NeuroScience+&+Dr+Todd+Rose

Dr Todd Rose 10.05.09 Modern technologies are challenging the ways we think about teaching and learning from two different perspectives. First, advances in the brain imaging technologies are radically altering our understanding of learning itself. The results have ignited a new field, cognitive neuroscience, and have begun to change some fundamental assumptions about what learning is, what causes failures to learn, and what the sources of individual differences in learning are. Secondly, modern technologies also allow us to create very new kinds of media for teaching and learning – media that are powerful and flexible enough to challenge and support a wide range of students, including those with disabilities, and support a wide range of pedagogies and teaching techniques. This presentation will discuss the intersection of these two advances in a new field of education that is called “Universal Design for Learning”. Examples of new kind of curricula – designed to be especially responsive to individual differences – and the research which supports them will be presented. **__ Dr. Todd Rose __** brings a background in cognitive neuroscience, dynamic systems and developmental psychology to his work at CAST (the Center for Applied Special Technology). Dr. Rose is interested in the ways perception, attention, and working memory interact to shape learning, and in the development of tools that support the recognition and strategic components of Universal Design for Learning. Before joining CAST, Dr. Rose was a post – doctoral fellow with the Laboratory for Visual Learning (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), where his work included NSF – funded research on the link between dyslexia and visual abilities in astrophysics. His previous work includes research on the impact of fixational eye motions on visual learning, the influence of working memory on reading fluency, and the application of dynamic systems concepts to theories of development. Dr. Rose has also served on U.S. and international panels evaluating the promise and future of neuroscience in education. Dr. Rose currently serves on the faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he teaches a course on Educational Neuroscience, and he is co-chair of the summer institute for Mind, Brain and Education sponsored by Harvard. Dr. Rose lectures nationally and internationally on learning disabilities, the importance of working memory in K – 12 classrooms, and the role of neuroscience in education. Dr. Rose holds a B.S., Psychology, Weber State University, Ogden, UT; M.Ed, Mind, Brain, and Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Ed. D, Human Development and Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and is the author of numerous articles and books.
 * “From Neural Networks to the World Wide Web: Meeting the Challenge of Individual Differences in the Digital Age”. **