Measuring and even changing a student’s brain activity was once a science fiction concept. But technology advances are pushing to market more products that use attention levels and plasticity of the mind to raise academic achievement.
At the end of the study session, students can see where their attention was highest and lowest, and go back to the exact place where attention dropped.
“It allows you to flip back to the book or video in an intelligent way,” says Adam L. Hall, founder and CEO of Nervanix. It can also help teachers determine which educational materials students pay the most attention to, he adds.
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Wendy Drexler, chief innovation officer at ISTE, says schools need classroom data before adopting any product or method that claims to enhance the brain.
“The transition from research to actual application in the classroom is a long and complicated process,” Drexler says. “Often, companies and educators take a single study or recent research finding and try to immediately apply them to learning. In reality, the brain is very complex and this type of research is in its infancy.”
More insight into how the brain works and how humans learn will be gained in the coming years. “That, combined with technology, will offer powerful platforms to facilitate and accelerate the learning process,” she says.