In the mid-1980s, I was responsible for a graduate program that certified media specialists—K–12 staff members using traditional audiovisual equipment. When the state credential changed the certification title to instructional technology specialists, I wasn't alarmed—at first. Then I looked into what new responsibilities came with the new name. The term instructional technology specialist includes more than just having a broad knowledge of various technologies. It also suggests an instructional specialist—with expertise in the learning process and teaching strategies that best support that process.
Luckily, this change came at a time of great activity in the field of neuroscience—the development of MRI, PETSCAN, and fMRI technologies, which have helped researchers in their analysis of the human brain and its operations. Thus, my task of effectively preparing instructional technologists included determining which findings about the brain would help make the classroom more brain-compatible (Hart, 1998).
Though often known as techies, instructional technology specialists in schools work with teachers on much broader human issues. I wanted to acquaint these graduate students with theories about learning that would have a strong impact on any technology training they might do with either K–12 faculty or their students. My course—A Brain-Compatible Approach to Technology Integration—helped familiarize students with the human brain and how it works.
The Brain at Hand
- When I bring both hands together (folded at the knuckles) with thumbs facing me, I see the size of my 3-pound brain.
- When I separate these hand positions, I see that I have right and left sides to my brain.
- The two thumbs remind me that I have two frontal lobes that aren't fully developed until much later in life.
- When I interlock fingers, I remember that my right and left brains aren't separate entities but are joined together by my corpus callosum—the interlocking fibers that allow both sides of the brain to communicate with each other.
- When I look inside at my interlocked fingers and count the number of digits, I am reminded of Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, which currently identifies eight different product-producing and problem-solving capacities in various regions of the brain (Armstrong, 2000).
Of the many ways I've used hands to teach students about their brains, the most useful brain story for technology coordinators is the triune brain story. An evolving story, it begins with research conducted at the National Institute of Health by Paul MacLean in the 1950s. Rather than look at the brain from a left brain/right brain perspective, MacLean considered the brain from a top/down or bottom/up perspective.
Triune is a French term that means three in one. My thumb reminds me of the first part of the triune brain—the brain stem. Small in comparison to the rest of the brain, the brain stem is located at the base of the brain and connects to the spinal column. It is responsible for many survival functions. Thumb gestures reminiscent of fighting or hitchhiking help students recall that the brain stem is active when our fight-or-flight response has been triggered.
Wrapping the hand's four fingers around the thumb is a good way to remind students of the four key players in the next section of the triune brain—the limbic system. Crucial to the functioning of the limbic system are the thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus.
Placing the other hand over the first as a thinking cap completes the trilevel design and reminds students that the largest, rational area of the brain—the cerebral cortex—is located above these survival and emotional areas.
When these biological findings about the brain were initially examined to determine how they might have an impact on education, scientists assumed that the rational cerebral cortex was in charge of the brain and responded by downshifting to lower, nonrational emotional and survival regions when confronted by a perceived threat (Hart, 1998). Now we understand that our emotional limbic system plays a far greater role in our relationship to the outside world (Goleman, 1995) and that the emotional system is designed to have the brain pay attention to a perceived threat before upshifting to any type of reflective activity. At this point, I remind students that the four fingers representing the four key elements of the limbic system wrapped around the brain stem (or thumb) now become a fist—representing the most powerful part of the human brain.
A last key concept begins with my fist—representing my limbic system, once thought to be the source of all those powerful emotions—and the visual reminder that my fist is connected to my arm, which is connected to my entire body. These physical connections provide a good model for the recent revelations that emotion molecules are not just specific to the human brain but are found throughout the major organs in the entire human body (Pert, 1997).
Thus, using simple hand props, I walk students through the most basic biology concepts to the latest ideas in the body-brain connection (Pert, 1997). How does this relate to teaching technology? Though I have known many an educator who has enthusiastically taken on the challenge of mastering different technologies, technology support specialists need to understand the role that emotions play in technology training—specifically when the emotions include fear and anxiety.
Brain Strategies
I compare how the brain works to master a new technology challenge to Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's mystery books. The brain likes the challenge of figuring out a pattern. In fact, if there is no challenge, the brain finds it difficult to engage in a learning activity (Hart, 1998). More important, like a good mystery plot, the pattern-seeking process strives to makes sense out of chaos, and some confusion—time to play around with the information—is essential to detect patterns. One of the first training strategies is how to create a nonthreatening environment that allows participants the freedom to sleuth about—without the stress of negative emotions—and detect the patterns that will make them successful technology users in the future.
Absence of threat. When someone is threatened, he or she perceives no other option than the negative one. Therefore, the number of choices available to students has a direct impact on the degree of threat that students feel in any learning situation.
Procedures. Although an appropriate amount of chaos in the learning process keeps the brain engaged, some boundaries are necessary to allow the brain to focus its energies on the problem at hand (Kovalik & Olsen, 1997; Sylwester, 2000). A set of written procedures or expectations for the daily functions in a computer lab, such as how to use portable video equipment or digital cameras, serves a variety of useful purposes, including helping students avoid embarrassment if they don't want to ask that directions be repeated. (I'm amazed at how often I've been the source of confusion in class because I've given only oral directions.)
But just writing down and posting procedures is not sufficient. Procedures are similar to manual directions, which often remain in their original boxes because they cannot be understood. Intelligence is a function of experience. Teachers need to walk students through procedures and match each abstract term with concrete equipment. Never believe that just because a procedure is posted, students will automatically visualize and understand it.
Facility design. Brain research suggests that such items as music, color, plants, and lighting have an impact on the capacity to learn in any given environment (Jensen, 2000; Venolia, 1998). The brain's capacity for incidental learning suggests that wall and bulletin-board space should contain useful information (Smith, 1986). A trip to an office supply store, however, might be just what the doctor ordered if the training space looks and feels cluttered. Information on eye strain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other physical problems suggests that technology facilities need to be ergonomically planned with the health and safety of its users in mind (Healy, 1998).
Cooperative learning. I often discover that I do not understand a concept when I try to teach it to someone else. Because cooperative-learning strategies continually put students in this oral discovery space, cooperative learning can be a powerful tool. Realizing the power of the emotional brain, I prefer to use strategies that emphasize group development (Gibbs, 1994). Students must learn to include and communicate with one another. Finally, as in all cooperative-learning models, we must focus on social skills. My preference is to acquaint students with the Lifelong Guidelines and LIFESKILLS model (Pearson, 2000). Modeling skills helps establish the atmosphere of respect that is so essential to a nonthreatening environment.
Multiple intelligences. Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences makes the case that students have many ways of knowing and demonstrating what they have learned. Nowadays, application programs can help support and expand the expertise of each intelligence, from word-processing linguistic skills to midi-synthesizer musical skills (Armstrong, 1994). I have found that one of the most useful ways to help students understand how the brain—or the computer—functions is to involve them in a bodily-kinesthetic role-playing activity that allows students to experience the relationships that exist among all of the parts of a system.
For example, I take a group of workshop participants and have them physically represent the major component parts of a computer—RAM, hard drive, processor speed—and then ask them to act out the relationship between each of these parts and what happens to the entire unit when one part doesn't function properly. This activity helps the students grasp what a computer is all about.
Levels of input. As you read this article, you are looking at the most abstract form of input available—words. Sadly, secondary—and most often two-dimensional—input, such as videotapes and computer software, do not offer much in terms of the rich sensory stimulation that the brain depends on for learning. When considering which technology to include in training, keep in mind options that include wireless or battery-operated choices that students can take into the "real world" to capture and explore once back in the classroom. Digital cameras, personal digital assistants, laptops, and a host of subject-area technologies are now able to go on location to record information for further research or for end-of-project presentations.
It's All in the Name
For convenience sake, both the state credential and my graduate program have reduced the term instructional technology to IT. I once took a course in instructional design and remember thinking that the IT title felt appropriate: The technical jargon in the lesson made me feel like a computer terminal inputting data. I also remember that I didn't like that feeling. Perhaps the greatest benefit from this credential transition is its reminder that the people we train aren't ITs, either. If we are to be effective teachers of technology—or of any subject—we must be in touch with what research tells us about how the human brain learns.
