Jan Sutton's Bookmarks

Sir Mark says he is convinced that advances in computing, combined with improved understanding of how to tailor the technology to different students, can help transform education.

“This is the best Trojan horse for causing change in schools that I have ever seen,” he said

mirror neurons are:

<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]-->

…a set of neurons
in the premotor area of the brain that are activated not only when performing
an action oneself, but also while observing someone else perform that action.
It is believed mirror neurons increase an individual's ability to understand
the behaviors of others, an important skill in social species such as humans. (Iacoboni et. al. 2005)

Empathy and technology have been linked for millennia. As a long time
social and tool-making species, both abilities are evolutionary adaptations for
our collective survival. Empathy and technology became inextricably linked when
information technologies developed. The first great wave of transformative
information technologies happened with the birth of written language, allowing
thoughts to be recorded and referenced later, enabling one to experience the
thoughts of another at any time. The next wave came with the advent of the
printing press and the popularization of vernacular literature as a mass-medium
(Davis 2004). This allowed the mass dissemination of counter-cultural and
liberalizing ideas throughout Western civilization. Some of the most powerful
ideas were distributed through printed stories as novels, the first great mass
entertainment medium.

<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]-->

But what is it in a story that makes us empathize? I believe it is the
imaginative act of the reader translating the words on the page into thoughts
and feelings, enabling them to see the world through the characters’ eyes and
feel their feelings. It is also the recognition that humans share common needs,
goals and aspirations and that these are either met or unmet in the story of
every life, be it real or fictional. Whether the story is a comedy or a tragedy
only depends on the point of view. There could be an entire essay in what will
happen to storytelling itself if H+ technologies allow human consciousness to
achieve a global or cosmic perspective. Regardless, what makes literature such
a potent brew is that we do not suffer these virtual travails in our own
reality. We survive the vicarious experience, which might be devastating to us
in reality, and emerge relatively unscathed, packing storytelling’s virtual
punch.

Individuals can select from
a vast cyber-sea of media and utterly saturate their information space
exclusively with information sources that reinforce existing world views. Each
of us can create our own personal media walled garden that surrounds us with
comforting, confirming information, and utterly shuts out anything that
conflicts with our world view.

<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]-->

This is social dynamite, for
shared knowledge and information is the glue that holds civil society together.
It is the stuff that caused people to change their opinions and to empathize
with others. (Saffo 2005)