Saturday, January 25, 2014

Межкультурный проект "The Heart of a Mother" (after O.Wilde)


By Печенкина Ирина Михайловна, учитель английского языка
 
Разделы: Преподавание иностранных языков, Внеклассная работа, Общепедагогические технологии

“The heart of a mother” (“The Star – Child” after O.Wilde)
Тема : “Your Motherly Love is an Island in Life’s Ocean”…
Подтема: “All…I Owe to my mother”
Сюжет: “You will Always Find Forgiveness”
Класс: 6
Урок - межкультурный проект.
Цель урока: развитие коммуникативных компетенций , ценностно-смысловых ориентаций личности средствами аутентичного произведения
Задачи:
  1. Образовательные:
    семантизация лексики – в речи, на письме, развитие ВРД средствами изучающего чтения, интерпретации художественного текста.
  2. Развивающие:
    развитие интеллектуально-личностной сферы, рефлексивной культуры, гуманитарное и гуманистическое развитие личности ученика,
  3. Формирование социокультурной компетенции в рамках диалога культур, культуры мира.
  4. Воспитание духовно-нравственной личности с позиции “вечных ценностей”.
Оснащение урока: декорации (лес, дом дровосека, ворота дворца). Компьютер, интернет-ресурсы, музыкальные инструменты.
Музыка: П.И.Чайковский “Вальс снежинок”, Бетховен “Облака”, украинская народная песня “Ридна мати моя”, русская народная песня “Ты не шей мне, матушка, белый сарафан”, “Битлз” “Пусть будет так”, Шуберт “Аве, Мария”, И.Бах “Любовь матери”, “Токката”, “Выше всех” М.У.Смит, индийская музыка, “Любовь матери” (Зое Хэндком).
Гипертекст: “In a house where a heart is hard there is always a cold wind”(O.Wilde).
“I must go and wander through the world till I find her, and she give me her forgiveness” (O.Wilde).
“In the world there was neither love nor kindness nor charity for him”(O.Wilde)
“Mother, I gave you hatred. Do you give me love?”(O.Wilde)
“God couldn’t be everywhere and therefore he made mothers” (jewish proverb).
“The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness” (Honore’de Balzac).
“All that I am or hope to be I owe to my mother” (A.Lincoln)
“Mother, thank you for your heart, faith and hope and all your steadfast love you were fashioned by the angels and sent from God above” (adapted by J.Bratton)
“Your motherly love is an island
In life’s ocean, vast and wide
A peaceful, quiet shelter
From the wind, the rain, the tide
T’is bound to the North, by hope,
By patience, to the West,
By tender counsel, to the South
And to the East, by rest” (J.Bratton)
“Above it like a beacon light
Shine faith, truth and prayer
And through the changing scenes of life
I found a haven there”. (Verses 4cards)
“A mother is like an ever-burning candle,
A warm bright ray,
Whose light is always there
To help along the way”.
“A mother holds her children’s hands for a while, their hearts forever”.
“Mother is another word for angel!”
“Of all the gifts that life has to offer, a loving mother is the greatest of them”.
“If love were a color, you would be the rainbow to me, mom!”
“If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!”(mother-poem-verses.com.)
“Господи и Боже мой Иисусе Христе! Услышь молитву мою о родителях моих. Даруй им единомыслие и любовь во вся дни жизни их. Укрепи тела их во здравии, да послужат тебе делами милости и Евангельского добра. Научи мя всегда быть послушным родительскому слову, избави мя от лицемерия и лукавства в обращении с ними и не лиши нас всех оправдания на Страшном Суде Твоем. Аминь.”(“Будь хранима небесами”- слова С.Шмырева, исполняет Девичий хор Никольского храма г.Воронежа, регент- Т.Филаретова, концертмейстер О.Калинина)
Ход урока
  1. Антиципация. “Молитва о родителях” на фоне песни в исполнении Девичьего хора. Управляемый диалог.Who is the dearest person to you? With whom can you compare your mother? Why? Prove your version, please! Why is she like a rainbow? A deep abyss? An angel? An island? A beacon light? A candle? A ray? How can you name your mother else? Explain why, give reasons. Make up a web-map.
  2. Well, a mother is a rainbow. She symbolizes perfection. You have named many positive mother’s traits. And how can you characterize your attitude to mother? Are you just, kind, attentive and thankful to your mother? Does your mother forgive your faults? Give your example. Let’s remember a parable about mother’s heart.
  3. Интерпретация текста “Мальчик-звезда”. Развитие дискурсивной рефлексии.
  4. How can you interpret the title of the tale? Why “star”? What does the Bible tell about Jesus’ birth? Let’s write key words. Анализ ключевых слов (семантизация в речи). Проверка и корректировка цитатного плана.They say, every man is a king of his own life destination. In the focus of our lesson there is “The evolution of the character” : 1.There is a piece of gold. 2. It’s an evil thing to leave the child here. 3. In a house where the heart is hard there is always a cold wind. 4. He became more beautiful. 5. His beauty worked him evil.6.He hadn’t pity for the poor, ill, weak people.6. I have suffered much to find you. 7. Get out of here. 8. I will go and look for her around the whole world. 9. In the world there was neither love nor kindness nor charity for him. 10. You need it greater than me.11. Mother, I rejected you. Receive the child now. 12. Much justice and mercy he showed. Why did the star-child undergo changes from an evil person to a wise king? Had you expected this end? Why do you think the writer shows us this change? Find the sentences in the tale that support your answer. Is it like a real life?
  5. What is the author’s attitude to the characters? By what literacy devices does the author manage to show the child’s evolution? How is it revealed? Does it coincide with your own judgement of the characters? (star, way, world, king – methaphors, simile, method of contrast, the antithesis, hyperbola etc.) Who in the text did the following and why? Comment on the people who did it: took up the child, looked at him, and her eyes were full of tears, looked at him with terror in her eyes, went away into the forest, threw stones at the woman, run away into the forest and called out to his mother, had pity, and gave him the piece of white gold, passed through the gate and the guards bowed down, kissed him, and brought him into the palace, gave bread to the poor, and clothes to the naked).
    What is the plot of the tale? (Краткий пересказ).
  6. Составление и заполнение таблицы (группа) 1 Your opinion
Opinion !woodcutter took him! child grew evil!hurt his mother!underwent trials!became king
сообщите
одобрите
объясните
опровергните
убедите
7. Составление, заполнение, обсуждение таблицы 2 (группа)
What were they like! (Работящие, щедрые)
hard-working! generous! fool! kind (Добрые, глупые)
What was their !испугались, рады, !were afraid !surprised!glad!disappointed
reaction on the find? (Удивлены, разочарованы)
Why did his wife!бедна, многодетна,!had many children!poor!stupid!cruel
reject a child? !глупа, жестока !
Why was he ! сирота, эгоист, не -!an orphan !egoist!nice!a lack of attention cruel? (Достаток внимания)
Why was he !забыл мать,любил!forgot his mother !hurt her!loved!betrayed obliged to suffer? (Обидел, предал)
8. Дискуссия по проблеме с опорой на личный опыт учащихся.Prove. Explain. How would you characterize… Use the following phrases to answer the questions. Give examples of similar situations from classical literature or from your life. What’s your attitude to the old, ill people? Do you help them in their difficult situations? What would you do if you were in child’s place? How do you feel …?
9. What does it mean to be a good son? Would he manage to find a mother if he stayed an egoist? Why did he become a good king?
10. What is the main theme? What is the main idea? What characters do you like best and why? What did you do if you were in mother’s shoes? In child’s shoes?
11. Просмотр мюзикла-сказки. Проблемный вопрос-установка : What does it mean :Treat others as you would like to be treated?(as the Bible tells)
“The Star-child” -драматизация.
12. How do you like it? As for me, I was carried away by the acting. You are the brightest. How can you interpret the phrase from the Bible? Surely, the more we give love, kindness, attention to people, the more we receive. What has the tale added to your knowledge of life and people? What feelings does this tale arouse in you? What is the moral of this tale? Is it a planetary moral value? I like the way you have worked today. Your marks are…Especially I like…At home I wish you to write an essay - interpretation of “The Star-child”. Would you use your table:” know, learned, want to know”! I’m interested in your own experience. So long! Where love is, all is.
THE STAR – CHILD (script)
Part 1
Winter forest. Woodcutters are appearing. /P.I.Tchaikovskiy Waltz of the Snowflakes./
1 Woodcutter: Well done! I’m off and very tired…There fell from heaven a very bright and beautiful star.
2 Woodcutter: Why! There is a piece of gold. Let’s run!
1W.: It’s a coat of golden tissue. Let’s open it and divide the pieces of gold!
2 W.: Alas! No gold is in it, but only a little child. He is asleep.
1 W.: This is a bad ending to our hope. What does a child profit to a man? We are poor men and have children. Let us leave the child here in the snow.
2 W.: No, it’s an evil thing to leave the child here. Though I am as poor as you are, and have many children, I will bring it home with me. (He took up the child)
Woodcutter’s house /I.S.Bach. Organ Toccata/
His wife opens the door: Glad to see you! What is it?
2 W.: I found something in the forest, and I brought it to you to take care of it.
Wife: Oh! Have we not children enough of our own?
2 W.: It’s our star-child.
W.: Our children don’t have bread, and shall we feed the child of another? Who’s there who cares for us? And who gives us food?
A cold wind from the forest came in. (The door turned out to be opened)
W.: Will you close the door? I’m cold.
2 W.: In a house where a heart is hard there is always a cold wind.
Wife’s eyes were full of tears. He put the child in her arms. She kissed it.
After 10 years. Woodcutter’s house. /I.S.Bach. Mother’s love./
2 W.: Listen, our star-child is handsome, but proud, selfish, cruel. His beauty has worked him evil. He has no pity for the poor, or for those who are blind.
W.: Why is he so cruel to all who need pity? Look at him!
A beggar-woman: Give me a piece of bread!
Star-child: See! There sitting a dirty beggar-woman under that tree. Come, let us drive her away, she is ugly and ill. (He threw stones at her)
2 W.: Surely, you are hard of heart and know no mercy, for what evil has this poor woman done to you?
S-Ch.: Who are you to ask me what I do? I’m not your son.
2 W.: You are right. Yet I did show you pity when I found you in the forest.
A beggar-woman cried and fainted.
W.: What has happened to you?
B-W.: Did you say that the child was found in the forest and was it not ten years ago?
2 W.: Yes, it was in the forest that I found him, and it was ten years ago.
B-W.: What signs did you find with him? Had he a chain of amber on his neck?
2 W.: It was as you said. (He showed them to her)
B-W.: He is my little son. Please, send for him quickly. I’m looking for him all over the world.
W.: Go into the house and there you will find your mother. She is waiting for you.
S-Ch.: Why, where is my mother? I see none here but this ugly beggar woman.
B-W.: I’m your mother.
S-Ch.: You are mad to say so. I’m not your son. You are a beggar and ugly. Get away, and let me see your dirty face no more.
B-W.: But you are indeed my little son (She fell on her knees) I recognized you when I saw you. Come with me, my son, for I need your love.
S-Ch.: If in truth you are my mother, it’s better you stayed away, and not come here to bring me to shame.
B-W.: Alas! My son, will you not kiss me before I go? I have suffered much to find you.
S-Ch.: No, you are too ugly. ( B-W went to the forest).Get out of here! (a stone)
S-Ch.(to children): Let’s play!
Children: Why are you so ugly?
S-Ch.: What is this that they say to me? I will go to the well of water and look into it. It will tell me of my beauty. Oh, horror! Surely this is because of my sin. I denied my mother and sent her away. I was proud and cruel to her. I will go and look for her around the whole world.
Sister: What does it matter if you lost your beauty? Stay with us, and I will not mock at you.
S-Ch.: No, I was cruel to my mother, and as a punishment this evil was sent to me. I must go and wander through the world till I find her, and she gives me her forgiveness.
He ran away into the forest: Mother! Mother! Where are you? /Schubert. Ave Maria/
2 part.
For three years he walked over the world, and in the world there was neither love nor kindness nor charity for him. He had travelled England, India, Russia, the Ukraine:
1. England. Waltz (“Let it be”).
S-Ch: Where is my mother?
The dancers: “Ugly, ugly!”(stones)
2. Russia. Russian dance “White sarafan”.
3. The Ukraine.”My native mother’
4. India. The eastern dance..
The gate of the unknown city.
Soldiers: What is your business in the city?
S-Ch: I’m looking for my mother.
S.: Your mother will not be happy when she sees you. Get away!
S.: Who is your mother, and why are you looking for her?
S-Ch.: My mother is a beggar as I am. I treated her badly. I pray she may give me her forgiveness, if she is in this city.
Officer: We will sell him for a slave at the price of a bowl of sweet wine.
Magician: I will buy him for that price. (to the child) Come together. Will you go to the forest and look for gold?
S-Ch.: As you say…
In the forest: It’s a hare in the trap. I’m a slave, yet. I may give you the freedom.
Hare: You gave me freedom, and what shall I give you in return?
S-Ch.: I’m looking for a piece of white gold. I can’t find it anywhere. If I don’t bring it to my master, he will beat me.
Hare: Come with me. I know where it is.
Leper: Give me a piece of money, or I shall die of hunger. There is no one who has pity here.
S-Ch.: Alas! I have one piece of money, and if I don’t bring it to my master he will beat me!
Magician: Do you have the piece of white gold?
St-Ch: I don’t have it. (He was beaten and hungry).
Magician: If today you don’t bring me the piece of yellow gold, I will keep you as my slave, and give you three hundred stripes.
(S-Ch.is Crying) Hare: Why are you crying? What are you looking for in the wood?
S-Ch.: I’m looking for a piece of yellow gold. If I don’t find it, my master will beat me, and keep me as a slave.
Hare: Here you are.
S-Ch.: How shall I thank you?
Leper: Give me a piece of money or I shall die of hunger.
S-Ch.: I have one piece of yellow gold, and if I don’t bring it to my master, he will beat me and keep me as a slave.
Magician: Do you have the piece of yellow gold?
S-Ch.: I don’t have it (he beat him, loaded him with chains).
M.: If today you bring me the piece of red gold, I will set you free, but if you don’t bring it, I will sure kill you!
S-Ch. (cries): Oh, my mum!
Hare: The piece of red gold is in the cave that is behind you. Don’t cry, be glad!
The gate of the unknown city.
Leper: Give me the piece of red gold, or I shall die!
S-Ch.: You need it greater than me (gave him the piece of red gold).
Soldiers (bowed down): How beautiful is our lord!
People (knelt down): There is none so beautiful in the whole world! You are our lord and our king!
S-Ch.: I’m not worthy, for I denied my mother. Let me go, I must wander again over the world for her forgiveness though you bring me the crown and the scepter.
Mother and Leper are appearing. /Bethoven Clouds/
S-Ch (he bowed his head in the dust): Mother, I denied you in the hour of my pride. Accept me in the hour of my humility. Mother, I gave you hatred. Do you give me love? Mother, I rejected you. Receive the child now. Mother, my suffering is greater than I can bear. Give me the forgiveness, and let me go back to the forest.
Leper: Rise.
The leper put his hand on his head: We are a Queen and a King! (The servants brought him a throne and a crown).
This is your father! This is your mother!
They kissed him, set the crown upon his head and the scepter in his hand.
S-Ch.: I’m your King, my people! Charity begins at home! I’ll give bread to the poor and clothes to the naked! It will be peace! I’ll be charitable, just and kind!
“We are all children at Heart and the Heavenly Father has a Heart for children” (from the prayer)
“Above all” – все поют.
Литература
  1. “The Happy Prince and Other Tales” (after Oscar Wilde). – М., Дрофа, 2008.

Friday, January 24, 2014

When Nash theory brings into play some love


  By Alma Dzib Goodin

Daniel is a Russian physicist ready to conquer the world with his ideas, but in the midst of publications filled with Greek letters and numbers, he has failed to atract a beautiful girl’s love of the lab at the other side of the campus. That girl that walks around with the sweetest smile and when she meets Daniel in the cafeteria, smiles even more broadly, knowing that he is a foreigner so she does not want to say something wrong... that girl who ... does she make him sweat?... perhaps so much that he has even asked her name...
 
Town was suffering the third winter storm of the season that evening, so Daniel went into the library, hiding as it was his habit to expect bad things to pass, it was his refuge for everything and everyone. 

He had been studying game theory during a while, especially from Nash’s perspective, and he was determined to publish an article about this topic, applying a proposal from economic and biological models. Although there is a lot of articles written on the subject, he wanted to innovate, he wanted to find something that no one else had seen, however he had to find  that something, there was no doubt he was going to find it there, or perhaps here... maybe in this journal... maybe...

He began to move from one side to another around 300 magazines on the table when one of them slid...... when he bent down to lift it without paying attention to the environment, he saw a hand taking his magazine. He was ready to shout do not touch my magazine, when his eyes followed a hand, and then an arm and then a shoulder... he came up to the neck and two brown eyes met with his blue eyes.

The smile was expanded as always... but this time she modulated carefully her words:
-Hey!, I found this!... What are reading?, she said.

-I'm reading Nash’s theory... He said as doubting whether those words came from his voice or if he was listening to through his headphones, he took them off to be able to distinguish between his voice and the music he was hearing, and they fell to the floor.

She hurried to help him to lift them up and while she did it put attention into the magazines on the table and reached to read one of them: game theory and their applications in biological models...
When she concluded reading, she gave him the headphones and then she stretched out her hand: 

-My name is Kathleen, Kat... I study nanotechnology applied to biological models, and try to explain evolutionary patterns... I see that you understand math... my advisor says that my proposal has no future... perhaps you can help me?... huh?, what do I say?, I’m sure you are very busy...

When she dropped his hand, he took it back and he said almost in a whisper:

-My name is Daniel... Dan... and yes!, in fact I want to design a model of application with game theory to economic and evolutionary models, although this  has been done before... I want to find a specific area that allows me to innovate a bit.

She moved a chair beside her and then more magazines fell, but this time he rose and offered her his chair,  he began cleaned the table a little and decided to talk about what he knew and loved so much with her... 

- Please,  sit down Kat, I think  I can explain you from mathematics how species have evolvied, however, remember that maths are only models that represent the reality.

-The science is that, isn't it? Kat, said smiling.

-Yes, yes... it is true... just explain the reality...

- What I know about game theory, is that studies the sharing of profits and therefore decision making among the players, if an entity can understand that it can win or lose during an exchange, it makes decisions based on its experience. I believe the same applies to biological models, as if we believe that species should take into account information from the environment and predators to survive, then they must apply decision-making on environmental responses.

Daniel further opened the eyes and arched eyebrows...

 -Exactly!, that's the idea... Game theory is much related to economic theory, where a zero-sum game is a mathematical representation of a situation in which a participant gains or loses profits and utility is exactly balanced by the gain or loss of the participant, as opposed to a non-zero sum game where both profits and losses are added to a situation in which players interact. To sum game zero resolves le with the Minimax theorem that is closely related to the theory of the Nash equilibrium.

-     I couldn’t understand that, could you explain it to me?, but used simple words, please.

-    It is a conceptual solution to the non-cooperative games that include two or more players, in which it is assumed that it is possible to know the balance of strategies of each player  since has something to gain by changing if strategy during the game.

-    It sounds complicated...

-    It is not, in fact it can be ridiculously simple: maybe if we try to understand biological systems... look, we will assume that you have a bee and a butterfly trying to obtain pollen from two flowers... do you work with biological systems at this level?, or perhaps... microbes, bacteria... 

-    Sounds like a cute example with bees and butterflies, please explain this and then maybe we can apply to spores...

-    Daniel looked at her very happy... well... I’ll explain it with butterflies... There are two flowers and one butterfly and one bee are trying to obtain the maximum pollen, if Butterfly makes it first movement, it can take all the pollen and thus the bee lost, and if the bee makes a first movement, butterfly lost, but both want to profit, so it is important to take a decision on the action and you can see it in simple way with a picture like this:

Bee takes pollen from a flower
Bee tries to take two flower
The butterfly takes pollen from a flower
Maximum common benefit
Bee gains and butterfly loses
Butterfly tries to take the pollen from two flowers
Butterfly gains and bee loses
Maximum common prejudice

- Crap!, it sounds so easy that even I can understand that, but surely there are a lot of numbers and things involved as I can see in your magazines.


-    I don’t understand it if I see it that way, but let me give you another example to see if I understood... Kat and Dan can learn from each other, and they both make decisions ... then if I do a matrix would be this:

Kat speaks with Dan
Kat does not speak with Dan
Dan speaks with Kat
Maximum common benefit
Kat goes home
Dan does not speak with Kat
Dan finishes his readings
Maximum common prejudice

-    Yes, more or less like that, but both must have the same level of profit, in this case the gain is different, you would have gone home and I would have read 2 or 3 magazines. 

-I want to study chaotic fluctuations in phenotypic frequency, specifically in those cases where it is necessary the adequacy of a heterozygote based on the measure of a recessive parent the next generation, which I think, is the measure of the adequacy of the homozygotes and heterozygotes would therefore have a destructive effect on the homozygotes and themselves, although to a lesser extent about themselves. This because if a behavior is associated with a low to reply to the environment and high fertility fitness gets a chaotic fluctuation.

Daniel's eyes were opened so much that his glasses were on ready to falling, when he could finally talk, began to mambling few words and then coughed a little to clarify his own ideas...

-Kat... I think that no doubt we both can gain from this talk, there are at least two possible explanations, even it would be possible to make predictions... I can apply my mathematical theories to everything you said,  however, the truth is  I did not understand a half of what you just said, but we can sit down and explain every thing with pears and apples, but I believe that we both would receive profits from all this and it is possible to balance our profits no doubt...

-  I want to know if it is possible to find patterns of adaptation and survival in living populations.

-    Have you ever read about the life of Conway game?

-     Yes, I do!, actually… that what gave me this idea, but I don't understand enough about math,  mmmm but I think that what you just explained and Conway model can help me a lot, now all are algorithms to create stable patterns, as the analysis of the databases, everything is math is our everyday lives, everything is about looking for patterns!.

-   Yes it is, yes... of course... I think you just increase our chances of achieving our dreams...Yes... can I invite a coffee?, I only need to ... collect all these magazines... and... I think it’s not snowing anymore... I can take you in my car, or do you have a car?

-    Let me help you with this… No, I do not have a car, only my bike, but I can leave it on campus, and I come tomorrow on the bus. Climatic variables, increases the probability of accidents as drivers change their behavior patterns...

-    Yes, it is true... well... we can put your bike in my car... I have a porta-bike that I use on weekends... well... only when there is no snow, because as you say... There are changes of patterns in the drivers... Yes... ohm... then if you put your bike in my car, can I take you home?... after coffee, of course...

-    Let me think... If I say yes, then we both get gains, then I should not take the bus tomorrow, and you know where to find me... but in such a case, there will be probably other decisions that each player goes, isn't it?

-    Yes, Yes... the pattern can be exponential... sure!

-    Yes, I figured that... can it become a chaotic fluctuation... the pattern could meet different conditions and therefore... change... evolve...

-    Yes, yes... it's true... yes...

-   Cool!, it seems that mathematics are not so complex!

-    No, no... they are not... they can explain many things and as you say... we apply them more and more everyday... I worked applying all this to economic models and I an algorithm to Google, so it seems that it can read your mind when you type something...

-    Amazing!... have you explained biological models?

-    No, but... apparently... I'm about to do it... If you allow it to me!.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Brain and educational virtual environments

                                       Por Alma Dzib Goodin

The interaction between brain and cultural tools started practically since  Homo Sapiens apparecenced on the planet, because this is a main characteristic of his evolution. 
 
Unlike the Neanderthals, and many other species of hominids, Homo Sapiens developed tools, based on cognitive skills of design and its development, gave to the specie a particular capacity to use them to respond to the needs in the cultural environment that allow a surviving opportunity and developing of new skills.

These tools were designed specifically to solve problems, which of course had impact on the brain, so there is a symbiotic relationship between a designer brain and a learner brain and the use of tools, in this sense, It can be tools such as fire, that exacerbated the sensory systems, while the use of sticks and stones benefited the use of thumb, while others developed movement as walking and the observation of the environment, all that eventually open the door to reading, writing and mathematics that gave rise to science.

Whole brain is a wonder of responsiveness to the environment, generating neural connections able to go beyond, literally, including the Moon and Mars, to benefit not only the human specie, but others, under the knowledge that those who do not adapt and respond to the environment, disappear from the face of the Earth, just as it did with its predecessors the Neanderthals and many other creatures.

It's so thousands of years after a first Homo Sapiens has used a stone to ward off a predator, the digital age opens steps, fast if we think that 30 years ago there was notablets, and breaks in the cultural, economic and educational environment, but in contrast to those who claim that this damages the brain, some others, from an evolutionary point of view, look it just like another step in human evolution.

Nature has provided to all species of mechanisms of self preservation, able to respond to the enviroment needs, human beings in particular thanks to the evolution and management of tools designs, which need a reflective thought open the door to a process called brain plasticity that permits the brain adjust to each new need even auto repair  in order to continue providing the ability to solve problems.

Years later computers burst as tool simulating a brain, giving answers and simplifying tasks, through artificial neural networks able to simulate many cognitive tasks, with ever greater precision and elegance.

Simulating the brain activities, new technology has understood that  brain changes, with each learning creates new neural networks, removed those that are not used, sharing, recycling, although unlike their natural model, gadgets are renewed at a very large cost, while never leaving  the goal of perfection as the natural model, that has never achieved because the brain never stops passing, because it can not!, when it is thought that a task is already well learned, comes a change in the environment, or even human creativity opens the door and says: and if do I add this?, and if do I do it this way?.

The brain is constantly using information, so it has specialized its data storage system. While memory is finite, its hability to recover it is prodigious, specially when the stimulus provided as a question or key is correct.

However the maximum capacity of the brain maybe are language, thought and creativity, and  computers can not yet achieve that perfection, as example I can find Siri, the personal Secretary of Apple which is incapable of understanding the inflections of the language, the double meaning or slight changes in modulation.

So at this sense, analyzing the role of technology as a learning tool, as education has been trying during the last decade, wishing an interface between the brain of the natural and the artificial, able to share files with one click, it is not possible since we can not forget a fundamental principle: the natural brain controls and provides information to the artificial brain. 

No matter how incredible is a word processor, still requires the ideas of a writer to convert a blank screen in a worthy article of a Nobel Prize winner, and this will require also the social acceptance of ideas, despite the marketing claim that this or that gadget is an intelligent devices, the user will have the last word against its use and productivity capabilities and troubleshooting.

Brain 2.10 million vs Web 3.0

My brain is renewed, learns, adapts, auto repairs, auto analyses, is capable of determining errors in its performance and start again, searching new paths of answers and even questioning. This is not a simulation of artificial systems, they are perfected processes on the basis of other natural prototypes that have been able to survive despite everything, and we took the best of every one, for example, from reptilian prototype, we obtained emotions, of the mammalian model, we got a selective memory, and attention. The human brain is the evolutionary sum of other prototypes and every day we learn more of its simple capacity to adapt. 

Before a paper sheet, there were human brains communicating. Before the video in HD, there were people telling stories. Before radio stations, there were brains sharing news and art. Before satellites, there were brains sending messages to the rest of the world. Before smart phones, there were intelligent brains who thought them, believed them possible, designing them, tried them, arranged their problems and returned to start, perfecting every detail, adding applications that make our life easier.

A Smartphone can say how to get to a place, but it needs to know the destination.

So we can say technology is an effort to simulate the brain, understanding the infinite plasticity that a natural brain has, therefore this is discarded, becomes obsolete, as well as those areas that are not used, as Darwin observed that any part of our body will atrophy and studies show that the brain also. Saturated information in a chaotic day, or week of exams, after days without sleep, similar to artificial systems after saturating the RAM memory.

The other process that has been copied as an application is the ability to process information, it is true, computers make it faster, but still can not interpret it without the support of their natural example. Although Google has an algorithm to complete words, you need sufficient information to decide what you want or need to search. This same ability to complete  information that the cognitive process has been refined over thousands of years.

Computers and education

The first great tool exploited by education in order to share specific information for the purpose of teaching - learning was the book. This replaced the word, and its most ingenious application was not improved until Jan Amos Comenicus in 17th century put images in textbooks, to help to children learning better.

Three centuries later, the next revolution, changed the books by screens, but is only a another implementation tool at the service of learning to which the brain will adapt, it’s not adding anything new, except some memory and over stimulation, which it had been aside since the man could rest from their predators, creating what is known as attentional problems which actually is the awakening of the consciousness after having spent centuries with face looking to the front and the mystical silence inherited by ecclesiastical education.

There is no mystery in these new tools, brain adapts to them, because they are part of the environment and they are used to solve problems. More adapted people are those who use them in everyday life, the rest of us mortals only employs an average of 12 apps and we know only about 20% of its total functions.

Generation X was born with this technological revolution, they did not have to learn the language of Basic to open and close documents or applications, they did not know the monochrome computer or 5 1/2 floppy disks. They did not fight with point printers. In return, they were born with Windows, not the first version that revolutionized, presenting the information with an easy-to-read structure and the wonderful quality of having icons, icons?, like the images in the books of Jan Amos Comenicus?.

After few prototypes, we add sound to our readings, we added movement and the ability to customize environments, being the last great step removal of buttons and keys, creating interactive displays, on tactil screen.

Millions of bits of information currently available, it is said that practically you can learn everything you want in a digital system, seriously?, well, first there will be to teach to select relevant information to resolve a question or problem from a good design process that leads to a goal. 

Where was the human brain in the middle of this?, it didn’t go anywhere, continues fulfilling its role that nature gave it, which gave all species the possibility to create specific responses to the environment, continues its process of evolution, similar  as smart devices, since its legacy is literally renew or die. 

When it says that technological age has produced changes in the brain, are right, but refuses the constant motivation to respond to the environment. Even species that depend on genes closed such as bees and birds, have shown that its survival depends on its neurowear, which is the set of neural connections. 

The human brain has managed to overcome what no other species has been able to do, not only has adapted to the environment, has adapted the environment, change it, provided shelter, uses imagination, it’s creative, all this thanks to the use of same tools created by itself, seeking always to make them better, creating new, always imagining other forms, textures and functions. Technology should be seen as an extension of the creative mind, which has no reason to curb the evolutionary legacy. The brain will continue its process of adaptation with technology  no matter what kind of.

Proof of this is that there are groups who have never seen a computer, and yet are capable of creating spaces of identity. The culture is in this sense, their  parachute to support creation of answers, as anthropological and ethological studies show it.

Are there benefits in the use of technology?, this is a constant question, and I would say that the benefit is that now our responses will employ different tools. There are currently three ways to close a door: the movement of an arm, with a button or touching a screen, but should not forget that these three methods are achieving the same goal and all depend on the response of a brain.

A problem seen in educational strategies is the forgetfulness of this capacity, with the tendency to create specific response patterns: thus made things, according to a specific algorithm, but this is going against thousands of years of evolution, brain became creative, became from an Néandertal brain to a Sapiens, but we should not forget that many other species have accompanied the human brain. There are reptiles, viruses and bacteria. How can we think that a tool can affect something that remains and will remain as a prototype?. 

Computers and learning

If it is true that affect the evolutionary process, do computers benefit learning?. If you are based on the idea that learning is part of the ability to respond to the environment, and the environment is surrounded by computers, no doubt the interaction is beneficial, the youngest brains are more easily than those who have habits that make rigid response process adopted. 

If a baby make a mistake, it is said that he or she is learning; If an adult makes a mistake, it is said that it is a failure, I think that if learning is seen from this window, education will continue slowing our creativity and our need to innovate. 

Sometimes I think that when adults can give themselves the opportunity to accept that we are not more than a prototype and that the only force capable of changing our environment is death, begin to create much more adaptive responses, being able to increase the life expectancy of the people. It is true that computers have helped us, but there is no achievement that has not started with an idea, net and absolutely human idea.

Learning at the current time, depends on the recognition of the technological environment provides that human remains as the centre of the process and that humans are able to develop this ability to solve problems, solutions, recognize the chain of events that come with clear, specific goals and above all, successful ways to react.

It is clear that learning never depended only of a tool, i.e., we do not learn only from books or teachers. Humans are the only species that creates artificial learning environments, makes tests infertile and maintains such environments for more than 20 years. For the rest of the species on Earth, behavior modeling is brief and the further consideration is to survive.

Believe that a technological tool will teach, means changing the environment of schools by another, perhaps  funnier, with greater capacity for information, but equally sterile if the apprentice is not able to create adaptive responses. While it is possible to order food online, still cannot get the nutrients in this way, we still require food to physically meet the digestion process.

While there is cybersex, is not able yet to fertilize an egg and create a new life. Humans are tied to the natural demands, for some years longer at least until virtual environments to become real environments for the brain. But if Siri is not yet able to recognize words, I think that the road is still long and windy.

In this sense, education must continue focusing efforts on the student, which has not since part of the process since  the ancient Greece, Because after its break between the Catholic Church and the Anglican education focused on the curriculum, and now more that ever students are bombarded by too much information, which causes them problems not only to understand it, but applicate it.

This is why, regardless of the technology, some believe that we must bet on the development of meta cognitive skills, which enable flexible, same thinking applies in everyday life, science and art, since they create patterns of needs analysis for design patterns of responses, choice and check of possibilities concerning specific goals using any tools available, in order to adapt to the environment, including, of course, technology.

If we think for a moment, despite the wonders that it is possible to achieve thanks to the support of computers, they wouldn't exist without a human mind which thought them, designed them and made them work, and sometimes, put them  all together. We can  marvel  the ability of Apple products, but everything is due to the genius of Steve Jobs and his team with an specific ability to imagine. That is a distinctly human quality, that you don't get when the information flows in avalanche and know that there is only one right answer, on a review of all or nothing.

Hopefully one day education understand the brain mechanisms and apply them, because when that happens, it will begin to teach brains capable of learning. 

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