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

Each of us is physically active, even if only in very small ways, throughout each and every day, and yet we all realize that true physical fitness usually only comes as a result of a conscious, consistent exercise habit. So it is with learning. Our learning never really stops, but once we reach the stage of life where there is no longer a teacher standing in front of us on a regular basis, it usually becomes a much more haphazard affair. I happen to be a fan of random, haphazard learning, but like most devoted lifelong learners, I also appreciate the sense of fulfillment that comes from really focusing and mastering a new topic or skill. Reaching this kind of fulfillment demands that we establish clear learning habits, but we often fail to do so. For thoughts on how to address this problem, I’m turning once again to Leo Babauta for inspiration. Time for another installment of Zen Learning Habits. The Main Problems Where do we tend to fall short in making learning a conscious, regular habit? Here are some of the main pitfalls I know I encounter: 1. No real goals I wrote about the importance of setting learning goals recently in relation to my own struggles with learning to play the guitar. It’s easy to pick up a little bit of new knowledge - a chord here, a scale there - but the path to true accomplishment requires a clear goal and consistent habits in support of that goal. 2. Too many goals Often we set out to do too much. We want to learn a new language, become a black belt in karate, and [fill in one of your own] all at the same time. In the short term, this can feel exciting and fulfilling, but over the long haul, spreading out our focus in this way means we are unlikely to achieve any of our goals. 3. Too difficult In our enthusiasm for learning, we may set goals or try to establish habits that are simply unrealistic. "I will practice for an hour a day," just may not work in your life right now, and trying to force it will lead to frustration and, ultimately, giving up. I think being realistic is one of the main areas where discipline factors into learning. 4. Low motivation Let’s face it: lifelong learning is not all fun and games. There are times when it is important for us to acquire new skills or knowledge that we may not be all that passionate about. Discipline helps, but discipline only takes you so far if you can’t find ways to boost your motivation. The 4 Simple Steps So how do we overcome those problems? Keep it simple. Here are the 4 simple steps to start - or jump start - your learning habit and keep it going. 1. Set one easy, specific, measurable goal. There are several keys to setting your core learning goal: Write it down: If you don’t write it down, it’s not important. I recommend actually putting it on paper and posting it somewhere you will easily come across it several times a day. Alternatively, if you are bit of a techie, have it load up automatically on your computer desktop. Make it easy: Start with something you know is a slam dunk - like practicing an instrument for 5 minutes a day - and build from there. Success breeds success. Be specific: Be crystal clear about what activity are you going to do, at what time of day, and where. Don’t just say "practice" or "read". You have to set a time, a place, and specific activities. Make it an appointment you can’t miss. Set a trigger: It might sound a little Pavlovian, but it’s a good idea to have  a "trigger" for your habit. For example, you might always brush your teeth right after you shower. The shower is the trigger for brushing your teeth, and because of the trigger, you never forget to brush your teeth. Well, what will you do right before your learning habit? Is it right after you wake up? Right after your coffee? Right when you get home? A trigger that you do every single day is important. Make it measurable: By measurable, I mean that you should be able to say, definitely, whether you hit or miss your goal today. Examples: Practice scales for 10 minutes. Read 5 pages. Write 3 paragraphs. Each of those has a number that you can shoot for. Stick to it: Stick to this one goal for at least a month. Two months if you can bear it. Don’t start up a second goal during that 30-day period or you will endanger the success of your first goal. 2. Log it daily It may sound trivial, but keeping a short, simple record of your daily activities can make a tremendous difference. It helps you see your progress; it helps you remember and reflect; and it can help keep you motivated, if motivation is a problem.  Make brief notes right after your daily learning activity. Don’t put it off, and say you’ll do it before you go to bed. As soon as you’re done, log it. No exceptions. And don’t make the log complicated — that will only make you resist doing the log. Just the date, time, and what you did. This simple approach to taking notes is very powerful. 3. Connect with others I’m too much of an introvert to say you have to declare your goals and your progress towards them to the world. Nonetheless, most of us do benefit from adding a social element to our learning, and I think that connecting with others who share our learning interests - whether online or off - is a very important part of a successful learning habit. Connecting with others helps keep us more conscious of our learning goals, holds us more accountable to ourselves, and brings new perspectives and knowledge to our learning activities. Start a blog - and comment on other blogs. Find an online forum. Join a book group. There are any number of ways to connect with others in support of your learning habit. 4. Apply discipline as needed The first three steps will take you a long ways towards developing a consistent, focused learning habit, but more may be needed at times.  As I have noted before, "to master the ability to do anything requires discipline." If you find you are struggling at times, you may want to try out these 7 Small "Mind Shifts" for When You Lack Discipline. Master these four simple steps - which were adapted from 4 Simple Steps to Start the Exercise Habit - and you will be well on your way to achieving your learning goals. Along the way, you may want to check out some of the other Zen Learning Habits posts here on Mission to Learn.  If you like them, I’d be grateful if you would bookmark them with Delicious or another bookmarking site of your choice. Jeff P.S. - If you like what you read here on Mission to Learn, I’d really appreciate it if you would subscribe by RSS feed or by e-mail. Related posts:5 Powerful Reasons to Make Reflection a Daily Learning Habit, and How to Do It7 Small "Mind Shifts" for When You Lack DisciplineWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps - Or the Importance of Setting Learning Goals

Last night I hit "Send" on a new edition of the Learning Monitor e-newsletter. As usual it is chock full of free and low-cost learning sources for lifelong learners. Subscribe and you’ll automatically receive the full issue once you confirm your subscription, but here are a few items from the Learning Smorgasbord to whet your appetite: from Collections & Teach-Learn-Share Sites Free Internet Libraries Free Internet Libraries provides free books, course notes, practice problems, test reviews, career advancement materials, teaching materials, and much more. *** from Science & Math Cephalopodcast - The Ocean Podcast The Ocean Podcast: news from the other 71% of our planet plus topics in science and education. Gelatinous, for the masses. *** from Computers & the Internet Rosie Knows RosieKnows offers free and easy video lessons on how to use hundreds of websites. Facebook, Skype, Pandora, Craigslist, Netflix, Kayak and many more! *** from Business 100+ Places to Get a Free Business Education Online From Online Degree Programs.org - If you have the ambition to learn but lack the funds to make it to b-school, then you should check out the following places to get a business education online without having to pay a penny in tuition. *** from Language & Culture Memorista.com Learn Language Vocabulary with Mnemonics . Simply put, we’ve built a revolutionary system to help you learn foreign vocabulary quickly and easily. We’ve coupled traditional flash card learning with mnemonics, or memory aids, to help you to memorise each item quickly and easily, and we’ve surrounded the whole thing with a system to help your learning progress. *** from Personal Finance Essential Personal Finance E-Books From Get Rich Slowly - A few days ago, I released The Get Rich Slowly Guide to Roth IRAs as a free e-book. Readers who are interested in opening a retirement account can download this short book — which draws from a series of articles I wrote two years ago — and use it as a reference as they work through the process. Though this is my first e-book (it won’t be my last), there are a variety of other great personal-finance e-books available for free download. You can pick up others for just a couple of bucks — or by subscribing to an e-mail newsletter. Here’s a quick overview of some I’ve found lately. *** from Odds & Ends 45 Awesome Free Bag Making Tutorials | frugalandthriving.com.au I’m not much of a sewer, but I’m trying. I made a bag recently and have gone a little bit bag crazy. Making a bag is a great way to learn how to sew. Below is a range of different bag tutorials to try. They vary from beginner level to the more complex, in no particular order. There are quite a few sewing and construction techniques in these tutorials that could be easily combined to create your own custom bag design. (Who knew there were 45 free bag making tutorials to be had?!) That’s just a taste of the delicious learning the Monitor delivers to your inbox. Subscribe today to get a full helping! Jeff Related posts:20 Language Links from the Free Learning Monitor

Immersing yourself in a book or in the literary culture is a great way to get more out of the books you read. There are thousands of sites online created specifically for people who like to read. Many of these sites can be used to find, read, discuss, and share books online. Here is a list of 15 free online resources that any book lover will enjoy: Like what you see here? Even if you are just "stumbling" by, I’d truly appreciate it if you would consider subscribing by RSS feed or by e-mail. - Jeff AddAll - AddAll is a free book search and comparison site. It compares prices on books from more than 20,000 sellers so that book buyers can get the best deal possible when shopping online. aNobii - aNobii is a book community that allows users to comment on books, create "online bookshelves," and mingle with other book lovers. Barnes& Noble - The online presence of Barnes & Noble is more than just a place to buy books. This site also offers book reviews, a forum where readers can connect, regular columns, articles, and much more. Big Universe - This award winning web community is excellent for young book lovers. Big Universe users can read books online, create and publish their own works, recommend books, and much more. BookGlutton - After signing up for a free BookGlutton account, users can find and read books online. Books can be read alone or with a group of people. BookGlutton also allows users to chat with other members while reading a book online. BookMooch - BookMooch is a free online service that allows readers to give away the books they no longer want and get new books in return. BookMooch users can get two books for every one they give away. BooksWellRead - This free online book journal is an excellent way to keep track of what you’ve already read. You can make a private or public list of your books and include comments so that you can remember exactly what you thought about any given book. BooksWellRead also provides a place for you to connect with a community of other readers. DailyReader - DailyReader makes it easy for book lovers to find time to read on a regular basis. This free service sends part of a book to you each day via email so that you can read for a few minutes each day until the book is finished. Goodreads - Goodreads is an enormous social network with nearly 3 million reading members. At Goodreads, you can make a list of the books you have read, write reviews, and get book recommendations from other people. LibraryThing - LibraryThing is a good place to catalog your books online. Catalogs can be accessed from any PC or mobile phone and may be made public or kept private. LibraryThing also allows users to give and get book recommendations. LitLovers - LitLovers is a site for books and book clubs. Offerings include book recommendations, reading guides, discussion topics, free literature courses, and a special section just for kids. Project Gutenberg - Project Gutenberg was the very first site to offer free ebooks online and is still one of the web’s best sources of free books in the public domain. More than 30,000 books are available through the site’s catalog. ReadingGroupGuides - This site provides thousands of reading guides for book clubs and individual readers. The site also offers contests, message boards, a newsletter, a blog, and much more. Shelfari - Shelfari is a social media site for people who love to read. It can be used to build a virtual bookshelf, see what other people are reading, and discuss favorite books online.15 Online Resources for Book Lovers The Book Cover Archive - They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but that doesn’t make cover art any less fun to look at. The Book Cover Archive displays a collection of thousands of book covers. Visitors can browse covers, leave comments, and suggest covers for the archive. Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online classes for OnlineClasses.org. Subscribe by RSS feed or by e-mail. And be sure to check out 10 Most Popular Posts of All Time on Mission to Learn - Jeff Related posts:25 Free Online Resources and Web Apps for Lifelong LearnersLearn to Save a Life: 10 Free Online First Aid Resources30 High-Value Tips and Resources for Learning on the Cheap

I do some of my best learning when I am settled in at 35,000 feet. I read. I tap into the large store of iPod learning content I keep on hand. I think (although it may look like I’m sleeping). Sometimes I even manage to find a nugget of wisdom in the airline magazines. Here’s a couple from a recent flight from Raleigh to Baltimore, compliments of the Southwest Airlines Spirit magazine: Be Deliberate Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated and Eating Animals, says that his choice to be vegetarian is "one of my ways of being deliberate within my life."  Safran Foer goes on to note that: Eating can be so mechanical, something for which one feels exactly nothing. We eat merely to get full. It’s nice to have a chosen approach to food; eating a certain way - even if it’s arbitrary, although my vegetarianism is the opposite of arbitrariness - brings consciousness to an everyday act that rarely calls for any. We do any number of things unconsciously on a daily basis. I think a great exercise in learning is to approach common, everyday activities in a deliberate, conscious way.  You can’t help but ask why more when you do this - Why do I eat what I eat? Why am I compelled to be at my desk by 9:00 each morning? - and asking why is often the first step in learning. This sort of deliberate, conscious approach to things underlies the under-appreciated learning strategies I wrote about earlier. (Just a nudge to check that one out if you haven’t before.).  Cultivating reflection as a learning habit also helps greatly. What do you think? Have you found value in being more conscious of and deliberate about some of the common activities in your own life? Beware of Marketers in Teachers Clothes Speaking of cultivating consciousness, Christopher McDougall, highlights how we may often be unaware of pitfalls in "education" seemingly intended for our benefit. McDougall is the author of Born to Run, a scathing critique of the running shoe industry. Running shoes, he contends, are a racket - and a potentially harmful one at that. The rate of some running injuries has actually gone up since Nike introduced the modern running shoe in 1972, and confusion about the bewildering range of running shoe choices has multiplied at an even greater rate. The solution? Customer education. The trend in recent years has been for running store "experts" to coach shoppers in the process of finding the perfect shoe. This is a reasonable idea on the surface, but seems less so when you consider that most of the confusion is manufactured by, well, manufacturers.  Nike and others keep pumping out model after model, and if you believe McDougall, none of the models is a particularly good choice. I happen to be a big fan of customer education - I preach it in my job-that-pays-the-bills - but like any educational experience it comes with fundamental pre-conditions: those generating "content" (in this case, running shoes and all the accompanying data) must do so on an ethical basis; the "teacher" must take responsibility for truly understanding the content and its context; and the "learner" must be prepared to question the teacher. (Questioning, after all, is a key practice of the "sophisticated" learner.) Everyone, I’d add, should to come to the table with critical thinking skills in tow. I’ve definitely been through the whole running shoe education scenario myself. I tried on shoes, had someone watch me run in the parking lot, bought the whole thing hook line and sinker and paid probably $20 more than I might have otherwise for the shoes. Maybe I got something of value for that $20, but I wished I’d questioned the experience more at the time. How about you? Have you been pulled in by customer education experiences, good or bad? World Enough and Time A quick note to regular readers - Travel and deadlines for the-job-that-pays-the-bills have seriously cut into the time I have been able to dedicate to Mission to Learn lately. I should be able to get back to doing more in the next week, but in the meantime, I continue to seek out other bloggers and writers who are passionate about lifelong learning and who would be interested in contributing here. If you fall in that camp, please take a look at the submit page and contact me. Jeff P.S. - If you like what you read here on Mission to Learn, I’d really appreciate it if you would subscribe by RSS feed or by e-mail. Related posts:30 High-Value Tips and Resources for Learning on the Cheap

If you are reading this, you are one of roughly 1400 subscribers (Thank you!) or one of the many others who stops each day. I’m really hoping you will take a minute to comment. I’d appreciate it greatly. Comment on what? Well, I’m pondering things like health care reform in the U.S., Afghanistan, BPA, the rise of the BRIC economies, global climate change, H1N1, and on a more local level, what the priorities of the Carrboro board of alderman should be. Truth is, if you were to stop me on the street, I’m not sure how coherently I would be able to talk about these and any number of other current issues. Not that I don’t read, see, and hear a decent amount of information about all of these things. But that’s different from really developing an understanding of them. Or being able to make good decisions about them when necessary. So, I’m out to learn more what you might call working - or better yet, living - knowledge. By this I mean the sort of knowledge we need to cultivate day in and day out simply to live safe, healthy lives and be good citizens of our communities and the world What about you? Where do you go for your information about current issues and events? What, if anything, do you do to move beyond the constant stream of data, opinions, and stories to develop a deeper understanding of what’s going on in the world around you? What’s working, what’s not? Please comment and share your strategies. I’m hoping a good number of readers will be willing chip in and help each other out on this. Jeff P.S. - If you like what you read here on Mission to Learn, I’d really appreciate it if you would subscribe by RSS feed or by e-mail. Related posts:A Sense-full Approach to Learning

Every once in a while its nice to stop and take stock of what’s working and what’s not on the blog. There are many gauges for this, but one that is easy to quantify is which posts have attracted the most views on the site. The following 10 posts have attracted the most "unique page views," according to Google Analytics, from November 15, 2007 to November 16, 2009. While these don’t really paint a complete picture of Mission to Learn, new visitors might find them a good starting point nonetheless, and long-time readers might find it fun to revisit some of them. Here they are in reverse order, Letterman-style: 10. A Definition of Learning I was a good two years into Mission to Learn before I realized it might be valuable to offer a definition of what I mean by learning. Apparently there are a number of people out there looking for such a definition. Look for this one to evolve over time. (1977 unique views) 9. 25 Free Online Resources and Web Apps for Lifelong Learners This is one of the guest posts that has done very well on Mission to Learn. If you write a blog about any aspect of lifelong learning or personal growth, guest posting is one of the best ways to drive some traffic and attract new subscribers. Consider submitting to Mission to Learn, and definitely study posts like this one for tips. (2098 unique views) 8. 15 Ways to Find an Hour a Day of Extra Time…for Focused Learning This is part of the Zen Learning Habits series, a make-shift personal writer’s workshop through which I am attempting to learn from Zen Habits founder Leo Babauta. It’s a testimony to Leo’s great skill as a blogger that a re-worked version of one of his posts can end up being one of the more popular posts on a completely different blog! (2237 unique views) 7. 25 Sites and Tools to Exercise Your Brain "Brain training" is a very hot topic, so it’s no surprise that this one (another guest post) attracted quite a bit of traffic. (3247 unique views) 6. 50 Web Widgets for Your Learning Mix An oldy that is due for an update - and maybe an iPhone-only version. There are lots of clever little tools out there for infusing learning into the nooks and crannies of your life. (5348 unique views) 5. Learning 2.0 for Associations - Free eBook Aside from guest posting on other blogs, offering some form of substantial free content is another great way to build traffic. The Learning 2.0 book is not as in synch with the overall thrust of Mission to Learn as it used to be, but it attracted a great deal of traffic in its day, and continues to do so. (8008 unique views) 4. 15 Free Online Collaboration Tools and Apps I thought this one would be popular, but I was a little surprised by just how popular it has proven to be. Apparently people are very eager to collaborate for free. (7417 unique views) 3. 15 Online Resources for Book Lovers This one got "stumbled" by a power stumbler, and the rest is history. Traffic shot through the roof and you may see it at the top of the list before too long. (15177 unique views) 2. More Than 100 Free Places to Learn Online - and Counting This was the first post on Mission to Learn to generate a traffic surge, and two years later, it is still one of the most popular posts. Just shows you how hungry people are for learning opportunities. (16,959 unique views) 1. 26 Learning Games to Change the World I would have never guessed at the time that I posted this one that it would turn out to be by far the most popular post on the blog. In addition to the significant number of page views, it has also attracted more than 700 bookmarks on Delicious. Learning, games, and social change go together well it seems. (24,298 unique views) So that’s the Top 10 based on unique page views. I welcome your comments on this post or on any of the individual posts above. Unfortunately, after a server disaster at Bluehost (a company to avoid if you expect to ever have any significant blog traffic), I lost a lot of comments, so it is hard for me to gauge popularity based on comments. Jeff P.S. - If you like what you read here on Mission to Learn, I’d really appreciate it if you would subscribe by RSS feed or by e-mail. Related posts:A New Look for Mission to LearnMission to Learn Site Restoration

With so many people looking to pick up new skills in a tough job market, now seems like a good time to offer guidance on where to find valuable training for free. Here’s a post from Karen Schweitzer with 10 places to find computer programming education. Computer programmers are employed by every industry imaginable. If you have been thinking about programming as a career, or if you simply have an interest in this area of technology, you can begin your studies online. There are many different universities and other education resources that provide free courses, lessons, and tutorials for self-learners. Here are 10 free computer programming courses and sites to explore: Intro to Computer Science and Programming - This free online course from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is perfect for students who have little to no programming experience. The course is self-paced and includes video lectures, assignments, and exams with solutions. Introduction to Computers and Programming - Written by a professor at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), this free introductory course teaches users the basics of structured programming and object-oriented programming. The course is designed for students with no previous programming knowledge. Computer Science Course - Anyone can participate in this free computer science course from the University of California-Berkeley. The course focuses on both operating systems and programming and is presented through a series of audio and video lectures. Object-Oriented Programming in C++ - Designed for students with basic programming knowledge, this free online course from the University of Southern Queensland introduces students to object-oriented programming through multiple learning modules, lectures, assignments, and an exam. Carlhprogramming Course - Created for everyone-from programming novices to masters-this free programming course is a real-time Reddit course with more than 100 lessons. New lessons are constantly being added and old lessons are archived so that users can study at their own pace. C++ Learning Center - The University of Cambridge’s C++ Learning Center is an excellent starting place for anyone who wants to learn C++ or improve their current skills. The center provides tutorials, answers to frequently asked questions, general reference materials, and much more. The Java Tutorials - Sun offers this series of Java Tutorials for programmers who are interested in using the Java language to create computer applications. The tutorials provide a comprehensive introduction to new programmers and useful tips for more advanced programmers. Programming Tutorials - ProgrammingTutorials.com is a no-frills site with hundreds of great online tutorials, lessons, and how-to’s. More than 300 resources are available in all, covering everything from C++ and JavaScript to XML. Free-Ed.net Programming Courses - Free-Ed.net provides several free computer programming and web programming courses for self-learners. Each course includes an online textbook that is easy to read and understand. Free Tech Books - Free Tech Books links to free tech books all over the web. Budding programmers can find free ebooks covering functional programming, object-oriented programming, concurrent programming, logic programming, and other computer programming topics. Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online school for OnlineSchool.net. Interested in guest posting on Mission to Learn? Find out more >> Related posts:35+ Free Online Business Education Sites Free, Open Stanford Engineering Courses More than 100 Free Places to Learn Online - and Counting

I’ve noted before that podcasts are among my Top 5 Web Learning Tools, and I also recently highlighted 10 Killer Killer Content Sources for Your iPod Learning Mix, but learning from podcasts is not just about consuming content. In fact, producing content may be an even more effective way to leverage podcasting for learning. To that end, I’ve recently put together a free, brief guide for how to produce and distribute a podcast. By way of background, the guide is meant to provide details about how a colleague and I are producing and distributing the Radio Free Association podcast, a bi-weekly series we do for professionals in the association world. Because it focuses mostly on the specific approaches we use for that podcast - and a few we may use in the future - it does not cover every possible option (that would be overwhelming and probably unproductive anyway). Nonetheless, it offers a concise set of tools and brief explanations that should be of use to pretty much any individual or organization that wants to get into podcasting or expand their current efforts. Topics covered include: Setting up the Web site for the podcast Creating the RSS Feed Recording the podcast Mixing and editing Hosting the audio files Budgeting for a podcast Just follow the link below to download the free PDF. How-to-Podcast-Mini-Guide By the way, I’m pleased to note that Jonathan Mead, founder of the Illuminated Mind blog and author of Reclaim Your Dreams, will be joining me for the next Radio Free Learning podcast here on Mission to Learn this week. I encourage you to check out some of the earlier podcasts, and subscribe to make sure you don’t miss the interview with Jonathan. Happy podcasting, Jeff Related posts:Iluminate Your Mind with Jonathan Mead - Podcast

I’m very pleased to be joined by Jonathan Mead for this round of the Radio Free Learning podcast. Jonathan is an entrepreneur, author of the highly popular eBook Reclaim Your Dreams, and founder of the Illuminated Mind blog. He also writes frequently for Zen Habits, and in general, is a rising star of the self development world. In the podcast, Jonathan and I discuss the path that led him to renounce the conventional world of 9 to 5, launch Illuminated Mind, and go on to reclaim his own dreams. We also touch on the concept of the zero hour work week -  the title of Jonathan’s latest free eBook. As you might expect, "learning" factors heavily into Jonathan’s story and into our discussion. Here’s the MP3 file link (23:45) 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 The theme music for the podcast is The Information Age by Anthony Fiumano, available on the Podsafe Music Network Jeff P.S. - If you like the interview with Jonathan, you may also enjoy the Zen Learning Habits series here on Mission to Learn. Related posts:Learn to Podcast - A Mini-Guide Collaborative Learning with Grockit - Podcast About Memory, Part II - Podcast with Fiona McPherson

Guest post by Celisa Steele. "Up to your shoulder inside a cow, you feel the hot heavy squeeze of her, but I’ll never forget my startled delight the first time I withdrew my hand slowly and felt the cow’s muscles contract and release one after another, like a row of people shaking hands with me in a receiving line." A couple of months ago I read Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses, which inspired the Nova miniseries Mystery of the Senses and is the source for the quotation above. A Natural History of the Senses is not a new book—it was published in 1990—but Janice Moore Fuller, a writer and teacher, recommended the book at a poetry workshop I attended this summer. Fuller’s point was poets must understand the five senses; they are, finally, the only material we have with which to weave the warp and weft of poetry.  Ackerman herself is a poet, and her skill in grounding description in the vitality of the senses is everywhere apparent in A Natural History of the Senses, which reads not like a typical, thesis-driven work of nonfiction but like so many meandering letters to these loves of her life: smell, touch, taste, hearing, vision. So What? But why do you care if you’re not an inspiring poet like Ackerman or Fuller (or an aspiring one like I am)? Because the senses are, in the end, how we learn anything, the only way we know anything. "When scientists, philosophers, and other commentators speak of the real world," Ackerman writes, "they’re talking about a myth, a convenient fiction. The world is a construct the brain builds based on the sensory information it’s given, and the information is only a small part of all that’s available." Sometimes deprivation heightens our awareness of the senses, and Ackerman uses one acute, well-known case to make this clear: One of the greatest sensuists of all time—not Cleopatra, Marilyn Monroe, Proust of any of the other obvious voluptuaries—was a handicapped woman with several senses gone. Blind, deaf, mute, Helen Keller’s remaining senses were so finely attuned that when she put her hands on the radio to enjoy music, she could tell the difference between the cornets and the strings. She listened to colorful, down-home stories of life surging along the Mississippi from the lips of her friend Mark Twain. She wrote at length about the whelm of life’s aromas, tastes, touches, feelings, which she explored with the voluptuousness of a courtesan." Author, advocate, and activist, Keller exemplifies a mission to learn, arguably better than any other individual. I mention—and more, recommend—A Natural History of the Senses not for the interesting and often bizarre tidbits (the receiving-line metaphor that opens this post, for example, or "In the Elizabethan Age, lovers exchanged ‘love apples’—a woman would keep a peeled apple in her arm pit until it was saturated with her sweat, and then give it to her sweetheart to inhale.") No, as intriguing as those morsels may be, I recommend the book primarily because of the opportunity it offers to become more conscious of the senses and how they shape our knowledge. Without the burden and gift of Keller’s disabilities, we can still learn new and exciting things from the senses we often ignore. Now What? So take some time today to be more conscious of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches around you. At your desk or in your yard, close your eyes; focus on the smells (an appealingly bitter aroma of coffee or the pungency of decaying leaves) and sounds (the quiet hum of the computer or the disruptive drone of an airplane). Hold some everyday object, like a stapler—discover its cool heft. You get the idea. These are exercises not intended to teach you anything in particular. They’re meant to nurture a keen awareness of the senses, those media that moderate our interaction with the world and construct our ability to learn from it. "It is both our panic and our privilege to be mortal and sense-full," Ackerman writes. "We live on the leash of our senses. Although they enlarge us, they also limit and restrain us, but how beautifully." I’m very happy to present this first guest post by poet Celisa Steele (who also did the excellent editing and design work on Learning 2.0 for Associations). Perhaps it will be the first of many? If you are interested in posting on Mission to Learn, please check out the submission guidelines. - JTC Related posts:Wrestlin’ with making sense of it all. You?

I realized recently that it has been longer than usual since I have posted anything related to language learning here on Mission to Learn. Here’s a great guest post from Karen Schweitzer to fill that gap - JTC Reading from a textbook isn’t the only way to learn a foreign language. The web offers a number of free tools that can be used to enhance the learning experience inside and outside the classroom. Here are 15 language learning tools to try today: VerbaLearn - VerbaLearn is an excellent vocabulary tool for English language learners. It can be customized so that students can practice the words they need to practice and skip the ones they are already familiar with. Popling - Popling is a unique way to learn a language without intense study. This free web app sends random questions and flashcards to your computer screen so that you can learn new vocab words while you work on other things. Foreign Language Flashcards - This site provides free picture flashcards for visual learners who are trying to master a foreign language. Other resources include free foreign language learning guides, downloads, and a flashcard maker. Quizlet - Quizlet can be used to create and share flashcards. It is a wonderful tool for learning new vocabulary words. Lingolook - Lingolook is a foreign language phrasebook application that works with iPhone. The app isn’t free, but it is cheap. For less than $5, students can download it and learn all of the most important phrases used while traveling. Byki - This personalized language learning system can be downloaded for free. It is available in 70 different languages and includes tools to help people permanently memorize vocabulary words and phrases. eduFire - eduFire provides a wide range of video flashcards for foreign language learners. Cards are rated for difficulty and content so that students and teachers can quickly find what they are looking for. Livemocha - Livemocha offers the opportunity for learners to study and practice a language at their own pace. The site can also be used to connect with foreign language learners around the world. MyHappyPlanet - This social language learning site is perfect for students who want to meet new friends and practice a foreign language with native speakers. MyHappyPlanet also provides free videos from fluent speakers and member-created language lessons. italki - This free foreign language site can be used to find a language teacher or practice online with a language partner. italki also offers free language questions and the ability to ask questions about something you don’t understand. VoxSwap - VoxSwap is a social network for learning languages. The site introduces visitors to new people and language learners around the world. LingoPass - LingoPass is a unique site for language learners. Every time users share their language, they receive a free, one-week membership that can be used to attend any of LingoPass’ online language lessons. LingvoSoft Online - This site offers a number of free online language tools for learners, including a free online phrasebook, free flashcards, and free online dictionaries. MindTools - MindTools provides an excellent guide to learning foreign languages. The guide includes information about different systems and effective mnemonics. Babel Fish - This free online translator from Yahoo! can quickly translate text from one language into another. Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online degree programs for OnlineDegreePrograms.org. P.S. - Do you have others to add? Please comment and share them! Related posts:5 Free Web Tools for Learning a Language Collaboratively 25 Free Online Resources and Web Apps for Lifelong Learners 20 Language Links from the Free Learning Monitor

I had set out to do a year end post on charitable giving when I ran across the following image on Mint.com. There is some good information in it. There is also considerable room for critique and debate, as reflected in the comments on the Mint.com site. I post it here not so much for the specific data that it contains - which is all U.S.-based - but rather to support the idea of charitable giving in general. Even so, there are a couple of pieces of the data that struck me: Those who earn less than $20K annually give twice as much as a percentage of income as those who earn $100K Conservatives give more than liberals I don’t have hard data to back up my musings, but my general understanding is that higher income tends to correlate with higher levels of formal education, and that "liberalism" also tends to rise among the highly educated. Which leads me to wonder - as many have before - whether too much emphasis on formally educating the mind doesn’t perhaps pose some dangers for the soul. (As always, I do not equate formal education and true learning.) budget planner - Mint.com No related posts.

As much as I am a fan of learning, I’ve also become more and more aware that I often don’t need to learn anything new. I simply need to recognize what I already know and do something about it. I need to act on the obvious. This means, among other things, that … … I need to unsubscribe from all those e-mail newsletters that I haven’t read for months (or that somehow, mysteriously started arriving in my inbox) … ditto for all of the blogs I am subscribed to but never read … I really need to re-read at least one book from the past for every two or three new books I read … I need to take my own advice and be consistent about taking notes and reviewing them … I need to take my own advice about asking "Why?" more often. (A lesson my toddler son is really schooling me in these days!) … I need to stop checking e-mail every ten minutes … I need to make reflection a more consistent habit … I need to stop piling up things I know I am never really going to read, listen to, etc. … I need to be more consistent about filing and bookmarking the things I do plan to read or reference later … I … well, you get the point. The above, highly-incomplete list applies only to my learning and productivity habits. I could go on and on about other areas of my life. What about you? A new year is around the corner. No better time than the present to act on the obvious. Jeff Related posts:5 Powerful Reasons to Make Reflection a Daily Learning Habit, and How to Do It

I’ve just published the year-end edition of the Learning Monitor, my twice-quarterly round-up of learning resources, news, and insights.  If you haven’t tried out the Monitor yet, this is a great time to start. It’s free, it delivers valuable content, and you can unsubscribe with a click if you decide it’s not for you. What have you got to lose? Here are just a few samples from the Learning Smorgasbord, which features nearly two dozen other great resources. Subscribe to the Learning Monitor and you will automatically receive the latest edition. Khan Academy The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere. We have 1000+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan.  Via GOOD Blog *** A good service from Wild Apricot: 32 Free Webinars for Nonprofits - January 2010 Coming out of the holiday season, I thought we might find January a slow month for free web-based professional development opportunities for nonprofit folks — but, in fact, with 33 different webinars in the list, this month’s round-up of training events is larger than ever! *** 8 Services to Start Your Learnstream Flowing From LearnStreaming: There are many services that you could include in your learnstream.  Here’s a post to get you started on some of the basic services to consider for your learnstream.  I listed a couple of options for most services (my primary is listed 1st). *** TranslationZilla Compare your language skills with your friends with this online language game. Enjoy! (And don’t forget to subscribe Jeff Related posts:35+ Delicious Learning Links - a new Monitor is out! Are You Missing Out on These Two Great Values? 20 Language Links from the Free Learning Monitor

[tweetmeme] Not too long ago I published the all-time top 10 posts on Mission to Learn based on the number of page views those posts have received. Getting a lot of page views is great - it means a lot of people are visiting the site - but the posts that are the most popular aren’t necessarily my favorites. Here, in no particular order, are 10 I’ve published over the years that haven’t made it into the ranks of the most popular but nonetheless rank very high in my own heart and mind: Is Your Brain In a Box? My take on some of the major myths and misunderstandings surrounding the human brain. What Have I Learned at Work and the related When’s the last time you asked why? These two post are connected by the idea that we could all probably stand to apply a bit more critical thinking - and action - in our everyday lives. Taking Notes(s) and the related Are You a Miner? The Power of Revisiting Your Notes I recently wrote a brief post entitled "Acting on the Obvious." These two posts definitely fall in that camp. Taking notes and reviewing them are among the simple learning habits we too often ovelook. About Memory - Podcast with Fiona McPherson (Two Parts) I’ve done quite a few Radio Free Learning podcasts here on Mission to Learn, and I encourage you to check them all out if you haven’t already. This two-part series with memory expert Fiona McPherson is my personal favorite, however. If you have the least interest in how memory works and how you might improve your own, this is a must-listen. 3 Key Practices of the Sophisticated Learner The Sophists, a misunderstood and maligned group of Greek philosophers, have had a peculiar amount of influence in my life. In this post I apply "sophisticated," in its true sense, to the practice of learning. A Short Collection of Powerful But Under Appreciated Learning Strategies Anyone who has spent much time here on Mission to Learn knows I believe our most important learning happens outside the classroom. Here are some ways to power up your learning in everyday life. 7 LinkedIn Tactics for Lifelong Learning I wrote this post quite a while ago, but I think LinkedIn has still not made much progress towards being appreciated as a learning tool. Here are 7 ways it can be used. 5 Themes for the Web 2.0 Learner Some good comments on this one have been lost as a result of server crash a while back, but the thoughts in it are foundational to my view of learning here at Mission to Learn. I welcome any thoughts you have on the topic. There you have it. I hope you enjoy these, and thanks for reading Mission to Learn. Jeff Related posts:About Memory, Part II - Podcast with Fiona McPherson 25+ Sites and Tools to Exercise Your Brain About Memory, Part I - Podcast with Fiona McPherson

A couple of posts back I wrote about Acting on the Obvious. Well, one of the obvious things in my own life is that I have not been able to give Mission to Learn the attention I’d like to lately, and it’s probably time to take a brief break rather than trying to "phone it in." This approach also happens to jibe with what I have written before about reflection and under-appreciated learning strategies. So…  I am going to take my own advice and sign off until sometime the week of February 8. But before I go … Sincere thanks to everyone who visits the site, and in particular, to subscribers. Visits and subscriptions have both nearly quadrupled over the course of the past year, and it’s been truly great to hear from others who are on mission to learn. I wish you all the best with your learning efforts in this new year. And while I am gone … If you happen to show up here for the first time or are a regular with some time on your hands, you may want to check out the recent 10 Most Popular Posts of All Time on Mission to Learn or 10 Personal Favorites from the M2L Archives. Or maybe listen to some Radio Free Learning podcasts or subscribe to the Learning Monitor. I am also happy to accept guest posts while I’m off. But better yet … There are so many great other blogs to visit, so I’d like to suggest a few. In 2009, I had the great fortune to participate in uber-blogger Leo Babauta’s A-List Blogging Bootcamp as part of my own personal development.  As a result, I’ve become aware of a number of great bloggers who are really dedicated to learning how to be even better bloggers. Here are a few that have jumped out at me and/or I thought might be of particular interest to readers here. I’d encourage you to pay them a visit. Self Development Mary Jaksch: Goodlife Zen Mary is Leo’s sidekick in the Bootcamp as well as on Write to Done.  I particularly recommend her recent post The Ultimate Personal Growth Guide: 100 Best Posts Justin Dixon:  http://alittlebetter.net Arvind Devalia: Make It Happen Karlil: Personal Development Pro Lodewijk van den Broek: How to Be an Original Patrick Stoeckman: Unwrap Your Mind Vin Miller:  NaturalBias.com beth vendryes williams: Make art. Transform life Business and Career Jeffrey Tang: The Art of Great Things Jane Cavanaugh: Life Work Blog Lifestyle Lisa: Life of Privilege Bill Wilson: Wine for Newbies This list isn’t even close to complete, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with too long a list. Have fun exploring, and I’ll "see" you in a few weeks. Jeff P.S. - I don’t have any sort of affiliate or other business relationship with the A-list Blogging Bootcamp. I am just a participant, a fan, and a "customer evangelist." If you are serious about growing your own blog in 2010, it’s definitely worth a look. No related posts.

I consider myself a relatively careful reader. I take little notes in the margins. Dog-ear important pages. Maybe jot a few things down in a notebook as I go along. And yet I am stunned whenever I happen to go back to a book for a second or even a third time how little I remember of the contents. I’m not talking about reading to study for a test, mind you. I can usually retain what I need to long enough for that sort of thing.  And besides, the days of having to take anything other than self-imposed tests are long behind me. No, I am talking about the book that I put on my list because I thought it sounded really interesting. The book I devoured over the course of a week or so and then place dutifully on those shelves my wife and I were so thrilled to have built in our living room. A year later, if I happen to pick up that same book, I am lucky if I can remember the first thing about it. For example, I had this experience recently with Steven Pinker’s How the Mind Works. Ironic. Apparently the mind doesn’t work all that well over the long haul. So here’s what I plan to do: re-read regularly. Yes, I know there are all sorts of tips out there about retaining more of what you read.  Josh Kauffman, for instance, highlights some valuable ones over on The Personal MBA blog as does Tim Ferris on his blog. Useful stuff in certain situations, but a great deal of my reading is purely for the pleasure of it, and while I most definitely want to learn from it, I don’t want to become obsessive and make it into a chore. So, I’m going to re-read. Specifically, as a reader suggested on a Pick the Brain post on lifelong learning I did a while back, I’m going to re-read an old book for every three or so new books I read. I’m also going to start noting down what I have read and when - inspired by a friend who always writes the place and date of the things he reads in the front of the book. I’m not sure how much that will help, but I am betting it will help quite a bit. What do you think? Is re-reading part of your learning habit? What helps you retain what you read? Jeff [tweetmeme] P.S. - If you are interested in memory, you may also want to see my earlier series on 5 Key Paths to Improving Memory as well as my podcast with Fiona McPherson from About Memory. Related posts:About Memory, Part II - Podcast with Fiona McPherson Are You a Miner? The Power of Revisiting Your Notes 25+ Sites and Tools to Exercise Your Brain

I was gearing up to head to DC for the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) annual Technology Conference today when word came that the event had been canceled. Snow has pretty much shut down DC, or at the very least, flights into DC. It’s a conference I happen to like a lot, so I was bummed to hear the news - until things took an interesting turn. Namely, as the original Technology Conference was put on ice (so to speak), #UNTECH10 - The Unofficial Alternative to the Canceled Tech10, was already in the works. As a result, folks who are in DC will be meeting up in-person at the Renaissance Hotel and those who are not in DC will be able to participate virtually. I’ve already written about this over on the Tagoras blog, but I just had to mention it here on Mission to Learn because it seems so highly relevant to … well, the mission to learn. It’s such a great example of: Learners seizing the reins of their own learning Taking great advantage of what social media and other Web 2.0 technologies make possible for learning Blending both formal and informal learning experiences And probably most of all, I like it because it involves taking some risks - always a great catalyst for learning. Folks could have just walked away with a "better luck next year" attitude, but they didn’t and I think some congrats are in order: Kudos to Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer of SocialFish and their co-organizers for seeing an opportunity and sticking their necks out. (Yes, if this works out they will look like a million bucks, but of course, there was no guarantee it would work out and pulling it together is a lot of work.) Kudos to ASAE for stepping back and letting members and volunteers roll with it. I have no idea what the thought processes or discussion were at ASAE, but this is one of those situations where the big organization could have strong armed things and either tried to run the alternate show itself or tried to quash it. It doesn’t look like ASAE plans to do either. (And see Peggy Hoffman’s post on the value of volunteers in this situation.) Kudos to everyone who is signing up to participate or stepping up to present and provide content - particularly those who may be trying out this sort of learning experience for the first time. I’ll be "there" of course, and I hope some readers here will join me. The conference site is at http://untech10.conferencespot.org/ and if you happen to actually be in DC, you can sign up for the face-to-face part. Whether or not this event falls in your area of interest, what are your experiences with "unconference" learning events of this type? Please comment and share! [tweetmeme] P.S. - I put this sort of thing under the Learning 2.0 umbrella. If you are interested in Learning 2.0 - i.e., blending of the social Web and all it enables with more traditional learning approaches - you might be interested in the free eBook Learning 2.0 for Associations. No related posts.