3. One of the most fascinating and mysterious properties of the brain is its capacity to learn, or its ability to change in response to experience and to retain that knowledge throughout an organism’s lifetime.

4. “We Learn... 10% of what we read 20% of what we hear 30% of what we see 50% of what we see and hear 70% of what we discuss 80% of what we experience 95% of what we teach others.” http://thinkexist.com/quotation/we-learn-of-what-we-read-of-what-we-hear- of-what/397216.html

5. 1. Experience shapes the brain. We used to think that the brain you were born with was the brain you were stuck with, but we now know that learning experiences change and reorganize the brain's structure and physiology. It should be fairly obvious that this finding has strong implications for education. We now know that learning is a matter of making connections between brain cells and that the experiences our students have shape their brains. http://www.patwolfe.com/index.php?pid=100

6. 2. Memory is not stored in a single location in the brain. When an experience enters the brain, it is "deconstructed" and distributed all over the cortex. When you recall information, you have to reconstruct it. Since memories are reconstructed, the more ways students have the information represented in the brain, the richer the memory. Multimodal instruction makes a lot of sense. http://www.patwolfe.com/index.php?pid=100

7. 3. Memory is not static. It would be nice if memory were a matter of experiencing something once and then retrieving it at a later date in exactly the same form as it was originally stored. But memory doesn't work that way; it is dynamic. It decays naturally over time as new experiences infiltrate older ones. Visualizing, writing, symbolizing, singing, semantic mapping, simulating and devising mnemonics are strategies that can be used to reinforce and increase the likelihood of recall. http://www.patwolfe.com/index.php?pid=100

8. 4. Memory is not unitary. There are two distinct types of memory, each of which involves different brain structures. Declarative Memory is our everyday memory, the conscious ability to recall the names of your favorite musicians and the formula for finding the area of a rectangle. Procedural Memory refers to skills and habits that you engage in without conscious recall such as driving a car and touch typing. Understanding the differences between these two types of memory is essential in designing classroom instruction and practice. http://www.patwolfe.com/index.php?pid=100

9. 5. Emotion is a primary catalyst in the learning process. For survival purposes, our brains are hard-wired to pay attention to and remember those experiences with an emotional component. However, emotional responses can have the opposite effect if situations contain elements that a person perceives to be threatening. In these situations, the amygdala starts a chain of physiological responses (commonly called the fight or flight response) to ready the body for action. Under these conditions, emotion is dominant over cognition and the rational/thinking part of the brain is less efficient. The environment must be physically and psychologically safe for learning to occur. http://www.patwolfe.com/index.php?pid=100

10. They give you the world’s largest library at your fingertips, enhancing research skills. Online resources allow teachers to differentiate instruction to specific student interests and needs. Laptops are amazingly efficient communication tools. People all over the world can collaborate and share ideas over the net. Educators can find millions of interesting alternatives to text books. Students can use the net to share their work and get feedback. The Internet allows students to both collaborate and work independently.

11. For schools that are already dedicated to promoting critical thinking and inquiry, laptops will prove to be an especially powerful learning tool. Warschauer, Mark. Laptops and Literacy: Learning in the Wireless Classroom. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 2006.

12. Successful students develop certain habits as they engage in the learning process with teachers who demonstrate similar behaviors, attitudes, and habits of the mind. Dr. Warschauer, a professor at the University of California at Irvine, approaches successful learning from three angles that can all be taught with one-to-one laptops: engagement, study habits, and invention. Mark Warschauer, Laptops and Literacy: Learning in the Wireless Classroom. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 2006.

13. Emotional engagement refers to students’ affective reactions in the classroom, including interest, happiness, and enthusiasm. Behavioral engagement entrails positive conduct, such as following rules and adhering to classroom norms, as well as the absence of disruptive behaviors such as skipping school. Cognitive engagement refers to students’ investment in, and efforts directed toward, learning, understanding, and mastering knowledge and skills. Mark Warschauer, Laptops and Literacy: Learning in the Wireless Classroom. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 2006.

14. Cognitive engagement entails going beyond minimally expected behaviors and demonstrating psychological investment in learning, reflected by willingness to work hard, flexibility in problem solving, positive coping in the face of failure, and self-regulated use of diverse learning strategies.

15. We KNOW Students Are More Engaged Because... Laptops allow students to develop positive relations with teachers, peers, and parents through showing, sharing, and collaboratively creating work. Laptops allow for student autonomy. Laptops provide additional avenues for students to develop and demonstrate new competencies. Mark Warschauer, Laptops and Literacy: Learning in the Wireless Classroom. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 2006.

16. Laptops serve as positive tools for helping students organize their work digitally, but should be instructed on setting up different folders for different subjects or projects. Students, if instructed on the proper taking of notes, use the laptops more effectively to keep track of notes. They can use the laptop to make flashcards and other study aids. Students can also submit work electronically, which reduces the loss of printed materials.

17. In addition to increasing engagement and improving study habits, technology enhances inventive thinking. It improves adaptability and flexibility to alter behavior and thinking processes to respond to diverse contexts. It allows for self-direction in setting own objectives and managing the time and effort to meet them. Students are able to satisfy curiosity, which leads to inquiry. Laptop use promotes higher order thinking in analysis, comparison, inference, interpretation, synthesis, and evaluation in a variety of domains and problem solving contexts. Mark Warschauer, Laptops and Literacy: Learning in the Wireless Classroom. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 2006.

18. Effective technology integration must happen across the curriculum in ways that research shows deepen and enhance the learning process. In particular, it must support four key components of learning: active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback, and connection to real-world experts. http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction

19. For the digital age, we need new curricula, new organization, new architecture, new teaching, new student assessments, new parental connections, new administration procedures, and many other elements. What we're talking about is invention -- new things in new ways. Change is the order of the day in our kids' 21st-century lives. http://www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt