Brain Dump

School started back for us on Wednesday, January 8th.  A later start than most, but it gave me a chance to reflect on everything I had been learning and develop a plan for the Spring semester.  Inspired by several presenters during the #DitchSummit in December, I decided to try a few things.

#1- Brain Dump  A brain dump is part of Retrieval Practice which are strategies that can be used to get the stored information back out of the brain for further use.  A leader in this field is Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D (@poojaagarwal).  It was her presentation with Matt Miller (@jmattmiller), that got me thinking about what I often experience with my students and how a Brain Dump might be a great way to start the semester.

Most students remember information for as long as they deem it important, which is usually no longer than the next test. This is something that is often trained into students throughout their education.  Having my students do a Brain Dump when they least expected it, at the beginning of a new semester, reactivates and reestablishes the connections that were fading away. Students were encouraged to use only individual words or short phrases, symbols, sketches and drawings to communicate their ideas.  The goal was fluency (as many memories as possible).  I also threw in a little "gamification" (thanks to a presentation by Michael Matera (@mrmatera) and used sunset time lapse timers to keep them focused.

#2 Mind Maps  The second part of my activity was to have them start working together in small groups.  It seems logical to me that if brainstorming new ideas grows exponentially during collaboration, that recall of memories should also grow during collaboration.  So the students were able to work together in small groups to try to gather more memories from that semesters.  They organized these memories into a Mind Map.

Mind Maps help students visually create connections between ideas which also supports memory. Students were encouraged to use only individual words or short phrases, symbols, sketches and drawings to communicate their ideas.  The goal was fluency (as many memories as possible). They were given time to create a  Mind Map, and then to keep them on their toes (because novelty keeps the brain focused), they switched Mind maps with the other groups and continued to add more memories. This helped them two ways, they added things they knew that the other groups missed and they read what the other group had which prompted new memories to arise.  Eventually, they traded Mind Maps with students from other classes to add even more memories.







Students creating a mind map of their 1st semester learning

Students adding to a mind map created by a group from another class (same subject)

This all sounded good, but I was trying to figure out how this should all end.  It didn't think the mind map itself, was enough.  I often like to use meta-cognitive reflection at the end of projects so I
decided to have the students reflect, with a twist.  I gave them a prompt which helped them think about their learning and memory and then they had to create a Flipgrid response as a group.  Them main question they needed to answer was "How did this activity help you remember last semester?"


All in all, I'd call this a success.  While it may seem I just spent the first 3 days of the semester not teaching anything new content (which is true), I did facilitate a few even more powerful experiences:

1.  Memory: Circling back to old information helps solidify connections in the brain.  The stronger those connection are, the more likely the information can be retrieved and used for a purpose later.

2.  Collaboration:  Creating a culture of team work is always a good thing and a 21st century skill.  This was also a larger collaborative, not competitive, activity.  When they worked on another groups map, they were instructed to both add what the other group missed and read what they had to see if they remembered new things, and then add those too.

3.  Creativity:  Mind Maps are a creative way to organize ideas.  There are few rules and the students are in control of how that organization occurs.  They could use whatever colors, connections, even images that made sense to them.  One thing I did notice, however, is that students also like patterns, and when they worked on adding information to another group's Mind Map, they often tried to follow the same patterns.

4. Risk-Taking:  The biggest risk the students had to take was during the reflection.  Even though these are teenagers who live and breathe through apps like Snapchat, recording a Flipgrid video was still a little intimidating.  But through some encouragement and creativity, and being able to do it as a group, they persevered and posted a video.


5.  Hand On Learning:  Not only did the student engagement during this activity confirm that they learn better and remember more when they DO, I also notice that the first memories that they were able to retrieve were the active learning activities from class (both individual and group projects, creative activities, and those involving working with others) as opposed to more passive learning activities like reading or listening to me!
                                                         
For more information on the resources mentioned in this blog can be found on twitter or the following links:

Retrieval Practice
Ditch Summit
Explore Like a Pirate
Michael Matera
Ditch That Textbook
Mindmaps