Category: Uncategorized

Cheery Wednesday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

We’re a little earlier than our usual cheery Friday greetings this week because Barb’s speaking this Friday (April 8th) to help launch the On Course Conference in Anaheim, California. Come join us if you’re in the area! (And meanwhile, happy Wednesday!)

Gaining a competitive advantage

We’d like to recommend the fascinating website, Five Good Questions, of our friend, investor Jacob Taylor. After a chance lunch with Warren Buffett, Jake has dedicated years to studying what makes Warren and his partner Charlie Munger so successful. Jake writes “Although they were both blessed with exceptionally high IQs, I believe their astounding wisdom comes from reading so many damned books. Their real competitive advantage is that they’ve simply out-read everyone else. Want to be the smartest person in the room? It’s simple. Read more. It’s a truly egalitarian hack that’s available to any of us who dedicate the time.”

In Five Good Questions, Jake hauls authors like Barb onto his show and asks them five good questions to gain insight into their subjects. Jake’s approach is one we highly recommend in Learning How to Learn. Don’t just take a topic like investing and study it in the usual way (after all, that’s what most investors are doing), but instead, reach out for new insights from unusual sources.

Learning How to Learn in Russian “Научись учиться” – давайте переведем вместе!

Our new Russian Lead is Dauren Adilbekov, a wonderful young man who is spearheading efforts to transform Learning How to Learn into a new, entirely Russian language version of the course. If you speak Russian, Dauren could really use your help as part of the little team he is forming—go to this thread to join a terrific group!

Procrastination

We’ve heard from many learners over the years that procrastination is one of their biggest issues. Recently, a number of you sent us links to Tim Urban’s hilarious and thoughtful TED Talk on procrastination. (Tim’s blog “Wait but Why,” is terrific also—but it’s like candy for procrastinators, so be careful!)

If you want help with procrastination beyond the advice we give in Learning How to Learn, we highly recommend the following books:

• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg. This information featured in the very structure of Learning How to Learn—we described Charles’ work when we were discussing how to tackle the habit of procrastination.
• Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport. We’re big fans of Cal Newport. His book is highly recommended for anyone who’s planning to learn or accomplish something difficult.
• Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg. What can we say—using stories to convey key insights about productivity makes a book not only useful, but fun to read!

A FANTASTIC MOOC and book

We recently discovered the extraordinary MOOC Memory and Movies: Explaining the Psychology of Memory Through Films, by psychologist and neuroscientist John Seamon, along with his brilliant accompanying book Memory & Movies. What a great way to learn vital insights about memory—by using excerpts from great films as the key to help unlock our understanding. We ourselves learned a great deal, not only about memory, but about the role of memory in great movie-making. Both the MOOC (which begins April 11th) and the book (which has even deeper insights than the MOOC) come with our strongest recommendation—enjoy!

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!

Handwriting is better than typing for note taking

The Wall Street Journal recently published an excellent article, “Can Handwriting Make You Smarter,” summarizing recent research which shows that handwriting is much better than typing when you are taking notes. Also, we’re big fans of Harvard cognitive psychologist Michael Friedman’s work on note taking—you can see his helpful paper here.

Recommended MOOC Specialization of the Week—And some great learning games

Our friend Dhawal Shah of the MOOC analysis site Class Central highly recommends the new Machine Learning specialization on Coursera—in part because he finds the courses are highly practical. On another topic, Dhawal’s associate Anuar Andres Lequerica has developed a listing of great games for learning—these games are very useful for teachers.

This week’s highly recommended books

We had a chance to chat yesterday with Kat Arney, a science writer and the author of Herding Hemingway’s Cats: Understanding How Our Genes Work. Kat is really quite something—she’s asked some of the smartest questions we’ve ever been asked on an interview. Her book has gotten rave reviews from media outlets like Nature. Mark Stevenson, (the author of An Optimist’s Tour of the Future: One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer “What’s Next?”) wrote: “Herding Hemingway’s Cats will instantly turn you into the most interesting guest at any party—it’s a joy to read and a masterclass in making the complex story of life accessible, entertaining and relevant.” We can hardly wait to get our copy, but meanwhile, feel free to beat us to the punch in reading Kat’s book!

Oh yes, and if you’d like another great book recommendation on intriguing topics, try Jon Ronson’s outstanding So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. If you’ve ever wondered how people’s lives can suddenly be destroyed with a moment’s thoughtless posting—and how these lives are sometimes put back to rights—this book is for you.

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 greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Taiwan MOOCs!

It’s another early greeting for you all this week! This time, our message is early because Barb’s just arriving in Taiwan to help introduce an International Conference on MOOCs which runs on April 21 and 22nd. The Taiwanese government is visionary in their emphasis on the value of online education—if you happen to be able to attend, Barb would love to meet you!

Remember that Learning How to Learn has an simplified Chinese version of the entire course: 学会如何学习：帮助你掌握复杂学科的强大智力工具. The traditional Chinese version of the course supplemental text, A Mind for Numbers, is 用對腦，從此不再怕數字：學會如何學習，以如何創意思考，解決(幾乎)所有的問題. The simplified Chinese version of A Mind for Numbers will be coming soon. (The meticulous publisher, China Machine Press, has worked with Barb to prepare some special extras that you’ll enjoy).

Barb in Colombia (Bogotá and Medellín)

And yes, right after Taiwan, Barb will be off to speak in beautiful Colombia to celebrate the 25th anniversary of COLFUTURO. This fantastic organization provides financial support to help Colombian citizens access high-quality postgraduate study programs abroad. Here’s some information about Barb’s itinerary to support COLFUTURO in Colombia by helping spread information about learning. Barb would love to meet you, so if you are in Colombia, please plan to attend one of her talks!

We should point out that Learning How to Learn’s complete Spanish version of the course, Aprendiendo a aprender, which includes all quizzes and webpages in Spanish, is exploding in popularity. So is the Spanish version of the course supplemental text, Abre Tu Mente A Los Números. If you’re a Spanish speaker, or have Spanish speaking friends, these are for you (and your friends)!

Our new Spanish Lead, who will complement Terry and Barb’s instruction on the Spanish platform, is Orlando Trejo, a Professor of Engineering at the Universidad Simon Bolivar in Venezuela. Orlando has a wonderful heart, and he is dedicated to helping Latin Americans improve their learning. Sign up for Aprendiendo a aprender and you will soon begin receiving Orlando’s emails about learning in the Spanish-speaking world!

Exercise and a Healthy Brain

Here’s an interesting article from Gretchen Reynolds of the New York Times: “Walk, Jog or Dance: It’s All Good for the Aging Brain.” As she notes: “It turns out that regular walking, cycling, swimming, dancing and even gardening may substantially reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s.” That’s a very big deal! If you’ve been toying with the idea of taking dancing lessons, let this email give you the final nudge. And if you haven’t been thinking of exercise lately, let this email be your initial nudge.

Of course, we can learn even more about exercise’s importance from MOOCs. Here are interesting upcoming MOOCs from the University of Edinburgh-Coursera: “Sit Less, Get Active,” which starts on May 1st; and “Exercise Prescription for the Prevention and Treatment of Disease,” from Trinity College Dublin-FutureLearn, which just started on April 18.

Our favorite book on the value of exercise is Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. (Just skim the in-depth science parts if it gets a bit deep for you.) Exercise allows new neurons to sprout—learning on top of exercise helps those new neurons to survive and thrive.

Amy Alkon’s HumanLab: The Science Between Us

One of the most perceptive writers we know of is Amy Alkon, who specializes in understanding the science behind human interactions. Here’s an interview of Amy and Barb discussing how to be more productive at work. Remember, part of the reason we want to be more productive is so that we’ll have more time to play. Actually, giving yourself time to play also helps you be more productive when you’re working.

Here are two of Amy’s thought-provoking, marvelously funny books: I See Rude People: One woman’s battle to beat some manners into impolite society and Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck.

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn teamFollow LHTL on Facebook | Join the private LHTL Hall of Fame group | Follow LHTL on Twitter

Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Recommended MOOC-of-the-week—Critical Perspectives on Management

If you are interested in how to manage people well, you will want to read this insightful In-Depth Review on the MOOC Critical Perspective On Management by Learning How to Learn’s very own Senior Mentor Cristian Artoni. The more that we learn behind the scenes in Learning How to Learn, the more we realize the importance of good management practices and structure. Cristian has helped us implement better management approaches to give learners a better experience in Learning How to Learn.

Cerchiamo traduttori volontari in lingua Italiana! (Italian-speaking volunteers needed!)

That very same Cristian Artoni, who has long been a Senior Mentor in this course (he handles both Facebook and the archives), has volunteered to become the Lead for the forthcoming completely Italian version of Learning How to Learn. Questo sarà un grande vantaggio in generale per gli italiani e in particolar modo per gli studenti delle scuole medie e superiori al rientro dalle vacanze estive. Cristian dice: “E se gli zombie parlassero anche la lingua di Dante? Se anche tu ami il corso Learning How To Learn e desideri unirti a noi nel lancio del primo corso Coursera completamente tradotto in italiano, compila questo modulo!”

Italy places growing emphasis on MOOCs

Last week Italy officially activated a new MOOC platform, EduOpen, entirely financed by the MIUR, which is the Italian Ministry for Education. As of now, they have 14 Italian universities on the platform. There are nearly 5,000 students enrolled, but the numbers are growing by the minute. As Cristian Artoni observes, “Of note is that there are some very interesting ideas about the recognition of credits.”

Guidance on learning how to play the guitar

It seems this is a week centered on Italy! Italian Learning How to Learner Giancarlo Facoetti has a wonderful blog post on learning how to play the guitar using insights from Learning How to Learn. Check out his post if you want to see how the methods described in Learning How to Learn can improve your abilities in many areas (guitar is just one of them!)

Barb at the University of Michigan on Monday! (Also Bogotá; Medellín; Baltimore; Petersfield, Hampshire UK; and Ottawa, Canada)

As usual, Barb’s traveling widely to promote learning and MOOCs. She’ll be at the University of Michigan on Monday, May 2nd, to help open the Enriching Scholarship Conference. Michigan is Barb’s home “stomping grounds,” so she’d love to see you there! Here’s where else she’ll be, helping learners around the world and hoping to meet you.

• Bogotá and Medellín, Colombia: Talks on learning May 5, 6, 7 and 10, 2016, commemorating the 25th anniversary of COLFUTURO.
• Baltimore: Opening keynote for the Maryland Association for Adult, Community and Continuing Education conference, May 12, 2016.
• Petersfield, Hampshire UK: Keynote on learning, Liberating Leaders Conference, Bedales School, 25 May 2016.
• Ottawa, Canada: Opening keynote speaker, EMBS ISC 2016, Ottawa, May 30th, 2016.

Great books on learning

Since we’re on the topic of learning, here are some great and interesting books we’d like to recommend:

• The Art of Changing the Brain, by James Zull. This book, recommended by Coursera’s “course success” polymath Alex Sarlin, is timeless, and a great complement to the neuroscientific ideas presented in Learning How to Learn. You’ll definitely learn some new and useful ideas from this book. We plan to keep this on our shelves as one of the all time great books on learning.

Each of the following two books provides thoughtful insights into where MOOCs and distance learning may lead us. Well worth reading even if some of the conclusions are hypothetical:

• The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere, Kevin Carey.
• Revolution in Higher Education: How a Small Band of Innovators Will Make College Accessible and Affordable, by Richard DeMillo.

We’re sometimes asked whether Asian approaches to testing should be emulated in the West. This thoughtful, brilliant book gives insight in that area:

• Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? Why China Has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World, by Yong Zhao.

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

While touring the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala, we had the good fortune to visit the film studios that are the home of the fantastic MOOC Discover Don Quijote de la Mancha, about what many call the greatest book of all time. The Don Quijote MOOC, which was the brainchild of the brilliant Giancarlo Ibarguen, is beautifully created by professor Eric Graf and the UFM video production team in both English and Spanish versions. This MOOC uses many of the vibrant teaching techniques that we at Learning How to Learn think are the best around. It’s just starting, so go ahead and sign up! Incidentally, Eric has also written the fascinating book Cervantes and Modernity, which is available for free on Kindle Unlimited.

Unusual Learning with a Children’s Business Fair

Most people know about the many wonderful children’s science fairs in many countries around the world. You might be very interested to learn that business also has its own fairs. To learn more about these intriguing events, which can get children started in understanding entrepreneurship, check out the Acton Children’s Business Fair site. It has a great video, kit and process to help parents launch a fair.

Learning Something New

Here’s a great article on learning by Marlieke van Kesteren in The Guardian: “What you already know is the key to learning new things.” This brings to mind one of our favorite books on learning (besides our own A Mind for Numbers 🙂 ), the wonderful Make It Stick. Oh yes, and here’s a video interview with Barb about the book A Mind for Numbers with Dr. Carlos Vazquez on Therapy Cable. Barb will be in Colorado Springs on Friday at the Courage to Risk conference—she’d love to meet you if you have a chance to attend!

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

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

Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

MOOC of the Month

While touring the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala, we had the good fortune to visit the film studios that are the home of the fantastic MOOC Discover Don Quijote de la Mancha, about what many call the greatest book of all time. The Don Quijote MOOC, which was the brainchild of the brilliant Giancarlo Ibarguen, is beautifully created by professor Eric Graf and the UFM video production team in both English and Spanish versions. This MOOC uses many of the vibrant teaching techniques that we at Learning How to Learn think are the best around. It’s just starting, so go ahead and sign up! Incidentally, Eric has also written the fascinating book Cervantes and Modernity, which is available for free on Kindle Unlimited.

Unusual Learning with a Children’s Business Fair

Most people know about the many wonderful children’s science fairs in many countries around the world. You might be very interested to learn that business also has its own fairs. To learn more about these intriguing events, which can get children started in understanding entrepreneurship, check out the Acton Children’s Business Fair site. It has a great video, kit and process to help parents launch a fair.

Learning Something New

Here’s a great article on learning by Marlieke van Kesteren in The Guardian: “What you already know is the key to learning new things.” This brings to mind one of our favorite books on learning (besides our own A Mind for Numbers 🙂 ), the wonderful Make It Stick. Oh yes, and here’s a video interview with Barb about the book A Mind for Numbers with Dr. Carlos Vazquez on Therapy Cable. Barb will be in Colorado Springs on Friday at the Courage to Risk conference—she’d love to meet you if you have a chance to attend!

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

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

Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Barb at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala

On Jan 18 and 19th, Barb will be speaking at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín, one of the most vibrant, prestigious universities in Latin America—truly an extraordinary place! If you’d like to attend one of her talks, she’d be thrilled at the chance to meet you. Please email Gabriel Calada at gc@ufm.edu for more details.

MOOC of the Week

We’re hearing great things from Senior Mentor Cristian Artoni about the MOOC Think101x The Science of Everyday Thinking, which features interviews with Adam Savage (a myth-busting hero of independent thinking!), Daniel Kahneman, John Dunlosky, and many more.

Imposter syndrome

Our learners are often interested in the concept of the “imposter syndrome.” Here’s an interesting thread on that started by Senior Mentor Linda Walker. Perhaps surprisingly, there’s not a lot of research on the imposter syndrome—if you’re a researcher, let this inspire you!—but Linda has listed some excellent resources. Barb has read Katty Kay and Claire Shipman’s book The Confidence Code, and recommends it.

Hearty Book Recommendation

Let us close with our highest book recommendation for the week—Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, by Adam Grant. We’re big believers in independent thinking and not following the herd. (To that end, the HeterodoxAcademy is a wonderful movement in academic life.) If you’re an independent thinker, you’ll find much in Originals to help keep you inspired.

We often tend to believe that original, creative people are full of certainty—it’s helpful to know that many of these originals have their share of doubt, and often do their best to hedge their bets. Adam Grant’s earlier book, Give and Take, is also a great favorite of ours—if you are sometimes worried about burning out from giving, this book will help put your life in order.

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

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

Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Learning math with different parts of the brain

Many of you have found our earlier reference to the fast adding methods of Flash Anzan to be intriguing. Here’s an article by Alex Bellos that explores the abacus with more depth: “Abacus adds up to number joy in Japan: The Far East flies high when it comes to numeracy while the West flounders. Is the abacus the secret of their success?” As Bellos and neuropsychologist Brian Butterworth note: “what the abacus does … is change the way the brain does the calculation. A person calculating with an abacus uses the visual and motor parts of the brain, unlike a person using pencil and paper.” Here’s a fascinating discussion from the 1980s with Richard Feynman that brings up some of the same points. Note how, well before neuroimaging was even possible, Feynman was able to figure out that different people can use different parts of the brain to accomplish the same activity.

Learning Sparks Learning!

Learning How to Learn helps spark all sorts creative ways of looking at, and learning about, every aspect of life. Here’s an introduction to learning about Chinese art by April Shen, and a poem for dreamers with learning difficulties via Malvika Vazalwar. The most popular discussion thread in our class last week involved “Starting a PhD when you are 64,” initiated by Charles Cobert—what an inspirational conversation!

Deep Learning and Deep Work

For this week’s book recommendation, we’ve got something fantastic: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport. This book is something special. It gets right to the point of how to structure your life so that you can accomplish meaningful work, even as you also leave yourself time to do life’s more mundane chores—and you also still have plenty of time left for open fun. All this is perfectly in tune with Learning How to Learn’s philosophy for life and learning. Cal’s such an interesting writer that the book’s also a joy to read.

We’ve always been fans of Cal Newport’s work—you may also wish to check out his other excellent recent book: So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love.

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

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

Happy New Years to our Learning How to Learners!

Learning How to Learn stays in the news!

Here’s an article in the New York Times by leading tech journalist John Markoff (@markoff) about Learning How to Learn’s status as the #1 most popular MOOC of all time. If you want to learn how to learn, you’ve definitely come to a popular place!

Staying On Course

Now’s a good time to plan and register for the On Course National Conference in Orange County, near Anaheim, California, April 8 and 9, 2016. On Course is a conference that’s right in line with the ideas and approaches of Learning How to Learn—Barb will be the opening keynote speaker this year.

Barb’s Research on Pathologies of Altruism

Some of you might like to learn a little more about Barb’s unusual area of research. She’s always interested in how we truly help others. Oddly enough, our own helpful desires, especially when mixed with a bit of egotism (we believe we know what’s best for others), can mislead us into doing profound harm. As the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Here’s a conversation between Barb and popular radio host Stefan Molyneux about her research on pathological altruism—there is also some intriguing discussion about how Learning How to Learn came to be created. (Video, Audio, Soundcloud.)

If you’d like more insight into Barb’s work, a good place to get started is her book Cold-Blooded Kindness: Just Give Me a Shot at Loving You, Dear, which is a true crime mystery about an eery killer in Utah. (Don’t miss the about-face at the end.) This book grew out of Barb’s earlier effort to explore the origins of nasty behavior: Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend. Despite the tongue-in-cheek title, the book received high critical praise from leading psychologists and psychiatrists. For more scientific explorations of pathological altruism, read Barb’s co-edited volume Pathological Altruism (Oxford University Press), or her article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “Concepts and implications of altruism bias and pathological altruism.” And here’s an article by philosopher Stephen Hicks that explores related ideas. Important stuff if you care deeply about others. (Incidentally, Stephen’s book Explaining Post Modernism is terrific!)

Happy learning and Happy New Years!

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

Happy Greetings on a Sunny Friday to our Learning How to Learners!

Our friends at Dart Neuroscience are asking if you can help advance research into memory by taking the Dart Neuroscience Memory Challenge.Your help in taking the simple memory test would be deeply appreciated. And if you haven’t seen it already, you may wish to watch this wonderful bonus interview with Dart’s standout memory expert Nelson Dellis, 4 time USA memory champion. (Can you tell that Barb had a cold when she did that video? 🙂 )

Terry Sejnowski speaking in Brazil!

Exciting news is that Terry will be speaking at the International Brain Research Organization in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 11th. (Incidentally, we have 21,000 learners enrolled on our Portuguese Learning How to Learn platform Aprendendo a aprender! )

A blast at our latest meetup!

Our last meetup in Silicon Valley filled the coffee shop to bursting–we had some 25 Learning How to Learners, an additional half dozen fantastic people from Coursera (they do so much behind the scenes to make our course a standout), and Dhawal Shah and Charlie Chung, Barb’s friends from Class Central–the best source around for quality information about MOOCs. Don’t miss Class Central’s sizzling website, chockful of helpful information about the right MOOCs for you. (And feel free to leave a review of Learning How to Learn!)

San Diego Learning How to Learn Meetup

A reminder that Barb will be happily meeting with all interested Learning How to Learners on Wednesday, July 1, 12:00 (noon) – 1:00 pm in the Lobby of the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, 1 Market Place, San Diego, California.

As always, happy learning!

Barb Oakley, Terry Sejnowski, and the Learning How to Learn Team