When I read Jeff’s "How will you teach yourself to fly in 2013?" post, I didn’t know I would actually learn to fly in 2013. But flying—what trapeze artists call what they do—is exactly what I did this past weekend. On a trip to Miami, I passed a sign for the Flying Trapeze School in Bayfront Park on a morning walk. When I got back to my hotel, I looked up the Web site (http://www.theflyingtrapeze.net) and signed up for a class. (Please take note of the top-level domain. School staff are also fond of using "catch you later" whenever they can. I appreciate such attention to detail—and good puns.) Three days later, I was back in the park, watching yachts on the glinting waters and jets growling in low over the skyscrapers. From a platform about 25 feet off the ground. There was a net beneath me, and I was in double-line safety spotting harness. But climbing the shaky aluminum ladder and standing toes over the edge of the platform still got my adrenalin going. In two hours, I learned how to do a knee hang, a back-flip dismount into the net, and be caught. To know exactly what I’m talking about, view the video below of my first attempt at the sequence that puts the knee hang together with the catch. But I learned more than some basic trapeze tricks because the trapeze class also reinforced what I know about learning in general but sometimes fail to fully appreciate. 1. Learners Like to Be Competent Poets John Ciardi and Miller Williams write in How Does a Poem Mean? that games (and they count poetry as a game) are things made hard for the fun of it. I consider games a specialized kind of learning—learning that is just hard enough to be fun and not so hard as to make one feel incompetent. Jeff has cited psychologist Edward Deci on competence before: "The feeling of competence results when a person takes on and, in his or her own view, meets optimal challenges." I left the trapeze class feeling competent—I’d met a challenge I’d set for myself, and I got the good, intrinsic rewards that came along with that accomplishment. A big reason why I could walk away feeling competent was because the instructors scaffolded our learning—one of the instructors told us when to do everything, so we just had to listen. Timing is critical in flying, and if I’d had to master timing on my own in the first class, I’m sure I wouldn’t have nailed that first catch. 2. Repetition and Application Are Important to Learning The staff were good instructors and adhered to basic teaching principles: Breaking processes down into components We worked on the knee hang multiple times to make sure we could complete on it the first swing, before we attempted the catch. Repeating the key information Of the four rules announced at the beginning of class, #1 and #2 both were "Don’t walk under the net." Having us apply what we learn It doesn’t get more hands-on than putting both hands on that flying bar. Equally important, the instructors made the environment safe (remember that harness and net), which gave us students the comfort (and courage) to try without excessive fear of what failure would bring. 3. Personalization and Customization Aid Learning There were six students in my class and four staff. The staff learned and used all our names—something I especially appreciated, as my first name gets bungled so often. But using our names also has a psychological benefit—a lot of what we were doing involved trust, and knowing the catcher and the spotter knew my name helped relax me. Staff were also really good at reading our abilities and adapting as needed. One student had trouble getting his legs through his arms for the knee hang—he did it, but it was a struggle. On the next go-round, the instructors had him kick his legs up and around the outside edges of the bar rather than going between his hands—the student did it much more easily. 4. Teacher and Student Are Mutually Dependent Teachers cannot exist without students, nor can students exist without teachers—the one implies the other, just as a flyer needs a catcher and vice-versa. Both parties have to do their part to achieve the goal—whether that’s learning or a double somersault. 5. Leave ’Em Wanting More The best learning experiences leave me hungry. I’ve been in learning situations where I’ve hit saturation point, and I can’t take in any more—I at least need a break, and, at worst, the experience leaves me with a negative association with the topic. The two-hour class was just right—I left tired and satisfied and ready to come back again. The instructor who took my paperwork at the beginning of class, noticing my last name, asked me if I knew Tony Steele. I did not. Tony Steele turns out to be a trapeze great. He left home to join the circus at 15, was the first to complete three-and-half somersaults to a legs catch (which earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, a record he held for 20 years) and still flies at age 76. In a 2001 interview, Tony Steele says, "You form a mental block, and I took [those who suggested I do four somersaults to a catcher] to be crazy and stupid, you know. People put a limit on their goals, and who knows how high you can fly if you really go after it?" That language, read literally, is just what you’d expect from trapeze artist—and a perfect metaphor for all us lifelong learners who need to remember the biggest barrier to learning and accomplishment is often of our own making. This guest post is by lifelong learner and poet Celisa Steele. You can find out more about her and her poetry at www.celisasteele.com. P.S. - You can read Jeff’s version of the experience at 7 Things I Learned from My Flying Trapeze Lesson. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post Learning How High Can You Fly appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog. No related posts.

Looking for a way to find free online courses and track your progress in them? OnlineCourses.com may be just the ticket. The site provides a searchable online data base that aggregates open courseware offerings from the evolving "big brand" sector of open education. Here’s how the site describes itself: OnlineCourses.com aggregates the best free and open courseware for students and professionals, all in a conveniently searchable online courseware platform. Search, track, and share progress on over 500 university and college level classes globally. Formerly known as LectureFox.com, we continue to carefully select and share with you new courses every week. Our passion for developing and sustaining OCW projects drives us to curate the best. From biology to accounting, foreign languages to science, OnlineCourse.com ensures you get a world-class education from the world’s top schools and scholars anytime, anywhere. If online courses are your thing, definitely looks worth a spin. Jeff P.S. LectureFox, the former version of OnlineCourses, was also mentioned here way back yonder in 2009 in 25 Free Online Resources and Web Apps for Lifelong Learners. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post Free online courses keep getting easier to find and manage appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog. Related posts: Want some community to go with those great courses? Free Online Course: Learning Creative Learning

What’s the future hold? No matter what the answer to that question, active lifelong learners will be the ones best prepared to handle it. That’s just one of the perspectives that emerges in a recent interview I did with futurist David Houle on the Learning Revolution podcast. David is the author Entering the Shift Age, a new book that discusses the major trends that are pushing humanity into a whole new era and provides a detailed vision of the future. He also happens to be the son of Cy Houle, one of the pioneering figures in adult lifelong learning, and he shares his father’s conviction that lifelong learning will be the central concept of education going forward. You can listen to the interview here or subscribe on Tunes , but I also encourage you to check out the show notes and links on the Learning Revolution site. Listen to the Podcast Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Subscribe on Tunes | Stitcher Radio Other Great Interviews and Tools If you are interested in creating podcasts and other Web-based learning experiences, be sure to check out the Learning Revolutionary’s Toolbox section on the Learning Revolution site. Also, here are some other podcast interviews that may be of interest: Easily Publish and Sell Online Courses - An Interview with Pathwright’s Paul Johnson How to Build a Passionate Community of Learners - A Conversation with Leo Babauta (Zen Habits) Are you ready to MOOC? A conversation with George Siemens Exploring How We Learn with Monisha Pasupathi (Teaching Company) Telling Ain’t Training with Harold Stolovitch Enjoy! Jeff Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post Are you ready to enter the Shift Age? appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

A quick post to note that this is Adult Learner’s Week in Canada. To help celebrate the occasion, I’m keynoting the Community Learning Network‘s Forever Learning Luncheon. I also thought it would be a good time to offer a free download of the Kindle version of 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner. Just click the link to get to the download page. It will be available until 12PM Pacific time on April 10. Keep in mind that you don’t actually have to own a Kindle to read the Kindle version of a book: there are a variety of  options for using Kindle software. Here’s that link again: 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner - be sure to share it with other before midnight tomorrow. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post Adult Learner’s Week - Free Download of 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog. Related posts: 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner - Free Kindle Version This Week Free Download of 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner Free Kindle Version of 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner

Do you have knowledge and expertise you want to share with the world - and possibly generate some income while doing it? Do you want to create online courses, educational audio and video, or other types of learning content? Then The Learning Revolutionary’s Toolbox is for you. This free eBook and accompanying Web pages are intended as a companion to Leading the Learning Revolution: The Expert’s Guide to Capitalizing on the Exploding Lifelong Education Market. I originally published the Toolbox as an incentive for signing up for my e-mail list, but now I’ve taken down that gate. You can simply download the eBook - no money or e-mail address required. Download the Learning Revolutionary’s Toolbox I also highly recommend visiting the accompanying Web pages to get links to tools to help you create online courses and other types of educational content. Enjoy - and let me know what you think. Jeff Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post Download the Learning Revolutionary’s Toolbox for Free appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

The EduPunks’ Atlas of Lifelong Learning is a pretty interesting resource that lays out a variety of free options for lifelong learning. Some of these I mentioned long ago on Mission to Learn - e.g., School of Everything, Flat World Knowledge, Zero Tuition College. Others are newer or haven’t received much attention here - e.g., Clarity, Udemy, Quora. I also like that the collection includes tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs - platforms that I consider essential to lifelong learning (though, notably, an RSS reader is not mentioned in the sparse "R" section.) The list is hardly exhaustive. I’m sure readers here will notice quite a few big omissions. And it will need to be updated frequently if it is to stay really useful. Krypton Community College, for example, would be a good new addition. All in all, though, a useful resource to browse. You are bound to find a number of resources here you did not know about before. Jeff Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post EduPunk Lifelong Learning Resources appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

I’m on a little bit more of a resource kick than usual lately. (See my previous post on EduPunk lifelong learning resources.) That will likely taper off soon, but in the meantime, I’m surprised I hadn’t noticed this one a lot sooner. Degreed describes itself as a free service that scores and validates your lifelong education from both accredited (i.e. Harvard) and non-accredited (i.e. iTunesU, Lynda.com, Khan Academy, etc.) sources. In addition to this service, the company’s site provides some nice resources, like like an organized listing of more than 500 free learning sources. Scroll down the home page and you will see that lifelong learners are one of the specific audiences the company aims to serve. If you happen to have signed-up or have heard anything good or bad about the service, please comment and share. (And, of course, comments 0n the overall concept or anything else are also welcome. Jeff P.S. - You may also want to check out the company’s blog: Think Massively. See, for example, a recent post on Introductory Courses to MBAs: Getting Credit for MOOCs. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post Are You Degreed in Lifelong Learning? appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

The "why" of self-directed learning is survival—your own survival as an individual, and also the survival of the human race.  Clearly, we are not talking here about something that would be nice or desirable….We are talking about a basic human competence—the ability to learn on one’s own—that has suddenly become a prerequisite for living in this new world. - Malcom Knowles, 1975 While lifelong learning and self-directed learning are not equivalent, they overlap substantially. I think the following points apply equally to both. The successful lifelong learner is someone who: 1. Takes initiative This first one is core to the entire concept of "self-directed."  The successful self-directed learner does not wait for someone else to say "you must learn this."  2. Is comfortable with independence Self-directed learners do not always act autonomously or independently. Indeed, increasingly they must cultivate their networks to learn effectively. Nonetheless, successful self-directed learners know how to be self-reliant. 3. Is persistent Learning takes time, it takes repetition, it takes practice. Successful self-directed learners stick to it. 4. Accepts responsibility The successful self-directed learner embraces responsibility for doing the work of learning and doing it well  5. Views problems as challenges, not obstacles The successful self-directed learner embraces a growth mindset and is not easily thwarted when the going gets tough. 6. Is capable of self-discipline Even when learning is enjoyable (which, for the successful self-directed learner, it usually is), it often requires discipline. The self-directed learner knows (or learns!)  how to develop and maintain discipline. 7. Has a high degree of curiosity Successful self-directed learners have a high propensity for asking why - and lots of other questions. 8. Has a strong desire to learn or change The successful self-directed learner is intrinsically motivated. She has a will to learn and sees learning as a positive path forward.  9. Is self-confident Successful self-directed learners have a solid sense of "self-efficacy" - the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain manner to attain certain goals 10. Is able to use basic study skills As I have said here before, skills like taking notes effectively are useful for a lifetime. The self-directed learner knows this. 11. Organizes his or her time While self-directed learning does not require the obsession with productivity that seems to be everywhere on the Interweb, the successful self-directed learner nonetheless knows how to find and manage time effectively to allow for learning.  12. Sets an appropriate pace for learning The successful self-directed learner recognizes that learning is as much (if not more) about the process than the outcome and doesn’t try to do too much too fast. 13. Develops a plan for completing work Setting a plan is part of setting the pace and ultimately reaching the destination. The successful self-directed learner recognizes this. 14. Has a tendency to be goal-oriented While not all self-directed learners consciously set goals, they nonetheless tend to have an end in mind when they start down the learning path. 15. Enjoys learning The proverbial bottom line: the successful self-directed learner simply likes to learn. ** How well do these points describe you as a learner? How effectively are you cultivating these ways in those you teach (your children, you members, you employees, your students - you name it.) Please comment and share. I also encourage you to follow me and share your thoughts on Twitter. Jeff P.S. - These "ways" have been extracted from a description in a 1977 survey that ultimately led to development of the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale, which was subsequently renamed the Learning Preferences Assessment. In the post above, I have expanded upon the characteristics highlighted in the description with my own comments. A highly self-directed learner, based on the survey results, is one who exhibits initiative, independence, and persistence in learning; one who accepts responsibility for his or her own learning and views problems as challenges, not obstacles; one who is capable of self-discipline and has a high degree of curiosity; one who has a strong desire to learn or change and is self-confident; one who is able to use basic study skills, organize his or her time and set an appropriate pace for learning, and to develop a plan for completing work; one who enjoys learning and has a tendency to be goal-oriented. (Guglielmino, 1977/78, p.73) Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post 15 Ways of the Successful Self-Directed Learner appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

How deeply do you appreciate - and take advantage of - the freedom you have to learn and grow continually? This post was written for Blog Action Day, an annual event in which bloggers around the world unite to post about a specific issue. The focus for 2013 was on human rights. It struck me as a good prompt for stepping back and reflecting on learning as a right. I’m not sure that the human will to learn can ever be fully extinguished, even in the worst of circumstances, but certainly it can be thwarted and damaged deeply. And certainly many of us are fortunate to live free from such worries, in conditions that provide an abundance of opportunities for learning and growth. I know I, for one, do not always fully appreciate that fact. Maybe you feel the same. I believe a significant part of preserving and strengthening rights is for those who have them to exercise them to the fullest extent possible. So, in that spirit, here are 10 brief suggestions for exercising your human right to learn.  1. Be conscious Don’t just let life and learning happen to you. We learn a great deal unconsciously, but truly exercising your right to learn - and to live life with intention and purpose - begins with making learning a conscious part of your daily life. 2. Make time for focused learning We can’t help but learn continuously - it’s how we are wired - but real growth also requires focused time for learning and - as part of that process - reflection. 3. Be curious It’s easy to slide into apathy. Don’t let it happen. Cultivate curiosity. Ask questions. For that matter, ask better questions. 4. Take a risk or two It’s very hard to learn effectively without sticking your neck out every now and again. Make prudent risk-taking a part of your life. 5. Develop your learning habits Don’t let the good habits you were taught (I hope) long ago slip away. Even simple habits like taking notes and reviewing them go a long way. 6. Act on your learning Don’t let learning be just a theoretical exercise. Take a page from Benjamin Franklin and embrace the concept of "useful knowledge." Put your learning to work. 7. Be an example Don’t keep your devotion to learning a secret. Be a learning geek - especially for the kids around you. Learning is a right and a responsibility. Embrace it and show it off. 8. Connect with others Humans are social learners. We like to connect, share, and learn with others. There are countless opportunities for connecting with other learners - in your community, on social networks, in new initiatives like Krypton Community College. 9. Take care of yourself There really is no separation between mind and body. If you want to learn well, you need to eat well, sleep well, and exercise regularly. 10. Teach others We’ve all hear it - and it’s true: one of the best way to learn something well is to teach it. And in teaching, you help others exercise their right to learn. The ‘ol "win-win." Happy Blog Action Day. What would you add? Jeff P.S. - I encourage you to read (or re-read) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and share the link to it with others. Here are a couple of parts of it that stood out for me in relation to the topic of learning: 19. the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. 26. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups… Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post 10 Ways to Exercise Your Human Right to Learn appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

If you are reading this blog post, there is a good chance you are someone who likes to learn. Probably even someone who is hungry to learn and would like to learn more than you ever seem to be able to manage. But what can you do about that? Is there really any way to speed up your learning while not damaging the possibilities for retaining what you learn? Well, yes and no. Most learning of any substance involves at least some level of repeated exposure to whatever it is you are trying to learn. Whether this takes the form of practice, immersion in the right environment, testing yourself, or other techniques, it takes time. There’s just no way around it. But, you can certainly stack the deck in your favor. Here are a few key practices: 1. Sleep On It First, sleep well both before and after your learning experiences. With a well-rested brain, you are better able to focus and process new information. And during sleep following a learning experience your brain solidifies connections it formed while learning. Activity in the brain during sleep actually mirrors activity during learning - particularly learning of new motor skills. In other words, you pretty much practice in your sleep! Finally, sleeping between sessions of learning helps to space the learning out. Even if you are bent on learning fast, spaced learning ultimately helps to ensure better and faster learning. If you want to make maximum use of sleep as a learning habit, you may want to check out this Lifehacker post and infographic on How Long to Nap for the Biggest Brain Benefits. 2. Connect the Dots Make the effort to draw connections between what you are learning and other things. In learning-theory speak this is know as elaborative encoding. The use of mnemonics, is one strategy you may already be familiar with for making encoding easier. Like many musicians, for example, I used the phrase "Every Good Boy Does Fine" to help me learn the lined notes on the treble clef (E-G-B-D-F). Similarly, if I am taught about a new concept and then spend time reflecting upon and visualizing how I might apply it in my day-to-day work, this also is a form of encoding. In this case, I connect new information to knowledge I already have (prior knowledge), and in the process strengthen my grasp on both the new and the old. 3. Test Yourself If you want to move something into long-term memory, few methods are more straightforward and effective than testing yourself regularly as part of the learning process. Occasionally, for example, I like to memorize poems. When I am trying to memorize a new poem, I read it through a few times, set it aside, and a little while later make myself try to repeat as much of it as possible from memory. Repeated attempts at retrieving what I have learned help to cement it in my memory. (I also tend to do this before going to bed in the evening - so I get extra boost of sleep as well.) (If you would like a more in-depth, research-based discussion of testing as learning strategy, I recommend Using Testing to Improve Learning and Memory.) 4. Immerse Yourself As much as possible, immerse yourself in the environments where your learning will ultimately apply. This is a well-known approach for language learning - living in a country or visiting it for an extended period of time can provide a big boost for learning its language - but it also works well in many other learning situations. Putting your learning efforts as much in context as possible can provide for a powerful combination of application and unconscious exposure to supplement your conscious efforts. These days, putting yourself in context may not even require leaving your house - role-playing games and other technology-enhanced learning experiences can bring immersive environments right to your living room. (For more on the power of games, check out Jane McGonigal’s TED Talk.) 5. Don’t Stuff Your Brain Okay, this may qualify as an "anti-tip," but be sure to resist cramming - especially when learning anything complex. While cramming may get you through an exam, if that is your goal, it doesn’t help much with real mastery and long-term retention. You do, of course, need to repeat, review, and test yourself, but try to do this at spaced intervals. Study or practice for a bit, stop, and come back to it later (perhaps, as suggested above, with some sleep in between). Yes, this takes time, but learning fast isn’t of much value if you don’t retain what you learn, eh? *** So, those are my suggestions. In spite of what numerous self help gurus may claim, I don’t think there are any miracle approaches to accelerated learning - at least not for learning that really sticks. Nonetheless, I know from my own experiences (in addition to having reviewed a great deal of research) that the techniques covered here can make a significant difference. What about you? What approaches have you found effective for effective accelerated learning? Please comment and share. Jeff Update, November 2013 - I just came across this interactive infographic Your Brain Map: 84 Strategies for Accelerated Learning. You will have to draw some of your own conclusions about what the actual "strategies" are, but it is a very interesting tool all the same. An interactive infographic by Open Colleges Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post 5 Practices to Prime Accelerated Learning appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

"Learning begins by emptying your cup, so that you can fill it with what you find." Leo Babauta, Zen Habits from My Pursuit of the Art of Living Leo has inspired me on many occasions. (He is one of the entrepreneurs, for example, who I interviewed for Leading the Learning Revolution.) This weekend he inspired me to start collecting and posting perspectives on what learning is and how it works. I don’t know how consistent I will be about this. I’m setting out without any particular goal in mind (Leo again). I hope I will be a little more consistent about it than my "Found Wisdom" series (which I hope to get back to). But, no promises. Jeff P.S. - Related to this series, you may also want to check out my definition of learning. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post What learning is … (#1) appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

The world of lifelong learning has changed quite dramatically over the course of the last several years - and, almost entirely for the better, in my opinion. So, with Thanksgiving upon us here in the U.S., I thought it would be good to take a few minutes and jot down thoughts on some of the really big trends I have been grateful to see emerge. In no particular order: 1. Rapidly expanding access to learning opportunities Wow. Even as recently as the year 2000, who would have thought that top universities around the world would start putting courses online for free (e.g., EdX, Coursera, Open Courseware Consortium)? Or that something like Khan Academy would exist? Or that you could easily download any number of podcasts and videos onto a mobile phone or tablet (which, of course, didn’t even exist then) for free? Or that the major encyclopedia used around the world would be free and online? Or that you would be able easily to search and find high quality information on pretty much anything from any Web-enabled device? That’s just scratching the surface, of course. I can’t possibly name all of the great sources for educational content, or all the places to connect with and learn from experts and other learners. It’s mind-boggling. Breathtaking. I’ll simply say, to all involved, thanks! 2. Amazing technologies to support learning This one is related to the first point above, but I think it is worth calling out separately the incredible toolset now available to learners. I wrote this post in Evernote, which has become indispensable to me for all forms of writing and information management. I published it to WordPress, a platform that has empowered millions globally to create and share content at a level never possible before. I use Feedly to track and manage great content created by others. I share - and receive - valuable links shared by others on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social platforms. I could go on and on and on, but you get the point. And I’m sure you have a huge number of tools you use yourself as part of your ongoing learning activities. To all you tool tech innovators out there, thanks! 3. Vastly better understanding of how learning works One of the by-products of the previous two points is that things have gotten pretty chaotic out there. The standard teacher-in-front-of-a-classroom model now has more competition than ever. Fortunately, we are coming to understand that the old "sage on the stage" model is not always the best one. In fact, most of our learning happens in much less formal ways and is fueled by the array of social connections we all maintain. (See Jay Cross’s excellent Informal Learning if you want to did deeper on that.) Over the past couple of decades, we seen a lot more investigation not only into social and informal learning but also into how the human mind works. Brain science and learning psychology have made big leaps forward. I think it is not much of an an exaggeration to say that we have learned more about how we learn in the past few decades than we did in the entire history of humanity before that. Of course, it will be a long while before all that new knowledge makes its way effectively into everyday teaching and learning practices, but we’re on our way. And I, for one, am grateful. 4. Incredible generosity of other learners It is more true than ever that everyone is a learner and everyone is a teacher. A huge part of what makes all of the new learning opportunities possible is that ordinary people - along with some extraordinary ones - from all around the world are contributing their time, content, and insights. I’ll keep this one short: thanks, everyone! 5. Massive potential for diversity Finally, everything above points to a benefit that I think often gets overlooked. As I wrote in Leading the Learning Revolution: An often-overlooked silver lining in the chaotic "cloud" of the Internet is the potential for embracing the diversity that it offers. In no previous time has it been possible for people to connect so rapidly, so easily, and so intimately across the globe—or even, for that matter, across town. We now have the opportunity to listen to, interact with, and learn from a much more diverse range of people and ideas than we might ever have encountered had we lived in other times The opportunity is one of cultural diversity, but also of cognitive diversity, both of which can be significant factors in sparking the innovative thinking we need to tackle the many tough problems we now face. Of course, there is also the possibility of squandering this opportunity. Of moving not toward greater mutual understanding and innovation, but rather toward isolation and dogmatism. Many of the same technologies that make it possible to increase diversity also make it possible for us to connect only with those who are exactly like us. I am grateful for those who choose to expand their horizons. *** So, those are my big five. How have these impacted you, and what other trends are you thankful for? Jeff Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post 5 Learning Mega Trends to Be Thankful For appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

I have found the following to emerge again and again as areas that need continual attention and reinforcement for the dedicated lifelong learner. I will be working on them myself, doing research, and writing more about them here in the coming year. To be clear, these are indirect strategies - they don’t have to do with the content of your learning or with activities specific to learning (like for example, effective note taking or testing yourself). Rather, these are more about establishing and maintaining a solid foundation and receptivity toward learning. I’ve also included some additional resources with each. Enjoy. Mind the Body We tend to undervalue the connection between our physical well being and our desire and ability to learn. That’s a big mistake: there is abundant research to suggest that sleep, exercise, and nutrition all impact learning in significant ways. It’s worth investing time and effort to improve in the following general areas: Sleep It’s well established that the average adult needs between 7 and 8 hours a night, every night - which means most of us need more than what we are getting. Among other benefits, sleep helps us to consolidate learning and form long-term memories. And being well-rested makes us better able to pay attention - a necessary precursor for most learning. Exercise  We haven’t yet found all of the "whys" when it comes to the connection between exercise and learning, but clearly exercise helps boost cognitive function and it can contribute to better memory and recall. Aside from those benefits, regular physical activity simply makes you feel better - which can help boost overall motivation - and it helps support good sleep habits. Diet and Nutrition The debate around "what to eat" seems to be never ending, but clearly both mind and body need good nutrition to perform at optimal levels. My recommendation is not to chase after "super foods" or give in to the latest supplement fad. Rather, focus on eating a varied diet that covers the major food groups, don’t eat too much, and if you need to, try to drop any excess weight you are carrying. For additional information and tips see: 10 Ways to Be a Better Leaner: No. 9 - Mind Your Body Eat to Learn, Learn to Eat: 7 Simple Rules for Eating Better The Learning Walk: A Primer  Cultivate Focus I’ve become more aware over the past year of just how easy it is to become distracted and unfocused in our efforts to learn and grow. Maybe the Internet, smart phones, and other modern conveniences are making the situation worse; maybe every age has its equivalent of these distractions. Regardless, learning tends to require a certain degree of attention, focus, and consistency, so it makes sense to develop strategies that help. Two keys strategies include: Reflection  We’re constantly taking in new information and experiencing new things. That’s as it should be, but finding meaning in it all and maintaining a sense of direction and purpose is very difficult if we don’t take time to pull back, contemplate, and connect the dots. I recommend doing this for at least 10 to 15 minutes daily and carving out longer periods of reflection throughout the year. Mindfulness This is a new one for me. In spite of a longstanding interest jun Zen Buddhism, it has only been in the past year that I have begun meditating with any regularity. Specifically, I’ve been pursuing mindfulness meditation. There is quite a bit of research suggesting the health benefits of mindfulness meditation, but one of the longer term benefits I find most attractive is that the mindfulness you cultivate through dedicated meditation practice begins to spread into your everyday life. The awareness, attention, and overall increase consciousness this shift produces can contribute significantly to our effectiveness as learners. For more on focus, see: 5 Powerful Reasons to Make Reflection a Daily Learning Habit, and How to Do It How to Become a Reflection Ninja: After Action Reviews How to Improve Concentration and Focus: 7 Tips I also recommend Leo Babauta’s excellent manifesto Focus (Free and premium versions available). For mindfulness, there is no better starting point than Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness for Beginners. Tend Your Networks Humans (even introverts like myself) are social beings, and most of our learning is socially influenced. That being the case, it makes sense that the quality of learning in our lives is directly impacted by the social networks we maintain. That includes our tight, active networks: the family, friends, and colleagues we rely on and interact with regularly. It also includes our loose, often relatively passive networks:the people whose blogs we read or who we follow Twitter, for example. It is important to pay attention to and "tend" both of these types of networks. Tending includes: Feeding Getting real, long-term value from your networks requires contributing value to them. It’s worth periodically asking yourself what value you have contributed recently to the networks that are most important to your learning. Growing Growth for the sake of growth (something many popular social networking platforms seem to encourage) is not of much value, but it is important to continually seek out people whose ideas and influence can stretch you. What kinds of people would it be valuable for you to connect with in the coming year, and how will you go about it? Pruning  Any good landscaper or arborist knows that carefully trimming old growth is one of the keys to ensuring robust new growth. The same applies with social connections. I find this is particularly important with loose connections. I periodically evaluate the blogs I am reading, for example, cut quite a few, and seek out new ones that are more in line with my current learning needs and goals. The same can be true, though, of our closer connections: sometimes real growth means the people you have been hanging out with before aren’t going to be the people you hand out with going forward. For more on networks, see: 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 2 - Cultivate Your Network 20 Social Networks for Lifelong Learners  Build Self Esteem I’ve come to believe this is the most important point in this list, but I’ve put it fourth because I think the previous three points serve as a foundation: it’s hard to maintain high self esteem if you don’t feel particularly good, are unfocused, and aren’t surrounded by a supportive network. And I think it is impossible to learn and grow to the fullest extent possible if you don’t have a healthy regard for yourself. Two key concepts apply: Growth Mindset Stanford professor and psychologist Carol Dweck has demonstrated through years of research that the key factor separating successful people from less successful people is simply the belief the former have in their ability to learn and grow. Less successful people have a "fixed" mindset, a belief that whatever ability they have is innate, and can’t really be changed in any significant way. Once they hit the wall, that’s where they stop. People with a growth mindset, on the other hand, view hitting the wall as a learning opportunity. They pick themselves up, evaluate, learn what they can, and keep going. Competency  Learning - and ultimately, success, however you define it - is a series of small wins. That may seem obvious enough, but a failure to recognize our own progress, our own "small wins" is often the chisel that chips away at self esteem. I feel like the concept of competency has hit tough times lately. We hear so much about "mastery" and the need to be remarkable. While these are, no doubt, admirable goals to aim for, it is by building competency in small steps along the way that we fuel our motivation and construct a solid foundation for future learning. More on the growth mindset and competency. (I have not really written directly about self esteem before, but plan to do so in the weeks and months.) 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 1 - Adopt the Right Mindset Don’t let the wrong mindset trap get you!  In Defense of Competence  The 1% Solution for Learning and Growth I also recommend Carol Dweck’s book Mindset as well as Edward Deci’s Why We Do What We Do, which discusses competency and its relationship to motivation. Master Your Time I think you have to decide the first three really are priorities in you life, and you have to have a sufficient sense of self worth before you can really master your time. But master your time you must if you want to learn deeply and effectively. By "master" I don’t mean that you have to become obsessed with productivity and "getting things done." Nor do you have to slavishly set and labor towards goals. You do, however, have to take seriously the idea that time is your most precious asset - both for learning and for life in general - and, as such, deserves not to be squandered. There are four key components to mastering your learning time: Block First, you have to consciously set aside time for focused learning and defend that time ruthlessly. Put it on you calendar. Do not treat it as optional. Do not let other activities bump it around or off your schedule. This is your time, and you deserve it. (See "Build Self Esteem" above.) Chop Be realistic about what you can accomplish during any given period of time. On any given day, for example, it is hard to focus on more than one or two major ideas or projects, and it is hard to accomplish more than a few smaller tasks if you really want to remain mindful and attentive and maximize your learning. Chop your list ruthlessly to the few things that are most important right now. (See "Cultivate Focus" above.) Chunk  Within the time you set aside for learning activities, provide time for pauses and rest. The human brain can only maintain attention and focus for so long before it needs some relief and diversion. As a general rule, plan on no more than 40 minutes or so of focused activity at a stretch, followed by 10 to 15 minutes of rest or less intense activity before starting another more focused session. Calibrate Finally, you will need to adjust and calibrate all of the above over time to find your own sweet spot. The main trap to avoid is trying to accomplish too much and, as a result, becoming demoralized and potentially losing confidence (see "Build Self Esteem" above). Remember: small wins ultimately lead to success. The goals is progress, not perfection. More on time and learning. (I haven’t actually written much about this before, given my general aversion to the productivity industry, but I’ve decided it’s time to get over that and do more in this area in the coming year): 15 Ways to Find an Hour a Day of Extra Time…for Focused Learning *** So, those are some key areas I will be focusing on in 2014, both in my own life and learning and in my writing here. What about you? How will you address the above areas in your own lifelong learning in the coming year? On what other areas will you focus? Please comment and share your thoughts and plans. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post 5 Moves to Enhance Life and Learning This Year appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

Are you hoping to learn or brush up on a foreign language in 2014? Have you found that whenever you set out to do this in the past, it’s been hard to keep at it? Memrise may be just the ticket for you. I’ve been using the site for a few months now to help me improve my Spanish and I’ve found it useful enough that I thought I should mention it here as a tool that M2Learners may want to check out. What is Memrise? Memrise (www.memrise.com, and also available as an iPhone or Android app) is a platform that enables users to create collections of content, or "memes," that combine textual, visual, and auditory cues. These are then published as courses into what is basically a "learning engine" that supports presenting the content to learners and repeatedly testing them on it as they progress. The site also throws in some community and competitive elements - you can "follow" other learners and see how the points you accumulate from your learning activities compare to performance of other learners. As far as I can tell, all of the courses on Memrise are currently free, though I assume there will be a point in the future when course authors are able to charge for their creations. Why Does It Work? All of the above, it is important to note, is grounded in solid learning science: The ability to combine audio, text, and visual content helps to stimulate multiple senses during the learning process, increasing the chances of later recall The use of "memes" supports "elaborative encoding," or drawing associations between new information or experiences and what we already know. (At least in theory: Memrise relies heavily on users to create memes, and I have found that most of them don’t seem particularly effective. I would expect this to improve over time, though, as more and more people use the system.) The spaced repetition and testing of content that the site provides for is a very powerful way of supporting both initial learning and long-term retention. (Note: You can read more about both spaced learning and elaborative encoding in 5 Power Tips for Serious Lifelong Learners.) Memrise displays "Leaderboards" for each course, showing the which learners have accumulated the most points through their learning activities. For many learners, these competitive and social elements may help focus attention and drive motivation - both important elements in learning. Memrise combines all of the above into an environment that simply feels enjoyable and non-threatening - both pluses when it comes to effective learning. A "garden" metaphor is used for the learning activities. You first "plant" your garden as you engage in initial learning activities. Then you periodically "water" it, based on reminders the system generates automatically. What’s it Good For? As you might expect, the Memrise approach is not a fit for all types of learning, but for anything that involves memorizing lists of content it is excellent. The vocabulary memorization necessary for learning a language is an obvious fit, and it is no accident that language courses are by far the most popular on the site. (I’m currently taking Comprehensive Spanish Vocabulary and Easy Spanish Conjugation.) But there are plenty of other uses. For example, there are a range of courses addressing common standardized test like the SAT and GRE. Other courses tackle topics like capital cities, major works of modern art, and general memory training. All of these, again, are free, but it is worth noting that Memrise has an upgrade version that enables you to create private learning content. This could be particularly powerful because of the spaced learning and testing capabilities the platform supports. While I haven’t tried it yet, I expect that I will in the future. So, bottom line: Memrise is worth checking out. If you do, or if you have already, please comment and share your experiences with other readers.  Jeff P.S. - For Spanish learners, I also cover another couple of tools in addition to Memrise over on 3 Free Online Tools to Help Parents Learn Spanish. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post Memrise: A Learning Engine Worth a Spin appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

I’ve never been a great sleeper. Now I have a 3-year old who seems to have inherited that trait. As a result, I’ve become a bit obsessed lately with both my own sleep and hers and that obsession has fueled a good bit of my research lately. We’ve known for a long time that sleep is important for learning. As we sleep, the brain remains active, working to reinforce and consolidate the learning that we have done throughout the day. And studies have shown that even a relatively brief nap following a period of learning can significantly improve recall of what we learned. While sleep is essential for supporting learning throughout our lives, three studies released over the past year highlight the especially critical role it plays in the developing brains of children. If you have young children in your life, you’ll want to tune into these. Here’s the quick rundown: Sleep Strengthens Brain Connections The work of a research team at University of Colorado at Boulder suggests that sleep is essential for strengthening connections across the hemispheres of our brains as we mature. The researchers used electroencephalograms, or EEGs, to track the brain activity of eight kids as they slept. Readings were taking multiple times at ages 2,3, and 5 for each child with the goal of seeing how brain activity differed when the kids slept and how their brain activity changed over time. The results? The researchers found that connections in the brain generally became stronger during sleep as the children aged. They also found that the strength of the connections between the left and right hemispheres increased by as much as 20 percent over a night’s sleep. The findings suggest that much of the alteration of our brains that occurs as we mature may be dependent upon sleep. These findings are particularly intriguing in the context of recent report suggesting that the strength of the connections between the hemispheres of his brain may have contributed to Albert Einstein’s genius. Regardless of whether you are raising a young Einstein, making sure the toddlers and kindergartners in your life get sufficient high quality sleep may help ensure that their brain matures as it should. Source: Report: Development of Brain EEG Connectivity across Early Childhood: Does Sleep Play a Role? Press Release: Connections in the brains of young children strengthen during sleep, CU-Boulder study finds Naps Power Learning Any parent (and many an innocent bystander) knows that when a young child misses her nap, there is often a price to pay. Research conducted at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggests that price may be greater than previously believed. During the preschool years, kids often transition from taking a nap during the day to sleeping only at night. It’s tempting to speculate that, because "naps may contain mostly light sleep stages" - rather than the deeper sleep typically needed to support learning - they "may serve serve little function for learning and memory during this transitional age." To test out this line of thinking, the U. Mass research team tracked the performance of 40 preschoolers across 6 different schools on a visual-spatial learning exercise that involved remembering the location of different pictures. The exercise was given to the children in the morning. Some kids then took their normal afternoon nap while others were kept awake during the nap period. Both groups were then tested after nap time and the next day for their recall of the location of the pictures. The children "performed significantly better when they napped both in the afternoon and the next day," the researchers reported. "That means that when they miss a nap, the child cannot recover this benefit of sleep with their overnight sleep. It seems that there is an additional benefit of having the sleep occur in close proximity to the learning." The U. Mass team notes that there are important policy considerations related to these findings: Lacking scientific understanding of the function of naps in early childhood, policy makers may curtail preschool classroom nap opportunities due to increasing curriculum demands. Here we show evidence that classroom naps support learning in preschool children by enhancing memories acquired earlier in the day as compared with equivalent intervals spent awake. Parents may also want to consider the implications within their own homes: think twice before getting rid of nap time for your preschooler. Source: Report: Sleep spindles in midday naps enhance learning in preschool children Press Release: Sleep Research Study Finds Daytime Naps Enhance Learning in Preschool Children Kids Outpace Adults in Gains from Sleep Sleep helps both kids and adults transform subconsciously learned material into active knowledge, but it appears to pack a greater punch for kids, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Tübingen’s Institute for Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology. The Tübingen team trained a group of 8-11 year olds and a group of young adults to makes guesses about a pre-detemined sequence of actions. The training and the associated learning were "implicit" in that the participants were not aware that a sequence existed. Participants were subsequently tested to see how much they remembered - or, in other words, how much explicit knowledge they gained as a result of the implicit learning activity. Part were tested after a night of sleep, the other part after a day of being awake. As you might guess, the participants that got a night’s sleep before the memory test performed much better that those that did not. What was particularly interesting, however, was that the 8-11 years olds who got sleep performed significantly better than the young adults that got sleep. The researchers speculated that children were able to much more efficiently convert the implicit knowledge gained from the training into explicit knowledge because of the large amount of deep sleep kids typically get at night. "The formation of explicit knowledge appears to be a very specific ability of childhood sleep," they write, "since children typically benefit as much or less than adults from sleep when it comes to other types of memory tasks." Any one who has spent much time observing kids has marveled and how quickly the often seem to pick up new skills and knowledge. These findings point one of the possible reasons. Source: Report: The sleeping child outplays the adult’s capacity to convert implicit into explicit knowledge Press Release: Tübingen Study: Sleep Reinforces Learning *** The bottom line for all of these reports - particularly when taken in the context of a great deal of previous research - is that sleep is incredibly important for childrens’ learning and development. So, if you have kids in your life, do everything you can to make sure they get the sleep they need. (And, of course, don’t forget that sleep is incredibly important for your own learning as well.) Jeff P.S. - I’m always sharing these kinds of study on Twitter. Be sure to follow MissiontoLearn. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post Don’t Wake Her, She’s Learning: 3 Recent Studies Reinforce Importance of Sleep for Learning appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

There is a good chance that, back in the day, you were not taught the most effective ways to learn. Certainly that seems to be the case today. In a recent article in American Educator, Kent State professor John Dunlosky reports that the texts used in education schools do not really prepare teachers very well for teaching their students effective lifelong learning strategies. The current textbooks, Dunlovsky writes, do not adequately cover the strategies; some omit discussion of the most effective ones, and most do not provide guidelines on how to use them in the class- room or on how to teach students to use them. To help address this issue, Dunlovsky and a group of academic colleagues set out to determine which learning strategies really do seem to be most effective. They investigated a list of 10 strategies, some chosen for the list because there seemed to be existing evidence they are effective, others chosen because they are popular with students, but possibly not very effective. Two strategies, in particular, stood out as effective: Practice testing: self-testing or taking practice tests on to-be-learned material. Distributed practice: implementing a schedule of practice that spreads out study activities over time. Another three showed significant promise, though merit more research in the opinion of Dunlosky and his colleagues: Interleaved practice: implementing a schedule of practice that mixes different kinds of problems, or a schedule of study that mixes different kinds of material, within a single study session. Elaborative interrogation: generating an explanation for why an explicitly stated fact or concept is true. Self-explanation: explaining how new information is related to known information, or explaining steps taken during problem solving. Read on, and I’ll discuss how each of these might apply in your own lifelong learning. I’ll also discuss the five practices that were not so effective - some of which you almost certainly make use of regularly as part of your learning. Effective Strategies Here are the strategies that Dunlosky says are clearly effective or show signs of being very effective: 1. Practice Testing Testing yourself as you learn is one of the techniques I cover in the "accountability" chapter of 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner. The idea is that, by making yourself actively retrieve information from memory, you bolster long-term retention. In addition, as Dunlosky points out, the practice of testing yourself during the course of learning helps you identify the areas where you may need more study or practice. So how do you test yourself during the course of learning? You are most likely familiar with one of the most tried and true methods: flashcards. Use flashcards to capture key terms and concepts as you learn so that you can return to them periodically. The term or concept goes on one side of the card and an answer or brief explanation on the other. The cards should be reviewed regularly, and for maximum effectiveness, you should make yourself fully recall the answer or explanation - potentially even write it out - before flipping the card. Technology, of course, can help with the flashcard-type approach. Consider using a site like Quizlet to create Web-based cards. Memrise is another option. Its learning engine is based on many of the principles I cover in this post, and with the paid version, you have the ability to use the platform to create your own private courses. Finally, working with an accountability partner or group can be a great option. Collaborative learning provides opportunities for questioning each other, role playing, and demonstrations - all forms of practice testing. (Note: If you are interested in the testing effect, you may also want to see Taking the Testing Effect Beyond the College Freshman: Benefits for Lifelong Learning.) 2. Distributed Practice "Cramming" is a time honored tradition of students everywhere, but while cramming may get you through an exam, it is not much good for real learning. If you want to retain what you learn over the long term, the most effective approach is "distributed practice" - basically spreading your learning efforts out over time rather concentrating them into a single "massed" session. Dunlosky stresses, though, that distribution is not simply a matter of repetition, as important as that is. No, the repetition needs to be effortful. It should involve actual recall - as with the approach to flashcards discussed above. Or, it should require performance - that is, actually trying to do whatever it is you are trying to learn. Readers familiar with the concept of "deliberate practice" will recognize a strong connection between Dunlosky’s findings and the work of Anders Ericsson. In addition to Dunlosky’s article, I encourage you to read How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall? 8 Keys to Deliberate Practice in which I expire the topic of practice in greater depth. With respect to applying distributed practice to your lifelong learning, I’d suggest that thinking of lifelong learning as a continuous practice or habit is key. Simply reading a book, attending an event or watching a video is likely to have little impact. You have to return to the material covered in those learning experiences repeatedly over time. This is a key reason that effective note-taking is so important. Again, technology can be helpful. I use Evernote, for example, to create notebooks related to specific learning experiences of topics, making it easier for me to return to these and review them over time. You may also find it useful to use a site like "Lift" to help hold you accountable for developing a habit or practice over time. Promising Strategies The following are the three additional strategies that Dunlosky says show promise of being very effective. 3. Interleaved Practice Interleaved practice basically takes the concept of distributed practice a step further, Rather than practicing the same sorts of problems or working with the same sorts of materials over time, the interleaved approach involves mixing different types of materials or problems. I’d argue this approach aligns quite well with the reality of dedicated lifelong learners, who often pursue many leaning paths at once. It is possible that even when practice is spaced out over time, focusing on a single type of material or problem can have a sort of "massed" practice effect because the content covered in any given session starts to feel familiar quickly. We may quickly get a sense of mastery, but in reality, we may not be challenging ourselves at a level that will help maximize long-term recall. Dunlosky suggests that the interleaved approach may be most useful when it comes to learning that involves problem solving - like, for example, mathematics. Distributed learning significantly improves performance over massed practice when it comes to problem solving, but interleaved practice requires a learner not only to solve a problem bus also to determine what type of problem it is. As Dunlosky puts it: This seems like the real key: when a new problem is presented, students need to first figure out which kind of problem it is and what steps they need to take to solve it. This is often a difficult aspect of solving problems.[7] While it is quite easy and quite common for lifelong learners to pursue learning in many areas at one time, making interleaved practice a part of your ongoing learning obviously requires some reflection, planning, and organization. And how how helpful it is may also depend significantly on your specific learning pursuits. While I won’t claim to have mastered, or even significantly implemented the interleaved approach to any great extent myself, I can say that I have notices a benefit to interleaved review of my various learning activities. Namely, it tends to spark ideas that I feel certain I would not otherwise have had. Although not addressed by Dunlosky, I am inclined to think that interleaved approaches to learning could contribute significantly to creativity and innovation. 4. Elaborative Interrogation and 5. Self-Explanation Dunlosky addresses these two strategies together - which makes sense, given how closely related they are. Elaborative interrogation involves making an active effort to explain why something is true. Self explanation involves connecting new information to existing knowledge. As Dunlosky puts it, One reason these two strategies can promote learning and comprehension and boost problem-solving performance is that they encourage students to actively process the content they are focusing on and integrate it with their prior knowledge. [7] Dunlosky also notes that elaborative interrogation, in particular, is effective because "it simply involves encouraging [students] to ask the question "why?" when they are studying. Long time readers here will know that I have written quite a bit about asking questions in general and asking "why" in particular. I’ve also advocated thoughtful review, reflection, and elaboration as part of effective note-taking. The research done by Dunlosky and his colleagues lends further support to these practices. Out of the strategies covered here, these are arguably the simplest and easiest to incorporate into your lifelong learning immediately.  5 Less Useful Learning Strategies Dunlosky and his colleagues also looked at five other strategies, each of which they found less useful for various reasons. These were: Rereading and highlighting: These are probably two of the most common studying strategies there are, and for the most part, they are ineffective. I’ll point you to Dunlosky’s article for the details, but the bottom line is that these are really only useful as a prelude to the more effective strategies above. For example, highlight as a way to identify what you might want to test yourself on. Or, when re-reading, use elaboration and self explanation and test yourself. Summarization: Summarization involves "paraphrasing the most important ideas within a text." It actually can be effective, but it requires some training and quite a bit of effort to do it well. As a result, Dunlovsky and his colleagues viewed as less useful than the five strategies covered above. Keyword Mnemonic and Imagery for Text: Like re-reading and highlighting, these strategies are also quite popular. Indeed, they are at the core of Memrise, a "learning engine" I wrote about recently. Both involve using imagery to help the student remember words or concepts. There are benefits to this strategy, but they are limited. Dunlosky writes that Mental imagery does increase retention of the material being studied, especially when students are tested soon after studying. However, research has shown that the benefits of imagery can be short-lived. The strategies are also not widely applicable. They tend to work well when engaged in activities like memorizing a list of items, but don’t hold up as well with complex concepts. I’d also argue that they can be hard to do well consistently - a point I made when writing about Memrise. (The major benefit of Memrise, in my opinion, is not it’s "memes" but the fact that it employs distributed practice.) So, the bottom line with these five strategies is that they may have a place in your lifelong learning practice, but probably not as significant a place as you might have thought. Time to Get Strategic One underlying message in Dunlosky’s work is that learning benefits greatly from identifying and constantly using effective strategies. So, if you haven’t been using the effective lifelong learning strategies covered here, I encourage you to begin embracing them today. And, if you have been using them, keep fine-tuning and developing your strategic learning skills. Jeff Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post 5 Powerful Lifelong Learning Strategies for Your Toolbox appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

I’ve become somewhat fanatical about the "physical" side of learning - namely, exercise, diet, and sleep. I touched on sleep in a recent post (more of that to come), so I thought I’d take exercise for a spin this time around. (And I will, of course, get to diet in the future.) Evidence has continued to accumulate over the past couple of decades that exercise has a clear impact on various aspects of learning including, but not limited to, encoding (i.e., getting new information into your brain effectively), short term memory, long term memory, and general cognitive performance. Five relatively recent studies suggest that: 1. Mild exercise while engaged in learning can improve recall (another bit of evidence to support the practice of the learning walk) 2. Even as little as 3 months of aerobic exercise can improve cognition in older adults 3. Exercise also improves spatial and verbal memory in older adults suffering from mild cognitive decline (a condition many of us are likely to experience as we age) 4. A specific molecule released during endurance exercise may spark the growth of new neurons 5. A higher level of fitness can help kids better recall what they have learned These studies, in combination with a significant amount of prior research, point to the importance of making regular exercise a part of our own lives and our childrens’ lives. They also underline the need for a greater focus on exercise as part of public policy. While most people understand the benefits to our collective physical health - and the impact on our health care and health insurance systems - the impact on our collective mental health is equally important. In case you need more convincing - or want to convince others - here are brief summaries from each of the five studies: Mild to Moderate Exercise During Learning Boosts Recall German researchers split a pool of 81 healthy young women into three groups. One group completed a language learning activity while sedentary; the second completed the same activity after getting some moderate exercise from stationary bike riding; and the third completed the activity while engaged in the same type of bike exercise as the second group. Each group was then tested for recall of the words presented during the learning activity. While there was little difference in recall between group one (sedentary learners) and group two (those who did the activity after biking), the third group (those who biked while learning) had significantly better recall than either of the other two. The researchers reported in PLOS ONE that their data "indicates that light to moderate simultaneous physical activity during encoding, but not prior to encoding, is beneficial for subsequent recall of new items." Source: Physical Exercise During Encoding Improves Vocabulary Learning in Young Female Adults: A Neuroendocrinological Study, May 20, 2013. A Little Exercise Goes a Long Way Researchers had a group of cognitively healthy, but previously sedentary 57-75 year olds engage in an hour of aerobic exercise three times a week for 12 weeks. At the same time, a "control" group was wait listed for the exercise program and got no significant aerobic exercise during this period. The group that participated in the exercise began showing gains in brain blood flow, cognition, and cardiovascular fitness in as little as 6 weeks. Cognitive gains were in the form of improved short term and longer term memory. The sedentary group did not show similar gains. According to the researchers, the "data suggest that even shorter term aerobic exercise can facilitate neuroplasticity to reduce both the biological and cognitive consequences of aging to benefit brain health in sedentary adults." Source: Shorter term aerobic exercise improves brain, cognition, and cardiovascular fitness in aging Also reported in: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131112105024.htm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/12/aerobic-exercise-aging_n_4259995.html Physical Activity Helps Combat Cognitive Decline This study involved a group of 86 women between these ages of 70 and 80 years, each of whom had complained about memory loss. Each woman was placed into one of three exercise groups: resistance training, aerobic training, or balance and tone (the "control" group). Verbal and spatial memory were measured in each group both before and after a six month period in which the participant exercised twice a week. Compared with the control group, the women who engaged in aerobic exercise performed significantly better on verbal memory tests after six months. Additional, both the aerobic and the resistance training groups experienced gains in spatial memory. The study’s authors write that the results "provide support for the prevailing notion that exercise can positively impact cognitive functioning and may represent an effective strategy to improve memory in those who have begun to experience cognitive decline. Source: Physical Activity Improves Verbal and Spatial Memory in Older Adults with Probable Mild Cognitive Impairment: A 6-Month Randomized Controlled Trial Molecule Released During Endurance Exercise May Spark Neuron Growth We’ve known for some time that exercise can increase the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, a protein critical to the growth of new neurons as well as the health of existing neurons. A study released in October 2013 in Cell Metabolism sheds light on exactly what occurs during exercise to make this happen. Through experiments conducted on mice, scientists found that a molecule called FNDC5 and its by-product, irisin, are elevated in the brain by endurance exercise in the brain. The team also found that raising levels of irisin in the circulation of the mice caused the molecule to cross the blood brain barrier, where it increased expression of BDNF and activated genes involved in cognition. Conversely, mice genetically altered to have low irisin levels in the brain had reduced levels of BDNF. Lead investigator Dr. Bruce Spiegelman of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School said that the findings "indicate that FNDC5/irisin has the ability control a very important neuroprotective pathway in the brain." The next step in the research will be to see if an injectable form of irisins cab be developed to protect against neurodegenerative diseases and improve cognition in the aging population. The researchers next plan to work on developing a stable form of the irisin protein that can be given to mice by injection and may augment the brain’s natural anti-degeneration pathways. Source: Exercise Induces Hippocampal BDNF through a PGC-1α/FNDC5 Pathway No Child Left on Her Behind In this study, a group of 48 nine-to-ten year olds were challenged to learn the names of specific regions on a map under two learning conditions: "study only" (SO) and "tested during study" (TS). Half of the kids had been assessed previously as "high fit" and half as "low fit." There was not a significant difference between the groups in the initial learning task - both the low fit and high fit groups performed at similar levels in learning the names. When it came to later recall, however, the high fit group performed significantly better. The difference was even greater in the "study only" condition, generally viewed as a more challenging learning condition since it does not offer the reinforcement of learning that testing during study provides (see 5 Powerful Strategies for Your Lifelong Learning Toolbox for more on the benefits of testing during study.) The researchers concluded that "fitness can boost learning and memory of children and that these fitness-associated performance benefits are largest in conditions in which initial learning is the most challenging." They also note that the finding have important public policy implications given that there is a "a growing trend of inactivity among children, which may not only result in poorer physical health, but also poorer cognitive health." Source: The Influence of Childhood Aerobic Fitness on Learning and Memory *** The above studies are just some of the most recent evidence that good exercise habits are important for our overall approach to lifelong learning. being fit to learn means, to a certain extent, being fit. What, if anything, are you doing to be a fit learner, or to encourage the kids in your life to develop good fitness habits? Please comment and share. Jeff Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post Exercise and Learning: 5 Recent Studies Strengthen the Connection appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

A while back I planned to write series on barriers to learning, but I was stopped in my tracks when I tried to write about what I perceive as one of the most insidious barriers: cognitive bias. I was heartened, therefore to find a study recently that suggests hope for combatting cognitive bias. What is Cognitive Bias? In a nutshell, cognitive bias is the tendency for what we have experienced in the past and "know" - whether consciously or consciously - to influence how we process new information. Each of us lives our lives day in and day out with a wide range of assumptions, preferences, misconceptions and other mental leanings that strongly influence - and, in many cases, essentially pre-determine - how open we really are to learning. These biases take many, many forms, but a handful of particularly common ones include: Confirmation bias - the tendency to search for or interpret information or memories in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions. In other words, when we think our political party is best, or our beliefs about the perils of Facebook are correct, we gravitate toward people and information that share our thinking. Semmelweis reflex - the tendency to reject new evidence that contradicts a paradigm. This goes hand in hand with the confirmation bias. Not only do we tend to accept too readily any information that confirms our thinking, we also tend to reject anything that doesn’t. It’s a wonder we ever learn anything! Bandwagon effect - the tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same. Sadly, we are all sheep most of the time. Framing effect - drawing different conclusions from the same information, depending on how or by whom that information is presented. Just think of the difference between how Fox News might present something vs. National Public Radio. Planning fallacy - the tendency to underestimate task-completion times. I’m sure I don’t have to explain this one to anyone who has ever managed a complex project of any sort. The list goes on - and on. To explore other biases, see the full list of cognitive biases at Wikipedia from which I drew the examples above. A Tough Nut to Crack As I noted above, I became stymied quickly when I started to write about cognitive bias as a barrier to learning. The problem was that I wanted to be able to suggest ways to overcome cognitive bias, but I was not able to find methods that were supported by scientific evidence. Basic awareness of the concept, it seems, is of limited help. Even Daniel Kahneman, the nobel-prize winning psychologist who, along with his partner Amos Tversky, introduced the term and has spent years studying cognitive bias, laments that he is still highly subject to it. In Thinking Fast and Slow (highly recommended) he writes that his "intuitive thinking is just as prone to overconfidence, extreme predictions, and the planning fallacy as it was before I made a study of these issues." Increased intelligence also does not necessarily correlate to lower cognitive bias. Indeed, at least one research study suggests that a higher level of cognitive ability may actually increase susceptibility to cognitive bias - a sort of "smarty pants" effect, you could say. So, what does that leave? The Current Answer to Everything: Mindfulness Meditation I know, I know: mindfulness meditation is right up there with yogurt and yoga when it comes to trendiness these days. It seems like there is no ill it can’t calmly and patiently wrestle to the ground. But, as it turns out, a recent study suggests that mindfulness meditation may indeed be a useful tool in addressing cognitive bias. Research let by Andrew Hafenbrack of INSEAD in Singapore examined the impact of mindfulness meditation on the "sunk cost" bias. You almost certainly know this bias well. It is our tendency to stick with something - e.g., an investment, a relationship - even when it is clearly not serving us well. We place too much value on what we have put into it in the past - our "sunk costs" - and are therefore unwilling to cut our losses even when we would be much better served by moving on. Hafenbrack and his team reasoned that our wandering minds lead us to dwell too much on the past and the future, thus providing fuel for the sunk cost bias. By focusing more on the present, they hypothesized, we allow the bias much less of a foothold. To test their hypothesis, the researchers first conducted a study to gauge the pre-existing level of mindfulness of the research participants (87 men and 91 women) and whether it correlated to greater or lesser susceptibility to the sunk cost bias. It turned out that the more mindful participants were also less pre-disposed to the sunk cost bias. The team then conducted a series of three experiments with smaller groups from the larger pool of participants. Some groups were encouraged to let their minds wander before being asked to make a series of decisions that were designed to evoke the sunk cost bias. Others were guided through a 15-minute mindfulness meditation session prior to being presented with the same decisions. Again, the mindful group was significantly less likely to be influenced by the sunk cost bias. It is important - and encouraging - to note that it took only a brief dose of mindfulness to reduce the level of bias. Certainly 15 minutes of mindfulness is something any of us could engage in before making important decisions or launching into learning experiences that might benefit from as open a mind as possible. And it is possible, of course, that longer, more intensive mindfulness practice could have an even greater impact. Source: Debiasing the Mind Through Meditation: Mindfulness and the Sunk-Cost Bias An Optimistic Bias These results leave me optimistic, but also mindful of the fact that optimism itself can be a bias. It seems unlikely that we can ever completely eliminate cognitive biases on a large scale, but reducing it by even a small amount would be a significant step forward. That step, of course, begins with each one of us individually. Personally, I have begun to make mindfulness meditation a part of my daily habits and I intend to write more about it here. What about you? How do mindfulness and mindfulness meditation factor into your lifelong learning? And do you feel they have helped reduce your own susceptibility to biases? Please comment and share your thoughts and experiences. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post 15 Minutes to a Less Biased Mind appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

It’s been years since Malcolm Knowles, considered by many to be the "father of adult learning," articulated a set of six principles - or "assumptions," as he put it - about how adults tend to learn differently from children. While anyone who is serious about creating and facilitating effective adult learning experiences should already be familiar with these principles, I’m willing to bet that the average adult learner, to whom they apply, has never heard of either Knowles or his assumptions. I think it is worth knowing them, though, as a way to become more conscious of and deliberate in your own learning efforts. So, in this post I offer an overview of Knowles’ six adult learning principles reframed for use by lifelong learners.  1. Embrace "Why?" First, Knowles argued that "Adults need to know why they need to learn." Seems obvious enough, but consider for a minute that ever since you were a kid you have probably been told what to learn a great deal of the time. Few, if any, people asked you, and there is a decent chance you have fallen out of the habit of asking yourself at anything more than a superficial level. Make "Why?" one of the most frequently used words in your vocabulary. Use it to discover new learning opportunities. And use "Why?" to shut down time wasters. If you can’t find a good answer, or at least a good potential answer to "Why do I need to learn that?" then turn your attention to something more clearly valuable. 2. Be the captain of your own ship Knowles and his collaborators wrote that, "Adults have a self-concept of being responsible for their own decisions, for their own lives … they develop a deep psychological need to be seen by others as capable of self-direction." As already suggested by the previous point, traditional approaches to education often conflict directly with the "deep psychological need" Knowles identifies. Both in and out of school the paths we follow are very often determined by others. While following the directions of others is often appropriate earlier in life, it doesn’t give us a lot of practice for becoming successful self-directed learners. Realizing the capacity you have for setting your own course and the amazing range of resources you have available to you for doing it is one of the true joys of becoming a conscious, dedicated lifelong learner. 3. Get into the arena Knowles recognized that too many of those responsible for facilitating lifelong learning take the view, whether explicitly or implicitly, that the "learner’s experience is of little worth as a resource for learning; the experience that counts is that of the teacher, the textbook writer, and the audiovisual aids producer." Not so, Knowles argued: it is often the case that "the richest resources for learning reside in the adult learners themselves." Why? Because of the tremendous range and depth of experiences you have already accumulated. Because of the depth and range of experiences you are capable of acquiring as you become "captain of your own ship." To realize the full potential of this principle, however, you need to continually seek out new experiences that provide for rich learning opportunities - including connecting with others who have valuable experiences to share. You need to be "in the arena," as Teddy Roosevelt famously said. But you also need to make sure you effectively mine and reflect upon your prior experiences to extract the full value from them. 4. Connect to who - and where - you are As Knowles sees it, adult learners tend to rise to the occasion when it comes to learning. They "become ready to learn those things they need to know and be able to do in order to cope effectively with their real-life situations." A key implication of this perspective is that you, as a learner, can benefit from a relatively high degree of self awareness. What is it you would truly benefit from learning at any point in time? How can you connect your learning experiences or potential learning experiences to key aspects of your life and work? Are your learning experiences helping you achieve what you had hoped to achieve? It is by finding these connections that we find our motivations. By continually connecting learning to our real-life experiences we also help ensure we will fully absorb and remember what we have learned. 5. Value learning, not information It seems like everywhere you turn these days you find people preaching about the value of "content." Certainly high-quality content is necessary for learning, but as Knowles saw it, "Adult learners tend to be life-centered (or task-centered, or problem-centered) rather than subject or content-centered." I’d argue we often have a perverse drive to ignore Knowles’ insight. I know I do, at least. I’m continually bouncing from one information source to the next, bookmarking this, tweeting that, saving yet another item to Instapaper. While there is nothing inherently bad about these activities, they ultimately have little value if I don’t actively connect them back to (see point #4 above) and apply them in my life. (See also the discussion of "elaboration" in "5 Power Tips for the Serious Lifelong Learner.") As effective lifelong learners and captains of our own ships, we often have to manage our own orientation to learning and be conscious that learning is less about content and more about how the learning experience fits into the context of our lives. 6. Seek meaning, not money Knowles wrote that "Adults are typically more responsive to internal motivators (job satisfaction, self esteem, quality of life, etc.) than external motivators (promotions, higher salaries, etc.)." This is a another insight that, even when we are conscious of it, we routinely fail to embrace. Knowles himself points to research suggesting that our "motivation is frequently blocked by such barriers as negative self-concept as a student, inaccessibility of opportunities or resources, time constraints, and programs that violate principles of adult learning." Again, a relatively high degree of consciousness and self awareness are needed. On the one hand, we need to understand our own motivations to the greatest extent possible. (I’d argue that all of the previous points contribute to this understanding.) We also need to actively seek out resources that align with those motivations and not settle for experiences that do not. Certainly one of the most exiting aspects of being an active lifelong learner in our current age is the ability to find and access a tremendous range of learning resources with far fewer constraints than was ever the case before. So, now that you have found and accessed this particular resource, I encourage you to take some time to reflect upon the points above and ask yourself: Why might these be important to my lifelong learning practices? How can I connect them into my current lifelong learning pursuits? What questions do I have about these principles that I might want to explore further, and what steps might I take to do that? And, of course, I also encourage you to comment and share your perspectives on Knowles’ points or any of the questions above. Jeff P.S. - The Knowles’ quotes used here are from the Kindle version of The Adult Learner, 6th Edition by Malcolm Knowles, Elwood Holton III, and Richard Swanson. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post Applying the 6 Key Adult Learning Principles to Yourself appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

I’ve been a little heavy on the research-driven posts lately, so I thought I’d throw in a personal story for this post with the hope that other lifelong learners might find some small consolation and - just possibly - inspiration in it. So, here it is: Recently, inspired by watching my son make steady progress in learning to play the piano - and in the the process, learning to read music - I decided to reinvigorate my own efforts at learning the guitar. Specifically, I decided I would really like to be able to read music for the guitar, rather than just relying on chord diagrams, tablature, and whatever my feeble ear for music enables me to pick up. It turned out to be a somewhat depressing, but also motivating move. After debating how I would go about pursuing my goal, I dug out a tattered old copy of A Modern Method for Guitar, Volume 1, from the Berklee School of Music guitar series. For people who are serious about learning guitar, this is arguably the series of books to use. It is precise, methodical, and relies on the author’s original compositions for practice - a great way to ensure that you actually read the music rather than relying your memory of familiar tunes. So far, so good. But here’s the depressing part: on page 6, in my own handwriting, was the date 8/21/93. That was when I stopped using this book some twenty years ago after making it through a mere 6 pages. Ugh. Now, this is not to say that I have not made progress on the guitar. I can get by pretty well. I enjoy playing, and I do it regularly. But still, it stings to think of what I might have accomplished over the course of 20 years by devoting even 15 minutes a day to progressing through this series of books and the others that might have followed. Again, ugh. But, as they say, there’s no use living in the past. So, here’s the motivating part: Consider what I might accomplish over the next 20 years - or, heck, even the next 5 - by devoting 15 minutes a day to progressing through this series of books and the others that may follow. I’d encourage you to embrace the same perspective. Most real learning, after all, is about the long run. Regardless of whether you believe "10,000 hours" is the required amount of time for mastery, it’s clear that deeply learning anything of real substance takes time. There’s just no way around it. And, as I’ve noted before, even small efforts, if they are focused, and persistent, can yield big dividends. So, get started. And stay with it. You’ll get there. In the long run. Jeff P.S. - This isn’t the first time the guitar has taught me a lesson about learning. See also While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post The Long Run appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

Wondering how to beef up your brain, not only to boost your learning power but also to protect against the risk of age-related brain diseases like Alzheimer’s? Read on for the latest news about the powerful impact regular fish consumption may have. I write often about the relationship between diet and learning on Mission to Learn. If you want to be an effective learner, both day-to-day and over the long haul, you need to consistently eat in a way that supports both your physical and mental health. Among other things, that means making sure there is some good brain food in your diet. Like me, you have probably heard since you were a kid that fish is the brain food. A growing amount of research has lent support to that belief in recent years, including a study recently published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, analyzed the relationship between regular fish consumption and brain structure in a group of 260 cognitively normal adults. The results? It turned out that adults who consumed baked or broiled (not fried) fish at least once a week had significantly higher grey matter volumes in parts of the brain tied to memory and cognition. Interestingly, the positive impact of eating fish did not appear to be tied to the Omega 3 fatty acids found in many fish. While numerous research studies have shown a beneficial relationship between Omega 3 consumption and brain health, the results of this study did not vary based on Omega 3 levels. In other words, eating pretty much any type of fish - so long as it is not fried - is beneficial. You don’t have to focus on only those varieties with high Omega 3 levels (e.g., salmon, sardines). If you haven’t been taking diet seriously as part of your lifelong learning strategy - and, in particularly, if you haven’t been getting some fish into your diet at least once a week - this study is one more piece of evidence that the time to start is now. Jeff P.S. - To get you started - or keep you on track - here are some easy baked fish recipes and a broiled fish recipe touted as the best fish recipe ever. P.P.S - Here’s a new study that highlights the role that fish oil fatty acids can play in brain development. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post Fish Really is Brain Food, New Study Confirms appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

It’s conventional wisdom that "the best way to learn something is to teach it," but a new study suggests that the mere expectation of teaching may be enough to boost learning significantly. The study (full text here), which was recently published in the journal Memory & Cognition, is based on a set of experiments in which university students were asked to read and recall key ideas and details from two relatively length text passages. Participants in one group of students were told that they would be tested on the passages while participants in a second group were told they would be required to teach the passage to another student. In reality, both groups were tested, but participants in the group expecting to teach were able to answer many more questions about the passages, particularly questions having to do with major ideas. According to lead author John Nestojko, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, when "compared to learners expecting a test, learners expecting to teach recalled more material correctly, they organized their recall more effectively and they had better memory for especially important information." (Source: Science Daily) An interesting implication from the study is that, while testing - particularly practice testing - can be an effective tool to boost learning, it may not be sufficient for getting students to bring their "A-game" when it comes to using common learning strategies effectively. The researchers note that, when students merely expect to be tested, they underutilize these strategies, although our results clearly indicate that these strategies must be available to them and, furthermore, would better serve their presumed goal of achieving good test performance than do the strategies they instead adopt for this purpose. Students seem to have a toolbox of effective study strategies that, unless prodded to do so, they do not use. The expectation of being a teacher, it seems, brings out the best in us as learners. Implications for Self-Directed Learning Of course, it’s one thing for a teacher to manipulate student expectations to achieve better learning results, but in many cases, lifelong learners are self-directed. There is no teacher involved, and duping yourself into thinking you will teach what you are learning may be a stretch. Still, I think there are ways to bring the expectation of teaching into your lifelong learning practice. These include: Accountability Groups: From study circles, to book groups, to master minds, lifelong learners participate in a wide variety of collaborative learning situations. Build the prospect of teaching into these groups. Create a collective understanding that participants may, at any time, be asked to teach others something they have been reading, practicing, etc. And, of course, follow through - make teaching a regular part of group meetings. Public Speaking: As I noted a while back in "Take one or more of these 5 risks and really learn something," there are many opportunities for getting in front of audiences of learners. So, sign yourself up. Submit to speak at a conference. Launch a podcast. Deliver a Webinar. You don’t have to do this with everything you are learning, of course, but in the areas you really want to master, creating teaching opportunities can be a powerful strategy. Writing: Perhaps one of the most overlooked forms of teaching, writing well about a subject forces you to think through key points, question your own knowledge gaps, and structure your ideas - precisely the types of activities the researchers in the study above think the expectation of teaching may encourage. Learning with the expectation that you will blog about it, guest blog, publish in newsletters or journals, etc. may be one of the most readily available ways to up your learning game. Those are just a few suggestions. What are yours? In what ways have you built the expectation of teaching into your learning, and have you seen benefits? Please comment and share your experience. Jeff P.S. - I’ve often heard "the best way to learn something is to teach it" attributed to Edgar Schein. Wikipedia, however, gives the credit to Frank Oppenheimer. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post New Study: Those Expecting to Teach Learn Better appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

Do you ever get frustrated because you listen to a story, presentation, or lecture, but later - sometimes as little as a few hours later - can recall little to nothing about it? Call it self awareness - or, perhaps more accurately, call it aging - but for whatever reason I have become increasingly conscious of the fact that I forget a tremendous amount of what I hear, even when I am listening with the intent of learning. As a result, I’ve been looking for solid, research-based tips on how to remember what you hear. One approach that seems both highly promising and very easy to put into action is simply to rest for 10 minutes after listening to new information rather than immediately beginning a new activity. A study published in Psychological Science in 2012 provides evidence that this approach works. As part of the study, researchers ran two experiments. In the first, a group of normally aging elderly adults were were read two brief stories with instruction to try to remember as much about the stories as possible for later recall.  Following each story, some participants were asked to "rest quietly with their eyes closed in the darkened testing room for 10 minutes." Other participants - in a different room - played a "spot-the-difference" game during the 10-minute break.  You can probably guess how this plays out. When all of the participants were tested on the recall of the story, those who had rested rather than playing the game were able to remember significantly more. That test occurred roughly 30 minutes after the first story was read, but the results held up seven days later when participants were tested again. While the recall of both groups dropped some over this time period, those who had rested after hearing the stories still remembered significantly more than those who played the game. To determine whether the initial test following the stories had somehow enhanced the long-term memory of the group that rested, the researchers ran a second experiment in which testing occurred only after seven days. Once again, the group that rested performed significantly better. Indeed, the group’s performance on the test was not much lower than when an earlier test had been administered - suggesting that it was mostly the rest period and not the earlier testing that resulted in enhanced memory. Based on the results of these experiments, there researchers propose that "wakeful resting after new learning allows new memory traces to be consolidated better and hence to be retained for much longer." In other words, resting for a bit after learning gives the learning some time to "stick." So, while there is still plenty of research to be done in this area, it appears to be well worth building some rest time into your learning activities. If you are going to attend a lecture or presentation, listen to a podcast, participate in a Webinar, etc. allow 10-minutes of wakeful resting afterwards to help you memory consolidate the new information you brain has been exposed to. Jeff P.S. - And don’t forget that non-wakeful resting - aka, sleep - has a powerful impact on learning as well. Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post How to Remember What You Hear - A Simple, Research-Based Tip appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.

The learning landscape continues to evolve in very interesting ways. I’ve noticed lately, for example, that artificial intelligence (AI) seems to finally be getting significant traction. Enough so that numerous notable figures like Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk have expressed concern concerns about how it might run amok. On a more prosaic level, a recent report suggests that more than half of current jobs may be made redundant within 20 years, largely by the rise of AI. Jobs that can be categorized as "routine" have been disappearing for some time, and advances in AI ensure that a growing number of jobs will call in the "routine" category. On other, not unrelated fronts, scientists are making significant advances in enhancing and extending neuroplasticity, the quality fundamental to rapid growth and change of the human brain. I found these lines from a recent Aeon article on the topic quite provocative: As our species evolves into the unknown future, it may be that lifelong learning supersedes physical survival as the means by which we prevail. Extended plasticity could be what our species needs most right now. Last, but certainly not least, NPR’s Science Friday recently ran a piece titled "Dawn of the Cyborg Bacteria," discussing how microorganisms can be use to create "nanobots." MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte sees a future in which the "best way to interact with the brain is from the inside, from the bloodstream," and nanobots would be the ticket for doing this. As Negroponte puts it in this BigThink video, you could in theory load Shakespeare into your bloodstream and as the little robots get to the various parts of the brain they deposit little pieces of Shakespeare or little pieces of French if you want to learn how to speak French Bacteria are just one potential path into transferring information into the human brain. Researchers at MIT have recently developed a new fiber interface that allows for a computer to be plugged into a human brain. The End of Passivity and Other Implications One of the main lessons to take from all of this is that it is clearer than ever that we no longer live in an information economy. When machines can manipulate information orders of magnitude faster than we can - as they already do - and we are on the verge of essentially being able to program ourselves, information has reached full commodity status. As I’ve argued before (in, for example, Leading the Learning Revolution), knowledge is also increasingly suspect as a source of competitive advantage, whether for individuals or organizations. Command of any particular body of knowledge is fleeting, and as the news about artificial intelligence suggests, machines are becoming increasingly adept at not simply manipulating information, but also at actually using information to develop new knowledge - in other words, learning. In this new landscape, I think it is critical to … …pay attention The future will take you by surprise only if you don’t have any idea what’s coming. Tune into trends like those I highlight above. Think through their logical implications. How will they positively or negatively impact your work, the field you work in, and your life in general? What actions can you take to … … be intentional Recognize that we no longer live in an information society or work in a knowledge economy. Information and knowledge are static. Learning is the dynamic force of change and progress. Learning is the ultimate destructive force and the ultimate creative force. Have a vision and a plan - both short term - for learning, and then … … be active Most traditional education is passive and is going to be of increasingly limited use in this new landscape. Traditional education is much better at information and static knowledge than it is at learning. A great deal of trial and error is at the heart of machine learning. Effective human is really no different. Don’t expect to sit in a conference session or lecture and learn anything deeply. Apply new information to see the results. Regularly take risks to test your knowledge. Continually push to new levels of competency in your key areas of skill. Work to control your biases, and be sure to … … be eclectic We all need a good general set of skills and knowledge, but knowing how to apply these skills in non-routine and novel ways will be what stands the most successful apart. This is different from the "specialize, specialize, specialize" mantra we hear so often. Yes, specialization can be valuable, but too narrow-minded a focus leads to the "foolish consistency" that Emerson warned us about. We preserve and continually develop our ability to think broadly and see connections others may not see. The eclectic generalist will rule the day, and this person will understand just how important it is to … … be human Arguably, the day when machines become daily companions and competitors in thinking are upon us. At least for the moment, though, it looks like it could be quite a while before the Turing Test for feeling is passed (Hollywood Movies aside). As a recent article in the Wise Ed Review suggests, cultivating on qualities like empathy and character should be a major aim of learning I think it is worth each of us reflecting regularly on how we are doing in each of these areas. The future is at hand, and learning is the key to navigating it successfully. What do you think? Jeff Looking for the perfect holiday gift for the lifelong learners in your life? Be sure to also check out 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner from Mission to Learn founder Jeff Cobb. The post The Future and Learning - Connecting the Dots appeared first on Mission to Learn - Lifelong Learning Blog.