Getting more intelligent
Posted by: Lyn in Education, Observations, tags: Education, Flynn Effect, intelligence, Internet, thinkingThe online world is absolutely enormous now and I think I tap in to only a very small part of it. Some days I hear about something that’s been around for a while and I wonder how I didn’t know about it when other people did. That’s part of what makes the Internet so much fun. (What will I learn today? How did they do that? How could I use this? How can I find out about …?) The availability and depth of online resources and opportunities are amazing. And we are increasingly expecting other people to have the personal ability and tech capability to access these resources as well. We refer to website, online forms and are using the Internet for communication, collaboration and problem solving.
For some time now I’ve being telling people that using the Internet is making me more intelligent … sometimes they laugh, but I’m serious. So it was interesting to read an article titled ‘The World is getting Smarter’ which mentions ‘The Flynn Effect’. Your IQ is likely to be higher than those of your parents, and your children’s IQs is likely to be higher than yours.
“Our advantage over our ancestors is relatively uniform at all ages from the cradle to the grave,” says Flynn.
Wikipedia gives a possible explanation – ‘The general environment is today much more complex and stimulating. One of the most striking 20th-century change in the human intellectual environment has come from the increase in exposure to many types of visual media. From pictures on the wall to movies to television to video games to computers, each successive generation has been exposed to far richer optical displays than the one before and may have become more adept at visual analysis.’
Flynn’s thesis shows that whole societies can get better at thinking if they’re given the right environment. ‘The mind is supple and the Flynn effect shows that what we value gets stronger.’ This has huge implications for education … and never more so than now.
Entries (RSS)
April 12th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
And to think a generation from now the youth will laugh at how archaic Google and Wikipedia were. Information is moving at the speed of light, and new technologies are replacing “old” technologies faster than ever. These are exciting times. I feel the best way to prepare our children in this day and age is to equip them with the skills required to find, analyze and create information. It’s how they locate and how they apply information that are important now. I, for one, am hopeful that a new chapter of education is on the horizon, where problem solving and applied learning replace memorization, recall and standardized tests.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Dear Education Blogger,
I just wanted to make sure that you were invited to our education “Blogger Summit”. We hope you can make it and feel free to share this invitation with any other bloggers in the area that might be interested. The invitation is attached below.
Alex
ED In ‘08 Blogger Summit
——————————–
Strong American Schools is excited to announce the ED in ‘08 Blogger Summit. Conference details are as follows:
May 14th – 15th
Palomar Hotel, Washington DC
Registration is Free!
An opening reception is scheduled on the evening of Wednesday, May 14th. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served before the screening of a new documentary film on education, Two Million Minutes. A Q&A session with the filmmakers is set to follow.
Then join us for an all-day conference on May 15th. Nowhere else will you have an opportunity to meet and network with fellow education bloggers, participate in panels, attend workshops, and help tackle some tough questions on the state of education in America.
Space is limited, so be sure to RSVP today!
Register at http://edin08.com/bloggersummit/
May 14th, 2008 at 6:04 am
Hi Lyn
Great post and I agree with Andrew that it will be interesting to look back in years to come and see just how things have changed.
Patricia
PS. Here is another invitation!! You might be interested in adding your blog details to the new International Edubloggers Directory at http://edubloggerdir.blogspot.com