Author: barboakley

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week: Great Ideas for Pursuing a Masters Degree Online!

When some of the most prestigious business schools in the world began providing free versions of their courses online, Laurie Pickard (whose terrific ideas Barb featured in her latest book, Mindshift) saw an opportunity to get the business education she had long desired, at a fraction of the typical MBA price tag.  Laurie launched a blog site to document her MOOC MBA journey. NoPayMBA.com quickly attracted attention from prospective business students and the media alike. Laurie’s terrific new book Don’t Pay For Your MBA, teaches readers how to put together a career-launching business education using massive open online courses (MOOCs) and other free and low-cost resources. Don’t miss this one! Even if you are interested in something other than an MBA, Laurie’s book will give you great ideas for putting together a program that’s right for you.

Barb in São Paulo, Brazil!

• Barb will be doing a live interview on Facebook today at 4:00 pm Brazilian (1:00 pm Eastern)  time.  
• Next Monday, November 13, at 2 pm Brazilian (11:00 am Eastern) time, she will be giving a lecture that is open to the public, at Rua da Reitoria, 374. Sala do Conselho Universitário – USP. São Paulo-SP. (See here for more information.  The video feed is here.) Barb will try to be there early and stay late in order to meet and mingle with you!
• Next Tuesday, November 14, Barb will give a MOOC building workshop from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, Rua da Reitoria, 374. Sala do Conselho Universitário – USP. São Paulo-SP. (The video feed is here.) All are welcome!

How to Memorize Script Lines Instantly

Here’s another great video from 4 time US Memory Champion Nelson Dellis–this one is how to memorize scripts instantly. (If you would like to join Nelson in helping to support research on memory, please take the Extreme Memory Challenge.)

Barb doesn’t have that good a memory–if asked to remember a list of ten contributing factors of the American Revolution or certain precise steps which a professor demanded be used to solve a problem, she just couldn’t do it. She used a variation of this technique to help, and it worked wonders!

A Salty Taste from Kissing a Baby Changes an Entire Career–and Perhaps a Discipline

Here’s an extraordinary story of career change that has deep personal meaning for us–Terry knows all the key players.  So if you are thinking about a career change, remember that with the right preparation, it is doable, no matter that it may look difficult at first.  (And check out our MOOC Mindshift.)

Change Your Desk, Change Your Life?

This article by Valerie Bishara on Evernote explores what we know from research about the effects of a clean or messy desk on creativity and other life issues, such as healthy eating. It seems to us that we go through cycles.  When we’re on deadline, wrapping up a project, things can fall into disarray for months at a time.  But once the project is wrapped, we sometimes get into a bit of a cleaning tizzy, a la Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. It’s amazing how nice things can look after a few weeks of one Pomodoro a day of tidying!

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 Month

It can sometimes be important to step back and look at society’s impact on how we learn and grow.  Bill Browder’s magnificent best-seller Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice tells the story of the impact of highest level corruption on ordinary people’s lives.  (This book has an amazing 5-star rating with over 2600 reviews on Amazon. A free Russian version is available here.) Browder was the co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, which specialized in Russian investments.  In the course of his work, Browder became a victim of a kleptocratic part of Russia’s economy, where the rule of law can be rewritten on a whim.  The book’s cover notes “A financial caper, a crime thriller, and a political crusade, Red Notice is the story of one man taking on overpowering odds to change the world, and also the story of how, without intending to, he found meaning in his life.” We agree—we couldn’t put the book down.

On a side note, we often think that relentless focus is the best way to learn and be successful. Along those lines, we often tout Cal Newport’s Deep Work.  But as Browder notes, Edmond Safra, one of the world’s greatest investment bankers, could evince an almost gnat-like attention-span.  If you have trouble keeping your focus on just one thing, it may sometimes be an advantage.

That’s part of why we read great books—we often also gain insight in unexpected areas.

A Free List of 560 Free Online Courses from 200 Universities

Our friends at Class Central have just published this valuable listing of free online courses. Check it out! They also have put forth an idea for a MOOC semester.  What do you think? Leave your comments in the comments section.

Learning Glass

We watched this 48-minute video in its entirety to get a better sense of the history and use of the new “light board” technology for writing on a clear surface.  This innovation allows a teacher to look directly at the class while writing. Very much worth checking out if you’re looking for a better way to reach large classes.

Learning Paths on Coursera–the Differences between Coursera, edX, and FutureLearn

Here is a penetrating article by Chris Fellingham on the “learning paths” concept on Coursera. Learning paths help lead you through a series of MOOC to get what you want out of your learning. Chris’s article approaches the topic from an online business perspective, but even if you’re simply trying to get the most from your MOOCs, you’ll find it worthwhile.

Incidentally, if you are trying to discover the differences between the top three MOOC platforms, Coursera, edX, and FutureLearn, this overview article by “super-MOOCer” Patsy Nestor will fill you in.

Extraordinary Book Deal Almost at End

BookBub’s fantastic deal on the electronic version of A Mind for Numbers (the supplemental course book) will end on November 4th.  Get your electronic copy for only $1.99 while it lasts!

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!

Extraordinary Book Deal

BookBub is running a fantastic deal on the electronic version of A Mind for Numbers (the supplemental course book)  This is a one-time-only offer for $1.99 running only through November 4th.  If you’ve been planning to get an electronic copy of A Mind for Numbers, now is the time!

Tread Carefully When Making Assertions about MOOCs

In this pointed critique in Inside Higher Ed, “The Ostrich and the Trend,” Arshad Ahmad and Barb take on MOOC critic John Warner. Share your thoughts on the debate in the comments section!

How to Improve Your Writing

If you would like to improve your writing, William Zinsser’s On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction is one of Barb’s very favorites. Here’s a terrific “book crunch” by Arthur Worsley that summarizes the ideas.

MOOCWatch #16: MOOC Providers Target Degrees

Class Central is out with an incisive article about how MOOC providers are beginning to offer complete college degrees. We can’t help but think of shopping malls. Ten years ago, no one would have thought there could ever be a challenge to the supremacy of shopping malls.  Nowadays, shopping malls are being boarded up as customers realize how much easier and less expensive it can be to shop online.  Universities pouring tens of millions into new on-campus facilities such as dormitories should beware the portents of empty shopping malls. Smart universities see that investments in online help create the infrastructure of the future.

Memory Champion Nelson Dellis’s Favorite Memory Tools

Here’s another excellent video from Nelson Dellis on his favorite memory tools.  (If you would like to join Nelson in helping to support research on memory, please take the Extreme Memory Challenge.)

Incidentally, here’s the earmuffs that both Nelson and Barb use to help them concentrate.

These 5 Hacks Can Help You Learn Anything, According to a Stanford Professor

Here’s a review of some key insights you’ve already learned in Learning How to Learn about how to learn effectively. [Hat tip Scott Love.]

Taking Coursera MOOCs Offline

Here is a point-by-point article from Coursera about how to take their materials offline, so you can work in deep mineshafts, tunnels, arid deserts or far out at sea.  (Or just if you happen not to have a handy internet connection at the moment!) (Hat tip Pat Bowden of the blog Online Learning 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

Follow LHTL on Facebook | Join the private LHTL Hall of Fame group | Follow LHTL on Twitter

See all book recommendations at cheeryfriday.com

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week

This week, we’re into history and biography.  We’ve been reading (click here for more–including a picture of Barb with Santiago Ramony y Cajal’s death mask….)

Finding Truth in History

In keeping with this week’s historical motif, here’s a posting from the ever-thoughtful Farnam Street about finding truth in history.  We would add an old joke from our days working with the Soviets:  “The future is certain; it is only the past that is unpredictable.”

Discovering Your Hidden Potential

Tarcher-Perigee (Barb’s publisher) has started a great new blog on finding Career Clarity.  In this post, Barb describes some of her big leaps—how she did it, what she learned along the way, and the advice she has for others who are considering a major career shakeup. Follow the series if you’re interested in more career inspiration from other authors.

Video Gamers Are Faster Learners, Have Stronger Brains

Here’s information about an intriguing study which found that “individuals who regularly played video games also showed increased brain activity in areas associated with learning.”

Andrew Wiles on the State of Being Stuck

Here’s a great posting from Cal Newport’s “Study Hacks” Blog on accepting the state of being stuck.  (Cal is the author of one our favorite books on being productive: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.)

Cal’s  posting is centered around mathematics, but Barb feels it applies equally to her writing.  Sometimes Barb knows what she’s written doesn’t feel right—it isn’t good. So she rewrites it. Still no good. And again.  Days, even weeks, can go by where she’s reworking a section of a book, feeling stuck the entire time.  It’s almost as if she can feel the dissatisfied part of her brain working away under the hood, trying to eliminate the source of dissatisfaction even when she’s not physically writing. And then, mirabile dictu, it feels right!  The feeling of “ah—I’ve got it!” is very much like solving a difficult problem in math. This process relates to the background diffuse mode, working away to help provide our creative insights. And speaking of creativity:

Ignite Your Everyday Creativity: a Review of the MOOC

We often have pointers in our emails to different MOOCs, but we rarely lead you to reviews of MOOCs. That’s remedied this week with this review of the MOOC “Ignite Your Everyday Creativity,” by Pat Bowden on her blog Online Learning Success.  It’s nice to see that MOOC-taking itself can sometimes form a creative challenge.  (Stay tuned for Barb’s upcoming MOOC review of Idan Segev’s “Synapses, Neurons, and Brains.”)

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!

The Times of London breaks the story of Barb & Terry’s next project

Journalist Eleanor Busby of the Times Educational Supplement has presciently captured the learning surprise coming out from Barb, Terry, and their co-author Al McConville next August. If you are a parent, teacher, or school administrator are interested in providing constructive feedback by November 2oth regarding the draft of the new Learning How to Learn book for 10- to 15-year-olds, please email Barb at oakley@oakland.edu. We’re especially looking for insights from kids, so if you’re willing to work through the text with your child or your class and give us cogent feedback, that would be especially helpful. And if you’re a school administrator looking for a great textbook for your teachers and students next year, this would give you an excellent chance to size up the material and plan ahead.

A Penetrating Interview on Designing Truly Effective Learning Experiences

When it comes to engaging learners and designing truly effective learning experiences, it may not be as complex—or costly—as you may think. In this Leading Learning podcast, Celisa Steele talks with Barb about why helping people learn about learning is so effective, the importance of creating better online materials, and tips for organizations who provide learning to create more value by focusing on these areas.

Barb to be Speaking at the Smithsonian next Wednesday (October 18)!

Here is a podcast with Paul Vogelsang of the Smithsonian’s “Not Old Better” show. Although in this podcast, she reviews some information you already know of Barb’s past and other information from Learning How to Learn, you’ll also discover some surprising new insights. If you’re in the DC area, remember that Barb would love to meet you at the Smithsonian next Wednesday, Oct. 18 at 6:45 pm—she’ll plan to be at the Auditorium early to mingle, chat, and say hello.  (The talk has been moved to the far larger Baird Auditorium at Natural History to accommodate the crowds.)  Register here. Bring friends and family for a fantastic overview of the key ideas of Learning How to Learn. And while you’re at it, learn fun-behind-the-scenes insights on how the course was created, and why it’s become the two-million-strong leviathan it is today!

Your Brain Can Only Take So Much Focus

Here’s an interesting article by Srini Pillay, M.D. that describes why it’s not a good idea to remain relentlessly in focused mode, and what to do instead. [Hat tip, LHTLer Joe Muskatel.]

Book of the Week: Rheumatoid Arthritis and Psoriasis

If you suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, or other autoimmune-related disorders, we highly recommend The Keystone Approach: Healing Arthritis and Psoriasis by Restoring the Microbiome, by Rebecca Fett. Rebecca Fett is a science author with a degree in molecular biotechnology and biochemistry. Before becoming a full-time author, Rebecca spent ten years as a biotechnology patent litigation attorney in New York, where she specialized in analyzing the scientific and clinical evidence for biotechnology companies.

Broaden learning to boost diversity in STEM

We love this article by reporter Claire O’Connell about how encouraging people to broaden beyond the learning they find easy can enhance diversity and creativity. Barb got to meet Claire when she was in Dublin last week—she’s a dynamo of a reporter!

Barb in Colorado Springs, December 2nd

And if you’re in the general Denver-Colorado Springs area, Barb will be keynoting for the Colorado Association of School Boards on December 2nd.  You can register for just the one day of the conference if you’d like, or the full shebang. Barb will be meeting with students right after her talk, but then after that, she’d love to have coffee or tea together in the afternoon!

Correction

Last week we linked Annie Brookman Byrne’s article on educational neuroscience, noting that it was in the Nature Publishing Group (NPG).  Although Annie writes for NPG, the posting was actually in the blog BOLD–Blog on Learning and Development.  BOLD is a young blog, but they’re obviously already doing good work!

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

See all book recommendations at cheeryfriday.com

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

How to Do Homework Fast

We’re fans of Thomas Frank’s videos—and not just because he occasionally mentions Barb’s book A Mind for Numbers.  Here’s a smart, fast-moving, video from Thomas that gives a lot of great tips on getting homework done smartly.  [Hat tip, LHTLer Kristófer.]

How to Efficiently Benefit from MOOCs

This article by Pat Bowden is a good reminder of how to get the most from MOOCs. We believe many people are unnecessarily intimidated by MOOCs, because they expect the MOOC to be as long and difficult as a conventional semester-long college course. But as Pat notes, there are ways to efficiently power through MOOCs, which are generally served up in bite-sized chunks in any case.   (Sign up for Pat’s email updates on the right hand side of the page.)

Book Crunch

Here’s a “Book Crunch” by Arthur Worsley of Matthew Syed’s Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success. We really enjoy how these book crunches give the best nuggets of a book in an easy-to-grasp way.  This helps you to decide whether to dig deeper and read the book.
New Educational Neuroscience Blog

We very much enjoyed this overview by Annie Brookman Byrne of the growing field of educational neuroscience. The posting is part of the new educational neuroscience blog in the Nature Publishing Group’s online materials on learning and development.

The Future of the University

Here is the last of the four part series from Quartz on how tech and online learning is changing the higher education scene in North America.  This is an interesting and thought-provoking piece, but we disagree with its central conclusion, which implies that face-to-face teaching is always better than online learning.  Face-to-face is not always better, and it can be far worse than online.  In our view, the ever-improving quality of online learning, combined with its economies of scale, means that online learning is equalizing opportunities for learners—particularly the disadvantaged.

Neuromyths and Edu-Ca$h-In: Vetting the “Expert” Claims

This terrific article from board-certified neurologist and educator Judy Willis gives great guidance on how to tell whether neuroeducation products are based on sound research.

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

See all book recommendations at cheeryfriday.com

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Great New Blog on How to Succeed at Online Courses

Pat Bowden is a “super-MOOCer” who has completed over 80 MOOCs.  We highly recommend her blog Online Learning Success: How to succeed at online courses for interest or to benefit your career. Pat recently completed a nice review of Learning How to Learn—but we would have wanted to feature her blog in any case! Incidentally, we featured Pat’s insights in our MOOC Mindshift.

Tips on How to Create a Memory Palace

Four Time US Memory Champion Nelson Dellis Back with another strikingly useful video—this one’s on how to create memory palaces.  Even we learned some good ideas by watching this short, fun, idea-packed video.   (If you would like to join Nelson in helping to support research on memory, please take the Extreme Memory Challenge.)

A Kickstarter Campaign to Design a Language Learning App to Replace Anki

Gabriel Wyner is the author of one of our favorite books on language learning, Fluent Forever. He has a begun a kickstarter campaign for a learning app designed to replace Anki.  It is the most successful launch of an app in Kickstarter history.  Truth be told, it looks spectacular!  Check it out—your support will mean that Gabriel can add additional languages.  

Learn a Language While You Exercise?

Here’s an intriguing article by Gretchen Reynolds of the New York Times. Research hints that physical exercise while you are learning a second language may help ease the process.

How to: The Art of Memorisation and the Power of Spaced Repetition

Arthur Worsley is back with an in-depth article on the benefits of taking time each day to memorize something new and the power of mnemonics and spaced repetition. He also shares some practical tips on when to use these techniques and how to effectively apply them to everything from languages to philosophy.

How Neuroscience Beats Powerpoint Coma

Here’s a wonderful article we stumbled across that gives insight from neuroscience into how to create Powerpoint presentations.  The “Jared Cooney Horvat” referred to in the article is the same one who led the editing of the terrific book From the Laboratory to the Classroom: Translating Science of Learning for Teachers. We’ve mentioned this book before as providing a first-rate overview of what we know from research about how to teach so that university, as well as K-12 level students, really learn.

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

See all book recommendations at cheeryfriday.com

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Books of the Week

This past week, we read two contrasting books on the impact of artificial intelligence and the digital world.

• World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech, by Franklin Foer. The central idea of this book is that Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple have become pernicious monopolies.  One result, according to Foer, is that the writing world has changed dramatically, and not for the better.  Foer has personally experienced this upheaval. The magazine he edited, the New Republic, ran roughshod over his career. Franklin makes some important points, even as it’s amusing to see him show the same “we know best” bias he’s accusing others of. Franklin, incidentally, is the brother of Learning How to Learn author fave Joshua Foer, who described how he became an unlikely memory champion in Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. (Audible version here.)
• Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins, by Garry Kasparov. (Audible version here.) What a contrast with Foer’s book!  Although Kasparov acknowledges the same seductive, monopolistic problems that Foer alludes to, Kasparov’s overall assessment is upbeat. This is a surprise, given that Kasparov will go down in history as the first world chess champion to be felled by artificial intelligence.  Lots of readable insights about how AI experts went about tackling strategy in the games of chess and go. The gripping description of the final battle with Deep Blue will keep you up at night. We love Kasparov’s quote of Coursera’s co-founder, Andrew Ng, “who has said that worrying about super-intelligent and evil AI today is like worrying about ‘the problem of overcrowding on Mars.’”

Sometimes Conversations are Especially Fun

Barb spoke with  Kevin Kruse for his The LEADx Show. Kevin was especially interested in the behind-the-scenes development of Learning How to Learn.  We also had a fun time discussing failure (of which Barb has plenty of examples!).  Click here to listen to the podcast, or click here to read the article.”

At MIT and Georgia Tech, on-campus students can earn credit from a MOOC

Class Central is hot on the reporting scene, describing how MOOCs are starting to be used on campus for credit at major institutions.  This important development in providing high quality teaching for very large groups of students. A key question is, will the economies of scale of MOOCs reduce soaring tuition costs for students? Or are not-for-profit public institutions still de facto for-profit?

Florence Nightingale saved more lives with her grasp of numbers than she did with her gift for nursing

We had no idea of Florence Nightingale’s skill with numbers, and what a life-saver those math skills were in reducing soldier mortality rates.  This fantastic article by Alan Finkel in Cosmos Magazine is well worth reading. [Hat tip Nicole Charest.]

Lifelong Education Delivers Confidence, Joy and Hope

This extensive article on lifelong education in Livehappy by Jennifer Wheary features a lot of intriguing discussion and insights from our very own Learning How to Learn.

Scott Young’s “Rapid Learner” Course

We’re fans of Scott Young and his perceptive forays into effective learning.  This is the last day to enroll in Scott’s six week “Rapid Learner” course—enrollment ends at midnight Pacific Time tonight (Friday). If you’re looking for ways to learn more quickly, we highly recommend Scott’s course.

The New York Times Got It Wrong

This insightful article by Josh Kim at Inside Higher Education really nails it.  Kim begins: “Earlier this month The New York Times ran a great article on Coursera’s Learning How to Learn open online course. The article pointed out all the wonderful things about the course, including how the MOOC had been taken by 1.8 million students in 200 countries. What the New York Times story did not cover, and what those writing about higher education from outside the academy consistently miss, is why a MOOC like Learning How to Learn is so important.”

Read the whole thing.

Don’t Forget, Barb in Madrid speaking at the IE University with legendary neuroscientist Prof. Javier de Felipe

If you are going to be anywhere near Madrid, don’t miss Barb’s open-to-the-public event in Madrid on the 27th of September at 18:30 pm at IE University.  You can register here. This event will be extraordinary, because Barb will be sharing the stage with legendary Spanish neuroscientist Javier de Felipe, who is also one of the world’s greatest experts on Santiago Ramón y Cajal.  Barb will be there early to say hello!

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

See all book recommendations at cheeryfriday.com

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week

This week, we recommend Robert Sutton’s new book The Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal with People Who Treat You Like Dirt.  (Sutton did his own Audible version.) Everyone will encounter, or even occasionally themselves become, a toxic person sooner or later. Sutton provides excellent guidance about how to get past it: there is hope.  This book is a good follow-up to Sutton’s The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t, which we read and admired when first came out a decade ago.

Barb’s first neuro-based book, incidentally, was the critically-acclaimed, tongue-in-cheek titled Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend.  She’s done her homework on nasty people!

This leads us to:

The Dark Side of Empathy

In this Inc. interview, Barb discusses how empathy can be a double-edged sword.  It’s certainly not the uniformly benign emotion we often imagine it to be.  Also, see Barb’s books Pathological Altruism (a heavy academic tome from Oxford University Press that earned a great write-up in the New York Times), and Cold-Blooded Kindness (a popular “killer thriller”).

Barb in Madrid speaking at the IE University with legendary neuroscientist Prof. Javier de Felipe

If you are going to be anywhere near Madrid near the end of this month, don’t miss Barb’s open-to-the-public event in Madrid on the 27th of September at 18:30 pm at IE University.  You can register here. This event will be extraordinary because Barb will also be handing the stage over to legendary Spanish neuroscientist Javier de Felipe, who is also one of the world’s greatest experts on Santiago Ramón y Cajal.  Come early—Barb would love to meet you!

The college lecture is dying. Good riddance.

You will enjoy this outstanding article by Amy Wang and Allison Schrager in Quartz about the latest trends in MOOCs and how they are shifting the academic paradigm.  It’s a statistical truism to say that half of all professors are below average, and sometimes even average isn’t that good.  As the article describes, a well-designed MOOC with a great instructor gives students a personalized learning experience that is in many ways far better than they would receive in a typical overcrowded college setting. As this article reveals, there are a lot of positives ahead for students due to online advancements!

For Online College Programs, Google Is Kingmaker

This well-researched article by Jeffrey Young in EdSurge provides insight into a little-known aspect of the online world: advertising costs.  Southern New Hampshire University, for example, spent nearly $40 million in 2015 to promote their programs.  Google is a big beneficiary of monies spent to advertise online programs; prestigious universities have a natural leg up on the search rankings. (Now this is great ed-tech journalism!)

Turning Student Groups into Effective Teams

This paper on turning student groups into effective teams is one of Barb’s most popular.  Part of the reason, as explained in this article by Anne Jolly about effective team building in middle school, is that the ideas are useful in a K-12 setting as well as at a university.  Incidentally, Barb’s co-authors on the paper, Richard Felder and Rebecca Brent, wrote the outstanding book: Teaching and Learning STEM: A Practical Guide.  Richard and Rebecca have had more influence than any other educators on Barb’s ability to teach.  If you want to learn more about teaching effectively and efficiently in STEM, you couldn’t do better than to buy this great book.

A Surprise Viral Video—Because of Learning How to Learn!

Here is a terrific article by journalist Martha Perkins of the Vancouver Courier. Martha started her career on a manual typewriter.  But inspired by Learning How to Learn, at age 54, she decided to learn how to produce video—her resulting “Blob of Lost Lagoon” went viral. 

Unconventional Thinkers

Kulwant Saluja runs an interesting podcast with unconventional thinkers. Once Kulwant and Barb got to talking, they quickly veered off in unconventional directions.  Enjoy!

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

See all book recommendations at cheeryfriday.com

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Books of the Week

Maybe it’s just the excitement of fall that has our literary enthusiasm going, but this week we bounced back and forth between two dramatically different books just for the fun of it.

• The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, by Sy Montgomery.  (Sy also read the Audible version of her book.) This National Book Award Finalist caught our attention because we had no idea that octopuses are so smart and so filled with personality.  Montgomery is an infectiously enthusiastic writer who could get you excited about anything.  The book also gives great insight into the behind-the-scenes work needed to run a world-class aquarium, and the magic of diving on coral reefs in search of wild octopuses. Have you always wondered how an utterly alien intelligence might think? Read on!
• Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, by James Lang.  We wanted to brush up on our face-to-face teaching skills, what with it being back-to-school time and all.  Lang’s book was just the easy-to-read and perceptive ticket. Insights on issues such as how to incorporate retrieval practice, the value of having students make predictions, and why partial are better than perfect PowerPoints. Although James is a professor of English literature, his advice is often ideal for teaching STEM subjects.  Highly recommended!

Read Like a CEO

If you’re looking to read more, but feel pressed for time—you have got to try MentorBox. Each week Mentorbox sits down “60 Minutes” like with bestselling authors and industry disruptors to explore their expertise. You can be confident they have great taste because they selected A Mind for Numbers as their paperback pick! Barb confides that this was the most extensive, insight-filled interview she has ever done. Watch Barb’s lesson shot from her very own living room here!

Don’t have time to read two books a month? Count on Mentorbox’s cheat sheets, audio summaries, workbooks, and videos to teach you what you need to know efficiently. The educational platform doubles as a monthly subscription service—curating a box that is designed for busy, ambitious professionals.

If you like to be on the cutting edge with new technological trends, sign up for Mentorbox.  They are creating a fantastic new online niche for top authors so you can easily be in touch with the buzz.

Barb’s Smithsonian Event Has Sold Out—But a Bigger Venue Has Opened! Get Tickets Now!

Barb’s talk at the Smithsonian has been moved to the Baird Auditorium at the National Museum of Natural History to accommodate the crowds. If you’re anywhere in the DC area, Barb would love to see you—she’ll plan to be at the Auditorium early to mingle, chat, and say hello.  The talk will be on Wednesday, Oct. 18 at 6:45 p.m. Register here. Bring friends and family for a fantastic overview of the key ideas of Learning How to Learn. And while you’re at it, learn fun-behind-the-scenes insights on how the course was created, and why it’s become the two-million-strong leviathan it is today!

Nelson Dellis’s BEST Video on Memory!

We’ve talked before about 4-time US Memory Champion Nelson Dellis and his great memory tips. Here’s his BEST video so far:  “5 Memory Tips when You’re Just Getting Started.” If you’re looking to improve your memory, don’t miss this one!  (If you would like to join Nelson in helping to support research on memory, please take the Extreme Memory Challenge.)

5 Online Business Courses That Will Make You Much Smarter (for Free)

Here’s a link from Inc. on the 5 top online business courses.  Guess which two courses are #1 and #2?

The Fragile Generation

Here is a perceptive article by Jonathan Haidt on the crisis of resilience on campus. Haidt, incidentally, is the author of the fantastic best-selling book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. (Audible version here.) We’ve read it, and agree with the New York Times’ conclusion that Haidt’s book is “A landmark contribution to humanity’s understanding of itself.”
Science of Sport

We recently learned about a non-profit, Science of Sport, that uses sports to teach K-12 students math and science.  They partner with professional baseball, soccer, basketball, and football teams to demonstrate real-life examples of math and science.  Check out their video and Twitter feed.  Since Science of Sport targets kids who struggle with math and science, they are using concepts from A Mind for Numbers in their curriculum, including focused and diffuse thinking as well as chunking.  What better way to learn math and science than from sports!  See also this article (page 40) about engineering professor Ricardo Valerdi, who conceptualized this highly effective approach.

Incidentally, here’s a MOOC on exercise by Robert Mazzeo from the University of Colorado – Coursera that started on September 4th.

Creativity

Curiosity and creativity are intimately related.  If you’re curious about creativity, check out this worthwhile blog post on the creative process, “Master Creativity” by Ellen Twomey.  Ellen’s thoughts echo excellent ideas we’ve heard from Terry about how to be creative.

Navigating the Shoals of Policy and Politics in Education

“Lost in translation: the policy and politics of Australian classroom practice,” by David Threlfall of  the University of Melbourne (written for npj Science of Learning), describes some of the difficulties in making truly effective educational reform.

Teaching Basic Study Skills

Professor Kim-Leiloni Nguyen at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California, took Learning How to Learn two years ago.  With this and other information, she created a series of five-minute animated videos to teach students basic study skills. Check them 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
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