Visiting Colombia
7th July 2017
Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!
Book of the Month
One of our long-time favorite books could be a literal life-saver for you. The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence, by Gavin de Becker, is an outstanding tutorial on how to learn to listen to your own body’s signals, as well as signals from your surroundings, to pick up on and avoid danger. De Becker grew up in an extremely abusive household—learning to read his environment is what kept him and his little sister alive. This riveting book will give you the tools you need to stay safe in life. We were reminded of this book when the servers recently began using “forced teaming” as an odd sales gimmick at one of our local restaurants. (Audible version here—you may be able to get two free audiobooks through this link.)
Jet Lag
Barb’s peripatetic schedule frequently finds her in the throes of jet lag. Recently, Barb was sent a device called “HumanCharger” that introduces light into the ear canal to help alleviate jet lag—it may also help with “Winter Blues.” (Here is some research that appears to show efficacy, at least regarding the jet lag.) Barb has found that the device does seem to help. Feel free to post in the forum here if you do try the device, or have any other jet-lag-related suggestions.
Barb in Bogotá and Barranquilla
Speaking of Barb’s travels, she’s currently Colombia. She’ll be speaking at Javeriana University in Bogotá on July 10th and 12th—go here for details. And she’ll be speaking at Uninorte in Barranquilla giving the closing conference keynote on July 14th. Contact cedu@uninorte.edu.co for more details.
MOOCs Find Their Audience
Here is a very perceptive article by our friend Dhawal Shah at Class Central on how MOOCs are finding their audience amongst professional learners and universities. Key graf: “One of the lessons I learned from running Class Central is that to make money, you need to make others money. By targeting professional learners, MOOC providers are trying to exactly do that.”
Music boosts brain connectivity
A recent study has shown that using music to learn a physical task resulted in a significant increase in structural connectivity on the right side of the brain while the non-music group. Could this be why learning a new language by listening to music in the new language seems to add a special boost?
Interview with Isaac Lidsky, author of Eyes Wide Open
Barb recently spoke with author Isaac Lidsky, and the interview has been written up by our fine friends at Heleo: “1.6 Million Students and Counting: How Barbara Oakley Cracked the Science of Learning.” Isaac is the author of Eyes Wide Open: Overcoming Obstacles and Recognizing Opportunities in a World That Can’t See Clearly, a worthwhile book about how Isaac has learned to reframe his blindness as an asset.
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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