Podcast 2 of 3 Creating a Program - Mem-ExSpan, memspan's

This article relates how I created a unique data-based, auditory memory program as a teacher and parent in a small home studio. 

Since the cognitive training results were transferring to advanced mental processing with academics, work, and well-being, I kept going with additional training classes, for ages 9 to 65 for over 42 years. 

The program assessed and applied standardized cognitive and academic achievement outcomes and became heavily data based.

Podcast 2: (paste link in browser, if necessary)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bhin2nu727pinjnlwd8ry/Podcast-2.REV.mp4?rlkey=f6x80iezmpfjvyzw90dar9req&dl=0

The Erratic Tik - Tok Brain Embraces Entertainment

To continue my ongoing discussion of “Solid learning factors”, including focus, many articles today discuss concerns about the current 1-minute Tik Tok brain instilling erratic focus for our young people. 

Poor focus interferes with listening integration sorely needed for sequencing, learning, retaining and applying new material.

 Artificial Intelligence (AI) cannot compensate for learner cognitive deficiencies. Actually, AI can make matters even worse.

 Scrambling for Focus through Entertainment:

Historical Impact:

 No matter how poor an individual’s focus capability has become, one thing is certain: Entertainment will be embraced.

 What entertainment?

 Answer: Anything that excites the nervous system and brain, i.e. – video games or circus acts, and sporting events of all types. (Regarding the latter, erratic focus on the football game plays fails, when looking for Taylor Swift in the press box).

 Additionally, entertainment focus includes amusement parks, stage comedy, mime, ventriloquism, and magic tricks.

Subsequently, it stands to reason, that speaking, looping, puppet faces might provoke staring, leading to focus.

 The learning concept of looping, filmed faces emerged from a long puppetry/ventriloquism history.

 To begin – “The Entertainers”:

 1893 – Professor “Doc” Brown, living with a family of three, growing children, in rural Tonganoxie, Kansas, decided to carve some amusing vent figures. He liked to entertain rural area folks, who stared at the strange, wooden, talking faces. 

Professor Brown becomes a local “hit" for a few people, so decided to hike to the New York Stage with a backpack of puppets. 

Although it took him awhile to travel such a distance, he was well received on local city small vaudeville stages, making some income to feed his family. They have been surviving on buttermilk and popcorn in rural Kansas.

 

1923 - 1955 “Doc” Brown’s two sons, Fay and Foy E, are soon carving wooden faces like their father had done earlier. They perform for local Kansas folks and are well received at holiday organizational holiday events, needing entertainment.

1935 – 1955    Roughly in the same time frame, Ventriloquism was becoming a hit comedy act for night club entertainment on the East and West coast areas. Many tried to perform in Hollywood films but failed to succeed in that medium.

 1960 - 1972 – 1979    Jan, with a teaching background in Des Moines, Iowa, training children to emulate science, math, and reading units learning into writing poetry and comedy scripts for parental shows. Parents were thrilled with their children’s’ learning prowess obtained through the arts, science, and music.

 The Erland family now moves to Kansas City, and later to Lawrence whose school district finds arts and science creativity learning incompatible with their educational philosophy. The local district employs The University of Kansas’ “strategies,” paper and pencil methods. 

 Jan is applying the puppetry into her University of Kansas master's degree’s learning disabilities project “Following Oral Directions” with peers and puppets. 

The final outcome of the “Peers and Puppets” experiment was that team students’ TIED with the puppetry methods. Both groups focused on a peer role model and the teaching cloth puppet. All win-wins.

 Jan Erland is soon introduced to Foy Brown, the wood carver and former entertainer, who is a fire fighter, by trade. He carves, as a hobby, during –fire call lapses, at the fire station.

Jan meets with Foy, in 1972, purchases two ventriloquist dummies, and soon is applying puppetry comedy routines for advertising with her three children as musical and speaking performers. It becomes a summer activity for the three children, who are musical.

 Soon, Foy introduced Jan to Lucille Elmore, the noted 1940’s to 50’s stage performer. retired in Topeka, Kansas. Jan purchased her “Lily” (then called Snoopy) vent figure, and Lucille later bequeaths her 1935 carved “Butch O’Malley” puppet to Jan. Butch becomes filmed, as Lucille desired, for his final destiny.

 1980 – 1981 – 1996 Jan forms Mem-ExSpan, Inc. and Innovative Learning Stratagems, a 401 c3, nonprofit, as teaching/training entities for creative methodologies. Data collections become paramount in establishing creative puppetry for learning change.

 Milestone filming years: 1986 – 1988 – 1997 –2007 – 2012 – 2017 ­­­­– 2023 – converting wooden figures to a film format laced with data collections. (Five filming/audio recording generations applying puppet vocals).

 Foy E. Brown witnessed the film transfer just before he passed in 1988 and was astounded. What would our “Professor –Doc Brown” (Foy’s father) think if he saw his wooden figures able to transfer easily, streamed online, rather than walking to New York City?

 Do we have a valid conduit for focus and mental coding transfer applying the puppets’ looping faces and voices? Continuous data confirms that we do. But, will anyone apply it in a world of advancing technology forces with an erratic one-minute Tik Tok brain focus?

Banging Your Head Against the Wall

 Sometimes it feels like we are “banging our heads against a wall” when people are not listening to us. They often ask questions just explained.

 We may experience this not only in skills training sessions or even in casual conversations.

 The confused may not “be day-dreaming”, nut unable to process incoming listening information, as the visual details at hand now take over their brain.

Unfortunately, many can only focus and follow one step holistically at a time, and cannot detect issues within the entire sequential procedure. Slow in procedural thought, “one unit at a time-piecemeal”, they become over-whelmed with step-wise instructions.

This unpredictable mind set creates a flow of errors that is both time-consuming and costly to reformulate properly.

Today’s work projects often employ three to five individuals, at high cost inefficiency, to accomplish a simple procedure. 

The following alarming story was recently related to me by a hospital book-keeper, as an incorrect coding entry had been taking a year of our involvement to resolve the accounting/mis-coded issue.

Without productive efficiency, projects fail with faulty detail. All work operations are a series of ordered details to be completed correctly, systematically, with full accountability. 

Any work chain with too many links can break down to error laden inefficiency.

Actual Medical Scenarios:

 It took a chain of five individuals in the hospitals’ book-keeping department to submit a Medicare claim adjustment in the year-long process. 

Inversely, there were several people at the Medicare side to conduct the same, expensive, time laden, data entry chain link process to finally correct the claim.

 That amounts to 8 monkeys working on one hospital charges data set.

 My Ophthalmologist routinely hires assistants to train from scratch, with few technical, if any, credentials. She falsely assumes that if they can run the ocular equipment that entering the machine data readings and input to the patients' records will be correct.

 Wrong.

 The assistant not only had entered incorrect data but mixed up the chart with another patient with a severe condition.

Then the doctor confronted with the dire results, requiring immediate surgery, lucky for me with my high listening-auditory-coding capability, I recognized the problem immediately, and confronted her with “these photos are not my newly filmed records”.

Of course, the doctor double checked my file, was embarrassed, and apologized, as I have nearly perfect eyesight.

Obviously, I could have gone through unnecessary eye surgery, not to mention, the time involvement, and the anxiety-stress incurred.

Subsequently, this circumstance could have been avoided by pre-testing the listening capability of future technician applicants.

 

 Erland, J. K. (1989, 1980). The Hierarchy of Thinking Model. Lawrence, Kansas.

Erland, J. K. (February 1986, 1989).Contrapuntal thinking and the definition of sweeping thinking).

 

 

 

What is Common Sense and Logic? Why Do We Need It?

The term “common sense” always baffled me, as I was growing up;  individuals said I had amazing “common sense,” and tackled problems wisely. This leads me to the discourse, “what is common sense, exactly?”

A Basic Conclusion for “Common Sense” would be simply:  “Don’t step in front of an oncoming car.” “Avoid lightning strikes”, or Don’t eat strange reptiles,” as the outcomes are obvious to most people.

My Personal Conclusion “Common Sense”: It may be the ability to flood the mind rapidly, with a variety of options, and then make the best choice rationally, not emotionally, in any given moment. 

If it is an emergency, we are forced to think fast. Otherwise, we can carefully weigh in our personal options – pros and cons in a logical manner.

Impulsivity and “Common Sense”:  a fast, risky, choice is made without any deep thought. An individual may realize they made it, but cannot fathom how they reached that conclusion. or understand the eventual consequences.

Often, this line of thinking is habitual, and this decision-making pattern continues throughout their lives.

How the Brain is Involved

In trying to understand the role of “Common Sense” cognitively, we can realize that the cerebellum is the master or “muscle,” doing the brain’s work load, whereas, the cerebrum is the “thought control”. 

And, additionally, each individual has their own unique electrical synapse system created through their learning experiences.

Therefore, we should desire interconnecting them in concert for optimal whole brain thinking leading to logical thinking and decision making. 

Options and Choices

We can create “Choice Architecture” [1] In making decisions that permeate our wired brains. 

We can use tools, or options, to create common sense through logical thought processes, for making decisions with desirable outcomes.

Device Screen Options

We can apply a unique assortment of options with our devices’ screens to give us the answers we seek. 

Consider not being distracted by the constant advertising on our screens, so we can maintain our thought flow and make optimum decisions, or levels of thought operations.[2]

My former article on “Focus” reiterated the Tik Tok - UTube data findings[3] that many have developed a “one-minute” brain attention span. 

This recent article for “Family and Tech” in the Wall Street Journal, reveals that “UTube one- minute “Shorts” give kids short, thrill bursts, making it harder to pull away” Brains are being short-circuited, camouflaging any possible “Common Sense” or logic.

As many innovators spot this issue, they clamor to come up with immediate, money-making solutions. This data is rapidly absorbed into marketing advertisements.

This becomes a “Hay-Day” for marketing and screens, as our brains’ logical capabilities wither.

Takeaway, thought-provoking point to ponder:

If we have a uniquely wired brain, laden with experiential, ethics, and skills learning, making our formulated choice options based on this factor, yet, data mining shows that many can focus only for one-minute or so, what can (or will) alter this anomalous paradigm? 

Are we making choices based on a short-circuited brain, lacking logic?

 

 

 

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[1] Johnson, Eric (2021). The Elements of Choice. New York: Penguin Publishing

[2] Erland, J. K. (1989). Hierarchy of Thinking Model. Lawrence Kansas, Mem-ExSpan, Inc.

[3]  Julie Jargon. (August 15, 2023). “An Antidote for ‘Tik Tok Brain’ Has Also Become a Problem” The Wall Street Journal. New York City.