![\"\"](\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/AdobeStock_235931235_Credit.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe misinformation.<\/p>\n
The name-calling.<\/p>\n
The “team” rivalries: all heat and little light.<\/p>\n
Did I mention the misinformation?<\/p>\n
You might wonder: why bother? Honestly, I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t.\u00a0I myself was hesitant to sign up.<\/p>\n
Despite all these flaws — none of which is exaggerated, by the way — I do find lots of benefits. This experience recently got my attention.<\/p>\n
The Setup<\/h2>\n
On my personal Twitter account, I posted a link to research that had me puzzled. According to a small study, the motor cortex does not “remap” to represent prosthetic limbs.<\/p>\n
Given all the research we have into neuroplasticity<\/strong>, I was genuinely shocked by that finding.<\/p>\n In fact, I’m currently reading Barbara Tversky’s book\u00a0Mind in Motion<\/em>, which talks about brains remapping in response to TOOL USE.<\/p>\n If brains remap because of tools<\/em>, but not because of prosthetics<\/em> — which are, from one perspective, tools that have been attached to the body — well: that’s a very strange.<\/p>\n But, people on Twitter know things I don’t<\/em>. I thought: maybe someone knows more about this research pool than I…<\/p>\n Soon after I posted that link, my Twitter friend Rob McEntarffer (@rmcenta) retweeted it,\u00a0sharing my curiosity. (By the way: “Twitter friends” are really a thing. I know LOTS of people — too many to name here — whom I have come to respect and like entirely by “meeting” them on Twitter. I would NOT have predicted that.)<\/p>\n One of\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0Twitter followers — someone I have never met and don’t know — retweeted Rob’s retweet, with a question to her professor.<\/p>\n So, we’re now at 3 or 4 degrees of separation. What happens next?<\/p>\n Turns out: this professor — whom I also don’t know — has lots of expertise in this research field. He briskly explained why the study couldn’t draw strong conclusions. (If I understand him correctly, its measurement methodology doesn’t allow it to make those claims.)<\/p>\n In other words: within a few hours, I went from…<\/p>\n being ASTONISHED because a research finding dramatically contradicted my (fairly basic) understanding of neural remapping,<\/p>\n to…<\/p>\n having a SUCCINCT AND CLEAR EXPLANATION why that research shouldn’t concern me,<\/p>\n and…<\/p>\n feeling RELIEVED that my understanding of neuroplasticity wasn’t so wrongheaded.<\/p>\n And, what made those changes possible — or, at least, a whole lot easier<\/em>? Twitter.<\/p>\n To be clear, Twitter really does include (and produce) foul, cruel nonsense. If you look for that, you’ll find it. (Tom Lehrer says: “Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends [at least in part] on what you put into it.”)<\/p>\n At the same time, I routinely come across generous teachers & researchers. They freely share perspectives and resources and contacts and information.<\/p>\n If you can stand the background noise, you might give it a look.<\/p>\n One place to start: @LearningAndTheB. Perhaps I’ll see you there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Twitter has a terrible reputation, and EduTwitter isn’t an exception. The misinformation. The name-calling. The “team” rivalries: all heat and little light. Did I mention the misinformation? You might wonder: why bother? Honestly, I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t.\u00a0I myself was hesitant to sign up. Despite all these flaws — none of which is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-6013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-skepticism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6013"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6016,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6013\/revisions\/6016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Rising Action<\/h2>\n
The Payoff<\/h2>\n
Caveats<\/h2>\n