Wednesday, December 12, 2012

3 Proven Learning Techniques for Instructors and Students

In a 2011 NY Times op-ed "The Trouble With Homework", Annie Murphy Paul describes three effective methods for learning that are based on research in the Mind, Brain, and Education (educational neuroscience) field.

Spaced Repetition - Repeated exposure over longer periods of time to information with increasing intervals of time between exposures. Here's a great resource for seeing how this method has been applied for learning languages and winning at Jeopardy!.


Retrieval Practice - Use of frequent tests as reinforcement exercises. Prof. Brad Postle leveraged this technique with dramatic results through the use of frequent online quizzing. Watch Postle explain more in this video.

Interleaving - A method of varying problems (or content) so that the learner constantly reloads his/her retrieval strategies in order to solve the problems (or study the content). Sounds like the muscle confusion principle of exercise programs like P90x. Here's a quick explanation and video of the principle (click the "Interleaving" topic listed lower on the page; the anchor link isn't working properly).



Thursday, December 06, 2012

Sharing my notes from EDUCAUSE 2012 (finally)


One month after an excellent EDUCAUSE 2012 annual conference in Denver, I have found time to post my rough notes from the sessions I attended.

You can access my notes here in a Google Doc:

Feel free to scan, add comments or follow-up with me if anything catches your eye. Warning: these are very unpolished notes, but they do contain links to videos of the sessions if available and to some related resources.

Content:
  1. Keynote: Clay Shirkey - IT as a Core Academic Competence
  2. Getting Smart About Educational Analytics
  3. Starting Conversations Across Silos in Time of Change
  4. Openness - EDUCAUSE Constituent Group
  5. Statistically Significant: How Big Data and Data Science Impact Higher Education
  6. Keynote - Blueprint for Change in Era of Rapid Reinvention - Elliot Masie and Christine Flannagan
  7. Introducing WebEx Social - Case Western, Duke
  8. Coalition for Networked Information - Community Update
  9. Summary of Vendor Announcements at EDUCAUSE