Digital Tech &  
Deep Learning -
A Mind Map

          Psychology is to education what education is to learning. I chose to focus on Psychology not only because it was my undergrad major, but because it is psychology we have to thank for many of the insights we've gained into effective learning over the past few decades. To say that the field helped bring us deep learning would be an understatement. 

           In my mind map, I chose to represent elements of psychology that I feel can be easily incorporated into the classroom. I know that this can be done because I did as much when I taught a middle school introduction to psychology course while in Korea. I feel that understanding human psychology should start at a much younger age than is common, which was another reason for choosing this topic. 

          I also included online learning tools in the map to more closely tie it to deep learning. After all, deep learning is as much or more about doing and creating knowledge as it is about simply learning content (Fullan & Langworthy, 2014). I stopped short of including options for kids and teens to create their own knowledge because, frankly, I couldn't find any I felt were worthy of inclusion. Though I could include discussion forums and games that have a slightly mental health supporting subtheme to them, that would stand to misrepresent the state of things.

          I included the 'Kids?' section to highlight the need for more child-friendly, engaging resources for learning about psychology and mental health. Only one of the pictured examples I provided was even remotely kid-friendly (the Sesame Street app), and its inclusion of mental health and human psychology was quite limited. We need to be teaching kids more than simply breathing exercises and conflict resolution skills, though of course those are better than nothing. I included the other two to show the walls of text and book recommendations you'll undoubtedly encounter if you search for such resources. 

          Though there are plenty of mental resources for teachers to use in their classes, there are few designed for kids to learn complex ideas in an appropriate manner. I look forward to the day when children can learn about psychology and mental health through a combination of meaningful practice and knowledge creation - core elements of deep learning - similar to we see today in many coding platforms (Fullan & Langworthy, 2014). Though mental health is less lucrative than coding, it is by far the more important of the two.

 

References:

Fullan, M. & Langworthy (2014). A Rich Seam: How New Pedagogies Find

     Deep Learning. https://www.michaelfullan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/3897.Rich_Seam_web.pdf