Finally an excuse for screwing off

I was surfing the web at work when I found a little justification for my lack of productivity. According to an article on Msnbc.com, surfing the web could exercise the brain similar to the way crossword puzzles do and can lower the risk of dementia. Well this is promising news for net junkies like myself. The thought of exercising my brain while checking out my favorite websites also got me thinking about brain-based learning and the science of how the brain acquires new information.

I did some searching for a few websites that I've ran across before about the topic and I found one that I really like. Brain-based learning by Funderstanding lists the 12 core principles for how the brain learns. It has some interesting stuff that I feel is legitimate.

So, I continued my search for more sites and ran across an opinionated blog that had a link to a YouTube video that tries to debunk parts of the theory on brain-based learning. While the video doesn't attack any of the core principles, he does have an interesting point about the inferences we make in trying to make connections. One thing I found interesting is how he compared a child's activity to a group of children. One cannot predict the other. It made me think of how we try to predict a person's activities back on the job based upon how a person does in training. The problem is that we can't factor in the work environment during the training. We can't know how the person's boss or co-workers will affect them.

This takes me to another point as thoughts rattle around in my head. Here's a great article about the transfer of training and who really has an impact.

Well my brain is tired and that's enough exercise for one day. Enjoy.