Cheery Friday Greetings from Learning How to Learn! Aug 5, 2016

Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Growth Mindset

Here’s a wonderful visual that exemplifies how to reframe negative thoughts about learning into more empowering and helpful mindsets. (Hat tip: Fern Kushner.) Shifting your or your child’s thinking can have all sorts of long term positive effects on their brain and their life. The classic book about this, of course, is Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

Learning How To Learn In Tamil – கற்பது எவ்வாறு என கற்போம் – தமிழாக்கம் செய்யும் வாய்ப்பு

If you’d like to join the Tamil translation team being led by Mahendran Raiyah, please post in the discussion forum here. Mahendran is an electrical and electronic engineer and MBA holder who loves to write and to learn–he’s also a volunteer for social “change-making” initiatives. This is your chance to help improve the learning lives of Tamil speakers around the world!

Learning How to Learn in Persian—بیایید با هم این دوره ی آموزشی را به زبان فارسی ترجمه کنیم

Our new Persian Lead is Näriman Dästpak, who is spearheading efforts to transform Learning How to Learn into a new, entirely Persian language version of the course. If you speak Persian, Näriman Dästpak could really use your help as part of the little team he is forming—go to this thread to join his group! Näriman says “[مشتاقانه منتظر کمک جامعه ی فارسی زبان هستم تا بتوانیم مطالب این دوره ی آموزشی ارزشمند را ترجمه کرده و در اختیار جامعه ی فارسی زبان قرار دهیم]” Incidentally, Näriman holds a masters in materials engineering–and he is also is a musician who plays two instruments (you can catch him on Spotify). He took this course recently and realized the benefits it can bring to the people of his country.

A special guest on the Spanish platform of of Learning How to Learn — Un invitado especial en la plataforma del curso en Español

Además, estamos muy emocionados de anunciar la publicación de la primera entrevista en un idioma distinto al inglés en todo LHTL ! Esta vez fue el turno de la versión en Español, siendo nuestro invitado el director de COLFUTURO, Jerónimo Castro, ofreciendo su visión sobre el impacto de LHTL y los MOOCs en general al desarrollo en Colombia y Latinoamérica (y mención a las conferencias recientes de Barb.). Este hito es una muestra del impacto y alcance que ha tenido LHTL en varios rincones del mundo, y a muchos otros lugares e idiomas a los cuales esperamos llegar próximamente.

Book and Website of the Month

This past week, we read Michael Merzenich’s game-changing book Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life. Dr. Merzenich recently won the Kavli Prize, which is a sort of Nobel Prize for Neuroscientists–he is also a member of the US Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine. But despite Merzenich’s in-depth research credentials, Soft-Wired is a simple and engaging book that starts off slowly and builds to a crescendo of neuroscientific insight about how to help your brain stay healthy. Be sure to read the whole book–you’ll be glad you did.

Soft-Wired reveals how our own reactions can reinforce problematic thought patterns, leading to syndromes such as depression, anxiety, and even self-righteousness or excessive doubt. Other common challenges include the fact that as we age, our ability to pay attention, remember, and rapidly process our thoughts tends to diminish.

But, as Merzenich reveals, there are positive actions we can take to help alleviate these problems. Merzenich has poured his insights into a solid, scientifically-based company, BrainHQ, which produces brain training materials to improve brain fitness. Normally, we’re not too keen on brain-training programs, but the training that BrainHQ produces is well vetted scientifically. We say check BrainHQ out–their initial materials are free, and more advanced materials are low cost. If you give BrainHQ materials a try, feel free to post in the discussion forum here to share your thoughts and findings.

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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