The 100-Year Life

31st January 2019

Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!

Book of the Week

The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott. We had never really thought about the consequences of lifespans in today’s world, where people have a good chance of living to 100.  Living so long means many societal changes. For one thing, it’s just not as possible as it once was to retire at 65 and live comfortably over the next 35 years without having planned wisely. In fact, retiring at 65 may not be the best option at all.  This book gives an insightful overview of how to effectively plan your own life, and reinvent yourself as necessary to live long and prosper. Good for audio. (Two free audiobooks may be possible through this link.)

Stuck? Go to a Conference!

Are you feeling bored in your job—stuck in a rut, and not sure how to get out of it? Is your circle of friends smaller than you’d like, limited to only the people in your city or town? Are you looking for motivation to make change?  Here’s our suggestion—go to a conference in whatever you are interested in. Is it photography? Writing? Entrepreneurship? Rock hunting (or rock music!)? Language learning? Learning math if you are an older adult? Whatever it is, you can find a conference on it!  Yes, you’ll have to pay for registration, travel, and a place to stay. But you can find ways to do things on the cheap, and you’ll almost certainly find that taking matters into your own hands and seeing and meeting inspirational people will make an enormous difference in breaking you out of your rut. Go for it!  

Reviews of Learning How to Learn for Youth!

Here’s a great (well, almost great 🙂 ) review of our newest MOOC, Learning How to Learn for Youth by the ever-curious and indefatigable Pat Bowden of Online Learning Success.  Also, don’t miss this wonderful review in the Times Educational Supplement of our book Learning How to Learn by polymath Daisy Christodoulou.

Barb’s 3 talks in London today and tomorrow

Barb is excited because she will be meeting and speaking with Daisy Christodoulou (author of the fantastic Seven Myths About Education) in London late this afternoon as she speaks at St. Matthias School. Barb will also be speaking on learning at 1:00 pm today (Feb 1) London time at the London House Large Common Room at Goodenough College. (Incidentally, today, Feb 1, is Barb and her Hero hubby Philip’s 35th wedding anniversary!) Barb will speak on a quite different topic—pathological altruism and altruism bias—12:00 pm tomorrow (Feb 2) at the William Goodenough House Large Common Room at Goodenough College.

MOOCS Stats and Trends for 2018

Here’s an important article from Class Central that provides a clarifying overview of the world of MOOCs in 2018.  If you read one article this year about what’s going on in the world of MOOCs, this should be the article.

Language Learning

Are you someone who can’t seem to learn a language or doesn’t know where to start? Then Barb highly recommends “Learning How to Learn a Language,” an online course designed by Dr. Shane Dixon and Dr. Justin Shewell from Language Warriors. The course uncovers the secrets of the most successful language learners, and what those learners do to build “language ecosystems,” environments that power up language learning.  These two professors are fun-loving course designers, and Barb had a great time with them at Arizona State University last March at the Coursera conference—in fact, you’ll even see her as a guest presenter in their course! Both Shane and Justin are LTHLers themselves, and Barb just loved how they cleverly connect language learning principles with the principles we discuss in Learning How to Learn. These guys are some of the most creative online course designers out there, and you are sure to have a great time while receiving powerful and practical tools.

For a short time only, members of the LHTL community can receive a significant discount (more than 60%!) to take the course and join this massive language learning community—with over 40 different languages spoken!  To receive the offer, just click here. This offer ends on February 6th.  

Learning and Linking with Flashcards
Physician David Handel recently launched iDoRecall.com, a web application that allows you to create targeted flashcards with direct links to your learning materials. As you read your materials, you create digital flashcards which are scheduled for practice by a spaced-repetition algorithm. If you’ve forgotten an answer, there is a link on the back of each flash card that leads to the exact spot in your learning materials where the flashcard was created, so that you can quickly reread the source content refresh your memory and return to their practice session. The flash card approach allowed David to graduate number one in his medical school class. You can try iDoRecall.com for free for the first 30 days.

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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