Have you ever had one of those awkward moments where your tongue betrayed you? This traitorous piece of human anatomy can be cruel, one moment it appears to open the road to our dreams. Our words build our esteem, constructing a bridge to our promise land, but just as we are about to embark on the grandest step of our journey, the rope we climb to the mountain coils up and catches our feet. We are on the cusp to delivering our magnum opus when suddenly the absence of that one turn of phrase, that word, that thought which ties the entire edifice escapes us that most inopportune moment, bringing to mind the old axiom, “For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For want of a horse, the rider was lost. For want of a rider, the battle was lost. For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.” In this instance, the nail in our coffin was the want of that one word, that connects everything.
We have all be there, the question is from there, where did we go? Often the best tools of knowledge acquisition can be cleaned from the gaps, for it is there that we learn how to build the bridges of comprehension. What does the science tell us about how we learn? We know from the study of neurology that the brain is a complex interwoven network of synaptic nerves that through chemical reaction guided in part by outer stimuli form internal bonds that comprise our memory. Why should it surprise us then to find that the most reliable form of learning is associative? For with each metaphoric connection we make between existing knowledge and experience and new ideas and concept, inside our minds, nerves literally form connections like copper wires stitched together forming an electrical signal. We learn anew by connecting with old.
For decades now people have observed with perplexed awe and fascination those who were once referred to as “savants,” (though not a politically correct term nowadays). Take for example Kim Peek, the original inspiration for the character Raymond in Rain Man 1988 played by Destin Hoffman. Mr. Peek, like many of the autistic spectrum has difficult conducting what many would conventionally ascribe as a “normal conversation,” yet has the distinct capacity to memorize the equivalent of Encyclopedia Britannica worth of information, with names, places, dates, etc. and receipt them on queue. So many look at somebody like him bedazzled and confused, how is it possible for anyone to remember so much information, is his brain some odd supercomputer?
The answer to this enigmatic anomaly lies before us. A more recent example is Daniel Tammet. Mr. Tammet had considerable challenges through much of his schooling, he has since gone on to master nine different languages, along with advanced mathematics. In Tammet’s case, he has examined in detail the process for which his unique mind retains information and has provided the world a window into his consciousness. He describes in vivid detail how he can see numbers, digitals, equations, and sequences as enchanted beings, with color, character and form. There is a name for this phenomena, it is called synesthesia, it is the blending of senses. My Tammet’s mind catalogs the information and maps it based on connection, context and meaning. Get it: all learning built on association, without links, learning new things is nearly impossible, with the right links, all learning is attainable!
Recent studies from such prestigious institutions as Boston University and the University of San Diego California have provided fairly extensive research linking the phenomenon of synesthesia with enhanced memory retention. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0042698918302001. We know from experience that educational television show like Sesame Street and the Electric Company were employing sense-based connections through broadcast technology going back half a century ago. So how do we move forward in today’s world? Digital technology, utilized creatively and thoughtfully can open a new window to sense-learning connection. First, we should heed one warning of technology’s critics; computer systems do not create teaching content, for they are not conscious sentient beings and in the end, all learning derives from consciousness. Having said that, technology can provide us new avenues to present content, templates enabling the teacher to form a complex of systematized sense-meaning links that can aid the student. How can that be achieved?
By using various spectra as measurement of information, presenting core content in a directional schema where interrelations are assigned a placing based onto their values associated with neighboring data, synesthesia learning can be processed, color codes can also be employed to further extrapolate the distinctions. Such structures can be applied to describing the interrelation of core mathematical functions and their respective patterns, the link between sounds (phonics) and meaning (semantics) in language, events and patterns in history and laws and structures in the sciences. The idea is not to look to technology to provide content but to design templates for the teacher to present and customize as array of modules to visualize the walk-through of learning content.