Our Chapter on Cognitive Complexities Included in Free IAE Book

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

Information Age Education announces the publication of its most recent free book which features a chapter by Marcus and myself:

Sylwester, R., & Moursund, D., eds. (March, 2014). Understanding and Mastering Complexity. Eugene, OR: Information Age Education. 

Cut and paste either of these links into your browser: 

PDF file:   http://i-a-e.org/downloads/doc_download/256-understanding-and-mastering-complexity.html

Microsoft Word file: http://i-a-e.org/downloads/doc_download/255-understanding-and-mastering-complexity.html

Fourteen people collaborated in writing the IAE Newsletter articles that comprise the book. The book is for people who are interested in exploring ways that informal and formal education can help all of us individually and collectively deal more easily with the complexity of many problems and tasks.

Progress in research and development helps to simplify some complex problems, but it can also increase the complexity of others. For example, the book discusses the rapidly growing understanding of our brain. It explores some of the ways in which the education profession has had to shift its perspective from a lack of understanding of functional brain organization to one in which such understanding can help to provide a foundation for improving our educational systems.
 
Or, consider Information and Communication Technology (ICT), a major societal change agent. Young people who grow up making routine use of ICT do not view this “complexity” in the same manner as adults who find some aspects of this rapidly changing technology to be such a challenge. These are only two of the complexities we are working to understand and master.

 This list of chapters and authors will give you a sense of the book:

1. An Introduction to Complexity (David Moursund)

2. An Eight-Year-Old Discovers Football (Lawrence Sylwester)

3. What I Learned from Learning to Play DragonVale, a Very Complex New Online Game (David Moursund)

4. How a Child Learns to Read (Marilee Sprenger)

5. Co-Constructed Learning Enhances Understanding (Jessie Cruickshank and Jeb Schenck) 

6. Spontaneously Clarifying Complexity (Michael Rousell)

7. The Central Roles of the Varieties of Analogy (Robert Sylwester)

8. The Role of Caricature (Robert Sylwester)

9. The Complexity of Humor (Shirley Trout)

10. Using Theatre Education as Sophisticated Play and to Embody Cognition (Xan Johnson)

11. Musings About Strange Attractors (Bob Sitze) 

12. Knowledge Theory and Education (Mark Gall)

13. Understanding Our Brain and Applying That Knowledge (Robert Sylwester)

14. Embracing the Complexity of Mind, Brain, and Education (Abigail Larrison) 

15. The Five New Cognitive Complexities that Teachers Confront (Donna Wilson and Marcus Conyers)

16. The Reverse: Late Life Decline (Robert Sylwester)

Please pass on this information to friends and colleagues who might be interested.  Thanks!

David Moursund and Robert Sylwester

Additional free materials available from Information Age Education:

Moursund, D., & Sylwester, R., eds. Information Age Education Newsletter. Biweekly since August, 2008. Access at:
http://i-a-e.org/iae-newsletter. 

Downloading information on three additional free books edited by by Moursund and Sylwester (Creating an Appropriate 21st Century Education, Common Core State Standards for K-12 Education in America,  Consciousness and Morality: Recent Research Developments):
http://iae-pedia.org/IAE_Newsletter#Free_IAE_Books_by_David_Moursund_and_Robert_Sylwester

To access all of the free materials from IAE:
http://iae-pedia.org/Main_Page.