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<br><div><div>On Jun 14, 2009, at 6:38 AM, Eric Gordon <<a href="mailto:eric_gordon@emerson.edu">eric_gordon@emerson.edu</a>>wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">I'm quite interested to know how others respond to this proposition?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">and specifically how it might feed into the larger discussion about?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">labor.? Indeed, students' attention is labor, whether it's undivided?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></font></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">or not.</font></p> </blockquote></blockquote></div><br><div><br></div><div>One topic that has been skirted over the past weeks here is the issue </div><div>of mechanism and the use of mechanism to too strongly shape </div><div>consumption behavior. We as educators may need to find </div><div>natural science (to be clear, I mean a new science that is </div><div>not purely reductionist) in more of what we talk about with students. </div><div><br></div><div>I wish to gain attention on this topic. <s> </div><div><br></div><div>A thesis has emerged in my work over several decades that avoidance </div><div>behavior in the mathematics class is an immune response like </div><div>phenomenon having the form of a socially induced cognitive disability. </div><div>The thesis claims evidence of specific biological mechanism in the </div><div>cognitive and immune response systems of individuals.</div><div>This absence of real skill in arithmetic, demonstrated by now a </div><div>large percentage of the adult population, is a behavior maintained by </div><div>replication - of parts of attention phenomenon, as experienced by young college students. </div><div><br></div><div>The parts to whole aggregation of individual behavioral </div><div>patterns is then dependent on (replicated) parts of attention phenomenon. </div><div><br></div><div>The thesis and a recommendation is given in</div><div>www.mathPedagogy.com/bridge.doc</div><div><br></div><div>The core conclusion is that failure of shift viewpoint is a form of fundamentalism, </div><div>and that the media - in spite of its "attentional diversity" - </div><div><br></div><div> has but one message: </div><div><br></div><div> buy, buy now, buy this, buy anything, just buy. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>The evolutionary solution piggy backs on social networking technology, and use phenomenon. </div><div>This fundamentalism phenomenon is based, my monograph claims, on how the brain uses </div><div>phase coherence and thus to the notion of coherence. </div><div>A theory of multi-modal thought, and the regaining of the ability to shift viewpoint is indicated </div><div>as a lifting pedagogy; Socratic and constructivist in nature. </div><div><br></div><div>The new technology paradigm presented in the monograph is ideal for aggregation of </div><div><br></div><div> social networking intention, </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>The user is assisted in building profiles that are 100% under the individual's control - </div><div>and this assistance gives the individual control over "individual information space". </div><div>Once this assistance is embodied as a part of the social communication medium, </div><div>deep change in behavioral patterns are expected. </div><div><br></div><div>I conclude this note with the observation that positive evolutionary forces would be expected, </div><div>under the lifting pedagogy thesis, to evolve an individual ability to maintain </div><div><br></div><div> many distinct information spaces, </div><div><br></div><div>and to flee into those that are comfortable when social forces forces us into conflicts.</div><div><br></div><div>The mathematics class has been for decades a social abuse, </div><div><br></div><div>as experienced by the most </div><div>common types of student. </div><div><br></div><div>However, the control over the individual by the consumption economy </div><div>can become "uncomfortable" as the individual reaches into self identity and re-expresses the </div><div>native desire to know about the physical world - through science and mathematics and </div><div>through contemplation. The shift is then made as we more fully understand the </div><div>interdependencies in economic and environmental systems; </div><div>and the necessity of behavioral shifts involving </div><div>a finer actual control over attentional mechanism. </div><div><br></div><div>I am making a number of deep assumptions regarding the "nature of self", of course; </div><div>and stand ready to acknowledge errors in my thinking regarding these assumptions. </div><div> </div><div><br></div><div>Paul Prueitt</div><div>Norwich University Advanced Computing Center</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></body></html>