So in the Hayles "Hyper and Deep Attention" article, John Bruer is quoted as saying that connecting neuroscience research and educative practices is a "bridge too far." He argues that we can connect behavior research and education. Well my darling John, I do not support that kind of thinking. I honestly see no reason why we cannot take brain research and apply it to the teaching of things with brains. As I was initially appalled by this thought, Hayles concedes a few sentences later that imaging studies can correlate behavior to brain and then behavior to education. And yet, the nature of this article defies Bruer's original conception of education as it related to brain research. This article looks at how brain research on attention disorders and the media affect the classroom pedagogy.
In my education classes we have already come to the agreement that media needs to be incorporated into the classroom because it is a major form of expression and helps bridge the learning differences between students. For example, in a Hamlet unit I recently made we not only read the play-text, we also watch The Reduced Shakespeare Company's Hamlet. The reading allows for the development of sustained deep attention while the RSC appeals to the hyper attention. Please watch this clip in which the inner strife of Ophelia is expressed by an audience of probably 100: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ofKJ6UFv60. It doesn't get more hyper attentive than that.
My other point of contention in the piece is when she describes reading Pride and Prejudice as deep and Grand Theft Auto as hyper. I want to resist these neat categories because reading can actually be a hyper attention activity. What about graphic novels? One has to process not only the words but also the images of the page. I think that reading does require sustained attention, but that doesn't mean the actual content is deep as well. Look at Tristram Shandy. There is a lot to process and the environment changes all the time, and the narrative mirrors a video game or a tv show. The idea that reading requires constant attention to shifting sentence structures or narrative structures appeals to me, partially because I have spent so long studying these things and thus am very aware of them.
Looking at the Attention Deficit Disorder poem by McCormick, Hayles would categorize reading it as a deep attention activity. However, there is actually a lot in that poem. One has to adapt their reading to this particular poem's tone and structure. For instance, what are those "/" at the end of some lines? One normally uses them when quotes poetry in prose. A critic has to figure out why the /s are there and what purpose do they serve, like when I learned to play Temple Run on my phone and had to learn that gold coins are good to run into. The poem's content itself advocates that ADD isn't a lack of attention, it is a different type of deep attention. That certain activities look hyper attentive but are really deep attentive.The narrator can "re-draw" (5) the "worn lines along my teacher's thick brown neck" (4) in his sleep, which may be something other students can't do because they were deeply focused on reading or listening to the powerpoint.
This article mirrors A Curious Incident because both take a holistic look on disorders that affect learning and social interactions. The pieces wish to convey the message that neither of these are a "you have or do not have it" but rather a continuum. With this mindset, our society can being to adjust to allow these people on the continuum the right to be treated like equals in the education system.We also acknowledge the outside factors that affect children's ability to interact with the world, that it's not just "their dysfunctional brain's fault." While this perspective is more time consuming for teachers, parents and policy makers (assuming they take into consideration the actual process of teaching...lolz if that every happens) interdisciplinary collaboration can help us understand and make a solution that is the least compromising to the child and will eventually be quicker for the future generations of educators.
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