Dear readers and participants of ONL201 course
The last few weeks working with course topics 3 and 4 have been rather intensive. No time has been left for adequate reflection. The course is coming towards its end and I believe the despite of the every now and then appearing tiredness and frustration I have learned a lot. Maybe especially what comes to the attitude and knowledge base related to online learning, blended learning, group work, current perception of a teacher’s role as a facilitator etc.
All this will be, without doubt, used in the near future or is actually already in everyday use during these times of online and remote work. What a coincidence that the ONL201 course took place exactly this spring. During “normal” times it might have been almost impossible at least for myself to go through the whole course.
During the work with topic 4 we have discussed quite a lot about emotions in teaching and learning. This has been a very fruitful subject and I think I am not the only one who would have been very interested to invest more time and effort with this item. The newest brain research has demonstrated clearly the huge importance and relationship of emotions, learning and for example everyday problem solving.
At the end I attach a longish quota from a brand new publication related to brain functioning etc.:
“Humans are embedded in complex social networks where individuals interact at different temporal scales. Most social interactions, such as verbal and nonverbal communication, occur in dyads or groups, where people constantly strive to predict, understand, and influence each other. During the interaction, sensory, cognitive, and emotional information is constantly remapped in the observers’ brain and used for motor actions as responses attuned to the received input. Thus the interlocutors’ minds are intertwined into a shared system facilitating reciprocation as well as anticipation of the other person’s acts, allowing distribution of neural processing across brains to aid, for example, problem solving.”
“Research findings highlight the importance of co-presence with other people, and the consequent changes in the way the brain processes both internal and external cues.”
Renvall V, Kauramäki J, Malinen S, Hari R and Nummenmaa L (2020) Imaging Real-Time Tactile Interaction With Two-Person Dual-Coil fMRI. Front. Psychiatry 11:279. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00279
