Book Reading #43 - Things That Make Us Smart

Chapter 1: A Human-Centered Technology
Summary:
This chapter describes the duality of technology. It is said that technology is what allows us to get pass the limitation of our brain so it makes us smarter. It also makes us dumber through complexity or their seductive powers such as the television. The humans ability to be distracted allows technology to make us smarter because machines can not be distracted. The two modes of cognition are also discussed which are experiential and reflective cognition. The experts view on a product is having mastered the experiential cognition. This mode of cognition is dangerous. It can confuse the non-expert's perception of action and thought.

Discussion:
This chapter touched more on the humans ability to become distracted. This being mentioned in the readings so much proves its importance. From this reading I think it is important to know of the duality of technology. The author believes the benefits out-way the negative so it is important to be optimistic.
 
Chapter 2: Experiencing the World
Summary:
The differences between experiential and reflective cognition is further discussed. Experiential is one of reflex and in the moment decisions. Experiential design should appeal greatly to our senses. Reflective cognition takes more time and is involved. Reflective cognition can be thought of as planning or reconsidering things.

There are three kinds of learning. Accretion, tuning, and restructuring. Accretion learning is adding to what we already know. It is easy, painless, and efficient. Tuning can be thought of as practice. Turning a novice user into an expert takes time. Accretion and tuning are experiential modes of learning. Restructuring is reflective. This is the hard part of learning and allows the person to explore and integrate.

Optimal flow is the focused concentration we have with a task where the world around us fades away and we don't think about anything else. This flow is done in experiential mode and is best done with no interruptions. This flow is then discussed with learning. People use it in things such as games but not in learning. Why is it so hard to have optimal flow with learning something in school? How we obtain optimal flow through activities other than education is discussed. The solution to the author is to figure out how the educator can get the intense, devoted concentration while merging with entertainment.

Discussion: 
Optimal flow was cool to read about because I never really understood it fully. We've all experienced losing track of time while doing something to entertain ourselves. Compared to the things I do for entertainment I don't experience this nearly as much with things involving school. The reasons behind this are interesting to know and I'm curious to see if the author discusses this further in the upcoming chapters.