Caught in the Middle: Part I

Biological Factors
It’s super daunting to distil the gigantic field of biological psychology into a post. But here goes. There are two schools of thought on this: 1) there are anatomical differences in the “teen brain” that drives behavior. 2) The “teen brain” is a myth. Experiences create changes in the teen’s brain. Both camps do agree that there are anatomical differences in the brain that are occurring from childhood to adolescence and on to adulthood. What is the hotly debated issue is if these anatomical changes in the brain result in more risk-taking behavior.*

Anatomical Changes in the Teen Brain
Remember the process of executive functioning? Recent studies indicate that the prefrontal cortex—which is responsible for executive functioning--may be one of the most important distinctions between the teenage and adult brain. Recent fMRI studies show that from childhood (ages 8-13) through adolescence (14-17) and adulthood (18-30), the prefrontal cortex is used more during complex tasks. Additional regions of the brain (usually higher-order thinking skills) are also used more as the child ages.

Anatomically, the brain is undergoing synaptic pruning (eliminating unnecessary connections between the neurons) and increasing myelin (essentially insulation) around the axons that send signals from neuron to neuron. As a result, how the prefrontal cortex “communicates” with other areas of the brain is more efficient.

The general idea is that as you get older, your brain can distribute the workload of the decision making to many different areas of the brain. This is especially useful under stressful conditions, because one can recruit more areas than just the prefrontal cortex to take over.

So it’s conceivable that my tough guy student impulsively got in a fight because under stress, could not efficiently use his prefrontal cortex and other regions that help to inhibit behavior or evaluate long-term consequences.

Does the difference in the teen’s brain really cause his/her behavior?

Herein lies the controversy. There is a group of researchers who believe that the risk taking, novelty seeking, and impulsivity that are characteristic of adolescents may be hardwired in the brain. Remember that the pruning of grey matter in the brain does not reach the forebrain until adulthood, and the forebrain is where the planning, reasoning, and impulse control occur (remember, pruning is good, it increases efficiency). The brain-behavior connection is drawn based on subsequent studies of adolescents’ risk assessments, which are thought to require these areas of the brain.

A recent study showed that for adolescents, the perceived benefits of an action tend to outweigh and offset the risk. So basically the payoff of having your friends think you are the best coke drinker in the school outweighed the cost of puking. Likewise, the benefits of fighting a peer at lunch and keeping your “tough guy” image outweighs the cost of having to see the school psychologist and potential suspension.

And, because nothing is every that simple when dealing with adolescents, another group of researchers believes that the “Teen Brain” is a myth. The argument goes something like this: Snapshots of brain activity and their associated behaviors do not necessarily mean that the brain causes the problems encountered by teens. Considerable research shows that a person’s emotions and behaviors continuously change brain anatomy and physiology (e.g. stress, enriched environments, nutrition, exercise, and even meditation). So did the brain cause the behavior, or did the behavior alter the brain?

Further, anthropological research reveals that teens in many cultures do not experience these “teen problems” (at least not until Western schooling, movies, and television were introduced), making the “hardwiring” of the teen brain not universal. So in the case of my tough guy, the stress about his fight perhaps created hypersensitivity in dopamine-producing neurons, which altered his brain chemistry. And my happily chanting girls somehow escaped the teen problems because of their nurturing, healthy, and stress-free experiences.

I don’t know about you all, but it seems to me that this biological psychology lesson is a bit mind boggling.** Now pretend you’re 13 years old trying to figure it all out! Middle school kids are amazing.


*For more detail on the debate, refer to Scientific American Reports: Special Edition on Child Development © 2007. They lay it out quite well and include more detailed information on all the studies.

**Pun intended.

Thomas Davenport and Blogging - He is Wrong! : eLearning Technology

Quick update to my previous post: Thomas Davenport and Blogging - He is Wrong!

Guess what - I just ran across Tom Davenport - The Next Big Thing. I could be wrong, but it appears to be a blog. In fact Tom calls it a blog.

It would seem that he may have changed his opinion on the value of blogging - at least for himself - maybe not for others.

Facebook as a Learning Platform

Facebook seems to be coming up everywhere the past few weeks. The most recent, which finally got me to post, was a Stephen Downes post - I'm Majoring in Facebook, How about You? He points us to a Fortune Magazine article that describes a Stanford class being offered by BJ Fogg that studies Facebook as a platform:

"Facebook is the most convenient and respectable way to feel connected to friends, get updated on existing friends, find new people, build relationships and express identities."

Students, however, seem more interested in cashing out. "I want to build a really cool app and then sell it for some amount of money," says Jennifer Gee, a 21-year-old computer science graduate student. Classmates nearby nod in agreement.

The class has each student creating applications in Facebook and presenting to potential investors. Interestingly, BJ Fogg (the professor) came onto my radar a few years ago because he was writing about persuasive technology - i.e., how do you persuade humans to behave a certain way with technology - a key component of human performance improvement through technology.

Why is Facebook so hot right now? I see two main reasons which I give below, but first ...

What is Facebook?

Facebook is a pretty simple application with fairly standard social network functionality. At the core, Facebook allows you to:

• Create a profile
• Link to your friends
• See your friends updates and to update your friends
• Create public or private groups
• Join groups
• Hold group conversations (threaded discussions)

While there are a lot of other features, that's about 90% of what people do. In fact, here's a picture of what users do on Facebook (larger circles represent more activity):


It's mostly some pretty simple activities. But because of critical mass, a general ethos of open conversations between friends, filtering of notifications, and control of friendships, it works well as a means of communications within your social network.

What I've found interesting is that I now commonly use LinkedIn to find interesting people, but often use Facebook to communicate with them.

When you look at the core functions of Facebook - it fits pretty well as the basis for a learning platform. More on this below.

So, why is it hot?

Facebook has Your Audience

One of the struggles with any social networking software is overcoming the hurdle of getting users to start using yet another social networking platform. This is something that I've lamented before (see Too Many Social Networks?and Multiple Social Networks).

I was just talking to someone from a very large organization. They had previously tried to get an internal platform for social networking rolled out in the organization and had limited adoption. Then they realized that about half of their workforce were active users of Facebook. And as the old adage goes:

Q: "Willie, why do you rob banks?"
A: "Cause that's where the money is." ~ Willie Sutton - Bank Robber

Why are we going to be adopting Facebook? Cause that's where our users are.

In fact, this makes me wonder if it can overcome a bit of the 1% rule (or even the update to the 1% Rule).

So, instead of trying to get your audience to adopt another platform, adopt Facebook.

Facebook Applications are Simple to Build

If you look at the picture above, the top right Facebook represents interacting with applications. Facebook applications are custom functionality that work seamlessly within the Facebook environment. The code runs on a separate server, but the applications interface plays back inside Facebook. Facebook provides an API that gives you access to friends, groups, etc.

And it's relatively easy to create these applications.

I'm currently engaged with two different clients working on Facebook applications. Why? Well, because the audience is there and we intend to leverage the Facebook platform in order to:

• Spread virally by asking friends to add the application, notify friends about activity
  
• Use groups as the basis for certain kinds of activity (think communication, decision making)

Facebook as a Learning Platform

For the upcoming Free Online Conference - Corporate Learning: Trends and Innovations we wanted to have a way for participants to get to know other participants and hold discussions. While we are going to use Q2 Learning's platform, we could have created a group in Facebook and used the threaded discussion capability there. The advantage of that is that likely a sizable portion of the audience is already on Facebook and thus wouldn't have to upload profile information. This also would allow the relation(friend)ships created during the process to exist beyond the conference.

Choosing Facebook would also give us the possibility of using Facebook as a recruiting vehicle. Through the notification system, friends of attendees will see a message that they are attending the event.

You can do the same thing with Facebook for your organization, group, class, etc. Leverage it as a means of getting the word out, as a social networking layer, as a discussion tool. And, again, your audience is already there.

Of course, there's also some really interesting possibilities because of the ability to create applications. You can think of Facebook as providing a platform that handles authentication, profiles, networks, groups and notifications. If you think about it, there are a lot of applications that could leverage this core capability. I would expect that this is a place where we will see eLearning Startups - New Wave Coming.

Stuck in the Middle

I have always chosen to work in middle schools. I request them on purpose. I love the “tween” age group of 11-14 (“tween”=between children and teens). I love the drama of it all. I love when the students blow my expectations out of the water. I love how they secretly still want to play. I love seeing the incredible cognitive and social development that happens in 3 short years. And when I tell people this, they look at me as if I am an alien. Middle schoolers get a bad rep.

My first experience with middle school (other than my own, of course) was when I was doing my first practicum in grad school. My assignment was to “get a sense of the culture of a middle school” by interviewing students and staff. My first day, I noticed boy culture right away. A 7th grade boy at lunch somehow obtained a 2-liter bottle of coke and was showing all his friends how quickly he could drink it all, while they all cheered on. He then showed all his friends his vomit. Awesome.

Girl culture is just as interesting. Just the other day at my school I heard three girls in the hallway chanting a rhyme of some sort. I can’t remember it all, but it was along the lines of “OH. MY. GOD. I think I need a manicure. The sun, the sun, is bleaching out my hair!” There was an accompanying interpretive dance. Awesome.

This is all the fodder for an anthropological study of middle school culture. I am the Margaret Mead of Middle School.

Somehow, the happy, well-adjusted students are somehow never referred to the school psychologist. But there is a happy, well-adjusted student in every kid that comes into my office. A few years ago, a giant, sulky, angry 8th grade boy was “delivered” to my office by the principal following a fight at lunch. The principal whispered to me, “This kid’s a ‘frequent flyer’ in my office for fights. Good luck.” His arms were crossed. He was scowling. He was wearing an army jacket with his hood on. His backpack claimed “Thug Life.” And he was clearly NOT going to talk to ME.

I started with acknowledging that he didn’t want to be there (didn’t need my Ph.D. for that one). Then to break the ice, I asked him what he liked to do when he wasn’t at school. And do you know what he said? Poetry. I did not see that coming.

So what is going on with middle school aged students???

The answer is: it depends on your theoretical orientation. Personally, I subscribe to the biopsychosocial explanation. This means that the middle school student’s behavior is not the result of one thing, but rather a complex interaction between biology, personality and learning factors, and social factors (including family, previous experiences, culture, peers, etc.). But if you want to sound fancy, next time use “biopsychosocial.”

Biological Factors will be the first of the “Three Part Series” attempting to explain our middle school friends. I’ll take each factor separately, even though the interaction among them is the good part.

Writing Development

I got a booklet of papers in the mail today from my mother. Attached to the papers was a sticky note that read:“One finds some very interesting things when cleaning up basements.” It was some of my writing from elementary school. Given my recent post on writing, I thought I’d share some of my early work to show how writing develops.

Apparently, I was a “journalist” for the school paper back in the early 80s. Two thoughts came to mind as I read this: 1) I can’t believe this was published this for others to read, and 2) I may have missed my calling as a hard-nosed reporter.

Interview with Barbie
By Rebecca Bell, Reporter

Barbie: “You know, I’ve never been interviewed before.”
Rebecca: “Barbie, I would like to ask you a few questions.” *
Barbie: “Oh, sure. Ask me anything.”
Rebecca: “Barbie, do you like Ken?”
Barbie: I used to, but now I like Mr. T.”
Rebecca: “I see, but how does Ken feel?”**
Barbie: “He doesn’t care and besides, he likes Skipper now.”
Rebecca: “Are you going to be doing a movie with Mr. T.?”
Barbie: “Yes, it’s called ‘Strut’.”***
Rebecca: “Thank you very much, Barbie. It was nice interviewing you.”

*See, I get right to the point, like a hard-nosed journalist
**Note early therapeutic penchant for asking about feelings
***I really wish this were a real movie. It would have been awesome.

Writer's Block

I usually compose my daily blog entry in my head on the way home from work. I reflect upon my experiences of the day and decide what topic sticks out as a “good” one for the blogging community. My criterion is that the topic should (hopefully) be research-based, at least quasi-interesting, and has a nice anecdote that illustrates the theory in action. In grad school at UC Berkeley, they liked to call it a “scientist-practitioner” model. What I like about this model is it brings research into action and the ivory tower concepts to real-life practical solutions. One would be surprised how little research is used in the decision making for our nation’s schools, but that is another post.

So this afternoon I was sitting in the usual traffic reflecting on the day. And I came up with a few decent topics, but none that met my criterion. And then I decided to use the non-idea as an idea and write about writer’s block.

Writer’s block is a common phenomenon that arises when one gets stuck in a part of the writing process, whether it be coming up with a topic, deciding the structure of the writing, organization, what to write about next, and the sometimes painful re-writing/revising process (Anyone who has done a dissertation is reading this having painful flashbacks). Sidebar: I bought this book while I was writing my dissertation when I had writer’s block called “How to Write Your Dissertation in 15 minutes a Day!” I was desperate. I wanted to throw the first 116 pages of my dissertation and the reams of statistical output out the window going 75 miles an hour down Highway 101 headed to Mexico, yelling “Adios, Berkeley! I quit!” Thankfully, I did not. I sought help.

So what do you do when you have writer’s block (besides fantasize about life without the writing project)?

The answer depends on where you are stuck. For some students, picking a topic is the first roadblock. Actually, picking a topic is easy. Picking a “good” topic is what people with writer’s block worry about. In keeping with the theme of the post, let’s start with the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start, after all. Most of these suggestions are for older students in middle and high school, but some can be adapted to elementary level with some creativity.

1) Brainstorming/Free Association

This is a commonly cited strategy. Basically, you write down whatever occurs to you and not judge it. You may even carry a little book around with you and jot down random thoughts that relate to your writing assignment. I have had mixed success with brainstorming depending on the student. For a student who is anxious about coming up with a “good” idea, this can be a difficult strategy because they are constantly judging themselves and don’t want to write down “silly ideas.” My advice is to ask the student treat it as an “experiment” and try to make it fun.

Some ways I’ve done brainstorming in a fun way is by drawing. Have the student draw a key word related to the topic in the middle of a poster board or large piece of paper. Circle it. Then write down and draw a line to anything that you think of related to the word. You can also draw a picture representing the word. So if your topic is “Writer’s Block” you might draw a line to a new word “Adaptation” which is a movie about writer’s block. Maybe you draw a mini-Nicholas Cage by it. You never know what random thought may trigger a good topic.

Brainstorming is best done with a buddy. I know in writing my dissertation, the input of my peers was invaluable when I got stuck. Students benefit from this as well. You can have one student pretend to be a journalist and ask the other student the “who, what, where, when, why, and how” of his/her topic. Who? Me and Nicolas Cage. What? We both have writer’s block. And so on. If you don’t have a study-buddy handy, try you’re good friend, Mr. Google. Type in “writer’s block” and see what you get. Of course, don’t plagiarize! Use the Internet to generate ideas for your own topic.

2) Graphic Organizers

There are numerous examples of graphic organizers to help with various writing genres. I call them “Plug and Chug”—you plug in your ideas in a template for that genre (e.g. expository writing, personal narratives, compare/contrast essay) and chug out your organizational plan. Let’s use the genre of story telling as an example. A story plan is a diagram of the important parts of a story. For young students, this can be as simple as folding a piece of paper into thirds and drawing a beginning, middle, and end as a prompt for writing their story. For older students, have the students fill in information in boxes such as:

Who am I writing for?
Have I looked at a good example of this type of writing?
What is the purpose of the story?
Who are the main characters?
Who are the minor characters?
What are the big events?
How should I organize the events (chronological, flash-back, by theme)?

Another graphic organizer that is common is the outline. Pretty standard. This works well for linear thinkers. For students who have executive functioning difficulties and/or writing disabilities, the outline will need to be explicitly taught as it pertains to the writing genre.

3) Dictation

Some students with visual-motor processing deficits think of writing as torture. It is actually physically difficult to write. Try writing with your non-dominant hand for one day. That’s what it’s like. This can understandably thwart the writing process. Sometimes these students appear “unmotivated.” But remember for many of these students, it is far better to look unmotivated or unwilling than appear dumb.

Teaching typing skills is a good start for these students. But there will not always be a laptop handy when you have to write, unfortunately. As a classroom modification, have the student dictate their initial writing ideas to a peer or a classroom aide, if available. This modification will have to depend on the comfort-level of the student with “announcing” his/her difficulties. Use your judgment based on the student. Even better, propose the idea to the student and see what s/he thinks. Frame it like this: “I know you have a lot of great writing ideas, and I want to make sure we get them all down on paper. Sometimes students like to have someone write down their ideas first. Would you like to try that?” I’m all for empowering the student to choose his/her own accommodations that help the writing process. Then they can have a repertoire of ideas with which to advocate for their learning needs down the road.

Okay, let’s assume now you’ve got something written down and it needs revision. Now what?

1)Change the Modality
Sometimes you can get bogged down and hit a block when you think only in words. My “15 minutes a Day!” book said to draw out your concept instead of writing it. I was resistant at first to make a cartoon of my life’s work, but I gave it a shot.

My topic was a cross-cultural analysis of parenting and adolescent motivation for school. I had come to the daunting “Conclusion” section of the dissertation and was stuck on how to conclude 2 years worth of data. So I drew out my research model with little stick Mexican-American and White adolescent figures entering little school houses from their respective little parents’ houses nearby and the teacher was giving the itty bitty report cards and so forth. Then I drew other concepts such as “perceived caring” with little hearts and “family composition” with one parent, two-parents, or mixed parent constellations (e.g. grandma and uncle). I was surprised at how much clearer my conclusion was in cartoon form and it gave me a new way to explain the complex interconnection among my research variables.

2) Challenge the Worry Thoughts

I have heard many students shoot down their own writing as “not good enough.” They may even hesitate to get started at all because they have already decided they aren’t good writers. I’ve even had students write entire essays and never turn them in because they don’t like them. Remember that for some students, writing is exposing one’s self to being critiqued, and that’s anxiety-provoking. Normalize the anxiety. But remember that even best-selling authors get bad reviews and they live through it.

Sometimes I explain it by playing darts. I tell the student that the bulls-eye represents the perfect writing piece. It’s basically the Pulitzer Prize Bulls-eye. The first outer circle is a “Pretty Good” piece of writing. This piece of writing will get you through the writing assignment and it’s acceptable quality for the teacher. The outer circle is an “OK” piece of writing that gets you by with a passing grade. It’s not the best thing you’ve ever written, but you did it anyway and you pass. Then we play the game. It becomes clear that it is very difficult to get the Pulitzer Prize Bulls-eye but you can still accumulate quite a few points with “Pretty Good” and “OK” pieces of writing. Have a discussion about how expecting yourself to hit the bulls-eye every time doesn’t allow much room for “success.”

Wow. For someone with writer’s block, I sure had a lot to say today. There’s another strategy for you: just write and see what comes out. It’s the Nike strategy, I guess. Just do it. Even if it’s just 15 minutes a day.

Help Needed - Corporate Learning: Trends and Innovation

As I recently announced, I'm helping George Siemens to organize Corporate Learning: Trends and Innovations.

When you go to the conference page via the link above, you can see that it's a big wiki. People are already in putting in their names, ideas, etc.

There's also a link to the To Do page. Currently, this page lists some tasks that I'm sure I could figure out how to do, but I'm hoping that some reader might be willing to take on...

1. Add .vcf files next to each session to allow people to add to their calendar.
2. Add a Google Calendar for the event?
3. Add link for time conversion
4. Add help links for editing the Wiki
5. Blog tag? "CLTI" has been suggested. Add a page that might show what bloggers are writing about the conference.
   
6. Let conference calendars know about this event

I'm sure more of these will come up.

Can anyone help?