The Brain's Images: Co-Constructing Reality and Self Paul Grobstein Bryn Mawr College 11th Annual Usability Professionals Association 11 August 2002

	The Brain - is wider than the Sky - For - put them side by side - The one the other will contain With ease - and You - beside-
		Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Was Dickinson right? The brain THAT big ... bigger than the sky, with room left over for the "self" beside?

YES

Moreover ...

The brain is not passive; it is instead an active inquirer It is equipped not only to learn but to create It has equally important unconscious and conscious parts The interaction of the two is an important part of the brain's ability to learn/create Both "reality" and "self" are works in progress; so too is "right" and "wrong" Parents, educators, usability professionals (and everyone else) need to approach the brain from this perspective You can't ever get it "right", but you can always get it "less wrong" ... by creating materials which help the brain create new stories "Serendip is a gathering place for people who suspect that life's instructions are always ambiguous or incomplete ... and hence need to be continually rewritten." Stop by, join in.

Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I'll meet you there. ----- Jelaluddin Rumi, 13th century Sufi poet