US Media Support Tech Regulation—Unless It Comes From China

JULIANNE TVETEN

 

Recently, US media have been aghast at legislation affecting China’s tech sector.

As part of a comprehensive economic initiative, Beijing has instituted a series of regulations—including fines, IPO suspensions, data-collection laws and other measures—for technology businesses that have raised concerns regarding power consolidation,  labor rights, privacy, cybersecurity and user safety, among other issues. Offenders include ride-hailing giant Didi, the finance-tech Ant Group and multinational conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd.

According to major US news sources, the directives are an instance of government overreach, a transgression of which China is routinely accused. Beijing has sent a “stark message” (New York Times, 7/5/21) with an “authoritarian tinge” (Bloomberg, 7/27/21). Its multi–billion–dollar corporate targets are thus “casualties” of “Beijing’s crackdown on private enterprise” (CNN Business, 9/1/21), from which the government expects “total surrender” (New York Times, 7/19/21).

These reports, curiously, arise as US media and policymakers continue a protracted process of advocating for restrictions on the “Big Four” homegrown tech companies—Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon—citing many of the categories of malfeasance associated with Chinese tech companies. (Normally, US media aren’t this enthusiastic about corporate regulation; tech companies’ increasingly large share of ad revenues, which renders them a major competitor for traditional corporate-owned outlets, may help explain this stance.)

Yet no matter how much overlap there may be between each country’s regulatory posture, US media maintain a double standard for corporate tech law in the US and China: In the former, it’s in pursuit of democracy; in the latter, of autocracy.

 

 

 Shipping: “‘Just Get Me a Box’: Inside the Brutal Realities of Supply Chain Hell” [Bloomberg]. “The system underpinning globalization—production on one side of the planet, connected to consumers on the other by trucks, ships, planes, cranes, and forklifts—is too rigid to absorb today’s rolling tremors from Covid-19, or to recover quickly from the jolts to consumer demand or the labor force. It’s avoided a complete collapse only through a combination of human ingenuity, painfully long hours, and, as [logistics manager RoxAnne Thomas] describes a recent success, strategy, mixed with a stroke of luck…. [S]upply uncertainties, disruptions, and inflationary forces are here for the foreseeable future, perhaps into 2023. But how things play out this month, one of two peak seasons each year for goods, will be crucial in determining how long these shortages last and which companies are able to adapt…. With summer winding down, the big test of the global trading system’s resilience might still be ahead. Every October a weeklong national holiday in China marks the unofficial deadline to get shipments out of the world’s second-largest economy in time to reach the U.S. and Europe for the holiday shopping season. With lines of ships outside ports at their longest since the pandemic began, the pressure to meet that cutoff is stronger than ever.” •

 “Trump’s 2020 gains in rural America offset by Biden’s urban dominance” [The Hill].
Biden and Trump drove turnout to a zenith not seen since before American women got the right to vote in 1920. Trump made substantial gains, improving on his 2016 performance to become the most-voted-for Republican presidential candidate in history — but lagging Biden, who earned more votes than any candidate to ever run for president regardless of party…. Biden won 91 of America’s 100 largest counties, while Trump carried 95 of the 100 counties with the smallest populations

 

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/09/200pm-water-cooler-9-16-2021.html

 

 

changes to their municipal drinking water systems

Six of the 11 Michigan cities that have come under state emergency management since 1990 also saw changes to their municipal drinking water systems, the most common being rate increases, water shutoffs for nonpayment and the privatization of water services or infrastructure.

 ....

The researchers also measured community characteristics beyond financial health—including
reliance on state revenue sharing,
the proportion of Black residents and
median household income—

that may have increased the likelihood that cities were targeted for emergency management.

Hughes and her co-authors expected that at least one of the financial indicators used by the state, or a composite financial health score based on all the indicators, would be able to identify all 11 Michigan cities that have experienced takeover.

Surprisingly, that was not the case. The composite financial stress score captured just 45% of those cities. But a city's level of reliance on state revenue sharing captured 82% of the takeovers, while the percentage of Black residents and median household income correctly predicted 64% and 55% of the takeovers, respectively.

"These findings support previous work challenging the technocratic and rational basis of state municipal takeover laws and pointing to the inherent politics in municipal takeovers, specifically the bias and structural challenges facing Black and poor communities," the authors wrote.

The media-coverage portion of the two-pronged study showed that Michigan cities that have come under emergency management were more likely to have changes made to drinking water services than 10 similarly financially stressed Michigan cities that did not come under emergency management.

 

Six of the 11 Michigan cities subjected to emergency management saw changes to their drinking water systems that were implemented to save money or to reduce expenditures. In many cases, those decisions led to poor water quality, service unreliability and increases to water bills, according to the researchers. The 10 comparative cities did not experience any such changes.

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-municipal-takeover-michigan-rational-apolitical.html

 “Liberalism is not, in fact, in disarray. Indeed, in many senses it’s a thumping success. Only three decades after the fall of the Iron Curtain, neoliberalism, which preserves the classical doctrine’s package of liberties and rights while installing the market, rather than government, as the ultimate arbiter of wealth distribution, has established itself as a political state of nature throughout much of the developed world…. Who exactly is this book for? Occasionally, through use of the second person, the answer slips through: Last Best Hope is for people who needed the shock of the pandemic to “realize that the miraculous price and speed of a delivery of organic microgreens from Amazon Fresh to your doorstep depends on the fact that the people who grow, sort, pack, and deliver it have to work while sick.” In other words, it’s for people like George Packer: comfortable, middle-class professionals who have come to a belated understanding of the American economy’s brutalities, but don’t want things to change so much that they lose the country that has made them a success and brings them their microgreens.”

“George Packer’s Center Cannot Hold” [The New Republic]. 

Food production generates more than a third of manmade greenhouse gas emissions – a new framework tells us how much comes from crops, countries and regions

September 13, 2021 11.06am EDT

 Xiaoming Xu Postdoctoral Research Associate in Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  

Atul Jain Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 In a new study, we show that the food system generates about 35% of total global man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

Breaking down this share, 

production of animal-based foods – meat, poultry and dairy products, including growing crops to feed livestock and pastures for grazing – contributes 57% of emissions linked to the food system. 

Raising plant-based foods for human consumption contributes 29%. 

The other 14% of agricultural emissions come from products not used as food or feed, such as cotton and rubber.

We are atmospheric scientists who study the effects of agriculture and other human activities on Earth’s climate. It’s well known that producing animal-based foods generates more greenhouse gas emissions than plant-based foods, which is why shifting toward a more plant-based diet is recognized as an option for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. 

 ...

Land use change – clearing forests for farms and ranches, which reduces carbon storage in trees and soils – accounts for 29% of total food production greenhouse gas emissions. Another 38% comes from farmland management activities, such as plowing fields, which reduces soil carbon storage, and treating crops with nitrogen fertilizer. Farmers also burn a lot of fossil fuel to run their tractors and harvesters.

Raising livestock generates 21% of greenhouse gas emissions from food production. It includes methane belched by grazing animals, as well as methane and nitrous oxide released from livestock manure. The remaining 11% comes from activities that occur beyond farm gates, such as mining, manufacturing and transporting fertilizers and pesticides, as well as energy use in food processing.

 

 

Among animal-based foods, beef is the largest contributor to climate change. It generates 25% of total food emissions, followed by cow milk (8%) and pork (7%). 

Rice is the largest contributor among plant-based foods, producing 12% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the food sector, followed by wheat (5%) and sugarcane (2%). Rice stands out because it can grow in water, so many farmers flood their fields to kill weeds, creating ideal conditions for certain bacteria that emit methane.

 

Among individual countries, China, India and Indonesia have the highest emissions from plant-based food production, contributing 7%, 4%, and 2% respectively of global food-related greenhouse gas emissions. The countries with leading emissions from the production of animal-based foods are China (8%), Brazil (6%), the U.S. (5%) and India (4%).

Our framework also shows that raising animal-based foods consumes six times as much land as producing plant-based foods. 

we estimate that 13% of total agricultural land is being used to produce plant-based foods. The other 77% is being used to produce animal-based foods, including croplands that are growing animal feed and grazing lands. The remaining 10% is being used to raise other products, such as cotton, rubber and tobacco.

 

 

 

 

https://theconversation.com/food-production-generates-more-than-a-third-of-manmade-greenhouse-gas-emissions-a-new-framework-tells-us-how-much-comes-from-crops-countries-and-regions-167623

government-sponsored infrastructure, progressive taxation, and anti-monopoly legislation,

 

https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/13/the-vocabulary-of-neoliberal-diplomacy-in-todays-new-cold-war/ 

Michael Hudson

The problem, of course, is that just as the United States, Germany and other nations grew into industrial powers in the 19^th and 20^th century by government-sponsored infrastructure, progressive taxation, and anti-monopoly legislation, the post-1980 rejection of these policies has led them into economic stagnation for the 99 Percent burdened by debt deflation and rising rentier overhead paid to the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) sectors. China is thriving by following precisely the policies by which the former leading industrial nations grew rich before suffering from the neoliberal financialization disease. This contrast ....

China recognized from the beginning that its insistence on maintaining control of its economy – steering it to promote overall prosperity, not to enrich a client oligarchy fronting for a foreign investor class – would create political opposition from U.S. Cold War ideologues. China therefore sought allies from Wall Street, offering profit-making opportunities for Goldman Sachs and other investors whose self-interest has indeed led them to oppose anti-China policies.

 ..

 John McCain characterized Russia as a gas station with atom bombs (neglecting to acknowledge that it is now the world’s largest grain exporter, no longer dependent on the West for its food supply – thanks largely to U.S.-sponsored trade sanctions). The corollary image is the United States as a financialized and monopolized economy with atom bombs and cyber threats, in danger of becoming a failed state like the old Soviet Union but threatening to bring the entire world economy down with it if other countries do not subsidize its debt-ridden New Cold War economy.

 

...

What is autocracy and “authoritarianism”?

Foreign moves to defend against U.S. financial takeovers and sponsorship of client oligarchies are denounced as authoritarian. In the U.S. diplomatic vocabulary, “autocracy” refers to a government protecting the interests of its own population by resisting U.S. financial takeover of its natural resources, basic infrastructure and most lucrative monopolies.

All successful economie throughout history have been mixed public/private economies. The proper role of government is to protect economies from a rentier oligarchy from emerging to polarize the economy at the expense of the population at large. This protection requires keeping control of money and credit, land and natural resources, basic infrastructure and natural monopolies in the hands of governments.

 

...

The liberal mass media, academia, and “think tank” lobbying institutions, policy foundations and NGOs sponsor the above-described rhetoric of free markets to create vehicles for capital flight, money laundering, tax evasion, deregulation and privatization (and the corruption that goes with emerging kleptocracies). Neoliberal doctrine depicts all public moves to protect general prosperity from the burden of rentier overhead as being authoritarian autocracy “interfering” with property rights.

...

China is defending itself not only by the productive industrial and agricultural economy its socialist government has sponsored, but by a guiding concept of how economies work. China’s economic managers have the classical concepts of value, price and economic rent, that distinguish earned from unearned income, and productive labor and wealth from unproductive and predatory financial and rentierfortunes.

These are the concepts needed to uplift all society, the 99 Percent rather than just the One Percent. But the post-1980 neoliberal reaction has stripped away from the Western economic vocabulary and academic curriculum. The present economic stagnation, debt burden and locked-in zero interest rates are a policy choice by the West, not a product of inevitable technological determinism.

 

 

 

Left-wing and Right-wing authoritarians - striking similarities

Study: Left-wing authoritarians share key psychological traits with far right

by Emory University

 By Carol Clark | eScienceCommons | Sept. 9, 2021

 https://phys.org/news/2021-09-left-wing-authoritarians-key-psychological-traits.html

In addition to the striking similarities between the two political extremes, the research also highlighted a key difference between the two: Left-wing authoritarians were more likely to perceive the world as a dangerous place and experience intense emotions and a sense of uncontrollability in response to stress. Right-wing authoritarians were more cognitively rigid, less open to new experiences, and less likely to believe in science. 

 

...

The good news is that both extreme authoritarianism and a tendency toward political violence appear relatively rare, Costello adds. Out of a sample size of 1,000 respondents, drawn from the online research tool Prolific and matched to the demographics of the U.S. population for age, race and sex, only 12 reported having engaged in political violence, and they all scored high for authoritarianism.

 

 Obsolecência programada de serviços públicos

Replying to @gregggonsalves
Aug 27, 2021

In

@mattyglesias

' Substack post this morning he bemoans the inflexibility of public health agencies. A few words. 1/

First, @CDCgov is an old, tired workhorse, which we expect to magically turn into Secretariat. It is underfunded to a degree which imperils all our lives. Report after report (@tfah), commission after commission has said this. You get what you pay for. 2/

Public health at the local and state level is in free-fall and has been for decades. Unless we deal with this no amount of flexibility will help us. 3/

 

.

@NIH

is a funding agency for biomedical research and isn't set up for flexibility. In fact, getting a grant out of the NIH takes years of training, practice, resubmission, rejection etc. and still they fund only a small proportion of what gets submitted to them. 4/

I agree we need them to be flexible, but just realize the constraints that exist in the system now. In fact, many researchers---sssshhh--were using their non-COVID grants to do COVID related work over the past year. They were told to cease and desist. Not. Flexible. 5/

 

@US_FDA

is the worst. It is a case study in regulatory capture. I wouldn't even call it a public health agency at this point, but a wealth transfer station for Pharma, in which they rush drugs to market often w little evidence with the agency's blessing and make billions. 6/

OK, a little harsh, but the

@US_FDA

really sees itself as a handmaid of the drug, device and biologics industries, with speed of approval the over-riding metric for success (efficacy, meh). 7

So

@mattyglesias

is right we need flexibility, but we need more. We need to re-build public health in America from the ground up. CDC and local and state public health agencies need a massive investment over the long term. 8/
https://t.co/64t1exVHt2?amp=1 https://www.tfah.org/report-details/publichealthfunding2020/

Rss D. Silverman

@phlu

·

13h

He needs to stop. Only good thing that comes as a result of his bloviating is your inspiration to post threads. Inflexibility? Or 40 years of states/local starving & feds deregulating, polarized pols who want to spread a pandemic, unchecked threats running leaders out, SupremeCt?

/

 

 

Colégio Militar, em Lafaiete

A pessoa que me enviou esse   texto ontem, me enviou a foto hoje.

Alguns colegas falaram que há planos para  abrir um Colégio Tiradentes aqui em Lafaiete.
No antigo Inconfidência, atual Maria Augusta Noronha

 O CTMG de fato é uma escola para beneficiar PMs bombeiros e servidores da PM. Só que ao invés de fazerem uma escola e pagarem, o corporativismo deles é pago com os recursos do fundo público geral

 Também achava. Só hoje fui pesquisar e descobri essa pérola do corporativismo

Sim. Concordo. E antes da escola militar, o Colégio Militar.

 Como o  sistema é de sorteio, as vagas que não forem preenchidas por dependentes de militares, podem ser sorteadas por esses filh@s de homens de bem!

Muitos dos alunos "bons", das escolas públicas estaduais w municipais,  cujos pais são mais convervadores, vão tentar entrar no Colégio Tiradentes. 

Assim eles conseguem manter seus filhos afastados dos estudantes em geral. Fico pensando como deve ser ser professor numa escola dessa aff

 scola pública realmente excludente, destinada aos dependentes dos militares e de "Homens e mulheres de bem".
Talvez só não queiram que seus filhos sejam alunos, os pais realmente progressistas (minoria, da minoria). Progressistas não apenas no discurso, mas na perspectiva sobre o que é uma educação libertadora e uma pedagogia do oprimido.

Afinal, quando se pensa em Colégio Tiradentes, com formação para dependentes de militares da polícia e bombeiro, do fundamental ao ensino médio, o que podemos esperar além de doutrinação militar avançada e de longo prazo?

Desse "cercadinho" da doutrinação, "quartel" travestido em escola, a história demonstra e a sociologia analisa, a despeito do desejo dos responsáveis, os "rebeldes" e aqueles que não se adequarem serão "evadidos", expulsos ou afins.

 

Quer mais informações?

Entre em contato direto, se recebeu a mensagem por meu WTZP; via instagram: @vanres1974; ou, então, comentário mediado em postagem de vanresnews.blogspot.com
 Por VanRes, prof. da rede pública do estado de Minas Gerais, Doutor (UFMG) e Mestre (UFSJ), em Letras.

*Aprendizado e Movimento*

... os alunos que trabalham com uma variedade de ferramentas e materiais durante uma atividade de aprendizado são mais capazes de compreender conceitos abstratos, como aceleração gravitacional ou frações (Taylor, 2021). ...

Leia a tradução do artigo: "Por que os alunos aprendem melhor quando movem seus corpos em vez de ficarem sentados em suas mesas?", por Katie Headrick Taylor.
Tradução disponível em:
https://vanresnews.blogspot.com/2021/08/aprendizado-e-movimento.html

Por que os alunos aprendem melhor quando movem seus corpos em vez de ficarem sentados em suas mesas, por Katie Headrick Taylor, The Conversation, 26 de agosto de 2021. Tradução e edição VanRes.

 

 

Os professores do jardim de infância do meu filho, dando aula de Zoom no ano passado, instruíram: "Olhos vigilantes, ouvidos atentos, vozes caladas, corpos imóveis." No entanto, notei que as mãos do meu filho de 6 anos ficavam ocupadas com os itens encontrados em nossa casa, construindo com Legos, modelando argila ou rabiscando com giz de cera.

Embora alguns possam descrever essa criança como estando "fora da tarefa", pesquisas sugerem que sua manipulação de materiais realmente despertou sua mente, permitindo que ela se concentrasse na tarefa exigida.

Como mãe de dois filhos em idade escolar, professora e pesquisadora de aprendizado com tecnologia, acredito que os modelos atuais de educação a distância são ineficientes para o aprendizado, o ensino e a produtividade.

Isso porque sentar na frente da tela do computador subjuga, ou desassocia completamente as pessoas, de muitas das habilidades de fazer sentido de seus corpos. Para aprender com mais eficiência, nossas mentes dependem do movimento de nossos corpos, trabalhando com diversas ferramentas, estando em lugares dinâmicos e tendo nossos colaboradores por perto.

O papel do corpo no pensamento

Mais notavelmente, o aprendizado remoto pressupõe que, enquanto a mente estiver ocupada, tudo bem se o corpo permanecer imóvel. Mas esse argumento é retrógrado.

A pesquisa da cognição incorporada - o estudo do papel do corpo no pensamento - mostra que o corpo deve primeiro interagir com o mundo para ativar e abrir a mente para o aprendizado.

É por isso que, por exemplo, os alunos que trabalham com uma variedade de ferramentas e materiais durante uma atividade de aprendizado são mais capazes de compreender conceitos abstratos, como aceleração gravitacional ou frações.

Pedir aos alunos que fiquem sentados enquanto realizam seu trabalho realmente aumenta sua carga cognitiva ou a carga sobre a mente. Requer que eles se concentrem em acalmar seus corpos, que estão buscando caminhos para a criação de sentido, bem como na tarefa principal que os fixa em sua mesa ou tela digital.

Como os psicólogos Christine Langhanns e Hermann Müller concluíram a partir de estudos com pessoas que resolvem problemas matemáticos:     

"Sentar-se em silêncio não é necessariamente a melhor condição para aprender na escola."

Aprendendo com nosso ambiente

Os pensamentos internos dos humanos são extensões do mundo ao seu redor. As tecnologias e ferramentas que usam, as pessoas com quem colaboram, a caminhada que fazem à escola ou ao trabalho, tudo evoca sentimentos no corpo. Em seguida, suas mentes reúnem esses sentimentos, criando significados ou pensamentos que são informados por experiências anteriores.

Dessa forma, os pensamentos são iterativos. As pessoas sentem seu caminho através dos momentos atuais, ao mesmo tempo em que trazem à tona o que aprenderam ao longo da história acumulada do corpo. Aprender a atravessar a rua com segurança, por exemplo, requer prática. Com o tempo, o cérebro organiza a entrada dos sentidos para reconhecer um bom momento para a travessia.

Importância do gesto

O gesto é mais um uso essencial do corpo para pensar e aprender.

Não apenas os movimentos das mãos das pessoas, as viradas de cabeça e os encolher de ombros adicionam nuance e ênfase às palavras faladas aos ouvintes, os gestos ajudam os falantes a transformar pensamentos em palavras antes de pronunciá-los.

Em cenários de resolução de problemas, a pesquisa mostra que, para muitos alunos de matemática, seus gestos mostram que eles entendem as estratégias antes de poderem articular essas soluções por meio da fala. Desta forma, educadores treinados para procurar e compreender os gestos podem ver o processo do aluno e progredir na compreensão de conceitos antes que o aluno seja capaz de traduzir essa compreensão para a fala ou para um teste escrito.

Além disso, educadores e outros especialistas podem usar gestos para explicar conceitos de maneira mais eficiente para alunos e novatos. Os gestos tornam as abstrações visíveis, dando-lhes uma forma temporária.

Uma visão da pessoa como um todo, portanto, facilita mútuo o aprendizado. Contudo, isso é um grande contraste com o ano passado, em que vimos apenas os rostos de outros alunos e professores, ou apenas uma caixa em branco [foto, avatar ou letra].

Prepare-se para mover

Alguns alunos permanecerão online neste ano letivo - devido a questões de saúde ou outras preocupações - enquanto outros retornarão às salas de aula presenciais. Acredito que ambos os modelos de escola podem incorporar melhor o corpo para apoiar a aprendizagem. As dicas a seguir são para educadores que planejam aulas remotas ou presenciais, embora pais e alunos também possam incentivar e ajudar a manter uma cultura de sala de aula ativa.

1 - Normalize o movimento durante as aulas, não apenas durante os intervalos. Por exemplo, faça uma caminhada na vizinhança um modo de investigação para a aula de ciências. Peça aos alunos que tragam suas observações para todo o grupo.

 2 - Comece cada aula com tempo para reunir diferentes materiais para pensar e trabalhar, como cadernos e diferentes tipos de papel, vários instrumentos de escrita e desenho, massa e blocos. Incorpore a interação com essas ferramentas ao longo da lição.

3 - Incentive e use gestos. Se estiver online, convide o uso da câmera e afaste-se para dar aos alunos uma visão mais ampla.

4 - Dê tempo para os alunos sintonizarem como os corpos são uma janela para o estado emocional deles.

5 - Forneça oportunidades de iteração, praticando uma tarefa em diferentes contextos, com distintas ferramentas e pessoas, as quais envolvem o corpo de maneiras diferentes. O conteúdo ou ideia principal permanece o mesmo, mas o como e o com quem os alunos se envolvem muda.

6 - Se estiver online, experimente plataformas de videoconferência como a Ohyay, que tentam replicar a proximidade física e o movimento em um espaço virtual.

7 - Considere a sala de aula estendendo-se para o campus da escola e vizinhança. Permitir que os alunos vivenciem um local familiar de uma maneira diferente, com seus colegas e professor, pode evocar novas perspectivas e pensamentos.

Professores, pais e alunos podem mudar suas expectativas sobre a aparência de estar "na tarefa". Caminhar, correr ou dançar podem não parecer relacionados a uma tarefa em particular, mas essas atividades geralmente ajudam as pessoas a pensar melhor. Ativar o corpo ativa a mente, então "tempo de sentar" pode ser melhor intitulado "tempo de atividade".

https://theconversation.com/why-students-learn-better-when-they-move-their-bodies-instead-of-sitting-still-at-their-desks-165717

Quer mais informações?

Entre em contato direto, se recebeu a mensagem por meu WTZP; via instagram: @vanres1974; ou, então, comentário mediado em postagem de vanresnews.blogspot.com

Tradução por VanRes, prof. da rede pública do estado de Minas Gerais, Doutor (UFMG) e Mestre (UFSJ), em Letras.

 

Why students learn better when they move their bodies instead of sitting still at their desks, by Katie Headrick Taylor, The Conversation, August 26, 2021. Translation by VanRes

My son's kindergarten teachers, holding class on Zoom last year, instructed: "Eyes watching, ears listening, voices quiet, bodies still." However, I noticed my 6-year-old's hands would stay busy with items found around our house, building with Legos, shaping clay or doodling with a crayon.

While some might describe this child as being "off task," research suggests his manipulation of materials actually aroused his mind, allowing it to focus on the required task.

As a parent of two school-aged children and a professor and researcher of learning with technology, I believe current models of remote education are inefficient for learning, teaching and productivity.

That's because sitting in front of a computer screen subdues, or completely detaches people from, many of the sense-making abilities of their bodies. To learn most efficiently, our minds depend on the movement of our bodies, working with a variety of tools, being in dynamic places and having our collaborators nearby.

The body's role in thinking

Most notably, remote learning assumes that as long as the mind is engaged, it's fine if the body stays still. But this argument is backward.

Research from embodied cognition—the study of the body's role in thinking—shows that the body must first be interacting with the world to activate and open up the mind for learning.

That's why, for example, students working with a variety of tools and materials during a learning activity are better able to grasp abstract concepts, such as gravitational acceleration or fractions.

To ask students to sit still while performing their work actually increases their cognitive load, or the burden on the mind. It requires them to concentrate on quieting their bodies, which are seeking out avenues for sense-making, as well as on the primary task that fixes them to their desk or digital screen.

As psychologists Christine Langhanns and Hermann Müller concluded from studies of people solving math problems, "Sitting quietly is not necessarily the best condition for learning in school."

Learning from our environment

Humans' internal thoughts are extensions of the world around them. The technologies and tools they use, the people they collaborate with, the walk they take to school or work, all evoke feelings in the body. Their minds then assemble these feelings, making meaning or thoughts that are informed by past experiences.

In this way, thoughts are iterative. People sense their way through current moments while bringing to bear what they have learned over the body's accumulated history. Learning to safely cross the road, for instance, takes practice. Over time, the brain organizes input from the senses to recognize a good time for crossing.

Importance of gesture

Gesture is yet another essential use of the body for thinking and learning.

Not only do people's hand movements, head turns and shrugs add nuance and emphasis to words spoken to listeners, gestures help speakers form thoughts into words before speaking them.

In problem-solving scenarios, research shows that for many math learners, their gestures show they understand strategies before they can articulate those solutions through speech. In this way, educators trained to look for and understand gesture can see a learner's process and progress in understanding concepts before a student is able to translate that understanding to speech or a written test.

Additionally, educators and other experts can use gesture to more efficiently explain concepts to students and novices. Gestures make abstractions visible, giving them temporary form.

A view of the whole person, therefore, facilitates learning from one another. But that's a stark contrast to a year spent seeing only the faces of fellow students and teachers, or just a blank box.

Get ready to move

Some students will remain online this school year—due to health or other concerns—while others will return to in-person classrooms. I believe both models of school can better incorporate the body to support learning. The following tips are for educators designing remote or in-person classes, though parents and students can also encourage and help sustain an active classroom culture.

1. Normalize movement during classes, not just during movement breaks. For instance, make a neighborhood walk the mode of inquiry for the day's science lesson. Ask students to bring back their observations to the whole group.
2. Begin every class with time to assemble different materials to think and work with, such as notebooks and different kinds of paper, various writing and drawing instruments, putty and blocks. Incorporate interaction with these tools throughout the lesson.
3. Encourage and use gestures. If online, invite camera use, and back away to give students a wider view.
4. Build in time for students to tune in to how their body is feeling as a window into their emotional state.
5. Provide opportunities for iteration, practicing a task in different contexts and with different tools and people that engage the body in different ways. The content or big idea stays the same, but how and with whom students engage shifts.
6. If online, try out videoconferencing platforms like Ohyay that try to replicate physical closeness and movement in a virtual space.
7. Consider the classroom as extending out into the school campus and neighborhood. Allowing students to experience a familiar location in a different way, with their classmates and teacher, can evoke new perspectives and thoughts.

Teachers, parents and students can all change their expectations of what being "on task" looks like. Walking, running or dancing may not seem related to a particular task at hand, but these activities often help people do their best thinking. Activating the body activates the mind, so "seat time" might better be titled "activity time."

https://phys.org/news/2021-08-students-bodies-desks.html

Summup -

That's because sitting in front of a computer screen subdues, or completely detaches people from, many of the sense-making abilities of their bodies. To learn most efficiently, our minds depend on the movement of our bodies, working with a variety of tools, being in dynamic places and having our collaborators nearby.

The body's role in thinking

Most notably, remote learning assumes that as long as the mind is engaged, it's fine if the body stays still. But this argument is backward.

Research from embodied cognition—the study of the body's role in thinking—shows that the body must first be interacting with the world to activate and open up the mind for learning. 

That's why, for example, students working with a variety of tools and materials during a learning activity are better able to grasp abstract concepts, such as gravitational acceleration or fractions.

 

Importance of gesture

Gesture is yet another essential use of the body for thinking and learning.

Not only do people's hand movements, head turns and shrugs add nuance and emphasis to words spoken to listeners, gestures help speakers form thoughts into words before speaking them.

...

Additionally, educators and other experts can use gesture to more efficiently explain concepts to students and novices. Gestures make abstractions visible, giving them temporary form.

A view of the whole person, therefore, facilitates learning from one another. But that's a stark contrast to a year spent seeing only the faces of fellow students and teachers, or just a blank box. 

 

Additionally, educators and other experts can use gesture to more efficiently explain concepts to students and novices. Gestures make abstractions visible, giving them temporary form.

A view of the whole person, therefore, facilitates learning from one another. But that's a stark contrast to a year spent seeing only the faces of fellow students and teachers, or just a blank box. 

1. Normalize movement during classes, not just during movement breaks. For instance, make a neighborhood walk the mode of inquiry for the day's science lesson. Ask students to bring back their observations to the whole group.
2. Begin every class with time to assemble different materials to think and work with, such as notebooks and different kinds of paper, various writing and drawing instruments, putty and blocks. Incorporate interaction with these tools throughout the lesson.
3. Encourage and use gestures. If online, invite camera use, and back away to give students a wider view.
4. Build in time for students to tune in to how their body is feeling as a window into their emotional state.
5. Provide opportunities for iteration, practicing a task in different contexts and with different tools and people that engage the body in different ways. The content or big idea stays the same, but how and with whom students engage shifts.
6. If online, try out videoconferencing platforms like Ohyay that try to replicate physical closeness and movement in a virtual space.
7. Consider the classroom as extending out into the school campus and neighborhood. Allowing students to experience a familiar location in a different way, with their classmates and teacher, can evoke new perspectives and thoughts.

Teachers, parents and students can all change their expectations of what being "on task" looks like. Walking, running or dancing may not seem related to a particular task at hand, but these activities often help people do their best thinking. Activating the body activates the mind, so "seat time" might better be titled "activity time."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://phys.org/news/2021-08-students-bodies-desks.html

28A, em Lafaiete

Manifestação 28A, Sábado (28/08/2021), por VanRes v. 1.04.

 Após a passeata do 18 A, em Ouro Branco, e no esquenta para o 7S, em Congonhas, a Organização Regional (CL, OB, CG) divulgou que haverá mais uma manifestação na região de Lafaiete, Ouro Branco e Congonhas.
     

    O ato ocorrerá, neste sábado, 28/08, de 10 às 12h, no entorno da Rodoviária de Lafaiete.

    Participarão ativistas sociais, bem como filiados a sindicatos de categorias profissionais e membros de movimentos políticos da região. 

    Haverá intervenções, que se prevê, intercalarão falas quanto aos muitos motivos para as reorrentes manifestações, palavras de ordens e performances.

    O material de divulgação e as últimas manifestações expuseram logos e bandeiras de, entre outros: SINASEFE/IFMG; Sind-UTE/MG; Sindconstrumont; Sindicato Metabase; CSP Conlutas; CUT, PSTU; PT; UP; UJR; UJC; MML; UBM; Movimento Fé e Política; Resistência Feminina; MAB; FBP.

Quer mais informações?

Entre em contato direto, se recebeu a mensagem por meu WTZP; via instagram: @vanres1974; ou, então, comentário mediado em postagem de vanresnews.blogspot.com
 

Por VanRes, prof. da rede pública do estado de Minas Gerais, Doutor (UFMG) e Mestre (UFSJ), em Letras.