The Joy of Practical Learning…What Can You DO? An unfortunate number of people graduate from high school or college with a lot of knowledge and no practical ability. I’m a firm believer that practical learning (i.e. the ability to do something) is just as important as academic learning (i.e. knowledge about something). Practical learning encompasses anything that helps someone master a skill or ability. It includes skills that are sometimes considered drudge work…cooking, painting, fixing a car. As well as talents that are more recreational…skiing, drawing, dancing. Why Practical Learning? While skill-based learning comes naturally to some, many people are more comfortable with academic learning. When I graduated college, I loved reading and thinking. Over the next few years, I set aside time to escape from the written word and focus my energy developing skills. If you’re more of a thinker than a do-er, it may be difficult to focus on practical learning. There is great satisfaction in being able to accomplish something. Can you:
The American Scholar: A Declaration of Intellectual Independence “The scholar is that man who must take up into himself all the ability of the time, all the contributions of the past, all the hopes of the future. He must be a university of knowledges. If there be one lesson more than another, which should pierce his ear, it is, The world is nothing, the man is all; in yourself is the law of all nature, and you know not yet how a globule of sap ascends; in yourself slumbers the whole of Reason; it is for you to know all, it is for you to dare all.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson Just 61 years after the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, Ralph Waldo Emerson offered a declaration of his own urging Americans to stop being “parrot[s] of other men’s thinking.” The groundbreaking speech, later titled The American Scholar, is a treasure trove of autodidactic insight. In his speech, Emerson draws attention to three ways that people can become independent thinkers and free themselves from over-reliance upon the ideas of others. Study the Past
How to Learn on Your Own: Creating an Independent Scholar Resource Plan One of the most challenging and gratifying parts of learning alone is the opportunity to search for and select your own learning material. Students in traditional classrooms usually don’t get to decide how they are going to master course content. Instructors decide for them in the form of textbook selection, quizzes, tests, group projects, etc. As an independent learner, you can make your study time more effective by using only the learning methods that work for you. A resource plan is a document used to brainstorm the learning material you can use when you begin your studies. This article will show you how to create a resource plan to use in your independent studies. Step 1: Set a Goal The first step to creating a resource plan is to decide on a single goal. Ineffective Goal – Learn HTMLEffective Goal – Create several websites using HTML, referring only minimally to a coding book. Step 2: Collect Materials Books – The written word is still one of the best ways to learn a subject.
Motivation and Self Improvement Introduction to the Great Books of the Western World The best way to understand the world you live in now is to read the Western canon. By reading these classic books, you’ll develop a deep understanding of why our society is the way it is, why our government operates the way it does, and how the great ideas of history have come to shape our beliefs. You cannot truly think for yourself if you cannot recognize where your ideas and beliefs originate from. Each Monday I plan to post a new overview of one of the Great Books of the Western World and show you where to find it for free. What is the Great Books of the Western World Series? In 1952, University of Chicago President Richard Hutchins joined forces with philosopher Mortimer Adler to create a collection of works representative of the Western cannon. 54 books were published as a set by Encyclopedia Britannica. Upon publication, Hutchins proclaimed: “This is more than a set of books, and more than a liberal education. Why Read the Great Books? Great Books Controversy How Now, Great Books?
The Liberal Arts as Guideposts in the 21st Century - Commentary By Nannerl O. Keohane The very broad, capacious form of education that we call the liberal arts is rooted in a specific curriculum in classical and medieval times. But it would be wrong to assume that because it has such ancient roots, this kind of education is outdated, stale, fusty, or irrelevant. We all wrestle with the challenges of educating students who are used to multitasking, doing their homework while listening to music and texting on their iPhones. An excellent example of the power of multimedia coupled with the liberal arts is "Imaginary Journeys," a general-education course sometimes taught at Harvard University by Stephen Greenblatt. This kind of education has become more and more appealing to students and teachers at universities around the world. Yet, as we know, the trends in the United States are in the opposite direction, and this is not just a recent problem. But how can college presidents today best go about making the case for the liberal arts? Nannerl O.
10 Ways Reading the Great Books Can Improve Your Life The Master Course in Personal Development May Already Be Sitting On Your Shelf Reading the great books takes a lot of effort. Studying masterpieces such as the Odyssey or the works of Shakespeare requires more concentration than picking up a Tom Clancy novel. But, the payoffs can be tremendous. If you’re not sold on starting a reading plan, consider the benefits that reading great literature can bring to your life. Here are 10 ways reading these books can have a real impact on who you are and how you think: 1. “These books are the means of understanding our society and ourselves. Consider your thoughts on subjects such as romantic love, truth, democracy, and freedom. 2. “We are tied down, all our days and for the greater part of our days, to the commonplace. Reading the great books may not turn us into Platos and Einsteins. 3. 4. “The liberally educated man has a mind that can operate will in all fields. 5. Everyone has to forge his own path in this life. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Great HDR Photography by Ásmundur Þorkelsson Few times people have been asking me to dig around and post some HDR (High dynamic range) photos for inspiration, something that I would think is nice, so I thought to my self who is better talk about than Ásmundur Þorkelsson I’ve been following him for quite some time now and I must say am really impressed with all his work not just the HDR photography, OK enough talking and let’s get down to business by displaying some but not all of his HDR work, if you want to get in touch with Asmundur you can just click on his name and it’ll take you right to his profile, so here it goes … © All rights reserved by asmundur
Do Hard Things I have a rather uncommon mantra for my life: Do the hardest thing you can. Uncommon, because I’ve met exceedingly few people who agree with it. In fact, almost everyone suggests the opposite. When I started my MIT Challenge, one of the most common warnings was, “don’t burn yourself out.” Yet, despite taking on bigger projects, I’ve found this mantra to be increasingly valuable. Building Strength If you lift the heaviest weight you can lift, then you become stronger as a result. A synonym for this kind of strength might be confidence, although that also has implications of irrational self-assessments as well, so I prefer the word strength. When I did my first course for the MIT Challenge, it was stressful. I’d also say I have fewer negative preoccupations during this challenge than before it. What if You Burn Out? Implicit in the mantra is the hardest thing you can do. Burnout shouldn’t be the goal, but it might be a side-effect. But even in that case, how bad is burnout really?
Study Guides: Thinking Critically About Critical Thinking by Ralph Dumain “Condescension, and thinking oneself no better, are the same. To adapt to the weakness of the oppressed is to affirm in it the pre-condition of power, and to develop in oneself the coarseness, insensibility and violence needed to exert domination. . . ” — Theodor Adorno, Minima Moralia (London: Verso, 1987), end of section 5 (p. 26) “The weak points in the abstract materialism of natural science, a materialism that excludes history and its process, are at once evident from the abstract and ideological conceptions of its spokesmen, whenever they venture beyond the bounds of their own speciality.” — Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I, Chapter 15. “We are like sailors who on the open sea must reconstruct their ship but are never able to start afresh from the bottom. This web site as a whole could be considered essentially a guide to critical thinking (including specimens of erroneous steps along the way). See also my Reason & Society blog, esp. under the rubric “critical thinking”.
Developing an Appetite for Hard Ideas Richard Feynman, professor and Nobel-prize winning physicist purportedly only had an IQ of 125. Smart, but hardly in the rarefied spectrum we normally consider for genius. This trivia is usually brought up to show the ridiculousness of IQ testing. If an obvious genius doesn’t qualify for Mensa, how valid can it be for normal people? After reading Feynman’s memoirs , a different idea struck me. Perhaps genius isn’t best defined by raw intellectual ability. Intelligence as Endurance The two explanations aren’t mutually exclusive. Despite this, intelligence-as-endurance has empirical support. . Dweck contrasts the two groups of students as fixed-mindset and growth-mindset. In my own experience working with students, I’ve seen how appetite for hard ideas translates to success. Hunger for Hard Ideas When I was a kid, I liked books by Brian Greene . A hunger for hard ideas is a specific subset of curiosity. People who believe in superstitions lack this hunger. Developing Your Appetite
Self Education | Self Learning | Essential Web Sites Big lists of free online courses, Web tools, learning games, and other resources for lifelong learners are relatively easy to find, but sites with a serious focus on helping people along the journey of self-education are fewer and farther between. Here are five you may want to bookmark or add to your feed reader. 1. Autodidact Press I mentioned the Autodidact Press in a post I did a while back on the famous self-educated. 2. I’ve mentioned Jamie Littlefield’s Self Made Scholar at least a couple of times in the Learning Monitor newsletter, and deservedly so. 3. I only recently came across Wide Awake Minds, which blogger Ryan McCarl describes as a “resource for educators, self-educators, polymaths, and all who love to teach, read, think, and learn.” 4. Race Bannon is one of the people that Ryan McCarl has interviewed for his self-educator series, and Bannon’s blog The Art of Self Education, is certainly a fit for this list. 5. Jeff P.S. – Please join me on the ongoing Mission to Learn.
7 Things To Avoid in Online Training Video Design Jeremy Vest knows video design. Having been a teacher, marketer, art director, author and instructional designer, his company xTrain are leaders in online video training having won Emmys for incorporating award winning television production with software-based training. The following is a summary of his slightly longer post that he brought to my attention today – thanks! 7 Sins of Online Video Instructional Design Not connected to learners When creating video training, have the SME address the camera, do not just show screen shots. Jeremy Vest is the CLO of Splash Media, author of Exploring Web Design, President and Founder of xTrain. Related Posts: