Author: barboakley

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week

The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean, by Susan Casey. Recent research on the dead water phenomenon (see below), reminded us of Casey’s book—a New York Times best-seller and one of our favorites about waves. Casey herself is something of a phenomenon. She was the long-time editor of O, The Oprah Magazine, and she had unprecedented access to surfer Laird Hamilton, joining him and other surfers to begin experiencing waves as surfers experience them. But she explores the bigger picture as well, looking at things like rogue waves, disappearing ships, and Lloyd’s of London insurance practices. Interesting look at the fascinating phenomena of waves, which Barb has been interested in ever since her own years at sea.( Her old, well-thumbed copy of Waves and Beaches: The Dynamics of the Ocean Surface has been reread many a time—when, that is, she wasn’t sea-sick with the dynamics of that ocean surface!)

Behind the Dead-Water Phenomenon

There is a major project investigating why, during the Battle of Actium (31 BC), Cleopatra’s large ships lost when they faced Octavian’s weaker vessels. Might the Bay of Actium, which has all the characteristics of a fjord, have trapped the Queen of Egypt’s fleet in dead water? This fascinating article describes research into the dead-water phenomenon. (Perfect fodder for scintillating dinner conversation!)

A “Wow” Upgrade on iDoRecall’s Already Phenomenal Flashcard System!

Barb’s favorite flashcard system (she even agreed to serve as iDR’s Chief Learning Science Advisor), is iDoRecall. What’s great about this system is that it’s intuitive—just watch a brief video or two and you’ll be able to use a full range of features.  Even better, though, is how iDR connects you naturally with the material you’re trying to learn. Barb uses it, for example, both with important research papers she is trying to internalize, and with the Spanish word and sentence flashcards she creates.  

The new upgrade on iDR takes the system even more in line with great learning:

• iDR has added metacognition training. Throughout the app, you can trigger suggested questions to help you think about your thinking so that you can hone your ability to reflect upon your thinking and check-in with yourself to see how well you truly understand what you are learning. 
• iDR has been re-built from the ground up to address the learnings coming out of thousands of conversations with the users of the MVP version.
• iDR works in the browser on computers and mobile devices. Shortly, they will be releasing native desktop apps.

iDR is a perfect system for professors and teachers to encourage their students to internalize important materials. In fact, to support educators,  iDR has developed a free program for the Fall 2020 Semester to give educators access to iDR with their students and schools for use with their faculty and students. Those who are interested should fill out this form. 

Online Teaching as Effective as Face-to-Face—Insights from the Trenches

We received this fascinating email from Rusty Rae, who in March of 2008 became the manager of the Areva Technical Institute in Redmond, Washington, which was a training center for North American clients of the software company (Areva). This company published the complex software that controls the flow of electricity on the grid. And then the financial crisis hit, forcing Areva’s training to go online.

“The level of complexity of this software is perhaps a factor of 10 — maybe more — than a program like Photoshop. It also required significant time and hard drive space to install. Fortunately, I found a vendor who provided what one might call a cloud-based virtual server farm (using VMware). This allowed the technical institute to offer what we termed and marketed as instructor-led online training (ILOT) to clients located anywhere there was basic internet pipe. In fact, we also wound up having students from as far away as Australia join some of our classes.

“At this time we sent a Skype invitation (today it would likely be Zoom) to the learner along with a link to the cloud-based virtual machine, which was identical to the machines in the training institute on which students did their lessons. This training focused on teaching engineers of all levels, from new-hires to veterans, how to install, set up, and use the software. Sessions ran approximately $500-700 per day depending on the level of complexity of the course (and therefore the level of instructor required to teach.)

“For every course there was an assessment of both the learner, the course and the instructor. Additionally, each course was judged by learners using the Net Promoter Scoring system. This allowed us to collect significant data to compare the differences between instructor-led in-person courses; instructor-led online courses, and courses delivered at client sites.

“With respect to student assessments, they measured both knowledge acquired and ability to apply this knowledge in real-world scenarios.

“We were actually a bit surprised at the results after the first year. We found there was little difference between the assessment scores in the three groups. We really expected those learners remotely located to show scores that were lower. We weren’t sure how much — but that was the expectation. However, though the scores were a skosh lower statistically (and I don’t have the specific numbers available), the three data sets were nearly identical. 

“There are several things that led to these results. I believe the first was our course development process, which was based on Malcolm Knowles Principles of Adult Education and utilized the ADDIE framework for development, giving each course a level of consistency. A second was the competence and caring of our instructors who were more than simply course delivery experts. They not only knew the product frontwards and backwards, but also knew multiple pathways of knowledge transfer. A third area which was helpful, particularly for the remote learners, was the establishment of a rudimentary community of practice. Though not as robust as I would have liked, it gave those who were struggling with some of the really difficult configurations and uses an outlet for their frustrations — and the opportunity to find answers to their questions from others — both online and at time by phone or Skype conversation. 

“The course assessment by learners was also a great tool for our team, both in terms of understanding how to improve both the actual design of the course and how the instructor could improve his or her delivery. It certainly gave the development team some insight into improvement of the next version of the product.

“I’d say one of the issues facing teachers who have had to jump into online teaching is the lack of experience with these tools and scenarios. This affects both teachers and learners.

“From those teaching at the college in particular I find a lack of basic knowledge in teaching. In a face-to-face course a lecture in which the prof drones on about their subject may pass muster, but with online scenarios that simply doesn’t cut it.

• Get the course recommended text, A Mind for Numbers!
• And Learning How to Learn, a book for kids and parents.
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Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week

The Bilingual Brain, by Albert Costa.  We’re suckers for books on bilingualism, and this recent book, by multilingual Albert Costa, (who is in real life a leading researcher on bilingualism), really delivers the goods on what we know from neuroscience.  Unlike many authors who are in love with their discipline, Costa is an honest broker—he thoughtfully describes areas where research may be reflecting a bit of wishful thinking about the benefits of bilingualism. But he also has intriguing perspectives on how, for example, making decisions while speaking a foreign language can result in a more rational decision. As Costa notes: “I realized that we had discovered something interesting when I was explaining these results to my mother and son over lunch and they both said at the same time: ‘No way!’ If people who were more than fifty years apart in age were surprised by the same phenomenon, it was because they could not believe that their moral judgements, what most identified them as individuals, could be affected by such an insignificant thing as the language in which a moral dilemma is presented. And believe me, my stories almost always bore them.” If you’re trying to learn a new language, this book will give you fascinating insights into how your brain will change. Count us now as Costa fans! Also good for audio.

Thinking about Transfer in Education

We sometimes hear from teachers that the ultimate goal of their teaching is that students be able to easily transfer their understanding of one topic to other, more distant topics. This interesting post by Rob McEntarffer, Assessment/Evaluation Specialist, Lincoln Public Schools, explains why transfer is not as simple as you might think. This contrasting article involves quite a bit of wishful thinking about teaching transfer, but who knows what the future will bring.

MOOC of the Week

Amongst the best of MOOCs currently available on online learning is Get Interactive: Practical Teaching with Technology, from the University of London. It’s intended for people who are new to e-learning, but it is also heavily activity oriented, a review of classical features of instructional technology, but updated and expanded. Week One allows you to learn about LMS’s and select one which you will use to create a practice course. You’ll learn about a wide range of instructional design tools, such as LMS, Padlet, social media, and various presentation design programs such as Piktochart.   Lots of hands-on interaction and practice. Great “how to” instructions. And it’s only 3 weeks long! [Thanks to the ever-perceptive Scott Mathews, Lead Mentor Mindshift]

From the Annals of Silly Studies on Why Online Teaching Is Not As Good As Face-to-Face

Every once in a while, a research article is published that’s just plain questionable. Such a study is  Arias, J. J., et al. “Online vs. face-to-face: A comparison of student outcomes with random assignment.” e-Journal of Business Education & Scholarship of Teaching 12, no. 2 (2018): 1-23. This study concludes that “Students in the face-to-face section have statistically significantly higher exam scores and statistically significantly greater improvement on the post-test instructor questions.”

The problem with the study is that the online version of the course consisted primarily of a bunch of Word documents stuck online.  This is a bad online class.  It’s a little like comparing a teacher who is enclosed in a large cardboard box with a teacher who is able to teach in normal face-to-face fashion. No surprise—the face-to-face teacher is better! The authors are to be commended for controlling for sample selection, but without having courses of comparable quality, the results are of little use.

The Role of Fruits, Nuts, and Vegetables in Maintaining Cognitive Health

As this worthwhile paper from Experimental Gerontology notes, “Many fruits, nuts, and vegetables are neuroprotective yet widely under-consumed. Intake of these foods is positively associated with cognitive ability. Dietary supplementation with these foods can improve cognitive ability. Increasing fruit, nut, and vegetable intake may forestall cognitive dysfunction.”  Yes, food matters when it comes to cognition!

For The First Time, Scientists Have Captured Video of Brains Clearing Out Dead Neurons

If you look at the video on the lower part of the article by David Nield in Science Alert, it’s pretty cool. “‘This is the first time the [clearing out of dead neurons] process has ever been seen in a live mammalian brain,’ says neurologist Jaime Grutzendler from the Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut.

“Further down the line, these findings might even inform treatments for age-related brain decline and neurological disorders – once we know more about how brain clean-up is supposed to work, scientists can better diagnose what happens when something goes wrong.” [Hat tip: Victoria S.]

Thank you!

(Barb here) I want to thank the many Learning How to Learners helped Michael Gratowski last week.  Caring people really can make a difference—my niece Meg and her husband Michael are overwhelmed by your generosity. Michael is about to start treatment—fingers crossed! 

• Get the course recommended text, A Mind for Numbers!
• And Learning How to Learn, a book for kids and parents.
• Follow LHTL on Facebook | Join Barb on LinkedIn | Follow LHTL on Twitter

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Help Michael Live

Here is a rare request directly from me (Barb) regarding a life-or-death situation. My niece Meg’s husband Michael is facing a rare, life-threatening neuro-biological disease. Michael and Meg are a young couple whose life has been completely upended. And Michael is the love of Meg’s life.

If you might, please go to the GoFundMe page here and give whatever help you can (Meg, being Meg, didn’t ask for nearly what is truly going to be necessary). If you can’t because of your circumstance, please share this with your Facebook friends and family, Twitter, and other social media. Every bit can help this young couple overcome this life changing challenge. Our families ask that you keep Michael and Meg In your thoughts and prayers.

Book of the Week

The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love—Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits, by Judson Brewer. For years, we’ve been looking for a good book that gives insight on the science of meditation. This book is a great one that goes far beyond simple addiction and gets to the heart of issues such as why our minds get stuck on people who annoy us, and squirrel-like thoughts that can keep us from focusing as we’d like. 

Amongst many quotable gems, we liked how Judson described what the “RAIN” process of what to do when getting caught up in obsessive thinking: “RECOGNIZE/RELAX into what is arising (for example, your craving) ACCEPT/ALLOW it to be there INVESTIGATE bodily sensations, emotions, and thoughts (for example, ask, ‘What is happening in my body or mind right now?’). NOTE what is happening from moment to moment. The N is a slight modification of … ‘nonidentification.’ The idea is that we identify with or get caught up in the object that we are aware of.” Also nice for audio. [Hat tip: Mako Haruta]

Class Central—the Best Way to Get Oriented with What You Want Out of Online Learning 

This little video gives a great overview of Class Central’s awesome services in allowing people to explore and discover the best online learning materials.  (CEO Dhawal Shah even mentions his favorite course—Learning How to Learn!)  Check out Dhawal’s kitchen as you learn more about one of the most important launching points for online learning.  And in related news, both Learning How to Learn and Mindshift both made it onto the list of 100 Most Popular Courses During the Pandemic. Yay!

Do-It-Yourself Pandemic: It’s Time for Accountability in Models

This perceptive article, by Barb’s friend Guruprasad Madhavan at the National Academies, describes how lessons from real-world engineering can improve the design and standards of models being used in COVID-19.

A No-Holds-Barred Look at Ontario’s New “Improved” Math Standards

This article by traditional math instructor Barry Garelick points toward why math ability in modern school children keeps declining. If something feels wrong to you about how schools are currently teaching math, Barry’s article walks you through why and how that is happening. 

Virtual Workshop “Learning How to Learn” (in Spanish: Taller Virtual Aprendiendo a Aprender)

On July 7th, the virtual workshop “Aprendiendo a Aprender” will be presented by M.Sc. Orlando Trejo, our co-instructor for the Spanish version of LHTL. The virtual talk will be held in Spanish, and will be hosted by Universidad Antonio Nariño, sede Cartagena, Colombia. This will be a great opportunity for Spanish speakers to stay tuned with the latest mental tools for learning, in order to take the best advantage of online learning resources while studying from home. Reserve your seat here (Spanish).

Zach Star’s Nerdy, Funny Videos 

We’ve been pointed toward the advanced math/engineering tutorial and just plain fun videos of Zach Star. Here’s Zach’s review of A Mind for Numbers, which provides outstanding examples that go further than Barb did in the book. Zach’s sarcastic take on how some engineering professors teach is a hoot. (All we can say is, Zach’s a bit too buff to pass as a typical engineering professor…)  

The Pomodoro Technique–an Invaluable Tool for the Online World

When it rains, it pours.  This article on the Pomodoro Technique by R. Dallon Adams in Innovation caught our attention because it covers the technique in thorough detail. (And, well, it also quotes Barb.) And we also enjoyed Dean Kissick’s article on the technique in the New York Times.  We thought we’d read it all when it comes to the Pomodoro, but these articles gave us a new, heartfelt appreciation for one of our very favorite teaching tools. [Hat tip: Gian Luca Poggi]

• Get the course recommended text, A Mind for Numbers!
• And Learning How to Learn, a book for kids and parents.
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Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week

The Breakdown of Higher Education: How It Happened, the Damage It Does, and What Can Be Done, by John M. Ellis. This provocative book provides a sobering analysis of what is unfolding on college campuses today—a phenomenon similar to that which Barb experienced in her past work with the Soviet communists. (All of which ultimately led to Chernobyl and the many more modern-day  environmental horrors under communist regimes, because censorship under communism reigns supreme.)  Key graf: “Censorship on college campuses concerning questions where the opinions of thoughtful people differ is contrary to what we have always thought about higher education. Until recently, universities dealt in precise argument using evidence that is systematically gathered and carefully analyzed—not in ruthlessly enforced uniformity of opinion based on arbitrary political dogma. That is exactly the kind of anti-intellectual behavior that we expect universities to remedy—it’s what we have them for. If those institutions now routinely resort to this irrational thuggery, what is the point of them? We already see enough of that in the wider world. Academics who behave in this way are really telling us not only that they don’t do university-level thinking, researching, or analyzing of issues, but that they won’t allow anyone else on campus to do it either.”  The Breakdown of Higher Education explores, in great detail, the consequences in higher education of Pathological Altruism. 

Benny Lewis on Ignoring Destiny and Embracing “Failure”

Our very own “Benny the Irish Polyglot” gives a fascinating podcast here where he talks about his philosophy of not letting the universe hint at what he should or shouldn’t be doing. This led him from failure to success in language learning. Well worth a listen!

Comparing and Combining Retrieval Practice and Concept Mapping

Many times, Barb asks audiences which is the best approach to learning:

• Re-reading
• Underling and highlighting
• Retrieval practice (recall)
• Concept mapping

Frequently, ⅔ of the audience or more pick “concept mapping.” After all, that’s the term they’re often familiar with and have been told by instructors is the most powerful approach.  But the real answer, as psychologist Jeff Karpicke’s extraordinary research over the years has revealed, is retrieval practice.  The question arises, however, that perhaps combining retrieval practice with concept mapping might somehow be a more powerful approach than retrieval practice alone.  In this wonderful paper, Karpicke compares and combines the two approaches. This conclusion? “Surprisingly, combining concept mapping and retrieval practice failed to produce any benefit over retrieval practice without concept mapping, even though students in the combined condition spent substantially more time engaged with the materials than did students in single-activity conditions.” [Hat tip: Brandon]

What We’re Learning About Online Learning

This New York Times article by Ben Carey (author of How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens), gives a good general overview of what’s currently happening in the online K12 word.  Carey notes: “Physical presence matters, in ways that are not captured by the scientific method… “[O]ne student, Ethan Avery, said in a phone interview. ‘… I’m personally a terrible procrastinator, and not having that physical reminder, sitting in class and the teachers grilling me, ‘Ethan, this is due Friday,’ I fell behind. That was the rough part.’

“The two most authoritative reviews of the research to date, examining the results of nearly 300 studies, come to a similar conclusion. Students tend to learn less efficiently than usual in online courses, as a rule, and depending on the course. But if they have a facilitator or mentor on hand, someone to help with the technology and focus their attention — an approach sometimes called blended learning — they perform about as well in many virtual classes, and sometimes better.”

“One state that has applied this approach broadly, for nearly two decades, is Michigan. A state-supported nonprofit institute called Michigan Virtual offers scores of online courses, in languages, the sciences, history and professional development. It also offers 23 virtual advanced placement (A.P.) courses, for college credit.”

That’s all for this week. Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

• Get the course recommended text, A Mind for Numbers!
• And Learning How to Learn, a book for kids and parents.

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week

The Idea of the Brain: The Past and Future of Neuroscience, by Matthew Cobb. This broad-ranging book starts near the dawn of written history, where we learn that even back in ancient Rome, active learning was a “thing.”  “To demonstrate his discoveries Galen used ‘lecture-commentaries’ in which he simultaneously described his new knowledge and showed it in an animal… this was part of Galen’s emphasis on the importance of experience in understanding.” As Cobb wends his way into writing about modern times, matters get even more interesting. We learn, for example, of the different main theories of consciousness, how they differ, and why each theoretical approach still has problems.  

The study of the brain is endlessly fascinating, and Cobb’s delightfully wry sense of humor provides the perfect foil as we get an overview of the field’s history. Nice for audio.

Don’t Miss the Free Course Hero Virtual Education Summit

Barb’s long been a fan of Course Hero—this wonderful company helps professors to make better practice and examination material, and helps students, too. Barb’s joining Course Hero at their free Virtual Education Summit this summer to speak on the science behind remote learning.

Join hundreds of other instructors for three days of online teaching demonstrations, learning science workshops, campus reopening discussion forums, and more, July 29–31, 2020.

Register for free here!

Learning How to Learn in Portuguese—Aprendendo a aprender. 

Don’t miss Aprendendo a aprender in Portuguese, helmed by brilliant Lead Mentor Thiago Cesar Lousada Marsola.

A Challenge for Your Children

Can your child make as good a video about Learning How to Learn (Aprendendo a aprender para crianças e adolescentes in Portuguese), as Reutilicoisas?  You don’t need to understand a word of Portuguese to understand how smart and multi-talented this young woman is! Just enjoy the face and body language—she really gets learning. 🙂 [Hat tip Marcio S. Galli]

Helping Your Child Move Forward in Math, Even During COVID

Barb’s favorite math program for kids, Smartick, is offering a summer special. If you are trying to keep your child going in math, this is a great way to do it.

Research Teams Reach Different Results From Same Brain-Scan Data

Scientists are aware that irreproducibility is a major challenge in science.  This fascinating study gets deep into the causes of this irreproducibility. The study, “led by Schonberg together with psychologist Russell Poldrack of Stanford University and neuroimaging statistician Thomas Nichols of the University of Oxford, recruited [70] independent teams of researchers around the globe to analyze and interpret the same raw neuroimaging data—brain scans of 108 healthy adults taken while the subjects were at rest and while they performed a simple decision-making task about whether to gamble a sum of money.  “Some results were largely consistent. For example, 84 percent of the teams agreed that the data supporting hypothesis 5—a prediction that tied loss of activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex to loss of money—was significant. And more than 90 percent of the teams found that three other hypotheses were insignificant. But for the remaining five hypotheses, the teams’ conclusions varied.

“‘The lessons from this study are clear,’ writes Brian Nosek, a psychologist at the University of Virginia and executive director of the Center for Open Science. To minimize irreproducibility, he says, ‘the details of analysis decisions and the underlying data must be transparently available to assess the credibility of research claims.’ Researchers should also preregister their research plans and hypotheses… And they should analyze their data with multiple methods, such as using different software and settings.”

Casting Still More Doubt on fMRI Research

We’ve been fans of the extraordinary researcher Ahmad Hariri for over a decade—some of his work featured prominently in our tongue-in-cheek titled but seriously researched book Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend. This article by Jacob Roshgado in Study Finds describes the crux of the problem that Hariri and his team found: “‘The bottom line is that task-based fMRI in its current form can’t tell you what an individual’s brain activation will look like from one test to the next,’ says Hariri, who voices his personal frustrations since the findings of this meta-analysis negates a lot of his own research. ‘This is more relevant to my work than just about anyone else’s! This is my fault. I’m going to throw myself under the bus. This whole sub-branch of fMRI could go extinct if we can’t address this critical limitation.’”

Call for New Learning How to Learn (Chinese Version) Mentors!

We are recruiting some new mentors for the Chinese-speaking version of Learning How To Learn. If you are interested in joining us as a mentor, we invite you to apply using this Google form, by June 24th. Please read the information on the form before you apply, and please apply only if you are sure you meet the criteria! We expect a high volume of applications, and we won’t be able to respond to everyone individually. If you are selected as a mentor, you should hear from us within the next few weeks. Thank you for your interest, and happy learning! 🙂   

What to Do on 15-, 30-, and 60-Minute Breaks to Boost Productivity

This excellent article observes  “If you aren’t taking regular breaks or don’t feel refreshed and focused after taking a break, you might be doing it wrong.”  [Hat tip: Scott Mathews, Lead Mentor Mindshift]

That’s all for this week. Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

• Get the course recommended text, A Mind for Numbers!
• And Learning How to Learn, a book for kids and parents.

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Year

We watched Trevor Noah’s thoughtful video take on George Floyd, the Minneapolis Protests, Ahmaud Arbery, and Amy Cooper, and were inspired to read Noah’s autobiography, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. Wow! This riveting book describes how, due to miscegenation laws in South Africa, Noah really was born a criminal—blacks and whites were not supposed to be mixing under apartheid in South Africa. Lucky for us, Trevor’s miraculous  mother deliberately chose to break the law. We won’t tell you how or why because we’d be spoiling the story.

The long and the short of it is that Noah is, quite simply, one of the most masterful story-tellers around.  He describes the great value of language—a gifted linguist, Noah could use his ability to understand the essence of how people spoke to in turn speak with them. “I became a chameleon. My color didn’t change, but I could change your perception of my color. If you spoke to me in Zulu, I replied to you in Zulu. If you spoke to me in Tswana, I replied to you in Tswana. Maybe I didn’t look like you, but if I spoke like you, I was you.” Noah truly understands and conveys the horrors of domestic violence, and perhaps most importantly, from our perspective, he describes the often appalling lack of educational opportunities for children born into poverty.  This is truly a great book by an extraordinary writer—also a terrific book for audio listening. (Noah’s subtle South African accent is almost magnetically listenable.)

Defunding to Rebuild

Barb spent five years volunteering to help teach math in the inner-urban school district of Pontiac. The children were wonderful!  The educational system? Frankly, it was a disaster.  Barb was horrified to find plenty of fifth graders who couldn’t add 2 + 3, and who had never had homework assigned or graded in their entire lives. The teachers and administrators (save for a few wonderful paragons), created an atmosphere of fear and oppression related to learning, even as they helplessly threw up their hands and blamed everything on the students. But when a new math program was brought in that provided for both practice and accountability, math scores skyrocketed.  Here is a provocative opinion piece by Tim Worstall that suggests defunding school systems so as to rebuild to eradicate the horrific educational inequity currently experienced by the disadvantaged in the US.  “Defunding a police system in order to make room for a wholesale replacement has been proven to work. Doing it again to the inner city … school systems would do so again. …  Want black lives to matter? Kill the current education system. Kill it stone dead. Then rebuild it anew and without any of the people who currently misrun it.”

YouTube Channel for Kids Who Need Tips from Dad

Trevor Noah’s stepfather put a bullet through… (well, you have to read the book!). Rob Kenney’s father wasn’t so bad—he just walked out Rob and his seven siblings when Rob was 14 years old. But this has left Rob knowing what it’s like to grow up without a Dad. Now, Rob has “started a YouTube channel where he teaches kids, teens, and adults, basic and practical life skills. The kinds of things you might ask your dad to teach you. He calls it ‘Practical Dadvice for everyday tasks.’ Need to know how to tie a tie? Rob’s got you. Have a clogged up sink? Rob can show you how to fix it. Want to check your oil or change a tire? Rob can help.

Rob’s channel, ‘Dad, How Do I…?’ is not even two months old and has already garnered an impressive 2 million-plus views and 1.2 million subscribers.” So even if you’re a Dad, but you’re trying to teach better, take a look at Rob’s channel to get useful tips.

Minimizing Your Anxiety by Distancing from Social Media 

Mindshift Lead Mentor Scott Mathews writes “I can’t thank you enough for recommending [the book] Digital Minimalism to me.  I’m only on the third chapter, but I’ve already reached a new personal philosophy for my engagement with digital media, especially social media. In a nutshell, I choose the time, place, and methods of my engagement with digital media…it doesn’t choose for me. How liberating to learn that digital media is specifically designed to draw us in and keep teasing our attention, which is especially dangerous for someone with a propensity for addiction like me.

“I’ve been feeling miserable the last few days, fixating on the news, getting in the middle of angry arguments on Facebook, etc., and spending FAR too much time on it. So here’s what I’ve done so far:

• Suspended my Facebook account, perhaps permanently. I still have Facebook Messenger, plus the more closely-moderated LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Turned off ALL notifications across all devices except for phone calls and Messenger. This especially includes e-mail. I don’t have to jump right on it the moment a learner posts something, not even for technical problems! I will keep on top of the forums of course.
• Limiting myself to only checking the news twice a day, and never right upon awakening.
• Started charging my phone and my tablet (both turned off) in my office instead of by my bedside. This prevents me from waking up and immediately being immersed in bad news and conflict. (I could still ask Alexa to read me the news, but I don’t.)

“I hope that I will never go back to my former state. I happen to have training in substance use disorders, so it’s going to be “Physician, heal thyself.”

“…Just by following the guidelines above, I was able to complete a peer reviewed written assignment that I had been feeling daunted about before. Amazing what concentration can do for one…and I even managed a bike ride this morning too!”

That’s all for this week. Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

• Get the course recommended text, A Mind for Numbers!
• And Learning How to Learn, a book for kids and parents.

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Books of the Week

• The Chiffon Trenches, by André Leon Talley. Barb’s own sense of fashion tends toward frumpy. So she was fascinated to read André’s descriptions of life at the highest levels of fashion—he was friends or colleagues with practically every major figure in high fashion over the past fifty years, including Karl Lagerfeld, Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, and Oscar de la Renta. As a black, gay fashion maven inspired by both his Southern roots and his faith, André opened new doors of diversity in an industry struggling with a history of racism, prejudice, and bias. A very elegant and readable book, as “bespoke” as André’s extraordinary sense of fashion.
• Julie Bogart’s magnificently helpful book is so highly relevant to what’s going on now for kids that we want to bring it back to your attention: The Brave Learner: Finding Everyday Magic in Homeschool, Learning, and Life.  Barb’s cover blurb says it all: “A masterpiece. This is the deepest, most meaningful book on parenting I have ever read. If you want to raise your child to be a happy learner, whether via homeschooling or conventional schooling, read this book.” If you are a parent or parent-to-be, get this book!  In these times of COVID and stay-at-home parenting, this book is invaluable. If you’re looking for guidance for your child or teenager’s writing, also check out Julie’s website, Brave Writer.
• COVID Conversations: Helping Children Understand What’s Happening, by Gail Brown. This simple book provides an explanation that young children can understand about some of the sudden changes in life’s rhythms with the COVID pandemic. Often, just talking with children can help—this simple dialog between a grandmother and granddaughter is a great conversation starter that also provides activity suggestions. (Here also is a more formal sheet of guidance on talking to youngsters about COVID.)

A Fantastic Announcement from Coursera—free certificates for college and university students 

Starting on June 1st, college and university students around the world can learn and earn certificates on Coursera for free. Current undergraduate, graduate, or recently graduated students with a verified school email can sign up to get free access to over 3,800 courses, 150 Guided Projects, 400 Specializations, and 11 Professional Certificates. They can enroll in programs for free until July 31 — no credit card required. Once enrolled, they will have until Sept. 30, 2020, to complete the programs. [Hat tip Mindshift Lead Mentor Scott Mathews.]

Professor Surian Figueroa Shows How to Actively Read a Book (Great for Adults and Kids Both!)

Spend a few minutes watching this marvelously informative video as Professor Figueroa of Southwestern College shows you how to actively read and recall a fun book (Barb and Terry’s Learning How to Learn!)

Barb on “Grizz Tech Talks”

Follow Barb as she chats with Oakland University computer science student Allison Broski in this fun podcast on Barb’s home stomping grounds at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.

Do You Have Recommendations for Evidence-based Play and Learning Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers?

A LHTLer writes: “I’ve been scouring the internet looking for books (or any media!) that talk about evidence based play activities for toddlers and preschool kids—I know puzzles are in this category but what else is there? So many activities for kids of that age is busy-work and I think that’s a real shame. Thank you for any guidance you may have!”

If you have any suggestions, please post in the discussion forum here.  (If you have trouble accessing the forum, try updating to the current session of LHTL, or just go to the main discussion forum.)

A Terrific Video Abstract of the Semantic Space of the Brain

Take a look at the video abstract part way down the webpage of this classic paper on how human brains analyzes meaning. If you’re not mathematically inclined, don’t worry—just focus on the imagery and key ideas of the paper will still make sense to you.

Spreading the Word on a Possible Alzheimer’s Treatment

This fascinating article by R. Douglas Fields in Quanta Magazine details how a potential new treatment combining two formerly unrelated areas of research—rhythmic sensory stimulation and the brain’s immune cells—may provide breakthrough treatments to Alzheimers and other neurodegenerative disorders.

Let Us Break the Marketer’s Monopoly on Metaphors

This short essay by our friend Anupam is a delightful reflection on the often-overlooked value of metaphor, especially in teaching.  

Neuroscience & the Classroom: Making Connections

This video course from Annenberg Learner is for K-12 educators to acquaint them with current neuroscience research that they can apply in their own classrooms. We particularly enjoyed the video “Good Idea?” featuring Prof. Abigail Baird of Vassar College, that discusses the differences between teenage and adult brains. [Hat tip: Rassul-Ishame Kalfane]

Father of Modern Neuroscience, Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Was Also a Pioneer in Vaccination

This article in El País describes Cajal’s early development of inactivated vaccines—a development that remained virtually unknown because, as Cajal himself would later write: “Spanish is an unknown language of the wise.” Fortunately, times have changed! [Hat tip Jose Fernando Gallego Nicholls.]

That’s all for this week. Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

• Get the course recommended text, A Mind for Numbers!
• And Learning How to Learn, a book for kids and parents.
• Follow LHTL on Facebook | Join the private LHTL Hall of Fame group | Follow LHTL on Twitter

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Books of the Week

The Great Mental Models Volume 1: General Thinking Concepts and Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry and Biology by Shane Parrish and Rhiannon Beaubien. by Shane Parrish and Rhiannon Beaubien.  There is intriguing evidence from neuroscience that our brains “reuse” patterns based on models to help us think creatively about ideas we are grappling with. Shane Parrish and Rhiannon Beaubien’s practically useful as well as fascinating books provide many examples of how models can be used to help us think in fresh ways. For example, we know that different systems, like a small pot of hot water nestled inside a larger pot of cold water, will tend towards reaching a thermal equilibrium.  As Mental Models Volume 2 notes: “What if we consider the equilibrium of two systems not between two containers of different temperature water, but two societies with different values?” What a neat way of thinking about societal differences!

As Parrish and Beaubien note: “You’ve got to have models… You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and in life. You’ve got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head.” Mental Models describes some of the best of these models. These are also good books for audio listening (Volume 1, Volume 2). (Two free audio books may be possible through this link.)

We’re also fans of Parrish’s Farnam Street Blog, Podcast, and Learning Community. Check them out!

Healthy Selfishness and Pathological Altruism

Psychologists Scott Barry Kaufman and Emanuel Jauk have published an intriguing paper: “Healthy Selfishness and Pathological Altruism: Measuring Two Paradoxical Forms of Selfishness.”  (These are topics near and dear to Barb’s past research.) Kaufman and Jauk’s paper presents scales for two forms of selfishness: healthy selfishness and pathological altruism. The scales display good reliability and validity with respect to related constructs. Importantly, validity analyses underpin the paradoxical nature of both constructs as they show that not all selfishness is necessarily bad, and not all altruism is necessarily good. This valuable paper highlights important, but often neglected, areas of social science.

Cold-Call Your Online Students

There is good research revealing that randomly cold-calling your students is beneficial for their learning and also helps improve their desire to interact in class.  Here’s a write-up the technique, which Professor Wendy Conway of Oakland Community College humorously calls the “Uniform Torture Method,” (from the  MichMATYC Conference.) Try it and we’ll bet you’ll like it!

Learning How to Learn in French! Apprendre comment apprendre 

For the many French-speakers among the vast Learning How to Learn audience, we want to point you to the fantastic French version of the course, Apprendre comment apprendre (ACA) : Des outils mentaux puissants qui vous aideront à maîtriser des sujets difficiles. This lovingly curated course brings in fresh information in French that helps keep you on your toes in the world of learning.  If your relatives, friends, or colleagues speak French, please point them towards this fantastic version!

The Size and Scope of Your Buddies Worldwide in Learning How to Learn

Nicole Charest, our co-instructor of Apprendre comment apprendre, has been kind enough to compile statistics on the size of the current English Learning How to Learn. We have thus far had over 3 million registered learners on all platforms and language versions of the course (roughly 3,200,000, to be more precise). There are LHTLers in virtually every country or independent entity in the world—some 236 national groups in all!  

Learners on the current English version of Learning How to Learn*

• Africa (57 countries & autonomous regions)     162,104 registered learners
• America (54)  834,618
• Antarctic (1)   1
• Asia (51)         613,445
• Europe (50)       565,332
• Oceania (21)  49,528

*note, this count misses learners from the old platform (504,000 registered learners) and the other language versions (Spanish, Spanish native-speaking, Portuguese, Chinese, French, Arabic, and Hungarian)  of LHTL (400,000 registered learners). 

In fact, we seem to be missing learners from only the following areas:

• Wallis and Futuna
• Western Sahara
• Niue
• British Indian Ocean Territory
• Cocos (Keeling) Islands
• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
• Tokelau
• Bouvet Island
• Tuvalu
• Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
• Saint Helena
• Svalbard and Jan Mayen
• Norfolk Island 

If you happen to know anyone from those places, please ask them to join the course!  (And also ask them to invite Barb to visit once COVID is past! 🙂 )

A Mind for Numbers a worldwide best-seller

You might not be surprised to learn that A Mind for Numbers, our supplemental course textbook, has become an international best-seller, with nearly a million copies sold worldwide.  (Look towards the bottom of the webpage here to see many of the different language versions. You can check, for example, the list of best sellers for Nash Format, a top Ukrainian publisher, to see that their version of A Mind for Numbers is one of their best-sellers.)

An Inspiring Ten-Year-Old Completes Learning How to Learn!

Proud father Francesco Urbano writes: “I am delighted to share with you the achievement of my daughter Daniela, 10 years old and student at the fifth year of the elementary school in Italy, very curious of the MOOCs that I attend, she took and completed, in complete autonomy and with great determination, the Learning How to Learn Course on Coursera, gaining a certificate. She enjoyed the course and had a great learning experience, and I want to thank you for this.”

Daniela, our greatest congratulations for your initiative and inspiration for all of us!

Online Courses Are Booming

The New York Times catches on to the booming popularity of MOOCs and online courses.

That’s all for this week. Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

• Get the course recommended text, A Mind for Numbers!
• And Learning How to Learn, a book for kids and parents. 
• Follow LHTL on Facebook | Join the private LHTL Hall of Fame group | Follow LHTL on Twitter

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week

In Hoffa’s Shadow: A Stepfather, a Disappearance in Detroit, and My Search for the Truth, by Jack L. Goldsmith.  Since Barb lives in the Detroit area (she has lunched at the old Machus Red Fox, where the notorious Hoffa was last seen), she can’t help but take an interest in the fascinating life and strange vanishing act of long-time Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa.  This book provides an unusual take on Hoffa’s legacy. Hoffa’s foster son, Chuckie O’Brien, was probably the most dedicated of all of his followers—yet Chuckie has been accused by almost everyone of having facilitated Hoffa’s disappearance.  This book, by Chuckie’s own foster son, upstanding Ivy League lawyer Jack Goldsmith, burrows deep into the mindset and zeitgeist of unions, the mob, the FBI, and much, much more. A thought-provoking take on loyalty and love.

Extraordinary Kids Summit

Don’t miss Trish Keiller’s incredible online conference about how to help your kids in this new world of unusual ways of learning. Barb’s interview airs on Saturday, May 23rd and will be available for free for 72 hours.

A Background Noise Generator to Help Your Creativity

Research has shown that a little background noise can actually be an enhancement for creative work.  Here is a wonderful little website that can generate just the sort of coffee-shop-like sounds that can be most helpful.  [Hat tip Scott Mathews, Lead Mentor of our follow-on course, Mindshift.]

Low Carb Diet May Reverse Age-Related Cognitive Decline

For those of you hoping to fight off the gradual decline in cognition that drips on over time, it looks like help may be at hand in the form of a low-carb diet, as noted in this article by John Anderer in Study Finds. And indeed, there are several books (The Alzheimer’s Antidote, The End of Alzheimers) providing at least some evidence—although the strong claims must be taken with a big grain of salt—that low carb or keto is very helpful in not only improving cognition, but perhaps staving off dementia. There’s also interesting evidence that keto diets may help with radiation therapy and chemotherapy in cancer, and perhaps even help prevent cancer’s return:  Keto for Cancer, How to Starve Cancer Without Starving Yourself, Tripping over the Truth, see also this research review and the results of this randomized control study. (But see this interesting study on the adverse effects of fried foods. Yes, Barb admits to a bit of cognitive dissonance sitting down with her Hero Hubby for dinner the other night with a Big Mac, broccoli, and a bottle of wine…)

Side Thoughts on Books about Food and Nutrition

We review a broad variety of books on our Cheery Fridays, because it’s all part of the learning experience. Nutrition is a particularly important aspect underpinning cognition, so we can’t help but review a fair number of books on that topic. We’ve been surprised over the years at how controversial nutrition books can be—particularly if a book we might recommend hints that all aspects of vegetables and grains aren’t perfect (as with The Plant Paradox or Eat Fat, Get Thin). Nutritionists and autodidact eating experts do not read the book we review, but instead simply forward us links to critical videos and articles that often blatantly and unfairly mis-characterize the book and its contents. The real challenge here is that the critics writing these critical articles and producing these critical videos have their own books and products they want to promote—and what easier way to establish themselves as experts than to trash another supposed expert?  There are undoubtedly many crackpot books on nutrition out there, but some of the worst, in our experience, are written by the self-same critics that we are often pointed toward.  

Nutrition is a fraught area. Sometimes there is an enormous body of past literature implying that a new approach (ie, low carb) is unhealthy, or the research literature may hint at, but not yet confirm a new approach (eg, keto for cancer, avoiding certain lectins in autoimmune disorders). Against-the-grain authors pointing to holes in the literature and to the implications of recent research findings can easily be vilified. After all, the critics say, there’s little science to back up the new approach.  This is why nutritionists who depend only on “solid, broadly confirmed science” can also risk being trapped in the mistakes of the past. It’s important to be aware of the past, but also be flexible—realizing that authors writing even imperfectly about new areas can sometimes open our eyes to new and helpful perspectives.

Hacking Learning

Here’s  Diego Lainez’s podcast with Barb on “Hacking Learning.”  

That’s all for this week. Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

• Get the course recommended text, A Mind for Numbers!
• And Learning How to Learn, a book for kids and parents
• Follow LHTL on Facebook | Join the private LHTL Hall of Fame group | Follow LHTL on Twitter

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week

Napoleon: A Life, by Andrew Roberts.  Having read Robert’s wonderful Napoleon, we now realize that we’d had an enormous gap in our understanding of European history—a gap related to Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars. If you’re a biography buff, Napoleon himself was one of the most fascinating characters of his, or any, age.  As Roberts points out: “Napoleon Bonaparte was the founder of modern France and one of the great conquerors of history. He came to power through a military coup only six years after entering the country as a penniless political refugee. As First Consul and later Emperor, he almost won hegemony in Europe, but for a series of coalitions specifically designed to bring him down. Although his conquests ended in defeat and ignominious imprisonment, over the course of his short but eventful life he fought sixty battles and lost only seven. For any general, of any age, this was an extraordinary record. … 

“Even if Napoleon hadn’t been one of the great military geniuses of history, he would still be a giant of the modern era. The leadership skills he employed to inspire his men have been adopted by other leaders over the centuries, yet never equaled except perhaps by his great devotee Winston Churchill… The fact that his army was willing to follow him even after the retreat from Moscow, the battle of Leipzig and the fall of Paris testifies to his capacity to make ordinary people feel that they were capable of doing extraordinary, history-making deeds… Napoleon is often accused of being a quintessential warmonger, yet war was declared on him far more often than he declared it on others.” 

If you are a fan of either history or biographies, don’t miss this book! But be prepared for battlefield detail—right down to the McDonalds’ parking lot currently located at a once key hillside now called Napoleonshöhe outside Abensberg. Also good for (33-hours-long!) audio listening.

Free Distance-Teaching Resources for College Instructors, Now Through September

Whether you have been teaching online for 15 years or 15 days, the last few weeks have tested your resilience and ability to adapt. Course Hero is one of Barb’s very favorite student and instructor support institutions. They have a digital mountain of materials to help with course and assessment design. The great news is that Course Hero is opening this gigantic digital library of course-specific resources to all college instructors in the U.S. and Canada, from now through September. You’ll find this is an enormous support if you are designing online courses for the upcoming summer and fall terms. When you sign up for a free educator account, you can access a library of more than 40 million course materials—including case studies, tests, quizzes, assignments, problem sets, and more—to support your course and assessment design.

Smart Speakers May Soon Act As Public Speaking Coaches

As Terry has mentioned, education is the killer app for deep learning in artificial intelligence.  And here is a perfect example of why that’s the case: “Researchers from Penn State have developed a program that turns Amazon’s Alexa into a public speaking coach.”

Learning Effectively

Barb had a lot of fun speaking about learning, and all and sundry, on Max Wiegand’s podcast. Enjoy!

Why I’m Learning More With Distance Learning Than I Do in School

This New York Times op-ed by 13-year-old Veronique Mintz provides insight into how online learning can actually be a boon for students.  As Veronique notes: “I don’t miss the other kids who talk out of turn, disrespect teachers and hit one another.” This one is worth reading in its entirety.

The Health Benefits of Olive Oil

Here’s a marvelous little video from our friends at Olive Oil Lovers about the myriad of health benefits of high quality extra virgin olive oil. And here’s a link specifically to high polyphenol olive oil selections at Olive Oil Lovers.  (Each olive oil listed there shows the polyphenol count in mg/kg.) Here’s one of the many recent research papers about the health benefits of the oil related to memory and cognition. Finally, here’s our favorite book about olive oil: Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil.

That’s all for this week. Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team

• Get the course recommended text, A Mind for Numbers!
• And Learning How to Learn, a book for kids and parents.
• Follow LHTL on Facebook | Join the private LHTL Hall of Fame group | Follow LHTL on Twitter