3-2-1…..GO!

Welcome to ECS 200

Another year has begun and thus so have the blogs.  In this class we are asked to use a 3-2-1 model when dissecting the readings from each week.  This model includes 3 things I learned, 2 connections I made and 1 question that still remains.  The reading this week is from the text Educational Psychology 6th Ed. chapter 2 and a few select pages from chapter 6.  So, here we go!

3 Things I learned:

• “Development is relatively orderly” – To me, development has always been a progression from one step to the next, a set pattern of learning on thing then moving on to the next.  The example given in the text is that of an infant learning to sit before walking.  What is new to me is the concept that this is not necessarily a linear or predictable progression.
• “One neuron has the information processing capacity of a small computer” -ok I am no biology major or had a lot of interest in the intricate ways that our bodies work but this blew me away.  The text goes on to say that, “the processing power of one 3 -pound human brain is likely greater than all the computers in the world.” That is a very powerful piece of information.
• “Experience-expectant overproduction and pruning” – This is what happens when we don’t use certain functions of our neurons and synapses. For example “by about 10 months, Japanese infants lose the ability to discriminate between r and l -those neurons are pruned away.”  This is because those letters are not common in Japanese

2 Connections I made:

• You will learn better from educators who make you feel safe and encouraged.  I have always struggled with math and in classes where I felt safe and supported I had much greater results
• The question of whether or not we are helping or hindering our learners with so much accessibility to technology.  I am so dependent on things like spellcheck and Google but is my brain capabilities dampened because of my dependency on technology for immediate answers

1 Question I have:

• How can we get a better idea of how we each individually organize our thinking so that we can see more clearly the patterns to understanding that we each have?  How can I learn which psychological structures and schemes I personally utilize so that I can make the most efficient learning experiences for myself?

Until next time!