Breakout Session

The ‘Screen Invasion’: Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age

Tuesday, July 8, 2014 • 4 p.m.-5 p.m.

Presenters: Lynn Helding
Introduced by: Tod Fitzpatrick
Location: Salon H-K (4th floor)

What is information overload doing to our brains? The magnitude of the effect of the digital revolution on humankind is unprecedented. Digital media provides over three times as much information each day as was available 50 years ago, yet this abundance exceeds the brain’s “cognitive load” limit. Leading brain scientists warn that this “screen invasion” has changed the way we think, by literally rewiring our brains. Thus, a closer examination of cognitive function in the Digital Age, both for “Digital Natives” (those who were born into the Digital Age) and “Digital Immigrants” (recent migrants) is in order.

About Lynn Helding

Lynn Helding has sung throughout the United States, Australia, Austria, England, France, Germany, Spain, Iceland and Italy. She serves as an associate editor for Journal of Singing where her regular column, "Mindful Voice," illuminates research in the new “science of mind.”

Helding studied voice at the University of Montana, in Vienna, Austria and at Indiana University, where she was the first singer accepted to pursue the artist diploma in voice. She earned the masters degree in vocal pedagogy from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, and studied vocology at the Summer Vocology Institute of the National Center for Voice and Speech. In 2005, she was awarded the Van Lawrence Fellowship, given jointly by the Voice and NATS Foundations to recognize excellence in teaching and foster research in voice science. Lynn Helding is currently associate professor of voice and director of performance studies at Dickinson College.