An op-ed piece by Cathy Davidson on Fast Company’s blog Adding some technology to the educational process is one thing, but truly revolutionary learning experiences take a deeper sort of innovation, which you can see at a program at Duke working for change in Haiti. Read the rest.
“When you decide to change higher ed with the purpose of changing the world, you aim high. Because of academic freedom–freedom of ideas but also freedom from having to produce an income or a profit–you can achieve what few other investments achieve: a return on our society’s future, not just on quarterly Wall Street reports. “
Cathy recently wrote a piece for Fast Company about reinventing higher education to better prepare students for the 21st Century and the digital age. Check it out here!
Podcast available here. NOW YOU SEE IT Dick talks with Cathy N. Davidson, who teaches at Duke University, about brain science and attention. She makes a case for distraction as something that is actually good and says the brain is always naturally multitasking. Music in this show: “Mike Mills” by Air, and the Super Mario Bros. theme as … Cathy Davidson on NPR's The Story with Dick Gordon
If you are in the WUNC (91.5 fm) listening area, you can listen to Dick Gordon’s interview with me on “The Story” on Monday April 30th, during the 1pm EST and 8pm EST show, at approximately :40 after the hour. It airs at other times elsewhere so here are the listings: http://thestory.org/Stations It was a great conversation, so now I’ll be intrigued to hear the final version. Let me know what you think!
Did you know there’s a 6% increase in traffic fatalities on April 15, tax day? That’s about the same as the increase on Super Bowl Sunday (when drinking is involved). Forget cell phones and so-called “multitasking”! If we really want to know what “taxes” our attention, it’s, well, taxes.
“GALVANIC.”–Virginia Heffernan, New York Times.
A recording of this event can be found at http://www.stevehargadon.com/2012/03/live-tuesday-march-20th-with-cathy.html.
How do you count “integrity” as a vital component of “productivity” and “profit.” That is a profound question. How do you teach it, promote it, improve it as a quality?
Instead of blaming technology, as if the simple fact of technology dooms us to unhappy lives, it is useful to ask what is distracting us, why, and how can we adjust our behavior—our activities and thoughts—to allow for the optimal completion of the tasks we need to complete. Until we dispel the myth of monotasking, we are powerless. Once we understand that “distraction is our friend,” we can use our own frustration to help diagnose the real issue and begin to cure the problem.