View more presentations from Alwyn Lau
"People Inspire People". KDU University College. Kuala Lumpur and Penang. Malaysia. "Driving Dreams"
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Friday, September 9, 2011
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education
Sugata Mitra's "Hole in the Wall" experiments have shown that, in the absence of supervision or formal teaching, children can teach themselves and each other, if they're motivated by curiosity and peer interest.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Digital Tools for Learning
--by Jane Hart from the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies. Accessed at http://blog.curriki.org/category/ed-tech/
Teachers, how many of these tools do you use in or out of the classroom?
Can you locate MS PowerPoint in the list? (Hint: it's not in the top 10.)
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Prezi for Lectures and Presentations
Have you heard the buzz or seen the new zooming alternative to boring old PowerPoint? Check out this presentation to MassComm students at KDU. Just click the arrowhead at bottom to start, then at bottom right ("More"), click "fullscreen" and "autoplay" for easier navigation.
With a little practice, you can create similar presentations yourself, for your own classes with your own material. You can learn and browse the showcase of presentations at Prezi.com. Students and teachers are loving it! At the site, you can create a free account, design, and download your presentation for use offline. Educators and students qualify for the middle level of usage for free.
TLC will offer training in the near future. Stay tuned!
Warning: after I introduced Alwyn to Prezi, he says the learning, playing, and designing can be a bit addictive.
With a little practice, you can create similar presentations yourself, for your own classes with your own material. You can learn and browse the showcase of presentations at Prezi.com. Students and teachers are loving it! At the site, you can create a free account, design, and download your presentation for use offline. Educators and students qualify for the middle level of usage for free.
TLC will offer training in the near future. Stay tuned!
Warning: after I introduced Alwyn to Prezi, he says the learning, playing, and designing can be a bit addictive.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
He Wrote the Book on Teaching, Learning, and Research
Wilbert "Bill" McKeachie shares lessons from his 60 years of teaching, research, and learning in a 2009 interview here, Three Tips on Becoming a Better Teacher
- Genuinely care about your students and their learning. Learn their names. Spend time with them after class, over coffee or tea. Share your passion for learning.
- Talk about how to improve your teaching with colleagues and students. Elicit student evaluations about one month into the course rather than at the end. Discuss student concerns in class and be willing to adjust your teaching.
- Maintain enthusiasm for teaching by accepting new challenges, teaching new subjects, and staying current with student culture.
People inspire people. Who has inpired you to be a better teacher? How so?
Monday, March 2, 2009
Not Literacy but Literacies
Elona Hartjes counsels us to think of literacy in the plural as a way of helping our students connect their learning with their lives. She quotes Chris Vanellis' work on some important literacies today:
- computer literacy (using software)
- web literacy (surfing the internet)
- digital literacy (cells, email, MSN)
- visual literacy (graphics, text, TV)
- auditory literacy (radio, conversing)
- home literacy (routines, chores)
- community literacy (bus schedules)
- social literacy (manners, etiquette)
- work literacy (procedures, routines)
- curriculum literacy (school subjects)
Monday, February 23, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Godin's #1 Habit for Success
"The #1 habit successful people share with me is this: They read books to learn.
They do it often and with joy.
It's cheap (or free, at the library or online) and portable and specific."
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Speed Reading Successfully : A Starting Point
Speed reading isn’t just a matter of cranking up the speed at which your eyes cross a page, though: there are multiple methods for increasing your reading speed. It’s also worth considering that different approaches to reading have both benefits and drawbacks. In general, the methods that allow a person to read faster don’t always provide for the same level of comprehension that slower reading allows.
No matter what approach a particular speed reading system takes, most start with eliminating bad reading practices and then accelerating reading speed through a series of exercises. Bad reading habits can include:
- Sounding out word out loud as one reads — or subvocalizing
- Re-scanning over passages already read
- Moving one’s eyes across the page as one reads
- Using one reading speed for all reading material
Subvocalization is often considered the biggest barrier to speed reading. Because of the way that reading is taught in most schools — students learn to sound out letters rather than recognize whole words — most readers automatically sound out words, especially those that aren’t in their normal reading vocabulary. Subvocalization, no matter its value for initially learning to read, slows down most readers. That’s because saying a word, whether aloud or subvocally, takes more time than recognizing a word.
Learn/Read more!
There are also recommended speed-reading software:
Friday, January 16, 2009
9 Thinks About Under-Achievers
Elona Hartjes shares:
1. Many underachieving students do not having learning disabilities, although some do.
2. Many students who have learning disabilities or are gifted learners and get support they need work to their potential, but many continue to underachieve.
3. Some students will underachieve if they aren’t being challenged.
4. Experts believe that underachieving is a learned behaviour and that some kids actually come to school having learned that behaviour.
5. Kids have been taught either to be dominant underachievers or dependent underachievers by the way parents or caregivers interact with them when resolving issues like illness, parents’ marital problems, absent parents, sibling rivalry, unusual ability left unchallenged.
6. Dominant underachievers have been given either too much power by their parents or care givers and feel they should always call the shots.
7. Dependent underachievers haven’t been given the opportunity to try to resolve issues for themselves and too often have been rescued by their over-involved parents or care givers and now are totally dependent on others.
8. Dependent underachievers need to be weened from their attention addiction.
9. Dominant underachievers need to be weaned from their need to be in control of all situations.
1. Many underachieving students do not having learning disabilities, although some do.
2. Many students who have learning disabilities or are gifted learners and get support they need work to their potential, but many continue to underachieve.
3. Some students will underachieve if they aren’t being challenged.
4. Experts believe that underachieving is a learned behaviour and that some kids actually come to school having learned that behaviour.
5. Kids have been taught either to be dominant underachievers or dependent underachievers by the way parents or caregivers interact with them when resolving issues like illness, parents’ marital problems, absent parents, sibling rivalry, unusual ability left unchallenged.
6. Dominant underachievers have been given either too much power by their parents or care givers and feel they should always call the shots.
7. Dependent underachievers haven’t been given the opportunity to try to resolve issues for themselves and too often have been rescued by their over-involved parents or care givers and now are totally dependent on others.
8. Dependent underachievers need to be weened from their attention addiction.
9. Dominant underachievers need to be weaned from their need to be in control of all situations.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Learning Links
There are many online but here are a few good ones:
1. 7 Steps to More Effective Studying (from Rio Salado College Online)
2. Effective Study Skills (from AdPrima)
3. How To Study (from the Chemekata Community)
4. Skills for Study (from Palgrave)
Any tips which've helped you especially well? Care to share them?
1. 7 Steps to More Effective Studying (from Rio Salado College Online)
2. Effective Study Skills (from AdPrima)
3. How To Study (from the Chemekata Community)
4. Skills for Study (from Palgrave)
Any tips which've helped you especially well? Care to share them?
Monday, December 29, 2008
7 Steps to Making a MindMap
1. Start in the CENTRE of a blank page turned sideways. Why? Because starting in the centre gives your Brain freedom to spread out in all directions and to express itself more freely and naturally.2. Use an IMAGE or PICTURE for your central idea. Why? Because an image is worth a thousand words and helps you use your Imagination. A central image is more interesting, keeps you focused, helps you concentrate, and gives your Brain more of a buzz!
3. Use COLOURS throughout. Why? Because colours are as exciting to your Brain as are images. Colour adds extra vibrancy and life to your Mind Map, adds tremendous energy to your Creative Thinking, and is fun!
4. CONNECT your MAIN BRANCHES to the central image and connect your second- and third-level branches to the first and second levels, etc. Why? Because your Brain works by association. It likes to link two (or three, or four) things together. If you connect the branches, you will understand and remember a lot more easily.
5. Make your branches CURVED rather than straight-lined. Why? Because having nothing but straight lines is boring to your Brain.
6. Use ONE KEY WORD PER LINE. Why Because single key words give your Mind Map more power and flexibility.
7. Use IMAGES throughout. Why Because each image, like the central image, is also worth a thousand words. So if you have only 10 images in your Mind Map, it's already the equal of 10,000 words of notes!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
What would a LifeLong Learner look like?
According to the University of Adelaide, lifelong learners:
- plan their own learning
- assess their own learning
- are active rather than passive learners
- learn in both formal and informal settings
- learn from their peers, teachers and mentors
- integrate knowledge from different subject areas when required
- use different learning strategies for different situations
Find out more.
15 Steps to Cultivate Lifelong Learning
Scott Young advises:
1) Always have a book.
It doesn’t matter if it takes you a year or a week to read a book. Always strive to have a book that you are reading through, and take it with you so you can read it when you have time. Just by shaving off a few minutes in-between activities in my day I can read about a book per week. That’s at least fifty each year.
2) Keep a “To-Learn” List
We all have to-do lists. These are the tasks we need to accomplish. Try to also have a “to-learn” list. On it you can write ideas for new areas of study. Maybe you would like to take up a new language, learn a skill or read the collective works of Shakespeare. Whatever motivates you, write it down.
3) Get More Intellectual Friends
Start spending more time with people who think. Not just people who are smart. But people who actually invest much of their time in learning new skills. Their habits will rub off on you. Even better, they will probably share some of their knowledge with you.
4) Guided Thinking
Albert Einstein once said, “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” Simply studying the wisdom of others isn’t enough, you have to think through ideas yourself. Spend time journaling, meditating or contemplating over ideas you have learned.
5) Put it Into Practice
Skill based learning is useless if it isn’t applied. Reading a book on C++ isn’t the same thing as writing a program. Studying painting isn’t the same as picking up a brush. If your knowledge can be applied, put it into practice.
6) Teach Others
You learn what you teach. If you have an outlet of communicating ideas to others, you are more likely to solidify that learning. Start a blog, mentor someone or even discuss ideas with a friend.
7) Clean Your Input
Some forms of learning are easy to digest, but often lack substance. I make a point of regularly cleaning out my feed reader for blogs I subscribe to. Great blogs can be a powerful source of new ideas. But every few months I realize I’m collecting posts from blogs that I am simply skimming. Every few months, purify your input to save time and focus on what counts.
8 ) Learn in Groups
Lifelong learning doesn’t mean condemning yourself to a stack of dusty textbooks. Join organizations that teach skills. Workshops and group learning events can make educating yourself a fun, social experience.
9) Unlearn Assumptions
You can’t add water to a full cup. I always try to maintain a distance away from any idea. Too many convictions simply mean too few paths for new ideas. Actively seek out information that contradicts your worldview.
10) Find Jobs that Encourage Learning
Pick a career that encourages continual learning. If you are in a job that doesn’t have much intellectual freedom, consider switching to one that does. Don’t spend forty hours of your week in a job that doesn’t challenge you.
11) Start a Project
Set out to do something you don’t know how. Forced learning in this way can be fun and challenging. If you don’t know anything about computers, try building one. If you consider yourself a horrible artist, try a painting.
12) Follow Your Intuition
Lifelong learning is like wandering through the wilderness. You can’t be sure what to expect and there isn’t always an end goal in mind. Letting your intuition guide you can make self-education more enjoyable. Most of our lives have been broken down to completely logical decisions, that making choices on a whim has been stamped out.
13) The Morning Fifteen
Use the first fifteen minutes of your morning as a period for education. If you find yourself too groggy, you might want to wait a short time. Just don’t put it off later in the day where urgent activities will push it out of the way.
14) Reap the Rewards
Learn information you can use. Understanding the basics of programming allows me to handle projects that other people would require outside help. Meeting a situation that makes use of your educational efforts can be a source of pride.
15) Make it a Priority
Few external forces are going to persuade you to learn. The desire has to come from within. Once you decide you want to make lifelong learning a habit, it is up to you to make it a priority in your life.
It doesn’t matter if it takes you a year or a week to read a book. Always strive to have a book that you are reading through, and take it with you so you can read it when you have time. Just by shaving off a few minutes in-between activities in my day I can read about a book per week. That’s at least fifty each year.
2) Keep a “To-Learn” List
We all have to-do lists. These are the tasks we need to accomplish. Try to also have a “to-learn” list. On it you can write ideas for new areas of study. Maybe you would like to take up a new language, learn a skill or read the collective works of Shakespeare. Whatever motivates you, write it down.
3) Get More Intellectual Friends
Start spending more time with people who think. Not just people who are smart. But people who actually invest much of their time in learning new skills. Their habits will rub off on you. Even better, they will probably share some of their knowledge with you.
4) Guided Thinking
Albert Einstein once said, “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” Simply studying the wisdom of others isn’t enough, you have to think through ideas yourself. Spend time journaling, meditating or contemplating over ideas you have learned.
5) Put it Into Practice
Skill based learning is useless if it isn’t applied. Reading a book on C++ isn’t the same thing as writing a program. Studying painting isn’t the same as picking up a brush. If your knowledge can be applied, put it into practice.
6) Teach Others
You learn what you teach. If you have an outlet of communicating ideas to others, you are more likely to solidify that learning. Start a blog, mentor someone or even discuss ideas with a friend.
7) Clean Your Input
Some forms of learning are easy to digest, but often lack substance. I make a point of regularly cleaning out my feed reader for blogs I subscribe to. Great blogs can be a powerful source of new ideas. But every few months I realize I’m collecting posts from blogs that I am simply skimming. Every few months, purify your input to save time and focus on what counts.
8 ) Learn in Groups
Lifelong learning doesn’t mean condemning yourself to a stack of dusty textbooks. Join organizations that teach skills. Workshops and group learning events can make educating yourself a fun, social experience.
9) Unlearn Assumptions
You can’t add water to a full cup. I always try to maintain a distance away from any idea. Too many convictions simply mean too few paths for new ideas. Actively seek out information that contradicts your worldview.
10) Find Jobs that Encourage Learning
Pick a career that encourages continual learning. If you are in a job that doesn’t have much intellectual freedom, consider switching to one that does. Don’t spend forty hours of your week in a job that doesn’t challenge you.
11) Start a Project
Set out to do something you don’t know how. Forced learning in this way can be fun and challenging. If you don’t know anything about computers, try building one. If you consider yourself a horrible artist, try a painting.
12) Follow Your Intuition
Lifelong learning is like wandering through the wilderness. You can’t be sure what to expect and there isn’t always an end goal in mind. Letting your intuition guide you can make self-education more enjoyable. Most of our lives have been broken down to completely logical decisions, that making choices on a whim has been stamped out.
13) The Morning Fifteen
Use the first fifteen minutes of your morning as a period for education. If you find yourself too groggy, you might want to wait a short time. Just don’t put it off later in the day where urgent activities will push it out of the way.
14) Reap the Rewards
Learn information you can use. Understanding the basics of programming allows me to handle projects that other people would require outside help. Meeting a situation that makes use of your educational efforts can be a source of pride.
15) Make it a Priority
Few external forces are going to persuade you to learn. The desire has to come from within. Once you decide you want to make lifelong learning a habit, it is up to you to make it a priority in your life.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Problems with Webinars
Michael Gilbert talks about four problems related to Webinars...3 small, 1 big:
Three Small Problems
1. Too Much Lock In: You would think we would have learned the lesson of proprietary software lock-in by now, but it seems that we're doomed to repeat that one over and over again. Everywhere I turn among my colleagues who are also doing online seminars, I see their intellectual property tied up in someone else's web interface or file format.
2. Too Many Examples: We need more synthesis and fewer examples. Yes, of course, examples are useful for teaching principles. They can be inspirational when the student can relate to the protagonist of the example. And in large numbers, examples become the evidence from which we draw larger conclusions. This means either rigorously deriving generalizations from adequately large sample sizes of examples or just as rigorously choosing examples as tools for teaching. Instead, we get a bunch of stories tossed together.
3. Not Enough Integration: Stop making us use the telephone to get the audio portion of the presentation. Are there lots of people out there taking seminars who don't have the broadband needed for audio? Are all these workshops so small that the phone is the best way to take questions?
The Big Problem
Tips. Tricks. Hacks. Repeat that out loud a few times and eventually you just start spitting.
We search for tips, tricks, and hacks because we want fast fixes.. If Google is any indication, we want them all together - there are nearly 2 million results when you search for all three terms. We want quick solutions to hard problems. We need money but we don't want to invest in the relationships required. We want to feel informed and on top of things, but we don't want to be challenged.
If I were to write a description of an online seminar for nonprofits that captures what I see going on, it would probably be something like this:
Title: Don't Fall Behind in Raising Money: 27 Free Tips, Tricks, and Hacks for Online Fundraising
You can't afford to fall behind. Those online donors are being scooped up by organizations that are on the ball when it comes to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and all the other places new donors are hanging out. With this webinar, you'll have the secrets for getting your share. Each of the 27 online fundraising tips, tricks, and hacks are free and can be implemented in minutes!
This description might even work, right? But it has all the symptoms of fast fix obsession. It elevates and preys on nonprofit anxiety. It throws in some brand name buzzwords to leverage the appeal of the latest cool thing. Most importantly, it promises to reduce online fundraising to a set of tiny quick wins.
Don't get me wrong: Quick wins are great. As students, we all need the feeling that we can hit the ground running and see at least some immediate progress for our efforts. This is especially true when we're working on large projects. But the quick wins have become an end in themselves, rather than just another part of a balanced toolkit for teaching.
This misplaced emphasis on fast fixes is truly harmful in several ways. (1) After delivering some quick satisfaction, it sets us up for disappointment when those tips don't add up to anything. (2) It encourages sloppy thinking on the part of both students and teachers, generating lists of vaguely related ideas rather than coherent frameworks for thinking about the topic. (3) It fails to build the underlying strategies that in turn would make tips genuinely effective. (4) By asking so little of us, it appeals to and encourages our worst selves.
Three Small Problems
1. Too Much Lock In: You would think we would have learned the lesson of proprietary software lock-in by now, but it seems that we're doomed to repeat that one over and over again. Everywhere I turn among my colleagues who are also doing online seminars, I see their intellectual property tied up in someone else's web interface or file format.
2. Too Many Examples: We need more synthesis and fewer examples. Yes, of course, examples are useful for teaching principles. They can be inspirational when the student can relate to the protagonist of the example. And in large numbers, examples become the evidence from which we draw larger conclusions. This means either rigorously deriving generalizations from adequately large sample sizes of examples or just as rigorously choosing examples as tools for teaching. Instead, we get a bunch of stories tossed together.
3. Not Enough Integration: Stop making us use the telephone to get the audio portion of the presentation. Are there lots of people out there taking seminars who don't have the broadband needed for audio? Are all these workshops so small that the phone is the best way to take questions?
The Big Problem
Tips. Tricks. Hacks. Repeat that out loud a few times and eventually you just start spitting.
We search for tips, tricks, and hacks because we want fast fixes.. If Google is any indication, we want them all together - there are nearly 2 million results when you search for all three terms. We want quick solutions to hard problems. We need money but we don't want to invest in the relationships required. We want to feel informed and on top of things, but we don't want to be challenged.
If I were to write a description of an online seminar for nonprofits that captures what I see going on, it would probably be something like this:
Title: Don't Fall Behind in Raising Money: 27 Free Tips, Tricks, and Hacks for Online Fundraising
You can't afford to fall behind. Those online donors are being scooped up by organizations that are on the ball when it comes to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and all the other places new donors are hanging out. With this webinar, you'll have the secrets for getting your share. Each of the 27 online fundraising tips, tricks, and hacks are free and can be implemented in minutes!
This description might even work, right? But it has all the symptoms of fast fix obsession. It elevates and preys on nonprofit anxiety. It throws in some brand name buzzwords to leverage the appeal of the latest cool thing. Most importantly, it promises to reduce online fundraising to a set of tiny quick wins.
Don't get me wrong: Quick wins are great. As students, we all need the feeling that we can hit the ground running and see at least some immediate progress for our efforts. This is especially true when we're working on large projects. But the quick wins have become an end in themselves, rather than just another part of a balanced toolkit for teaching.
This misplaced emphasis on fast fixes is truly harmful in several ways. (1) After delivering some quick satisfaction, it sets us up for disappointment when those tips don't add up to anything. (2) It encourages sloppy thinking on the part of both students and teachers, generating lists of vaguely related ideas rather than coherent frameworks for thinking about the topic. (3) It fails to build the underlying strategies that in turn would make tips genuinely effective. (4) By asking so little of us, it appeals to and encourages our worst selves.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Lifetime Learning
"Lifetime learning has become the reality of the 21st century.
It is estimated today that more information will be generated in one year than in the previous 5,000 years. The amount of new technical information is doubling every two years. By the year 2010 it is predicted that it will double every 72 hours.
Perhaps the most important lesson today's students can learn is that they will always be training and learning. For those who are starting a 4-year technical or college degree program in 2008, one-half of the information they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year."
Isn't it critical, therefore, to ensure our students love to keep on learning?
It is estimated today that more information will be generated in one year than in the previous 5,000 years. The amount of new technical information is doubling every two years. By the year 2010 it is predicted that it will double every 72 hours.
Perhaps the most important lesson today's students can learn is that they will always be training and learning. For those who are starting a 4-year technical or college degree program in 2008, one-half of the information they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year."
Isn't it critical, therefore, to ensure our students love to keep on learning?
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