Category: Uncategorized

Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Barb is in Beijing today to speak at Baidu headquarters about learning. It’s an exciting day!

Unbelievable: the Flash Anzan Method

Barb’s friend Manabu Watanabe is the author of the intriguing and well-researched book Juku: The Stealth Force of Education and the Deterioration of Schools in Japan. Manabu has recently posted about a stunning technique known as the “Flash Anzan Method.” Read about it here–and watch the amazing video! As Manabu writes “It is not a story about gifted people, but rather a matter of training.”

Is Anyone Truly Unteachable and Unreachable?

Have you ever wondered how people are able to change themselves? Be inspired by Ashley’s unbelievable climb from a juvenile delinquent to engineer, and now to a doctoral student. Check out the story “Finding Yourself: The trials and tribulations of Ashley Liddiard,” which begins at the bottom right of the pdf here. Ashley (her married name is now Ashley Kleinhans) is now a researcher at the Mobile Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group in Pretoria, South Africa. Way to go, Ashley!

Teaching English

Our friend Justin Shewell, a Senior International Educator from Arizona State University, just helped launch a terrific new first course in a specialization about teaching English. Check out Teach English Now! if you’re interested in learning more. Teach English Now! uses metaphors and stories and all sorts of learning approaches that we advocate in Learning How to Learn, so we think you’ll find the course to be a terrific one.

Reporting problems

If you have questions or need help, please post in the Course Forums so your classmates or our mentors can reply. You can find all forums on the main Discussions page, and sub-forums below each video.

You can also use the ‘Report problem’ flag on each page to let us know about an issue with the course content or to make a suggestion. Please know that we read and appreciate your feedback, but at the moment there’s no way for us to reply and tell you so.

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

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

Cheery Weekend greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

The Inspiration Behind Learning How to Learn

Here’s an interview with Barb “Формула успеха: как математика помогает людям жит.” (Okay, so the interview’s in Russian.) The interview provides additional background about the book A Mind for Numbers—which formed the basis for the MOOC Learning How to Learn. A fun fact is that A Mind for Numbers was inspired when one of Barb’s engineering students asked Barb how she’d managed to initiate a shift from linguist to engineer at the ripe age of 26, after she’d left the Army. The book tells the story. What’s truly inspiring is how inspiring students themselves can be!

Good Books About Learning

If you’re trying to keep up your reading about learning, one of the best of the recent books about learning is Make It Stick, by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel. This insightful book was co-authored by some of the most influential researchers around. Another book is How We Learn, by New York Times reporter Benedict Carey. Enjoy!

If You are Using the Coursera App

If you’re using the Coursera app, please update to the most recent version—it will help prevent problems if you might be submitting a quiz.

Mind Wandering—the Good, the Bad, and the MOOC-relevant

Here’s an article about the importance of mind-wandering and aspects of the “diffuse mode”: “Why We Should Stop Worrying about Our Wandering Minds.” This article contrasts in an intriguing way with Julie Sedivy’s wonderful Nautilus article “Can a Wandering Mind Make You Neurotic?” (And here’s Barb’s recent Nautilus article “Why Virtual Classes Can Be Better Than Real Ones.” MOOCs are often best built with short videos that don’t bog down when our minds wander.)

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

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

Cheery Wednesday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

South Africa, here we come!

Our email is a bit early again this week–that’s because Learning How to Learn is coming to South Africa! Barb and her husband Phil (also known as “the Hero”), will be having dinner in Cape Town with a Learning How to Learner on the evening of November 13th. We’ll be meeting at 6:00 pm, November 13th in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express at City Center Cape Town–join us there to then hopefully go to dinner with us if you can! (Email Barb if you would like at oakley@oakland.edu–she might be a bit delayed getting back just in that she’s got some long plane rides ahead over the next 36 hours.) Barb will also be a keynote speaker at the Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) conference: 17-20 November 2015, Potchefstroom, South Africa. And finally, she’ll be in Durban to speak on November 26th (organized by Henre Benson, benson@casme.org.za). Barb would love to meet you if you happen to be in any of those places!

Mother of Civilization Library

The Mother of Civilization Library is a volunteer organization which sets up work in Indus Valley Sindh, the southern part of Pakistan. Their project is to help and facilitate a libraries program in Sindh by collecting books. If you might have any spare new or used books that you would like to send to the Library program, they’d be thrilled! Your donation could do much to stimulate and encourage the growth of learning, especially among the young generation of needy and destitute students. Please send books to:

Rashid Anees Magsi, Project Manager, Mother of Civilization Library, Street: Sobho Khan Magsi, City: Radhan Station Dadu, Province: Sindh, Postal Code: 76310, Country: Pakistan, Phone: 00923003609982, Email: moc.library@gmail.com

(And yes, we’ve sent some books!)

This week’s reading

This week, we’ve got a heavy duty recommendation for those of you who like in-depth neuroscience. After Phrenology: Neural Reuse and the Interactive Brain, by Michael Anderson, is a deeply thought-provoking read that also provides insight into why metaphors and analogies can be such a powerful tool to help with learning. If you’re looking for a more straightforward introduction to neuroscience, it’s hard to beat Jamie Ward’s The Student’s Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience.

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!

The behind the scenes sizzle in MOOC-making

Barb’s article “Why Virtual Classes Can Be Better than Real Ones” has gotten a lot of interest by “MOOCers and shakers” in industry. Check it out if you want to learn some of the behind the scenes thinking that helped bring you Learning How to Learn.

Special MOOCs

As Barb travels the world, she makes a special point of doing everything she can to meet with deeply knowledgeable, yet fun-filled instructors who have a special passion and insight for making MOOCs. One such instructor is Dr. Jogesh K. Muppala at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Jogesh (who actually coined the “MOOCers and shakers” term we used above), is an instructor with the Full-Stack Web Development Specialization. If this is a subject of interest for you, check out Jogesh’s MOOC!

Nelson Dellis’s Kickstarter Campaign for a Children’s Book to Improve Memory

A few weeks ago, we mentioned four time US memory champion Nelson Dellis. He’s writing and illustrating a children’s picture book for kids ages 5-7 years old that teaches a simple, but powerful, memory technique. Nelson has started a Kickstarter page to fund his book’s printing and publication. Due in part to the powerful support of Learning How to Learners, Nelson’s fund has reached an incredible $11,000 US dollars–far beyond his initial goal of $3,500. His campaign is now winding down into the last few days. All additional monies will go towards printing extra copies of the book that Nelson will be sending out and donating to schools around the country–the more he prints, the more he donates. If you are interested in a copy, just pledge the $25 option and you’ll get a personally signed edition when the book comes out! There are other cool pledging options to help Nelson as well. (And yes, we ourselves purchased a copy ourselves to help support good-hearted Nelson’s wonderful work.)

A great book to help build your ability to focus

We highly recommend Dan Harris’s book 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works–A True Story. If you find yourself having trouble with the “focus” aspect of learning, this book may give you some insights. Plus, it’s a highly entertaining read. 🙂

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!

Discussion Forums

The discussion forum is often a fountain for fascinating conversation. Here you can find a discussion of the difference between the two intriguing, but sometimes confused, topics of “transfer” and “interleaving.”

A Surprise Book Recommendation for Teachers—and for Everyone

Barb was recently asked for her best recommendation for a book for teachers. She recommended the book Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson, by S. C. Gwynne. Jackson was everybody’s idea of a complete incompetent—his students, who often disliked him intensely, enjoyed making fun of him. Yet unbelievably, this “incompetent” became one of history’s greatest military leaders—adored by his men and able to pull victory from seemingly certain defeat time and time again.

Teachers can sometimes too quickly make assessments of their students’ abilities, unaware of hidden depths of character. And we are sometimes too quick to judge ourselves as well as others. Rebel Yell gives insight into the wondrous surprises that can lie within the human spirit. And if you’re feeling up for it, get S. C. Gwynne’s previous fantastic book, Empire of the Summer Moon, about the Comanche empire. This book speaks magnificently to the fact that different eras in history call for learning different skills. The change in the skillsets needed even during a single lifetime can be immense—and the 21st century hasn’t been the only time of rapid change. (Cynthia and Quanah Parker’s stories are incredible!)

Class Central

As you might have guessed if you’ve been following Learning How to Learn for a while, we’re big fans of Class Central, the best “one stop shop” to discover more about MOOCs on any subject you might be interested in. Feel free to check out Class Central’s offerings—and to leave a review of Learning How to Learn. 🙂

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

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

Cheery Holiday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

It’s a wonderful holiday season here as we approach the end of 2015! We’ve had a great time learning together with you as the year has rolled by. One thing we’re beginning to appreciate all the more is that learning shares a surprising amount with exercise. Sometimes a little nudging inspiration helps keep you going (hence our weekly emails!). Speaking of both exercise and learning, here’s a terrific article in the New York Times about how exercise keeps your brain young.

Learning How to Learn’s Best Book of 2015

It’s time to share with you our recommendation for the very best book of 2015. It’s the outstanding Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari. Sweeping, thoughtful insights don’t come much better than this book, which has changed how we think about issues we’ve long thought important. Thank you to Learning How to Learner Marinda Nel for the recommendation—we learn so much from our learners!

Learning How to Learn makes #1—three times!

Last week we observed that Learning How to Learn was ranked the #1 most popular free online course for professionals by Business Insider. This week we’ve discovered that Learning How to Learn is now not only Coursera’s #1 course, we’re also listed as the #1 Most Popular MOOC of All Time by “Online Course Report.” Thank you for your inspiration, and for spreading the word about learning!

Happy learning, always!

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

Cheery Holiday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

It’s a wonderful holiday season here as we approach the end of 2015! We’ve had a great time learning together with you as the year has rolled by. One thing we’re beginning to appreciate all the more is that learning shares a surprising amount with exercise. Sometimes a little nudging inspiration helps keep you going (hence our weekly emails!). Speaking of both exercise and learning, here’s a terrific article in the New York Times about how exercise keeps your brain young.

Learning How to Learn’s Best Book of 2015

It’s time to share with you our recommendation for the very best book of 2015. It’s the outstanding Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari. Sweeping, thoughtful insights don’t come much better than this book, which has changed how we think about issues we’ve long thought important. Thank you to Learning How to Learner Marinda Nel for the recommendation—we learn so much from our learners!

Learning How to Learn makes #1—three times!

Last week we observed that Learning How to Learn was ranked the #1 most popular free online course for professionals by Business Insider. This week we’ve discovered that Learning How to Learn is now not only Coursera’s #1 course, we’re also listed as the #1 Most Popular MOOC of All Time by “Online Course Report.” Thank you for your inspiration, and for spreading the word about learning!

Happy learning, always!

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

Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Do You Have a Poor Working Memory? It Can Be an Asset!

A poor working memory can actually help you attain critical “aha” type insights more easily—read this illuminating article: “The Reason Smart People Sometimes Struggle with “Aha” Moments.”

Odds and Ends: A cool productivity tool and a nice article about MOOC trends

We like learning about anything that helps with productivity (so we have more time for diffuse mode relaxation 🙂 ). A new Windows-based tool we’ve fallen in love with is called “Breevy.” It allows you to easily insert phrases you have to retype all the time into whatever document you might like—emails, a Google doc, Word. On another topic, here’s a nice article about “MOOC Trends in 2015: Rise of Self Paced Courses.”

Help with Translating Learning How to Learn

The number of languages Learning How to Learn has captions for is growing rapidly! If you’d like to help with translating Learning How to Learn into your favorite language, please sign up for the Coursera Global Translator Community (GTC). Once you’re signed up with a Transifex account, just make sure you’re logged in to Transifex and you should then be able to find the translation project for Learning How to Learn here. If you have a problem, just email Barb at oakley@oakland.edu. There’s a particular call for translation into Punjabi and Tswana (both languages were just added for us to be able to use them on the GTC), as well as into Indonesian (Barb was just in Jakarta!).

This Week’s Reading (and Gaming!) Recommendations

As Learning How to Learners know, metaphor and analogy can improve our ability to grasp difficult ideas in math and science. But they also underpin the greatest literature, both fiction and non-fiction. If you want to be bowled over by extraordinary metaphor in fiction, it would be hard to do better than Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. (Truth be told, Barb’s a huge fan of Cormac McCarthy. One of the highlights of her decade was spending the day together in Santa Fe with him—he’s as unpretentious and kind a person as you could possibly imagine.) In non-fiction, Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit, about one of the greatest racehorses in history, has some of the best writing this side of the solar system. As you might have guessed, Barb is a big fan of horses—her “gamification” effort to help kids have fun while they learn about horses has become a classic board game: Herd Your Horses.

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!

Think You’re Math Phobic—or Do You Love Numbers? Either Way, Try this Friendly Course

Senior Mentor Susan Fitzgerald has brought this intriguing-looking course, “Fun with Prime Numbers,” to our attention. (Okay, so maybe the name shares a bit in common with the popular television show “The Big Bang Theory” and Sheldon’s ostensible show-within-a-show “Fun with Flags.”) The MOOC’s instructor, Tetsushi Ito, looks like a marvelously friendly professor who understands how to make seemingly arcane material fun and relevant. Watch the promotional video at the top of the page and you’ll see what we mean. We’ve signed up ourselves—the course starts on January 16th.

Transcripts for All Regular Course Videos are Now Available!

Many of you have requested neatly formatted transcripts of each of the regular course videos. Thanks to the talents and hard work of learner Marta Pulley, and the uploading wizardry of Senior Mentor Vindra Khanai, these scripts are now available. Just look to the right of the discussion sections under each video, and you’ll see pdfs of the scripts, along with Powerpoints and other related materials to help you better grasp the materials. (And of course, the supplemental course book, A Mind for Numbers, goes into more depth.)

This Week’s Reading Recommendations—A Couple of All Time Favorites

Speaking of books, this week, we’d like to suggest Daniel Kahneman’s masterful Thinking, Fast and Slow. This is one of the greatest books of psychology we’ve ever read—fully worthy of its long-time best-seller status. Kahneman’s slow thinking is analogous to our focused mode. But his fast thinking is more related to knee-jerk, emotional responses, rather than the “not focused on anything in particular” neural resting states of what we term the diffuse mode in Learning How to Learn. More directly related to Learning How to Learn’s focused and diffuse modes is the great classic of creativity literature, Edward de Bono’s Lateral Thinking. Read both brilliant books to enjoy two contrasting views on how to “chunk” key aspects of brain function.

The Power of Chunking!

And since we’re on the topic of chunking, check out this wonderful mashup of riveting dance scenes. Imagine the gradual, tiny-chunk-by-tiny-chunk growth of mastery that produced those magnificent moves. A vast repertoire of chunks underlies all forms of expertise, whether in dance, sports, language, math, or science. Chunked expertise, as Barb’s seemingly befuddled younger daughter reveals in week 3 of Learning How to Learn, even underlies the ability to back up a car.

Do you think that these extraordinary masters of dance can necessarily explain aloud how they perform each of their magnificent moves? Might thinking about explanations actually interfere with their ability to move so effortlessly? In the same way, do you think that children demonstrate more expertise with math if they can explain every step of their answers? Reach Katharine Beals and Barry Garelick’s terrific, counter-intuitive article “Explaining Your Math: Unnecessary at Best, Encumbering at Worst,” in The Atlantic to find out.

Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!

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