Internet Universe #2. Person

Internet Universe aims is to offer a global view of the phenomenon, an understanding of the new system that is emerging in order to offer tools to the teachers of children who were born digital natives. In this session we will focus on the Brain: how does using the Internet and new technologies affect the cognitive system?

6:00 p.m. // Does the Internet make us more superficial or smarter? Irene Lapuente.

The use of the Internet modifies our brain thanks to the organ’s plasticity. But what are its effects on cognitive processes? What influence does it have on our capacity for concentration, critical thinking, memory, mental agility and reasoning?

Debate currently rages regarding what the effects of the Internet are on a cognitive level, with two contradicting views: those who see it as a tool that can make us smarter and those who think that it makes us more superficial. What are the arguments of the two sides?

6:30 p.m. // Workshop “The logic of programming: from everyday life to computing”. La Mandarina de Newton.

The point of origin of good programming is to define what the problem is to be resolved, and from there, to decompose the process in order to get to it and construct all the modules necessary to make it possible. How can we apply this logic to everyday life? And to the planning of academic work in order to obtain better results? How is it applied to computing?

During this workshop we will work on some concepts typical of Computational Thinking. We will go on a journey that will take us from codes and natural and formal languages to the implications of the concepts of distributed and decentralised computing typical of the Internet. We will explore skills linked to computing that are developed mainly during the problem-solving phase such as: decomposing/modularising, recognition of patterns, abstraction and algorithms. We will talk, too, about the phenomenon of problem discovery.

We will also programme with pencils and paper, and we will offer an introduction to programming languages that are very visual and intuitive such as Scratch, Java Script, and Makey-Makey.