Nicholas Carr – “…the brain might in fact be in a constant state of flux, adapting to whatever task it’s called on to perform. “There is evidence that the cells of our brains literally develop and grow bigger with use, and atrophy or waste away with disuse.’…’It may be therefore that every action leaves some permanent print upon the nervous tissue.”
Logically | Our brains can physically change based on our experiences and what we do on a daily routine. There were many at the beginning who thought that our brains grow to a certain point during our childhood and stop. But later found that we have an ever-growing brain that continues to change and grow in physical size and brain maps through our experiences. Physically and mentally speaking of course.
Intellectually | Our brain can be influenced both good and bad. If we do an activity that makes us expand our brain in a way to absorb information, our brain becomes good in that aspect, but becomes weak when we are not using our brain for good or use a certain part of our brain rarely. Influencing us to at least try to use our brains in every aspect we can on a daily to positively influence our brains.
Emotionally | Although our brain is every changing, we should always try to thrive for a positive and different routine. We need to also distract our brains from the bad to create good growth and good, strong brain maps. We should learn a good healthy dose of good and bad habits to flex our brains in different aspects. We need to be able to challenge and also help our brain’s plasticity and allow different parts of our brains to be used every other day. Maybe even on a daily basis.
Connection | “…but also to account for the possibility that cognitive itself might be changing in a civilization switching to electronics.” In Ulmer’s “Teletheory”, he speaks on the way that our way of thinking changes because of the influence of technology. The way that connected to Carr, in my opinion, shows that technology is in fact something that can either be a good influence or a bad one. Changing the way we think, now that we know thanks to Carr, can change the size and brain maps that are in our brain. And shows how easily influenced our way of thinking, in other ways the way our brain works, can change because of the use of technology.
George L. Ulmer – “If I say that what I desire is a tape rather than a book, will that change my experience of making a text? No, because the desire, the love of knowledge that drives academic discourse, is not medium specific.”
Logically | Our way of learning is changing because of the introduction of new technology. ‘Teletheory’, the term used a lot during the reading to express the new way of academic discourse of speaking, writing, and performing. But we also need to know that video is a key component of understanding and learning the way that literacy cannot. Both video and literacy need to be taught to everyone. it should be taught because of the way that video has single handedly changed our cognitive way of thinking and learning.
Intellectually | Using video as a way to teach is something that is fairly new still and needs to be looked into from different angles to understand it. Through this new knowledge we look into, we then see the importance of having both literacy and video on an academic level. The older generations, us and beyond, need to be able to understand video and teach it to the younger generations, let’s say elementary grade level, to develop our understanding of this unfamiliar way of teaching in a faster pace.
Emotionally | Video, television, and other mediums of the same level is a great way of academic learning. We need to learn more ways we can use these new technologies to help learn and positively influence our cognitive usage. Using video and literacy allows us to expand our knowledge on any and everything. This new ‘teletheory’ is the new way of academic learning and it’s a good way. But we need to pounce on the good before the bad becomes dominate.
Connection | Rath mentioned in “Hearing American History”, “knowledge is distributed rather than centralized in the new media. But the distribution of knowledge across a human network was precisely the flaw that print and literacy corrected through the centralizing of knowledge in authoritative editions” While reading Ulmer’s piece I was drawn into the importance of sound to learn history. That reminded me of video because even if video does not include sound, the visuals can teach through a hands on demonstration. And even if we are confused of a video without sound, it encourages our cognitive to ask questions and seek answers to those questions.
