memory

Learn How To Study Using… Dual Coding — from learningscientists.org by Megan Smith & Yana Weinstein

Excerpt:

This is the final post in a series of six posts designed to help students learn how to study effectively. You can find the other five here:

What is dual coding?

Dual coding is the process of combining verbal materials with visual materials. There are many ways to visually represent material, such as with infographics, timelines, cartoon strips, diagrams, and graphic organizers.

When you have the same information in two formats – words and visuals – it gives you two ways of remembering the information later on. Combining these visuals with words is an effective way to study.

Now, look at only the visuals and explain what they mean in your own words. Then, take the words from your class materials and draw your own visuals to go along with them!

From DSC:
As the authors comment, this is NOT about learning styles (as research doesn’t back up the hypothesis of learning styles):

When we discuss verbal and visual materials, it does sound like we could be referring to learning styles. However, it is important to remember that a great deal of research has shown that assessing your learning style and then matching your study to that “style” is not useful, and does not improve learning (2). (For more, read this piece.)

Interleaving: How Mixed Practice Can Boost Learning— from effectiviology.com

Excerpt:

Interleaving is a learning technique that involves mixing together different topics or forms of practice, in order to facilitate learning. For example, if a student uses interleaving while preparing for an exam, they can mix up different types of questions, rather than study only one type of question at a time.

Interleaving, which is sometimes referred to as mixed practice or varied practice, is contrasted with blocked practice (sometimes referred to as specific practice), which involves focusing on only a single topic or form of practice at a time.

Also see:

Excerpts:

Interleaving boosts learning by mixing up closely related topics, encouraging discrimination between similarities and differences. (Agarwal & Bain, p. 14)

It’s “re-arranging the order of retrieval opportunities during spacing without changing the content to be learned.” It’s mixing up concepts. (Agarwal & Bain, pgs. 106-107).

Consider this basic example of practice problems in any math course:

Problem Set 1: AAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD [i.e., blocked practice]
Problem Set 2: ABCD BCAD DBAC CBDA [i.e., interleaved practice]

Both have the same practice problems, but they’ve been re-arranged. If letters represented addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, the students need to be able to choose and retrieve the appropriate strategy — vs. plug-and-chug without thinking about which strategy to use.

Also see:
retrievalpractice.org/interleaving

Engagement = acquiring and keeping your learners’ attentions. Attention is the gatekeeper to further learning. [Christian]

On 11/05/2020, in A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, adult learning, animation, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, attention, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, distance education, education, engagement / engaging students, faculty, graphics, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, Learning Experience Design, learning preferences, learning theories, liberal arts, love of learning, media/film, memory, metacognition / metacognitive skills, more choice more control, motivation, online learning, online tutoring, participation, passions, platforms, remote teaching and learning, simulations, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, training / L&D, universities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Many people talk about engagement when they discuss learning, and with good reason. It seems to me that what they are really getting at is the topic of getting and maintaining someone’s *attention.* Attention is the gatekeeper to further learning. I wonder if some of the next generation learning platforms that employ some level of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled features, will look to a learner’s preferences (as stored in their cloud-based learner’s profile) in order to help gain/maintain such attention.

And this also helps explain why allowing more learner agency — i.e., more choice, more control — in pursuing their own interests and passions really helps: A motivated learner is paying closer attention to what’s going on.

Attention is the gatekeeper to further learning.

From DSC:
And along these lines, that’s one of the key reasons I’d like to see more involvement from the Theatre Departments, Computer Science Departments, and from those involved with creative writing across the land — in terms of helping develop content for remote and online-based education. Actors, actresses, set designers, costumer designers, audio/video editors, programmers/software developers, and more who could collaborate on these kinds of ideas.

Last comment on this. I don’t mean that we should present our classes like many advertisements do (i.e., running a thousand images by me within 30 seconds). But changing things up periodically — both visually and audibly — can help regain/reset your students’ attentions.

Two articles from Donald Clark re: 1) Attention & 2) Transfer

On 10/05/2020, in adult learning, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, higher education, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, Learning Experience Design, learning theories, memory, motivation, music, UK, universities, by Daniel Christian

Pay attention! Attention is a necessary condition for learning experience design, but poorly understood… — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

Excerpts:

Attention is to selectively focus your mind and effort on that which has to be learned. Attention matters as it is what manages new data that has to be processed in working memory. Focused attention narrows down input from sensory memory and your recall knowledge from long-term memory. At any moment in time attention is what determines what is processed. We must always be aware that attention is the bottleneck through which everything must go in learning, first into working memory, then if you successfully learn, into long-term memory. The selective nature of attention is what regulates and limits cognitive overload.

So, over a century of research has shown that attention is not one thing but a very complex phenomena. We select inputs, interpretations of those inputs, then select plans of action and actions themselves. Attention is tied up with motivation, interest, feelings and ultimately action. It is the basecamp for understanding how learning experiences should be designed.

From DSC:
Interest…motivation…this is why I’m a big fan of offering learners more choice. More control.

Transfer – why is it ignored? Here’s how to fix it… — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

Excerpt:

You must design with transfer in mind and blends or learning journeys must move learning forward towards action, towards doing, towards practice and performance. No matter how much training you deliver, it can be illusory in the sense of not leading to transfer from cognitive change to actual performance, which in turn has impact on the organisation.

Doing and Practice are experiences. In fact without doing or practice it is unlikely to be retained long-term. Your design must move from experiences that match whatever type of learning you need, cognitive, psychomotor and affective, but practice and application experiences also matter. Your design should provide transfer pathways towards mastery, through actual doing and practice in the formal learning as well as practice and extension activities beyond the initial learning experiences.

Philippians 4:8 — “…if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

On 09/16/2020, in culture, faith, global / globalization, health, hearts -- matters of the heart, memory, relationships, society, by Daniel Christian

⁸Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Christian: We really need a standard for loading Q’s into a memory-refreshing app

On 08/10/2020, in 24x7x365 access, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, content repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning theories, lifelong learning, love of learning, memory, microlearning, more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, online tutoring, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, society, staying relevant, streams of content, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, television, tools, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, universities, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
After reading Jeff Young’s article re: learning engineering and seeing the Nudge application from Duke University...it once again occurred to me that we really need a standard for loading questions into a memory-refreshing application. Just like HyperText Markup Language (HTML) made the World Wide Web so successful and impactful, we need an easy-to-use standard for dumping questions into a personalized database of questions for each cloud-based learner profile.

After taking a module, you would be asked if you wanted to be reminded of / quizzed upon the key ideas presented therein. You would then receive periodic quizzes on those items. You can choose to opt-out of that learning module’s content at any time.

Such an application would help reduce the impact of the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve. This type of standard/feature would really help students and people in:

law schools, dental schools, medical schools, and seminaries
vocational programs
traditional undergraduate and graduate programs
K-12 systems
Homeschooling-based situations
Places of worship
Communities of practice — as well as lifelong learners

A person could invoke a quiz at any point, but would be quizzed at least once a day. If you missed a day, those questions would not be taken out of the pool of questions to ask you. If you got a question right, the time interval would be lengthened before you were asked that question again. But questions that you struggled with would be asked more frequently. This would also help interleave questions and aid in recall. Such spaced repetition would cause struggle from time to time, aiding in deeper learning.

A new affordance of a 100%-online-based learning environment: A visual & audible “Table of Contents of the Key Points Made” [Christian]

On 07/11/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, blended learning, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content aggregration, content development, content repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, faculty, flipping -- inverted learning, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lecture capture, memory, metacognition / metacognitive skills, microlearning, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, remote teaching and learning, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, training / L&D, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, virtual K-12 schools, vision/possibilities, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

What new affordances might a 100%-online-based learning environment offer us?

From DSC:
As I’ve been listening to some sermons on my iPhone, I end up taking visual snapshots of the times that they emphasize something. Here are some examples:

A snapshot of one of the key points made during a sermon

Another snapshot of one of the key points made during a sermon

Which got me to thinking…while tools like Panopto* give us something along these lines, they don’t present to the student what the KEY POINTS were in any given class session.

So professors — in addition to teachers, trainers, pastors, presenters, etc. — should be able to quickly and easily instruct the software to create a visual table of contents of key points based upon which items the professor favorited or assigned a time signature to. I’m talking about a ONE keystroke or ONE click of the mouse type of thing to instruct the software to take a visual snapshot of that point in time (AI could even be used to grab the closest image without someone’s eyes shut). At the end of the class, there are then just a handful of key points that were made, with links to those time signatures.

At the end of a course, a student could easily review the KEY POINTS that were made throughout the last ___ weeks.

****

But this concept falls apart if there are too many things to remember. So when a professor presents the KEY POINTs to any given class, they must CURATE the content. (And by the way, that’s exactly why pastors normally focus on only 3-4 key points…otherwise, it gets too hard to walk away with what the sermon was about.)

****

One could even build upon the table of contents. For example…for any given class within a law school’s offerings, the professor (or another team member at the instructions of the professor) could insert links to:

Relevant chapters or sections of a chapter in the textbook
Journal articles
Cases
Rules of law
Courts’ decisions
Other

****

And maybe even:

That’s the kind of “textbook” — or learning modules — that we’ll move towards creating in the first place.
.
That’s the form of learning we’ll see more of when we present streams of up-to-date content to folks using a next-generation learning platform.
.
Future webinars could piggyback off of this concept as well. Dive as deep as you want to into something…or just take away the main points (i.e., the Cliff notes/summaries) of a presentation.

At the end of the day, if your communication isn’t in a digital format, there is no playback available. What’s said is said…and gone.

* The functionality discussed here would take a day’s worth of work for a developer at Panopto (i.e., give a presenter a way to favorite existing TOC items and/or to assign a time signature to slots of time in a recording) — but it would save people and students sooooo much time. Such functionality would help us stay up-to-date — at least at a basic level of understanding — on a variety of topics.

Why everyone on your team must understand Instructional Design [MacDonald]

On 06/19/2020, in corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, instructional design, learning, learning theories, memory, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Why everyone on your team must understand Instructional Design — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Megan MacDonald

Excerpts:

In my decade-long experience on projects of varying and increasing size, there are the key components I think you need to invest in helping your teams and management understand. And here they are:

Significance of learning objectives, and in particular the importance of action verbs and how they apply to your project.
Learning audience, including existing knowledge, background(s), and even personalities, can impact decisions such as instructor-led versus self-paced, where you need to start, the pace you need to set, and the specific information you need to provide on any given subject.
Concepts of cognitive load and scaffolding.
Instructional design is not always linear.
Finally, there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to programs, courses, or even individual lessons.

From DSC:
I’m embarking on a journey to discover how our emotions impact our cognition. Why? I have a suspicion that the Socratic Method is actually hurting some students’ learning, vs. helping them.

DC: I want to understand how our emotions impact #learning. So I put a Google Alert (https://t.co/t214vgZOuD) out there re: “emotive cognition.” Along these lines, I want to know if the Socratic Method is helpful or not. Here is 1 article that came across: https://t.co/AEK7YcqWsd

— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) June 9, 2020

“My Learning Journal”: Try using this tool to boost your learning & identify knowledge gaps [Christian]

On 05/07/2020, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, blended learning, bots, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, faculty, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, hybrid learning, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, learning theories, memory, metacognition / metacognitive skills, motivation, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, psychology, special needs, strategy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Here’s an idea that I’ve been thinking about for quite some time now. It’s not necessarily a new idea, but the seed got planted in me by a former colleague, Quin Schultze (which I blogged about in January of 2018). I’m calling it, “My Learning Journal.” The purpose of this device is to promote your metacognition — helping you put things into your own words and helping you identify your knowledge gaps.

I realize that such a learning strategy/tool could take some time to complete. But it could pay off — big time! Give it a try for a few weeks and see what you think.

And, with a shout-out to Mr. James McGrath, the President of the WMU-Cooley Law School, the article listed below explains the benefits of taking the time for such reflection:

Reflective learning – reflection as a strategic study technique — from open.edu

Excerpts:

Rather than thinking of reflection as yet another task to be added to your ‘to do’ list or squeezed into a busy study schedule, view it as something to practice at any stage. The emphasis is on being a reflective learner rather than doing reflective learning.

Developing a habit of reflective learning will help you to:

evaluate your own progress
monitor and manage your own performance
self-motivate
keep focus on your learning goals
think differently about how you can achieve your goals by evaluating your study techniques, learning strategies and whether these best fit your current needs, identifying your skills development needs or gaps in knowledge
think about and overcome what may be blocking your learning by using a different approach, or setting more pragmatic (realistic/achievable) goals
support and enrich your professional practice ensuring that you are better placed to respond to and manage new, unexpected and complex situations – a key requirement at Master’s level.

From DSC:
Pastors, trainers, K-12 educators, student teachers, coaches, musical teachers, and others: Perhaps a slightly modified version of this tool might be beneficial to those with whom you work as well…?

And for educators and trainers, perhaps we should use such a tool to think about our own teaching and training methods — and what we are (or aren’t) learning ourselves.

Addendum on 5/14/20:

Perhaps someone will build a bot for this type of thing, which prompts us to reflect upon these things. Here are some examples of what I’m talking about or something like Woebot, which Jeremy Caplan mentioned here.

Some brief reflections on Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

On 03/26/2020, in Daniel S. Christian, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, learning, learning theories, memory, relationships, religion, society, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
A reminder to myself, and perhaps it will help someone else out there as well…

Philippians 4:8 (NIV) — from biblegateway.com

⁸Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Not sure why, but Daniel Willingham’s words come to my mind:
“Memory is the residue of thought.”

Plus, I ran across this graphic as well:

2020 Tech Trends Report [Future Today Institute]

On 03/18/2020, in 21st century, 3D, algorithms, analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, Asia, Augmented Reality (AR), Australia, Blockchain, bots, business, Canada, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, education, global / globalization, ideas, India, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, media/film, memory, Natural Language Processing (NLP), new business models, platforms, science, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, society, STEAM-related, strategy, technologies for your home, technology (general), the downsides of technology, tools, trends, United States, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Key takeaways of this report:

Welcome to the Synthetic Decade.
You’ll soon have augmented hearing and sight.
A.I.-as-a-Service and Data-as-a-Service will reshape business.
China has created a new world order.
Home and office automation is nearing the mainstream.
Everyone alive today is being scored.
We’ve traded FOMO for abject fear.
It’s the end of forgetting.
Our new trust economy is being formed.

Making (low-stakes) practice tests more effective [edutopia.org]

On 02/07/2020, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, assessment, faculty, higher education, K-12 related, memory, pedagogy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, universities, youth, by Daniel Christian

Making (low-stakes) practice tests more effective — from edutopia.org
Practice tests not only help surface gaps in knowledge—they also strengthen memory.

Free downloads to transform your teaching & unleash the science of learning! [RetrievalPractice.org]

On 12/04/2019, in assessment, learning, learning ecosystem, learning theories, memory, metacognition / metacognitive skills, pedagogy, psychology, research, science, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, youth, by Daniel Christian

Per RetrievalPractice.org:

Download ALL our free guides, research, and resources!

We’re here to make your life easier. In order to unleash the science of learning, we strive to make it easy to access and quick to implement.

That’s why we really want you to download everything from our library, including free practice guides, book club resources, research, and more.

Top ten podcasts every teacher needs to hear — from wiley.com; with thanks to Emily Liebtag for her posting on Twitter for this resource

Excerpt:

Listening to podcasts is an easy way to dive into a topic that interests you and learn something new from others who share your passion for education.

We’re highlighting the following ten podcast episodes featuring Jossey-Bass authors that you can listen to whenever, wherever to help you master your craft or reignite your love of teaching.

So, take some time for yourself, grab your earbuds, and press play on these…

Learning Ecosystems

Philippians 4:8 — “…if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Why everyone on your team must understand Instructional Design [MacDonald]

Some brief reflections on Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

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