Multiple Intelligences Thanks to Pat for her discussion of "work-based tasks", and Bill for his material on games (particularly the computer variety). Both topics raised (as good topics should) many more questions, and deserved far more time than it was possible to give them. However, it was really serendipitous to discover that they both illustrated the issue of balancing simplified, step-by-step exposure to tasks (games), with the total immersion real-world impact of work-based practice. It's a really important balance and choice to be made for those of us in professional education, and although we could not explore it in detail, I hope some of the major factors were exposed.

• The "situated learning" model is discussed here; http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/situated.htm
• The original argument by Howard Becker is here, (for a week or so, only)
• I almost forgot; we also got into the issue of whether people know what they don't know, etc.

After the break, we looked at Gardner's ideas about "multiple intelligences", (see
http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/multiple.htm)

That should only have taken a few minutes, but somehow we went on into the whole area of neuro-science and learning. You know I'm sceptical about much of the material (I gather "stuff" is the key-word at the moment) on the net, but as far as I know, the following sources are reasonably reliable...

• http://www.newhorizons.org/neuro/front_neuro.html
• http://www.oecd.org/department/0,2688,en_2649_14935397_1_1_1_1_1,00.html
• and in case you don't find it from the links above; http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/28/13/31706603.pdf on "neuromyths"

On "BrainGym" --the following links are suggestive, but...

• http://www.braingym.org/faq.html
• http://teplitz.com/BrainGymResearch.htm

It's a fascinating topic. If you are of a reductionist frame of mind, you may be tempted to think that it is the last word... Stick around for Module 5 next year!

And we touched on "neurodiversity". If you follow no other links, set an hour aside, and go to http://www.brainhe.com/ This is a brilliant site, full of practical insights from students about what it is like to learn when you have dyslexia or Asperger's, and complete with videos of interviews with students. It has an HE focus (its originator, David Pollak, is a former colleague and continuing friend and fellow National Teaching Fellow) but everything is transferable to FE.

On Asperger's, the books I referred to were;

• Haddon M (2003) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time London; Jonathan Cape (p-back by Vintage, 2004) and
• Tammet D (2006) Born on a Blue Day: A Memoir of Aspergers and an Extraordinary Mind London; Hodder and Stoughton
  
• Tammet also has a blog at http://www.optimnem.co.uk/blog/ which is well worth a visit.
  

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