Cognition and Technology (501): making a start with Voicethread

[Image from: eHow: How to Learn the Theory of Psychology (Eraxion istock photo#7549747)]

I love this course!!!!! It's fascinating. The only extra I'd ask for is an "Ask an Expert" drop box where students from all sections could ask questions and all the profs and the course writer would help with answers, links, suggestions, possibly even follow-up questions. I'm finding that a little knowledge of brain function can lead me to jump to big conclusions that are probably not well supported with facts. Nevertheless, I'm taking the advise of Eric Jensen in A Fresh Look at Brain-Based Education and am not letting fears about the limits of my knowledge stop me from making some guesses and working on new strategies to use with my students:

"Brain-based education suggests that we not wait 20 years until each of these correlations is proven beyond any possible doubt. Many theories might never be proven beyond reasonable doubt. It's possible that the sheer quantity of school, home, and genetic factors will render any generalizable principle impossible to prove as 100% accurate. As educators, we must live in the world of "likely" and "unlikely" as opposed to the world of 'certainty'."

There are 2 Voicethreads (VT) required for this course and so I thought I'd do one for those of you who are not familiar with this resource. At the moment it's a work in progress because there will be additional links added to the various slides to connect you with help documents and other resources if you have problems (as I did).

As you'll see in the first slide, the technology threatened to let me down about half way through the process and as ever in this master's program, what initially threatened to be a 'ship-sinking storm' turned out inspire a series of important reflections about the emotional elements of learning. Later today these remarks will become the core of my first VT assignment for 501 -- due tonight!! (Question for my wished-for "expert": I wonder whether procrastination is a left- or a right-brained function?)

So here's my VT Starter Kit; I've left the comment function in this VT wide open if you have comments, observations, or reflections you'd like to add. Because of the limited page width in this blog, it's kind of hard to see. The caption on the cartoon says: "It's the latest innovation in office safety. When your computer crashes, an air bag is activated so you won't bang your head in frustration." Here is a link that will take you to the regular sized version of my presentation: http://voicethread.com/share/714870/. Enjoy!