Working with the brain

One of the most noticeable features of brain operation is how efficient it is.  The functions it controls are well organized and hierarchically organized.  So, in the portions of the brain that capture electrical impulses and change them to information, the collection and interpretation points automatically log the information into the storage areas of other related ideas.  When the impulse carries information that already has been set up in storage, the collection point for it interprets the semantic domains for the information and again sends it to the storage areas.  Some storage areas receive repeated information a lot and some not so much, depending on the semantics for each piece of related information.  It's how the brain determines importance and priority because it is an extremely efficient manager of information.  If information comes to the brain that doesn't have a storage area, it is temporarily stored in an area for one to make a conscious decision to keep it or not.  If no attention is paid to consciously categorizing it, it stays in the temporary area until it is bumped out as the area refills with more temporary information.

Efficient, swift, easy, continuous, and effortless.  That's the brain at its best.  And although the brain contains millions upon millions of storage areas for information, when a storage area is not tapped by the memory in a really long time, the information is also released to the temporary storage area for one to decide to re-store it or let it go.

Just knowing this much about the brain should change the way learning happens, and it should shape how learning should occur as the virtual world continues to grow and take on the function of educating people 16 and older.  Before age 16, two great pruning periods occur automatically around 10 months of age and again between 14 and 16years of age.  For infants and youth, then, a slightly different process happens.  Learning among these two groups should take into account the differences.

Those businesses who train employees and educational institutions, physical and virtual, should really use methods of learning compatible with how the brain naturally works.  The brain will do what it does best with or without compatible learning methods, but those who work with the brain will achieve learning in a much more efficient manner because that's what the brain does - work efficiently.  A method that doesn't work with the brain will find a lot of resistance among students.