Reese Panos

1. Brain plasticity allows your brain to take in new information and learn
new things by adapting and changing throughout your life. It helps your
brain continue to grow and learn throughout your life and it also helps
you make connections to old information your brain already has. Your
brain continually adapts and changes according to experiences and new
activities.
Learning can physically change the brain and affect how students react
to their grades in a positive way. A study published in the journal of Child
Development in 2007 by researchers Lisa Blackwell of Columbia
University, and Kali Trzesniewski and Carol Dweck of Stanford University,
“found that both morale and grade points took a leap when students
understood the idea that intelligence is malleable. Not only did those
students who already believed this do better in school, but when
researchers actively taught the idea to a group of students, they performed
significantly better than their peers in a control group.”

2. I chose a pencil as my topic for the final. I really like to draw so I thought
it would be interesting to learn more about how a pencil and brain plasticity
relate to one another. I learned in a drawing class that drawing is good for
the brain and it enhances different parts of the brain. When I started to
research drawing I found an interesting article about how drawing
enhances cross-modal memory in the human brain. In this article From
states “drawing has the unique advantage of providing an explicit
readout of the memory content recalled during task performance, as it
objectively “externalizes” the specific memory representation guiding the
motor output in each trial.” The brain gives us a “sketchpad” to
remember what we see.

3. Digital natives are people who have always been around technology.
They have grown up knowing how to use all sorts of technology such as
the internet, cell phones, video games and many other modern information
technologies. Digital natives have had to learn about technology as it is
presented to them. They sometimes shy away from it because it looks too
complicated. They often have a different way of thinking and do not
always know about modern technology that may be available for them. The
pencil is used by both digital natives and immigrants. However, digital
natives may want to use a pen or a stylus or apple pencil (special pencil for
an Ipad) instead of a regular pencil. I think adults would rather use a pencil
so they can erase but teens may prefer pens because they come in pretty
colors and glide better on paper. My grandparents prefer regular pencils
and are Boomers and don’t like anything to do with technology. They
finally got cell phones, flip phones and do not use computers. My parents
pay for bills online and my grandparents still write checks and mail them in.

4. When I google pencils it said there are “About 907,000,000 results”.

There are 5000 different results on Amazon alone. Pencils are readily
bought and advertised in places like Staples, WalMart and Target.
Especially during the month before school starts.

There are many different types of pencils- mechanical, colored pencils,

regular #2 pencils, extra large pencils, and mini pencils just to name a
few.

5. I don’t think pencils are a hot item but I do think people get excited
about the writing utensils that they use. My sister’s love to use
mechanical pencils and colored pencils that have all the colors in one
pencil. I think if you order something like colored pencils from a store or
even just look them up , you will begin to see ads on your Facebook
page for example pencils.
6.
7. According to Harold Taylor, there are 3 different types of multitasking.
He states, “The first and most obvious, ineffective and potentially
dangerous form of multitasking, involves physically performing two tasks
at the same time.” An example of this would be driving and eating at the
same time. “The second type involves working on only one task
physically, while thinking about something else.” An example of this
would be attending a work meeting while checking your email or paying
bills. “The third type involves what we used to refer to as a “utilizing idle
time”. An example of this would be checking your text messages while
sitting in your car stuck behind a train. It can be dangerous to multitask
depending on what your job or task is. Someone in the medical
profession should not multitask as it could cost someone their life. This
would go for truck drivers as well because they need to keep their
attention on the road only.

8. I think a lot of people multitask with pencils. Students doodle in class

when they should be listening or taking notes. Adults make “to do” lists
when they should be paying attention to the meeting they are attending
or should be working. Some people chew on pencils when they should
be doing the task assigned to them. I have also seen girls put their hair
into a bun with a pencil when they should have been paying attention to
a lecture. To what extent can or does one multitask with this
technology? Multitasking with a pencil seems safer and a more
successful type of multitasking because even when you are doodling you
can still be listening and taking in information. There are many
interesting things on the internet about pencils.
https://www.edutopia.org/neuroscience-brain-based-learning-
neuroplasticity

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00044/full

https://www.pens.com/blog/why-pencils-are-better-than-pens/

https://www.taylorintime.com/there-are-three-types-of-multitasking/