Time for another installment of linky learning with assorted Edutweets from Mission to Learn. There are some really great ones this time around. For readers who are new here, I periodically do a round-up of some of the items that have been going out over the Mission to Learn Twitter stream and try to package them up in some logical way to help make them easier to digest. I do this roughly every two weeks or so. Naturally, you can get all of this in real time if you follow Mission to Learn on Twitter! Human Mind 47 Ways to Fine Tune Your Brain: http://bit.ly/10nFQS See also: 5 Key Paths to Improving Memory: http://bit.ly/4lIWtR Media multi-taskers pay mental price http://bit.ly/16ko3N (via http://zenhabits.tumblr.com/ ) Memory improvement and learning skills. Pretty amazing site:http://www.happychild.org.uk/acc/tpr/mem/index.htm A Short Collection of Powerful But Under Appreciated Learning Strategies: http://bit.ly/3mKoa6 How Simplicity Can Help Creativity, Briefly: http://bit.ly/6jeYE Learning Trends & Insights Very interesting - rethinklearningnow http://rethinklearningnow.com/ via Downes http://bit.ly/asV5d On Zen Habits: Education Needs to Be Turned on Its Head http://is.gd/2Ijnj RT @joshkaufman: Essays on the theme "school is prison": http://su.pr/6Cn8BP & http://su.pr/9TzHAp The Importance and Challenges of Universal Media Literacy Education: http://bit.ly/iQhpe What is the Future of Teaching? http://bit.ly/FM2GT Can a School Library Be Replaced by E-Readers? Apparently, it Can. http://bit.ly/rClky RT @live2learn: Being educated is more than a diploma or a degree. 12 Things Really Educated People Know http://bit.ly/1LjvEy 10 Wishes for True Student Success from @mayafrost - http://bit.ly/8IZTg 40 Things to Teach My Kids Before They Leave Home: http://bit.ly/RUTiR Learning Resources 16 Great Books to Change the World http://bit.ly/a9Iy7 (and 26 Games: http://bit.ly/jB97y ) Another winner from Zaid: The Best EDU Blogs on the Planet: http://bit.ly/FmJI8 RT @Larryferlazzo: The Best Places To Find New Educational Websiteshttp://bit.ly/u9XN1 RT @Larryferlazzo: Best Fun Sites You Can Use For Learning, Too — 2008 http://tinyurl.com/5cxbh2 This year’s list is coming up this month! RT @Larryferlazzo: "Show Me" is a great site highlighting best games from British museums http://www.show.me.uk/games/games.html Are you missing out on these two great values? http://bit.ly/16SxqG RT @live2learn: Great learning resource! RT @dianadell Bet the Farm http://ow.ly/nC1N Make all key decisions as you run a farm for a year. 100 Inspirational blogs for after college life: http://bit.ly/CT1dm Nice, short video about the Big Bang: http://bit.ly/9u5zg 30 High-Value Tips and Resources for Learning on the Cheap: http://bit.ly/1DNJii Language 7 Free, Focused Resources for Learning a Little Spanish Without Signing Up - http://bit.ly/1xYdEL RT @AngelaMaiers: RT @englishraven Place to find very best English language teaching blogs and posts -http://3.ly/yhI RT @Larryferlazzo: 9,000 categorized links accessible to English Language Learners http://bit.ly/lNYC6 Educational Web Apps & Tech Tools 10 Awesome Tools To Get More Out of Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/rHqTT Not sure how I never came across this before: DailyLit: http://dailylit.com/ RT @AngelaMaiers: Every TED Talk Under the Sun from @openculture http://ow.ly/oAlQ THIS ROCKS!!! REALLY!!!! #learningmonitor Looks like a pretty cool little tool for managing (learning?) goals: http://www.joesgoals.com/ RT @mitzilewis: RT @JimMacMillan Back to School: 15 Essential Web Tools for Students http://su.pr/15oMdw Learning Habits & Skills 5 Powerful Reasons to Make Reflection a Daily Learning Habit, and How to Do It: http://bit.ly/w9vmy7:10 AM Sep 9th from Seesmic @edbatista Thanks for the tweet on 10 sites for sharpening critical thinking skills! http://bit.ly/4f3E9F RT @tferriss: How to Become an Early Riser: http://su.pr/2DgJtP (and create some extra time for learning: http://bit.ly/3xhzm7 ) RT @learninglater: DO YOU KNOW…Learning Later is a way to discover new talents and resurrect old ones? http://www.learninglater.com Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes: http://bit.ly/Bg6gb Learning via self experimentation: http://bit.ly/JnJnj RT @speakamerica: What is your curiosity quotient? http://bit.ly/13JzEt 15 Ways to Find an Hour a Day of Extra Time…for Focused Learning: http://bit.ly/wokHr 10 Bona Fide Best Sites for Sharpening your Critical Thinking Skills. Grateful for a bookmark if you like it: http://bit.ly/TwbzU 5 Key Paths to Improving Memory - Part II http://bit.ly/3xNSi8 Enjoy, and have a great weekend! Jeff P.S. - If you enjoy what you find here on Mission to Learn, I’d be truly grateful if you would subscribe by RSS feed or by e-mail. Related posts:Beef Up Your Brain and other Assorted EdutweetsSurprise! Assorted EdutweetsFree Learning Resources and other Edutweets

In this episode of the Radio Free Learning podcast, I talk with Dr. Fiona McPherson, author of The Memory Key and curator of the About Memory Web site. I came across Fiona’s work recently when I was writing 5 Key Paths to Improving Memory, and found her Web site to be one of the most thorough, well organized sites on memory out there. So, naturally, I contacted her to see if she would share some of her expertise with listeners here. Our conversation lasted long enough that I decided to break it into two episodes. In this first one, we find out a little about Fiona’s background and what sparked her deep interest in memory. We then talk about some of the keys to memory and why most memory courses don’t result in long-term memory improvement. In the second episode (out later this week) we discuss topics like the brain training craze and why effective note-taking (the topic of a recent book by Fiona) is so important. Here’s the MP3 file link (19:17 minutes long) in case you do not see the audio player below (or click through to the original blog post). Subscribe to the Radio Free Learning podcast: Subscribe using RSS Subscribe using iTunes I also encourage you to check out other posts on brain science and the human mind here on Mission to Learn. Jeff P.S. - Follow Mission to Learn on Twitter at http://twitter.com/missiontolearn Related posts:About Memory, Part II - Podcast with Fiona McPherson5 Key Paths to Improving Memory, Part II5 Key Paths to Improving Memory, Part I

Set Learning Goals to Avoid the Blues There is a part of me that resists the whole idea of setting goals for lifelong learning. With the world of tests and degrees behind me for the most part, I welcome the opportunity to be a dabbler, a dilettante, a jack-of-all-trades but master of none. Why should I add the stress of achieving goals to my learning mix? And then I pick up my guitar. You see, a guitar for me is symbol of all the joy that can come from learning, and at the same time, all the frustration. I play reasonably well, and I get a great deal of enjoyment out of doing it. And yet… And yet, I am nearly always conscious of the fact that I cannot express myself on the guitar in the way that I would really like to. I don’t have the knowledge. I don’t have the chops. I haven’t achieved what I would really like to with the guitar, and there is a very simple reason why: I never set clear goals for learning the guitar. Well, if you have been reading Mission to Learn lately, you know that I’ve been focused on reflection as a learning habit. So, I’ve decided to turn some of that mental energy toward the subject of learning goals and that’s led me to what I think of as a First Principle of Learning Success: You can’t separate your learning goals from your life goals With this principle in mind, you need to ask the same three essential questions about your learning goals that you would ask about your life goals: 1. What is important to me? For me, music is incredibly important, yet I’ve always tended to take it for granted and have not focused my time and efforts towards it in the way I might have. 2. What am I doing about it? I’ve taken guitar lessons on and off since I was a teenager, and I play at least a little bit on most days, but I’m not where I want to be. Partly this is because I have not consciously acknowledged how important playing a musical instrument is to me and committed myself to learning. 3. What can I get rid of? The other key reason I have not achieved what I would like to with the guitar is that I let any number of less important things distract me. What are some of the things I can’t remove from my life so that I can find more time for focused learning? Of course, these questions and the First Principle of Learning Success don’t apply only to your avocations, they also apply to your professional development, your spiritual development, and all other aspects of your life. Finally, none of this is to suggest that all learning needs to be goal-driven. Far from it. There is much to be gained from being a dabbler and dilettante at times. (The subject of a future post, I’m sure.) But I could do without the pangs I feel when I look at my guitar, and there are probably similar pangs you get from "symbols" in your life. Setting clear goals is the first step towards getting rid of them. How does goal setting factor into your lifelong learning? I welcome any tips you can share about how you set and achieve your goals. Jeff P.S. - For anyone is not familiar with it, the "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" in the title is an allusion to the Beatles classic penned by George Harrison for The White Album. Here’s George playing it at The Concert for Bangledesh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7qpfGVUd8c. No related posts.

This is the second installment of a Radio Free Learning podcast with Dr. Fiona McPherson, author of The Memory Key and curator of the About Memory Web site. In the first installment we discussed some of the keys to memory and why most memory courses don’t result in long-term memory improvement. In this second episode we discuss the brain training craze, how the brain changes as we age, and why effective note-taking (the topic of a recent book by Fiona) is so important. Here’s the MP3 file link (17:29 minutes long) in case you do not see the audio player below (or click through to the original blog post). Subscribe to the Radio Free Learning podcast: Subscribe using RSS Subscribe using iTunes I also encourage you to check out other posts on brain science and the human mind here on Mission to Learn. Jeff P.S. - Follow Mission to Learn on Twitter at http://twitter.com/missiontolearn Related posts:About Memory, Part I - Podcast with Fiona McPherson5 Key Paths to Improving Memory, Part II5 Key Paths to Improving Memory, Part I

With the world more "flat" and open than ever before, it helps tremendously to have a clear set of strategies for making sense of it all. Curtis Bonk, author of The World is Open, provides some great tips in this guest post for navigating the world of open education. One aspect of the post [...] Related posts:Open Education, Open World - Podcast with Curtis BonkOpen Education Marches On At YaleHas Open Education Crossed the Chasm?

One of my good friends has a framed document hanging in his house that lists ten rules that Thomas Jefferson believed were essential for leading a fulfilling life.  According to the Th: Jefferson Encyclopedia,  these were compiled at the request of a father who had named his baby son Thomas Jefferson Smith. They were pared down somewhat from an earlier list Jefferson sent to his granddaughter, Cornelia Jefferson Randolph. It occurred to me as I saw the document once again at my friend’s house this past weekend, that this type of accumulated life wisdom - particularly from a mind as sharp and disciplined as Jefferson’s - is something I ought to highlight from time-to-time here on Mission to Learn. So, here are Jefferson’s 10 Rules, which he described as a "decalogue of canons for observation in practical life." Never put off till tomorrow what you can do to-day. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself. Never spend your money before you have it. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold. We never repent of having eaten too little. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened. Take things always by their smooth handle. When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, an hundred. Certainly these words apply as well today as they did in Jefferson’s time - or any other time, for that matter. If you have a list like this that you particularly like - especially one from a less known source - please comment and share. Jeff P.S. - If you enjoy what you find here on Mission to Learn, I’d be truly grateful if you would subscribe by RSS feed or by e-mail. Related posts:Learn to Save a Life: 10 Free Online First Aid Resources

One of the biggest barriers we all face when pursuing our learning goals is a lack of self-discipline. We may know where we want to go, but putting in the time and effort to get there is another thing entirely. Maybe you don’t manage to drag yourself out of bed early in the morning to write, like you told yourself you would. Or you skipped practicing your Spanish verbs the last two days.  Or… [fill in one of your own]. In these situations, many of us have a tendency to embrace the more negative side of discipline. We beat ourselves up; punish ourselves for our failures.  But in doing this, we start to develop a negative mindset about discipline that can only lead to more failure. Here are some ways to shift your mind towards a more positive view of discipline: 1. Realize that discipline is the sum of many small parts "Discipline" actually derives from the Latin "disciplina," meaning teaching or learning. A disciple, in the classic sense, was someone who followed the teachings and code of conduct of a master as a path to knowledge. Naturally, this doesn’t happen overnight. It takes many years of small successes - and failures. In fact, there really is no finish line for discipline. It is an illusion to say that a person is disciplined. Really we are always in the process of becoming disciplined. 2. Focus on the small parts Given that discipline is an ongoing process rather than a set condition or one-time event, it makes sense to value the steps in the process. Your goal may be to become a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, but focusing in on mastering the Moa Seogi stance is a much more manageable short-term goal. Break that goal down into small chunks that you can begin to form into a habit. Maybe committing yourself to just 5 minutes a day of practice is all you can handle at first. But do that for 30 days, and you’ve got the foundation of a habit on which you can build. 3.  Keep the long-term view You will fail. Even in the seemingly simple effort to commit just five minutes a day to practice, the day will arrive when you skip your five minutes. These are the times where we drive ourselves crazy. We focus too much on our short-term failings. Or, for that matter, on our short-term successes. But these single instances do not matter in the long run. What matters in the long run is that we continue the process of discipline. 4. Know your reasons why If you understand the importance of learning goals and have been thoughtful in setting them, then you know what is motivating you to achieve a particular goal. Don’t lose site of that motivation. Make sure you have written it down and told others about it. Motivation is the positive energy of discipline. Always keep it close. 5. Enjoy yourself It’s hard to push yourself to have discipline when you don’t like doing something, but let’s face it, even when we are learning about something we love, there will be less enjoyable parts. Memorizing vocabulary, for example, has never been one of my favorite parts of learning a language, but it has to be done. Doing it with a beer on the back porch is one way to make it much more enjoyable. Or maybe trying out some online flashcards. Find what works for you, but figure out how you can make the trying parts of learning a bit more enjoyable. 6. Screw up Aristotle said in his Nicomachean Ethics "…as a practical matter, we must sometimes aim a bit toward excess and sometimes toward deficiency, because this will be the easiest way of hitting the mean, that is, what is right." That may sound like Greek even in English, but one way of translating it is that you don’t really know and appreciate success until you have experienced failure. So don’t sweat it too much when you fall off the wagon. It’s a necessary part of the process. 7. Repeat …Wisely Remember: Discipline is a habit. And habits, by definition, are behaviors that are repeated again and again. The important point is to recognize your "excesses" and "deficiencies," as Aristotle would put it, and try not to keep repeating those. You will repeat them, of course, whether you like it or not, but over time repetition of "what is right" will prevail. It seems appropriate to wrap up by saying that this post is part of my own effort to cultivate a more disciplined approach to blogging. Those who have been reading in the past month or so may have guessed that it represents another installment of my Zen Learning Habits series, inspired by Leo Babauta’s work at Zen Habits. As always, I welcome your comments. How do you deal with the issue of discipline in your own learning efforts? Please comment and share with other readers. - Jeff Related posts:Discipline4 Simple Steps to Jump Start Your Learning Habit5 Powerful Reasons to Make Reflection a Daily Learning Habit, and How to Do It

If you are partial to attending class wearing an Armani suit and a $400 haircut, this post may not be for you. At least, that is not the sort of sophistication I have in mind (though it’s fine with me if you want to look dapper while you are learning). Rather, when I use the term "sophisticated," I’m bearing in mind its connection to a group of teachers who wandered Ancient Greece cultivating wisdom: the Sophists. The Sophists, in my opinion, deserve a little positive PR when it comes to lifelong learning. The terms "sophist" and "sophistry" have taken on derogatory connotations in modern times. They suggest distortion of the truth through complex, convoluted reasoning. Ironically, this interpretation of the Sophists’ legacy is itself a distortion of the truth. The greater part of what we know about Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias, Prodicus and the other philosophers who are associated with the Sophist movement comes from Plato and Aristotle, neither of whom had a very high opinion of the group. If you have ever sat through even the first day or two of a Western Philosophy 101 course, you know that Plato and Aristotle carry a lot of weight. If they didn’t give the thumbs up to a philosophical movement, the movement probably didn’t fare very well in subsequent history. So it went with the Sophists. But the real story of the Sophists - at least so far as we can now decipher it - is that they were a group dedicated to cultivating excellence and virtue, primarily through the skillful use of reasoning and argumentation. The Sophists usually charged for instruction and often questioned things that people didn’t really want questioned - like, for example, the existence of popular deities. As a result, they were not universally popular, to say the least. But who ever said the pursuit of knowledge is a path to popularity? If you are willing to take a few risks, the following three practices of the Sophists are good ones to adopt in your pursuit of lifelong learning. 1. Question everything - and then question it again Asking questions was at the heart of the Sophist approach to learning. Often they would push their questioning to the point of absurdity in an effort to expose the fallacy of a particular belief or argument. This was critical thinking on steroids, though as you might imagine, it has the potential to be a bit annoying. Practice this technique judiciously, but most definitely make it part of your skill set: In the info-flooded world of the Wild Wild Web, questioning is more important than ever. 2. Learn how to articulate your arguments well The Sophists were particularly skillful with language, and I suspect this was one of the key traits (in addition to their fat fees) that turned people against them. It can be infuriating to be subjected to a stream of absurd arguments that are so skillfully constructed you don’t know how to refute them. But there is no better way of knowing how to identify and pick apart false arguments than mastering the art of constructing them yourself. Moreover, if you are able to speak clearly, in your own language about a complex topic, that is one of the surest signs that you have learned it well. 3. Cultivate a thick skin When you start questioning things, people will disagree with you. When you question eloquently, with well-constructed arguments, you will likely even attract fierce enemies. The Sophists, I’m sure, became quite accustomed to the slings and arrows of their critics. They persevered and prospered - and even avoided drinking hemlock. If you are out there blogging, podcasting, tweeting, or otherwise being public about your learning activities, you are bound to catch some criticism of your own along the way. Learn to embrace criticism as part of the process - and, of course, be well-prepared to articulate your counter arguments when appropriate. Master these three practices, and you will indeed be a "sophisticated learner" in the truest since. Jeff P.S. - Another practice of the sophisticated learner in modern times is to subscribe to Mission to Learn by RSS feed or by e-mail. Related posts:5 Traits of the Super LearnerFive Themes for the Web 2.0 Learner

I sing the praises of podcasts as a learning medium from time to time. After reading an article recently about how the Warwick School of Business is using iTunes University to deliver content in its MBA program, I decided it was past time for me to pull together a list of some of my favorite iPod educational content sources. Here are 10 great ones, in no particular order: 1. Quick and Dirty Tips Probably best known for the Grammar Girl podcast, Quick and Dirty Tips offers short and snappy content on a range of other topics, like nutrition, public speaking, investing, and even dog training. 2. LearnOutLoud I’ve been a fan of The Philosophy Podcast for a while now, but LearnOutLoud has a lot more to offer. In fact, the site claims to have "the Internet’s first directory for podcasts you can learn from." And LearnOutLoud also has a great selection of learning resources for kids. 3. MindBites I interviewed MindBites CEO Jason Reneau for a Radio Free Learning podcast a while back. His company’s site offers a large and growing collection of video "instructionals" on topics ranging from sewing to calculus to baby sign language. 4. Radio Lingua Network Radio Lingua offers the popular Coffee Break Spanish and Coffee Break French podcast series as well as "My Daily Phrase" and "One Minute" podcasts for a number of other languages. 5. iTunes U (Opens in iTunes) iTunes U is the place for great free content from top universities and other educational institutions. Apple claims there are more than 200,000 educational audio and video files available. Here are direct links to a few of the participating institutions and organizations. (You will have to have iTunes installed for these to work): Carnegie Melon Univerity of Oxford Open University Stanford University Edutopia Teacher’s Domain (WGBH/PBS) 6. Education Podcast Network The Education Podcast Network bills itself as "an effort to bring together into one place, the wide range of podcast programming that may be helpful to teachers looking for content to teach with and about, and to explore issues of teaching and learning in the 21st century." Of course, you don’t have to be a teacher to use it! 7. The Naked Scientists If you have the slightest interest in science, The Naked Scientists is a site you will want to subscribe to. A project of the BBC, it offers up a continuing stream of interviews with famous scientists along with news and information about science, medicine and technology. 8. Librivox Librivox is the source for free audio book content on the Web, and it offers a variety of podcast options. You can pull pretty much any audio book on the site into your iPod, or try out one of these five channels for an automated stream of content: LibriVox Books Podcast LibriVox Community Podcast LibriVox Poetry Podcast LibriVox Short Story Podcast LibriVox New Releases Podcast 9. TED Talks I’m continually amazed at the stream of high quality content coming out of the Technology, Entertainment, and Design conference. The Web site is very popular, but you might not be aware that you can subscribe to both a video and an audio version of TED talks through iTunes. 10. Teaching Company I’ve got a bit of a chip on my shoulder when it comes to The Teaching Company. They, along with Amazon and many others, dropped their North Carolina affiliates like a hot potato after the NC Legislature passed a hare-brained new tax law late this summer. Still, if you are willing to pony up the bucks for it, the company offers some pretty amazing, in-depth educational content. "Great courses taught by great professors," as they put it. So, those are a few of my favorites. What about you? What would you like to add to the mix? Please comment and share your favorites. Jeff P.S. - Naturally, I also encourage you to check out the Radio Free Learning podcast here on Mission to Learn. Additions I continue to add to this list from time to time. If you have other great sources of learning content for your iPod that you’d like to suggest, please share them in the comments. 11. New York Times Podcasts Podcasts covering a range of areas from what is perhaps America’s best newspaper. Related posts:Discover Your Inner PhilosopherCollaborative Learning with Grockit - Podcast7 Language Learning Widget Sources

It’s time for another edition of the Radio Free Learning podcast here on Mission to Learn. In this episode, I talk with Farb Nivi, co-founder and CEO of Grockit. I became intrigued with Grockit quite a while ago when the company was promoting itself as a collaborative, game-driven learning platform. Since that time, Grockit’s focus has turned towards the test preparation market and helping learners prepare, collaboratively, for big standardized tests like the SAT and the GMAT. In this podcast, I talk with Farb about how the Grockit platform works, his views on teaching and learning, and where Grockit may be headed in the future. If you are interested at all in collaborative learning and adaptive learning systems, this podcast is for you. One other note - I’ve introduced "Show Notes" with this podcast to help give you an idea of how the conversation flows. Here’s the MP3 file link (19:24 for content only/25:23 with extended theme music) in case you do not see the audio player below (or, if viewing by e-mail or RSS reader, click through to the original blog post). Subscribe to the Radio Free Learning podcast: Subscribe using RSS Subscribe using iTunes Grockit Podcast Show Notes 01:14 - Farb gives overview of what Grockit does 01:20 - Peers are a resource "left on the table" in most learning environments 01:45 - A million and a half kids take the SAT annually - a great resource to each student is other students 02:36 - System adapts to learners- whether working on their own, with a group, or with an expert. Applies algorithms to optimize environment 03:48 - Learning platform in multiple senses - people go there to learn, but the environment also learns about them and responds 04:22 - Discussion of gaming as a form of learning, starting with "Game mechanics are human mechanics," just slightly more defined and immediate 06:30 - Discussion of standardized tests. Is Grockit sticking up for them? 08:38 - Discussion of our current educational system - and where it is falling short 09:36 - Teachers used to be facilitators of a design that had students learning from each other 11:35 - When you are forced to teach others, your own learning amplifies quite a bit 12:30 - Reference to the Cluetrain Manifesto. "Markets are conversations" - old idea made new again. Similar phenomenon occurring in education. 13:25 - Farb’s influences - Peter Senge, Edward Tufte, Russell Ackoff, etc. - and background 15:15 - The future vision for Grockit and the collaborative learning platform - beyond test prep 17:07 - Origin of the name Grockit 17:55 - What Farb has learned in building Grockit as a company 19:24 - Roll The Information Age by Anthony Fiumano, available on the Podsafe Music Network Jeff P.S. - Interested in collaborative learning? I encourage you to check out 15 Free Online Collaboration Tools and Apps . Related posts:Podcast: Mobile Learning with MookeeIluminate Your Mind with Jonathan Mead - PodcastAbout Memory, Part II - Podcast with Fiona McPherson