Adversity in Learning

Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?

Walt Whitman
US poet (1819 - 1892)


In other words, not all lessons are easy. Not all teachers are founts of wisdom or sensitivity. "Disputed passage."  One of my fave learning quotes, and manly poets.
;-)

Motivation, study habits -- not IQ -- determine growth in math achievement

Motivation, study habits -- not IQ -- determine growth in math achievement

Got this from Research blogger!  Love people who do meta-analyses.  The difference between our schools and other countries, I believe has to do with this. We focus on direct instruction and don't teach enough good study habits. If you're good at something, and it's competitive -- our schools tend to reward "perfection."  Learning requires making mistakes without penalty, except you're own awareness of how to correct it and why.

What we really need to improve education in Texas

Well-trained, mentored and coaching teachers. We lose too much talent. Less bureaucracy, testing, and administrative overhead.

From James T. Mangan's "You Can Do Anything" via BrainPickings.org

The process by which you reason is known as logic. Logic teaches you how to derive a previously unknown truth from the facts already at hand. Logic teaches you how to be sure whether what you think is true is really true. … Logic is the supreme avenue to intellectual truth. Don't ever despair of possessing a logical mind. You don't have to study it for years, read books and digest a mountain of data. All you have to remember is one word – compare. Compare all points in a proposition. Note the similarity – that tells you something new. Note the difference – that tells you something new. Then take the new things you've found and check them against established laws or principles. This is logic. This is reason. This is knowledge in its highest form.

Donald Clark Plan B: Top Ten Mistakes in eLearning

Donald Clark Plan B: Top Ten Mistakes in eLearning

Why are there always acronyms I don't know in blog posts?  What is an MCQ?

Multiple
Choice
Question

There are acronyms because if you teach, you must assess learning to measure your own effectiveness. Especially with adult learners.

I do think condescension is the worst offense. PPT decks help an audience stay focused and hopefully listening on one channel to the speaker who hopefully is not reading the deck. I think the most revolutionary thing about learning is that the TED talk has defined bite-size learning in the 20 Teens.  LMS's are not the answer, or lcms, or moocs or  diploma mills.

Learning is a process of growth. Education is a process of communication. ~ Stephen Downes said many years ago.

Video Editing for Learning

The quick and dirty on using video in the classroom. I realize this may be out of date by now, but then I am a little slow . . .

http://johnjohnston.info/blog/?e=2167

List of Authoring Tools: Part 3

List of Authoring Tools: Part 3

Just found out that one of groups is going to quit using our LCMS because it's so bad at displaying graphics.  Need to review list of authoring tools. Instructional technology has come a long way since Authorware and Basic.

Virtual Learning Edge: Experience the Evolution of Virtual Corporate Learning

Virtual Learning Edge: Experience the Evolution of Virtual Corporate Learning

Interesting half-day Virtual Conference. Missed the live version, but hope to peruse the resources available.

Rapid Instructional Design - Thiagi's Take

http://www.thiagi.com/article-rid.html

Thiagi and Piskurich speed up the task by making the learning task more open-ended and constructivist in approach. Therefore, the design of instruction is often blended with the development and delivery of instruction. Most IDs don't often get to deliver (unless it's eLearning) and even then, they rarely have control over the environment in which the learning occurs.  Most instructors may have developed curriculum, but generally are often more likely to be subject-matter experts (SMEs) than curriculum developers.

I would like more opportunity to try out Rapid ISD approach and plan to do so in my upcoming projects as much as possible.

Alt•Ed Austin - Blog - Hop on the Education Transformation�Tour!

Alt•Ed Austin - Blog - Hop on the Education Transformation�Tour!

This sounds so interesting!  I'm ready to work where people love to learn and collaborate, and share, smile, coach and encourage. I'm ready for lots of positivity, energy, joy, and purpose in my daily life.

Some Differences Between Experts and Novices | Kapp Notes

Some Differences Between Experts and Novices | Kapp Notes

This is one of the challenges of being an Instructional Designer and translating the input from your SMEs into a format, chunks, analogies, visuals that work for your novices. Simplifying the complex. Often I'll feel as if I've emerged from a swamp, when I've finally distilled the intricacies and details into comprehensible overview.

Freestyle Language Center

Structure Pricing � Freestyle Language Center Freestyle Language Center

Social Learning in person.  In Houston, they have Spanish over Coffee.  Here we have Freestyle Language Center. After having studied Spanish for 5 years, I could read novels in Spanish and write book reports, but I couldn't speak it. After 4 mos. in Italy, I was fluent conversationally, especially one-on-one, but struggled with composition, reading literature, and group conversations.

Learning and Acoustics

Why Architects Need to Use Their Ears

This TED talk highlights an important aspect of communication and learning. As an ID for a call center, I'm always amazed how different our audio "scenarios" are from the real world of the call floor.

Even when I listen to calls for coaching, you come to truly appreciate how difficult clear communication is over distances with background noises.  It's funny, because I remember the original "open" classroom movement; in fact the elementary school in our neighborhood is vintage 70s school design with classrooms grouped together and separated only by moveable partitions around a center activity area where bigger groups can work together.   I believe in all of the upper grades, most of the partitions have been replaced by walls, for many reasons.

Unfortunately too often we ignore the central fact of learning and communication -- a message must be heard to be understood. Now say hooray for a moment of silence.

The Official Austin Free Day of Yoga

The Official Austin Free Day of Yoga  I believe in a mind-body connection to learning and meditating, stretching, focusing on the rhythm of your breathing can help focus and relax you. Both are helpful for processing information.

Mary Esther Middleton is my teacher and one of the organizers of FreeDayofYoga.com

MindShift | How we will learn

MindShift | How we will learn  Like this discussion of games in learning.

ATPE - Teach the Vote - Teach the Vote

Thanks, Dr. Julie Westerlund, for keeping me informed about the public school debate in Texas. Dr. Westerlund is a professor of science education at Southwest Texas State University


ATPE - Teach the Vote - Teach the Vote

CHART OF THE DAY: Android Is The Platform Of Choice In The Developing World - Business Insider

CHART OF THE DAY: Android Is The Platform Of Choice In The Developing World - Business Insider

Implications for mobile learning? Quick, up-to-date, nuggets of information that can be pushed out when needed (as requested by the consumer/ or sales person in our consumer society).  The capitalist revolution has won. But diamonds and gold are not the only commodities of value. 1s & 0s in an easily digestible chunk are right up there.

STAAR EOC | TAMSA

STAAR EOC | TAMSA

This is a great site if you think school should be about learning instead of standardized testing.  I have not stayed as fully abreast of the issue here in Texas as I'd like, but mandating end of course exams for all core curriculum AND making them count toward 15% of final grade should NOT be the our state lege's job.

Standardized testing does not increase learning.

Enjoyed hearing Matt Earhart, Austin ISD's teacher of the year speak today

MIND in Pictures: The Cranial Network : Scientific American

MIND in Pictures: The Cranial Network : Scientific American

Love infographics!!!!

Big Dog, Little Dog: The Mosaic of Learning Styles

Big Dog, Little Dog: The Mosaic of Learning Styles   Interesting meta-analysis of the research.