The
article I just read by Jane McGeehan
(which has no published date on it and that irritates me) on brain based learning brought up three key ideas:
- emotion is the gatekeeper to learning
- intelligence is a function of experience
- the brain stores most effectively what is meaningful from the learner’s perspective.
Scientific knowledge about the brain states that students will not retain information that is not meaningful to them. The article states that teachers can not know what is meaningful to their students unless they
know their students. Students I work with are reluctant to share information about themselves- but almost everything I've ever read talks about how social networking in the classroom (like through
Edmodo or
Schoology) can make even the most reticent student open up in new ways.
So.... if social networking can help teachers get to know their students....and getting to know your students = knowing what is meaningful to them
(which would then lead to)... teaching meaningful "stuff," it can then be assumed students will retain more information.....
Perhaps yet another interesting thought to share with social networking naysayers.
