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{"id":5444,"date":"2013-08-05T09:05:59","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T14:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/?p=5444"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:29:30","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T20:29:30","slug":"back-to-school-with-a-computer-in-your-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2013\/08\/05\/back-to-school-with-a-computer-in-your-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to School – With a Computer in Your Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

File this under the \u201cterrifying\u201d heading: the New York Times reports that scientists<\/a> are \u201cedging closer to manipulating memory and downloading instructions from a computer right into a brain.\u201d This has implications that seem straight out of both\u00a0The Matrix<\/em> and\u00a0Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind<\/em>: erasing memories, downloading languages, and the like. Just one little plug and a button, and you, too, can know kung fu.<\/p>\n

As interesting as all this is (and as welcome as it initially sounds), I can\u2019t help but think about how the idea that we\u2019d be \u201clearning\u201d things this way shows, once again, how our culture thinks that learning is all about stuffing knowledge into the brain. We all remember cramming for tests, then spitting out the results on a test to prove that we\u2019d \u201clearned.\u201d<\/p>\n

But remember what happened next? We forgot it all.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because we are not juts brains: we are also bodies. And part of what makes for good learning, for education, is not just getting a lot of knowledge, but becoming \u201cformed\u201d by things like practicing studying, and interacting with others in communities of learning, and entering other cultures (in the case of language) to acquire not just vocabulary, but a new way of thinking.<\/p>\n

So even if we get to download French into our brains some day \u2013 and I confess that I sure could use that sometimes! \u2013 let\u2019s not forget that there\u2019s more to learning than acquiring knowledge!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"