2006 LiveText Keynote: David Dobbs

Education mechanics – get them to behave in order to learn. Teach them things for use in their live. New: mechanisms of learning – Learning/Behavior.

Attention consciousness neurobasis of learning. The search for memory – Eric Kandel from Columbia – Acquiring a memory is learning. William James – my experience is what I agree to attend to. (It is what you make it???)

Learning doesn’t add neurons. Learning adds or strengthens synapses – connecting in different ways. Our minds are malleable /flexible. Imitative learning: observe, experience, learning. Mirror neurons fire when you hear or read a verbal description of an action or experience.

Model to embrace knowledge – neurological action is different when you watch a video of a person giving a presentation than when you are in the room with them. Educators are not just vessels – they filter and direct attention. They are models of engaging information – how to look at the world. Personal learning experience will lie in the heart of education.

At any given time a small percentage of our brain (which weighs about three pounds) uses 20% of our oxygen and glucose.

Memories don’t go extinct. They are obscured by new memories.

Oxford Primer or Cambridge Guide: In Search of Memory, by Kandel

See Brainconnection.com for mirror neurons.