Bookraft

Macleans Magazine has hit right on the mark- a neurally perfect but logically blind spot in its article Dumbed Down. The premise of the article is that the new digitally immersive experiences that current youth - called Digital Natives - have changed the way youth think and work profoundly. The problem is that the BRAIN IS VERY PLASTIC AND IT DELAYS REACHING COMPLETE MATURATION UNTIL AFTER PUBERTY. So this makes the brain up to and through adolescence subject to wide-ranging changes.

The Macleans article discusses the emergence of more evidence supporting the idea that digital saturation has changed a)how children's brains have matured and b)as a result how they are able to think. Even more compelling is evidence cited that a measure of that mutability of the brain endures well through an individuals lifetime.

The net result is that scientists and educators are discovering that a growing cadre of youth that have had high exposure to media, cell phones, computer games etc are showing deficits in other skills particularly planning, prioritizing and holding focus on executing long term projects. This research is still being defined and shaped - and it is not always obvious to older people who don't see youth in learning situations. In sum, this is a story well worth the read here.