S.T.E.A.M Punks and Cyber Punks

1. Da Vinci, the Bauhaus Movement, Technology and the 21st-Century Educator S.T.E.A.M Punks and Cyber Punks Morgan P. Appel Director, Education Department

2. Wisdom from the Ancients In ancient Egypt, when humans were preserved through mummification, the brain was discarded--viewed as a superfluous organ. It was believed that the heart was the center of all emotion and learning.

3. A Place for Us--Somewhere Disaggregating and making sense of the cognitive and socio-affective characteristics of gifted and talented individuals (ongoing) Developing a practical understanding of the neuroscience of learning and teaching and the reciprocal integrated nature of all disciplines (STEAM) CCSS STEAM Creating integrated opportunities for ‘flow,’ driven by choice, interest and learning style Understanding the changing balance between formal and informal learning as driven by everyday technologies Moving beyond differentiation and toward PERSONALIZATION using technology and strategies beyond ability grouping Working collaboratively with gifted and talented to become critical producers and consumers of information Providing increasingly sophisticated opportunities for engagement that extend beyond the core

4. In Service of High Achievers • Remembers answers and needs about 6-8 repetitions to master • Alert and observant; attentive and interested • Pleased with own learning and gets high marks • Works hard to achieve, learns with ease • Is a technician with expertise in his/her field, responds with interest and opinions • Perf0rms at the top of the group and absorbs information • Is accurate and complete, memorizes well • Understands complex humor • Enjoys company of age peers • Completes assignments on time, answers questions in detail Source: B. Kingore, 2003. High Achiever, Gifted Learner, Creative Learner. Understanding Our Gifted

5. In Service of Gifted • Poses unforeseen questions and is curious • Knows without working hard and is beyond the group • Needs 1-3 repetitions for mastery • Prefers company of intellectual peers • Ponders with depth and multiple perspectives • Is intellectual and anticipates/relates observations • Infers and connects concepts • Creates complex/abstract humor and is intense • Initiates projects and extensions of assignments • Enjoys self-directed learning and is original/continually developing • Is an expert who abstracts beyond the field; guesses and infers well • Is self critical and may not be motivated by grades Source: B. Kingore, 2003. High Achiever, Gifted Learner, Creative Learner. Understanding Our Gifted

6. In Service of Creatives • Sees exceptions and wonders • Plays with ideas and concepts • Relishes wild, off-the-wall humor • Comprehends in-depth and complex ideas • Enjoys improvisation and creating • Is his/her own group • Questions the need for mastery • Brainstorms • Intuitive • Inventor • Enjoys working alone, but the company of creative peers • Shares bizarre and often conflicting opinions Source: B. Kingore, 2003. High Achiever, Gifted Learner, Creative Learner. Understanding Our Gifted

7. The Original Renaissance Man As every divided kingdom falls,so every mind divided betweenmany studies confounds and saps itself. Everything is connected to everything else. Leonardo da Vinci

8. Practical Neuroscience • The brain learns through multiple senses and modalities • The brain thrives on process and making sense of new information • The brain works in context when processing new information • The brain uses patterns to make sense of information • The brain uses scaffolding to process new information • Neuroplasticity: the lifelong ability of the brain to reorganize neural pathways based on new experiences • Physiologically, like a coin making an impression in clay—the clay must change to hold the impression of the coin • Consider the old saw ‘Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a week’ • The brain works in a very similar way: it thrives on making sense of process! • Process reinvigorates the brain through re-establishing neural networks

9. Practical Neuroscience • 1. The brain is a complex adaptive system. • 2. The brain is a social brain. • 3. The search for meaning is innate. • The search for meaning occurs through patterning. • Emotions are critical to patterning. • Every brain simultaneously perceives and creates parts and wholes. • Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral attention. • Learning always involves conscious and unconscious processes. • We have at least two ways of organizing memory. • Learning is developmental. • Complex learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat. • Every brain is uniquely organized. • Source: Caine and Caine (1997)

10. Beyond Practical Neuroscience • Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRIs) show ‘brain on fire’ in gifted individuals • Gifted individuals are multimodal thinkers • Great integrators and organizers of multiple senses and modalities • “Hypersensitive” brains Source: newhorizons.org

11. Beyond Practical Neuroscience • Enhanced sensory awareness that can be further cultivated through experience and training • Both initial impressions and later recollections are unusually vivid • Increased memory efficiency and capacity • Multimodality: making connections that others do not Source: newhorizons.org

12. Beyond Practical Neuroscience • Associational thinking; organizational skills; analytical thinking • However: • Sensory, emotional and memory overload • Personal disorganization • Distractibility • Mental fatigue • “Analysis Paralysis” Source: newhorizons.org

13. Beyond Practical Neuroscience • Gifted pupils learn with less repetition and fewer explanations (may be modality specific) • Enhanced sensitivity may lead to distractibility and to incorrect assumptions about ADHD • Distractibility should be balanced with a degree of task persistence (otherwise evaluate and diagnose) Source: newhorizons.org

14. Beyond Practical Neuroscience • Incidental learning • “Cognitive Flypaper” • Information wealthy—need resources to facilitate thinking processes (the brain thrives on process) – not an abundance of information • Metacognitive training, rumination and reflection • Practical application Source: newhorizons.org

15. Portending an Integrated Future • What does it really mean to S.T.E.A.M? • What is not the big idea (perchance, to dream)? • See both forest and trees • Understand the porous nature that is the interconnectivity within and across disciplines • Metacognition, collaboration and leadership versus pure content knowledge • Celebrate mistakes • Production is tangible, tacit and meaningful—where hard science meets and is interpreted through the arts • Thinking like a multi-disciplinarian/ Language of the multi-disciplinarian • JITL: Not knowing everything, but where to get it and when to use it (metacognitive contingencies of knowledge use) • Using multiple perspectives and lenses to address and make sense of challenges, opportunities and circumstances • The brain is an aesthetic organ—creativity and problem solving should produce enjoyment

16. STOP and Consider • Importance of patterns and integration • Solving complex problems using multiple data and strategies • Interpreting through a variety of lenses and moving beyond the ‘sum of parts’ • Engaging the ‘gifted brain’ and working with socio-affective characteristics of giftedness and talent • Need motivation

17. Toward a State of ‘Flow’ • MihalyCsikszentmihalyi (1975, 1990)/positive psychology • A Zen-like, intensive state in which an individual becomes completely emerged in an experience • “In the groove,” OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE, “In the zone” • Time stops (almost a meditative state) or flies • “Seeing the seams of the baseball” or “seeing the Matrix” • Losing oneself so that one is so focused, s/he is unaware of distractions, even bodily needs • A universal and cross-cultural experience • Connectivity between emotion, motivation and internalization

18. Toward a State of ‘Flow’ • Balance between individual’s ability and level of difficulty in the challenge (cannot be too easy or difficult or flow cannot occur). • Goals should be clear. Expectations are foreseen and goals are attainable. • High degree of concentration in a limited field of attention—person should be able to focus and become deeply engaged in the activity. • A loss of self-consciousness is experienced (unaware of self and what the self is doing). • Sense of time transcendence (subjective experience of time is altered—passes quickly/slowly/slow motion)

19. Toward a State of ‘Flow’ • Direct and immediate feedback should be available so behavior can be adjusted (merging action and awareness) • Empowerment/sense of personal control over the situation or activity • Effortless of action brought about by absorption in the activity • Lack of awareness of bodily needs (hunger/fatigue) • In education, ‘feeling’ the lesson and using smaller, highly engaging holistic assignments that counteract boredom and feelings of being overwhelmed

20. Toward a State of ‘Flow’ • Clear set of goals related to the activity, adding direction and structure (ambiguity threatens Flow) • Balance between ability and challenge • Enjoying something in the long term requires that tasks increase in complexity • Some tasks must have immediate results/feedback (success breeds success/making corrections) • Flow cannot be environmentally manipulated or forced (but can be encouraged)

21. From the Bauhaus Movement Only work which is the product of inner compulsion can have spiritual meaning. A modern, harmonic and lively architecture is the visible sign of an authentic democracy. Walter Gropius

22. The Bauhaus • “House of Construction” – Germany, early 20th century • Intellectual and practical harmony, with form following function • Innovation, emphasizing freedom, process, fun and flow • Professed unity among the arts and the sciences, emphasizing the importance of aesthetics • Importance of design and mass production with ‘spirit’ • Multisensory, multidimensional, multimodal

23. STOP and Consider • Process should be enjoyable and transcend boundaries • Challenge begats flow which begats engagement • Solving complex problems requires moving beyond differentiation (does not exclude group work, however) • Personalization=more intensive connections and acuity—bridging to true experiential learning/self discovery Technology Makes it Happen

24. Soliloquy From Blade Runner (1982) I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe... [laughs] Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those... moments... will be lost in time, like [coughs] tears... in... rain. Time... to die... Replicant Roy Batty

25. Personalization Using Practical Technologies • Internet searches, metacognition and neuroplasticity (exercising the brain) • Enhanced learning capacity; higher processing rates; automaticity; improved memory and recall; enhanced ability to pay/sustain attention; reduction in impulsive responses; among others [Critical Consumer] • Promotes opportunities for novelty and personalization, as well as infusion of choice for advanced learners • Moving beyond formal learning resources and organizing to fit the needs of a more self-guided learning experience [Personalization] • Engagement, empowerment and interest • Opportunities to ‘live’ the curriculum in an active, involved and communal way [STEAM] • LITTLE THINGS go a very long way—they hold your attention! • Long story short, when used correctly, technology promotes Flow.

26. Where do we Acquire Information? Formal Resources: Courses; textbooks; trainings; literature and other media; official websites; television; radio; among others Informal Resources: Networks; YouTube; Facebook; LinkedIn; Flickr; Google; Itunes; Netflix; Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Balance is Tantamount —based on your resource preferences and learning styles. What technology tools do you use? For what purposes? How do you organize learning? How do you map it out? ‘Buffets for the Brain’

27. Dreaming Personalized Learning Environments • Customizing sets of online/offline resources (content; presentation; navigation support; and educational services) to address the unique learning styles, profiles and interests of the individual user • Benefits: • Engages students as creators (versus strict consumers) of education and information • Promotes ownership of knowledge and participation in assessment • Offers choice and autonomy, values dimensions beyond cognitive • Real-life connections and creativity • Promotes critical thinking and sound habits of mind • Opportunities to share ideas and processes in an integrated way • Interdependence and mutual respect between teacher and student • Enhances tiering, grouping and scaffolding

28. A Diagrammed PLE: Thinking Map EXAMPLES

29. A Diagrammed PLE: Thinking Map MORE EXAMPLES

30. Thus… • From daVinci, we learn that all things are integrated and that we must challenge the way education has been undertaken since the dawn of the industrial age—lest we sap our creative energies • From the Bauhaus, we learn that these undertakings can benefit from a free-spirited collaboration and that the whole is often greater than the sum of its parts. We must transcend traditional ways of teaching and learning to move forward • STEAM offers a unique opportunity to engage in multidisciplinary problem solving that challenges and engages the cognitive and affective

31. Thus… • Personalization, choice and use of technologies stimulate ‘flow’ and offer multiple opportunities for creatives and gifted to become critical consumers and producers of information • Personalization, choice and use of technologies offer occasion for creatives and gifted to hone metacognitive processing and organizational skills, as well as to work collaboratively in a variety of contexts

32. Comments and Questions

33. Contact Information Morgan Appel, Director Education Department UC San Diego Extension 9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0170-N La Jolla, California 92093-0170 mappel@ucsd.edu 858-534-9273 extension.ucsd.edu/education