Beating the Forgetting Curve with Distributed Practice
“If you read the research on how much people forget after training, it’s depressing. Do a search for the ‘Forgetting Curve’. Once we know something like this, we need to change our approach and educate others.”- Connie Malamed (The eLearning Coach)The above quote is from our interview with Connie Malamed. After our inspiring and thought-provoking interview with Connie Malamed, we were left wondering about the interesting human nature that is revealed with the ‘forgetting curve’, and its impact on learning design. We set out on a journey to explore and learn more about this phenomenon.Below are the questions we had in mind when we embarked on our journey: What is the ‘forgetting curve’? One of the most intriguing features of the human mind is that it is volatile in nature (just like the Random Access Memory (RAM) in a computer). These findings have great significance for learning professionals while developing learning interventions. Excerpts from Experts Infographics Presentations Articles
15 Surprising Discoveries About Learning
What are some of the most encouraging known facts about learning? From taking a walk to learning a new language, there are countless things we can do to improve the way we learn. Below we list fifteen steps toward a better brain: 1. Laughter boosts brain function. Pam Schiller and Clarissa A. 2. Recent research at Griffith University has found that personality is more important than intelligence when it comes to success in education. Dr Poropat says educational institutions need to focus less upon intelligence and instead pay more attention to each student’s personality. “With respect to learning, personality is more useful than intelligence for guiding both students and teachers,” Dr Poropat said. Dr Poropat said the best news for students is that it’s possible to develop the most important personality traits linked with academic success. Personality does change, and some educators have trained aspects of students Conscientiousness and Openness, leading to greater learning capacity. 3. 4.
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The 27 Principles to Teaching Yourself Anything (aka The Self-Guided Education Manifesto + PDF download
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” —Mark Twain Note: This post is intentionally long. It’s meant to be our compass for learning the skills that matter in the world and throwing theory out the window. Read it. Save it. At the end of this post I’ve even provided two free PDF downloads to further guide you towards learning what matters (one is a list of over 30 of the best online resources for creating your own passion-filled curriculum). Enter the Unofficial Self-Guided Education Manifesto… Last week’s article on The Birth of Self-Guided Education caught like wildfire. When that happens, I know a topic deserves some respect. Many of last week’s comments blew my mind. Living Legends create their own education. The truth of the matter is every Living Legend (whether they dropped out of high school or got a couple PhD’s) took their education and their learning into their own hands. So without further ado… 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
Learning Techniques
One of the things that we expect you to pick up by osmosis, but almost never mention explicitly, is techniques for learning itself. After you leave university, you will be expected to be able to learn by yourself for the rest of your life. And an hour spent addressing the meta-issue of learning skills pays off in reduced time to actually learn. A lot of work has been done over the past few decades about how people learn. This document suggests a wide range of techniques that may make your learning more effective. You may want to experiment with some of them to see if they work for you. I recommend the work on accelerated learning by Colin Rose and Brian Tracy. You can learn anything if you have a goal that requires it. There are a number of stages to learning, each of which involves a number of aspects. The right state of mind There are six aspects to being in the right state of mind to learn. Here are the six aspects: Find a personal reason to want to learn this material. Memorising
Mudras: The Healing Power in your Hands
“In this respect, Kundalini Yoga assumes that every area of the hand forms a reflex zone for an associated part of the body and the brain. In this way, we can consider the hands to be a mirror for our body and our mind.” ~ Lothar Rüdiger Lütge, Kundalini yoga expert Practiced since antiquity in combination with pranayama, asanas and meditation, Mudras or Hand Gestures is a practice to improve your physical, mental and spiritual well-being. The subtle hand and finger movements make important connections in the nervous system and stimulate specific energy pathways or nadis. Yogis believed if one wants to cure any disease, they can tap into the energy of the elements and rectify the imbalance with the practice of suitable mudras. Mudras redirect the energy flow to the upper Chakras, and gradually establish a link between all the Koshas (layers) of the body. Gyan mudra is the mudra of knowledge 1) Gyan (Knowledge) or Jnana Mudra: Vaayu mudra balances the air element within your body
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How to Make Mindfulness a Habit With Only a Tiny Commitment
When you sit back and reminisce about your life, it’s almost a given that the most enjoyable and memorable moments are the ones in which you were completely present. Do you look back with fondness all the times you spent thinking about work while you drove home, or pondered dinner while you wheeled down the frozen aisle? Unfortunately most of life passes that way for most of us. We’re in one place doing one thing, thinking of things we aren’t doing and places we aren’t at. The bottom line of almost all self-help, spiritual, or religious literature is that our ability to be happy is determined by our ability to stay in the present moment. Only when we’re present do we see beauty, enjoy gratitude, and experience happiness. We all know this already. The problem is most of us are extremely habituated to living in our thoughts. The rule about habits is that whatever you do most takes over. Baby steps seem to be in order. Establishing a Foothold First of all, forget about staying mindful 24-7.
A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop
“More is better.” From the number of gigs in a cellular data plan to the horsepower in a pickup truck, this mantra is ubiquitous in American culture. When it comes to college students, the belief that more is better may underlie their widely-held view that laptops in the classroom enhance their academic performance. Laptops do in fact allow students to do more, like engage in online activities and demonstrations, collaborate more easily on papers and projects, access information from the internet, and take more notes. Indeed, because students can type significantly faster than they can write, those who use laptops in the classroom tend to take more notes than those who write out their notes by hand. Moreover, when students take notes using laptops they tend to take notes verbatim, writing down every last word uttered by their professor. What drives this paradoxical finding? To evaluate this theory, Mueller and Oppenheimer assessed the content of notes taken by hand versus laptop.
