Here are just a few of the things researchers know about the brain and how people learn:
- Repetition reinforces neural networks.
- New learning builds on past experiences.
- We must use the concepts we learn if we are to remember them.
Here are just a few of the ways that Internet-based activities support the preceding principles of brain-based learning:
- Students find that information is repeated on a plethora of Web sites devoted to a particular topic.
- Students can review basic information at one site and then link to other sites that provide new information.
- Students can be required to create something — a report, poster, brochure — that uses the data they find at the sites they visit.
It's clear that "the Internet is brain-compatible" when teachers design activities with principles of brain-based learning in mind, Kristen Nelson told educators in her standing-room-only session, Best Practices: The Internet and Brain-Based Learning. An obvious statement, conceded Nelson, director of grants and special projects for the Capistrano (Calif.) Unified School District. Still, Nelson has found that many teachers fail to create meaningful Internet-based activities — and that many students, therefore, do not have the powerful learning experiences that are possible when using the Web.
Photo by Mark Regan
Activities that are "well-designed," said Nelson, are those that
- Kindle students' curiosity.
- Include an emotional component.
- Have meaning and purpose.
- Are challenging yet manageable.
- Provide time for reflection.
- Require students to create a final product.
Students must "be able to create a product at the end" of a project, Nelson asserted. After all, she pointed out, the purpose of Internet-based activities is to give students practice using technology for research, to find information from a variety of sources, synthesize that information, and then summarize what they've learned for different audiences. "If that's not a basic skill of the future, I don't know what is," Nelson stated.
Nelson also brushed aside the suggestion that it's not necessary for teachers to require Internet use in the classroom if students have access to the Web at home. "You can bet that kids using the Internet at home are not using it to boost their literacy skills," Nelson stated. There is little educational value in spending time in chat rooms, which is what most kids do on their own, she observed. Only well-crafted Web-based activities — those intentionally designed with specific learning objectives in mind, said Nelson — will help students meet academic standards.