As PSA researches potentials for “great leaps forward in learning” through cloud tools, we encounter a myriad of opportunities for same. Some fall into that very hard to define area of supporting latent capabilities in the individual; often described as “addressing the whole person”.
But we pay attention to these hard to define areas, and keep looking for the veins of high grade ore in the mountain. One “field” worth mining is best practices for enabling the brain to learn, and one subset of that endeavor is MO for mindfulness. We are familiar with some of these techniques often falling under the general label meditation.
Not exactly sure what the definition of “mindfulness” might be. Here’s something from wikipedia page…which one has to admit, is not all that “clear”.
State
“A kind of nonelaborative, nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises in the attentional field is acknowledged and accepted as it is”.
Practice
“Mindfulness is a way of paying attention that originated in Eastern meditation practices
“Paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally”
“Bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis”
A recent story in Time on positive results for learning math derived through mindfulness practices, or mediation.
[gview file=”https://publicservicesalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Mindfulness-Exercises-Improve-Kids’-Math-Scores-TIME1.pdf”]
Another area of brain enabling to explore: Lumiosity…