Second International School On Mind, Brain And Education
2008, May 22-26
Basic and applied topics
in biological rhythms and learning
Directors: Antonio M. Battro and Kurt W. Fischer
Program officer: María Lourdes Majdalani
Academia Nacional de Educación. ARGRNTINA
One Laptop Per Child Association. Chief Education Officer.
Neuroeducation in the digital era
We live in a digital era, in a global society based on information and communication technologies. These technologies have evolved in an explosive way since the end of the XXth century. We didn't expect this impressive evolution in human behavior and cognition in such a short time. I hypothesize that we are watching the unfolding of a new kind of intelligence in the human species: a Digital Intelligence. The interaction between a human subject and the digital machines is based in a very simple elementary behavior, which I call the "click option", i.e., a decision "to click or not to click". A series of click options, a chain of decisions, unfolds a complex heuristics of a new kind: the exploration of a new human environment, the virtual space. Some simple digital skills are observed in very young children, even before they can read or write. The digital skills help also the disabled persons of all ages, where the computer may become a prosthetic device to overcome a handicap. Moreover, the click option is commonly used in many brain-imagining studies and opens a window to the scientific research of the new digital intelligence. The early access to computers and networks is now a central objective in education. The world program OLPC, One laptop per child is an example of the early unfolding of the digital intelligence in children of the most diverse cultures and socio-economic conditions. Our challenge now is how to use the new digital intelligence in the search of truth, beauty and good.