This is the second in a series of posts that present my thoughts on how to become a better learner. The first covered adopting a growth mindset. This one addresses actively developing the network of learning connections and content in your life. Cultivate Your Network I suspect most regular readers of Mission to Learn already have some sense of the power of networks when it comes to learning. As much as we may wish to learn, time is a finite resource - we can only have so many experiences and absorb so much content as individuals, regardless of whatever resources aside from time (e.g., money, power) we may have at our disposal.  Our knowledge no longer resides solely in our own minds (if it ever did); it resides also in our connections. We have to rely on others if we truly want to expand our potential for learning. Given this premise, it makes sense that one of the most important strategies for increasing our capacity as learners is to build a significant number of connections with others and - more importantly - to strive consciously to make the quality of these connections as high as possible. I find I tend to give priority to three factors when assessing potential additions to my own learning networks: Content Is the connection a source of content that is consistently relevant and useful to me?  Does the content help me to accomplish something? Does it stretch my thinking in meaningful ways? Integrity Can I trust the connection? Does the connection really have the knowledge and experience to provide quality content? What is the quality of the connection’s network? Diversity Does the connection represent a viewpoint that is different in some meaningful way from my own? Or, if similar to my own, is significantly further along in knowledge and understanding? Naturally, there are other possible factors and other questions that can be asked about each, but the main point is to be conscious of the factors that make a learning connection valuable to you and to apply these factors actively in managing your learning networks. Sometimes that means applying them to find new connections; a lot of the time it means applying them to trim away connections that do not have significant value.  It’s truly a matter of cultivating, not simply growing. A couple of closing notes - First, you may have noticed that I have said nothing about the Internet, social media, or other technologies above. I’ll get to those in a future post, but the focus here is on the actual points of connection - the "nodes" in network-speak - and working to increase the quality of those points. Second, none of this is to imply that you need to take a cold, ruthless approach to managing your networks.  Personally, I think both networks and learning benefit from a significant amount of chaos and complexity. Nonetheless, within all that chaos and complexity, you can strive to carve out and build upon a set of key connections that contribute significantly to your focused learning efforts. What do you think? Are you making an active effort to cultivate your learning networks? What’s working and what’s not? Please comment and share. Jeff P.S. - The next tip is coming soon. To be sure you receive it, I highly recommend subscribing to Mission to Learn either by RSS feed or e-mail. Related posts:10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 3 - Ask Questions 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 1 - Growth Mindset 3 Key Practices of the "Sophisticated" Learner

I’m being relatively slow and deliberate in putting together my list of 10 Ways to Be Better Learner (See No. 1 and No. 2), and one reason for is that I’ve been sifting through past posts on Mission to Learn to see which ideas and themes tend to come up again and again. As part of that process, I thought I’d highlight five of my favorite posts from the learning habits category here on Mission to Learn. If you happen to be a new reader here, I’d recommend clicking through the learning habits posts as a way to get a feel for what the blog is all about. Here, however, are five posts from that category I think are worth highlighting: 7 Reasons to Memorize Some Poetry One commentor called this a "wonderfully nerdy post" - a high compliment, in my opinion. These days I’m revisiting Ozymandias. What’s in your memory bank? 7 Secrets of a $9 Billion Industry Ever wonder why all those self help books take up so much space in your local Barnes & Noble? Here’s why. 7 Learning Lessons from a Toddler I’m betting most parents can come up with three or four before they even click the link. 3 Key Practices of the "Sophisticated" Learner I’m a sophist at heart. You should be too. 5 Traits of the Super Learner Faster than a speeding bullet all the way from 2008. (Ah, c’mon - click the link. Who doesn’t want to be a super learner?) Have fun, Jeff Related posts:10 Most Popular Posts of All Time on Mission to Learn Free Language Learning Resources - The Master List

In my last post, I referenced an earlier piece I wrote on the value of memorizing poetry. That brought to mind the video below that my wife (herself a very fine poet) recently showed me. In it, a 3-year old recites a Billy Collins poem. As far as I can tell, this is not a result of over-bearing parenting, but purely of the kid’s interest in poetry. Now, granted your average three-year old tends to have a memory like a sponge (my own son can rattle off great amounts of Bob Dylan and John Prine lyrics), but I think most of us are up to mastering at least a sonnet or two. Here’s the video: Related posts:Some Wise Learning Insights From a 12-Year Old Imagine. Just Imagine. Happy Birthday, Bob

Ask Questions - It's Elementary Ever attended a class or seminar and when the time came for participants to ask questions, only one or two hands are raised (if any) - out of a room with dozens of people in it? Ever read a provocative newspaper article, blog entry, Facebook wall post, or tweet and not submitted a question about the "facts" it contains or the author’s sources and motivations? Ever gone through a day, a week, a month, or even more at work without stopping to ask "Why?" about what you are doing and what you have learned in the process. Ever voted in an election without really asking who the candidates are and whether the issues they stand for are the ones that deserve priority? I could go on, but you get the point. Our days are filled with opportunities for asking questions that we often don’t take. Much of the time that’s fine: it can get exhausting to question everything. But I think there is plenty of evidence that most of us, most of the time, are not asking enough questions - much less good ones. As I’ve pointed out before, toddlers have no problem asking lots of questions, but as we age, life demands, social pressures, and perhaps just plain fatigue tend to sap our desire and ability to continually probe, particularly outside of the comfort zones into which we inevitably settle.  If you want to be a better learner, you have to cultivate - daily, consciously - both the desire and the ability to ask questions. It’s that simple, and that hard. Any questions? Jeff P.S. - As you might have guessed by the "No. 3," this is part of a series. Here’s No. 1 - Adopt a Growth Mindset, and No. 2 - Cultivate Your Network. Related posts:Asking Better Questions: 3 Decision Points 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 2 - Cultivate Your Network 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 1 - Growth Mindset

It’s been a while since I last wrote about a serious game, but I continue to track games that support learning. One I heard about recently - on NPR, I think - is a game called Spent developed by Urban Ministries of Durham (NC). The premise - one that rings all too true for too many people - is that homelessness is something than can happen to anyone. Here’s how the Urban Ministries Web site puts it: Work hard. Do the right thing. Homelessness is something that will never happen to me. Sometimes, all it takes is one life-changing experience to land you on the streets: a job loss, death of a loved one, divorce, natural disaster, or serious illness. Next thing you know, a chain of events sends your life spiraling out of control… How would you cope? Where would you go? What would you do? Figure something out, right? Problem is, things often aren’t so easy to figure out. I decided to see if I could make it by taking a job as a waiter - work that at least felt familiar to me from college and grad school days. Of course, to make things work, I had to live 30 miles from my job and forego health insurance. And I had landlord issues. And my gas was cut off. And the final straw was paying for some medicine my mother needed. All in all, I made it 18 days before I was completely tapped out of money and on my way to becoming homeless. Spent is not a terribly complex game, but it is very effective. A while back I wrote about a similar experience I had with playing 3rd World Farmer. While certainly not the same experience as the real thing, games can go a long ways towards providing context for learning in an amazingly effective way. As Jane McGonigal argues - quite convincingly - they may may be one of the best shots we have at learning to change the world. Whether that proves true or not, Spent is definitely worth checking out and sharing with others. Jeff P.S. - If you like this post, please share it. And if you are a lifelong learner not yet subscribed to Mission to Learn, I’d be truly grateful if you would consider subscribing by RSS feed or e-mail. Related posts:Game Mechanics, Bwah Hah Hah! 5 Learning Games for Climate Change - Blog Action Day Can you learn to save the world by playing games?

I’ve decided to focus on note-taking for the next post in my "10 Ways to Be a Better Learner Series," and in the process of digging into the topic more, I came across Popplet, a tool described in a Media Commons Project post as an "application for individually or collaboratively "curating," or spatializing the relationships between, notes." That sounded intriguing, so I decided to try it out. The video below will give you a high level idea of what Popplet is all about. It’s short, so have a look and then read on. Basically, I decided to use Popplet to start jotting down notes about the process of note-taking and how it might support learning. I wanted to capture areas where I need to do a little more investigation - for example, it has been a while since I have looked at research on how note-taking supports cognition and memory. It also occurred to me that I would need to consider how notes function in isolation, as tools for our own review and reflection, versus how they might function when they are shared - a thought that prompted the need for a whole separate Popplet which could be connected to the initial one. The result was a rudimentary mind map, which you can see below (or click through if you don’t see it.) Now, Popplet can be used in much more dynamic and visually engaging ways than this, but for my purposes, just being able to map things out easily was powerful enough. The process of writing things down and visualizing  the flow prompted me to ask questions that I might not have otherwise asked. I’m far from finished, but I thought it would be worth going ahead and spotlighting Popplet as a tool. One final important feature: this can be shared so that others can not just see your Popplet, but actually collaborate on creating it. So, if you would like to collaborate on putting together thoughts about note-taking, just comment below or use the contact form. I have no doubt it will be a noteworthy experience. Jeff Related posts:15 Free Online Collaboration Tools and Apps 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 4 - Be An Active Note Taker Learn English with Michael Jackson

One of the commentors on "10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 3 - Ask Questions" raised the question (!) of how to ask good questions. Serendipitously, as I was doing some research on note-taking, I noticed that Fiona McPherson (who long time readers may remember from the About Memory podcasts a while back) has a post titled "Asking Better Questions." In it, she highlights three key decision points for determining whether a question is effective: does it make the information more meaningful? does it make the information more comprehensible? does it increase the number of meaningful connections? I particularly like the last one. While Fiona, in the context of this post, is referring primarily to connections between concepts, ideas, and information, questions are also an essential tool in forming connections to more meaningful learning networks. I highly recommend reading the full Asking Better Questions post. In it, Fiona goes through a range of "Why?" questions that might be asked based on a set of initial facts and then critiques these questions. (Note: When she writes "Look again at our original questions," make sure you do it. A quick review of the earlier post in which the "original questions" appear makes the "Asking Better Questions" post a lot clearer.) Given my repeated focus on asking "Why?" here on Mission to Learn, I’ll wrap up by highlighting an important point that Fiona makes about "why" questions: Why questions, like any questions, are only effective to the extent that they direct attention to appropriate information. Research confirms that it is better to search for consistent relations than inconsistent ones. In many cases your background knowledge may include information that is consistent with the new information, and information that is inconsistent. By asking "Why is this true?" you focus on the consistent information. Now - go read Fiona’s post. Why wouldn’t you? Jeff Related posts:10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 3 - Ask Questions The Three Essential Career Questions 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 2 - Cultivate Your Network

To be honest, I have almost no idea what the demographics of the Mission to Learn readership are, but I assume some percentage of readers is familiar with the work of Seymour Papert. For readers who aren’t, I’d say it’s well worth spending some time getting to know his work, and as it happens, there is a new resource that can help you do it. Via Stephen Downes, I’ve recently become aware of The Daily Papert, a blog that offers a daily dose of "the words and wisdom of Dr. Seymour Papert." Here are a few gems from the feed, but be sure to subscribe to get more: "I think it’s an exaggeration, but that there’s a lot of truth in saying that when you go to school, the trauma is that you must stop learning and you must now accept being taught." (Feb. 28) Papert’s Principle: "Some of the most crucial steps in mental growth are based not simply on acquiring new skills, but on acquiring new administrative ways to use what one already knows." (Feb. 24) "Part of learning is getting information. Somebody stands in front of the classroom and preaches, and information is somehow flowing into people’s heads, or so it is said. But that’s only one part of education. The other part, which Dewey would have emphasized, is about doing things, making things, constructing things. However, in our school systems, as in the popular image of education, the informational side is again dominating." (Feb. 16) DON’T: get hung up monitoring your kids’ every mouse click DO: begin to share their joyful experience of discovery (Feb. 10) "The most powerful idea of all is the idea of powerful ideas." (Jan. 24) The Daily Papert - make it part of your Mission to Learn. Related posts:5 Powerful Reasons to Make Reflection a Daily Learning Habit, and How to Do It

[tweetmeme] The Emrys Press has recently released How Language Is Lost, a volume of poetry by sometime Mission to Learn contributor Celisa Steele. As readers here know, I am a fan of poetry in general, and as it happens, I am an even bigger fan of Celisa’s poetry specifically. The video below is of her reading the eponymous poem from the collection. The text of the poem is included at the end of this post. (I encourage listening before reading when it comes to poetry.) From the perspective of Mission to Learn, I like this poem because I think it illustrates so well how much meaning a poem can capture and convey. That illustration is tinged with irony - poetry itself is a language lost to most of us. I hope you will give this a listen and a read. Share it, and also be sure to visit the Emrys Web site to find out how to get a copy of How Language Is Lost. Here’s the text of Celisa’s poem: HOW LANGUAGE IS LOST The Abipón had a word for everything, even the invisible amphitrichous spirits that swam the Argentine Gran Chaco. Wrestling, riding, raiding the Spanish for horses— tributes to unseen gods (rabbit-like, prone to disappearing)— gave way to farming, kneeling in naves. Their own shamans couldn’t shape-shift anymore, forgot the prophesied destruction—a vast yellow snake swallowing rivers, trees whole—and crouched silently in the dust as a clerk counted them like animals, like cattle, sent his report back to court: 5,000 in 1750. When King Carlos expelled the Jesuits in 1768, half the Abipón had died of small pox. The cleavage between this life and the old was complete. Fifty years later, when a shriveled woman with spiraled palm leaves in her pierced ears and blue tattoos around her elbows lies on a straw mat in a hut corner in Resistancia, ————————————————the younger woman—no relation— cooking over a smoky fire and soothing a baby to sleep does not understand her dying words, her articulation of the world to come, the world lost. *** Be sure to visit Celisa’s Web site at http://www.celisasteele.com/ and follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/celisasteele Related posts:So easy a three-year old can do it Top 100 Language Learning Blogs 15 Language Learning Tools for Lifelong Learners

I don’t have much time to write this morning, but I could not let the day pass without acknowledging the 70th birthday of Bob Dylan. It would be hard to name another complete stranger who has had a more persistent influence in my life - whether directly through his music, or indirectly through the myriad artists he has inspired and influenced. He likely has more of a presence in your life than you realize - even if you are among those who have never understood why people think so highly of him. Quite an achievement for a college drop-out from Duluth, Minnesota. Dylan himself was and is a learner of the first order. By most accounts, when he arrived in New York City in the early 60s, there was nothing much to set him apart from all the other musicians banging around Greenwich Village at the time.  But Bob was passionate and focused. Intuitively, he understood concepts like deliberate practice and flow, and by 1963 he was well on his way to transforming popular music forever. He’s never stood still and never gone stale, even if listening to him in concert these days can be a bit of a painful experience at times. In recent years, my appreciation for Dylan’s music has increased as my young son has latched onto his music. His preference at this point is for the early years, and as a result I have now strummed "Blowin’ in the Wind" and "The Times They Are A Changin;" on the guitar more times than I would have ever cared to. My son - four years old - now knows pretty much all the words to each, and I have no doubt that the music and the language have contributed significantly to his own learning. The video above is of Dylan singing a version of one of my favorites - "Tangled Up in Blue," the first song from Blood on the Tracks. Enjoy. Jeff No related posts.

I’ve written before about the dangers of "homophily" - the human tendency to gravitate towards others who are like us - and I also highlighted "cultivating your network" as one of my 10 Ways to Become a Better Learner.  I was inspired to reflect more on the power of each of these concepts recently as I was reading Josh Kaufman’s excellent book The Personal MBA (inspired by his blog of the same name). Kaufman uses the term convergence to discuss "the tendency of group members to become more alike over time," and also highlights a complementary concept - divergence, "the tendency for groups to become less like other groups over time." These forces are at work constantly - not just in high schools across the world, but in our workplaces, our communities, and perhaps most obviously, in our political system. Perhaps influenced by the fretting and hand-wringing prevalent in the press these days, I have a tendency to focus in the negative impact of both convergence and divergence. A Google-filtered search here, a "Like" or two there, and before you know it, you are in a wonderland where everyone seems to read what you read, watch what you watch, and think what you think. No need to think, grow, or see anything in shades other than stark black and white. Just kick back and soak up all those affirming vibes. This is the dark side of the "force" that is generated when convergence and divergence meet the network effects that the Web now makes possible. But Kaufman rightly emphasizes the potential positive of this force for those dedicated to learning: Convergence is useful if you consciously choose to spend time with people you’d like to become more like. At the same time, breaking away from groups that aren’t serving you is painful but necessary to grow. If you have been a reader here for a while, you probably already know how much I appreciate the use of the word "consciously" above. As with so many aspects of lifelong learning, there is no rocket science in the concepts of convergence and divergence, but you have to be conscious of them and you have to consciously act to use them in positive ways. So, take a moment to reflect on how convergence and divergence factor into you life act accordingly. And may the force be with you. Jeff Related posts:5 Powerful Reasons to Make Reflection a Daily Learning Habit, and How to Do It

Right around this time last year, I started working on a book with futurist colleague David Houle on transforming K-12 education. We had the book wrapped up by early fall, but with the world of traditional publishing being what it is (we published this with Corwin), Shift Ed: A Call to Action for Transforming K-12 Education didn’t hit the shelves until early April. Since that time, I have done a pretty lousy job of doing my part in promoting it. With this post, I am hoping to change that situation, and my first step is to find some fellow bloggers who might be interested in getting a copy of the book and writing about it. If you are interested, here’s the deal: I’m giving away a total of five free copies of the book to the first five people to comment on this post and ask for one. There are, however, a couple of conditions: There needs to be some sort of reasonable angle for writing about this on your blog. I’m not looking only - or even mostly - for "edubloggers," but on the other hand, if your audience is primarily World of Warcraft afficionados, you need to have some good reason why they might be interested in hearing about a book on education reform. You need to have a subscription base of more than 250. Apologies to smaller bloggers on this one, but publishers don’t give writers all that many copies of their books. I need to try to get decent mileage out of the ones I have. (This one is purely honor system - I don’t plan to go check up on people’s subscription numbers.) If you meet those requirements and are interested, just comment below and be sure to put a correct e-mail address in the comment form (this does not show up for other readers). I will e-mail you to get address details. How you write about the book is up to you. You can do a traditional review, if you like. Or, you could expand on one of the book’s themes. Or, you could offer your own thoughts on transforming education. Or, all of the above. I don’t require that you like the book or say positive things about it - though if you want to bash it, I do request that you be as constructive as possible in the process. Shift Ed, by the way, is relatively short - around 150 pages - and it reads quickly. It is truly meant to be a "call to action" rather than an in-depth policy tome, and aside from what David and I have put into it, it contains contributions by some great thinkers and practitioners like Tony Wagner and Ian Jukes. Here’s what best-selling author Dan Pink (A Whole New Mind) has to say about it: America needs a new educational vision. Shift Ed provides a clear vision that emphasizes the essential ingredients of a 21st-century education based upon creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. Houle and Cobb make a great case that nothing less than transformation will be enough. Whether you go for the free copy or not, I hope you will check out the Shift Ed Web site, consider buying a copy of the book, and spread the word to others. Jeff Related posts:How Do You Read A Book? 15 Online Resources for Book Lovers Getting a First-Rate Business Education Online - Free

I’ve written about goals a number of times here on Mission to Learn, but primarily from the standpoint of setting them. This video from FranklinCovey is about executing them. (Many thanks to Seth Kahan for pointing me to it.) While it is aimed at a business audience, I think you will find that the concepts and key points also translate easily into personal life and learning. The video starts from the obvious but consistently ignored point that pursuit of our goals is often in direct conflict with the seemingly urgent demands of everyday life. The first step in managing this conflict is to identify no more than three "wildly important" goals (WIGs) to focus on at any given time. Set more than three goals for yourself, and your likelihood of achieving any of them starts to decline to zero pretty quickly. I’ll leave it to the video to fill you in on how to achieve your 1-3 wildly important goals. It doesn’t offer up any miracle claims or snake oil, just thoughtful common sense that will have a real impact if you follow it. It’s well worth 17 minutes of your time. Jeff Related posts:10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 5 - Set and Manage Goals While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Or the Importance of Setting Learning Goals

I’m finally getting back to my series on ways to be a better learner. In case you missed the first three, you can find them at: 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 1 - Growth Mindset 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 2 - Cultivate Your Network 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 3 - Ask Questions In this post, I briefly take up a topic I have touched on a number of times before: taking notes. This one may seem glaringly obvious, but as I have suggested in earlier posts, (a) note taking is something we often don’t do - particularly outside of formal educational situations, and (b) even when we do it, we often don’t do it well. Establishing a consistent habit of writing things down can be very powerful.  A significant body of research supports the idea that simply writing something down contributes greatly to the process of moving it into long-term memory.  As Françoise Boch and Annie Piolat write in their helpful overview of the research on note-taking,   the result of taking notes is much more than the production of a passive "external" information store, as the note taking action itself is part of the memorization process and results in the creation of a form of "internal" storage (Kiewra, 1987)." But the initial act of writing things down is only part of the equation if you want to leverage the full power of note-taking. Notes need to be reviewed multiple times over time - a requirement that points to the need for organizing notes well so that they can easily be accessed and reviewed.  And beyond simple review, notes are much more powerful as a learning tool if we take the time to rework them, re-state them in our own language, reflect upon them, and connect them to our existing knowledge. In other words, notes are not something to simply jot down and file away, they are something to be actively mined over time. I’m going to keep this post short because I plan to return to the topic of note-taking quite a bit over the coming months, but if you are interested in learning more about the research related to note-taking, I recommend the article referenced above that summarizes the research on note-taking. Additionally, Fiona McPherson, who I interviewed a while back on memory, has written a book on note-taking and offers some good rules for note-taking on her site. What have you found effective (or not) when it comes to note-taking as a part of your lifelong learning habits? Please comment and share. And if you haven’t already, I’d be grateful if you would subscribe to Mission to Learn by RSS or e-mail. Related posts:10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 7 - Be Accountable 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 6 - Practice, Deliberately 10 Ways to be a Better Learner: No. 8 - Use Technology Better

Here’s a simple, powerful, acting-on-the-obvious learning tip: ask the people you respect and who have accomplished the types of things you want to accomplish which two or three books have helped them the most. I’ve done this repeatedly over the years, and have never failed to gain a great deal of valuable new knowledge as a result. Most recently, a colleague recommended 10-Minute Toughness by Jason Selk to me. While focused primarily on sports, it’s a tremendous resource if you are trying to improve your "mental game" in pretty much any walk of life. I highly recommend it, and I might never have found it if I had not actively asked this colleague which two or three books had most impacted him. Asking people you respect and want to emulate what they recommend you read. It’s simple. It’s powerful. Whoever "they" are for you, ask them today. Jeff P.S. - You can consider this one of the practices that enhances 10 Ways to Be a Better Learning: No. 2 - Cultivate Your Network. Related posts:How Do You Read A Book? 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 1 - Growth Mindset

A while back I wrote about how useful I was finding the iPad for lifelong learning. It occurred to me more recently that I should start featuring "apps" that readers might find useful. So, consider this the official launch of a new Learning Apps tag here on Mission to Learn. The first post is from Peter Song, who wants readers to know about SpeedUpTV. I’ve had a look, and I think it could definitely be a great addition to your lifelong learning tool kit. Like most apps, it doesn’t cost much ($2.99), but if you want a free download for your iPad or iPhone, be one of the first four people to comment on this post. - Jeff Here’s what Peter has to say: Studying on mobile devices can be a pain, especially when it involves switching between digital notes, videos, lecture recordings and image graphs. Thankfully for iOS users, a new app promises to simplify the task of studying on an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad as well as offer a wide range of new features that aid in the overall studying process and also improve your foreign language listening comprehension as well. Despite the name, SpeedUpTV is not a glorified video viewer. SpeedUpTV not only allows you to view video files, but many image, audio and document files are supported as well. With its video viewer, a list of features has been added including the ability to increase and decrease the playback speed of video files. The range for this playback rate is between 0.5X and 2.0X. Best of all, slowing or speeding up video playback does not distort the audio which should come in handy for those trying to learn a foreign language from a set of video tutorials. Other video playback features include pinch-to-zoom which allows skipping between scenes as well as scrubbing for more precise time control. There is also support for SMI subtitles and A-B repeat. Other than video playback, users are able to view document files such as PDF, doc, xls and ppt. Users can also listen to audio files and view jpeg and png image files. Thanks to this wide range of file extension support, students can carry out practically all of their studying straight from the app, no more switching between picture viewers, document viewers and iTunes on an iOS device to study; everything is in one centralized location. For iPhone and iPad users, this app will help them in many different ways, and it is a must for students trying to learn foreign new languages. It’s moderately priced, making it a great choice for students (and everyone else), and it’s a fantastic way to make learning fun and efficient. P.S. - If you have an app you would like to see featured on Mission to Learn, drop me a line. - Jeff Related posts:10 Excellent iPad Apps for the Lifelong Learner 15 Language Learning Tools for Lifelong Learners

No rocket science here, folks. No snake oil. Just good ol’ common sense that, unfortunately, often fails the rigors of execution. So it goes with goals. As I have suggested before, if you really want to learn something, you need to set clear goals. More often than not, we have only a vague notion in our minds of what we want to learn. And even if we seem to state it clearly - e.g. "I want to learn Spanish," or "I want to understand classical music" - we don’t tend to break our larger learning desires down into manageable chunks. Time passes - years, too often - and somehow we have not achieved what we had hoped we might. In my experience, there are three key reasons why we fail to achieve learning goals: 1. A lack of rigor in setting goals This takes four major forms: We set too many goals. I recently highlighted a video from FranklinCovey that stresses the importance of having no more than three "wildly important" goals at any one time. Beyond that number, the chances of achieving goals starts to decline rapidly. We don’t state clear objectives to support our goals. Objectives are the smaller, concrete achievements that lead to realizing our goals over time. If you want to learn Spanish, for example, you will most likely need to set clear objectives around mastering verb forms, memorizing vocabulary, and engaging in conversational practice. We don’t set - or track - clear metrics. Objectives are so important because they tend to be much more clearly measurable than goals. But we often don’t set measurements for ourselves or test ourselves on them if we do.  Can you pronounce and define that list of vocabulary? Did you spend 30 minutes in conversational practice this week? We don’t set clear deadlines. Some goals can be wrapped up neatly - and for these we should clearly state "when." Others  - as noted below - may never be fully achieved, but it should always be possible to put a timeline on the objectives that support a goal. 2. A lack of conscious commitment to goals Stating a goal is one thing; truly committing to it can be quite another. Being rigorous and clear with your goals can help with establishing a true sense of commitment because it gives you a more realistic perspective on what achievement of a goal will actually require. As Jeremy Dean suggests over on PsyBlog, we’ve been conditioned by a great deal of self-help literature to believe that positive visualization or fantasizing about success is one key to making achievement of our goals a reality. Research suggests, however, that we more authentically commit to a goal if we can clearly see the contrast between a positive future and our current reality and then consciously embrace the work that it will take to move from the present to the future. 3. A tendency to treat a goal as a fixed outcome rather than a process By their nature, goals tend to take time, and many goals defy completion in any definite sense. If your goal, for example, is to be a great leader, when are you done? Even with more concrete goals, however, we tend to forget that the goal is as much about the journey as the destination. This is yet another reason why objectives and measures are so important. It’s all too easy to lose motivation if the top of the mountain is nowhere in site, but by plotting out reachable points along our path we maintain a sense of progress. This is also an aspect of goals in which reflection is important. The process of reflection makes it clear how much we learn along the way, even if achievement of the overall goal is far in the distance. In my experience, if you address these three areas, you can’t help but become a more effective learner. What’s you experience? Please comment and share. Also, I encourage you to check out the other posts in this series: 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 1 - Growth Mindset 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 2 - Cultivate Your Network 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 3 - Ask Questions 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 4 - Be an Active Note Taker Jeff P.S. - If you haven’t already, I’d be grateful if you would subscribe to Mission to Learn by RSS or e-mail. Related posts:10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 7 - Be Accountable 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 6 - Practice, Deliberately 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 10 - Embrace Responsibility

I’ll make this addition to the my "Better Learner" list a short one because I have already written about deliberate practice here before in "How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall? 8 Keys to Deliberate Practice." That has actually proven to be one of the more popular post on Mission to Learn, and has even grown in popularity over the past few months as more people become familiar with the concept of deliberate practice. (I suspect Dan Pink‘s bestseller Drive deserves at least some credit for this.) The basic idea (which comes from the work of Eric Anders) is that not all practice is equal. As a result, two people putting in the same amount of time to acquire expertise may have dramatically different results. Deliberate practice is, well, deliberate - it involves not only repetition, but also feedback, reflection, and an intense focus on continuous improvement. I cover the keys to deliberate practice in more detail in my earlier post and also link to a great article on the topic. Depending on your interest level, you may also want to go straight to the source and get Anders’ article "The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance." ($11.95) The bottom line: learning anything - whether a body of knowledge, a skill, or a new habit or behavior - takes practice. That practice needs to be deliberate if you want to achieve true mastery - or even if you just want to get farther faster. Jeff P.S. - Here are links to the other posts in this series: 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 1 - Growth Mindset 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 2 - Cultivate Your Network 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 3 - Ask Questions 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 4 - Be an Active Note Taker 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 5 - Set and Manage Goals And, of course, if you haven’t already, I’d be grateful if you would subscribe to Mission to Learn by RSS or e-mail. Related posts:10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 7 - Be Accountable 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 5 - Set and Manage Goals How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall? 8 Keys to Deliberate Practice.

My wife forwarded me this quote from Ira Glass. It resonated with me, as I am sure it will with many readers here. I thought it also would serve as a nice complement to my previous post on deliberate practice. Click through and enjoy. Jeff Related posts:10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 6 - Practice, Deliberately Happy Birthday, Bob

I’m rounding third and heading for home with the "Be a Better Learner" series. This installment aligns well with my previous posts on setting goals and deliberate practice: both of those learning habits call for accountability. Too often we set out to learn something, but don’t really hold ourselves to it. Here are three straightforward ways to make sure you hold yourself accountable for learning: 1. Declare Yourself Bring some productive social pressure to bear on your learning by telling friends, family members, or colleagues what you plan to do. Or, if you prefer, use a free service like 43 Things (though, as noted in my earlier post on setting goals, I would strongly encourage you not to pursue 43 learning goals at one time!). Even better than simply declaring, report to these people regularly on your progress. Right now, for example, a group of colleagues and I are working towards individual goals that we want to achieve by Labor Day. Each of us e-mails a brief weekly "scoreboard" to the others at the beginning of the week as a way of staying focused on our goals and moving forward on them. (For more on the "scoreboard" concept, see the video I posted in What are your wildly important learning goals?) Declaring yourself, by the way, can also be a useful technique in cultivating your learning network. 2. Test Yourself If you want to move something into long-term memory few methods are more straightforward and effective than testing yourself regularly during the process of learning. When I am trying to memorize a poem, for example, I read it through a few times and them make myself try to repeat as much of it as possible from memory. In learning theory-speak, this process is called "retrieval," and you do much the same thing when you use flash cards to test your memory of new vocabulary, or force yourself to re-state the key points from a lecture or article in your own words (a practice I also suggested in my post on note-taking). If you want to get fancy, there are any number of tools on the Web for creating flash cards or putting together quizzes and tests. If you would like a more in-depth, research-based discussion of this topic, I recommend Using Testing to Improve Learning and Memory. 3. Teach It Teaching combines the benefits of declaring yourself and testing yourself. No matter what method you use, when you commit to teach something, you make yourself accountable to those seeking to learn from you. And the process of preparing to teach effectively - not to mention the actual act of teaching - requires "retrieval" similar to what testing requires. As a bonus, you get the personal satisfaction of helping others to learn. These days, the opportunities to teach others are myriad. Simply posting to a blog, or sharing your knowledge and experience in a social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn are informal forms of teaching. Or, if you want to be a bit more formal, post an instructional video to YouTube, or take advantage of sites like MindBites or WizIQ. The possibilities for teaching - and learning - are endless. Those are my suggestions. What are some of the ways you hold yourself accountable for learning? Please comment and share. Jeff P.S. - Here are links to the other posts in this series: 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 1 - Growth Mindset 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 2 - Cultivate Your Network 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 3 - Ask Questions 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 4 - Be an Active Note Taker 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 5 - Set and Manage Goals 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 6 - Practice Deliberately And, of course, if you haven’t already, I’d be grateful if you would subscribe to Mission to Learn by RSS or e-mail. Related posts:10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 6 - Practice, Deliberately 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 5 - Set and Manage Goals 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 4 - Be An Active Note Taker

These days it is easy to get overwhelmed by the wide range of lifelong learning options that technology has made possible. But given that people obviously were able to learn long before the days of Google, TED Talks, and Twitter, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on how technology enhances our natural learning capabilities and opportunities. This understanding can help us use technology for learning in more productive and beneficial ways. Here are five key ways in which I see technology boosting learning. For each, I’ve also proposed some questions that might help us improve our use of technology. Assessment By the term "assessment" I mean not simply traditional quizzing or testing - though certainly there are ways to test your knowledge on any number of topics, ranging from quantitative aptitude tests to squishier topics like Civic Literacy. Rather, I think technology can be used in a broader sense to gauge what you need to know and at what level.  You can get a sense of this by using search and other tools intelligently to track a topic and by listening in to the conversations you find. And look our in particular for good curators in areas that interest you: these people generally provide very good clues as to what the baseline of knowledge is for that area as well as what is on the cutting edge. Have I found tools that help me test the knowledge I possess in a particular area? Have I identified information sources, conversations, and curators that help me assess ways in which I might want to build my knowledge or skills? Access There is no doubt that technology has dramatically expanded access to learning opportunities. The Web has all but eliminated time and distance as barriers to learning in many cases, and a great deal of what is available on the Web - from open educational resources to learning games to podcasts millions of blogs - is free.  One challenge, of course, is that with so much available, it can be hard to know where to turn or how to focus - that’s one reason why the curators mentioned above are so important.  Even with the help of good curators, though, effective use of technology for learning requires continuous reflection on your own learning goals and exploration of the types of content, experiences, and interactions that may be available. Ask yourself the following: When is the last time I went "learnabout" (a mental variation on "walkabout") to find interesting new resources to support my learning goals? What are the types of technology-driven learning experiences I have found helpful, and why? Where can I find more of a similar nature? Diversity An extension of both Assessment and Access is that technology opens up the possibility of listening to and interacting with a much more diverse range of people and ideas than we might ever have encountered living in other times. Since I started blogging, I’ve communicated with people of all sorts from across the world, and I have no doubt that doing so has enhanced my knowledge and understanding in a variety of areas. But certainly the opposite can easily be true as well: if we don’t actively use technology to promote diversity we may succumb to homophily. More questions: How consciously am I using technology to seek a diversity of learning experiences? Do I just do the same old things again and again, or do I challenge myself to find ideas and perspectives I have not considered before? Action It’s easy enough to read a blog post, view a video, or tune into a podcast - and certainly these are activities that can support learning - but the technology also provides any number of opportunities for being active rather than passive as a learner; for being not just a consumer, but a producer. For me, this blog is an example - I have used it over the years as a way to explore ideas and consolidate my knowledge by writing about them. I have used podcasting in much the same way.  Whatever tools you prefer, there any number of ways you can use technology to review things you have studied, be an active note-taker, and create learning opportunities for others while learning yourself. Am I using technology to not just as tool for passive consumption, but as a way to actively engage in learning activities - from taking notes, writing a blog, playing learning games, etc. What new approaches - e.g., creating a podcast, producing a short video, starting a Tumblr feed - might align well with my current learning goals? Order Finally, technology gives us ways to manage information and learning opportunities that we have never had before. Personally, I think I would be lost at this point without an RSS reader for aggregating and organizing all of the many blogs I track.  I channel some Twitter streams into RSS, but I also use Hootsuite, which lets me easily organize people into groups or track particular hashtags. And increasingly I use Evernote as a way take notes and sync them across my laptop, iPad, iPhone, and the Web. I could go on and on, but you get the point. If you would like a more resources on the range of tools that can be used for organizing and tracking learning, you might want to have a look at the Learning 2.0 resource area at Tagoras. While aimed at trade and professional associations, there is plenty there that is useful to individual lifelong learners. Am I using technology tools effectively to help me make sense out of the chaotic flow of new information and experiences? Have I explored the full capabilities of the tools that I am using so that I can get the most out of them? (Hint: Return to "Assessment" above to start getting a bead on what you may need to know to use a particular tool effectively.) That’s it. Of course, just do a bit of exploring here on Mission to Learn - perhaps starting with the Tools and Tips category - and you will find any number of ways to incorporate technology into your lifelong learning efforts. And please comment to share any tips or insights you have. Jeff P.S. - This post is part of the 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner series. If you like it, please use one or more of the social buttons over to the left to share it. Related posts:10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 2 - Cultivate Your Network 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 10 - Embrace Responsibility 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 5 - Set and Manage Goals

This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer Autistic students typically require a much different learning structure and environment than students who are not on the autism spectrum. This can cause challenges for both educators and parents of autistic students as well as the students themselves. Fortunately, there are many different education resources and games that are available specifically for autistic students, their families, and their educators. These resources are definitely worth checking into if you are looking for helpful materials to support an autistic student’s educational program. Do2Learn - There are many different educational resources for autistic students available on this helpful site, including songs, games, art projects, learning tools, and software. This site also offers career and employment resources for job-seekers with disabilities such as autism. AutismEducation - This website provides information and training to families with autistic students. It details the special education rights of students with autism as well as successful education and treatment methods that allow autistic students reach their full potential. This site also provides helpful downloads that assist parents and educators with understanding the educational needs of autistic students. PCIEducation - With education resources for autistic students available in numerous subjects, this site is extremely helpful for both students and educators alike. There are various different learning tools available for each subject, including board games, audio cassettes and CDs, and activity cards. AutismSupportNetwork - This extremely informative and helpful website provides great resources for families affected by autism. It has great articles on teaching methods and college internships for adult students with autism. There is also a free support community available where members can connect with other families affected by autism spectrum disorders. IAutistic - If you are looking for some games to play with an autistic student, look no further than this website. It provides several free games that help autistic children better understand people and emotions. This site also provides a number of videos, articles, and treatment methods for autistic students. Time4Learning - This site provides an online education service for students on the autism spectrum. It has been used with success by many families who have had educational struggles elsewhere. There is an interactive curriculum for students from preschool to eighth grade, which gives a visual learning experience that has proven to be very beneficial for many. AutismSpeaks - There is a "Family Services" section of this website that offers many great resources for people affected by autism and similar disorders. There is information on "Autism in the Workplace," which highlights autistic individuals who perform well on the job. There are also sections that provide educational tools and a resource library. TinSnips - Educators of autistic students can find various educational materials on this helpful site. It provides activities that promote various skills through different learning styles. There are also ideas for seasonal activities, which can be quite interesting and exciting for autistic students. Multiple links to other useful educational resources are provided as well. AutismInspiration - This website is a wonderful resource for parents and teachers of students on the autism spectrum. The content provided has been used with success in both home and classroom settings. There are lesson plans, games, activities, and worksheets that subscribers to this site can use freely. AutismPDD - Adults coping with disabilities can find helpful information regarding employment, postsecondary education, and various other things through this website. It provides the contact information for various organizations and agencies that are concerned with the well-being of disabled individuals. Guest post from Karen Schweitzer. Karen writes about online universities for OnlineColleges.net. Additions from the comments: Autism…Learn - Carol Rudd writes in that  she creates "visually structured learning activities that are designed for children that have autism. The focus of each activity is to help develop different skills." Related posts:Self Education: Five Essential Sites 5 Learning Games for Climate Change - Blog Action Day Where to Find Free Computer Programming Education Online

A while back I wrote about my some of favorite iPad apps for lifelong learning. A new one (for me) has come along that is quickly moving to the top of my list: Zite. In a nutshell, Zite enables you to put together a "magazine" on the iPad that focuses on topics in which you are interested and then becomes "smarter" over time about finding and presenting new content to you.  The video below offers a quick visual overview. I’m using Zite to really zero in on a few topical areas that are of particular interest to me in my work and life - like, for example, how the human mind works. I set it up initially by choosing a few topical areas and also connecting Zite into my Google Reader and Mission to Learn Twitter accounts so that it could get a feel for what was already of interest to me. Now, every time I open Zite, it loads new articles in my topic areas. As I read them, I can give them a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" to help the application better understand my interests. It keeps getting better and better. Of course, a narrow, topical focus is only one of many potential learning strategies I use, but for that particular purpose, Zite is pretty amazing. I recommend giving it a try. Jeff Related posts:10 Excellent iPad Apps for the Lifelong Learner

There is ample evidence that how we treat our bodies can have a significant impact on how well our minds function. If you want to learn better, it makes sense to support this goal with a good diet, adequate sleep, and plenty of exercise. Here are a few notes that just barely scratch the surface of how important each of these areas can be: Diet What we eat can directly impact how our brains function and how receptive and capable we are as learners. One of the better sources I have found on how diet impacts our brains is, "Brain Foods: The Effect of Nutrients on Brain Function," an article published in Nature in 2008 highlighting the research of Fernando Gomez-Pinilla.  I highly recommend reading it in full, but here are a few highlights for the time challenged: Food is like a drug in many ways - it contains specific substances that can impact how the brain functions; Omega 3 fatty acids - found in fatty fish, like salmon, flax seed, and walnuts - appear to help the brain function properly and may even slow cognitive decline in the elderly; On the other hand, saturated fats - found in dairy products, meat, and still too often in oily snack foods - can have a negative impact. Flavenoids - found in cocoa, dark chocolate, green tea, citrus fruits, and wine - may also improve cognitive function, particularly in combination with regular exercise. With respect to memory - a key element of learning - Gomez-Pinllia specifically mentions B vitamins as having positive impact on memory in women. Gomez-Pinilla’s article features a great chart that summarizes the effects of different types of food on the brain. The Happy Healthy Long Life blog has included the chart in a great summary it offers of Gomez-Pinilla’s article. As the author notes, it’s worth printing out and putting on your fridge. Sleep While learning is an active, ongoing process, a key goal for any learner is to "consolidate" learning by moving new information and experiences into long-term memory. A wide range of scientific studies support the idea that sleep is essential for this process. A 2009 MIT study, for example, brought us a significant step closer to understanding the sleep-memory connection by showing that "mice prevented from "replaying" their waking experiences while asleep do not remember them as well as mice who are able to perform this function." The bottom line: Sleep is important; get enough of it if you want to make sure your memory is functioning properly. Of course, that begs the question: what is enough? Unfortunately there is no "one-size-fits-all" answer to that question. The safest bet seems to be to aim for at least the standard 7-8 hours a night recommended for most adults and to pay enough attention to how you feel and act based on that amount of sleep to adjust up or down as needed. For more information on sleep needs from infants up to adults, I recommend an article on sleep requirements from Parenting Science. Exercise Tracing a direct path between physical exercise and our ability to learn is a little tricky, but a significant body of research suggests that physical exercise may boost spatial memory, neuroplasticity, and other aspects of the brain essential to learning. At a minimum, a short-term effect of exercise, and in particular aerobic exercise that is continued over a period of at least 30 minutes, is an increase in blood flow and corresponding oxygen supply to the brain. This can help boost cognitive function, including memory. A regular exercise habit can help to improve circulation in general and also ward off stress and depression - two established enemies of optimal cognitive function. Research also suggests that physical exercise may directly benefit the hippocampus - an area of the brain that is essential to memory. A recent study, for example, showed that "elderly adults who are more physically fit tend to have bigger hippocampi and better spatial memory than those who are less fit."  As one of the lead researchers on the study puts it, "Basically, if you stay fit, you retain key regions of your brain involved in learning and memory." So how much exercise should the average person be getting? There’s plenty of debate on the topic, but one reasonable starting point is the Center for Disease Control’s "How much physical activity do you need?" *** Like I said at the beginning, this only scratches the surface of how the way we treat our bodies can impact our minds. It’s clear, however, that if you want to be a better learner, it pays to take care of yourself. Jeff P.S. - This post is part of the 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner series. If you like it, please use one or more of the social buttons over to the left to share it. Related posts:10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 4 - Be An Active Note Taker How to Improve Concentration and Focus: 7 Tips 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 7 - Be Accountable