neural circuit training occurs relatively early and then remains stable." (p. 46) The authors also say the the dorsolateral PFC "is involved in our ability to make decisions and integrate complex information" and is "thought to control our mental process of inegrating sensations and thoughts, as well as working memory, which is our ability to keep information in mind for a very short time - just long enough to manage an internet-searching task . . ." (p. 42) Obvioulsy, I will need to read Small's full book iBrain to learn more about this interesting research. I can see educational applications of this research in that, as Fran and I work to create an information literacy (research) model for our "21st century" students, we will want to consider that this internet surfing is a different process than reading hard copy text. I don't know what this means, exactly, but I think this may be significant in building our approach to teaching students pre-research reading strategies - strategies that build a schema for selecting and de-selecting information.

I am also reading Marc Iacoboni's Mirroring People about mirror neurons that guide our social relationships. One of the key researchers whom Iacoboni references is Giacomo Rizzolatti, a member of the Italian reserach team that shook up the world of neuroscience with its "discovery" of mirror neurons, completely upturning views of how neurons can operate. Rizzolatti has published his own book, Mirrors in the Brain, which I will have to read as well. I think this research could have important implications for teaching and learning - especially as we integrate more social networking and live group work into our instruction. As I read more about mirror neurons, I will post any hypotheses and strategies I develop based on those hypotheses. I would be interested to know if any education researchers are working in this area of neuroscience as it applies to learning and teaching.

Students Respond to Survey

Prior to teaching the mini-research paper process to my senior English students and as a precursor to our Social Psychology unit in AP Psychology, I surveyed them on their use of technology, what technology means to them, web sites they use, what they thought about adult monitoring of online activity, technology access and other related information. The questions were developed by group participants in the ASU course I am taking (Eng 598) "Media Matters." In addition, I added access questions to inform me as Fran and I work through our action research project, "reading strategies in the research process" into which we will integrate information literacy skills and the use of technology. Back to the ASU group mini-research, our group responsibility is to interview 3 students about their technology use each and post their responses so that our group may share the data. Fortunately, one group member is going to compile the results from two sections, and I will figure out how to compile the other classes' data. I will report on this findings as they unfold.

When I administered the surveys in my classes last week, I took two approaches. In my AP Psych class, I asked the students (grouped in dyads) to interview each other and fill out the surveys that way; then I group the students in groups of four to process their responses, looking for commonalities or trends they noticed. My only regret is that I did not have a recorder going in all the discussions - they were rich and interesting and could offer further data. While they were occasionally off-task (usually relating some incident somewhat connected to the questions), their overall behavior was engaged and interested. I had explained the purposes of the data and also discussed with them creating a class wiki for Social Psychology, which they were genuinely excited about. (Sidebar: in this class, all students have access from home and are frequent users of the web; in addition, all the students in this group are strong students.)What I found interesting in talking to them and getting their feedback about the class wiki project, all of them use Wikipedia, but only a few of them really understand what a wiki is! Because this class is small and generally responsible, it is a good place for me to experiment with integrating web 2.0 technologies into my instruction.

In terms of the administering the survey to my three "regular" senior English classes, I had them respond to the questions individually on paper, then I grouped them. The activity went well and generated some good group discussion in my morning sections, but in my afternoon section, the activity didn't go as well as the social relationships among the students are weak (with some active aversion to working with others at all) and a greater number of generally unmotivated students are in the class. Just watching the difference between how this last section of the day processed the activity versus the morning session taught me more about teaching this socially and academically challenged group.