Engaging Ideas: May 2009 Archives

Why So Many Minds Think Alike

By webmaster on May 29, 2009 5:57 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Why so many minds think alike - CNN.com

Decades of research show people tend to go along with the majority view, even if that view is objectively incorrect. Now, scientists are supporting those theories with brain images.

A new study in the journal Neuron shows when people hold an opinion differing from others in a group, their brains produce an error signal. A zone of the brain popularly called the "oops area" becomes extra active, while the "reward area" slows down, making us think we are too different.

"We show that a deviation from the group opinion is regarded by the brain as a punishment,"

Invisible Agents Control the World

By webmaster on May 28, 2009 1:02 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Why People Believe Invisible Agents Control the World: Scientific American

Souls, spirits, ghosts, gods, demons, angels, aliens, intelligent designers, government conspirators, and all manner of invisible agents with power and intention are believed to haunt our world and control our lives. Why?

Robots Forming Human-like Societies?

By webmaster on May 28, 2009 6:25 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Electronic Evolution: Robots forming human-like societies

At intervals, the robots were shut down and those that had the most charge left in their batteries were chosen as "successful", and their neural programming was combined to produce the next generation of the robots. These offspring are downloaded into the same mechanical bodies their parents inhabited, forming an closed-circuit Buddhist system which might be an extremely efficient method of maintaining a stable population, but will provide a serious headache for any robot philosophers who might turn up.

Daniel Dennett at Conway Hall, London

By Jeff on May 26, 2009 11:24 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

World famous philosopher and humanist Daniel Dennett speaks at Conway Hall, providing "A Darwinian Perspective on Religions: Past, Present and Future"
British Humanist Association -March 19, 2009.

Elephants' wings -PZ Myers

By Jeff on May 24, 2009 9:26 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Once upon a time, four blind men were walking in the forest, and they bumped into an elephant...

Where do you find meaning and joy and richness and beauty, O Reader?

What You Don't Know Makes You Nervous

By Jeff on May 21, 2009 7:58 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

What You Don't Know Makes You Nervous
By Daniel Gilbert Happy Days Blog - NYTimes.com

...So if a dearth of dollars isn't making us miserable, then what is? No one knows. I don't mean that no one knows the answer to this question. I mean that the answer to this question is that no one knows -- and not knowing is making us sick.

...That's because people feel worse when something bad might occur than when something bad will occur. Most of us aren't losing sleep and sucking down Marlboros because the Dow is going to fall another thousand points, but because we don't know whether it will fall or not -- and human beings find uncertainty more painful than the things they're uncertain about.

But why?

Introducing the Microlecture

By webmaster on May 19, 2009 6:30 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Introducing the Microlecture Format -- Open Education

The Micro-Lecture While one minute lectures may be beyond the scope of imagination for any veteran teacher, Shieh reports on the piloting of the concept at San Juan College in Farmington, N.M. The concept was introduced as part of a new online degree program in occupational safety last fall. According to Shieh, school administrators were so pleased with the results that they are expanding the micro-lecture concept to courses in reading and veterinary studies.

The designer of the format, David Penrose, insists that in online education "tiny bursts can teach just as well as traditional lectures when paired with assignments and discussions." The microlecture format begins with a podcast that introduces a few key terms or a critical concept, then immediately turns the learning environment over to the students.

A Lecture in 90 Seconds

By webmaster on May 19, 2009 6:26 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

A Lecture in 90 Seconds - Chronicle.com

Threaded Discussion Pedagogy

By webmaster on May 18, 2009 7:34 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Ideas for creating interactive threaded discussion questions and for facilitating quality ongoing discussion in online classes.

Discussion Tips for Students
The Art of Reply
Loose Threads
Discussion Topics vs/ Discussion Questions
Planting Seeds
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

See extended entry for details on each of these ideas.

Continue reading Threaded Discussion Pedagogy.

Our Moral Thermostat

By webmaster on May 17, 2009 1:23 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Why being good can give people license to misbehave ~ Scienceblogs

What happens when you remember a good deed, or think of yourself as a stand-up citizen? You might think that your shining self-image would reinforce the value of selflessness and make you more likely to behave morally in the future. But a new study disagrees.

Through three psychological experiments, Sonya Sachdeva from Northwestern University found that people who are primed to think well of themselves behave less altruistically than those whose moral identity is threatened. They donate less to charity and they become less likely to make decisions for the good of the environment.

Search Strategies for Online Resources

By webmaster on May 17, 2009 1:00 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Why use Web Resources?

Free course content
Up to the minute information
Add variety
Illustrate real-world applications of course concepts
Teach students how to evaluate web-based materials
Examples, illustrations, case studies
Discussion prompts
WAC ~ 'how is this relevant?' 'Summarize,' 'Respond.'

Continue reading Search Strategies for Online Resources.

Engaging Ideas Workshop

By webmaster on May 17, 2009 10:16 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The future success of online teaching and learning depends on developing course design and pedagogical models that serve the interests of both students and faculty. Participants in the Engaging Ideas Workshop adopt a common set of content, design and pedagogical principles in their online courses and to work together as a professional community to improve this model through experimentation, research and collaborative discussion. Participation in this workshop is voluntary and alternative course models outside of this workshop are encouraged.

Continue reading Engaging Ideas Workshop.

Formula For The Good Life?

By webmaster on May 14, 2009 8:24 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

What Makes Us Happy? ~ The Atlantic Online June 2009 by Joshua Wolf Shenk

Is there a formula--some mix of love, work, and psychological adaptation--for a good life? For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. Here, for the first time, a journalist gains access to the archive of one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. Its contents, as much literature as science, offer profound insight into the human condition--and into the brilliant, complex mind of the study's longtime director, George Vaillant.

Marshmallows and Self Control

By webmaster on May 13, 2009 12:41 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Don't! ~ The New Yorker

In the late nineteen-sixties, Carolyn Weisz, a four-year-old with long brown hair, was invited into a "game room" at the Bing Nursery School, on the campus of Stanford University. The room was little more than a large closet, containing a desk and a chair. Carolyn was asked to sit down in the chair and pick a treat from a tray of marshmallows, cookies, and pretzel sticks. Carolyn chose the marshmallow. Although she's now forty-four, Carolyn still has a weakness for those air-puffed balls of corn syrup and gelatine. "I know I shouldn't like them," she says. "But they're just so delicious!"

A researcher then made Carolyn an offer: she could either eat one marshmallow right away or, if she was willing to wait while he stepped out for a few minutes, she could have two marshmallows when he returned. He said that if she rang a bell on the desk while he was away he would come running back, and she could eat one marshmallow but would forfeit the second. Then he left the room.

Presentation Zen: Presentations TED style

By webmaster on May 12, 2009 6:16 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Presentation Zen: Making presentations in the TED style

TED has earned a lot of attention over the years for many reasons, including the nature and quality of its short-form conference presentations. All presenters lucky enough to be asked to speak at TED are given 18-minute slots maximum (some are for even less time such as 3- and 6-minute slots). Some who present at TED are not used to speaking on a large stage, or are at least not used to speaking on their topic with strict time restraints. TED does not make a big deal publicly out of the TED Commandments, but many TED presenters have referenced the speaking guidelines in their talks and in their blogs over the years (e.g., Ben Saunders).

Unconscious Brain Activity Shapes Our Decisions

By webmaster on May 9, 2009 5:32 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Unconscious Brain Activity Shapes Our Decisions

It seems natural to think that we carry out actions after consciously deciding to do so. I decide to start typing and as a result, my hands move around a keyboard. But according to modern neuroscience, that feeling of free will may be an illusion. For over twenty years, experiments have suggested that, unbeknownst to us, a large amount of mental processing goes on in unconsciously before we become aware that we intend to act....

On average, the volunteers took about 22 seconds to press the button and felt that they consciously decided to do so about a second or less before they made the movement. But the fMRI data told a much different story. Two parts of the brain - the frontopolar cortex and the precuneus -showed activity that predicted the choices that the volunteers made and in the frontopolar cortex, this activity happened a whopping 7 seconds before the subjects were consciously aware of their decisions.

Electrical Stimulation and Feelings of Free Will

By webmaster on May 8, 2009 8:53 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Electrical stimulation produces feelings of free will

When it comes to the human brain, even the simplest of acts can be counter-intuitive and deceptively complicated. For example, try stretching your arm. Nerves in the limb send messages back to your brain, but the subjective experience you have of stretching isn't due to these signals. The feeling that you willed your arm into motion, and the realisation that you moved it at all, are both the result of an area at the back of your brain called the posterior parietal cortex. This region helped to produce the intention to move, and predicted what the movement would feel like, all before you twitched a single muscle....

But when Desmurget stimulated a different region - the premotor cortex - he found the opposite effect. The patients moved their hands, arms or mouths without realising it. One of them flexed his left wrist, fingers and elbow and rotated his forearm, but was completely unaware of it. When his surgeons asked if he felt anything, he said no. Higher currents evoked stronger movements, but still the patients remained blissfully unaware that their limbs and lips were budging.

Culture May Be Encoded in DNA

By webmaster on May 4, 2009 1:06 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Culture May Be Encoded in DNA -- Wired.com

"We can think about both birdsong and human culture -- especially language but including other aspects of human culture, like music, cuisine, dance styles, rituals, technological achievements, clothing styles, pottery decoration and a host of others -- in similar terms," he said. These culturally-transmitted systems must all pass through the filter of biology. "Look at all the different human cultures," said Mitra. "They're different, but they're all within certain constraints, so those differences aren't genetic. But now compare with the chimp culture -- there are key differences. The possibilities between those cultures are constrained by biology."

May 2009 Archives