#theappgeneration

[mydigitalweblog]

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

It’s about to be a long story 😊

Today, I want to share with you the book I read by Howard Gardner named “Multiple Intelligences” which also talked about the future minds, and the characteristics and expectations of 21st century learners (The App Generation). I am inspired by this particular book because it explains intelligence in not just a single viewpoint, but the writer presented it from multitude of viewpoints which gave me a greater understanding of the book. Now, I understand that Multiple Intelligence (MI) is in different categories, and an individual may be very good in one area of intelligence and not so good in another, but the human brain works in diverse ways and can accommodate variety of things. Multiple intelligence is categorized into various types and there are different ways we human beings portray these various intelligences.

The first is the Logical-Mathematical Intelligence, which is the intelligence of some individuals who are predicted to be good in calculations, coding, programming etc. The second is the Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence, which is the intelligence of individuals who are upright in languages, history, literature etc. The third is the Musical-Rhythmic Intelligence, which is the capacity to understand, criticise and make music. The fourth is the Visual-Spatial Intelligence, which is the ability to find your way around environments to manipulate spatial configuration in your mind. For example, an artist.

The book also pointed out that in this generation, we see digital things doing the work, which has made things seem easier, just like the Mathematical Intelligence where you see a lot of young people making use of digital devices like calculator. The Bodily-kinaesthetic Intelligence is the fifth and it deals with using the whole body to make or solve things. There is also the Interpersonal Intelligence, which is about how an individual understands other people while the Intrapersonal Intelligence is about understanding yourself. There is also the Naturalistic Intelligence that helps one to make significant difference in the world of nature, for example, between animals, plants etc. The intelligence that got me so into this book is the Existential Intelligence. This is the intelligence of philosophical questions like: What is the purpose of our existence?, Why do we die?, What will happen to us afterwards? Etc. Now, I understand the fact that intelligence should be weighed by how we deal with things.

Also, I learnt about the future minds i.e. the minds of the 21st century learners which contains skills, values, attitudes and knowledge. These minds are categorized into five types. The discipline mind which deals with the mind that masters major schools of thought, the synthesizing mind is the mind that has the ability to integrate ideas from different disciplines, the creativity mind is the mind that has the ability to solve problems, the respectful mind is the mind that appreciates human nature and the ethical mind is the mind of self-fulfilment.

This book is so enlightening. It opened my mind to a lot of things. It also talked about the fact that the characteristics and expectation of the 21st century generation of learners are based on smart phones, mobile devices and the internet. Young people now rely on applications to tell them what to do and how to do it. We are known to be app-dependent rather than being app-able i.e. learners are more graphic creative rather than being literature creative by depending on software to teach and learn. This generation prefers an online interaction to a face to face contact, and feel much better communicating on social media. This is so true! I hope you learnt something... By the way, what category of intelligence are you?

[mydigitalweblog]

DIGITAL MEDIA AND THE APP GENERATION

We are in the app generation and some would say this generation is totally involved with digital media. I recently read a book by Howard Gardner and Katie Davis named “The App Generation”, and this book explores what it means to be app-dependent versus app-enabled and how life in this generation differs from life before the digital era. It contains three vital areas of the adolescent life, which is identity, intimacy, and imagination, and there was a unique comparison of these areas before and after the digital revolution. It also shows that there are benefits of the apps: they can promote a strong sense of identity, allow deep relationships, and stimulate creativity. The challenge of this is that these apps go beyond the ways that the apps are designed to be used, and the power it produces are becoming wide in the view of greater creativity. Basically, these apps are now used as dependent crutches rather than just tools and some people now rely on applications to tell them what to do and how to do it.

There is no doubt that every generation marches to its own beat, and there are generation gap that exists in every generation. The context today is the changes that these software applications ‘apps’ have made in our lives and lifestyles because this is a generation that has grown up with an emotional aesthetic as instrumental as the technology. Still, we are responsible individually and in our communities and families to use technology in ways that open up the world rather than close it down.