Cheery Friday Greetings from Learning How to Learn! Feb 19, 2016

Cheery Friday greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

MOOCs for Teacher Development

If you are an elementary or secondary school teacher anywhere in the world, we would really appreciate it if you might take the following very brief survey about MOOCs. This will be very useful for a panel being hosted at SXSWEdu called ‘MOOCs & Teacher PD: Mindless Snack or Hearty Fare?‘ with our friend Charlie Chung from Class Central, and Coursera’s Julia Stiglitz.

Can You Help by Becoming a Mentor for Learning How to Learn in Chinese?

Are you a speaker of Chinese and would you like to help out by volunteering on as a Mentor for 学会如何学习, the new version of Learning How to Learn in Chinese? If so, please volunteer here! Learning How to Learn is now not only the most popular course in the world—it is also Coursera’s most widely translated course. This is because Learning How to Learn is something that is helpful for virtually everyone, everywhere. Your own help in improving this course can make a difference in allowing people to better their lives!

Become the Spanish Lead for Aprendiendo a Aprender?

We are looking for one person to volunteer to become the Spanish Lead for the new Spanish Language Platform of Learning How to Learn — Aprendiendo a Aprender. This person would be responsible assembling a team of volunteer Spanish-speaking mentors, sending out monthly or weekly emails to the entire set of Spanish-speaking learners, and helping improve the translation quality of the course. More information, including a link to the application form, is here.

Encouraging Reading In Young People

Our Learning How to Learner Bhairavi from India has begun a wonderful new “Purple Patch Initiative” of providing the first book to Indian parents. This program is also meant to empower parents by also giving them tools to make the book reading experience with their child successful. You can help by checking out the Purple Patch Initiative’s Facebook page, here. In a related vein, health care providers in the US often participate in program called “Reach Out and Read.” Each year, when a child gets his or her annual checkup, they get a book. Here’s a little more information about the US program. If you might like to start or participate in a similar program in your own country, you may wish to reach out to Bhairavi or to the US program for ideas or connections.

Learning and Changing

Here’s a fascinating article about why scientists can’t decide about whether salt is killing us. It seems that when scientists review the evidence, they are biased and “reluctant to change their view in light of new facts.” Unfortunately, even being a really smart scientist is no protection against jumping to conclusions and then persisting in the path you’ve chosen—regardless of contrary findings. This is part of what Learning How to Learn is about—helping you to step back and finding your own areas where you’re stuck, to help open your mind and accept new possibilities.

Excellent Books about Finding Your Hidden Biases

Here are some of the best books we know of to help you begin climbing out of your hidden biases:

• On Being Certain, by Robert Burton.
• Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, by Carol Tavris.
• Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, by Mahzarin R. Banaji.
• Pathological Altruism, edited by Barbara Oakley, Ariel Knafo, Guruprasad Madhavan, and David Sloan Wilson. (It’s your own thoughts that you know what’s best to help others that can surprisingly often lead you astray.)

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