Category: Uncategorized

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

How to Shift from Anti-Tech Type into Tech—or to Change to Anything Very Different?

Here’s an article Barb wrote that has become a hit on LinkedIn: “I was your basic anti-tech type; then I became an engineer. Here’s how I made the shift.”  If you’re looking for inspiration about how you can change and grow through learning, even if you feel like you’ll never be as good as the others you’re working with, this article is for you.  

This article is the basis for the book Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential, so if you love the article, you’ll love the book.  (And if you’ve already read the book, feel free to leave a review!)  Incidentally, here is the “This is the Author” podcast about the book, and also a link to the Audible version, which Barb read and which is proving very popular.)

Mindshift MOOC #1 in Personal Development on Class Central

Class Central’s great rating system helps you find MOOCs by category as well as by topic.  One of their biggest categories is Personal Development—where Mindshift is #1, and already has nearly 250 5-star reviews! (Here’s a brief article by Barb on the Coursera blog about the making of Mindshift.)

Cormac McCarthy’s First Non-Fiction Writing—on the Neuroscience of the Unconscious

Techie-types may be interested in learning that Pulitzer Prize winner Cormac McCarthy, one of the greatest English writers of modern times, originally trained as an engineer. It is possible to do a mindshift either to or from the humanities and the more analytical areas!

McCarthy is the author of such classics as All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men. (And yes, the latter book is the basis of the spooky movie with Javier Bardem.) Cormac just published his first nonfiction piece in the magazine Nautilus.  Your best place to start is with this introductory article in Quartz, “Cormac McCarthy explains the brutal, beautiful neuroscience of the unconscious.” This article leads you gently into Cormac’s intriguing style. Then go on to Cormac’s Nautilus article, here.  

Compelling Article on the Artistic Soul of Famed Neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Benjamin Ehrlich has written one of the best short articles we’ve ever read about our favorite scientist, Santiago Ramón y Cajal. [Hat tip, French Lead Nicole Charest.]  Ehrlich’s book, The Dreams of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, looks fantastic, also—we’ve ordered a copy.

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!

Battle of the Titans! Which video is better? 

Barb is featured in each video, but the final edited version is very different.  You decide!

• Here’s Inc Magazine’s version: How to Have the Most Productive 25 Minutes of Your Life.
• And here’s Big Think’s version: Learn How to Learn Better with the Pomodoro Technique  (also YouTube | Facebook)

Watch both of the (very short) videos and then go to the discussion forum here and tell us which video you think is better, and why.  You can compare and discuss your answers with other Learning How to Learners.

Read Science! Mindshift and Learning Edition

Joanne Manaster is a professor who, along with her co-host Jeff Schaumeyer, interviews authors of exciting science-oriented books. Barb will be live today Friday, April 28, at 12:30 pm Eastern time–just follow this link to listen. (Note that we’d inadvertently had the wrong time zone in our mention last week.)

Book of the Week

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, by Anne Fadiman, is highly recommended by pediatrician Rosie Oakley (yes, Barb’s daughter!).   Rosie says “What I love about the book is that it so beautifully communicates the cultural clashes that can occur between physicians and their patients’ families in a non-biased and non-judgmental way. Despite being a layperson, Ms. Fadiman  uses descriptive language in a way only the most talented physicians can. She pulls the reader into the world of the physicians caring for a little girl with epilepsy, and the rich cultural heritage of her family. Even if you have zero interest in epilepsy, the book will engross you from page one.”

Barb Gets to Finally Meet “Benny the Irish Polyglot!”

While in New York, Barb was finally able to meet famed linguist Benny “the Irish Polyglot” Lewis. They sat down and talked in a “diner,” which was actually the set of the YouTube studios. (The studio was super cool—Benny even used an 8K camera to do the videotaping!) Benny is as genuine and nice in real life as he is on screen.  Watch Benny and Barb as they have fun together in this wide-ranging interview: “Chat about ‘Mindshift’ interest changes & better learning.”  

We also follow Benny on Quora—here, for example, is one of his intriguing posts: “In which language do polyglots (people who know multiple languages) think?” If you’re at all interested in language learning, you may wish to follow Benny, also.

Be sure to subscribe to Benny’s YouTube channel for loads of encouraging language learning videos, and to join his frequent live Q&As. You can also get Benny’s e best free tips by joining his”Speak in a week” free email course here.

The Science of Success

Here’s an interview with Austin Fabel on Learning How to Learn. The interview is posted on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play–enjoy!

How Coding is Changing the Job Market

Here is an interesting article by Tynker™  Coding for Kids on how coding is changing the job market–even lawyers and biologists are realizing that training in coding is critical. [Hat tip Gerard Meester]

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!

We can’t help but send some interesting updates from this week’s round of interviews and reviews related to the launch of Mindshift, plus some other sundry goings’ on.

“What the Teacher of the World’s Most Popular Online Course Has Learned About the Science of Learning”

Here’s an interview with Panio Gianopoulos of Heleo about Learning How to Learn, and how learning occurs.  This interview is worth watching because Panio is a fabulous interviewer who demonstrates mastery of the art.  (Plus, Barb had lots of fun doing it.)  

A Terrific Review of Mindshift

Here’s a review of Mindshift by Kira M. Newman on The Great Good Science Center.  This extensive review really captures the key idea of the book (and the MOOC).

Podcast with Pete Mockaitis

Here’s an interview on Mindshift with podcaster Pete Mockaitis.  Once past the usual initial chitchat about Barb’s past, Pete asks intriguing questions that bring out important ideas not brought out elsewhere.  

Read Science! Mindshift and Learning Edition

Joanne Manaster is a professor who, along with her co-host Jeff Schaumeyer, interviews authors of exciting science-oriented books. Barb will be live on Friday, April 28, at –just follow this link to listen. with her old friend hangout called Read Science!

Terry and Barb both Headlining at EdCog2017 in Hamilton, Ontario

A special treat is in store for you if you’re able to make it to the EdCog Conference, starting the evening of July 26th and continuing through July 27th and 28th.  Both Terry and Barb are giving conference keynote speeches.  This premier educational conference provides a plethora of evidence-based insights by top researchers and practitioners into effective learning. Register here!

MOOC Update

Here are some worthwhile articles by Dhawal Shah on the MOOC-making front:

• MOOCs Started Out Completely Free. Where Are They Now? | EdSurge News

• 9 Popular Online Courses That Are Gone Forever … But Here’s Where You Can Find Them — Class Central

• 9 Legit Master’s Degrees You Can Now Earn Completely Online — Class Central

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 Tuesday (Yes, Tuesday!) Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

The Launch of Mindshift, the Book!

This week we’re writing earlier and more briefly than usual. That’s because today, we’re in New York City for the launch of Barb’s new book Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential. Here’s a wonderful pre-review of the Mindshift book by by science writer Jef Akst: “Mindshift: A Book Review–A good read if you’re considering a career change, or even if you’re not.” If you’ve ever wondered if there’s something more you’ve wanted from your life or your learning, Mindshift is for you.

Audio Version of Mindshift—Read by Barb

For audio book fans, here is the Audible version of the Mindshift book, which Barb read in a four day marathon in an icy Michigan studio in the middle of January.  (If you want to try Audible, you can get two free audiobooks through this link.)

Follow This Week’s Adventures

Incidentally, Barb will be kicking off the keynote speech at Lynda.com’s Learning Summit in Chicago on Thursday, April 20th. You  can follow Barb’s New York and Chicago going’s on over the next few days on Facebook, or Instagram at @barb_oakley.  She’s doing interviews with the Wall Street Journal, LinkedIn, Inc, Big Think, Helio, and many others—exciting times!

First (Glowing!) Reviews of the Mindshift MOOC

The first actual reviews of the Mindshift MOOC are out now, and they’re terrific!

Focused Mode

Writing a book is an all-consuming task.  Making a MOOC is likewise.  So writing the book and making a MOOC at the same time was a little crazy (but in a good way).  We can only hope you’ll forgive us if this week we focus only on Mindshift. Next week, we’ll be back to the usual programming. 😉

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

Some of our previous book choices may have hinted at the fact that we’re intrigued by the unusual confluence of creativity found in Silicon Valley.  We’re now deep into Brad Stone’s new book The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World. (Audible version here.) In The Upstarts, Stone contrasts Uber and Airbnb, two of the biggest players around in the new shared economy. This double-pronged approach provides deeper contextual insight than if Stone had just chosen to cover a single company, or had chosen to cover a number of companies lightly. All this provides profound insight into an epic era and area for creativity. Stone is a real reporter who doesn’t do puff pieces — his books are always well worth reading.  (We’ve previously touted Stone’s The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon.)

A New Memory Tips Video from 4 X US Memory Champion Nelson Dellis

Here’s another new video from our friend, memory maestro Nelson Dellis, on how to memorize names and faces.  All of Nelson’s videos can also be found as bonus videos in our new MOOC Mindshift.  If you would like to join Nelson in his efforts to support research on memory, please take the Extreme Memory Challenge.)

Scott Young: Flow Doesn’t Lead to Mastery

As many of you know, we’re fans of Scott Young’s work (Scott, the “Marco Polo of Learning,” did a great bonus interview which can be found in week 2 of Learning How to Learn).  Here’s another worthwhile article of Scott’s on how “Flow Doesn’t Lead to Mastery”.

Learning mnemonics boosts memory and triggers lasting changes in the brain

This great new article from npg Science of Learning by Shelly Xuelai Fan describes how the Method of Loci, (which we get you started on in Learning How to Learn), makes physical changes in the connectivity of your brain that improve your memory.

The Potential of Sports Analytics to Revolutionize STEM Education

We’ve known bioengineer, sports scientist, and basketball player John Drazen for a long time–since he first was beginning his graduate studies. Read his description of the work he’s doing in using sports analytics to encourage interest in STEM, particularly amongst the disadvantaged.  

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!

MOOC of the Month!

At long last, our new MOOC Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential opens on Monday, April 10th! Barb & Terry are back as instructors to show you how to leverage the results of science to learn, grow, and change. We sometimes put ourselves into a box regarding what we can and can’t do, and it makes us afraid to change.  Mindshift is designed to help you open your mind about your real capabilities, which are much bigger than you might think.  Plus, of course, we have a lot of fun!

If you’ve been looking for a sequel to Learning How to Learn, this is it—it has a booster pack of review that launches you onto greater new insights.  Mindshift can be taken independent of, concurrent with, or subsequent to, its companion course of Learning How to Learn.  See you in the videos!

Book of the Week

Our book this week is Now You See It: How Technology and Brain Science Will Transform Schools and Business for the 21st Century by Cathy N. Davidson (Audible version here). Now You See It is one of those books we recommend, not because we agree with all the ideas, but rather, because the book is so wide-ranging and thought-provoking. You may shake your head at some of Davidson’s provocative writing, but you will undoubtedly walk away from this book thinking about education in a different way.  Plus, if you do anything with online learning, Davidson’s discussions of how we pay attention to the visual medium are very useful.

A New Memory Tips Video from 4 X US Memory Champion Nelson Dellis

Here’s a great new video from our friend, memory maestro Nelson Dellis, on how to memorize numbers.  (If you would like to join Nelson in his efforts to support research on memory, please take the Extreme Memory Challenge.)

A History of the World in 100 Objects

The Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, has narrated 100 podcasts that retell humanity’s history through the objects we have made. This is a tour de force of historical knowledge! [Hat tip Marta Pulley, Senior Mentor and Amharic Lead] MacGregor’s book on the subject titled (natch!) A History of the World in 100 Objects, was a runaway New York Times bestseller.  

Learning in Industry

Here is a nice video on learning in the workforce that has been posted by our friend Laurent Reich, the Learning Practice International Director at L’Oréal. L’Oréal is a company that is at the forefront of involving their employees in new learning opportunities.

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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Follow our book recommendations on the “Cheery Friday App”

Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week

Our emphasis this week is on photographs, so along those lines, we recommend Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera.  Veteran photographer Bryan Peterson “explains the fundamentals of light, aperture, and shutter speed and how they interact with and influence one another.”  This book has an extraordinary 5 star rating on Amazon, with 151 reviews.

MOOC of the Week

We’re at the Coursera Annual Conference here in Boulder, Colorado now, and it’s really quite spectacular seeing all the latest trends in worldwide learning!  We were fortunate to attend a presentation about the MOOC Seeing Through Photographs, taught by Sarah Meister from the Museum of Modern Art.  This is an extraordinarily popular course that will help you to look critically at photographs.

Making It Stick — A Developer’s Implementation Plan

One of the best books in the genre of learning is Make It Stick: The Science of Learning. (There’s an audio version, too!) If you are into coding, however, you may find it difficult to put the ideas of Make It Stick into practice. If this is the case, we recommend James Bowen’s interesting article on using flashcards and coding to improve your retention of concepts.

Foreign Reactions to US Schools

Here’s a fascinating article that speaks shines an intercultural spotlight on differences between US and foreign schools: Foreign Students Say U.S. High School Classes Are Absurdly Easy.

A Bump in the Road

So you may wonder why last week’s “Cheery Friday’ email was sent out on Thursday (at least in the Western hemisphere).  Well, Barb and her husband Phil were driving to Montreal, with Barb as usual in the passenger seat, typing away on her laptop.  She was doing the final edits on last week’s email when—boom, the car hit a bump in the road, she accidentally hit a space bar, and off the email went a day early.  Apologies!

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

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Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Eyes Wide Open

We had the good fortune to read Isaac Lidsky’s Eyes Wide Open: Overcoming Obstacles and Recognizing Opportunities in a World That Can’t See Clearly. Isaac was a child star, “Weasel,” on the television series Saved by the Bell: The New Class. He went on to graduate from Harvard at age nineteen with degrees in mathematics and computer science, and then went to Harvard Law, ultimately clerking for Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But the real formative experience in Isaac’s life was going blind—losing his sight entirely by age 25.  Isaac’s book is an inspiring reminder about appreciating what you have in life.  Isaac’s interview with Barb is a blog post, and a YouTube video—but honestly, we think you’d prefer Isaac’s book. Isaac himself reads the Audible version of his book, always a plus for us!

Memory Tips Video

Here’s a brand new  4 minute video from our friend Nelson Dellis, 4 time US Memory Champion, that gives some great memory insights—this one’s on remembering grocery lists. (It’s kind of a treat watching Nelson trash his apartment.) If you would like to join Nelson in his efforts to support research on memory, please take the Extreme Memory Challenge.

7 Killer Memory Improvement Tips From The World Of Conference Interpreting

This is an outstanding guest post and podcast narration by Lukas Van Vyve, on the “Magnetic Memory Method” blog of our friend, memory expert Anthony Metivier. This post is outstanding because it goes beyond simply improving your memory to also give tips on how to enhance your ability to focus and maintain attention.  Not to be missed! On a side note, here also are some of Anthony’s very worthwhile books on language learning:

• How to Learn and Memorize Spanish Vocabulary: Using A Memory Palace Specifically Designed For The Spanish Language

• How to Learn and Memorize German Vocabulary

Santiago Ramón y Cajal Exhibition

As many of you know, we’re big fans here at Learning How to Learn of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the Nobel Prize winning father of modern neuroscience—and artist extraordinaire. A travelling exhibition of Cajal’s original drawings is wending its way around North America—including Minneapolis, Vancouver BC, New York City, Cambridge Massachusetts, and Chapel Hill North Carolina.  See the touring schedule here. Hat tip librarian Mary O’Dea.] And don’t forget the best-selling book about Cajal’s artistic landmarks of science: Beautiful Brain: The Drawings of Santiago Ramon y Cajal, which is finally back in stock.

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

Follow our book recommendations on the “Cheery Friday App”

Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Month

We have VERY exciting news for you this week! Barb’s next book is at a major milestone—one month from publication!  The buzz is already building!  

Barb’s book is Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential, from Penguin-Random House—it’s a lead title for their Spring lineup, and is already earning great reviews! Here’s a bit about the book:

Mindshift is designed to help boost your career and life in today’s fast-paced learning environment. Whatever your age or stage, Mindshift teaches you essentials such as how to get the most out of online learning and MOOCs, how to seek out and work with mentors, the secrets to avoiding career ruts (and catastrophes) and general ruts in life, and insights such as the value of a “talent stack,” and of “selective ignorance.”

Get your copy pre-ordered now so it isn’t sold out when you try to get your hands on it. You can order via Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Barb’s last book, A Mind for Numbers, (the basis for Learning How to Learn!) became a New York Times science best-seller and is available in over a dozen languages.  That’s understandable, because it’s one of the very best books around to give to colleagues, parents, and students who want to learn more easily and with less frustration. All signs are soaring as well for Mindshift, which is like Learning How to Learn on a booster rocket!

MOOC of the Month

And speaking of booster rockets, we have a double surprise for you this week. Yes, there is a Mindshift MOOC, and it’s just opened for pre-registration in the past 24 hours. The course is taught by Barb and Terry, just as with Learning How to Learn! The course launches April 10th.  If you liked Learning How to Learn, you’ll LOVE Mindshift!  Here’s a little bit from the course description:

This course is designed to show you how to look at what you’re learning, and your place in what’s unfolding in the society around you, so you can be what you want to be, given the real world constraints that life puts on us all. You’ll see that by using certain mental tools and insights, you can learn and do more—far more—than you might have ever dreamed.

For the Mindshift MOOC, Barb and Terry have partnered with one of the most visionary MOOC-making institutions around—McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. McMaster has an extraordinary video production team—you’ll see that Mindshift is like no other MOOC. McMaster, incidentally, is also one of the world’s leading universities—you should definitely consider it if you or someone you know is looking for an international experience.  

We’re a little busy this week getting ready for the double book-MOOC launch—we’ll be back next week with a more usual “Cheery Friday” email!

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

Follow our book recommendations on the “Cheery Friday App”

Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Books of the Week

Lately, we’ve found ourselves caught up in Ryan Holiday’s thought-provoking books.  We found a lot to like in his The Ego Is the Enemy, (Audible version here) which provides a refreshing break from today’s relentless onslaught of books about successful egotists. Ryan’s reflections on his own ego-related failures, as well as well as those of intriguing people through history, can give you good strategies for avoiding these problems yourself. Ryan’s excellent related book which has understandably developed a cult following is The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph (Audible here).

For those who want their philosophical insight on living in daily doses, The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living is just the ticket. We couldn’t agree more with one reviewer who noted: “The great Stoics remind me never to be satisfied with learning—I must always be doing.”

Holiday came to prominence with his notorious but well-worth-the-read first book, Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator (Audible here), followed by Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising (Audible here). Both provide insight on today’s media landscape and how it can unwittingly shape your thinking.

Ryan reads most of his own audio books—a real plus for us Audible aficionados. (If you want to try Audible, you can get two free audiobooks through this link.)

Memory Tips Video

Here’s a wonderful 5 minute video from our friend Nelson Dellis, 4 time US Memory Champion, that gives some great memory insights. When you get to the end of the video and realize what Nelson’s actually just got you to do, you’ll be surprised.

If you would like to join Nelson in his efforts to support research on memory, please take the Extreme

Memory Challenge.

Online Class of the Week

We’ve heard good things about the online course Columbia Business School Course on Digital Strategies For Business by Colombia marketing professor David L. Rogers.  See a nice synopsis of the course here. Rogers argues that digital transformation is not about updating your technology but about upgrading your strategic thinking.  Rogers is also the author of the book the course is based on: The Digital Transformation Playbook: Rethink Your Business for the Digital Age. [Hat tip, Desmond Eng, one of our friends at Singapore’s Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group.]

Education, Education, Education – but mainly EdTech

We find great value in reading Chris Fellingham’s e-newsletters, which are largely about the world of MOOCs and online education. See a copy of Chris’s most recent e-newsletter here, and sign up if you like the information he’s providing.

Good study habits to maximise learning

We really like this popular article on maximizing your learning by using good study habits, written by Lakshini Mendis, PhD for npj Science of Learning and its affiliated community.  We especially appreciate that the npj community is promoting popular articles and videos that help translate key findings from research for the regular folks who ultimately need this information.

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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Follow our book recommendations on the “Cheery Friday App”