How China Became So Powerful

It's up to each of us to consider history and facts and make decisions about where danger lays.  If you have an interest in economic history, this will surprise you from someone who doesn't seem to yet be politically compromised.  Please take time to watch it (16 minutes) 

Orwell's final warning - Picture of the future

Don't let it happen!  It depends on you choosing God's way, no man's.  Thankfully, our heavenly Father is sovereign over all and no one can stop Him or question why He chooses one way over another!

Where has good gone?

This is a good overview of where we are today on the 26th of January 2021.  Rand Paul is someone I admire for his resolute heart and ability to stand up for what the USA Constitutional Republic is about.  

Thank God for men and women He has installed where evil is pushing against right, freedom and biblical liberty!

from 'America, Can We Talk?' with Debbie Georgatos

The Value of Taking Notes by Hand

Take a good look at this picture.  Although the instructor has a topic displayed, many of the attendees seem to be surfing for more ‘interesting’ material.  Having a BYOD (bring your own device) policy may seem modern, but it distracts and hampers your ability to remember what you are hearing.

We are all so bombarded by information every day and our brains are overloaded with short-term items.  You need techniques to move what you learn from short-term memory to long-term memory and be able to ‘locate’ that information when you need it.  This can’t happen without good gathering and storage habits! 

This short article will present some reasons why taking notes by hand (paper and writing implement) is an easy way to cement learnings for future recall. 

"Anything that creates active learning — generating understanding on your own — is very effective in retention. It basically means the learner needs to become more involved and more engaged, and less passive."[1]

Laptop Note-taking Research

A study[2] by Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer looked at the note-taking habits of college students from Princeton and UCLA. Students watched a 15-minute TED talk video, taking notes along the way. 

Researchers compared those who took notes by hand and those who took notes on a laptop and found that while the factual recall of knowledge was similar, the conceptual recall had a clear winner. Those who took notes by hand did significantly better on understanding concepts.

Beyond a better understanding of concepts, a no-laptop rule helps with focus and attention, and surprisingly improves handwriting (you must be able to decipher your notes for later). 

The graph below illustrates the difference in individual performance between those who took notes by hand and those who took notes on a laptop during classes and meetings.  Findings demonstrated that while factual recall of information is similar, conceptual recall is significantly better for those who take notes by hand (connecting ideas for better recall and retrieval from long-term memory).

 

Your brain is continually upgrading what is stored in it by your everyday experiences as well as formal learning situations.  Handwriting helps you more deeply ‘encode’ what you are trying to learn because it gives you time to push the learning further into memory.

How We Remember

Basically, there are two modes of thinking that result in the different ways memories are stored.  

  

·         Focused – when you concentrate on the topic at hand and eliminate as many distractions as possible – like cramming for an exam.  This mode activates superficial, short-term memory.  (Short-term memory is like a big bucket.  As it gets full, it spills out information.  This information is lost from memory.)

·         Diffused – a more relaxed style, a more neural-resting state.  During this mode, ideas travel along regular and familiar patterns and activate deep, long-term memory. (Long-term memory is like containers where information is stored more securely.  These memories are stored in ‘somewhat’ orderly ways for future retrieval.)

If you want to remember the things you are learning, you need to establish connections within your brain between focused (short-term) and diffused (long-term storage).  If not, the learnings evaporate out of the focused bucket.  

For a thought to stay put, those new thoughts need space to stretch out and ‘search broadly’ to make sensible and strong connections.  Taking notes by hand or a bit of momentary daydreaming or looking into the distance gives this short-term/ long-term memory process time to do just that.

Brain Exercising

In conclusion, your brain is somewhat like a muscle.  When you go to a class, it is like going to the gym.  To remember best, you need to practice both sets (different types of exercises for the muscles – focused learning) and repetitions (diffused, relaxed learning) to increase strength of retrieval. 

Next article will feature note-taking methods that are easy and effective.

References

Books:

Copyright © 1995, DePorter, Bobbi, (with Hernacki, Mike), Quantum Learning, Unleash the Genius Within You, Judy Piatkus Publishers LTD, London

Copyright © 2014, Brown, Peter C with Roediger III, Henry L and McDaniel, Mark A., Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning,

Articles:

Halber, Deborah, ‘Making Memories’, BrainFacts.org, 27 September 2018: http://www.brainfacts.org/Thinking-Sensing-and-Behaving/Learning-and-Memory/2018/Making-Memories-092718 

Mueller, Pam A; Oppenheimer, Daniel M, ‘The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard’, 23 April 2014, Sage Journals:  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614524581

Shen, Yifan, ‘Effective Tips on Taking Notes in Class’:  https://www.artofsmart.com.au/effective-tips-take-notes-class/

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[1] Roediger, Henry and McDaniel, Mark, Washington University research papers on learning and memory. 

[2] Lee, Kevan, ‘9 Science-Backed Methods for More Productive Meetings, FastCompany, 21 July 2014.

Unexpected But Educational Journey

I've had to make an unexpected journey to Dubai and am fighting deadlines with a work project.  Will resume this amazing educational experience when I can catch my breath.  

First Thoughts on the Future of Education

In my many years of presenting information at seminars, writing learning and development materials for businesses and considering the many types of tools used to help others become aware of new information and processes, it would seem to me that learning and education are growing increasingly apart. 

So I seek new information and learning.  To that end I've signed up for a Coursera topic:  What Future for Education?

FIRST REFLECTION:  

What is one example of a good learning experience and a bad one?

·         GOOD:  MBTI Accreditation was well led by a personable expert who was easy to respect and understand.  The material and rhythm of the classes was well thought out and strategised.  It was face-to-face, not in your face.  Experiential and comfortable.

·         BAD:  Banking Compliance Issues - online, no "human or identifiable connection". Nothing to contextualise the material into real life situations.  More about memorising a set of specific terms to pass the evaluation with no thought of stickiness of the information.

Second Reflection

What do I need to learn (what do I THINK I need to learn)?

Time to process and contextualise information that is presented in a logical manner and for a reason.  Prefer face-to-face, where you can ask  questions, but do not like trivial, silly games that make me feel uncomfortable and stupid.

Various Random Notes from First Sessions

Learning is vastly affected by our culture and the purpose of learning.

UNESCO (1989 Transcript):  The four main purpose to learn:

1.    To Know

2.    To Do

3.    To Live Together

4.    To Be

How we learn is dependent on the "why" of our learning.

We learn better when we are comfortable and safe, not fearful.

Two Primary Approaches to Learning

a.   TRADITIONAL - (brain is a computer, you put in data and out comes something (hopefully good).  BUT the brain is NOT a machine, it comes complete with heaps of feelings from anger to joy! 

b.   PROGRESSIVE - To learn people have to have an EXPERIENCE and they have to construct (personal) meaning and then take ACTION.

"Learning to Learn (L2L) 

is a popular concept of the day but is poorly defined.  It has three phases:

1.    Learning to learn

2.    learning how to learn

3.    learning about learning

Colb Theory of L2L - NOT memorise and regurgitate.

a.   Do

b.   Review

c.    Learn

d.   Apply

Are some better at learning than others?  A complicated question but, if we look only at how well someone does on an exam, that is a reflection of how well someone learns and is dependent on:

·         Their mother's qualifications

·         Home situation

·         Social class

·         Wealth

·         Health

·         School they're attending

·         Number of opportunities they have to network

Einstein was not a good at "traditional learning: but he was always open to learning.

Interview with Fiona Rogers:  How do we learn?

·         Listening

·         Observing

·         Sharing

·         Working in groups

·         Formally/ informally

·         Online

·         Through experience

·         Through role play

We individually find the way that suits our learning methods best!

Didactic teaching has been the "model" for ages and is dependent on the lack of teachers in comparison to the number of students who needs educating.  So having a lecture who stands and delivers information so the student can "bank facts" has been/ still is necessary.  In this type of teaching the teacher does less and the students do more.

Progressive teaching takes into account the differences in learning styles and the teacher transforms into a facilitator.  It is not as cost effective because of the ratio of teachers to students. 

DDR:  "Doing" seems to be a/ the key to learning thus far.

Is it possible to learn how to learn?

Carl Rogers:  "It's not just an accumulation of facts, it's about changing your way of thinking, it's about finding different ways of seeing, it's about understanding things differently and quite importantly it's about what happens after that.  What actions do you take as a result of your learning?"

Are some people better learners than others?

Not better but different.  Learning is NOT a competition!  You being you, find the way that WORKS best for you!

"This lack of attention to the nature of learning inevitably leads to an impoverishment of education.  It isn't simply that the process is less effective as a result, but what passes for education can actually diminish well-being."

Alan Rogers (2003) discussion of

·         Task-conscious or acquisition learning

·         Learning-conscious or formalised learning

1960s-70s:  learning = a change in behaviour or learning is approached as an outcome - the end product of some process (a crucial aspect of learning is change)

DDR:  Can it/ should it be commodotised.  Isn't learning a BYPRODUCT of education?  Is learning an outcome or is it BY learning there is a different outcome?

1979 Saljo:  What do you understand of learning:

Less Complex.  Something   external Could     be something    that just   happened	1	As a quantitative increase of knowledge.  Learning is acquired information or knowing a lot.
	2	Memorising - storing information         that can be reproduced.
	3	Acquiring facts, skills, methods that can be retained and used as   necessary.
Internal or  personal aspect    of learning.        You do it to    better    understand	4	As making sense or abstracting meaning.  Relating parts of the   subject matter to each other and        to the real world.
	5	Interpreting and understanding    reality in a different way.  Comprehending the world by reinterpreting knowledge.

Knowing ABOUT how to do  something such as a professor who teaches about how to perform a delicate surgery. Instruction Imparting Truth

Knowing about and knowing HOW to do something, such as a  surgeon who will be responsible to perform the surgery Practice Inculcating Procedures

Maples and Webster 1980, "There is a concern with what happens when learning takes place.  In this way learning could be thought of as a "process" by which behaviour changes as a result of experiences."

DDR:  Are we "conscious" of learnding or do we "engage in learning" and learn unconsciously?  Does it help if we ARE aware we are trying to learn?  Informal versus formal learning?

From those who study learning Languages

A.   Task Conscious or acquisition learning - goes on all the time. 

·         "Concrete", immediate and confined to a specific activity

·         not concerned with general principles

·         unconscious or implicit but better to think of it as having a consciousness of the task.  I.e. the learner may not be conscious OF learning, they are aware of the specific task in hand.

Example:  Just now, using Bobby's veggie peeler and cutting into my finger cause I didn't know how to hold it.  But I soon LEARNED.)

B. Learning conscious or formalised learning comes as a result of facilitated learning, "educative learning" rather than accumulation of experience.

A definite consciousness that I'm learning.  i.e. the task I'm engaged in will result in learning.  Thus the task = learning and therefore it is more top of mind that I am learning.  Involves guided "episodes of learning"  I'm studying TO learn and I know it.

Both A and B are present in schools and are somewhat like a continuum of learning where it goes from 1 to.....

1.    Accidental learning

2.    Incidental learning

3.    Somewhat conscious learning

4.    Conscious learning

5.    Systematic learning

6.    Self-directed learning projects

7.    Distance learning (MOOCS)

8.    Formalised learning

Learning as a Process - Four Learning Theories

1.    Behaviourist orientation to learning

2.    Cognitive

3.    Humanist

4.    Social/ Situational