Currently I am undertaking the Learning how to Learn: powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects MOOC by UC San Diego that is hosted on Coursera and that I would highly recommend, I wish I had done this MOOC a year ago when I started my online studying!
As part of the course I have to submit two short essays. However, I missed the deadline for the first essay, I got the 1 day quiz extension deadline mixed up with the assessment deadline!
As part of the course I have to submit two short essays. However, I missed the deadline for the first essay, I got the 1 day quiz extension deadline mixed up with the assessment deadline!
Anyway, I have decided to post that first essay on this blog. The essay is split across five question/sections and I have added a few illustrative items for anyone who is not aware of the Learning how to Learn course contents.
I have been thinking about using Ways 2 Interface to act as a reflection platform for my online/extended learning; especially considering I was going to use it to chronicle the research and study for the MSc I may be undertaking next September.
Basically, I am already won on the idea and more posts will follow, but for now here is a short essay about a balancing learning challenge I am in the process of overcoming...
1. Briefly describe your current learning situation and goal (College sophomore aiming for a degree in language? High school student unsure of your future major but enjoying math and physics? Retired, in your mid-sixties and exploring the idea of learning something completely new?)
I am a recent graduate of Bath Spa University and now possess a First Class BA (Hons) in Creative Writing with Film and Screen Studies. I have been described as a “hybrid student”, as I possess interests in a wide array of fields that extend beyond the focus of my degree - everything from anthropology to entrepreneurship. Since graduating over a year ago, I have continued to expand my studying into these further fields via online learning and research.
I have been accepted onto a Masters program in Creative Technologies and Enterprise, but whether I undertake this MSc program will be determined by how much I achieve in my current studies and how I am putting that knowledge into practice.
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| Coming soon! |
Ultimately, the goal of my current learning situation is concerned with nurturing my creative entrepreneurial temperament.
2. Briefly describe the learning aim that is of importance to you (it may be passing a particular class, excelling in a particular degree program, or something outside school, such as mastering culinary expertise).
Working for myself and making a living based around my passions.
While I enjoy learning and discovering new things, the point of all this extended learning I am currently undertaking is less concerned with mastering each subject and more focused on nurturing my overall creative thinking.
Increasingly, technology is making people redundant in “traditional” career roles; only this month, Tim Berners-Lee speculated:
“Some things are going to completely disappear and obviously more boring jobs go first. As computers get smarter it’s possible that they start to take some of the things we used to find more interesting – creating drugs, for instance, and certainly for now the boring bits of doing your taxes. The important thing is we find ways for people to do the exciting creative fun jobs that never existed before” (Berners-Lee in Warman, M. 'Computers are getting smarter. We’re not' [online]. Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/11148220/Berners-Lee-Computers-are-getting-smarter.-Were-not.html)
In today’s and tomorrow’s world, mastering one career focused craft is not enough, not by a long shot.
I am not saying that you have to know everything, but certainly being in a position where you can create your own opportunities by utilising your creative thinking is not something to be either scoffed at or intimidated by – it is what livelihoods will be built upon. Increasingly, it is also something that education has to get to grips with encouraging in students!
I am not saying that you have to know everything, but certainly being in a position where you can create your own opportunities by utilising your creative thinking is not something to be either scoffed at or intimidated by – it is what livelihoods will be built upon. Increasingly, it is also something that education has to get to grips with encouraging in students!
Therefore, you could say that my learning aim is to unlearn traditional practices or at least to develop the aptitude to approach them with a critical eye and creatively rethink them where necessary.
3. Describe your biggest mental challenges in achieving your learning aim
Balance – focussed mode with the diffuse mode.
The lecture on focused and diffuse modes from the MOOC.
I am always juggling multiple subjects and that is fine, but only when you give each subject its time, its place and its appropriate attention.
I do not have time to trawl through every detail and I have to avoid the urge of over-indulging myself too much when studying one particular area. However, I also have to ensure that I spend time away from studying.
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| Power naps are good reboots for the brain. |
Ultimately, this one is about disciplining myself to ensure that I do not get too carried away, but equally that I allow time and space for myself to get carried away – balancing the focused attention with the diffuse state.
4. Outline existing research or learning techniques from this course that are relevant to your challenges.
Existing research
Collecting together the new discoveries of neuroscience, Dr Mlodinov paints a radically up-to-date image of how the human brain actually functions.
“Conscious thought is a great aid in designing a car or deciphering the mathematical laws of nature, but for avoiding snake bites or cars that swerve into your path or people who may harm you, only the speed and efficiency of the unconscious can save you. As we’ll see, to ensure our smooth functioning in both the physical and the social world nature has dictated that may processes of perception, memory, attention, learning, and judgement are delegated to brain structures outside conscious awareness” (Mlodinov, 2012:18).
If you can provide yourself with an overview of how the human brain actually works, on a psychological and neurobiological basis, you will stop expecting impossible things of it. The odds are you will become more effective at exploiting its inherent working methods in any endeavour.
Working my way through Subliminal had much the same effect as watching the lectures by Dr Sejnowski in this MOOC; in particular the week 2 lecture: What motivates you?
Ultimately, I found my attitudes and preconceptions about my working habits changing. The biggest lesson I took from Subliminal is not to consciously tax my brain so much and the content of this MOOC has only back up that assertion even more so!
Your brain works at its best when you get it consciously focused and then let it be unconsciously diffuse.
Adopting a personal narrative, science journalist Joshua Foer embarks on an exploration into the processes underpinning human memory; while simultaneously adopting this knowledge to train himself for US Memory Championship – an event he ultimately wins.
“memory training is a form of mental workout. Over time, like any other form of exercise, it’ll make the brain fitter, quicker, and more nimble. It’s an idea that dates back to the very origins of memory training. Roman orators argued that the art of memory – the proper retention and ordering of knowledge – was a vital instrument for the invention of new ideas” (Foer, 2011:12).
As with understanding how the overall human brain works, understanding how it actually absorbs and retains information is equally paramount if you want to become a successful learner. Quite a few of the learning techniques touched on in this MOOC are explored in the book – especially chunking. However, visualisation – converting information into striking interior visuals - is another key technique:
“The more vivid the image, the more likely it is to cleave to its locus. What distinguishes a great mnemonist, I was learning, is the ability to create these sorts of lavish images on the fly, to paint a scene so unlike any that has been seen before that it cannot be forgotten. And to do it quickly.” (Foer, 2011:100).
Visualisation Technique
Remembering that it is also impossible for your brain to remember everything is another key lesson that I took from the book!
Learning techniques from this course
Pomodoro technique – I had previously not known about this technique, but instantly adopted it after watching its respective lecture. I have already noticed an improvement in my productivity. Adopting this technique has allowed me to schedule essential diffuse downtime into my daily schedule.
Chunking and interleaving – continuing to utilise chunking makes absolute sense if I am going to be focused in 25 minute bursts and interleaving these chunks will make those 25 minute bursts even time effective, as I do criss-cross between various different subjects and disciplines on a daily basis; in fact, a number of times already I have noticed myself using knowledge from one discipline to illustrate something from another, such as with neuroscience and narratology.
Ultimately, the research I have previously examined and the content of this MOOC have shown me, with a great deal testimony, that it really does pay to stop working your so consciously hard all of the time.
Find balance and you will find success.
5. Propose how you will apply research findings or learning techniques to help you overcome your challenges.
Practice. Reflection. Refinement.
Aside from the pomodoro technique, I have already put into practice the advice of my prior study and also the advice (so far) of this MOOC. However, just sticking to doing something the same way for too long can very easily make you become complacent and then you can become less effective, which is exactly why reflection is always key and why I always exercise it. In fact, the reason why I signed up to this MOOC was so that I could take a step back, reflect on my current learning situation and then refine my habits even more so. This MOOC has proven to be invaluable in that respect and look forward to the content of weeks 3 and 4.
However, understanding that the balancing of my focused and diffused states is not the problem. Consistently putting it into practice is not the problem, the problem is making it into a daily habit.
According to a study by psychology researcher Phillipa Lally:
Lally, P. (2009) ‘How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world’. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40 (6), PP.988-1000 [online]. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.674/abstract.
In order for a habit to become second nature, it can take anywhere between 60 to 240 days to successful form a new habit and to strengthen the respective neural connects in your brain.
Therefore, the solution to my challenge is simple – I just have to keep implementing the pomodoro technique on a daily basis and, through the course of doing so, my diffuse and focused states will become more and more intuitively balanced.
To build a muscle you have to tear it many times over, but in order for those tears to grow back stronger, you have to allow them time to repair. Additionally, in order to avoid getting stuck at a workout plateau, you have to keep reviewing and refining your approach.
Practice. Reflection. Refinement.
Anyhow, my 25 minutes are up now, I’m going to have a cup of tea…
