Brain Science Education Digital Filing Cabinet





Background
On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The following is quoted from Article 26:


 * Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
 * Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

The world is making progress toward achieving free, universal elementary school education. This, of course, is merely a step toward providing free or very inexpensive PreK-12 or PreK-16 or lifelong education for all people of all ages throughout the world. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is making a steadily growing contribution toward eventual achievement of these visionary goals. See, for example, progress in developing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

The Information Age Education Digital Filing Cabinet projects are designed to aid in providing universal free education to people of all ages throughout the world. They are specifically targeted at teachers, teachers of teachers, and others who are interested in improving education.

The Free Open Source and Open Content Educational Materials IAE-pedia document explores the idea of providing free, open source textbooks and instructional materials to students that they can keep, edit, add marginal notes and comments, and so on.

Rational for Having a Personal Digital Filing Cabinet
Every person spends a lifetime learning and helping others to learn. For example, your senses are continually bringing information into your brain. Your brain processes this information and integrates some of it into your current storehouse of knowledge and skills. So, you are always involved in teaching yourself. In every interaction with another person you are conveying information to that person. In that sense you are helping that person to learn. So, you are a teacher, whether or not you are being paid to be a teacher.

A personal DFC provides a vehicle you can use to store information you may want to access at a later date and/or share with others. An address, phone number, and email address book (paper or electronic) provides an excellent example of a limited purpose DFC. An expanded version of this DFC might contain more information about the people in the file, such as pictures, birthdays, copies of important email communications, and so on.

When you take a course you likely take notes. The collection of notes from a course could well be part of a DFC for the course. Other components may be electronic copies of the course syllabus, materials that are available in electronic form, copies of quizzes and tests, copies of assignments and the work you did on the assignments, and so on. And, of course, you might want to include pictures and contact information on your classmates.

Perhaps the most important aspect of a DFC is that you have personal "ownership" and interest in the content. That is, it is material that you have created and/or collected and have become personally familiar with. In some sense, it is an extension of— supplementary memory for—your brain.

This IAE-pedia document
This specific IAE Website was created by David Moursund. It consists of a combination of materials he has written and materials he has personally found quite useful. People interested in the general topic of Brain Science Education may find the materials useful as they study the topic and develop their own personal Brain Science Education DFC.

All of the Information age Education documents listed below are available free on the IAE Websites. Most of the other materials are available free on the Web. However, some references are to commercially available materials (such as books) that are not in the public domain.

Web-based Brain Science Education Materials from IAE

 * Moursund, D. (2014). Brain Science. IAE-pedia. Available at http://iae-pedia.org/Brain_Science.


 * Brain science has a quite long history. However, it is only in recent years that technology and brain theory have progressed to a stage that allows us to gain an understanding of how brains work at the neuron level. In addition, our increased understanding of genes is providing information about a variety of brain "defects" and diseases. We are developing useful interventions based on brain education (training, retraining) and drugs.


 * This document provides brief introductions to a large number of brain science topics.


 * Moursund, D. (2014). What the Future in Bringing Us. IAE-pedia. Available at http://iae-pedia.org/What_the_Future_is_Bringing_Us.


 * "All education springs from some image of the future. If the image of the future held by a society is grossly inaccurate, its education system will betray its youth." (Alvin Toffler; American writer and futurist; born October 3, 1928.)


 * "Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do. The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Really smart people with reasonable funding can do just about anything that doesn't violate too many of Newton's Laws!" (Alan Kay; American computer scientist and educator; born May 17, 1940.)


 * Moursund, D. (2013). Artificial Intelligence. IAE-pedia. Available at http://iae-pedia.org/Artificial_Intelligence.


 * The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do. (B. F. Skinner; American psychologist; 1904-1990.)


 * Artificial Intelligence is slowly but surely growing in its importance in education. As machines grow "smarter," our educational system needs to be in a process of continually rethinking what students should be learning.


 * One way to think about AI is by comparing and contrasting the capabilities and limitations of a human brain with that of an artificially intelligent computer. Both a human brain and a computer "brain" can input, store, process, and output information. Both can contain declarative and procedural knowledge.


 * Moursund, D. (2013). Two Brains Are Better Than One. IAE-pedia. Available at http://iae-pedia.org/Two_Brains_Are_Better_Than_One.


 * “Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination.” (This quote is often mistakenly attributed to Albert Einstein; most likely the correct attribution is Leo Cherne at the Discover America Meeting, Brussels, June 27, 1968.)


 * "No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible, intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind." (Napoleon Hill; American author; 1883–1970.)


 * Moursund, D. (2013). Cognitive Development. IAE-pedia. Available at http://iae-pedia.org/Cognitive_Development.


 * All teachers know quite a bit about cognitive development. All teachers can cite examples of students who "seem bright enough" but in certain areas, "just don't get it." They indicate that such students "just are not yet ready to learn and understand the material." That is, the cognitive development of these students is not at a level to support the instructional methodologies and pace needed to keep up with the rest of the class.


 * Computer technology is a valuable aid to research in cognitive development and cognitive neuroscience. Progress has been made and is being made that can contribute significantly toward helping to improve our educational system.


 * To a large extent, however, our educational system does a poor job in dealing with the widely varying cognitive development levels of students at various grade levels or in various discipline-specific courses.


 * Moursund, D. (2009). Critical Thinking. IAE-pedia. Available at http://iae-pedia.org/Critical_Thinking.


 * Critical thinking is part of every academic discipline. Moving toward a higher level of knowledge, skills, and performance in a discipline includes becoming better at critical thinking within the discipline. Thus, every teacher has a responsibility of helping his or her students get better at critical thinking within the discipline areas the teacher teaches.

Other Brain Science Education Materials
This is a Work in Progress.

Here are some IAE-pedia files yet to be added:


 * Cognitive Neuroscience Discoveries.


 * Enhancing Mental and Physical Capabilities.


 * Mind and Body Connection.

Author or Authors
The initial version of this page was developed by David Moursund.