Author: barboakley

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Books of the Week

We have two related books to recommend this week:

• The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids, by Madeline Levine, PhD. Our tendency is to focus on obviously disadvantaged kids coming from poor families. That can be a mistake, says author and practicing psychologist Madeline Levine, who works in affluent Marin County, California. Consumerism and focus on achievement can produce depressed, anxious, angry and bored teenagers who suffer from high rates of drug use, eating disorders,  and suicide. Sometimes, in fact, the seeming poor can have a far wealthier internal lives. Levine offers great suggestions for the advantaged to help them avoid common parenting pitfalls involving intrusiveness and autonomy.
• The Courage to Grow: How Acton Academy Turns Learning Upside Down, by Laura Sandefer.  The Acton Academies are private schools that were created to solve precisely the types of problems discussed in Levine’s Price of Privilege.  Laura Sandefer tells a personal story of her own children, and how and why she and her husband Jeff chose to develop a new system of schooling that focuses on the hero’s journey—and vaults students well above their standard grade level. (Incidentally, Jeff Sandefer, with his MBA from Harvard, was named by BusinessWeek as one of the top Entrepreneurship professors in the United States and by The Economist magazine as one of the top Business School professors in the world.) Acton Academies are spreading quickly worldwide, and it’s little wonder, because the schools embrace personal accountability even as they provide powerful learning opportunities for children. An honest, forthright, deeply thought-provoking book about what an education could and should be. (Audio version read by Laura Sandefer herself.)

How to Get a Low Cost Accredited Bachelor’s Degree Online

This magnificent article for Class Central by Manoel Cortes Mendez tells the story of how he got a bachelor’s degree in computer science online and at low cost through the the Open University (OU), a distinguished UK institution. Manoel notes: “Despite its unconventional mode of delivery, the OU is on paper a university like the others. More precisely, it’s a recognized body in the UK, which is British legalese for fully accredited. And it’s one of the few UK universities to also be regionally accredited in the US. So if after your OU degree, you want to pursue further studies in a brick university, you can. And this includes prestigious universities. For instance, one of my OU classmates went on to study a master’s degree in computer science at Oxford University.”

If you’re interested in low cost, high quality online degree programs, don’t miss this superb article!

So, You’re about to Submit a MOOC Quiz, and Your Internet Dies. What Do You Do?

Read this helpful article by Online Learning Success about how to cope with an unreliable internet, and be prepared!

Santiago Ramón y Cajal

As Learning How to Learners know, we’re keen fans of everything related to Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the “father of modern neuroscience.”  Here’s a swell article and video by Nasos Papadopoulos of Metalearn that will help you apply some of Ramón y Cajal’s key principles for success to your own life.

How can one control their nerves during public speaking or even an exam?

Barb’s answer to this question on Quora was so popular that it was also translated into French and republished on Slate FR.  

Are You Interested in Practical Creativity?

Building and creating beautiful objects like ceramics, glass, tapestry, kinetic sculpture, woodworked items, and bound books takes a special form of creativity—a more practical creativity.  Check out “The Practical Creative” podcast to learn more about these unique forms of expression.

Creating a “To-Do” List at Night May Help You Fall Asleep More Quickly

This nice Psychology Today blog post by Lydia Denworth describes recent research showing that: “In the study of 57 young adults, researchers from Baylor University and Emory University found that writing to-do lists, rather than writing about completed tasks, helped people fall asleep an average of nine minutes faster—in about 16 minutes versus 25.” [Hat tip: brandonrox10.]

The Problem with Learning Styles

Those of you who have been following the saga of lack of validation for learning styles theory won’t be surprised to read the following article about the latest findings: “‘Another nail in the coffin for learning styles’ – students did not benefit from studying according to their supposed learning style.”

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!

NEW! Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens. Great ideas for parents, too!

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

This week, we read Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft—if you have any interest in writing at all, this is a great book, especially when paired with William Zinsser’s On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, which is geared towards non-fiction.  What we particularly like about King’s book is that he doesn’t just talk about the nuts and bolts of writing (although what he does provide along those lines is great).  The memoir portions of the book are utterly engrossing—you’ll learn what it’s like to grow up and become an international best-seller, and the bizarre things that best-seller-dom can do to your psyche. King has sailed through it all—including his near lethal run-in with an out-of-control car. By our count, this is an “all-time top five” book on writing!  

MOOCs to Help You Become a Better Writer

Here is a terrific article by Pat Bowden in Online Learning Success about the many MOOCs that can help you learn to become a better writer.  Pat has taken many of the MOOCs she mentions, so she knows what she’s talking about!

Farnam Street Blog

We really enjoy the Farnam Street Blog—it’s dedicated to reducing your blind spots in life and business, so you have a better chance of coming out ahead.  The latest podcast on Farnam is with our very own Barb Oakley, covering some material you know related to learning, such as focused and diffuse modes, but also veering into other territory, as with the best techniques to help your child excel in math.

Math Education in the US

Here is an excellent summary by experienced math teacher Barry Garelick of the the deep-seated challenges with standard US mathematics education—he includes a perceptive discussion of issues with Common Core. (Barry’s book Math Education in the US: Still Crazy After All These Years, is available for free on KindleUnlimited.)

Famous Failures

One of our favorite interviews was with Ozan Varol, on his website “Famous Failures.”  Ozan has turned the interview into a podcast, which you can listen to here. 

We should give you a cryptic preview that Ozan has a big book coming out with one of the world’s leading publishers—his work is catching international attention!

The Santa Fe Institute’s Spring 2018 Complexity Challenge: Solve a Classic Dynamic Optimization Problem for a Prize  

Looking for a new way to learn? Want to apply your quantitative and reasoning skills in a new way? The Complexity Challenge hosted on Complexity Explorer is a unique online learning program where students are given an open-ended question to solve using methods from complex systems science. Whether you’re familiar with complex systems science or simply great at problem solving, apply now and try your hand!

Unlike other online competitions, the Santa Fe Institute’s Challenges aren’t designed to solicit the right answer, but many right answers. It’s then up to the Challenge participants themselves to decide the best solution through the Institute’s unique peer review system. Therefore, participants with a background in any field – from sociology to computer engineering – should be able to look at the upcoming Challenge, see something they recognize, and come up with a brilliant solution.

And did we mention there will be prizes? Yes, there will be prizes! Apply now, the Challenge starts April 23rd! The Institute is only accepting 200 applicants on a first come, first serve basis.

Learning how to learn + mastering things effectively—an interview with Barb

Here’s a review and discussion on effective learning with Abel Csabai—episode 94 on his SSD podcasts.  If you’d like a quick review of the ideas of Learning How to Learn, and a little more, you’ll enjoy this podcast.

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!

NEW! Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens. Great ideas for parents, too!

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week

This week, we read This Is the Year I Put My Financial Life in Order, by New York Times reporter John Schwartz.  This is an important book—before she passed away, Barb’s aunt Renie could have told you why.

Renie was a smart, independent career woman.  When she retired, to her surprise, found herself unable to afford to live independently.  The reason? Although Renie had learned many things over her life, she’d never bothered to learn about personal finances.  As it turns out, putting away a little each month beginning relatively early in your career can make enormous improvements in your life, and the lives of your family members, as you grow older.

John Schwartz tells you how to get your financial life in order, no matter what your age.  This is the Year  is not some dry accounting discussion—instead, the book builds from a candid and entertaining description of Schwartz’s own occasional financial successes and many failures, including his brush with bankruptcy and disastrous housing “investment.”  Schwartz describes the what type of account to set up for retirement, how much to put away (it’s not much, especially if you start early), and how to think about your income, taxes, debt, investments, insurance, and home purchasing. If you want to do the best you can long term for yourself and those you love, you owe it to yourself to read this excellent book. (Also nice on audio.)

The Conference “Career Goldmine”

Here’s an article from Barb in the Open SUNY Online Teaching Blog on how conferences have made enormous improvements in her career—and how they can change your life, too!

Insight into Raising a Bright, Quirky, and Sometimes Challenging Child April 25-30

Are you raising a bright and quirky child? Looking for support in helping your child thrive, even with focus, learning, social, emotional or behavioral challenges?  Wanting to find a community of experts who ‘get’ a twice exceptional child who is both bright and struggling?
Join Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Debbie Steinberg Kuntz for a free (each day) series: The Bright & Quirky Child Online Summit. Speakers include Ned Hallowell, Temple Grandin, and our very own Barb Oakley, along with many more psychologists, authors, and experts.
You’ll learn tools and strategies to:

• Manage anger and intensity
• Calm anxiety and perfectionism
• Navigate school and learning challenges
• Increase motivation and executive function
• Find balance with screens and video games
• Solve problems without power battles
• Develop talents, passions and interests
• Enhance social interactions

Note that between April 25-30, 2018, content for each day of the summit will be free for 24 hours. Click here to sign up!

How to Memorize Large Numbers

The indefatigable 4-time US Memory Champion Nelson Dellis is back with another entertaining and informative random memory tips video—this one is on on how to create a 2-digit number system for memorizing large numbers. Enjoy!

How to Make the Most of Class Central

This insightful article from Pat Bowden of Online Learning Success gives you insight about the best MOOC-related search engine and review site: Class Central.

Specialization of the Week

And in conjunction with Schwartz’s book, we’d like to bring up Arshad Ahmad’s specialization Finance for Everyone, through McMaster University-Coursera. This specialization goes into the language of finance and helps you better understand the flow of money. You’ll examine the connections between global and local finance; the flow of assets through businesses, governments, and other institutions; and the commodity, bond, and equity market dynamics that create and destroy financial value. This specialization helps you to better understand both global financial news and your own personal financial decisions.

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!

NEW! Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens. Great ideas for parents, too!

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 Month

Ray Dalio’s Principles: Life and Work is a masterpiece of insight, not only on how to achieve your goals, (whatever those goals might be), but on how you can build an organization that is structured for success.  Dalio knows what he’s talking about—he founded his investment firm, Bridgewater Associates, out of a two-bedroom apartment. Now, forty years later, Bridgewater has made more money for its clients than any other hedge fund in history, and grown into the fifth most important private company in the United States.

Dalio attributes some of Bridgewater’s  success to his principle of radical open-mindedness. This means, at least in part, being aware of your internal signals of annoyance, anger, or irritability—which are all signs of close-mindedness.  You can use those internal signals to trigger quality reflections. Radical open-mindedness doesn’t mean accepting all information—it means seeking out quality information that you may not want to hear.

We have often used radical open-mindedness even in our research—for example, we send advance versions of our research papers to people we know will dislike our work. When we get past our own petty feelings of “ouch—that’s not true!” in the responses, we’re not infrequently surprised to find how the criticism, even “bad” criticism, helps improve what we’re working on.

Dalio’s Principles will, we feel, go down in the annals of best books of the decade. It is a deep book of productivity that gets at the essentials of your life.  

Getting Things Done

One of the great classics of productivity is David Allen’s Getting Things Done.  The indefatigable Arthur Worsley has done a 5,000 word crunch of the book.  Arthur notes: “That book single-handedly got me through Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology at Oxford and into a job at McKinsey while running two companies with over 150 part-time employees. It’s the bomb.” We must add, so is Arthur’s crunch!

Some Ideas to Boost Your Language Learning

We’ve just read 50 Ways to Learn a Language, a short book by Shane Dixon and Justin Shewell that gives terrific insight and encouragement about language learning. If you’re wanting a little mental boost to get you going, you’ll like Shane and Justin’s book!

Yabla

And speaking of language learning, we’re keen fans of the website Yabla, with great videos and translations in Chinese, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and English. Our only complaint is that we want Yabla in more languages—like Russian and Portuguese!

Latest Updates from Class Central

Class Central has a new look, along with more of their MOOC-world insights.  Check the latest out here.

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!

NEW! Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens. Great ideas for parents, too!

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Books of the Week

This week we read two related books:

• From Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters. This classically important book helps readers understand the importance of creative entrepreneurial thinkers to the world’s future. Even if you have no interest in business, the book is worthwhile for its insights into contrarianism and creativity.  We like New York Times best-selling author Neal Stephenson’s characterization: “The first and last business book anyone needs to read; a one in a world of zeroes.” (The audiobook is read by Blake Masters—you may be able to get two free audiobooks through this link.) 
• Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue, by Ryan Holiday.  Holiday’s book tells the story of Peter Thiel’s behind-the-scenes destruction of online media company Gawker. We have to admit, Conspiracy is a page turner, and Holiday’s access to both of the principals in this case, Peter Thiel and Nick Denton, gave the kind of insider details that really kept us hooked.  It was amusing to watch how journalists’ seemingly objective view of the verdict flipped once they discovered Thiel’s involvement. Ryan Holiday’s entire career has arisen from his ability to keep journalists happy (he wrote the best-selling Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator, which we admit we really liked). So it’s no surprise that he ends the book by going almost comically over-the-top in siding with journalists.

Learning Lays a Path to Recovery

Here is an inspiring message we received from LHTLer Izzy Gifford on the effect of learning on her health. Izzy writes:

          A couple of years ago I took your learning how to learn course, on Coursera. I don’t recall the exact date, but I wanted to email you and thank you.
See, I suffer from chronic migraines, and the medications they’d put me on not only made me struggle with my physical health, my brain health suffered. My memory was failing me and I was suffering from terrible depression.

          Thanks to your course, I learned that I could hack my brain. That no matter what I was going through, I could keep learning. Even on the days when I was unable to get out of bed, I reminded myself that learning just prior to sleep could help cement a pathway. So I’d read a little, or study a little. I’d focus on things that were important to me.

          Now, a few years later – my health is finally starting to improve because I didn’t give up. I’m still studying, I’m still learning, but now I’m writing too. Because I didn’t give up.

          What’s really significant about it all is that learning that I wasn’t just a helpless victim to my brain made it possible for me to keep going. I might never be as bright as some other people, but that never mattered. I can keep learning and enjoying life and I feel like I have you to thank for it.

Top Three Lessons on How to Have Higher Impact in Your Career If You Are Trying to Help Others

Here is a great video from Benjamin Todd at 80,000 Hours on how to work on something that will truly have an impact.  (Warning—the first couple seconds are a bit graphic.) As Ben points out at, it’s easy to be seduced into pouring enormous energy and resources into programs that not only do not help, but which actually make the situation worse.  But there are smart ways to approach the challenge. (Incidentally, Ben’s book 80,000 Hours: Find a fulfilling career that does good, is an excellent one.)  

Earn Tuition-free College Credit

Saylor Academy is a nonprofit initiative working since 2008 to offer free and open online courses to all who want to learn. As Wikipedia notes, “the foundation offers 317 free, college-level courses, which are selected as typical courses in high enrollment majors at traditional U.S. colleges.” Through Saylor Academy, you can earn modern, digital certificates of completion; earn tuition-free college credit through their network of partner schools; or even start a low-cost, convenient degree program.

[Hat tip, Enrique Planells Artigot.]

Visualizing Japanese Grammar

Here’s an interesting video by Jake Hebbert on his efforts to learn Japanese by creating flashcards that don’t refer to English. Jake would welcome your comments and suggestions.

Are French People Rude?

Here’s a fun but insightful article by Géraldine Lepère on Fluent in 3 Months about why French people seem rude sometimes, and how you can use a few techniques to prevent any unpleasantness. As language expert Benny Lewis explains, Géraldine “has a real knack of getting right to the point and explaining exactly what’s going on when you encounter a French person who seems rude.”

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!

NEW! Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens. Great ideas for parents, too!

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

We want to bring up one of our favorite books: How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life, by Louis Bloomfield.  Barb has used this book for years to teach basic ideas of engineering to ordinary non-engineering types.  After all, “technological literacy” doesn’t just mean that you know a smattering about how your computer works—it should also mean you know the basics of how your car works, how your refrigerator keeps things cool, and how your house is kept warm in the winter. How Things Work will allow you to much more easily understand how these great technological advances work. Bloomfield uses wonderful, simple metaphors and great imagery that allow you to easily “chunk” the key ideas, even as you find yourself wading easily into the underlying physics.  There’s also a less textbooky version of the book How Everything Works: Making Physics Out of the Ordinary. Incidentally, if you are an engineering professor, you’ll find some great ideas here to more rapidly onboard your students using Lou’s great metaphors.

Although Dr. Bloomfield would have no memory of it now, about a decade ago, Barb was able to visit and tour his fantastic physics demonstrations at the University of Virginia.  He’s a wonderful man!

EarJellies

The reason we’re bringing up Lou Bloomfield’s terrific book is also that Lou happens to have invented a wonderful shape-memory silicone (MemorySil™), that has been developed into earplugs called EarJellies. EarJellies are bulb-shaped, but when you roll them out long and thin, they remember that new shape long enough for you to insert them in your ears. They gently return to their bulb shape, sealing your ear canal perfectly and with almost no pressure. They provide protection from loud sound, freedom from noise (including snoring), and guard against water (for swimmers).

Lou and his partner Rudy McEntire have launched a crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter to help them ramp up production and start to have an impact on the world. Surprisingly many people have struggles with sound and their ears—many of Lou’s beta testers have found EarJellies life-altering in a good way: they can finally leave home without wearing earmuffs, they can swim again, they can perform on-stage again, they can sleep through the night. Lou and Rudy will be working with hospitals to help critically ill children and parents endure the noise.

We’ve given our part for crowd-funding Lou and Rudy’s invention. Knowing Lou’s work as we do, we can highly recommend his earplugs even though we are still avidly awaiting the ones we’ve ordered from his campaign.

Intrusive sound is often a major issue for learners, so while you are waiting, we can recommend Peltor High Performance Ear Muffs, which we find really help our focus as soon as we put them on.  On planes, we wear noise cancelling headphones to look less dweebish. (Although sometimes we throw all concern about how we look out the window and slap on these 31dB honkers.)

Want a Terrific, Inexpensive Masters Degree in Computer Science?

As Lindsay McKenzie notes in this excellent article in Inside Higher Ed: “Analysis of Georgia Tech’s MOOC-inspired online master’s degree in computer science suggests that elite institutions can successfully deliver high-quality, low-cost degrees to students at scale…. Students admitted to the online program typically had slightly lower academic credentials than those admitted to the in-person program, but they performed slightly better in their identical and blind-marked final assessments—a finding the study hailed as ‘the first rigorous evidence that we know of showing that an online degree program can increase educational attainment.’” Although the article questions whether other institutions will follow suit, the reality is that following suit is inevitable, and smarter administrators will pick up quickly on this.

Eddie Woo—Math Rockstar Teacher

Have a great math teacher when you are young can make an extraordinary difference in how your life unfolds. You have just such a teacher at your fingertips with Eddie Woo, star of the free math YouTube “WooTube” channel, Australia’s Local Hero for 2018, and top ten finalist for the Global Teacher Prize. We’re rooting for you, Eddie! [Hat tip, Michelle Imison.]

Registration is open for 2018 Summer STEM camps!
Oakland University’s School of Engineering and Computer Science offers weekly programs for upper elementary, middle and high school students who want to explore Science, Technology, Engineering and/or Mathematics (STEM). (We should point out that Oakland University, where Barb is a professor of engineering, is in Michigan.)  Students are taken through a series of hands-on, student-centered experiences where they learn a little bit about each of the engineering fields. These programs are run by Chris Kobus, Barb’s longtime friend, who is an incredible engineering professor—the way he inspires kids is extraordinary. Register here!

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!

NEW! Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens. Great ideas for parents, too!

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week

This week, we read Ann Hulbert’s Off the Charts: The Hidden Lives and Lessons of American Child Prodigies.  A strength of this book was its broad coverage of prodigies of all sorts—from computer programming savants like Bill Gates to dance and acting prodigy Shirley Temple.  (A concomitant weakness is that sometimes we wanted to learn more!) We particularly appreciated Hulbert’s highlighting of the difference between intelligence and wisdom. Some parents with extraordinary IQs, for example, have pushed their children in bizarre ways—with often disastrous results. Other parents have wholeheartedly devoted their lives to the children they wished to make into prodigies, only to find little solace in the long run with the resulting resentment. Somehow through all this, the book provides healthy encouragement for us ordinary, non-savant types.

There was a disconcerting tendency through the book to switch between prodigies even mid-paragraph, but otherwise, highly recommended!

Barb the Opening Keynote for Homeschoolers July 13 in Atlanta: Special Discount for LHTLers

If you’re at all interested in homeschooling—or in meeting Barb—please come to the SEA Homeschoolers Conference at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta for Barb’s keynote on the afternoon of July 13, and a “sit around and chat” session on the morning of July 14.

The convention is family-friendly, secular-oriented, and inclusive. It will feature a wide variety of workshops and talks for parents, as well as a full weekend of activities for kids and teens. There will be a vendor hall showcasing the best in secular homeschool materials, opportunities to network, and more. Open to homeschoolers,  anyone interested in homeschooling, or anyone who would just like to come out on Friday for the keynote on learning!

Tickets are on sale now—the coupon code for 20% off is “BarbAtSEA.” There are also special rates for the hotel rooms for those traveling from out of town.

We should note that Barb’s A Mind for Numbers is incredibly popular with homeschoolers, and her and Terry’s upcoming book Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens, is ideal for homeschoolers as well as regular students—and their parents.

¡The Mindshift MOOC now in Spanish!

En esta ocasión, estamos emocionados de anunciar que se encuentra disponible la versión en Español de “Mindshift – Transforma tu mente para superar obstáculos en el aprendizaje y descubrir tu potencial oculto”. Este curso complementa las estrategias de aprendizaje efectivo descritas en Aprendiendo a Aprender, con un enfoque especial en las carreras profesionales, y en cómo sacar el máximo provecho a nuestro aprendizaje en el contexto actual de cambio constante. Está basado en el libro reciente de Barb del mismo título.

Te invitamos a formar parte de esta iniciativa, y a llevar tu aprendizaje a un nuevo nivel. (¡Gracias a Orlando Trejo, Spanish Lead!)

Yes, Pi Day Is Already Past, But….

Memory Champion Nelson Dellis has made a hilarious video on how to memorize 15 digits of pi in 30 seconds. (The video is worth watching if only for the laughs!)

Can Memorization Improve Cognitive Abilities?

This fascinating Scientific American article by neuroscientist James Hartzell explores the “Sanskrit Effect,” where MRI scans have shown that memorizing ancient mantras increases the size of brain regions associated with cognitive function.Memorization—long disparaged in Western educational systems—may have a valuable side to it. [Hat tip, Alejandro Ribó (@aribo on Twitter).]

Having Trouble Understanding Math Concepts?

Check out the wonderfully likable Kalid Azad and his simple, clear math explanations on Better Explained.

An Interview Guide on Leadership

Sarah Levitt has written a book to help leaders better understand how other leaders wend their way through the difficult, sometimes lonely path of great leadership: A Book for Magnificent Leadership: Transform Uncertainty, Transcend Circumstance, Claim the Future.  Through interviewing successful leaders, Sarah has laid out guidelines that others can find useful. “The audience for this book includes CEOs, business leaders, those professionals contemplating a career change and those beginning a career as consultants.”

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

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!

A Survey to Help Improve Learning How to Learn
Barb asks for your help in completing this survey by researchers Eulho Jung and Dongho Kim to help us better understand the learning that’s taking place in Learning How to Learn.  We hope to use the results of the survey to further improvement of LHTLers’ future learning experiences.

Book of the Week

This past week, we read How the Brain Learns, by David A. Sousa, now in its fifth edition, which was recommended to us as a top neuroscience-based book on learning.  If you’re looking for a good general overview of what we know from neuroscience about how to educate children better, this book has been put together with care.  A good aspect of the book is its comprehensive nature—there’s a nice overview of the brain and how it develops; how the brain processes information; memory; brain organization; and a particularly valuable section on the importance of music and art.  It’s not easy to make sense of all the disparate strands of neuroscience-related research and get it down in a logical, understandable form, and Sousa has done a yeoman’s job of it.

The book’s fault lies in its occasional acceptance of outdated, sometimes junk science.  This latest edition doesn’t mention or do justice to well-deserved criticism of topics such as learning styles, stereotype threat, multiple intelligences, or concept mapping. We’re hopeful that the book’s next edition will resolve these issues, and also add discussion of what we’ve found to be the most important issue in learning: procrastination.

Remember, Barb Speaking Tomorrow in San Francisco at the World’s Fair Nano!

Barb will be giving a talk about the future of education at World’s Fair Nano on Saturday, March 10th, 2018.  This talk will unwrap the specifics of her and Terry’s exciting new project, designed for global impact in many languages.  Barb plans to stay after her talk to shake hands and meet you! The folks at World’s Fair Nano have kindly arranged a special discount for LHTLers—just use the promotional code “BARBATNANO” for 15% off tickets. Register here.

Results from a Scientific Study on How to Learn a Language More Quickly

Data crunchers at Duolingo have discovered fascinating insights about the people who make much more progress in their language learning.  The keys, as described in this Inc. article by Minda Zetlin (co-author of the Geek Gap), are to:

1. Study the language right before bedtime.
2. Study every night, weekends included.

[Hat tip, polyglot language teacher Benny Lewis.]

Sleep Tips to Help Your Memory

Here’s a terrific video from memory champion Nelson Dellis with sleep tips to help your memory.  Sleep is, in fact, a critical, all-too-often neglected aspect of memory. This is why our recent “Book of the Year” for 2017 was researcher Matthew Walker’s terrific Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams.

Learning Online with Khan Academy

We’re huge fans of Khan Academy—it’s a wonderful way to fill in gaps in your learning (particularly in math) without having to sign up for an entire course. At the same time, the videos are so informative that they can walk you through entire subjects with ease (and some practice on your part, of course!).  Here’s a nice article from Online Learning Success with more insight into Khan Academy.

MOOCs are not dead, but evolving
On the 10th anniversary of the first massive open online course, here’s a thoughtful article by Diane Peters of University Affairs on MOOCs’ evolution. [Hat tip, Lea Beth Lewis]

Doha Description Has Been Updated

Last week we described how the American School of Doha has been working in innovative fashion to bring Learning How to Learn to students.  This week, we’ve updated the description with even more insights—read here.

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

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Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week

We make it a practice to ask people about their all-time favorite book. Along these lines, we’ve had a number of recommendations for The Glass Castle: A Memoir, by Jeannette Walls. So we finally broke down—it turns out to be a fast, riveting read. (The Glass Castle, incidentally, has been on the New York Times best-seller list for 411 weeks, and has over 7,000 Amazon reviews with a 4.6 rating.)   Walls experienced, along with her brother and sisters, a deeply dysfunctional upbringing. Yet her upbeat, spunky child’s voice carries us through the hard times to Walls’ ultimate triumph as an adult. Walls writes in a way that we can draw our own conclusions about her parents’ shortcomings and odd blessings, even as we learn of the seamy, hardscrabble world experienced by many around the world.  (The audiobook is read by Walls herself—you may be able to get two free audiobooks through this link.)

Incidentally, years ago, we enjoyed Jeannette Walls’ Gossip: The Inside Story On The World Of Gossip Became the News and How the News Became Just Another Show, an eye-opening history of celebrity news reporting.

A Survey to Help Improve Learning How to Learn
Barb asks for your help in completing this fully anonymous survey by researchers Eulho Jung and Dongho Kim to help us better understand the learning that’s taking place in Learning How to Learn.  We hope to use the results of the survey to further improvement of LHTLers’ future learning experiences.

New Writers Needed to Describe “A Day in the Life” of Teaching Internationally

The Times Educational Supplement (TES)—one of the world’s premier publications for K-12 teachers—is looking for new writers for a series called “A Day in the Life,” in which teachers in different countries write about the experience of working in their particular context. TES is particularly interested in native-to-the-area teachers working in local schools, rather than expats working in international schools. Note that your life as a teacher in the country you were raised in may seem ordinary and mundane to you, but to international readers, it could be fascinating. Each contributor to the series is paid £100 for their article. If you’re interested in this opportunity, please reach out to Helen Amass, at Helen.Amass@tesglobal.com.

A Mind for Numbers, One Students’ Reflection

While Barb was in Doha, she was privileged to meet some of the fantastic students of Texas A&M Qatar. A Mind for Numbers, (our Learning How to Learn MOOC recommended text), was used as the One Book One Community shared reading experience—Barb’s visit centered around the ideas in the book and MOOC. Aalaa Abdallah wrote a blog post about her insights from reading the book.

(If you’d like such a reading and in-person experience at your university or institution, reach out here.)

Integrating the Ideas of Learning How to Learn into a High School

The high school teachers at the American School of Doha (ASD) have done a fantastic job of integrating the ideas of Learning How to Learn into their curriculum. This is proving highly beneficial to students, as Barb discovered when she was overwhelmed by excited-about-learning ASD students during her visit. Read more here if you are interested in the specifics of how to integrate Learning How to Learn into your high school.  [Thanks for these ideas and approaches to innovative teachers Pamela Keigley and her colleagues.]

TED’s First Original Podcast, with Adam Grant

One of our favorite people, Adam Grant, is launching TED’s first original podcast, on WorkLife.  Adam became the Wharton School’s youngest tenured professor in history at age 28–and behind the scenes, we can attest to the fact that he truly is not only brilliant, but a heckuva nice guy.  As Adam notes “You need a support network. But you also need a challenge network: a group of people you trust to push you to improve. If you don’t look back on yourself and think, “Wow, how stupid I was a year ago,” then you must not have learned much in the last year… Every time you get feedback, ask yourself how well you took it. Even if you got a D- for your performance, you can still get an A+ for how you respond to it.” Check out #WorkLife with @AdamMGrant, the new podcast with @TEDTalks. (One of our favorite books, incidentally, and not just because he discusses Barb’s work on pathological altruism, is Adam’s Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success.)

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

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