<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">idc forum,</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">The post from Duke University Professor Cathy Davidson </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Davidson">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Davidson</a></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">stirred me to introduce again to the idc forum a proposal to the American President, regarding a means to end the crisis in American education. I have followed this forum for what seems a long time, and enjoyed the many threads - all conducted in a scholarly fashion. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">There is neurological thesis apparent from web accounts of Cathy Davidson's forthcoming book: </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> "Now you see it, how the brain science of attention will transform the way we live, work, and learn."</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">I look forward to finding a copy of the book when it comes out. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">***</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">The neuroscience on selective attention has been an area of my research since my 1988 PhD in Pure and Applied Mathematics,</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> "Mathematical Models of Learning in Biological Systems (Univ of Texas at Arlington)"</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">I have been blessed to know leading minds in this field, including Karl Pribram whom I own a great debt to for his book</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> "Brain and Perception", (1991) and his friendship. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">From what I have seen of Professor Davidson's work, there is an excellent thesis that starts a path to the conjecture I make about why there is a crisis in American education, in the first place, and to a proposal to President Obama, or to the next President, on how to end this crisis. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">At core, I imagine that this crisis is self inflicted and thus can be concluded. Clearly ending the crisis in educaiton will not be easy. I look to natural science as the only means that might overcome what is clearly a state of deep confusion. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">A new science will depart from classical science so as to explain now unexplained observations from physics, chemistry, biology, social science. economics, and in general systems theory. The Bell's inequality is perhaps most famous:</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell's_theorem">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell's_theorem</a> but this is the tip of the ice berg, really. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Work like Professor Davidson's on selective attention is filling in the gap between where we are today and where we will be soon (I hope). </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">I respectfully introduce my work with the following pdfs, some short and some long. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">A summary (4 pages is given here)</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.educationworlds.com/pdf/proposal.pdf">http://www.educationworlds.com/pdf/proposal.pdf</a></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">the full proposal is to be in a book form (450 pages)</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.secondschool.net/bridge.pdf">http://www.secondschool.net/bridge.pdf</a> (for which I am looking for a publisher)</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">A shorter (10 page focus on the science on which the conjecture is based) is here:</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.liftingpedagogy.com/pdf/DigitalSocialMedia.pdf">http://www.liftingpedagogy.com/pdf/DigitalSocialMedia.pdf</a></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">this also is looking for a place to be published. There are 51 scholarly references in this short paper "Social Digital Media".</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">The conjecture is that under stimulation, poor stimulation and manipulation, for other purposes, by the media and entertainment industries have cause a biologically encoded "Acquired Learning Disability". specific to mathematics and science. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Of course, this condition is spreading to all academic disciplines. It affects all of us and all of our children. It is memetic in nature as well as rooted in the various neuro-systems habituation mechanisms. Imagine of self (autopoiesis) is involved. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopoiesis">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopoiesis</a></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Social digital media will either reinforce this ALD condition or be used to end the crisis in education. It will do both for a while, and then a winner will be selected - given the dynamics of competitive cooperative networks. This has been my warning to myself, that the selection process might very well select a "dumbing down of humanity" as a new challenge to democratic governance. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">The neuroscience points to selective attention as a frontal lobe mediated shift between phase coherent states in brain activity. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> <!--StartFragment--><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Levine, D. & Prueitt, P.S. (1989.) Modeling Some Effects of Frontal Lobe Damage - Novelty and Preservation, Neural Networks, 2, 103-116.</span><!--EndFragment--> </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> <!--StartFragment--><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Levine D; Parks, R.; & Prueitt, P. S. (1993.) Methodological and Theoretical Issues in Neural Network Models of Frontal Cognitive Functions. International Journal of Neuroscience 72 209-233.</span><!--EndFragment--> </span></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> <!--StartFragment--><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Prueitt, Paul S. (1996a) Optimality and Options in the Context of Behavioral Choice, in D. S. Levine & W. R. Elsberry, Eds. Optimality in Biological and Artificial Networks?, Erlbaum, 1996.</span><!--EndFragment--> </span></span></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">Conclusions?</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">The entering freshman students no long have the ability to focus on arithmetic due to the habituation of a failure to understand. This failure is not the fault, in any way, of the individual child. The system is causing this condition. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">The strategy to overcome ALD syndrome is discussed at:</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.liftingpedagogy.com/pdf/theLiftingPedagogy.pdf">http://www.liftingpedagogy.com/pdf/theLiftingPedagogy.pdf</a></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">and a proposal to create 3D simulation worlds with avatars as a means to reshape image of self is the basis for the 100 M dollar proposal to the President. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">I would appreciate comment. I look for some collaboration at either my sim in Second Life or my new Open Sim platform being developed as a simulated virtual classroom for the college teaching of mathematics. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.educationworlds.com/pdf/immersiveClassroom.pdf">http://www.educationworlds.com/pdf/immersiveClassroom.pdf</a></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="mailto:psp@secondschool.net">psp@secondschool.net</a></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Paul Stephen Prueitt, PhD (mathematics, computing theory, neuroscience)</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div><br></div></body></html>