1)  Memory problems: Adults 50-years-old and over with mild cognitive impairment (an advanced form of memory problems, but pre-dementia) were asked to exercise for three 50-minute sessions per week for 24 weeks (a total of 60 hours). Results: there were small, but measurable, cognitive benefits even 18 months after the start of the program (around a year after the supervised exercise activities ended).
Study: Nicola T. Lautenschlager et al. Effect of Physical Activity on Cognitive Function in Older Adults at Risk for Alzheimer Disease. Journal of the American Medical Association, 3 September 2008 [link]

2) Stroke Rehab: the study showed how sustained physical rehabilitation can have a beneficial brain impact for stroke survivors, and that the effect was more clear by walking in a treadmill (as a cardiovascular exercise) than by doing assisted stretching exercises.

The press release for the other study, Treadmill Exercise Retrains Brain And Body Of Stroke Victims, contains this quote:"This is great news for stroke survivors because results clearly demonstrate that long-term stroke damage is not immutable and that with exercise it's never too late for the brain and body to recover," says Daniel Hanley, M.D., professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Indeed, there is no reason why the process of physical and cognitive rehabilitation (or "enhancement") should ever stop, either as part of formal therapy or as a lifestyle modification.
This Los Angeles Times article, Brain function gets a boost from walking, provides good commentary on both studies, and includes this nice quote:

"The act of doing a movement over and over can also stimulate the brain's neurocircuits, he adds, resulting in activity in various regions of the brain. That activity may decrease over time as the body becomes more efficient at the activity. But other stimulation can have an effect --- while a person walks outside with a friend, for example, the brain is guiding a number of activities, such as talking and observing."

Which is why we always emphasize the importance of  novelty and challenge. Doing the same thing over and over and over and over, with the same level of difficulty, brings limited if any cognitive benefits.

• - School start times and sleep
• - Exposure to natural light
• - Scheduling of classes

SCHOOL START TIMES AND SLEEP
Left to your own devices, what time would you go to sleep each evening and what time would you wake up? As adults, it is likely that external responsibilities determine your wake time, and the maturity of age guides your sleep time. More often than not, thanks to a sound night’s sleep, you wake mentally refreshed and prepared to face the day. Teenagers are simply out of luck in this realm.

Melatonin is responsible for our body rhythms, also known as circadian rhythms. These sleep/wake cycles are directly influenced by our exposure to light. As darkness sets in, melatonin is released, promoting the urge to go to sleep. Teenagers usually release melatonin at later times in the evening so they tend to fall asleep later and wake up later.

Notice, there is no “early” in that last sentence, and the result is that teenage circadian rhythms are often out of synch with school start times. The National Sleep Foundation has found that school start times should be altered to accommodate teenagers, with the anticipation that better quality sleep will promote healthful patterns, resulting in more beneficial learning environments.

EXPOSURE TO NATURAL LIGHT
Light and dark do more than impact our circadian rhythms. Light also influences our moods. SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) results from insufficient exposure to sunlight in the fall and winter months. Research has shown that natural light has a consistent and predictable positive effect on student performance.

When my seventeen year old was in middle school, he astutely noted that during the best hours of winter daylight, students were kept indoors. While it may not be practical to retro fit school buildings so that natural light permeates every classroom, when coupled with the benefits of exercise, the benefits of every student having outdoor recess would go a long way toward alleviating SAD and waking up neurons.

SCHEDULING OF CLASSES
Okay, so they are out of bed and in school, though they may be yawning through the morning. Now they have to follow the schedule of classes. Research has shown that in middle schools the best type of class schedule is one that incorporates longer segments of time. How many schools do you know of that tend to schedule classes that last longer than 45 minutes?

Not only could the daily class schedule have flexible chunks of time, but the yearly school schedule could also be designed to better accommodate the diversity of student learners. The Center for Public Education takes an in-depth look at What research says about reorganizing school schedules in this 2006 posting.

If you know of examples or have experiences that support or refute these suggestions, please share them! And please note that my perspective is based on teaching middle and high school students for the past ten years, and also having taught at schools that had flexible scheduling blocks.

For additional information related to these topics:

• - The Operation of the Flexible All-Year School Plan
• - School: The Story of American Public Education

Laurie Bartels writes the Neurons Firing blog to create for herself the "the graduate course I’d love to take if it existed as a program". She is the K-8 Computer Coordinator and Technology Training Coordinator at Rye Country Day School in Rye, New York. She is also the organizer of Digital Wave annual summer professional development, and a frequent attendee of Learning & The Brain conferences.

"What is brain fitness and how it is measured? Is it the same as mind fitness which seeks to achieve balance in life?"

I am curious to learn how you would answer that question. I will add my perspective over the weekend, since I don't want to bias your thoughts now.

What is brain fitness and how it is measured?

- "...new research showing that treating kids for anxiety when they are young may help prevent the development of more serious mental illnesses, including depression and more debilitating anxiety disorders."

- "Of course, most kids have fears without having a full-blown anxiety disorder. And some anxiety is healthy: It makes sense, for example, to be a little nervous before a big test. Doctors and psychologists do caution that the increased focus on childhood anxiety could lead to an overdiagnosis of the problem. What makes anxiety a true illness is when it interferes with normal functioning or causes serious emotional and physical distress."

- "But the use of antidepressants in children has come under fire because of recent evidence showing an increase in suicidal thoughts in kids taking the drugs. Partly as a result, many doctors and psychologists employ as a first line of treatment cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, which is often just as effective as medication."

Full article: To Be Young and Anxiety-Free.

What is Cognitive Therapy (the most common  type of cognitive behavioral therapy) and what are its cognitive and structural brain benefits? Judith Beck guides us here:

- "Cognitive therapy, as developed by my father Aaron Beck, is a comprehensive system of psychotherapy, based on the idea that the way people perceive their experience influences their emotional, behavioral, and physiological responses. Part of what we do is to help people solve the problems they are facing today. We also teach them cognitive and behavioral skills to modify their dysfunctional thinking and actions."

- "For years, we could only measure the impact of cognitive therapy based on psychological assessments. Today, thanks to fMRI and other neuroimaging techniques, we are starting to understand the impact our actions can have on specific parts of the brain."

- "For example, take spider phobia. In a 2003 paper scientists observed how, prior to the therapy, the fear induced by viewing film clips depicting spiders was correlated with significant activation of specific brain areas, like the amygdala. After the intervention was complete (one three-hour group session per week, for four weeks), viewing the same spider films did not provoke activation of those areas. Those individuals were able to “train their brains” and managed to reduce the brain response that typically triggers automatic stress responses. And we are talking about adults."

Full interview with Judith Beck: Here

Cerebrum, a publication by the Dana Foundation, just released an excellent article with background on cognitive therapy: how the technique was developed and refined, its short and long-term benefits, and future trends. See A Road Paved by Reason

- "Cognitive therapy is one of the few forms of psychotherapy that has been rigorously tested in clinical trials. It was first developed to treat depression, but its benefits extend to obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and perhaps even such “physical” ailments as hypertension, chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic back pain."

- "Psychological problems result from the erroneous meanings that people attach to events, not from the events themselves."

- "In cognitive therapy, patients learn through a variety of strategies to test their faulty beliefs. They then learn to appraise themselves and their futures in a way that is realistic, unbiased and constructive."

- "He (founder Aaron Beck) found that people who are depressed systematically block out the positive aspects of their life, seeing only the negative. They interpret ambiguous events in a negative way, which he describes as cognitive distortion. If something genuinely negative does occur, they tend to exaggerate its magnitude, significance and consequences. A minor error becomes a major catastrophe."

- "Although cognitive therapy usually focuses on problem solving in the present, by doing that task the patients also develop lifelong skills...The authors speculated that the lasting effects of cognitive therapy reflect the patients’ newfound ability to “do the therapy for themselves.” They remarked that the strategies learned “eventually become second nature, coinciding with a parallel change from problematic underlying beliefs to more adaptive ones.”

- “Various managed-care companies and mental health centers now expect their therapists to be trained in cognitive therapy. The British government has recently set up a large program for training over 6,000 mental health workers to do cognitive therapy. There are now dozens, if not hundreds, of researchers focusing on the theoretical underpinnings of cognitive therapy, or on its applications.”

Full article: A Road Paved by Reason

In short, here we have a number of major societal problems (anxiety, depression...) that affect people of all ages, and an intervention that teaches people cognitive skills to be able to manage those related challenges better.  Talk about "teaching how to fish" vs. simply handing out fish (which we could argue is what antidepressant medications do).

Why don't more people benefit today from that approach? A major problem, in my view, is the lack of a scalable distribution model. Meaning, using the traditional face-to-face approach, one needs to create, train, certify, ensure quality of, a very large  network of practitioners. Which is what, as  mentioned above, the British government is doing: training 6,000 mental health workers.

This is certainly a worthy initiative. Now, is it the most scalable one to deliver results while being cost and resource efficient? Perhaps not.

We can view cognitive therapy as a method for well-structured cognitive exercise, where a key factor of success is practice. Same as training your abdominal muscles: if you just join the local club, which has a set of superb machines for abdominal training, but don't use those machines in a disciplined manner, your abdominal muscles are unlikely to become very impressive.

We can then view the therapist as the personal trainer who motivates you to stay on track, to propose the right exercise routine based on your personal goals. If the trainer is with you the whole time, encouraging you to do and monitoring your abdominal exercises,  you are most likely to complete them. But it is a very expensive approach.

Perhaps a hybrid approach makes more sense: the personal trainer helps you define goals, supervise progress and make modifications to the training regime, AND you do your own abdominal exercises with the machine that has been designed precisely with that goal in mind. There were no such mainstream machines only 50 years ago, before physical fitness became a popular concept and practice. Now there is one in every health club and TV infomercial.

Let's go back to cognitive therapy. Of course there is a need for more and better trainer professionals who can help patients. But of course technology will help complement existing approaches, reaching corners we can not even predict now, and helping more people of all ages better cope with change, life, anxiety, a range of cognitive and emotional challenges. Without any stigma. Just as naturally as one trains abdominal muscles.

There is already research showing the value of computerised cognitive therapy. A recent systematic review published in the British Journal of Psychiatry concluded that

"There is some evidence to support the effectiveness of CCBT for the treatment of depression. However, all studies were associated with considerable drop-out rates and little evidence was presented regarding participants’ preferences and the acceptability of the therapy. More research is needed to determine the place of CCBT in the potential range of treatment options offered to individuals with depression."

Yes, more research is always needed. However, we also need to refine the questions. Not so much "Will computerized cognitive therapy leave thousands of therapists out of work?" but "How can computerized cognitive therapy be used to increase the reach and effectiveness of therapists" and "Can computerized cognitive therapy help reach populations that receive no intervention whatsoever today?"

Think about that next time you see this:

I wanted to understand his views better because, on the one hand, he is often presented as one of the first proponents of the No New Neurons (in the adult brain) dogma now refuted,  but on the other hand he said things like "Every man can, of he so desires, become the sculptor of his own brain", thereby emphasizing what we now call adult neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to rewire itself through experience).

Let me share some of the quotes I have enjoyed the most:

*** (on his traits of character): "a profound belief in the sovereign will; faith in work; the conviction that a persevering and deliberate effort is capable of moulding and organizing everything, from the muscle to the brain, making up the deficiencies of nature and even overcoming the mischances of character-the most difficult thing in life."

- Comment:  very clear belief in neuroplasticity-which he couldn't prove in his lifetime given lack of the technical resources and accumulated knowledge available today.

*** "...I am a fervent adept of the religion of facts. It has been said innumerable times, and I have also repeated it, that "facts remain and theories pass away...To observe without thinking is as dangerous as to think without observing. Theory is our best intellectual tool; a tool, like all others, liable to be notched and to rust, requiring continual repairs and replacements, but without which it would be almost impossible to make a deep hollow in the marble block of reality"

- Comment:  beautiful display of the scientific mindset.

*** (after a first disillusionment) "I consoled myself then in the way that I have always been in the habit of doing...namely by bathing my soul in nature...For one who is capable of appreciating its enchantment, the country is the sovereign soother of emotions, the unreplaceable commutator of thoughts."

- Comment:  I was surprised by the lyrical nature of several passages in his autobiography, like this one. When Howard Gartner talks of a "naturalistic intelligence", he may well be thinking of attitudes like Cajal's. Which makes much sense, given the quote above on the value of "facts".

*** "Before the foaming torrent of new impressions, the youth has to bring into action regions of his brain which hitherto lay fallow. A significant indication of the great mental crisis, of this functional struggle between old and new ideas which is stirred up in the mind, is the bewilderment which seizes up during the first days of exploring a city. In the end, order is established. The plastic adaptation once completed, the cerebral organization is enriched and refined; one knows more and one's judgement is improved accordingly."

- Comment:  want to encourage neuroplasticity? go and live in a new country for a while.

*** (on his role encouraging the work of younger peers) "I always tried to put as little pressure as possible on the minds of my pupils. Every opinion which was the outcome of an honest mental effort, especially if it has risen from recently discovered facts, has inspired me with sympathy and respect, even though it might contradict fondly cherished personal conceptions. How was I to fall into the temptation to impose my own theories when I have given outstanding examples of abandoning them as a result of the smallest objective evidence against them? Far be from me that self-idolizing desire, the forerunner of irremediable senility".

- Comment:  want to prevent any kind of neuroplasticity? "self-idolizing desire" may help.

*** (summarizing the main conclusions of his paper on General Considerations on the Morphology of the Nerve Cell, sent to the International Medical Congress, 1894) ...the conclusion was reached that intellectual power, and its most noble expressions, talent and genius, do not depend on the size or number of cerebral neurons, but on the richness of their connective proceses, or in other words on the complexity of the association pathways to short and long distances...Adaptation and professional dexterity, or rather the perfecting of function by exercise (physical education, speech, writing, piano-playing, mastery in fencing, and other activities) were explained by either a progressive thickening of the nervous pathways ... excited by the passage of the impulse or the formation of new cell processes (non-congenital growth of new dendrites and extension and branching of axone collaterals) capable of improving the suitability and the extension of the contacts, and even of making entirely new connections between neurons primitively independent"

- Comment:  another beautiful explanation of neuroplasticity...written in 1894!

For more, this is the link to his book:

Recollections of My Life, by Santiago Ramon y Cajal.

(Pic above: Purkinje cells, drawn by Ramon y Cajal. Source: Wikipedia.)

Major Implications from Brain Research

Should Social-Emotional Learning Be Part of Academic Curriculum?: It is clear by now that our brains are more than cognitive machines. For example, emotions can either enhance or inhibit our ability to learn. Daniel Goleman explores the implications of "new studies that reveal how teaching kids to be emotionally and socially competent boost their academic achievement." Brought to you in partnership with Greater Good Magazine.

Retain older workers beyond retirement: BusinessWeek covers a best practice in a topic of growing importance: how large companies, such as American Express, can retain older workers in productive ways beyond a set arbitrary retirement age. As Dr. Art Kramer told us recently, "as a society, it is a massive waste of talent not to ensure older adults remain active and productive."

BrainTech and Sustainable Brains: Building on a recent quote by John Doerr about clean technology trends, we wonder... "If Energy is the mother of all markets...who would be the father of all markets?" The Human Brain, perhaps?

Health and Research

What You Can do to Improve Memory (and Why It Deteriorates in Old Age): Is there anything we can do besides "exercise like crazy, eat healthy foods that you don't like all that much, pop your statin pills, and take up yoga?" Yes: focus, focus, focus, suggests Dr. Bill Klemm.

News and Events

Cognitive Health News August 2008: This is a roundup of recent brain health news and our commentary, including the growing adoption of Dakim and Nintendo products, the cognitive impact of videogames, and the cognitive dimension of the obesity crisis.

Exercise your brain at these events: Alvaro will present the main findings from our market research at multiple conferences in the US, Canada and Dubai during the rest of  the year.

Where does the "Feeling of Knowing" comes from?: Dr. Ginger Campbell shares some insights from her recent interview with neurologist Robert Burton (author of On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not)."While it might be true that one can learn to become more aware of the emotional signals coming from one’s body, Dr. Burton argues that “gut feelings” or intuition should not be assumed to be true without testing."

Resources for Brain Health Across the Lifespan: Laurie Bartels shares a list of interviews, video, articles, and books that go hand-in-hand with the brain-related topics we cover.

Brain teaser

Can you use mental self rotation to read a map?: please check out this teaser by Dr. Pascale Michelon, one of our favorites so far.

We hope you have enjoyed this newsletter. We encourage you to stay tuned for our September editions, since great content is coming. We will soon publish an interview with Lee Woodruff, co-author of the book In An Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, and discuss the spectacular cognitive recovery of her husband, ABC reporter Bob Woodruff, who experienced a traumatic brain injury in Iraq in 2006. We will also interview Dr. Mike Posner, eminent cognitive neuroscientist, to explore recent findings on attention and attention training and their implications.

1) Playing Video Games Offers Learning Across Life Span, Say Studies

2) Mental Floss at Military Officer Magazine

3) Brain Training dominates '08 Euro sales (CVG Online)

4) Dakim’s [m]Power Adopted by 150 Senior Living Communities ... (Business Wire)

5) Clumsy kids more likely to become obese adults: study (CBC)

-------------------
1) There were a few interesting research papers presented at the last  American Psychological Association conventions around the theme:

Playing Video Games Offers Learning Across Life Span, Say Studies
--Skills Transfer to Classroom, Surgical Procedures, Scientific Thinking (press release).

Probably the most interesting study was that of 303 laparoscopic surgeons, which "showed that surgeons who played video games requiring spatial skills and hand dexterity and then performed a drill testing these skills were significantly faster at their first attempt and across all 10 trials than the surgeons who did not the play video games first."

The note goes further to explain the implications from this research:

"The big picture is that there are several dimensions on which games have effects, including the amount they are played, the content of each game, what you have to pay attention to on the screen, and how you control the motions," said Gentile. "This means that games are not "good' or bad,' but are powerful educational tools and have many effects we might not have expected they could."

Very thoughtful quote. Please note a few elements about the study and the quote itself:

- "video games requiring spatial skills and hand dexterity": meaning, that precise type of videogame. Other types may have other effects on cognition, depending on, as the note says, "the content of each game", defining content as what players need to do in order to succeed at the game.
- "laparoscopic surgeons": it is clear that these are important skills for a surgeon and not so important, say, for an economist. Perhaps more economists should be playing Age of Empires?

-  "are powerful educational tools": yes, and in fact that is the premise of the Serious Games field, but there also an unspoken factor here: efficiency. If the main goal is entertainment, then the more hours of fun, the better. If the goal is a functional outcome (cognitive or real-life), then one would want the intervention that works in the least amount of time. In other words, could a videogame be specifically designed for laparoscopic surgeons to improve the cognitive skills they need most for their jobs, and would that be more efficient than spending X amount of hours playing a variety of general games? Probably, as you can explore in this interview with Prof. Daniel Gopher on cognitive simulations.

2) Good article on the August edition of Military Officer magazine:

Mental Floss (August 2008) (link opens a PDF-life document, you can read the text by Zooming In).

My 2 favorite quotes, both by Dr. Molly Wagster, chief of the Neuropsychology of Aging Branch, National Institute on Aging (NIA) in Bethesda, Md:

- "Certainly as we age there are declines with brain functions and cognition. But there's evidence that the aging brain can adapt and change more than we ever thought".

- "We don't know how it happens or how long changes last, but even in the face of these unanswered questions, there is the chance to maintain our cognitive function".

Comment: who among us won't be tomorrow one day older than he/she is today? The good news about the "aging brain" doesn't only refer to adults over 70!

3) Brain Training dominates '08 Euro sales (CVG Online)

- "Overall, four of the ten bestselling DS games in both countries during the first six months of 2008 were in the brain training genre."

- "According to data released by sales monitor Media Control GfK International, the DS's heavyweight status in the European console market is closely tied to the popularity of Nintendo's Brain Training series and other brain training titles."

- "The biggest demand for brain games is in Germany and Holland", the company said. More Brain Training was the bestselling title in Germany during the first six months of the year, while Brain Training topped the Dutch chart during the same period.

Comment: Fascinating. Will brain-training-induced employee-productivity-increase help turn around the looming recession? we'll track closely the performance of German and Dutch economies!

4) Dakim’s [m]Power Adopted by 150 Senior Living Communities ... (Business Wire)

- "Dakim Inc. announced today that its [m]Power® Cognitive Fitness System has now been adopted by more than 150 senior living communities"

- "Users include Sunrise Senior Living, Front Porch Communities, Diakon Lutheran Services, Ecumen, Eskaton, Benchmark Assisted Living, and Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging. Several neurologists and a local Alzheimer’s Association chapter office have also purchased the system."

- “Other products are static. You buy a CD, put it in the computer, and that’s it. People get bored and stop using them. Dakim has found a way to keep people coming back to challenge their ability, and that’s what our residents are doing.” (said said Douglas Edwards, Director of Fund Development for Westminster Gardens in Duarte, California, part of the Southern California Presbyterian Homes)

Comment: senior living is one of the obvious areas where computerized cognitive training (or "brain fitness programs") has a brighter future to complement and enhance existing health and wellness programs in scalable ways, as we covered in our Market Report. We are no longer surprised by the weekly press releases announcing a new "brain fitness center" in community XYZ. Now, what I find interesting is that last quote by Douglas Edwards, which I interpret as a direct commentary on the Posit Science Brain Fitness program, the other leading vendor for the senior living communities market.

5) The article Clumsy kids more likely to become obese adults: study (CBC)...

- "The study was based on tests of about 11,000 people in Britain who were tested for hand control, co-ordination and clumsiness at age seven and 11, and were then followed until age 33."

- "Prof. Scott Montgomery of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and his colleagues at Imperial College London in England said they purposely chose measurements of fine hand control such as picking up matches, rather than those likely to be influenced by participating in sports, such as catching balls."

- "While it is often assumed that the cognitive impairments seen in adult obesity are a consequence of excess weight, that could be putting the chicken before the egg, the researchers say"

...reminds me of Judith Beck's words on how to "Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person"

- "The main message of cognitive therapy overall, and its application in the diet world, is straight-forward: problems losing weight are not one’s fault. Problems simply reflect lack of skills--skills that can be acquired and mastered through practice. Dieters who read the book or workbook learn a new cognitive or behavioral skill every day for six weeks. They practice some skills just once; they automatically incorporate others for their lifetime."

- "That is exactly my goal: to show how everyone can learn some critical skills. The key ones are:"

- "1) How to motivate oneself. The first task that dieters do is to write a list of the 15 of 20 reasons why they want to lose weight and read that list every single day."

- "2) Plan in advance and self-monitor behavior. A typical reason for diet failure is a strong preference for spontaneity. I ask people to prepare a plan and then I teach them the skills to stick to it."

- "3) Overcome sabotaging thoughts. Dieters have hundreds and hundreds of thoughts that lead them to engage in unhelpful eating behavior. I have dieters read cards that remind them of key points, e.g., that it isn’t worth the few moments of pleasure they’ll get from eating something they hadn’t planned and that they’ll feel badly afterwards; that they can’t eat whatever they want, whenever they want, in whatever quantity they want, and still be thinner; that the scale is not supposed to go down every single day; that they deserve credit for each helpful eating behavior they engage in, to name just a few."

- "4) Tolerate hunger and craving. Overweight people often confuse the two. You experience hunger when your stomach feels empty. Craving is an urge to eat, usually experienced in the mouth or throat, even if your stomach is full."

Comment: A problem like the obesity epidemic is, no doubt, a result of many factors, where chicken and egg are often mixed. What matters, though, is how to set up public health policies and specific plans that take into account the Cognitive dimension: if adults cannot regulate their own eating and exercise habits, half the battle is lost. And we know that, up to a point, self-regulation skills are learnable and trainable.

Q: Why do you say this edition is "brain-based"?
A: Because the Q&A frame we are using is inspired by how Chris at Ouroboros recently hosted Encephalon Brain and Mind blog carnival. (Is classic Greek making a comeback?).

Q: As educators, what inspires us to do what we do?
A: Tracy suggests, "Hope for the future".

Q: And what may happen in the future?
A: Eric proposes that the field can learn much about how athletes train their minds and bodies to maximize performance.

Q: What should not happen in the future?
A: Dave hopes we stop the Textbook Insanity, killing trees to create books not everyone uses.

Q: What comes first, subject or learner?
A: Bogusia has "switched sides". She now centers her teaching around her students, to make sure they appreciate the beauty of the subject.

Q: How do you know if something is developmentally appropriate? 
A: Science Goddess is still waiting for more of us to visit her blog and answer (btw, the visit is worth if only to admire her blog spectacular design).

Q: Should Social-Emotional Learning be part of academic curriculum?
A: Daniel introduces us to the research supporting that view.

Q: Why is NYC's city's graduation rate for ELLs so low?
A: Mary Ann shows that 45.5 percent in grades 8-12 were newcomers, who have to learn the language and the culture on top of the academic curriculum. (Note: I added "in grades 8-12" as a correction, to reflect Mary Ann's full quote accurately).
Q:  Now, are newcomers really motivated to learn and succeed?
A: Joanne responds that work is the motivator for low-income and working-class Mexican-American students, who want an education so they can get decent jobs, live in a safe neighborhood and drive a car that starts reliably.

Q: Who is the person behind Eduwonkette?
A: Jennifer Jennings, unmasked.

Q: Is college a waste of time and resources?
A: Dana reminds us that the goal of liberal arts education is to "enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom". Hence, she disagrees with  the thesis from Charles Murray's last book that asks for the substitution of the current system for a system of certification tests, modeled after the CPA (certified public accountant) test.

Q: Is the book Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism, by David Whitman, any good?
A: Carey likes much of the thought-provoking analysis and the focus on instilling self-discipline, but is turned off by the "paternalism" word.

Q:What does "paternalistic" really mean in this context?
A: Michael suggests "authoritative".

Q: Will Google revolutionize education by letting everyone write and access authoritative content for free?
A: Probably not. At least not with the knols initiative, Ben says.

Q: What does lifelong neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mean?
A: Let me show you these informational resources on the brain, begs Laurie.

Q: Is physical exercise  that important for lifelong learning and brain development?
A; It is. Exercising the body is exercising the mind, says Adrian.

Q: Is the US school funding system the most rational one?
A: Jim replies probably not, which may result, in Illinois, in a boycott and lawsuit.

Q: How old are you in Jupiter years?
A: Cherish doesn't know, and doesn't even what to know. But  she shows us how to calculate it (Government-Issued Warning: "All you need are the following: your age in earth days, the mass of sun and the distance between the planets and sun. And Math!")

Q: Is there really something called "egocentric spacial transformation"?
A: Indeed, Pascale assures us. Also called mental self-rotation. You can put the concept to practice with this brain teaser.

Q: Where do returning military veterans go and get their college education?
A: Darren is happy to report that Sacramento State is one good option.

Q: Why will 50% of today's teachers have left the profession 5 years from now?
A: Travis summarizes a number of reasons and offers recommendations to lower turnover.

Q: What happens in a typical First day of the school year?
A: Mister Teacher shows us.

Q: What does "The Road to heaven is Paved with Good intentions" mean?
A: Andrew provides an example.

Q: How can we improve South Carolina-Australia bilateral relations?
A: Technology can help improve communications among educators and students, says Pay.

Q: Is that Sales Rep your best friend?
A: Tweenteacheer, whose New Interactive Whiteboard will be delivered with a significant delay, warns us not to think so.

Q: How will video be integrated in classroom instruction?
A: First of all, by allowing educators use YouTube Videos, suggests Carol.

Q: Any new cool way to motivate my students?
A: Easy, says Larry. Use a game like Mia Cadaver’s Tombstone Timeout to create, within seconds, your private “virtual room” where only your students compete against each other.

Q: Has Open Court Reading been found to be effective ?
A: Matthew reports that Open Court doesn't have the research needed to qualify inclusion in the WhatWorks Clearinghouse.

Q: Can informal learning activities support school work?
A: Matt invites us to play Football. Sorry, soccer.

Q: Can you suggest other informal activities more closely aligned with academic standards?
A: Steve (the Mentos Geyser Experiment guy), has a few DIY ideas to improve science education.

Q: Does homeschooling make sense?
A: Suzanne reviews  Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense by David Guterson.

Q: Who is Marva Collins?
A: An inspiring school pioneer, Christine tells us.

Q: Can teachers walk on water?
A: Many do everyday. But asking them to walk across bricks as a team-building exercise may be going too far, says Betty.

Q: How can I contribute to future Carnival of Education editions?
A: Easy! Submit your posts using this form this handy submission form.

Have a great day!

NEUROGENESIS

MIT news – Picower researcher finds neuron growth in adult brain

Society for Neuroscience brain brief – Adult Neurogenesis

BRAIN PLASTICITY

Neuroscience for Kids – Brain Plasticity: What Is It?

Society for Neuroscience brain brief – Brain Plasticity, Language Processing and Reading

Brain Science Podcast – Ginger Campbell interview with Norman Doidge, MD, discussing Neuroplasticity, and his book The Brain That Changes Itself

CBD Radio – Interview with Norman Doidge

Carol Dweck discussing "growth" versus "fixed" mindsets

Wired Science – Mixed Feelings – how the human brain can change

THE ADULT BRAIN

Brain Science Podcase – Ginger Campbell discussion of Elkonon Goldberg's book The Wisdom Paradox

Oregon Health & Science University – Brain Awareness – The Adult Brain

PBS – The Secret Life of the Brain – The Adult Brain

McGill University has an interesting timeline that traces the discovery of neuronal growth in adult brains. This is part of The Brain from Top to Bottom, "An interative Web site on the human brain and behavior"

EXERCISE

Brain Science Podcast – Ginger Campbell interview with John Ratey, discussing Exercise and the Brain and his book Spark

Johy Ratey speaking at Authors@Google

CREATIVITY • INNOVATION • CHANGE

Creatively Speaking – Sir Ken Robinson on The Power of the Imaginative Mind

Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk – Do schools kill creativity?

Arnold Wasserman interview on SMARTBoard Lessons/PD to Go Episode 131 – Design & Innovation (interview begins about 1/2 into the podcast)

Laurie Bartels writes the Neurons Firing blog to create for herself the "the graduate course I’d love to take if it existed as a program". She is the K-8 Computer Coordinator and Technology Training Coordinator at Rye Country Day School in Rye, New York. She is also the organizer of Digital Wave annual summer professional development, and a frequent attendee of Learning & The Brain conferences.