Improved Learning Through Biosyncing
Biosyncing should result in improved human performance in any endeavor. In this post, I am going to outline the importance of athletic biosyncing followed by the possibilities of academic biosyncing.
Overview
In my introductory post on biosyncing, I describe it as the communication between the physical and virtual worlds:
Biosyncing refers to biomechanical symbiosis; when a human and a machine are in a reactive, performance-augmenting loop.
The success of this relationship is dependent on the human making behavioral changes based on information received as well as the machine responding to biometric data. The person’s alterations made without much effort or conscious thought; the mechanical counterpart’s made automatically. The “second-nature” aspect on the human’s side is essential.
Athletic Biosyncing: The Cornerstone
Exercise, sleep, and nutrition are the three basic ingredients to maintaining a healthy body and, subsequently, optimal cognitive functioning. Here’s a quick overview on the current state of the quantified self movement in each of these areas.
- Exercise
Devices have matured beyond tracking “steps” to more accurately gauge heart rate, breathing patterns, body temperature, and muscle activity. Many products uses haptic nudges (think of the Apple Watch encouraging the wearer to stand) and some, such as Antelope, use more direct forms of stimulation. Through electro magnetic stimulation (EMS), Antelope clothing “activates a higher percentage of muscle fibers.” - Sleep
Many fitness wearables track sleeping patterns, albeit crudely so. Having an idea of how many hours you have spent in bed and what percentage of that was restless is useful information, but it can’t compare to the data available by monitoring fMRI and EEG. Unfortunately, this is not easily accomplished through consumer wearable devices. The best device I’ve seen on the market is the ŌURA ring, which uses motion sensors, heart rate tracking, and body temperature to approximate the wearer’s sleep cycles. For biosyncing purposes, we are still lacking automatic stimuli to help the sleeper improve their sleep performance. - Nutrition
This is the most difficult of the big three to adequately track for two reasons:
1. Successful biosyncing processes must occur as second nature to the human. MyFitnessPal is a very popular app, and it is useful for people who want to learn more about the nutrition in the food they are eating. However, the manual process of tracking and logging all of your dietary intake is onerous. 2. People and carrots are different from each other. I don’t mean that a human and a carrot are not alike, which is obvious, but Jack is not the same as Jill, and this carrot from the healthy Happy Meal option is not the same as this carrot from my farmers’ market. Jack and Jill metabolize the same nutrition differently, and these two carrots have different nutritional content.
I have yet to discover any product that simplifies the process of tracking nutritional intake while also accurately assessing how the consumed goods impact the health of the individual. Now there’s a million-dollar app.
Bridging the Body & the Mind
We can take advantage of the technologies that are available to help us understand our physical state. Awareness is a key first step to changing behavior, so be mindful of the big three. A long run will help augment neurogenesis, a good night’s rest will enable our cerebrospinal fluid to flush neurotoxins through the spinal column, and enjoying some chocolate can help boost cognitive function.
In 2014, the Future Technologies team here at Pearson performed an exploration into tracking students’ emotional and physical well-being.
Athletic biosyncing provides an important foundation for academic biosyncing. Understanding our day to day relationship with the big three and making improvements is critical to physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
Academic Biosyncing
Additional technologies can be employed for greater understanding of our cognitive state and mental preparedness. Fortunately, in many ways, the tools and technologies required for tracking and improving educational experiences are more readily available.
BCI (brain-computer interfaces) provide a channel of communication from the human to the machine and is not reliant on the learner otherwise engaging with a digital medium. Many affordable products use EEG to help users track and train focus and meditation. With the prototype FocusTracker, The Future Technologies team used the NeuroSky MindWave to gauge a user’s attention while viewing a presentation.
In February of this year, Muse announced that their headband is being used in a Denver Public Schools pilot program as an assistive meditation tool in the classroom.
Facial recognition and eye tracking, which can leverage the cameras existent in almost every digital device used for content consumption, enable an application to respond to the learner’s reactions to text, audio, and video. Barcelona-based company Infantium combines affective computing with cognitive computing to provide personalized learning experiences.
Next Steps
Combined with appropriate pedagogy, these technologies can help create new learning opportunities. Stay tuned for followup posts focusing on how synchronous advances in biosyncing, mixed reality, and artificial intelligence are mutually beneficial and ushering in tremendous changes to our lives.
Please comment on this post or contact me directly with your ideas, questions, and/or criticisms.
