geek.teacher

Last week people were going crazy over a report that Web 2.0 has some real classroom benefits.  Not that I’m discounting any of those benefits, but they seem to me mostly touchy-feely type things, which, while delightful and good (who wouldn’t want more engagement and participation?), still kind of fall short of the more valuable “improves performance.”

So I’m surprised to see the apparent lack of excitement about this study saying that Internet use is good for the brain.  I guess it’s not as sexy since the study was done on old people, but I find it absolutely exciting, and would love to see a similar study done on the young’ns.

Each volunteer underwent a brain scan while performing web searches and book-reading tasks.

Both types of task produced evidence of significant activity in regions of the brain controlling language, reading, memory and visual abilities.

However, the web search task produced significant additional activity in separate areas of the brain which control decision-making and complex reasoning – but only in those who were experienced web users.

The researchers said that, compared to simple reading, the internet’s wealth of choices required people to make decisions about what to click on in order to get the relevant information.

They also get bonus points from me for throwing in a sly comics reference:

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said: “These fascinating findings add to previous research suggesting that middle-aged and older people can reduce their risk of dementia by taking part in regular mentally stimulating activities.

“Older web users – ‘silver surfers’ – are doing precisely this.

*Well, in theory.  I know some pretty dumb internet users, but that’s neither here nor there.

Things I’m doing instead of blogging these days:

• Paperwork (wrapping up IEPs and RRs)
• More paperwork (getting grades ready)
• Tagging things on delicious.  Thanks goodness for setting it up to autosend to the blog, or this place would be a barren wasteland.
• Twittering.
• Going to Wizard World



• Going to the Devon Horse Show



• Taking adorable pictures of kittens



• Did I mention the paperwork? (getting all of my files organized for turning in)

i frequently enjoy Rhymes with Orange, but this is just too great.

Comics:

• Blue Beetle #26 – A nearly all Spanish issue, and a delightful story that I (mostly) was able to understand
• DCU #0 – a decent introduction to the DC universe as of RIGHT NOW before things go crazy in Final Crisis
• Immortal Iron Fist #14 – if they ever get around to making that Iron Fist movie, it should be just like this.
• New Avengers #40 – Rewind to past events we glimpsed or had some ideas about from before and get a clearer picture of how the Secret Invasion started
• Thor Ages of Thunder – this book was beautiful and touched my mythology nerd core in all the right places
• American Way – I bought this trade at New York Comic Con for cheap based on vaguely remembering some internet recommendations, and I was not disappointed.  It’s a real world approach to superheroes, placing them in the midst of the civil rights upheavals of the sixties.
• Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle – I was at Borders and saw a copy of this opened on the shelf, so I took the opportunity to sit down and read it before the movie came out this week.  It’s a 30 year old story, and it’s great.  It was also pretty shocking at one point.

TV:

• How I Met Your Mother – some decent fallout from last week which could lead to some shift in the characters
• House – Nice joke played on the peons this week.

Movies:

• Iron Man – Awesome.  Great summer popcorn flick.

Games:

• Just Cause – I wrapped this game up.  It was actually a pretty cool ending that made use of the stunt system nicely.  As I said before, a decent enough $15 game, but not much more than that.  Clocked time, 25 hours or so, but you could do all of the story missions in under 5 hours easily if you don’t run around liberating villages, finding collectibles, and doing sidemissions.
• Mario Kart Wii – I’m really liking this so far.  Beth also enjoys it.  She plays with the steering wheel, while I prefer the wiimote + nunchuck.