THINKERER’S GUIDE TO HOMEWORK

Mindless reading

2006-08-17T13:39:00.000-05:00

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated the ill effects of mindless reading — a phenomenon in which people take in sentence after sentence without really paying attention.

Ever read the same paragraph three times? Or get to the end of a page and realize you don't know what you just read?

That's mindless reading. It is the literary equivalent of driving for miles without remembering how you got there — something so common many people don't even notice it.

(From a study of college students)

Psychologists seem to have a lot of first times, at least according to the news. I would like to see another first time for this one: How about: for the first time, psychologists have determined the conditions that lead to “mindless reading” and developed recommendations for changing these conditions.

Relevant considerations are span of attention and goal-guided reading. I have seen studies indicating that people listening to a lecture generally lose their focus on the speaker after about 10 minutes. Would you expect the span of attention for reading to be longer?

And goal-guided reading means knowing why you are reading. A student may have no other goal than to comply with the assignment to read the chapter. I’d call that a mindless interpretation of the assignment that probably deserves mindless reading.

Apparently this study demonstrated the ill effects (on learning) of mindless reading. Did we really need that demonstration or is this an example of mindless researching? Sometimes as I read about psychological research, I wonder if there is something to the idea of mindless writing.

Reminds of a cartoon I saw. A computer printer streaming out a flow of paper that was pouring directly into a shredder.

Virtually Educated

2006-07-22T12:39:00.000-05:00

Starting this fall, some Chicago kids will be able to go to school without leaving home.

The virtual school provides all the supplies, including a computer. Students study from real books, do real projects and complete about 20 percent of their work online.

"If they finish early, we can move them into the next level in that curriculum,” said Virtual School principal Sharon Hayes.
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And if they have trouble somewhere, you can spend more time on the troublesome part. And if different children respond better to different instructional methods, different children can have different instructional methods.

Now what do the Critics say? Critics are those collections of names that reporters keep in their contact lists. Given any plan, a reporter can find a collection of people who will oppose it. Sometimes the reporter may actually contact these people.

Here, critics will insist that the children need to go to a real school or they will be denied the opportunity for socialization. I always wonder, when I hear such arguments, why the reporter does not ask whether being bullied (another favorite news item) is a useful part of socialization.

Critics will also complain that you don’t know how well the children are learning. Of course, those are the same critics who object to standardized tests in the classroom. And insist that the standardized tests don’t really tell you how well the children are learning.

Another problem that will arise is that the main service provided by the schools is to keep the children occupied while the parents work. That may be an essential function for some families, but it could be provided a lower cost and with less travel by unbundling the supervision from the teaching. Say, neighborhood facilities staffed by competent teacher's assistants. The computer does the teaching and the assistants provide the supervision.

Will that happen? Not until after the fight. Those critics have a vested interest in the status quo. Somebody wants to move their cheese and they don’t know any other cheese source.

Homework for Parents

2006-07-15T12:45:00.000-05:00

The researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, the Leibniz Institute for Science Education in Kiel, and Humboldt University in Berlin, wanted to understand why homework often becomes a "battlefield" for students, parents, and teachers.

The study's findings, said a researcher, suggest parents and teachers could help improve students' homework effort by
improving students' beliefs that they can do well,
increasing their interest in the subject and
providing a sense that the assignments are useful.

So there it is right there. The answer is not 42. It is doing those three simple things. Now I offer a simple test for anyone who wants to understand some of the problems with homework. Take these three simple steps as your homework assignment.

Do you believe you could do well at implementing these simple steps? What would it take to improve your belief that you can do well at implementing these simple steps?

Has reading these steps increased your interest in the subject of improving student’s homework effort? What would it take to increase your interest in the subject?

Do you have a sense that this assignment (understanding and implementing these steps) is useful? What would it take to give you a sense that this assignment is useful?

So how did I do on this homework assignment? Well I don’t believe I could do well at implementing these simple steps. There are all abstract statements describing desired outcomes. What I need is plans to reach those outcomes. Furthermore, I don’ even know what it means to “do well” on these tasks. So I also need a way to measure progress in doing well. That is what it would take to improve my belief I can do well at these tasks.

Was this assignment useful? Only in the sense that it provided an illustration of how to sound knowledgeable while saying nothing worth knowing. Does that ever happen in homework? You be the judge.

Market Comes to School

2006-07-08T13:49:00.000-05:00

Teachers prepare instructional content. Lesson plans. Lectures. Projects. And other kinds of things listed in this link. Teachers need instructional content. The same kind of stuff I just mentioned. That is supply and demand. Now somebody is trying to match this supply with this demand. Efficiently. With a website: Teachers pay Teachers.

The site allows teachers to offer their instructional products for sale. Other teachers can buy the products. There is a small membership fee. And some evaluation of the content producer. There is also an arrangement for rating of content and producers by buyers, so the arrangement is somewhat like e-Bay. The content can include documents and most kinds of audio-visual materials.

This is a promising start. The main problem a buyer will have is efficiently evaluating the content. It is of no use to know that there are thousands of documents available that could be what you want. A buyer needs to have appropriate materials presented as a small, refined set that can be examined in a short time.

Possibly the matching technology being used by Stumbleupon may be useful here. It seems to provide web pages to match the user’s interest. Each user rates whatever items he or she chooses to rate. The ratings are used to guide future presentations to that user. (Incentive to rate, incentive to return.) The ratings are also used to guide the selection of content for other users with similar interests and (probably) similar ratings. Thus the system could develop clusters of similar users whose ratings would improve the results for all in the cluster.

I have tried it and been surprised at the high quality of browsing results. I suspect that something like this technology, combined with the original plan in the website, could be the innovation that destabilizes the educational system. In my blog of 6-21-06, I suggested that we needed to understand what job(s) the customers want done by the school system. The teachers-pay-teachers website could offer a generic solution: Parents could make their own determination of want they want (as buyers do on e-Bay). Then they could search this market for products that satisfy their wants. I assume that these products would be homework help initially. But many such products can be delivered over the web and would be suitable for individual of group study. At that point the schools might just provide facilities and supervision. The unbundling of education.

Homework for Babies

2006-07-02T13:37:00.000-05:00

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Former Walt Disney Co. chairman Michael Eisner has announced plans to buy a company that makes educational DVDs that teach math and spelling concepts to preschoolers using imagery from college athletics.

The company is Team Baby Entertainment. The business idea is to introduce the child to its parents' favorite athletic team. They offer half-hour DVDs tied to various college sports at name colleges. Each DVD shows video of the featured school's sports teams, interspersed with video clips of campus attractions, traditions, stadiums and mascots and kids playing with a variety of school-specific products. The idea is that preschoolers learn counting and spelling by using words, numbers and images related to the school.

The educational part sounds plausible. It would presumably draw on the methods of Sesame street and Children’s Television Workshop. The DVD’s are currently offered for prices of $13 to $20. That’s a bit pricy. But not for a gift, which might be the main market.

The question in my mind is: Why is there a market at all? Why aren’t the universities already offering this kind of thing to their alumni? Free. Or they could use the meaning of Free as redefined by public television (Free with your gift of $180). After all, these DVD’s are really half-hour infomercials for the schools. And the schools have all the resources they need to do this:
A direct mailing list to the market.
A school of business with students who could work out the business plan a class project.
A school of education that could advise on the educational aspects.
Departments or schools that teach marketing, TV production, and related skills.
The teams and the related rights for commercialization.
Servers and plenty of bandwidth to the internet. They would not have to spend money making DVD’s. They would just offer it for download. Of course, for that $180 contribution the school’s general fund, you would get a DVD in a beautiful gift package.

Looks to me as if some enterprising, entrepreneurial university could come in, undercut, and pull the market out form under his business. Is Michael Eisner worried about competition from enterprising, entrepreneurial universities? I guess not.

Do Rats Suffer from ADD?

2006-06-26T12:36:00.000-05:00

David Foster and his colleagues say that when rats take a break while exploring an unfamiliar area, their brains instantly replay the information they've just gathered.

As the rats run across a track, certain brain cells fire in a specific sequence. Each cell picks a "favorite place" on the track to go off, and a pattern emerges that is replicated every time the rat repeats the route. This "place cell" effect has been documented for more than 30 years.

These place cells lie in the hippocampus, which plays a key role in memory and navigation….When the rats took a break after running the track, the same place cells fired in reverse order. Replaying multiple times, these patterns were sped up, Foster says, almost 20 times faster.
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"This immediately suggested some kind of learning mechanism occurring at times when the animal has just had an experience, but has in fact stopped," Foster says. This pattern has been observed in sleep and is often interpreted as consolidation of the memory, a process that reorganizes the information and stores it in other parts of the brain.

Foster: "Perhaps we don't take breaks seriously enough," Foster says. "Perhaps we're wrong to expect all learning to occur on the job. Perhaps an important part of learning in general, and in jobs and at school, is occurring during breaks."

The finding is consistent with long-established behavioral evidence (about humans) that practice is more effective if it is interspersed with other activity. It also seems to be consistent with the symptoms of ADD:

From another of my blogs (Spin of Attention): shifts from one uncompleted task to another.

I think the value of shifting attention and taking breaks is well recognized in psychology and elsewhere. Perhaps even in schools. At least until the discussion of ADD comes up. Then, because it inconveniences the school system, it is a disorder. Only a few days ago, I posted a blog about comments from John Taylor Gatto based on 30 tears of teaching experience.
How public education cripples our kids, and why
I interpreted his comments into a view from the students: “They pretend to teach us and we pretend to learn.”

Back in the days of Communism, opposition to the Communist government was sometimes treated as a mental illness. If students in the school system do not pretend to learn, we are being advised to treat this behavior as a disorder.

No similarity at all. Nobody would see a parallel here. Unless they were paying attention.

Schools as Fiction

2006-06-21T12:57:00.000-05:00

Interesting article: Against School. John Taylor Gatto How public education cripples our kids, and why The comments from Gatto immediately reminded me of the old explanation of how the Polish people described communism: “They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.”

Translation to the US school system as seen by Gatto: “They pretend to teach us and we pretend to learn.”

What Gatto describes, on the basis of 30 years of teaching experience sounds like a system that has become hopelessly dysfunctional. The teachers are bored. The students are bored. The parents and taxpayers are not bored. But they do seem to be quite unhappy.

Gatto speculates about the reasons for this situation. Without serious disagreement with his speculation, I prefer to cite a more general interpretation. For any organization, the Prime Directive is to preserve the organization. I think of an organization as the modern equivalent of the tribe or clan. What clan members used to do was to preserve the clan at all costs.

Educational institutions, of course, have goals assigned to them by the larger society (the taxpayers). It is essential to the clan (I mean the institution) to be seen as pursuing those goals. Notice that phrase: to be seen. Not necessarily to pursue. And certainly not necessarily to reach. But to be seen in pursuit.

Gatto asks whether we really need school. He means, of course, do we need the current schools system. I recently heard a valuable talk by Clayton Cristensen in which he spoke of customer “hiring products to do a job for them.” What is important, he said, is to know what that job is. If you understand the job, you can figure out how to satisfy the customers. If we apply that question to the school system, we first have to identify the customer. In the free market, the customer is the person who chooses to buy the product. In the school system, it is less clear who is choosing to buy the product. The parents are using the product, but they are hardly choosing. They are complying with the law. Unless they have substantial financial resources, the have no other viable option. The taxpayers are paying for the product, but they have only indirect control over the relevant choices. The school boards are making the actual choices, but they may not have the experience to make choices independent of the professionals running the school board.

Dysfunctional system under ineffective management. It is a situation asking to be destabilized by innovation. But to thin about how it would be destabilized, we need to go back to Christensen’s question and understand what job(s) the customers want done by the school system.

But I need a while to think about that. So I will leave that as a quest question for now.

The future is already here.

2006-06-12T14:48:00.000-05:00

It’s just not evenly distributed. Quote from William Gibson, science fiction writer. And not widely reported, either. But here is a report. Are virtual worlds the future of the classroom?

I mention the report as a follow-up to some of my previous blogs such as: Learners without Classrooms. Here are things the report mentions:

>Whyville, an online virtual world whose population of kids has grown to about 1.6 million since its inception in 1999.

>multiuser virtual environment, or MUVE, a genre of software games created to inspire children to learn by giving them problems to solve.

Harvard University: "River City." Harvard's School of Education is in talks with several urban school districts to introduce the software to tens of thousands of schoolchildren this fall.

>Indiana University: Quest Atlantis will be introduced to 50 new classrooms, or between 10,000 to 20,000 students, in New Jersey next fall.

>Toyota Financial Services will host a Whyville loan center to help kids learn about FICO scores and interest rates. Kids can then borrow money to buy a virtual Toyota Scion.

>"Underperforming students come alive by learning in 'River City'"

>River City:. Funded with $4 million in grants from the National Science Foundation. Implemented in seven states.

>revamp the way science was taught in schools, shifting it to inquiry-based education. (Reminds me of State Statements and Quest Questions.)

>The University of Texas: WhyEat, to teach kids about nutrition. Kids who play must choose nutritious foods, or they could get ill.

>Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institute on Whyville: sponsored by the real Oceanographic Institute.

>a thriving business economy based on selling child-created virtual products.

>a virtual museum hosted by the real J. Paul Getty Museum.

Easter Eggs

2006-05-26T12:18:00.000-05:00

In Geek Speak, an Easter egg is a piece of a program not documented, not obviously available, and offering something of possible interest. There are similar things in Second Life, so I will use the same name.

I am using Easter eggs to present how-to packs in Second Life. I am combining a demonstration object in Second Life with a vid in YouTube. I make an object that can be used to learn or practice some skill. This has to be a small unit so I can make a corresponding vid that shows an avatar using the skill to make a new or changed product.

The object is a starting kit, with part of the work done. The skill(s) are needed to complete the product.

How many have I done? Counting the one I did yesterday? One.

That one was introductory. You can see it on YouTube. Title: Easter Eggs Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy_vGu3uMNQ

The main learning objectives were: taking objects into inventory; dragging objects from inventory and adjusting their position; extracting content from an object; applying a texture from inventory.

The learner can get a copy of the object in SL and try it out. The object carries a link to the vid, so the learner can watch the vid for an example. The unit is self-testing because the learner shows competency by completing the task.
Inversely, the learner can find out about the object by watching the vid. With good use of tags, a person could go to YouTube and search on {SL demo texture} to find demo vids about using texture in Second Life.

You may notice that no classrooms are occupied in learning from a how-to pack. That qualifies it as part of my “Learning without Classrooms” thread.

Learners without Classrooms

2006-05-21T10:21:00.000-05:00

Learners without Classrooms
A while back, I suggested that virtual reality might be useful as a way to provide learning opportunities outside of classrooms.  Just last week I cited data describing the growth of online learning.  This week I am going to point to some routes that I think are opportunities to develop nontraditional methods for learning.

I have been exploring the use of Second Life as a medium for instruction.  It is accessible without cost and will probably run well on any computer that is adequate for Win Vista.
But more recently, I have been exploring a route that is immediately available to anyone with broadband.  That is, to use the capabilities on Second Life for the creating of videos.

Here are a few of the videos I have made:
Hobo Village 1
Interview with a Dragon
Dragoneering
The Bridges of Hobo Village

The Watery Slide of  Spritely Pixel

None of these is directly instructional.  But they do illustrate what a person could do in SL.  That capability can be applied to any objective.  In The Stories of Hobo Village, I am combining the SL capabilities with blog capabilities to support collaborative fiction.  Clearly one could do the same for instructional material.  Indeed, the pattern of collaboration would probably follow closely the pattern in the fiction blog.

YouTube is available to host the videos (free).  I find that the camera work, editing, and voice-over can be done in a reasonable amount of time.  (Of course, if I did it better, it would take longer.  For further comment, see Satisfice.)   I am providing technical background in part of my web site:  The Meaning of Second Life.

I expect to make additional vids more directly targeted on instruction about elements of Second Life.   I will comment about them here when they are posted.

The Other Attention Disorder

2006-05-11T12:40:00.000-05:00

Here I was focusing on the problem of attention deficit. I completely overlooked the other attention problem. Attention Surplus Disorder. That’s when you can focus on something quite well but pick the wrong thing to focus on. Clayton Christenson gives an example in "The Innovator’s Dilemma" (Harvard Business School Publishing). He describes the example in this podcast: http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail135.html

He examined the rise and fall of companies like Digital Equipment Corp. The very fact that I have to spell out that name tells about the fall. Thirty years ago, I would have written DEC and expected people to know what I meant.

His conclusion was that this and other companies that were run over by disruptive technology failed because of good management. The management focused attention carefully on matters relevant to keeping and improving their business position. They never lost sight of this goal. So they never noticed the disruptive technology of microcomputers. That technology was too primitive to offer them competition. They did not worry about it. Until it was too late.

Another name for focus is tunnel vision. (Thinkerer, Idea Slogans)

And now for something completely different.

According to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), during the 2002–03 school year (the last data available), 36 percent of U.S. school districts (5,500 out of 15,040) had students enrolled in distance-education programs, and 38 percent of public high schools offered distance-education courses. The DOE study had 328,000 students in 8,200 public schools enrolled in distance-education courses. As of November 2005, the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) listed 157 unique online learning programs in 42 states in its database, including 32 virtual charter schools, 3 online home-school programs, and 53 public, non-charter virtual schools that offer programs. The DOE’s 2004 National Education Technology Plan predicted that with the “explosive growth in the availability of online instruction and virtual schools … we may well be on our way to a new golden age in American education.” Virtual schools have arrived—and with them, a host of challenges to our notions about school and schooling. (The Virtual Revolution by RANDALL GREENWAY and GREGG VANOUREK )

Of course, remote learning is too primitive to threaten the Great and Powerful Education System. Besides, this new wine is being decanted from the old educational flasks. The basic rule of medicine is that it has to taste bad. And the basic rule of education is that it has to be boring. Education over the internet can also be boring. Just more efficiently boring. There is a rumor about entrepreneurs getting involved. But educators don’t need to worry about that. There will be plenty of time to worry about it later.

The basic rule of disruptive technology is that it has to break basic rules. That means, of course, breaking free of that other attention disorder. The disorder that is easily recognized as tunnel vision. A few years too late.

Alertness Deficit Disorder

2006-05-06T13:30:00.000-05:00

And the miracle cure discovered by the ancients!

A funny thing happened while I was trying to do more research on ADD, ADHD, AD/HD or whatever. I got distracted. I discovered a new disorder. Alertness Deficit Disorder. Not a new problem. People have wanted to control their level of alertness since (I suppose) the dawn of civilization. But only in recent years have people realized that not-getting-what-you-want is a disorder.

I suppose that the need to be alert on demand arose with the dawn of civilization. Back before then you had lions and tigers and bears. Oh, my! Those were probably adequate to keep you alert.

But with the dawn of civilization, I suppose, people invented meetings. That was probably the origin of Alertness Deficit. Not a disorder yet. Converting it into a disorder required ages of technological development. In the meantime, the ancients discovered the cure. Coffee!

This was an accomplishment even more admirable because they didn’t know the name.

The discovery of coffee made it possible to hold meetings without people going to sleep. We enjoy (or suffer from) the results of that discovery even to this day.

What called my attention to coffee was all this talk about how people “suffering from” ADD had difficulty staying focused on a task. It was a classic case of the dog that didn’t bark. Or the elephant in the living room. How could people go on about treatments for lapsing attention without mentioning coffee?

I did a Google search on
coffee caffeine
and found about 600K items. So somebody noticed the connection. Just not the people who view the condition as a treatable disorder and want to investigate treatments. According to the BBC, a common over-the-counter treatment for ADD is coffee or caffeine.

As an aside, John Grohol, of Psych Central, offers a list of Common Behavioral Techniques for ADHD Treatment. Sorry about that. My attention just wandered. Is that ADD or do I just need more coffee?

Critics will say that Alertness Deficit Disorder is really just another example of ethnogenic disorders. We have a cultural demand to focus on topic and on schedule. Topic and schedule to be specified by the culture. Failure to comply is a disorder. Fortunately, caffeine seems to be an effective treatment. That will spare us all the reports about Alertness Deficit Disorder. You can’t make money on a problem people already know how to solve.

Even without their coffee, people are alert enough to figure that out.

Medical Evidence on Some ADHD

2006-05-02T12:21:00.000-05:00

Some. Not all.

Lead Exposure Tied to ADHD Symptoms: New York Times Syndicate - May 01, 2006

Lead exposure is a known risk to the brain and to cognitive functioning. A study by Dr. Tanya Froehlich (Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center) extends this knowledge specifically to ADHD symptoms. (Research presented at 2006 Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting.)

The research also shows an interaction with a particular genetic variation. This information suggests that ADHD is a real disorder. For children who have lead exposure and the genetic variation. It might also suggest to parents that appropriate medical tests could clarify a possible diagnosis of ADHD.

(I haven’t abandoned my suspicion that some cases of ADHD result from inaccurate expectations about attention span.)

It is possible to measure the lead burden in a child’s body. Perhaps a proposed diagnosis of ADHD should be a warning to make that measurement. Lead comes from environmental exposure. Such exposure could occur in a home, school, playground, or elsewhere. (Exposure is not limited to slums and industrial areas.) If a child’s lead burden is unusually high, a parent might want to look (or get tests) for possible sources. If the lead exposure continues, further cognitive impairment is likely. If the exposure is at school or at a playground, many other children may also be at risk.

It may be possible to diminish the lead burden by chelation therapy. I don’t know how effective such treatments are. Nor do I know whether reducing the lead burden would reduce the cognitive impairment. Those questions will need to be settled by further research following up on the research cited above.

A child with ADHD from lead exposure may still benefit from treatment of the symptoms. But that medication does not treat the medical cause. It might even function to reduce the symptoms and leave the cause untreated, to produce further problems later.

The identification of a particular type of ADHD (by cause) is indeed useful, particularly since it suggests concrete actions that parents may take. And establishing a credible medical cause with objective diagnostic indicators will make some people more comfortable in viewing ADHD as a genuine disorder. Not just a convenient way to deal with troublesome kids.

The Boring Part of Communication

2006-04-26T08:41:00.000-05:00

I don’t suppose that anybody was wondering, in reading my ecent posts, what bored Geeks have to do with homework. Or with brain-based communication. The common link, of course, is boredom. Not that boredom is a great contributor to brain-based communication. But you could think of it as a side-track in the channels of communication.

A little speculation here. Boredom is your brain’s way of telling that it doesn’t understand the importance of that you were attending to. Notice the circumstances of boredom. You were attending to something as a result of a socially imposed obligation. That’s the voice of the Shudoffs in the Thinkerer. Your verbal system heard that voice and accepted the obligation. But the rest of your brain doesn’t know what it is supposed to do with all this sensory input that is being dump on it.

You will notice that most of this sensory input is running through your verbal system. That serves your verbal system right. The rest of you brain says: “Ok, Talker. You bought into this job. You came here for this dump. Now you figure out how to flush it.”

In the case of the bored Geeks, somebody called a meeting. That person probably had a good reason for holding the meeting. But that person only communicated with the verbal system of the Geek. The rest of the brain didn’t get the memo.

Who’s to blame? I leave that to the Shudoffs. My slogan on that:
“Who’s to blame?” is a childhood game.

Try a different viewpoint. You foot goes to sleep. The main reason is that you were not using it. Something about the position may have reduced the circulation. But your foot does not go to sleep when you are using it. So when your foot goes to sleep, you don’t worry about who is to blame. You start using your foot. You understand that those feet were made for walking. And that’s just what they need to do.

And your brain was made for brainwork. And that’s just what it’s gonna do. It’ll either work on your job or walk out from under you. You get the quiet parts of your brain to work on your job by visualizing or imagining parts of the job and the concrete results.

What if a job doesn’t have any concrete results? Then why do you need to do it? What difference will it make if you don’t do it? Two possibilities here:

1. The job really does call for concrete results. You just haven’t found out what they are. Ask around. Somebody knows. Maybe the person who gave you the job. But don’t take abstractions for an answer. Ask what people will look for to know that the job is done.

2. The job doesn’t call for concrete results. Relax. Daydream. Do something else. The job calls for you to do nothing. You’ve had experience at that.

So what is the boring part of communication? There is no boring part of communication. If it is boring, it is not communication.

The Case of the Bored Geeks

2006-04-20T12:29:00.000-05:00

A problem or another mismanaged opportunity? I was talking, before I got distracted, about the silly idea that Geeks suffer from AD/HD. The “symptom” was that they could not maintain attention throughout a meeting. I contend that this is an opportunity. But only for innovative thinkers. The kind of people who get bored in meetings. And ask themselves what is wrong with this picture.

Naturally, they ask themselves this question in middle of the meeting. When they should be attending to what is being said. Obviously, these are people who fail to recognize the symptoms of AD/HD.

But back to the opportunity of offered by those bored Geeks. Who could benefit from it?

Management. What is the hourly pay rate for a Geek? I will guess it is well over $100/hour, including overhead. So a meeting of ten Geeks costs $1,000/hour. Is it really worth that price to pay Geeks to be bored? Treatment: Insist that your first line supervisors report cost and effectiveness for meetings.

First line supervisors. Where are your Geeks most productive? In their tech work or in meetings? Treatment: Be specific about the results you expect to get out of a meeting. Decide on the most efficient way to get those results. Get advice from the Geeks. Be flexible about methods. Report to your management about how much Geek time you are saving.

Geeks. Do you know what you are supposed to get out of a meeting? Do you know what you have to do to get it? Do you notice in meetings what is keeping you from getting it? Do you do something about whatever is keeping you from getting it? Treatment: If you don’t know the answers to these questions, ask around. Be sure to ask whoever called the meeting. Be sure to ask these questions in meetings whenever you notice your attention has lapsed.

Business consultants. They already provide advice and training on how to run effective meetings (and on other effective means of communication). Geek management seems to be an underserved market. Treatment: Look for a way to market more effectively to high tech businesses. Don’t as me how. You are the consultants. But one suggestion: hire people who are part Geek. Be sure they speak Geek without a muggle accent.

The doctor who raised this issue noted the difference between passive and active attention. I would liken this to the difference between state statements and quest questions. Or the difference between TV and computer games or computer programming. Maybe even the difference between Aristotle and Aesop. Or the difference that Kierkegaard might see between being driven and driving. Or the difference Geeks might see between being bored and taking charge.

So is the case of the bored Geeks really an opportunity? Only for those who see it that way.

The return of the Brain Borers

2006-04-14T12:16:00.000-05:00

A few days ago, I commented about the idea that Geeks suffer from AD/HD. A physician with many Geeks in his practice raised the issue. He speculated about connections between “poor attention span” and Geeks.

Here, I want to extend an intriguing suggestion he made: Geeks use computers to keep themselves mentally stimulated.

Think about that for a moment. Environmental Adderall! The prescription treatments for AD/HD are stimulants. So it may not be a complete surprise to discover that inadequate environmental stimulation would mimic (or create) the symptoms of AD/HD. Nor is it remarkable that adequate environmental stimulation would “cure” those symptoms. Perhaps a permanent change in the environment would “cure” the underlying disorder. A disorder, mind you, that otherwise requires chronic medication to control.

So working on computers may be a form of self-medication for people who might otherwise suffer from the Brain Borers. But what a way to self-medicate! No prescription. And they get paid (well) to do it. Lots of people might wish they had this disorder. The Geeks might even be glad that nobody cured them. Indeed, all of us can be glad that the Geeks have not been cured. If they ever cure the Geeks, who will fix our computers?

But this self-medication only works for Geeks. Where else could people find the environmental stimulation they need to fight off the Brain Borers? Actually, I just picked up a clue from the New York Times Syndicate:

“Watching too much violent TV and playing too many violent video games takes a toll on children's social and physical development, researchers report.”

I won’t go into the details. I think the New York Times has been running this story every few months for the last ten years. Before that, there weren’t enough violent video games, so the story had to be about violent TV. I can’t remember whether they did stories about the threat of violent radio.

But you realize that TV and video games (violent or not) are another weapon in the battle of the Brain Borers. Less satisfactory, because there is not a big labor market for TV watchers or Video game players. But a clue, nevertheless.

The doctor pointed out in his blog that there is a big difference between passively listening to (other) people talk at a meeting and actively working with software to make it do the job. I described a similar issue (not limited to Geeks) in an earlier blog: State statements and quest questions. State statements are declarative statements. They invite passive listening. And perhaps a little nap. Quest questions ask you to search your brain and the information available to you for answers. The invite interaction between the information you are getting and what you have stored in your brain.

A while back, I took up the topic of Brain-Based Communication. This discussion is an example. First, a simple and generally accepted principle of psychology: The more brain modules you get involved in what you are doing, the better you will understand it. Now I will extend this principle (by speculation): The more brain modules you get involved in something, the more effectively you will be able to focus on it. That may lead to a longer attention span. Or it may lead to a more effective use of that 10 minutes you can muster before you meet the Brain Borers. Either way, you will get better service out of your brain.

And here is a trick I use when I notice the Brain Borers hanging around. The Brain Borers are a problem. My view of a problem is that it is an opportunity being mismanaged. So in a few days, I will have some things to say about the problem (or opportunity) of bored Geeks in meetings. And about how to use the Force against the Brain Borers.

Do Geeks Suffer from AD/HD

2006-04-11T08:18:00.000-05:00

I like to start with a really stupid question. It is bound to get better from there. Speaking as a Geek, or as at least half-Geek, I have a short attention span. I certainly don’t suffer from it. Maybe other people suffer from it when I tell them to get to the subject.

But, of course, this title is really to mock the people who say that lots of children “suffer from AD/HD.” The children don’t suffer any more than I do. Their teachers suffer. Their parents may suffer. But the kids don’t suffer until somebody tries to cure them.

I looked at some recent comments from a currently practicing board-certified Internal Medicine physician in a tech community. His practice includes lots of Geeks. He says this:

“I am always amazed at the number of people that mention to me that their attention span is poor. Frequently they will wonder if they have ADD. Sometimes they will even complain about the inability to stay awake during long meetings or stay focused on non-computer tasks.”

These Geeks in his practice probably start at close to $50K and go up to $100K with experience and responsibilities. You call this suffering?

Maybe you could call it suffering if you think there is something wrong with you. I suppose that these Geeks might be said to suffer a bit from the label of Attention Deficit Disorder. And from the idea that since the culture has labeled something a disorder, it must have some sort of a cure.

The doctor points out that these Geeks have no problem staying focused on their computer work. The doctor is focusing on reality rather than on verbal claims made popular by the culture.

I think almost all instances of “attention deficit” occur when you don’t maintain focus on something that somebody else wants you to focus on. In the Geek story above, somebody else is trying to set the focus. Furthermore, somebody else is setting the requirements for attention span. I don’t think this is a Geek problem at all. So I will state is as a general principle:

If you let somebody else run your brain, you will let somebody else run it off track.

Now, back to my short attention span. I used a language trick there. The only way you could interpret short is as relative to some other attention spans. You probably assumed the context of other people. But I meant the context of expectations. And that was the problem the Geeks had, too.

Since people schedule meetings (and lectures) to last an hour or more, they must expect that the normal attention span is an hour or more. It is hard to do good research on attention span, but what has been done suggests that the typical attention span (during a lecture, for example) is closer to ten minutes. From observing my own behavior, I think my attention span is about ten minutes. That’s when I am focusing on content that is unfamiliar and takes a lot of cognitive processing. As in lectures and meetings.

So why am I not bothered by an attention span that doesn’t match the span of meetings and lectures? Because I take that into account when I plan what I will do. As most people learn to do before they get to my age.

There is more to say on this. But I will save it for another time. Wouldn’t want to run readers over their attention spans. Even if they are not Geeks.

Strange Symptoms of AD/HD

2006-04-08T09:44:00.000-05:00

Recently, in my blog about cognitive engineering, I listed some criteria for AD/HD, as posted by West Virginia University. Don Dansereau suggested that I check the DSM-IV, since that would give the technical criteria used for diagnosis. I found a version summarized by Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It is modified to be readable by the public, but should represent DSM-IV adequately.

Since these are diagnostic criteria, they have important qualifiers on them. Probably the most important qualifier is:
There must be clear evidence of significant impairment in social, school, or work functioning. This is a standard qualifier in clinical psychology. Basically, it says that being weird is OK as long as it doesn’t create problems.

Some symptoms that cause impairment were present before age 7 years. I think the behaviors listed as symptoms are present to some extent in all children under the age of 7. And in lots of children over that age. And in most adults.

Some impairment from the symptoms is present in two or more settings (e.g. at school/work and at home). That way you can tell the difference between problems of the situation and problems of the individual.

The symptoms are generally similar to those in the WVU site. One symptom, however, caught my attention:

Often avoids, dislikes, or doesn't want to do things that take a lot of mental effort for a long period of time (such as schoolwork or homework).

I take it that people who do not have this disorder seek out, like, and want to do things that take a lot of mental effort for a long period of time. Here is your opportunity to test yourself. Go to five of your friends and make the following statement:

“I assume you have noticed that I seek out, like, and want to do things that take a lot of mental effort for a long period of time.”

You must do this with a straight face. You may award yourself one point for each friend that agrees with you while maintaining a straight face.

The theme of my comments on AD/HD is that the symptoms being used for diagnosis are common behaviors. They don’t trigger the AD/HD diagnosis unless they create problems. Those problems usually appear as a failure to conform behavior to the requirements of school. That’s why I call it an ethnogenic disorder. It is created by the cultural requirement to get an education and, in support of that requirement, to conform to the requirements of public schooling.

The label ethnogenic does not mean that something is not a problem. It does suggest that it is not a medical problem. There are other possible solutions. If the culture is the problem, perhaps the culture has the solution. I see that some parents respond to the problem with home schooling. This is an expensive route, not open to many parents.

Other routes are cited at Medicine.net. The non-medical routes are on page 2. Of course, nobody would stop reading on page 1. That might be a symptom of AD/HD. Shifting from one uncompleted task to another, you know.

Gaming the Brain Borers

2006-04-04T09:39:00.000-05:00

Speaking of attention deficit, people who want to develop educational electronic games suffer from no attention deficit. Here is recent article: Chemistry: the video game

This article reports on the efforts of Gabriela Weaver, an associate professor of chemistry at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She is developing a computer game about chemistry. It also reports comments from Eric Klopfer, co-director of Education Arcade, a game project run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

One of the main themes of this report is that it is hard for educational game development to compete with giants like Electronic Arts. I had two thoughts right away: Cosmeo and Second Life. (I know those are not sentences. I don’t know of any requirement that I think in sentences.)

Cosmeo is a commercial enterprise by Discovery Communications Inc. It provides video clips, educational games, and other services to some schools and (via the website) to individuals. Apparently, this corporation believes it can make money with these services. And some school systems apparently believe that the services provide appropriate educational experiences.

Second Life is an online, massively multiplayer, 3D environment. It is not a game, but offers resources that support the development of games. There are dozens of games presently available in Second Life. One, sponsored by Wells-Fargo is intended to provide educational benefits as part of the play. Here are links:
Video Stagecoach Island Preview.
CNET report of game, Stagecoach Island.

The Stagecoach Island plan is a bit different from the usual educational game concept. The learning objectives are about managing money. How effectively the participant does that determines access to things that the participant wants. Rather like in real life.

But what is the cost of this 3D environment? The level of access needed to play a game is available at no cost. Access would demand a computer with fairly modern graphics. But I think the requirements would be similar to the requirements for MS Vista. So any Vista-ready computer can probably handle the job. The cost of facilities to develop a game would be $1,250 plus about $200/month for maintenance. There would, of course, be costs for technical assistance. But Second Life already provides the basic programming infrastructure.

Now back to those people who are focused attentively on developing educational electronic games. I hope they are not so focused on their project objectives that they overlook the possibilities I just described. But they might be. Another name for focus is tunnel vision.

Could the Web Treat AD/HD?

2006-04-01T12:08:00.000-06:00

In my other blog I was commenting on AD/HD. I suggested that is was an ethnogenic disorder (created by cultural conditions). Here are some of the symptoms:
1) fidgets, squirms, or is restless.
2) has difficulty remaining seated
3) is easily distracted
4) has difficulty waiting for his/her turn
5) blurts out answers
6) has difficulty following instructions
7) has difficulty sustaining attention
8) shifts from one uncompleted task to another

Attention deficit disorder? Pathological condition? Or just the work of the Brain Borers? Last week, I commented on a web site (Cosmeo) launched by Discovery Communications. It offers:

video clips, interactive educational games and other tools. Discovery says the resources were selected to comply with the curricula and education standards of all 50 states.

Now here is an experiment that any parent can try. It might be especially useful to parents of a child with symptoms of AD/HD. Provide the Cosmeo web site to the child .(There is a 30 day free trial.) Ask the child to evaluate web site and tell you whether it is more interesting than the school work that covers the same material. Observe what the child does. Write your observations. Compare them to reports of what the child does in class with similar content.

Caution! DO NOT TELL THE CHILD TO STUDY! Ask the child to evaluate. Of course, you will indicate that if the child prefers this material, you may continue the subscription.

I leave the interpretation of the results to the advanced reader. (All readers of this blog are advanced readers.) Remember, however, that this is not a treatment. It is merely diagnostic information that parents may find helpful in distinguishing AD/HD from the brain borers.

As a treatment, Cosmeo may be useful or not, depending on the circumstances. If Cosmeo provides effective and engaging instruction, the child may learn easily and get ahead of the class. But that advanced preparation could make the school work more boring. The child might have even more discipline problems is school. But the problems are less likely to be attributed to AD/HD if the child shows competence with the material.

Of course, schools can also use Cosmeo. According to the news release, some 70,000 already do. My theory is that “attention deficits” are more often caused by boring content than by neurological problems. If the Cosmeo content is engaging, schools that use it may have fewer attention deficits.

A new opportunity for entrepreneurial psychologists. I see the headlines now.

Web treats AD/HD!

Problem or Mismanaged Opportunity?

2006-03-26T12:02:00.000-06:00

The broadcaster Discovery Communications Inc. … has launched a site, called Cosmeo, giving students access to more than 30,000 video clips, interactive educational games and other tools. Discovery says the resources were selected to comply with the curricula and education standards of all 50 states.

The company, whose television networks include Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel, says it already provides a similar product to about 70,000 public schools that have broadband Internet service. AP via Yahoo.
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Speaking of homework problems: A problem is just an opportunity that is being mismanaged.

Here Discovery Communications obviously sees homework as an opportunity that it can manage. Profitably. The view of the entrepreneur.

Other web sites offer homework help. They may be useful. But they are hard to evaluate. We have been evaluating Discovery Channel and Animal Planet for years. The content is popular enough to survive on cable. The content has already been evaluated by the target audience for Cosmeo, school children. Better yet, many families have access to these channels and can get direct evaluation from their own children.

Brain-based Education. Video clips. Animations. Interactive games. The world is to see. The world is to do things with. To do things with and to see what happens. Too often, education sees the world as something just to talk about. The potential is huge.

How well do they execute? The cable channels are for entertainment. They do entertain. Some of the content would be appropriate for educational purposes. I can’t evaluate much of the online content without becoming a member. I could do that for 30 days without cost, but I probably won’t. I don’t like that marketing model.

I think the marketing model used by Second Life is better suited to the web. Earlier, they charged about $10 (one-time charge) for a basic membership. That let you access the game and try out everything. Indefinitely. You could upgrade to a paid membership for extra benefits. That was last year. They had about 40,000 members. Then they dropped the charge for basic membership. Now they have 166,922 members (as of today).

Old-fashioned thinking will say, “Of course. You can get lots of customers if you give away your product.” New-fangled thinking will say, “I have 170,000 potential customers coning to my site. Some of them are buying. Others haven’t bought yet. But they are still here, so I can still market to them. “

I am sure Discovery's execution will be variable and open to improvement. Evaluation and improvement of educational materials present another problem for educational psychology. Or they might present an opportunity. If there are psychologists smart enough to manage opportunities.

Have we done something wrong?

2006-03-23T12:41:00.000-06:00

That was the question the National Geographic Society put right I front of me, on the envelope. My answer was “Yes!” But I did not give it t them.

This is about brain-based marketing. A subset, you will recall, of brain-based communication. The catch phrase here is:

Market with the brain in mind!

The opening move was good. A quest question (= a question that sends you on a search through your brain.) That’s what made me open the envelope. I suspected, of course, that this question was just a marketing device to get my attention. But I was curious about how smart their marketing support was. Turned out they used up all their smarts on that opening line.

The back story on this is that I have been subscribing to National Geographic for more than 25 years. This year, I decided not to renew.

Turned out, this was just a membership renewal form. The letter opened with a description of the good things about National Geographic.

You can see the smarts shortage right there. I had been a subscriber. I had ample opportunity to experience these good things. Why would they now need to tell me about them?

Now, back to that opening question. You could have expected (if you were new to marketing schemes) that they wanted an answer. But, of course, there is no place for an answer. Instead, after telling me about those good things in National Geographic, the copy goes on about how they are not used to losing members and about how good they are.

A belief in Word Magic seems to be an occupational hazard of writing ad copy. Somehow, if you just say the right incantations, you will enlist the powers of lightness to get people to do what you want. Now let's try a little brain-based analysis.

This communication comes to me as part of my experience. The opening line would attract my attention because generally try to answer questions. But I quickly find that they are not interested in my answer. They simply want to tell me how good they are. They use the question as a device to get me to look at their mailing. And they think I am not smart enough to figure this out.

Try it for yourself. Ask someone a question and then walk away before they can answer. Or better yet, ask them what is wrong with you and then, without letting them answer, start talking about how good you are. You won’t do either of these things. You will run the story in the theater of your mind. You will probably cringe at the reaction you get from the person you conjure up in your imagination.

The marvel is that the people who wrote this copy are quite capable of doing the mental test I just described. And they would get the results I described. So why did they write it? My theory is that if you can’t write copy that sells, you write copy to suck up to management. I use that theory as a game sometimes. Is this copy a seller or a suck-up? Management gets to be the judge.

Now what does this have to do with homework? I’ll leave that as a quest question.

Tongues in Trees…

2006-03-19T10:58:00.000-06:00

… books in running brooks, sermons in stones… (Shakespeare. As You Like It)

Brain-based communication? Product design as communication? Shakespeare as a Great Communicator?

All of these are quest questions. Brains evolved to help us (all us animals) use the world to our benefit. Brains are always collecting and organizing information from the environment. You could say, as Shakespeare did, that the environment speaks to you. And you brain is built to listen.

Vulcan analysis: A logical place to start understanding brain-based communication, then, is with the environment. Here I am focusing on intentional communication, the situation in which a sender explicitly intends to produce a specific effect on the behavior of another person (the receiver). In that case, the sender will do something to the environment of the receiver as an act of communication.

Shudoff conventional analysis: Stop beating around the bush. The sender will tell the receiver what to do. Maybe the sender will add and “OR ELSE.” As in, “Get your homework done, OR ELSE.” We Shudoffs know how to influence behavior.

Vulcan assumption check. If you want to think outside the box, first find the box. The Shudoffs are helpful in pointing out conventional boxes. Verbal systems assume that the only way to communicate is to do something verbal. So you can guess what happens when somebody starts to talk about communicating. The effectiveness of this method is illustrated by the instruction manual.

Product Design as Communication. As examples of non-verbal communication, look at the computer mouse and the Ipod. And, in deference to non-verbal communication, I will say no more about these products. They explain themselves better than I could.

Now about those sermonizing stones. Note that Shakespeare gave a memorable lecture on non-verbal communication. And he did it with ten words. That’s more than you heard from the stones. But shorter and more telling than the abstract Vulcan analysis.

There is a time for metaphors and a time for Vulcan analysis. And a time for knowing what time it is. Here, the Vulcan analysis tells us to look at communication as doing something to the environment. That can be talking, pointing, handling, or actively changing. It can also be a combination of these.

The possibilities are abundant. Just ask a tree.

You know you’re in Geeksville when…

2006-03-14T15:22:00.000-06:00

…it takes a whole page to explain how to get the news delivered to you.

Back in the old world, people come to my door and want to start delivering a newspaper. To make this happen, I don’t have to do anything but sit down to dinner. If I wanted to have news delivered to my door every day, I would not have to read about RSS and XML. I would only have to agree to pay them money.

The newspaper would give me yesterday’s news, of course. That would be the same news I would have seen on the evening news shows, if I watched them. They would just give me the same news I read on Yahoo that morning. But if I did want to watch the evening news, I would need no instructions. Except maybe where to find the remote.

That brings me to a helpful blog: Why Aren't You Using RSS? If you want to know how to start using RSS, this blog provides readable instructions in a page.

I think the answer most people give to a question like that is, “I have to want something really bad before I will read a page of instructions on how to get it.”

What does this story have to do with brain-based communication? Or with homework? That page of instructions is a lot like homework. Except that there is no teacher to make people read it.

So what does get people to read it? Or what keeps people from reading it? Start with simple economics. Cost-benefit. Or better yet, benefit-cost. If you don’t see a benefit, you don’t care about the cost. As the blog points out, the benefit of RSS is convenience in getting web content. Automatic delivery. Like subscriptions to magazines.

So how much benefit? A little convenience, if you routinely get a number of things from the web. What’s the cost? Whatever time it takes to read the instructions and carry them out. So the answer to the question is obvious: If I am not using RSS, it is because the inconvenience of figuring out how to set it up looks bigger to me than the convenience if would provide. The best way to change that equation is to make the set-up easier and the instruction shorter.

Now I am half geek, so I do use RSS. But I did wait till the equation looked good to me. I started with Pluck, a feed manager that was adequately developed. But then Yahoo included RSS in its My Yahoo pages. Since I was already using My Yahoo, I could add RSS feeds with the same operations I had already used to add AP news feeds. Nothing new to figure out. No pages of instruction.

And no explanation needed. I want “World of Psychology” (Blog by John Grohol) for the same reason that I want the AP World News feed. In My Yahoo, I get both in the same way, by clicking on “Add Content.”

If I weren’t half geek, I probably would not know that I was using RSS. And I probably would not notice that I had left Geeksville.

Product design as communication

2006-03-10T10:04:00.000-06:00

Half of all malfunctioning products returned to stores by consumers are in full working order, but customers can't figure out how to operate the devices… Product complaints and returns are often caused by poor design, but companies frequently dismiss them as "nuisance calls", Elke den Ouden found in her thesis at the Technical University of Eindhoven in the south of the Netherlands.

A wave of versatile electronics gadgets has flooded the market in recent years, ranging from MP3 players and home cinema sets to media centers and wireless audio systems, but consumers still find it hard to install and use them, she found.
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You know you’re in Geeksville when the manual is bigger than the product.

One of the ideals of product design is to replace the manual with the product. Everybody knows the secret of the instruction manual: If you want to keep a secret, put it in the instruction manual.

So why do companies continue to design products that require extensive instructions? A triumph of hope over experience.

What brain modules do you call on to process part of an instruction manual? I call on my the modules that make up my verbal system (the Vulcan). I read a paragraph and realize that I have no idea what it told me to do. That is just what I expected. My verbal system doesn’t do things. It talks about things.

If I want to do something with a product, I will need to activate the systems I use to control my hands. And the systems that I use to interpret what I see. You give me a manual that ties up my visual system with reading and uses my hands for holding a manual. And when that doesn’t help me to use your product, you think there is something wrong with me.

The problem is that instruction manuals are written by verbal systems. For verbal systems. Based on evaluations by verbal systems. And verbal systems often fail to realize that there is a whole world out there that is not verbal. It is real. Solid. To be used if you know the differences between talking and doing. (See: Keeping the Talk Modules Quiet.)

Why is the problem so hard to fix? Because the complaints are created by verbal systems and interpreted by verbal systems. It is a lot like complaining about the color of an outfit to someone who is color-blind.

What are the resources for solutions? Posters, comic books, audios (talk through), videos, videos in pantomime, videos in charades. Some of these are used. But not as often as necessary, to judge by the research at the top of this page.

Entrepreneurial alert. Maybe market. Some people will complain about instructions that come with the products they buy. A few will figure out how those instructions could be done better. A few will actually do the instructions better and put them on a website. Maybe a few will make money at that. But not the ones who only complain.

What does this have to do with homework? Some people will complain about homework. A few will see homework as another kind of product. Another kind of communication.

Brain-Based Communication (2)

2006-03-05T15:17:00.000-06:00

In the previous episode of this series, I left a puzzle. A quest: What parts of your brain were involved in processing that episode?

If you read the episode with that question in mind, you may have noticed that the writing was a bit different from most of the things I write. Abstract phrases. Long and complex sentences. Not the sort of language I would normally impose on people unless they are professional psychologists.

What I did was call on my Vulcan to do most of the writing. And what I expected was that readers would call on their Vulcans to interpret it. Now I will explain what I mean by the Vulcan as an important group of brain modules.

The name Vulcan obviously comes from the work of Gene Roddenberry and Leonard Nimoy in the character of Mr. Spock. (That is from Start Trek, the Original Series in case there is anybody left who does not know.) The concept includes these fictional characters:
The Thinking Machine Jacques Futrelle
C. Auguste Dupin Edgar Allen Poe
Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle
Mr. Spock. Star Trek, the Original Series
Mr. Data. Star Trek, the Next Generation

For an explanation of why I think popular fiction is relevant to a discussion of brain-based communication, see “A myth is not a female moth.”

With insufficient data, I will only speculate about the operation of the modules. The brain modules that correspond to the Vulcan are probably used primarily for scholarly, scientific and technical (including computer programming) work. There is evidence (The Grammar of the Modules) that specific parts of the brain are activated for processing complex language. I expect that more fMRI studies will further elaborate on the modules that support this activity.

I like to speak of activating modules for specific purposes because it establishes the viewpoint that the brain offers a set of tools and that choosing a tool is not equivalent to being the tool. Thus, for example, I am letting my Vulcan write the first few episodes in this story. The reason is that what I will be saying is moderately technical. So I expect that readers will need to activate their Vulcan modules to interpret it.

And there is the first item in brain-based learning. Don’t just know your audience by demographics. Know what brain modules you want them to use as they encounter your presentation. There is a whole head team there. Your communication will work best if you get it to the brain modules that can best handle it.

Hand waving: Not just for briefings anymore

2006-03-01T12:46:00.000-06:00

Hand waving boosts mathematics learning NewScientist.com news service

Gestures can boost children's ability to complete problems in mathematics: The study used grade school children and three types of presentation: Group 1: Oral instructions alone. Group 2: with gestures that “copied” the oral instructions. Group 3: gestures that “complemented” the oral instructions.

The task called for solving simple equations in which one term was represented by a question mark. The oral instructions mentioned each term. The “copy” gestures apparently pointed to the terms as they were mentioned. The “complimentary” gestures, for example, signaled subtraction by a scooping motion.

Order of performance: 3, 2, 1. The work also suggested that that students who copy the gestures of their teachers are more likely to learn. Work by Susan Goldin-Meadow of the University of Chicago. Presented at the 2006 AAS annual meeting .
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We have long known that engineers need a lot of hand waving to brief on a project. Here we see evidence that gestures contribute to teaching. And this is obviously an example of that Vulcan creativity I mentioned before. We know that gestures contribute to communication. Once you consider that teaching is a subset of communication, you are bound to expect that gestures will contribute to teaching.

You might also suspect that “complimentary” gestures would make a greater contribution than “copy” gestures, although I am not sure that it is easy to know what the appropriate complimentary gesture is. Gestures that copy, I assume, are redundant. That is, they carry no information not in the spoken instruction. The “complimentary’ gesture mentioned as an example appears to be a visual analogy. The scooping motion would remind the students of a concrete counterpart to the abstract minus sign or the abstract word subtract.

The study also suggested that students who copy the teacher’s gestures are more likely to learn. One of the main themes of the Thinkerer is that you want to get your whole brain behind you. The more brain modules you get on the job, the better service you are likely to get out of your brain. Imitating the teacher’s gestures calls on the brain modules that control movement.

Having the children imitate gestures sounds like a better idea than saying “Sit still and don’t fidget.” My guess is that fidgeting is a symptom to indicate that the movement parts of the brain are not getting enough job-related work.

Maybe Market. Entrepreneurial alert. Gestures are familiar to people who work in the theater, cartoons (moving and still), comic books, and pantomime. They may even be familiar to some psychologists other than Susan Goldin-Meadow. Present technology allows low-cost preparation and distribution of video clips. Someone who knows a little bit about video production could make instructional video clips that use gestures to augment instruction. Such clips might be marketed for teacher training, for classroom use, or for assistance the parents.

Perhaps some parent who sees homework as a problem will figure out how to do this. And so demonstrate again that “Every problem is an opportunity being mismanaged.

Brain-Based Communication

2006-02-26T12:16:00.000-06:00

A while back, I talked about the concept of brain-based learning and how that might apply to homework. Here I follow the method of Vulcan creativity: Seek the Superset.

What is the superset of learning? It depends on your taxonomy, of course. My view here is that communication includes socially directed learning as a subset. That’s not all learning, of course. In fact, it is only a small part of learning. But it is the part that generates homework. And lectures. And other kinds of classroom teaching. And lots of talk about how it should be done. And lots of complaining about how it is being done badly. And lots of spending that is allegedly aimed and doing it better.

The benefit you get out of seeking the superset is you find some sibling sets. You may be able to borrow some ideas from those sibling sets. Sibling sets in the context of communication are briefings, reports, PowerPoint presentations, web pages, instruction manuals, myths, maps, fables, product design, advertising, marketing, parables, fiction, non-fiction, and things like that. Granted, these are overlapping sets. We can all remember briefings and presentations that belonged in the fiction set.

These things have two things in common:

1. They are rationally (I assume without proof) planned to influence the behavior of other people.

2. They are all directed at the same kind of brains and so draw on a common set of influence methods.

Since the brain is the common element here, I will start by considering the brain and what influences might act on the behavior it produces. At this level, the consideration is not limited to communication. The brain responds to environmental influences. Rationally planned communication acts are only a part of the environment. The brain may not know or care whether its experiences are the result of rational planning, unplanned behavior, or something else.

I don’t know of any preferred place to start on this consideration of the brain, so I will start with the traditional bias imposed by rational processes: verbal operations. Later I will need to deal with the two major types of inputs, hearing and reading. But for the moment, I will skip the input method and deal with what happens after the input has been decoded.

What is generally expected to happen in a communication context is that the verbal expressions are to be converted into operations in other parts of the brain. That’s where the influence on behavior comes in.

And now for a puzzle. Above is a whole page of verbal expressions. What operations in other parts of your brain were involved in processing these expressions? You may want to read the page again to see if you can more clearly detect some of these operations.

In the next episode, my Vulcan will speculate about the operations and the brain modules involved.

Hassle-Free Homework (3)

2006-02-20T12:35:00.000-06:00

At the end of the last episode, our mythical parent, P. A. Rant, had started on a problem-solving effort (Problems as Homework) with this goal:

My child would do the homework routinely with little or no prodding.

P. A. had reached the following question on the solving path:

4. Where do I start?
Who could tell me about how other people handled the problem?

P. A. checks the web. Searching Google for homework hassle gets 627,000 returns. Another search, for child schedule homework gets 3,850,000 returns. P. A. begins to suspect that the web has more information about the subject than anyone could use. (Everything has been thought of before. The problem is finding it when you need it.)

But P. A. does notice some common patterns. One common recommendation is to develop a schedule. This recommendation gives P. A. a new appreciation for the expression “Easier said than done.” But P. A. has already worked with the child on Semi-Structured Brainstorming. Both the method and the child’s experience are available as resources. Furthermore, P. A. understands that a schedule will be effective only if it becomes a family policy.

The power of positive policies offers background on this understanding. Family policies gives a step-by-step path for developing a family policy with the aid of Semi-Structured Brainstorming. And the Startalittle trick gives a specific suggestion that some people (including adults) have found useful.

5. Route: How I will get what I want (Initial plan, trial run)
P. A. I will do these things myself:

I will help the child develop a homework schedule with help from the plan in Family policies.

P. A.: I will pay attention to the child’s homework environment and study practices to see if I can find ways to make them work better for study. Best Practices Clipit ; Study Skills Ratem.

P. A.: I will arrange for some way to know that the child is on schedule in time to intervene before it is too late.

I will get somebody to do these things.

P. A.: Teacher. I will ask the teacher for a weekend forecast of the homework for the next week and for guidance as to how I can tell when it is done properly. How? I will offer to help with internet arrangements as needed. Examples: provide a scanner to the school, offer to set up a blog, website, or e-mailing list to distribute the forecast to all parents.

Hassle-Free Homework (2)

2006-02-16T09:54:00.000-06:00

At the end of the last episode, our mythical parent had worked through the original series (Problems as Homework) and reached a dead end. Might have found a way to make some part of the homework more palatable, but was left with other parts of the homework just as hassle-heavy as before. Unless…

Our mythical parent, P. A. Rant has returned to original objective: “I want my child to do the homework with little or no prodding.” Another job for Semi-Structured Brainstorming. The structure is in Problem-Solving is Hard: If it were easy, you would have already done it. Here I will show the questions and the answers P. A. produces.

1. Problem: What's wrong?
P. A.: Already passed that point. I am tired of the hassle in getting my child to do the homework.

2. Goal: How I could tell if the problem is fixed?
P. A.: My child would do the homework routinely with little or no prodding.

2. How do I explain my goal to anybody?
P. A.: Already done. No fuzzy words in the goal above.

3. Who will do this?
I will do these things myself:

P. A.: I will help the child develop a schedule.

P. A.: I will give the child some incentives to comply.

P. A.: I will pay attention to the child’s homework environment and see if I can find ways to make it work better for study.

P. A.: I will arrange for some way to know that the child is on schedule in time to intervene before it is too late.

P. A.: I will pay attention to the child’s study practices and see if I can suggest changes that may make them more effective.

2. I will get somebody to do these things.

P. A.: Who? Child. I will get the child to work out a schedule. How? I will work with the child on this and I will provide incentives for the child to get it done.

P. A.: Who? Teacher. Teacher. I will ask the teacher for a weekend forecast of the homework for the next week and for guidance as to how I can tell when it is done properly. How? I will offer to help with internet arrangements as needed. Examples: provide a scanner to the school, offer to set up a blog, website, or e-mailing list to distribute the forecast to all parents.

P. A.: Who? Child. After the child and I have worked up a schedule, I will ask the child to agree to take responsibility for meeting the schedule. How? I will provide incentives and a rationale to support the child’s efforts to meet the schedule.

Where do I start?
Who could tell me about how other people handled the problem?

(To be continued.)

Hassle-Free Homework

2006-02-13T09:28:00.000-06:00

I recently posted a series of pages on how to help a child practice problem solving by treating homework as a problem. That series is now included in the Thinkerer under the title Problems as Homework. The main change is the graphic display of the problem solving poster in the stages of development.

The series did not close with a solution to the problem. That missing solution illustrates another common task in problem-solving. Following the standard practice in problem-solving, I will start with what is wrong.

Chasing a subgoal. The goal, as seen from the parent’s viewpoint was, “I want my child to do the homework with little or no prodding.” To illustrate the process of problem-solving, the parent engaged the child in the problem-solving task. That changed the focus to the subgoal of making the homework more palatable to the child. That path might work for some children and some kinds of homework.

But in many cases, a parent who follows this path will reach a dead-end. The standard bounce-back rule for the dead-end is: If you hit a dead end, turn around. In problem-solving, this advice means:

Go back an figure out why you wanted to solve this problem. The answer is the main goal. The dead-end was on a subgoal path. Look for another route to solve the main goal.

Making the homework palatable to the child was a reasonable subgoal to investigate. But turning around gives a better view of the original goal. And calls to mind some comments I made in The Truth about Homework. One function of homework is to teach self-management: Learning to do what you don’t want to do.

“I want my child to do the homework with little or no prodding.” This goal is not going to be very attractive to the child. It will turn out to be a schedule for doing the homework. Maybe some aids will make the homework go faster. Maybe some long term planning can “make the homework easier.” (Another one of those hard truths. The only way to make homework easier is to be better prepared when you get to it.)

But one of the problem-solving slogans applies again here: “If other people are part of the problem, you may need them as part of the solution.” (It applied to the previous series. That’s one of the convenient things about slogans. They don’t wear out. You can reuse them as often as you need them.)

So our imaginary parent has worked through the original series and reached a dead end. Perhaps found a way to make some part of the homework more palatable, but is left with other parts of the homework that will be just as hassle heavy as before. Unless…

Brain still changing at age 18,

2006-02-08T09:45:00.000-06:00

Dartmouth Researchers … have learned that anatomically significant changes in brain structure continue after age 18. Abigail Baird, Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and co-author of the study, explains that … the study closely tracked a group of freshman students throughout their first year of college.

The results indicate that significant changes took place in the brains of these individuals. The changes were localized to regions of the brain known to integrate emotion and cognition. Specifically, these are areas that take information from our current body state and apply it for use in navigating the world.

"The brain of an 18-year-old college freshman is still far from resembling the brain of someone in their mid-twenties," says Bennett.
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Psychologists have long known that the brain continues to develop into legal adulthood. Improvements in technology let these researcher follow the development of individual brains. The individuals in this case had just moved from home to college. They were learning to adjust to a new life context. The brain development may have been fostered by this experience. Or it might have been simple maturation that would be observed in most people of that age. Or it might be a combination of these.

Fortunately, the technology will be used in the future to settle this and other issues. What we can do with this information right now is to understand that children and adolescents do not have fully developed brains and cannot muster the same capabilities that are available to adults.

Ok. Some adults don’t muster those capabilities, either. Having a fully developed brain module does not ensure that you use it when you need it. But that is just a matter of practice. Meaning, of course, that adult brains can keep developing as long as the person keeps developing new capabilities. There may be no clear point at which maturation is complete for the brain. At least not until senility sets in or the person dies.

Your Resources Know Where You Will Start

2006-02-01T12:04:00.000-06:00

In our previous episode of Problems as Homework, P. A. Rant began helping the child with Lesson 3 of elementary problem solving: The Who of Solutions. And the child immediately saw ahead to the next step: “I don’t know where to start.”

The Vulcan in P. A.’s brain was about to say: “It does not matter where you start. What matters is where you finish.” But the Empath module knew that the child did not need deep insights at this point. The child needed a place to start. So P. A. added to the Semi-Structured Brainstorming paper on the wall a new box. Label: RESOURCES

P. A. “Your first layer of resources is whatever can tell you how other people have handled the problem of homework. That may point you to other resources.”

P. A. expects that the child will eventually list teachers, adults, classmates, parents and older children in school. Perhaps the child will also list the web, but the child will need help and supervision on this. P. A. expects to be available as a resource to help explore the web.

By now you will have seen that the main story of problem solving is translation from the language of complaints to the language of action. You will also have noticed that this translation brings on a growing sense that the solution will take effort. This is a discovery people make many times over.

Here, then, is a summary of the first five lessons in elementary problem-solving.

Look at the goal, not the problem.

Translate complaints into goals.

The only who is you.

You will start with your resources.

If it were easy, you would have already done it.

That’s all I can think of to say about problem-solving at the beginner’s level. The Thinkerer offers specific resources about problem-solving and about studying. That’s in case you want to start with your resources.

The Mystery of the Missing Actor

2006-01-25T13:05:00.000-06:00

In our previous episode of Problems as Homework, P. A. Rant dealt with Lesson 2 of elementary problem solving: Turning Subjective Values into Objective Goals. But P. A. has not finished learning why children need help in solving problems.

Take, for example, the apparent goal offered by the child:
“They should make it more interesting.”

P. A. may have some ideas about how the homework could be made more interesting to this particular child. But that would only teach the child that complaining about a problem will get somebody to fix it.

Complaining really does work for children. “They” (the parents) will try to fix things. “They” (the parents) may also be hoping that the child will outgrow complaining and grow into fixing. Otherwise, “they” (the parents) will start complaining about how the kid always expects somebody else to fix things.

P. A. long ago discovered that complaining is easier that fixing. And lasts longer. That’s why P. A. is teaching the kid to do problem soling. Because otherwise, complaining that the kid doesn’t solve problems could last a long time.

At this point, then, P. A. is ready to take another step in showing the kid how to translate complaints into solutions. Back to the Semi-Structured Brainstorming sheet on the wall. Near the box labeled “MY GOALS.” P. A. marks in a new box: “WHO will do this?”

This is a theme I put in the Thinkerer as a Head Player, the Owl (that says “Who?”). The role is not big. Just essential. The language of complaint starts with they. The language of solutions starts with “I.” As in “What will I do?” (Intellectuals please note: this is Existentialism 101.)

P. A. also reviews the standard complaints brought out by the who question:

Complaint: I can’t do it all by myself.
P. A.: Of course not. So who do you want to help you? What you want them to do? How will you get them to do it?
P. A. writes these more specific questions in the WHO? box.

Complaint: I don’t know what to tell them to do.
P. A. You may need to figure out the route to the solution before you know that. You don’t have to finish the boxes in order. It is just like a puzzle. Sometimes the solution on one part tells you something about how to handle another part.

Complaint: I don’t know where to start.
P. A. Start by looking at how other people have handled the problem. Who can tell you how other people have handled the problem?
P. A. writes that question in the WHO? box. Then P. A. attaches another box to the WHO? box. P. A. gives this box the name: RESOURCES that could help me.

P. A. You can usually start thinking with your resources. That’s probably where you will have to start doing.

(To be continued)

Problems as Homework (2)

2006-01-20T14:00:00.000-06:00

In our last episode, our imaginary parent, P. A. Rant, was demonstrating how to use Semi-Structured Brainstorming to work with a child on the problem of homework. You will recall that there was a big sheet of paper on the wall with 3 boxes.

The name of the first box was “PROBLEM : What’s wrong with homework?” It had a list of about 5 specific problems that the child wrote to go in the box. The name of the second box was “GOAL: How I could tell if the problem is fixed?” The child was going to provide at least one goal that matched a problem in the first box. (Lesson 1. of problem-solving: Watch the goal, not the problem.)

That was last week. Fortunately, Semi-Structured Brainstorming is a method for persistent problem solving. So the paper can stay there till the problem is solved. As P. A. expected, the child’s initial description of the goal was not clear enough to work on. It had the usual load of value terms.

Value terms, as P. A. wanted to explain to the child, are expressions that carry a judgment about how the speaker evaluates something. Since they do not provide a clear identification or description of that something, they confuse problem-solving by mixing ambiguity into the goals.

P. A. did not bother to try that pompous explanation on the child. The child would have responded with a value term such as, “That’s confusing.” Fortunately, people (except academics) can function quite well without pompous explanations. P. A. divides the GOAL box into two compartments and modifies the labels: The top part gets the label, “MY GOALS.” The bottom part gets the label, “HOW I EXPLAIN MY GOALS TO ANYBODY.”

The child can try out several candidates for ANYBODY. They can be the teacher, the principal, a favorite superhero, a favorite fictional character, or anyone else who does not know the child well. The purpose here is to break away from mind reading. Parents are skilled mind-readers. That lets children talk to them in value terms. Children can say things like:
“They should make it easier.”
“They should make it more interesting.”
“This stuff shouldn’t take so much time.”

These statements sound like goals. But you see immediately that they are not much help in problem-solving. In fact, since you don’t know the child, you could not interpret “more interesting.” The child can recognize what is interesting (or confusing). But the child does not know how to give a verbal description of what it takes to meet that goal. The purpose of the second box is to give the child practice in tuning subjective values into objective goals.

And, by the way, this is not something that the child can do easily the first time. P. A. will have to play the role of a slow-witted ANYBODY. Fortunately, P. A. is using a method suited for persistent problem solving. And willing to model the power of persistence for the child. And ready to point out that nobody could learn a sport if they had to do it right the first time.

Problems as Homework

2006-01-15T11:59:00.000-06:00

Some parents (and some children) view homework as a problem. I checked with the Uns and they wanted me to try a reversal. Here is the reversal I found.

Teachers assign problems as homework. They expect the children to come back with the problems solved. Let’s assume, for the moment, that one of the main functions of homework is to give practice in solving problems. The practice is not just for solving those particular problems in the assignment. Those have already been solved many times and there is not much market for old solutions to old problems. Maybe that’s one reason why children don’t see much need for homework.

Homework must be practice for solving new problems. The kind the children will need to solve when the grow up. The kind they will solve as parents. For example, homework. Now that is a problem that some parents want solved. And some children want it solved, too. And it doesn’t have an old, used solution that everybody knows about.

So let’s take an imaginary parent. P. A. Rant. P.A has decided to treat homework as a problem rather than an annoyance.

(Annoyances, you put up with. Problems, you solve.)

P. A. starts with the problem: “I have to keep prodding my child to get homework done.” But P. A. knows that the place to look for solutions is not in the problem, but in where you want to be when it is solved. “I want my child to do the homework with little or no prodding.”

(If other people are involved in the problem, maybe you want them involved in the solution.)

Semi-Structured Brainstorming: P. A. hangs a large sheet of paper on the wall of the child’s room. It has one box labeled: “PROBLEM: What’s wrong with homework?” P. A. gives the child a pad of sticky notes.

The child’s first job, P. A. explains, is to think of five things that are wrong with homework, to write them on the sticky notes, and to stick them where they belong. P. A. further explains that when that job is finished, they will start solving the problem together. P. A. indicates that a good job on this may take several days.

Saying what is wrong it just a convenient way to get started. Anybody can say what is wrong. So P. A. starts with what the child can easily do. The next step in problem-solving is to shift the focus to the solution.

(Talk about the problem if all you want to do is complain. If you want to fix, talk about where you want to be with the solution.)

P. A. marks out another box on the paper. The label: “GOAL: How I could tell if the problem is fixed.” The child’s new job is to match at least one note in the PROBLEM box with a note that belongs in the GOAL box. Again, P. A. indicates that a good job on this may take several days. That big piece of paper on the wall serves as a reminder of the job.

To further clarify the job, P. A. marks a third box, labeled: “ROUTE: How I could get what I want.” P. A. explains that they are not working on the route yet, but that the box is there in case they think of ideas while working on goals. (The ROUTE box also teaches the child to distinguish between goals and methods.)

P. A. expects that the initial goal notes will need further work. But P. A. understands the power of yet. As in: “I have not solved this problem yet.”

(To be continued)

Cue the Brain

2005-12-27T19:14:00.000-06:00

Don Dansereau teaches a class in the Mini-University offered to parents by TCU. He has summarized his main points for the Thinkerer:
http://thinkerer.org/Parenting/ParNewLight.htm

I have elaborated on some his points in earlier blogs. Here I take up a fifth.

Children and adults are strongly and often unconsciously influenced by the physical and social environment. Parts of the environment prime and cue the brain to be in certain states. For example, lying in bed typically cues sleep. Your child’s environment while doing homework can be cultivated to cue motivation and concentration.
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You brain responds to your environment by powering up the systems it needs to deal with that environment. That’s why you can walk into a room and wonder what you were looking for. And why you can remember what you were looking for by going back to the environment that triggered your quest.

When you are trying to recall something, you need to turn on the same brain systems that you used to store it. (See my recent blog about time travel with your brain). The easiest way to set up learning for recall is to provide prominent cues that will be present at recall. That doesn’t mean go to the classroom to do homework. It means anticipate how the memory will be used and have the child duplicate or imagine the cues at that time.

Will the teacher ask for oral recitation? Have the child give the recitation.

Do the students stand up to recite? Have the child stand up to recite.

Will the child have to write something? Have the child sit at a table and write as if for the teacher.

Will the child have to do a show-and-tell to the class? Have the child imagine the class and do the show-and-tell to the imaginary class.

Will the child have to narrate a story (historical events, for example)? Have the child imagine an audience and tell the story out loud. (If a child can narrate a story, the child can usually answer questions based on the story: Why did Washington cross the Delaware?)

Will the child have to explain the work (for example, “Tell the class how you got this answer.”)? Have the child explain (with satisfaction) how the work was done. Encourage the child to imagine the class listening.

Will the child have to do some mathematical operation on a test? Be sure the child does similar operations in homework.

Will this same strategy work for adults? Only if they try it.

Creativity is a skill

2005-12-23T12:22:00.000-06:00

Don Dansereau teaches a class in the Mini-University offered to parents by TCU. He has summarized his main points for the Thinkerer:

http://thinkerer.org/Parenting/ParNewLight.htm
I elaborated on some his points in earlier blogs (one in my Cognitive Engineering blog). Here I take up a fourth.

Creativity is enhanced by incubation (time away from the problem or task) and by shifting perspective (thinking about how someone else would view the problem). Children’s impulsiveness resulting from immature frontal lobes may keep them from using these techniques.

Or perhaps they don’t know about incubation or shifting perspective. Or maybe they just don’t know how to do it. In any case, using these techniques is a skill that people learn. To help your child learn these skills, watch for homework that calls for creativity. A typical example is a writing assignment. Then use one of these methods.

Incubation. Use the Startalittle maneuver. The trick is to spend a few minutes getting started. (Example: write down words that remind you of ideas you want to put in.) Then set the whole thing aside for a while.

You might model this maneuver yourself, in front of the child, while solving a problem the child wants solved. The child will probably come up with ideas that contribute to the solution. Be sure to point out that the ideas took a while to develop.

Encourage the child to use the Startalittle maneuver on creative homework jobs. If the child does not want to do job immediately, make a bargain: “Spend five or ten minutes on it. Tell me how you are going to finish it. Then go play.” Do that a few times and the child will probably come home with that “finish it” plan already worked out.

Shifting perspective. It is a kind of pretend. Daydreaming. What would Superman do? How would your (father, mother, older sibling, other relative, classmate, teacher, etc.) do it? Encourage the child to pretend to be one of these and talk about how to do it.

You may want to join in the pretend. Pretend, for example, to be the child. If you get it wrong, the child will tell you. If you imitate something you don’t want the child to do, the child may notice. If you imitate something that has bad consequences, the child may anticipate the consequences.

Creativity. Incubation. Shifting perspective. Not particularly homework skills. Also adult skills. Parents who practice them with their children may even benefit from the refresher course.

The Goldilocks model of parenting

2005-12-20T08:29:00.000-06:00

The Goldilocks model of parenting
Don Dansereau teaches a class in the Mini-University offered to parents by TCU. He has summarized his main points for the Thinkerer:
http://thinkerer.org/Parenting/ParNewLight.htm

I elaborated on two of his points in earlier blogs (one in my Cognitive Engineering blog). Here I take up third.

Children seem to learn best when given the “right amount of help” with homework. In effect, just enough to get them past motivation and understanding barriers. Too much creates dependence and slows growth. Too little can lead to frustration and confusion. Help with planning and thinking about long-term consequences may be especially important.

So how do you know what is the “right amount of help?” Now here is a reassuring answer: You will get it wrong. How can that be reassuring? Because everybody gets it wrong. Even the three bears got it wrong. How many bowls of porridge? How many were just right? Batting average .33. (By the way, if you were playing baseball, what batting average would you be happy with?)

“Right amount of help.” Here is a great example of the power of language to create the wrong amount of credibility. You would think, from the term, that help exists in an amount, that the amount is measurable, and that people could somehow know what amount is right. After all, that works with sugar, doesn’t it?

But children are changing. Today’s right amount of help may be far too much next month. The right amount in May could be inadequate in September. Besides, help comes in kinds as well as amounts.

So what do you do with homework? Start by planning. Not in the privacy of your own head. Work out a plan with the child. Ask the child where you help is needed. Ask what kind of help is needed. Get the child to put the request for help in the form of a question that starts “How can I (the child) find out what I need to do to…”

And do this planning on your own schedule. Early, ahead of time. As soon as possible. The rest of the homework may come later. An early start gets both brains to work on the job. And gives the child a little practice in planning ahead.

Follow that routine and you will soon notice that the child has the plan before you ask. And you will have found the flow around this boulder: Sugar is easier to measure, but cake batter can’t tell you what it needs.

See You Later, Procrastinator

2005-12-17T09:21:00.000-06:00

Here is a blog basket for all those people who have been meaning to do something about procrastination. That includes parents who have been intending (for the past year) to help their kids stop procrastinating.

NPR: Talk of the Nation, December 14, 2005. A helpful discussion. Maybe you want to put it on an mp3 player. Not necessarily yours.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5053416

Procrastination, article in Psychology Today

Procrastination help, website.

Some Thinkerer pages:
Get the best out of procrastination

The Next Meeting of the Procrastinator’s League…

The Startalittles versus the Putitovs

Your Putitov

Time control

The Startalittle maneuver is the best route to a quick fix. Whenever you have something that you want to put off, start it a little. Plan to spend about 20 minutes on a quick survey of what you are going to do. For example, do a search and collect some links. This helps to warm up your brain for the job. (See Headwarmers.) Besides, it gives you a better feel for how long you can put the main job off.

People who prefer to work under pressure may want to check my brief on stress.

God must love procrastinators. He made so many of us.

The Sound of Thinkering

2005-12-12T10:06:00.000-06:00

A while back, I commented on this statement from a list in Brain-Based Learning: Possible Implications for Online Instruction Stephanie A. Clemons:
http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Sep_05/article03.htm
5. Multi-sensory input is desired by our brains.

Passive evasive voice again. Has anyone really gone out and asked brains about their desires? You can ask people about their desires, of course. They probably use some part of their brains to answer. But I suspect that multi-sensory input is way down on the list of what people desire. Probably right down there with smellavision.

What really struck me here was the futility of advocating multi-sensory input by writing papers about it. If you really think multi-sensory input is important, wouldn’t you try to communicate with multi-sensory output?

I have been trying to give the Thinkerer more multi-sensory output. Recently I have been adding audio files (mp3 format). People can download these files and put them on their mp3 players. The content comes from the slogans and sparks available in text form in the Head View venue.

Or people could use the files as examples of how to make homework helpers. Parents might make audio files for their children. Teens might make them for themselves. Entrepreneurial teens might make them for sale to other teens. Entrepreneurial College juniors might make them and sell them on E-Bay. Maybe mixed with jokes and podsafe music.

To help other people get started, I put in a brief explanation of how I used my Creative MuVo N2000 for recording and Audacity (free software) for editing. Since I already had the MuVo, the arrangement was cost free. I have a microphone, so I could have used Audacity for recording. I tried that, but it picked up too much fan noise from my computer.

Of course, doing things is a lot harder than writing about them. Which is probably why people prefer to write about the need for multi-sensory inputs to the brain.

A brain takes 25 years to grow

2005-12-09T09:39:00.000-06:00

Don Dansereau teaches a class in the Mini-University offered to parents by TCU. He has summarized his main points for the Thinkerer:
http://thinkerer.org/Parenting/ParNewLight.htm
I will elaborate on one of these points here.

Children’s impulsiveness, lack of planning, and lack of concern with long-term consequences may be largely due to the natural physical development of the brain. Brains don’t fully mature until about age 25 and the frontal lobes of the cortex that are responsible for “looking to the future” are among the last areas to develop.

More of the modular brain story. http://thinkerer.org/Background/BakBrainMods.htm

Different modules develop at different rates. That can be confusing. You see some adult skills emerge in teens and you begin to think of them as adults. Then you begin to expect them to act like adults. (Are you being a bit impulsive with that expectation?)

So you just stop expecting them to act like adults? Only if you lack concern for long term consequences. Brains follow the same developmental principles as muscles, bone and reflexes. They develop with time and exercise. People don’t stop expecting toddlers to walk just because toddlers fall down.

The basis for development is challenge. A challenge takes people near the upper limit of what they can do. Preferably not beyond. But if you want to extend that limit, you have to push on it.

Push on it. I always hate vague metaphors like that. They roll easily off the keyboard. They are great if you just want to sound like you know more that the people you are talking to. But here, now, in this world, we do not do metaphors. We do concrete actions.

We know how to challenge (and guide) teens in football or cooking. But how do you challenge and guide teens in abstract things like planning or long term consequences? You translate those things into concrete events that everybody can see.

Instead of forecasting things in the privacy of your own head, you start forecasting out loud. In front of the teen. You invite the teen to supply additional forecasts. Maybe you lay out a fan of possibilities. Maybe you turn forecasting into a brainstorming session.

You do the same with plans, especially plans that are important to the teen. If plans are too complicated for traditional brainstorming, use semi-structured brainstorming.

You may be surprised by what teens can do with brainstorming. If you want some novel, creative, original ideas, you may get them from teens. That self- discipline and impulse control that takes 25 years to develop can get so effective that it inhibits ideas as well and actions.

So you can think of brainstorming as engineered adolescence. A method of cognitive engineering that helps adults to readjust their impulse control to suspend the control of ideas. Meet teens in brainstorming and they may have a home-field advantage.

Do threat and anxiety impair learning?

2005-12-06T08:59:00.000-06:00

That’s the kind of question that might scare a student. It would really scare me if I had to take a test on this material. Because the answer I would give from experience is wrong, according to Brain-Based Learning: Possible Implications for Online Instruction Stephanie A. Clemons http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Sep_05/article03.htm

8. Threat, high anxiety, and a sense of helplessness impairs learning.

For starters, try this scenario. Night. A curving rural road. A blind curve. A car approaching in its proper lane. I enter the curve and see headlights approaching in my lane. I swerve into the ditch just in time to avoid the crash. Will this experience impair my learning about the risks of blind curves?

The question does not threaten me because I know the answer. And it is not the one given by Clemons. Threat and anxiety are excellent at teaching you to avoid circumstances like those that produce the threat and anxiety. They are not good at teaching you to to make fine discriminations about the conditions or to find the best way to avoid the threat.

A few people might respond to the road experience by trying to avoid driving on a curved rural road at night. Most people would respond with a cognitive analysis of the conditions. That would lead them to the conclusion that “I want to notice blind curves and be careful in approaching them.” If you had to go to a therapist to figure that out, you would call it cognitive therapy and pay a bunch of money for it. If you can figure it out for yourself, you call it common sense. Common sense is free. At least for some people.

Now back to brain-based learning. Would education be designed to induce threat and anxiety? I doubt it. The most likely thing you would learn from such threat and anxiety is to avoid education. In an educational situation, threat and anxiety are not induced by learning but by tests. And they do not come from what you learned but from what you did not learn.

A cognitive analysis of this situation indicates that the best way to avoid threat and anxiety is to learn the material. And to know that you have learned the material. Sometimes people don't get that right. Then they may pick a failure mode.

One failure mode is like avoiding country roads at night. Psychologists would call that over-generalizing. At this point, trying to study the material might well induce anxiety. That could cause the person to study less. Or to study less effectively, because threat and anxiety do interfere with effective study methods.
If you dig yourself into a hole, stop digging.
The difference between a trial run and a failure lies in what you get out of it.
Thinking about what you can’t do is worry. Thinking about what you can do is planning. Trouble-shooting

A second failure mode is to “study harder.” What? Will we tell people that “study harder” is not good advice? Well, here’s some other good advice:
If you always do what you've always done, you’ll always get what you've always got.
The Bounce-Back Routine.

Or they may find the winning mode: Don’t study harder. Study smarter. In the long run, smarter works better than harder. And smarter is easier.

Does helplessness impair learning?

2005-12-02T08:07:00.000-06:00

Here is another statement from a list in Brain-Based Learning: Possible Implications for Online Instruction Stephanie A. Clemons http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Sep_05/article03.htm

8. Threat, high anxiety, and a sense of helplessness impairs learning.

Our last episode ended with an obligatory wait for the entrepreneurs to come to the rescue and fix the problem of threat, high anxiety, and a sense of helplessness as they go about impairing learning. As promised, this post will deal with the Godot question: “What shall we do while waiting?”

Why deal with a question that may be better left to “them?” When I don’t know what to do, I get a sense of helplessness that would no doubt impair my learning if I let it continue. So I start figuring out what to do.

Since we already have a head start on that sense of helplessness, let’s start there. I suspect that the main reason why learners sometimes have a sense of helplessness is that they are helpless. Someone else, older and wiser, can look at the situation and say, objectively, that they are not helpless. Someone else, with skills of problem solving, would easily analyze the situation and come up with several things to do.

Before you can walk in someone’s shoes, you must first be barefoot.

Someone else would not feel helpless. But here, now, this person, feeling helpless, does not know what to do. Come to think of it, I am not even sure that it is the feeling of helplessness that impairs learning. I hate to be so obvious, but maybe not knowing what to do would impair learning no matter how the person felt about it.

People do not design instruction to cause students not to know what to do. They set up curriculum paths and prerequisites to see that students have the proper content preparation for a specific class or course. This kindly, paternalistic plan seems to work most of the time. But one of the omissions from this curriculum is a course in Knowing What to Do.

This idea reminds me of Thinking 101, the class you didn’t get in school. I suppose if they left thinking out of the curriculum, it was reasonable also to leave out Introduction to Studying. Don Dansereau, at TCU, teaches a course in Techniques of College Learning. But maybe there are techniques of high school learning. Or techniques of online learning. Maybe some of them are the same as for college learning. The Studying venue in the Thinkerer has a collection of common techniques for studying. That might be a start for Knowing What to Do. Find out what other people do. That’s probably better that a sense of helplessness.

Stressing the obvious

2005-11-29T09:01:00.000-06:00

Here is another statement from a list in Brain-Based Learning: Possible Implications for Online Instruction Stephanie A. Clemons http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Sep_05/article03.htm

8. Threat, high anxiety, and a sense of helplessness impairs learning.

Well, yes. This was probably known long before there were psychologist. Even psychologists have known it for about 100 years. It is called the Yerkes-Dodson law. It applies to performance on any task. Low levels of threat or anxiety improve performance. With increasing levels, performance improves, reaches a maximum, then declines. The location of the optimum level depends on familiarity with the task. Well-practiced tasks can benefit from higher levels of threat or anxiety, especially if they require speed, strength, or quick reactions.

Learning, by definition, is not a well-practiced task and so will require a low level of threat or anxiety.

Now that we’ve figured that out, what do we do about it? In general, instructional design aims to produce small increments in performance and arrange for any “failures” to be unthreatening. That’s why you learn to fly a plane in a simulator first. The objective is manage the stress level. I don’t think any instructional designer sets out to create “threat, high anxiety, and a sense of helplessness.”

If some students experience these feelings, the condition probably results from a mismatch between the instructional design and the student. Presumably, online instruction can offer a wider range of instructional practice. But I don’t know of any systematic way to match students to instructional practice. There may be a market for a matchmaking service in this area.

I can see it now. Amazon.edu. “Students who liked the instructional style of this course also liked…” For the most part, the content of education in the US is the same at least up through the sophomore year of college. There will be some variation in grade level at which specific content is presented. I remember my high-school biology teacher explaining to that the demonstration manikins were not anatomically correct in high-school, but would be in college. We students would not have been disappointed by a more advanced level of instruction.

Another entrepreneurial call. Actually, three. First, design different instructional materials suitable for different learner types. “Algebra for Dummies” This already exists as a book, but I don’t know whether it would be an adequate preparation for the requirements of a high-school algebra course.

That uncertainty brings us to the second entrepreneurial call. Develop a way to certify instructional units as appropriate for equivalency at some grade level. That would require some kind of demonstration that people who complete the unit can pass advanced placement tests in the unit.

The third entrepreneurial challenge is to find a way to match student characteristics to instructional design characteristics.

Any of these would be difficult. To which I give the entrepreneurial retort. Of course, it’s difficult. If it were easy, it would have already been done.

For this solution, we will have to wait for the entrepreneurs. My next post will deal with the Godot question: “What shall we do while waiting?”

Your brain deals with your world

2005-11-25T08:36:00.000-06:00

This title is an exercise in the obvious. It would not be worth mentioning except for the educational practice of ignoring the obvious. Here are two statements from a list in Brain-Based Learning: Possible Implications for Online Instruction Stephanie A. Clemons http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Sep_05/article03.htm

5. Multi-sensory input is desired by our brains.
6. Learning involves the whole body.

Both of these statements express the proposition in the title. (I have earlier mentioned the inelegant formulation of item five, so I won’t labor that point.) The reason we have to hear about multi-sensory input is that we have moved into the world of talk. Words compartmentalize the world. Words can analyze the brain inputs into various senses. But in the real world, your brain does not analyze its inputs into various senses. It synthesizes the inputs into a consistent world model.

And, by the way, how many senses are there in multi-sensory input? You would need to know that if you were designing multi-sensory input for brain-based learning. Conventional word-based learning would tell us that there are five senses. Experience-based learning tells us that this anatomically-derived count is just the surface appearance.

Out of the auditory sense, for example, your brain easily computes such things as the direction of the source and the size of the room. Did you think of those things when you read the abstract phrase “multi-sensory input?” You would think of those things if you suppress the education-based compartmentalization of senses and start thinking of your brain as building world models. You would think of them if you were dealing in sound effects for radio or video. Or perhaps even if you were a skilled writer of fiction.

Yes, storytellers know very well how to use brain-based presentations to build a world for their stories. And they demonstrate that skillful story-telling can build a world out of whatever tools are available. Including the single-sensory input of a book. To test that claim, try J. K. Rowling or Jack London. (Intellectuals may prefer Hemmingway.)

Online learning does offer some advantages in this context. This may help educators who can’t write like Hemmingway. Perception improves with interaction. In the past, that aspect of learning was hard to provide outside of museums like the Exploratorium. Online instruction can easily let people interact with the subject. (Easily? That’s easy for me to say. I don’t have to write the code.)

I am still working on ways to use whole-body thinking into the Thinkerer. I recently added pages about semi-structured brainstorming. That includes the notion of brainstorming by walking around. Not only whole body, but whole room. What’s next? Whole earth brainstorming?

More discoveries about brain-based learning

2005-11-21T14:07:00.000-06:00

4. Brains are poorly designed for rote learning.

From a list in Brain-Based Learning: Possible Implications for Online Instruction, Stephanie A. Clemons http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Sep_05/article03.htm)

This is one of my favorite discoveries. Not the statement about how brains are unsuited to rote learning. I discovered that by the third grade. My discovery is that some people apparently did not know this and needed brain-based research to find it out.

Actually, I am not sure what the author meant by “rote learning.” That is one of the problems with abstract statements. It is not a brain problem. It is a communication problem. Abstract terms are usually open to multiple interpretations. Of course, this is just a single line. The author may have given a thorough definition elsewhere.

But I prefer to speculate. That way, I will understand the concept. Then I won’t have to memorize the definition by rote learning.

Since the statement is in an educational context, I assume that it refers to something that happens in education. I wonder, however, whether many instructional plans actually specify “rote learning” as a learning objective. I think the add and multiply tables could reasonable have rote learning as an objective, but I think it may end there.

There are certainly instructional objectives that call for memorizing things. But objectives don’t specify methods. Students are assigned the task of memorizing a speech or a poem. I would not call this rote learning. They generally understand the flow of meaning and the rhythm. You can hear the difference between rote and understanding in the way they deliver the recitation.

The Thinkerer offers several suggestions for how to memorize things in ways that go beyond rote. See: Memorizers

My impression is that rote learning is not a moral imperative imposed by educators. I think it is a method chosen by students who don’t know any better method. You can argue that argue that if educators don’t teach other methods, they are indirectly imposing a method previously taught. I won’t dispute that.

But if something is not being done, it takes more than educators not to do it. It also takes parents not to do it. I suppose it even takes psychologists not to do it. So here is another opportunity for a book:

What they won’t tell you about memorizing. Maybe I’ll use that as a headline for a page in the Thinkerer. Not a book, of course. Much shorter. Much cheaper.

Emotions and the brain borers

2005-11-17T12:56:00.000-06:00

Is boredom an emotion? Last time I was talking about an assertion:
3. Emotions are critical to successful learning.

(From a list in Brain-Based Learning: Possible Implications for Online Instruction Stephanie A. Clemons http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Sep_05/article03.htm)

So I looked back over my earlier discussion of the Brain Borers. If boredom is an emotion, then I take the statement above as a caution about the risks in casual use of abstraction. In logic, of course, people learn to deal formally with the difference between some and all.

I doubt that anyone believes that boredom is critical to successful learning. I don’t believe educators intentionally design instruction to be boring. It just seems to work out that way. Perhaps managing boredom is critical to successful learning.

As I suggested earlier, feeling bored is just your brain’s way of telling you that what you are doing is not important. And therefore, not worth remembering. Feeling emotional is your brain’s way of telling you that something is important. And your brain remembers what it identifies as important. Generally without any conscious effort on your part.

So one way to beat the Brain Borers is to get emotional about it. Last week I talked about the value of immediate reinforcement. That is an emotion often overlooked by educators. Never overlooked by retail marketers, game designers, or drug dealers. Maybe that’s why retail marketers, game designers, and drug dealers make more money than educators.

That leads me to another learning objective:
The student will learn this principle: “If you want something done to suit you, you have to do it yourself.”

Admittedly, I haven’t seen this cited as a learning objective. I inferred it from educational practices that I have observed.

The Thinkerer is about doing it yourself. So the section on studying carries a relevant page “Once more, with feeling.”

And as to immediate reinforcement, the Thinkerer cites a counterproductive practice, Vagoaling. With this practice, people (including students) deny themselves to satisfaction of immediate success by failing to know what they mean by immediate success.

There another trick I use. I have a set of pet peeves. I notice when a writer triggers them and I react. You saw one such reaction at the start of this page. I call it lazy logic. “Emotions are critical…” All emotions? Some emotions? If some, which? A blurred abstraction saves the writer a lot of effort in specification. Leaving the learner to figure out what the statement means.

Another of my pet peeves is the passive evasive voice. Here are several examples:
Brains are designed for fluctuations rather than constant attention. Designed? By whom? And how did anybody get access to the design specs.

Brains are poorly designed for rote learning.

Multi-sensory input is desired by our brains. The desire of brains? What your brain really wants? What is the evidence about brain desires?

Brains are considered “plastic”… By whom? Sure, you can buy brain models for educational demonstrations. They do seem to be made of plastic. But that’s not what this sentence is about. By using the passive evasive and putting plastic in quotes, the author avoids citing any authority and avoids stating the authoritative conclusion.

Mental meringue. It looks like something good, but when you bite into it, there is noting there.

The emotional side of learning

2005-11-13T08:33:00.000-06:00

The theme I have been working on for the last month started in the pose on Brain-Based Learning. I started with a set of statements described as findings from brain research (Stevens and Goldberg, 2001) with possible implications for online instruction . I concluded that these might be worth a little study and that in studying them, I could create an example of how a person might deal with abstract content.

That study led me to the questions of how I would use the information. Focusing specifically on the assertion that brains are specialized and unique, I considered the implications it would have for instructional design. After three posts on that, I think I have a good idea how I would use the information. If I actually had to study the material, I would go on to read the details and compare them to my ideas of what to expect.

Since I don’t have to study the material, I will go on to look for some ideas that I have used or might use in the Thinkerer. This time I’ll take them in order of importance (another element of self-directed learning).

3. Emotions are critical to successful learning.
I think this is a generally accepted principle. But the denotation of emotions is tricky. The satisfaction you get from success is an emotion, but often overlooked in the term. Psychologists use the term reinforcement and may not always regard it as an emotion.

One thing often overlooked in instruction is the value of immediate reinforcement. People will work on a puzzle they think they can solve. They will play a game they think they can win. Theses efforts are supported entirely by the immediate reinforcement of (frequent) success.

Perhaps when instruction depended on lectures and books, it was difficult to design for immediate reinforcement. Online instruction may offer greater potential. Here is an example I found recently.

Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) is a free open-source audio editor. I installed it recently to try out some audio things on the Thinkerer. I then found a tutorial (http://www.edhsonline.org/other/audacity/) which provided a step-by-step introduction to the basics of editing a .wav file. I could easily open the instructions and the program in separated windows. I could follow the steps of the instructions and get immediate feedback.

I would recommend that anyone interested in online instructional design should try the Audacity demonstration. Even if you don’t need to do audio, you will learn something about instruction. Besides, who can resist a program called Audacity?

“Anchor Boots” and instructional design

2005-11-09T09:30:00.000-06:00

Don’t you hate it when people drop clues and don’t tell you what you are supposed to know? Strange. People never want the answer to a mystery story in the first chapter.

I was talking about instructional design and suddenly I stuck in this short story written by a high school student. It was an assignment, of course. So I guess it derives from some kind of instructional design. And, come to think of it, writing a short story does connect with the general idea of self-directed learning. In this particular case, the student integrated the assignment with the topics of gravity and friction. I don’t think that was part of the assignment. More like self-direction.

Before I wandered off into fiction, I mentioned two implications for online instruction:
1. Design to guide toward self-directed learning.
2. Design for cafeteria-style instruction.

The assignment to write a story could be a way to guide toward self-directed learning. And it could be one of the steam trays in that cafeteria-style instruction. Not at all like learning a computer language, of course. But then, that’s the point, isn’t it. Computer languages are on a different tray.

The shadow across the face of this idyllic scene comes from that other criterion I mentioned: Self-directed learning requires prompt and objective measures of performance. These condition are hard to satisfy in the case of fiction. And doubly hard in the case of fiction drawing on an understanding of physics.

An approximation of these conditions might be available in group study. If students first discussed a scenario for a story, they would get prompt feedback from each other. But not objective? That depends on your viewpoint. If I read something you wrote and say I don’t understand it, that is a subjective evaluation from my viewpoint. But from your viewpoint, my reaction is an objective fact. As a writer, your only reasonable course of action is to find out why I failed to understand what you wrote and repair what you wrote.

For a look into group study, check: http://www.psy.tcu.edu/acr/collaboration.htm

In the context of online support, there are greater possibilities for group work. People no longer have to be in the same place. IM services by Yahoo and Microsoft will probably support audio meetings (now or soon). Or even video if needed. There are probably already online services that bring together high-school students with common interests in some academically relevant area. Such students could work together to produce stories, to publish a blog, or both.

I think I will look to see what is available now. Some entrepreneurs must have noticed this opportunity.

Anchor Boots

2005-11-06T08:40:00.000-06:00

Following is a short story written as a high school assignment. The student was studying gravity at the same time and chose to integrate that topic into the story.
------------
It has been a rough year. For my own sanity, I need to get away. I could always go up to mother’s cabin in the woods. She is in town for the year, the emptiness would be nice. I need some time away from all the incompetent fools at work, who feel I have the answers to everything all the time.

Yes, a vacation would be nice, after all, I do deserve one. These circuitous roads bring back fond memories of my yester years, back when I was alive. Ah, what a refreshing scene, birds chirping, squirrels scurrying, and the vegetation, a breathtaking assortment of greens. The house looks good, lonely, but that is part of its charm. I have spent many hours down at the lake as a girl constantly trying to break the latest rock skipping record, set by me of course. “There’s a good one”, almost a perfect pancake shape, “My, that went far”, I felt as if I had barely tossed it.

I make my way back to the gate. I prepare myself to pick up the large rock. That acts as the door stop, the latch has been broken for year. Surprisingly, it takes little to no effort at all to lift. I am beat, a nap would be great. I walk through the house, there seems to be an extra bounce in my step for what ever reason. I fall, in what feels like slow motion, onto the bed. It seems stiff, naturally with the lack of human contact it has endured. I awake in what seems no time at all, refreshed and energized.

Dinner time is right about now. I haven’t eaten all day. I prepare a sandwich and tomato soup, and went to enjoy it on the porch. I watch two squirrels participate in a tag-like same, quite entertaining. They wrestle their way up the tree when one squirrel has enough, he leaps an amazing distance, virtually weightless, and looks confused as he slams into the roof. For some reason, witnessing this feat, gives me an eerie feeling. I continue my day but I just cannot get this feeling out of the back of my head. The rocks, the squirrels, my own lightness, do not seem normal.

I cozy up by the fire with a book and begin to unwind. Until there is a snap outside the window, I cautiously peer into the dark, when I see, what seems to be a branch, it slowly made its way down, hovering over the ground as if there is no reason for it to land. My palms begin to sweat, my breaths grow shorter, and my knees buckle beneath me. I run out of the house my strides begin to cover a lot of distance I felt nothing, weightless.

I jump in my car, and speed through the wilderness. I realize in my state of panic that I have to be overreacting, this is all in my head. It has to be all the stress from work and daily pressures releasing in a very odd way. As I begin to calm down a deer leaps out in front of me, once again in the slow creepy manner as before. I slam on my brakes to find they are useless, the road seems to separate itself from any friction at all. I manage to swerve away from the deer and soar into another, far more intense, state of panic.

I drive straight into the side of the first building I spotted. Luckily it is after hours and no one is inside. Through the broken glass I notice a sign that reads “Anchor boots sold here.” The ambulances and fire trucks approach, almost floating, I notice all of them are wearing these “Anchor boots”. I ask the fire chief just what they are for and he looks at me strangely and explains the state of our planet. The gravitational pull is weakening and the federal government is in a state of alert. I breathe a sigh of relief that I am not insane after all, but a bigger fear immediately engulfed me as I realize our beloved world is coming apart at the seams. -- Amanda Gilley, School: Fort Worth Christian

If brain specialization precludes generic instructional design…

2005-10-30T08:48:00.000-06:00

Last week, I was talking about abstract implications of brain specialization for online instruction. Some on my specialized brain parts demanded concretization. Concretization takes longer than abstraction, but here it is:

Abstract speculation number 1. The specialization of brains precludes any form of generic instructional design.

Concrete example: Learning any computer language after the first. This probably applies to other forms of adult learning. Any kind of learning specializes the brain for certain kinds of transfer to new learning tasks. Different backgrounds produce different specialization.

If the specialization precludes generic instructional design, what do you do? I think Second Life provides an excellent example. A number of people are members of SL because they want to learn how to program in a virtual environment. (That is probably a subgoal learning to something like earning money, but the supergoal is not relevant to this discussion.) Instead of any specific instructional design, SL provides opportunities for self-directed learning. Cafeteria-style instruction:

Sims illustrating the procedures to produce results of common interest.
Objects containing scripts open to step by step modification.
A wiki with details of how to use the elements of the language.
An environment (WYSIWYG) in which the learner can easily see the object as it is created or the effect of the script as it is changed.
Topic-related classes that people can attend at their choosing if they believe (or find) that they can benefit from live demonstration and answers to questions.
Videos showing procedures of common interest.
Forums where people can post requests for help and get voluntary responses from people who have more experience on the relevant topic.

Second Life: http://secondlife.com/

In this environment, the learner can chose objectives and instructional methods that best fit the learner’s previous experience. The learner gets prompt feedback as to whether the choices are working. If not, other choices are available. There is no penalty for a “wrong” choice. Indeed, there is no definition for “wrong choice.”

To quote the Thinkerer: http://www.thinkerer.org/HeadView/HeadBounce.htm
“Whatever doesn’t work is a trial run.”
“The difference between a trial run and a failure lies in what you get out of it.”

So if specialization precludes generic instructional design, the situation is not a disaster. Except, perhaps, to instructional designers. A reasonable response is self-directed learning. Of course that is a kind of instructional design. Maybe even generic. But of a different genus.

When is self-directed learning indicated? My speculations: Adult and quasi-adult education. (A quasi-adult is an adolescent who will act like an adult under some circumstances.) There are two reasons for this:

Experience increases specialization.

Learning experience develops the skills needed for self-directed learning. Or at least it may do so. That might depend on the characteristics and objectives of the previous learning experiences.

There is a second criterion: Self-directed learning requires prompt and objective measures of performance. That’s why it works well in learning computer languages. But if this requirement is presently not met for some instructional objective, perhaps there is a role for instructional design. Especially in the context of online learning.

These considerations suggest two implications for online instruction:
1. Design to guide toward self-directed learning.
2. Design for cafeteria-style instruction.

Brains are specialized. And other Discoveries

2005-10-20T08:57:00.000-05:00

In the last episode, I was trying to understand these statements:
Following are some of the findings from brain research (Stevens and Goldberg, 2001)
1. Brains are specialized and are not equally good at everything.
7. Each brain is unique.

I did figure it out, but was left wondering what guidance it might offer for:
Brain-Based Learning:
Possible Implications for Online Instruction
Stephanie A. Clemons
http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Sep_05/article03.htm

Another study spark:
Engineer: How will you be using this stuff?
http://www.thinkerer.org/HeadView/HeadStudySP.htm

Possible implications for online instruction:
1. The specialization of brains precludes any form of generic instructional design.

2. It is possible to identify classes of specialization such that instructional design can be useful for appropriately identified types.

3. It is possible for people to become aware of their specializations and to use that information in selecting both the content and the instructional design methods.

4. The best way to improve the effectiveness of instructional design is aim the instruction at improved learning skills rather than at specific content.

Perhaps all of these statements apply to some combinations of online instruction and the people who will use it. But enough abstractions! Some specialized parts of my brain get bored with abstractions. Those parts insist on concretization.

Don’t memorize! Concretize!

That’s what those specialized parts tell me to do. And since I am aware of that specialization, I can design my learning methods to fit me. And here is another learning methods that fits me:

Break a job into joblets. http://www.thinkerer.org/HeadView/HeadStartButton.htm

So here is the end of the current joblet.

Brains and the people who use them

2005-10-13T08:01:00.000-05:00

In our last episode, we started with:
Brain-Based Learning:
Possible Implications for Online Instruction
Stephanie A. Clemons
http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Sep_05/article03.htm

And moved on to:
Following are some of the findings from brain research (Stevens and Goldberg, 2001)
1. Brains are specialized and are not equally good at everything. (Nine more statements follow.)

So I said to myself:
It is a collection of highly abstract statements, possibly section headings in a chapter. Just the kind of thing a person might run into while studying. Suppose I play the role of a person who is studying this material and meets this list at the beginning of a chapter.

I decided to start with the study sparks page from the Thinkerer:
http://www.thinkerer.org/HeadView/HeadStudySP.htm

My first pick from the study sparks was: Un: Do you believe this stuff? Why?

Not a random choice. The voice of the Un. The perennial adolescent. One of my favorites. No doubt reflecting some specialized feature of my brain. Now on to my answer.

Believe it? I don’t even understand it. I assume that the reference is to human brains. But this could generic statement: “Human brains are specialized for doing human things and would not be equally good at running a dog’s life.” Or it could be an individualistic statement: “Each human brain is uniquely specialized and not equally good at doing everything [that humans in the aggregate can do].”

I suspect the latter is the intent, especially since item 7. (“Each brain is unique.”) seems to say the same thing. (That conveniently implies a 10% reduction in what I will have to learn here.) But there is a problem. The top level claim is that this is a finding from brain research. I know that brain research has established the existence of anatomical and functional difference between brains. But the evidence for specialization seems to come primarily from behavioral research and common observation.

On further examination of the list, I find several other statements that seem to come from behavioral rather than brain research. Thus I conclude that I was working in the wrong frame of reference. As a psychologist, I distinguish between behavioral and brain research. These authors seem to assume that evidence from behavioral research is about the brain. I would not dispute that. So I assume that these statements are about brains and the people who use them.

Now that I understand the statement better, I do believe it. I am not sure what guidance it offers for brain-based learning. But that is another episode. To quote another line from the Thinkrer:

Never take on a big job. Take on a set of little jobs that will add up to a big job.

Brain-Based Learning:

2005-10-11T13:37:00.000-05:00

While checking out the site for the ASTD (American Society for Training & Development. http://www.astd.org/astd), I found to blogs with content relevant to homework and the Thinkerer.

One is the T+D (Training and Development) blog at
http://tdblog.typepad.com/

The other is the Learning Circuits blog at
http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/

I’ll follow these, but for now, I want to go on to something the T+D blog pointed to:
Brain-Based Learning:
Possible Implications for Online Instruction
Stephanie A. Clemons
http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Sep_05/article03.htm

Naturally, I was interested in brain-based learning. I would be much more interested in learning that is not brain based. But I don’t think I will find anything on that. As I skimmed through the above article, I quickly found the following list.

Following are some of the findings from brain research (Stevens and Goldberg, 2001)
§ Brains are specialized and are not equally good at everything.
§ Brains are designed for fluctuations rather than constant attention
§ Emotions are critical to successful learning.
§ Brains are poorly designed for rote learning.
§ Multi-sensory input is desired by our brains.
§ Learning involves the whole body.
§ Each brain is unique.
§ Threat, high anxiety, and a sense of helplessness impairs learning.
§ Brains process both parts and wholes simultaneously
§ Brains are considered “plastic” and continue to develop throughout our lives.

So I said to myself: Here is an example of what the Thinkerer calls badlands (http://www.thinkerer.org/Tools/ToolsExploreChapterClipit.htm).

It is a collection of highly abstract statements, possibly section headings in a chapter. Just the kind of thing a person might run into while studying.

Suppose I play the role of a person who is studying this material and meets this list at the beginning of a chapter. How would I deal with it and how would my responses compare with the suggestions in the Thinkerer?

The suggestions are in http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudySkillsRatem.htm.

Of course, I won’t do any of this today. I believe in quest questions and the Zeigarnik effect. Besides, I haven’t figured out what to say. But I suspect that I will need a separate page to react to each item. And perhaps I will find some ways to improve the above Ratem page.

The Brain Borers That Ate Your Memory (2)

2005-10-01T13:17:00.000-05:00

As promised, a new episode. Speculation. Feeling bored, I suggest, is just your brain’s way of telling you that what you are doing is not important. And therefore, not worth remembering.

Remarkably, there are people who study material they find boring. Ask someone about studying such material and they (or at least the verbal system) will probably tell you that this material is important, even though it is boring. They will cite long-term consequences to show the importance.

Commendable self-discipline. But maybe not good strategy if the rest of the brain has not bought into that story. Most of the brain is probably built to work in the present. So “Be here now” comes in ahead of “Be there then.”

My speculation is that when your brain says it is bored, it means something like this:
Established ROUTINE maintenance state.
Processing priorities: LOW
Main memory systems: OFFLINE
Alert systems: MINIMIZED

Can the Head Nazis upgrade that state? Maybe. But then you wouldn’t feel bored. So people who try the Head Nazis and still feel bored may want to look for a strategy to get better service out of their brains.

One strategy I cited before was the use of acupressure points. If it is really effective, of course, it should sweep the educational world. Since a number of students learned to use this method, the obvious next study is to follow up on these people a year later and see if:

they are still using it,
no longer need it, or
did not find continuing benefits.

Meanwhile, back at the Thinkerer, we have several pages that suggest alternative strategies;

Quest Questions
http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudyQuestQuest.htm

The Study Skills Ratem page
Energizers
Mechanizers
http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudySkillsRatem.htm
.
Focus form
http://www.thinkerer.org/Tools/ToolsFocusForm.htm

The general strategy here is to make connections between those future goals of the Vulcan and the brain’s need to process in the present. Come to think of it, I don’t think we have done all we can do on that. So we will need to connect that future goal to our present mental processes. If we have a strategy to do that.

Hark it! Hark it! Hear a market?

2005-09-24T08:25:00.000-05:00

This page is for entrepreneurs-in-waiting. Not the rich types who have already built a product and the market for it. Not even for the happy hunters who have a product, a plan, and hope of venture financing. This page is for entrepreneurs who have not yet figured out that they will be entrepreneurs.

An entrepreneur is someone who spots a need, figures out how to meet the need at a cost that matches the need, and figures out how to market the needed product.

Education is certainly a place to spot needs. Occasionally, an entrepreneur figures out how to meet an educational need at reasonable cost.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Cliff. Cliff Hillegass

Some things in the Thinkerer section on study may suggest needs to some future entrepreneur. A widely taught course might have enough needers to make a potential market. This is the tale of the Long Tail, as told by Chris Anderson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail

This tale, based on the experience of Amazon.com and E-bay says that if you can reach a large population, you can successfully market things that only serve a small fraction of the people. Here are pages in the Thinkerer suggesting things that only serve a small fraction of the people.

http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudyAudioTM.htm
http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudyRepeatTM.htm

I called these Maybe Markets. They are things that take creativity and a little skill with computers. They could easily be offered on the web. To get much use out of them, a person would have to do some editing and aggregating. Maybe just the thing for someone in journalism or marketing. Might not make money. But it still might look good on a resume’.

Beating the Borers (1)

2005-09-17T12:22:00.000-05:00

Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System have found a way to combat the sleepiness and to keep students awake during class, and it doesn't have anything to do with caffeine or high-sugar snacks.

In a study published in the latest issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, they report that students in a class who were taught to self-administer acupressure treatments to stimulation points on their legs, feet, hands and heads were more alert and less fatigued.

"The study showed that a stimulation acupressure regimen leads to a statistically significant reduction in sleepiness compared to an acupressure treatment that focuses on relaxation," says Richard E. Harris, Ph.D., research investigator in the Division of Rheumatology at the U-M Medical School's Department of Internal Medicine and a researcher at the U-M Health System's Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center.
---
Here I introduce a series about the Borers. The Borers are better known by their full title: The Brain Borers That Ate Your Memory. In this episode, we see the Scientist (For every Menace, there is a Scientist.) discovering the Weakness (Menaces always have a Weakness).

Actually, what the research showed was a reduction in sleepiness in self-reports on the Stanford Sleepiness Scale. The researchers note that future research will be needed to determine whether there is an effect on classroom performance.

This paradigm is the ideal placebo study for two reasons. First, self-reports are highly susceptible to the placebo effect. Second, a placebo effect here might be just what you want. The treatment, skin pressure, is harmless, easy, and free. If it does any good at all, for whatever reason, it is worth the cost.

What’s more, this kind of treatment almost guarantees a placebo effect for people who believe in it. And a placebo effect might even be more useful than a real effect here. A placebo effect would work even if you didn’t get the pressure point right or didn’t do the treatment right. You could do it right there in class, just when the lecture got really boring.

The experimenter in this case had the people press their points at lunch. But I think it would probably work better right when you need it. The usual advice to people who get sleepy while studying is to get up, walk around, get some coffee, and take a short break. That would produce an entertaining effect in a lecture, but authority figures would probably not like it. But people can press their points without bothering anyone.

By the way, I’m not sure what the points are, but the information is probably available from the article or the author.

Praise and the Poop Factor

2005-09-10T12:26:00.000-05:00

Some psychologists and authors are backtracking on their earlier directives to praise, praise, praise. They say overpraising creates overinflated egos, not positive self-esteem. It also overly protects children from experiencing conflict and failure. It’s something to think about as another school year begins.

Among those making a U-turn is Florida State University psychology professor Roy Baumeister, who for 30 years attempted to document the value of positive self-esteem, only to experience “one of the biggest disappointments of my career.”
---
Above is from The World of Psychology blog by John Grohol: http://psychcentral.com/blog/

Self-esteem's role long has been overrated, says child psychologist David Anderegg, author of the parenting book Worried All the Time (Free Press, $24).

About those directives. I don’t recall any directives from psychologists telling parents to apply praise indiscriminately. Besides, psychologists have no authority to issue directives. I think I have seen such advice from authors. And authors, of course, do have authority to issue directives. Fortunately, parents have the authority to ignore directives.

Most psychologists would point out that praise serves to strengthen the praised behavior. Thus, it would be unwise to praise ineffective behavior.

Because children understand language, however, parents can make effective distinctions about what they are praising. Even though the child does not succeed, a parent might praise the child:
for trying,
for improving,
for a well-done part of the task, or
for bounce-back.

Here are a few related ideas from the Thinkerer.
http://www.thinkerer.org/HeadView/HeadBounce.htm
http://www.thinkerer.org/HeadView/HeadConfidence.htm

The only public part of the success story is the last act.
Failure is not in falling down; it is in staying down.
If failure were fatal, we’d all be dead.
Practice the bounce-back routine. Yes, it does exist. But only for successful people.
You do not build self-confidence out of failing. You build it out of bouncing back.
The difference between a trial run and a failure lies in what you get out of it.
If you always succeed, you are overqualified for your job.
Thomas Edison: I have not failed. I've just found 1,000 ways that won't work.
You did not fail if you learned how to do better next time.
Obstacles are just nature’s way of showing us what we can do.
Challenges are the root stock of confidence.
Football would be a lot easier without the other team.
Self-confidence grows not from what you can do, but what you know you can do

General update

2005-09-04T12:39:00.000-05:00

A little unity here. The parenting section of Thinkerer
http://www.thinkerer.org/Parenting/ParIntro.htm
connected to the Study section

http://www.thinkerer.org/Topics/TopicsStudy.htm

The Study section connected to the team section
http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudyTeam.htm

And the team section connected to the parenting section
http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudyTeamPAR.htm

I am still working on Quest Questions, descriptors, and review, but I think the configuration is usable as is. The study integrator at the most concrete level is
http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudySkillsRatem.htm

I am still figuring out how to provide a second Mechanizer. That is to come out of the time-line notion. More generally, a time-line is a 2-d layout presenting the most relevant dimensions of the content. And it will tie in with review as well as descriptors.

People can use the Ratem page as a rating device and then follow links to pages about specific skills. The current content deals with how, but not with when. I will add that when I figure it out.

Learning Teams: the Empath’s Tale

2005-08-28T11:47:00.000-05:00

The topic formerly known as cooperative learning. And other things. We were talking about materials for parents. And we have previous research on materials for cooperative study. Now we are thinking about materials for workshops by paraprofessionals (counselors, tutors).

How different are these materials? Different in content, but they might be similar in their construction principles. The are all about interaction with other people. I can think of a few principles that apply at that level of abstraction.

Working on a shared goal.
Contributions from each are seen as necessary by all.
A group can find more ideas than most individuals.
Social approval is a form of reinforcement.
Social approval for contributions to the group will increase efforts to contribute.
Group maintenance roles are as important as task roles.
The skill in group maintenance roles is not only in execution, but in timing.
Teamwork has an advantage when the task requires breadth of skills or breadth of experience.
Team interaction can provide motivation and incentives for effort.
(more TBD)

Putting some of these ideas together, I used Team Study as one of the Energizers in the Study Skills Ratem page.
http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudySkillsRatem.htm

Now I am looking for scenarios that will work with team study. Here are some preliminary examples.

Games
Charades: Pick a Recalling Card. Act out the answer, others guess the question.

Drama
One person: Lecture the team about a topic. Be as pompous as you can. Keep a straight face.

Brainstorm
List the ten most likely questions on the test
List the ten least likely answers on the test.
List the ten worst answers that might be on the test.
List the ten funniest answers that might be on the test.
Find similarities, pick the best. .
Find narratives, put them together.
Take the baddest of the badlands. Work up two plans to beat the bad out of it.

Beating the Badlands

2005-08-21T09:12:00.000-05:00

(draft page)

Badlands are a problem. A problem is an opportunity to find out what you can do. Here is a map with some things you can do to beat the badlands.

Organizer Overlook [Node 1]There are often common paths. Look for these first. These are not limited to the badlands, of course. But in the easy fields, you see them immediately. That’s what makes the easy fields easy. Now guess what makes the badlands bad.

[Each of these 5 items gets its own page and link(s)]

Similes metaphors. (TBD) Is this like any familiar things? How is it like them. How is it different?

Narratives. Does this make a story? Most processes and procedures do. Can you tell the story.

Imagination, Visualization. Adequately covered in the Thinkerer, I believe

Familiars. Integration with familiar things. (TBD) Probably ties with pages about familiar places.

Features. Descriptors: (In progress) Identify the descriptors, Use tables to relate them to nouns

Possible addition:
Internal integration within the content. (TBD) This would lead to activities that call for you to recall or figure out the connection between two randomly chosen items in the content. Probably something like 3 degrees of separation. This may not belong under organizers, but under self-testing or review. And would work well in cooperative study.

Similes. Narrate. Imagine. Familiars. Features. SNIFF

Right: Did you find an organizer? Yes: Use it. No: Memorize this! (link).

Study: best practices

2005-08-13T09:30:00.000-05:00

I have started a Clipit with the above title in the trial run section. There is a self-scoring option. There are concretizing links in case the reader wants to do a bit of self-improvement.

http://thinkerer.org/Tools/ToolsTrialIntro.htm

Dates, names and events

2005-08-12T08:23:00.000-05:00

Date-hater canyon. This calls for a time line as well as a set of cards. Also some planning: Will you be dealing with other dates next month? Next year? Parents should give this some thought. The more date-hating you will have to do, the more your preparation will pay off later.

I am making an example time line. This will work better in html, so I have put it in the Thinkerer site. Presently it is in trial form. You can access it through this page.

http://thinkerer.org/Tools/ToolsTrialIntro.htm

Later it will be under Studying, Badlands.

The related text comments will suggest various ways to make a timeline. Computer, paper, wall strip, hanging cord. Physical timelines would use recalling cards, attachable and removable. Remove for handy review. Remove when you know it cold.

Columns and colors can represent key descriptors, as in the example. On physical, colored clips might be used (and fasten as well as mark).

What Makes the Badlands Bad?

2005-08-11T12:40:00.000-05:00

Start with a bit of Vulcan thinking. You find that part of the chapter is material that looks difficult for you. Obviously, the problem is not with you. If the problem were with you, everything in the chapter would look difficult to you. So what makes the badlands bad?

If you started in friendly territory, you already have a clue. What makes the friendly territory friendly? It is familiar. It connects with things you have already worked with before. It uses words you already own. It talks about events that you can imagine as events. You have already figured out the important descriptors (we will need to help people on this). You brain has already figured out how to organize things in ways that will fit you and the way you need to use the stuff.

Now back to the Badlands. How many of these descriptions apply to the Badlands? Probably not many. Coincidence? Or something more? You be the judge.

So what do you do with the Badlands? Put off the job as long as possible? Start memorizing by saying things over and over to yourself? Complain?

Or you might try none of the above. Here we suggest a few variations on none of the above. Since you already know what makes territory friendly, you have some idea about how to tame the Badlands.

Connect them with stuff you have worked with before. (Not just in a particular course. What is this like? If you can’t think of useful similes, try silly similes.)

You see some words you don’t own, grab them. (Get to know the McGuffin by imagery, talking with other people about it, making it into a dramatic story.)

Look for events you can imagine. (Look behind those technical terms.)

Figure out the key descriptors. (These are relevant attributes or dimensions of variation. They are the things you will want to know for multiple choice test. You find them by looking for clusters or separation. Explaining this is impossible, so it will take us a while to do it.)

Look for several ways to organize the stuff. (They don’t have to be better than what the text did. Try simple ways: ranked from least difficult to incomprehensible. Ranked from most concrete detail to most abstract. Two dimensional layout on these dimensions. Common attributes in scholastic work.)

(This is draft thinking for a page).

How to learn a whatsit

2005-08-04T12:34:00.000-05:00

This was going to be about learning a concept, but psychology tends to take a limited view of that term. This line of thinking grows out of vocabulary building, mainly of the technical kind. Students generally have to master a technical vocabulary in a course. They might treat this task as in the badlands, so I am looking for ways they could handle the job.

I see two possible problems in this context. One lies in confusion among the terms. If the terms are similar, some attention to discrimination learning may be needed. The other problem lies in an inadequate development of the mental representation that mediates the denotation of the term. Since I don’t know a simple term for what I just said, I will refer to that mental representation as the McGuffin, following Alfred Hitchcock.

I think it is clear that the McGuffin must be developed before vocabulary learning can be completed. Technical presentation may not follow that order. Some students may not have good ways to evaluate how well they have developed the McGuffin for a term. Such students may fall back on memorizing a definition, a process that would obscure the problem without solving it. Thus we probably need to look for clues to direct the student to McGuffin learning.

We would want to treat McGuffin learning itself in a separate area. There are several different kinds of McGuffins. I will list them here, along with relevant features that might later serve in organizing the presentation.

Simple concept. Behavior: Correctly assign instances and counter instances in and out of the class. Varies by relevant dimensions and precision of observation.

Taxonomic concepts. Behavior: As with simple concept, but add: Be able to name superset, sibling sets, and subsets; be able to give criteria for membership in all these sets.

Static graphic. Example: geographic map. Cue: Text presents graphic. Behavior: derive inferences from the graphic as related to context. Note: Learning may require practice in deriving inferences. Potential problems: persistence of attention, evaluation of mastery. May benefit from conversion to process. See also relational descriptors below.

Dynamic graphic. Example: Circulatory system. Cue: Text presents graphic with narrative (story of what happens) and/or arrows on graphic. Behavior: Describe the dynamic process. Derive inferences from the dynamic process.

Narrated process. Example: How to measure blood pressure. Cue: Text presents several steps. Behavior: Physically replicate the process. On paper, locate an step by citing steps before and after. Cite error checks and proper corrections.

Relational descriptors. Example: anterior-posterior (in anatomy). Cue: graphic display, lack of meaning out of relational context. Behavior: use the term appropriately in context. Distinguish appropriate from inappropriate use.

Review: Beating the Badlands

2005-08-02T07:47:00.000-05:00

Here is a summary of our discussion Monday, 8-1. A prime reason for the designation Badlands in part of a chapter is that it contains details that do not connect easily and specifically with the other content. Examples are lists of words, ordered lists, definitions of terms, formulae, dates, and names of people.

A related situation, which may not always be recognized as Badlands, is content that will call for “distinguish between,” “compare and contrast,” or “give pro and con.” Here the problem may not be directly with the content but with implied content. These questions call for selection and recall of an appropriate set of features for the distinction or contrast.

We identified one general plan that seems to apply, with variations, to all of these cases. The general plan starts with a set of 3x5 cards. We call these study cards or review cards, not flash cards. Here are the generalized instructions:

Making
1. In reviewing the chapter, pick a few items that you think are likely to appear on the test and likely to be hard to remember.

2. Fill out a card for each item. The front of the card carries a phrase as it would appear in the question on the test. The back of the card carries one or several items that describe the answer. These may be specific names, graphic representations, memory aids, or other things that the person thinks will help. In the case of formulae, we will suggest some particular descriptors for the back, including a verbal description of what it does, the formula itself, units if applicable, and example of use. For vocabulary items, we will mention root words.

Using
3. Use these cards soon after you make them. With a formula, write out the formula as best you can. The purpose here is not to get it right on the first try. The purpose is to find the parts that you do remember. That tells you what you still need to focus on.

4. Use the cards a few hours later. If possible, put this second pass close to bedtime.

5. Use the cards the next day. The expression “know it cold” applies if you get all the answers right after leaving the cards alone for at least a day.

6. If you need further study, carry the cards around with you. When you have a free moment, take out one of the cards and make the answer in your head.

7. When you are satisfied with what you can answer, enjoy your satisfaction. One of the main benefits of the study cards is that they tell you when you have finished studying. If you now have to study a new chapter, go through it and put your review cards where you think they fit. Carry forward your review cards to new chapters, but don’t expect to use all your cards on subsequent chapters. Try for at least ten cards per chapter.

Reviewing
8. When you review for a test, bring out those review cards again. If you have review cards for several chapters, mix them together. The more cards you have, the more time you should allow for review. A simple rule of thumb: start one day earlier for every ten cards in your deck. (TBR)

9. Use the cards in preparation for the final. Not necessarily for review. You will know most of the cards cold. Put those aside on the first pass and just review the ones that need a bit more polish. (You may want to rework the backs of these cards. The problem may be in what you originally wrote.)
---
We have some further uses for the cards, such as cooperative review. There might also be cooperative preparation. We will also suggest content-specific variations, such as time lines, maps and good gestalt. In some cases, the cards might be retained for use with the next level course. If parents use these with their children, they (parents or children) could use them for review before the new school year. Particularly difficult items might be put in audio format with mp3 players.

We have good reasons to believe that this method will improve recall. I won’t write them here, but will summarize them later. We would want to use them as principles in specialization and in other contexts. I think the set of principles might be called multi-module learning.

Review: The Vulcan’s tale

2005-07-29T12:21:00.000-05:00

Review. The Janus principle. Looking backward. Looking forward. The Un wants to name a month after it.

Is this a discussion of what we have done so far or a discussion of review as part of homework? Both. More efficient to make your ideas do double duty.

The “One true path” story is now in the Thinkerer, with the trial paths subroutine.

http://thinkerer.org/Studying/ToolsStudyIntro.htm

The parenting section now gives pointers to the study section.

http://thinkerer.org/Parenting/ParIntro.htm

It also gives some suggestions about how parents could use parts of the study section with children and teens. We probably need more in this area.

I think we have a good start on treating Paths and Explore (The Clipit is now a checklist of things that you might want to do, but not all at once.)

We may want a page about how to mix reading with exploring, but the Vulcan prefers to go next to Review. That will bound the problem and probably give some guidance on the reading part.

Taxonomy of review procedures
Prompt review. At each checkpoint.
Recap review. Immediately after finishing the chapter (relates to the BackStart path.)
Test review. As part of test prep. It may be useful to do all of these in some cases. They have different functions.

Prompt review. Serves to
Connect elements in the chapter
Identify problems with understanding
Reinforce connections with material outside the chapter
Identify items that may require more memory effort (badlands).
Identify organization needs.

Recap review. Serves to
Identify memory problems
Identify inadequate understanding
Identify verbalization problems
Reinforce recall

Test review. Serves to
Identify easy-recall items (Which may then serve as anchors for hard items.)
Relate recall to objectives (Items on test).
Assess test readiness. (Diagnosis and remedy)Build test confidence.

Review may be a particularly useful place to introduce methods for cooperative learning. The Un and the Empath suggest scripts in the form of games. One hopes that they will write some suggestions. Vulcans do not do games.

YOUR ONE TRUE PATH TO STUDYING (THE UN’S TALE)

2005-07-24T12:08:00.000-05:00

(Refer back to the Explore a Chapter Clipit. Since I derived it from the SQ of SQ3R, I suppose I need to make clear that it does not have to be done at the beginning. I keep forgetting that other people believe in God-given rules. So here is my first cut on a Thinkerer page.)
---
Zen: You already know it.
Your one true path to studying is your path.

Not very helpful? But you didn’t expect we would tell you what to do. And we didn’t expect you would do it if we told you. The best we can do is point out some common options in how people study. And suggest some ways you can explore them.

Strategies for studying a chapter: The standard advice is in the form of SQ3R. It says start by surveying the chapter. That may be good general advice. But it may not be the best advice for you. Here. Now. With this chapter. With this topic. With what you already know.

You have two general options here. Do what you’ve always done. Try some variations.

If you always do what you've always done,
you’ll always get what you've always got.

Here are some variations you can try. Unless you like what you’ve always got.

Explore. If you are going to study something, you will probably need to get an overview or survey at some time. But on your terms. Here are three possibilities.

Explore first (SQ3R mandate).

Read first. Explore later, along with your review.

Mix and match: Start reading. Explore when you fee like it. For example, explore when you get bored. Use the exploring to decide what to do the next time you get bored from reading. If you don’t get bored, that may be a cue.

(Include link to Explore a Chapter Clipit here.)
http://thinkerer.org/Tools/ToolsExploreChapterClipit.htm

Quest questions. (We probably want to make a Clipit and Cuepon set of generic guide questions.)

Read a section. (Mention rest stops and check points from Explore Clipit. Can’t skip these, even if you use an explore-later option. Check points replace the Recite item.)

Review. (Include quest questions and explorer’s notes here.)

Flush Cards

2005-07-09T12:28:00.000-05:00

I have added two topics to the Thinkerer:
Parenting:
http://thinkerer.org/Parenting/ParIntro.htm
Studying:
http://thinkerer.org/Topics/TopicsStudy.htm
These are interconnected, but have somewhat different audiences. The studying section would be directly used by college students an up. Parents might use it to help younger students. The Studying section uses a sparks Clipit with generic study questions and suggestions. Later I will put this in Cuepon format or something like that.

I am thinking of a variant that could be conveniently cut into strips that would serve as book marks. (Put them in your book before you start reading, use them as you come to them.) I am also thinking of a related format that works somewhat like flash cards only with less sadism.

This line of thinking comes from another site I found on the web. It would allow you to make flash cards of any subject you wanted to teach your children to hate. I only looked at one, a vocalulary builder. It said Homeostasis. On the back were several dictionary definitions.

Cognitive engineering would recommend multi-module memory. Instead of a definition, I would use a picture of a thermostat. I found several graphics available in standard clipart. So I could replace the dictionary definitions with graphics if the person has received instructions showing homeostasis in these terms. That would connect the word to visual memory and even to event memory if the student has seen or imagined the operation of the thermostat. That way, the Storyboarders don’t feel left out.

Then there is the issue of format. My Engineer wants to put the items next to each other. That would go better with printing.

Shudoff: Properly made flash cards have the stimulus on the front and the response on the back. It has always been done that way.
Whys Guy: Why has it always been done that way?
Shudoff: So the student can’t read the answer.
Networker: Flash cards were mainly used for drill and practice in rote memory tasks, such as the add and multiply tables.

Vulcan: We are now talking about a different kind of learning. Different objectives. The Boss called the example a vocabulary builder, but that seems to represent confusion of objectives. The term refers to a technical concept. It is of little use except in a technical context. The objective would be able to understand and use the concept. A dictionary definition would be little use. Moreover, while the name is an important part of the concept, effective use requires a two-way connection. In summary, if we limit our plans to concept learning, the side by side format may be more appropriate.

Canter: But we can’t use that because students will just read the answer.
Engineer: The Canters can’t. Engineers can. If we want to keep the students from reading the answer, we will put the strip art in a book with only one side sticking out. That way, they can learn in either direction.
Empath: They can also do it by themselves. Parents will like that.
Un: And so will teens. Teems have always known that the real reason for flash cards is to make it look as if parents have all the answers.
Hunter: But specifically, what will we do with this format? We could make strip are for concept learning. But to do that, we would have to gather a large number of concepts.
Engineer: Or we could just give people a plan on how to do it and let them make the strips themselves. Anybody with a computer and printer could do it. Even a child could do it.
Empath: And that part might really be popular with parents.

Homework Web Resources

2005-07-07T14:21:00.000-05:00

Explorer: I did some more checking on web resources. Consumer’s Reports has essentially nothing about educational resources. I wonder why they are so committed to reporting recalls of junk you probably can’t find and not interested in evaluating educational resources.

I found two promising sites that seemed to have some authoritative work behind them.

BrainPOP is a web site that seems to know how to use multimedia presentations for instruction. They claim that 15%of US school districts subscribe and that they have 3 million (child) users. http://www.brainpop.com/

edHelper.com is designed for teachers. It seems to be organized to fit a standard curriculum. I looked at the vocabulary treatment (since that is one my current projects). I found the contents organized by grade, with extensive practice materials available. The practice materials probably require a subscription. But the vocabulary list was readily available to the public.

I could also see, from the titles of the practice materials, that the site offered abundant practice content. Some of it even sounded interesting. All of it, however, appeared to be intraverbal (and mostly in print form). Or, in Thinkerer terms, called primarily on the main verbal modules. I think these methods would work best if earlier preparation has given the child oral experience with the words and the reality-referenced context. http://www.edhelper.com/

Question-forming and answering (goal setting)

2005-07-06T13:15:00.000-05:00

In this context, I am assuming that a common goal of studying is to become able to answer questions. That is the standard (Turing test) method for determining whether a persons understands a topic. The skills required here are:

Formulating the important questions.
Distinguishing important from unimportant questions.
Identifying the characteristics of the expected answer. Characteristics include required level of abstraction, amount of detail, and structure (description, narration, comparison/contrast, etc.)
Identifying the relevant information.
Constructing a credible answer. Credibility may depend on choice of language, evidence of sources, appropriate limitations on conclusions.

The questions may have been directly posed in the homework. Or part of the task may be to formulate the relevant questions.

Don Dansereau has a set of generic questions in his book Pro Learning Strategies. These are derived from common journalism scripts (Who, What, etc.). I will adapt these to the Headview format and add more. They will easily fit the Head Staff. Later I will put them in Cuepon format. In Cuepon format, a parent could select at random and ask a question. Or a child could go through all the questions and decide which are irrelevant.

Possible scripts: What is this stuff like? Probably what you studied last week. For memory help, remember (imagine) the class in which the teacher asked about specific similar content. (Pick the content first. Then imagine.)

To the child: Pretend you are the teacher. Stand up and ask me (parent) a question you think the teacher might ask. Parent will give partial answer, but need help, preferably from the child (acting as teacher).

Question answering scripts. (See The Storyboarder’s Story: Scripted Cooperative Learning as an example.)

Answer-evaluating scripts. How do you know when you are finished? Parent: I’ll pretend I am the teacher. I’ll ask you questions. (Be sure the list of questions has bee prepared beforehand.)

Parenting is the Superset: Engineer’s tale

2005-07-05T10:21:00.000-05:00

As the Vulcan points out, parenting is the superset for our discussion of homework. So the first step is to open a new Thinkerer venue: Parenting. Then we can analyze into subsets such as homework. We can also draw on other venues in the Thinkerer. The following item will probably become a Thinkerer page soon. There could be follow-up pages about how to use the results.

The people in your child’s head
By the Empath

People play a number of common roles. We have given the roles names, such as Explorer, Hunter, or Empath. Most of these roles are evident in childhood. Some are actively encouraged by parents. For example, parents try to call up the Empath with questions such as, “How would you feel if…”

One role that is not prominent in childhood is the Vulcan. The brain structures that produce the Vulcan role develop slowly. Those brain structures are probably not fully developed (especially in boys) until well beyond the age of twenty.

You may find it useful to understand your child or teen in terms of these roles. To do that, go to the section on Meet Your Head Staff and fill out the sheets on behalf of your child.

Head staff: http://thinkerer.org/HeadOffice/HOffIntro.htm
Meet your head staff: http://thinkerer.org/YourHead/YourHOffIntro.htm

Caution! Before you do this, silence your own Shudoff. Decide that for now, here in this moment, you do not know what your child should be. Set aside, for the moment, your knowledge of good and evil. Decide that in this moment you are going to deal with what is. You are seeking the truth. Not evaluation.
If you cannot do this, choose one of the options below.

Option 1. Skip the whole thing. Save it for later.
Option 2. Fill out the sheets for yourself. You may learn how to silence your Shudoff that way. If you need more help on that, fill out the sheets for someone else you know.

Consider what you find as background understanding. Not something you want to discuss with other people. And not necessarily something you want to change.

Thinkerer Tools to Kid Think: Engineer’s Tale

2005-07-02T09:34:00.000-05:00

Concrete is harder than abstract. Take translating the Thinkerer tools into kid talk as an example. Rolls trippingly off the tongue. But the action will be done on one tool at a time. And it may be specific to the particular combination of tool and skill. And parents will care primarily about skills. The Empath insists that a parent will probably think: “I see a problem with skill X (X=getting started, say). What tool do I use and how do I use it?”

Here we revert to the previous partial taxonomy of life learning skills relevant to homework. We use an outline form because it works with text better that tables. We also focus the discussion on daily homework. (We will distinguish several subclasses of homework: daily, test preparation, and projects. These will probably integrate as different subclasses of scripts.)

Getting started. Starting Scripts? TBD. Might call for selecting scripts below.
Start Buttons http://thinkerer.org/HeadView/HeadStartButton.htm
Startalittles. http://thinkerer.org/Tools/ToolsStartaLittle.htm

Task properties: Difficult or boring. These may lead to different starting scripts, although children might describe a task as boring when the main problem is difficulty with underlying skills. Here, I will focus on difficulty.
Starting scripts would be of the general form:

What product and/or ability is the child supposed to have when finished?
What are the alternative routes to get there? (Possible Map)
How will you and the child know when you (both) have won?

The following skills seem relevant to these scripts. I will suggest plans for each in later blogs.

Question-forming and answering (goal setting).
Resource assessment Connect to previous knowledge, use info resources
Multi-module learning. (Memory and reconstruction skills)
Scheduling, pacing, focus, and span of attention
Self-confidence and Canter control.

The Storyboarder’s Story: Scripted Cooperative Learning

2005-07-01T08:40:00.000-05:00

(This is a blog that I should have posted here before, but instead posted in my blog about Cognitive engineering. The notion of cooperation scripts is becoming increasingly important here, so I want this item available here.)

Not so long ago, in an episode not far away, the Engineer suggested the notion of learning power-packs. One example was cooperative learning scripts. Here’s how something like that might work:

Parental power-packs. These are designed to look like innocent web pages. Each page carries a script for interactive homeworking. The script describes the roles to be played by the parent in this episode. Different scripts will assign different roles. For example, the parent may be a peer, cooperatively learning with the child. Or the parent may play the role of the learner, with the child doing the teaching. Or the parent may be an assistant, providing particular kinds of help.

Each script will also focus on a life-learning skill. Life-learning skills are general skills relevant to learning at any time (not just in school). Examples are goal-setting, question-answering, getting started, and Canter control. Specific mnemonic tricks may also be included.

Scripts will probably also come in several styles. Examples of styles might be auditory, imagery, and particular characteristics to be exhibited by the parents. The Vulcan points out that we will need a taxonomy of styles, skills, and other set designation that a Storyboarder can so easily throw around. We’ll leave that to the day of the Vulcan.

The parent will choose the power-pack that fits the particular assignment and the child. After the child has some experience with the power-packs, the parent will probably get advice from the child on the choice of power-packs. Because the power-packs deal with general skills, they can be reused many times.

The Networker points out that these power-packs are a lot like what educators call “instructional activities.” Since children and parents naturally hate “instructional activities,” it will be important to make clear the distinction. The parent is merely helping the child with the homework. The scripts merely vary details of the help. Parents should not let the script delay the work. The scripts will produce incidental learning over time, but this is incidental.
Example:

I’ll find it for you.
Skill: Question answering: specifying the content
Role: Parent as assistant
Application: Child is provided with questions, must find the answers in existing text.
Parent: Pick a question. I will read the text to find the answer for you. But you have to help me. How will I recognize the answer? What words will be in the answer? What words might be in a nearby heading? Are there any long words I could look for? (I can find long words without reading the whole thing.) What other ideas might come before this answer? What other ideas might come after it? Am I likely to find it in the beginning, the middle, or the end? Is there any place at the beginning that might help me know where to look?

Parent may be mechanical in following instructions given by the child. If the child gives a poor choice of words in the answer, the parent may begin the search and let the problems with the choice become evident to the child. When a useful passage is found, the parent may read it aloud or mark the important words (which will generally match the words in good search instructions.)

Starting: Engineer’s Tale

2005-06-29T09:04:00.000-05:00

It seems likely that we will want to incorporate existing Thinkerer content into the Homework section. A natural starting point is getting started. Doer’s Block is the entry topic on that. I have reworked that to make it more focused on starting. The title is now:
Doer’s Block or Starting Block http://thinkerer.org/Topics/TopicsDoersBlock.htm

I put a section on the index page: Top Topics. Doer’s block is presently in that.
http://thinkerer.org/

I also added a section called Start Buttons with suggestions for getting started:
http://thinkerer.org/HeadView/HeadStartButton.htm

The next step on this seems to be translating the Thinkerer tools into kid talk. That’s more Engineer work.

Using Current Content: Engineer’s Tale

2005-06-19T13:15:00.000-05:00

Thinkering for parents. Thinkering for children.
Bad title? Engineers use working titles. Get some of the more creative members of the Mulling Team onto it.

The Vulcan (seeking the superset) suggested that we deal with homework in terms of life-learning skills. That is, skills that apply, not just to homework, but to any kind of learning. The Vulcan suggested the following skills.

Partial taxonomy of life-learning skills
Goal-setting.
Resource assessment.
Planning and subgoal development.
Scheduling.
Question-answering.
Getting started.
Self-confidence and Canter control.

Here are some current Thinkerer topics that seem to relate to some of these skills.

Focus. Concentration. Procrastination. Self-confidence. Motivation. Memory. Self-starting.

We can point parents to current content related to these topics. We will probably want to suggest scripts for use with children. Cuepons seem particularly promising. There might be scripts for working on a topic like memory and scripts for using a particular Cuepon.

Example: Self-starting and procrastination. Cuepons: Use the Start Buttons, pick one and follow the advice. For detailed scenarios, check with the Storyboarder. Engineers don’t tell stories. Only plans.

Taxonomies: The Vulcan’s Story

2005-06-15T12:54:00.000-05:00

The Storyboarder recently noted that we will need a taxonomy of styles, skills, and other set designations. Vulcans, however, prefer to start with an organization in terms of objectives. Here the long-term objective is to provide suggestions that parents may use to facilitate the development of life-learning skills in their children.

Life-learning skills are general skills relevant to learning at any time (not just in school). Note that many of these skills apply beyond learning to ordinary living activities. Indeed, one could argue that the development of these skills is the main function of education. The Networker suggests that the particular content requirements merely play the role of hills and curves in a cross country race. Following is a partial taxonomy of life-learning skills as derived from the Thinkerer.

Goal-setting.
Resource assessment.
Planning and subgoal development.
Scheduling.
Question-answering.
Getting started.
Self-confidence and Canter control.
-----
The Empath and the Engineer point out that parents can use suggestions only if they can find them. The first rule of problem-solving is to start from where you are. That means where the parents are. We need a taxonomy that organizes the problem so that parents can easily find their way to useful solutions. Here are two taxonomies relevant to that objective.

Stage:
Starting: Assess objectives, set concrete goals (not necessarily communicated to child), develop or prepare plans at the parental level.
Starting the child:
Continuing: Details vary with content and performance goals.
Evaluatimg: Details vary with content and performance goals.
Troubleshooting, repair: Details develop from evaluation and goals/
Review: Depends on long-term objectives.
----
Content and performance goals
Reproduce oral material verbatim and on cue (Poems, definitions.)
Reconstruct narrative material from memory. (Answer free form questions about the content.)
Integrate the material with previously learned material. (Answer free form questions to show the integration.)
Integrate the material with other experiences. (Answer free form questions to show the integration.)
Distinguish appropriate and inappropriate statements about content. (Multiple choice or T/F tests.)
More (TBD)
-----

These two taxonomies seem likely (when crossed) to support reasonably specific selection of problem conditions.

The Storyyboarder suggested “parental-powerpacks” in the form of cooperative learning scripts. Vulcan creativity call for keeping possibilities open until a choice is necessary. The above taxonomies apply to problems, not solutions. Thus they can be used with any solution. In another discussion, we will deal with taxonomies relevant to solutions.

The Explorer’s story: Web resources

2005-06-05T08:39:00.000-05:00

A Google search on studying easily turned up the following relevant items
http://www.how-to-study.com/
This site is the work of professional educators with good credentials. It offers free advice on the following subjects:

Preparing to Study. Taking Notes in Class. Learning Styles (Assessments. Not clear what to do with them). A Strategy for Reading Textbooks. A Strategy for Reading Novels. Good Listening In Class. Solving Math Word Problems. Using Reference Sources. A Strategy for Taking Tests. Reading Comprehension. Remembering Information. Building Vocabulary. Writing a Research Paper. Making an Oral Presentation. Managing Time. Word Identification Strategy. Writing Techniques.

This advice is offered at a level suited for high school and above. It is standard advice and looks like a reasonable collection to me. Parents of younger children could use it as a resource to be translated into material appropriate for the child and the learning task.

Also on this site are computer based materials designed (and sold) for specific grade levels. Those relevant to study skills are noted below.

Upper elementary and middle school
Welcome to our study skills and strategies program for students in upper elementary and middle school (2nd Edition). The program consists of a CD-ROM Assessment, an Instructional Activities Book, and a separate Teacher's Guide. There is total correspondence between the assessment items and the instructional activities. TOGETHER, the assessment and instruction provide a complete program at a low, one-time cost!
---------
This unit seems mainly designed and priced for school use. 1 computer: $199. While the content is probably useful, there is no way to know whether a specific child would use it effectively. I suspect that many children would view it as just another thing to learn.
Other units: Language Arts. Learning Styles. Math. Reading.

High School
Welcome to our study skills program for High School. The program consists of a CD-ROM Assessment and a Reproducible Activity Book that provides activities for teaching the skills and strategies assessed. TOGETHER, they provide a complete program at a low, one-time cost! (1 computer: $179)
----
Another useful resource on study skills is provided by Virginia Polytechnic Institute:
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html
Here are the topics it covers: Time Scheduling Suggestions. Where Does Time Go? More Information on Time Scheduling. Acronyms. Study Skill Checklist. Concentration - Some Basic Guidelines. Control of the Study Environment. Note Taking - The Cornell System. Editing Lecture Notes. How to Read Essays You Must Analyze. Constructive Suggestions Regarding Motivation. Note Taking and In - Class Skills. Proofreading. How to Read a Difficult Book. Remembering. Skimming and Scanning Scientific Material. SQ3R - A Reading/Study System. Strategies to Use with Difficult Questions. Study Environment Analysis. Suggestions for Improving Reading Speed. Procedure for Writing a Term Paper. Vocabulary: An On Going Process. Writing Papers.
----
Family education.com
http://familyeducation.com/home/0,1669,,00.html
This site offers extensive context specific resources. Contents are arranged by grad level and by subtopic. Contents include stories, games, and books. Many of the items are free. Some items are provided by other respectable organizations. For example, I found one provided by the National Science Teacher’s Association.
http://www.nsta.org/
----
It seems that there are plenty of resources describing general learning techniques and presenting specific content. The descriptions of general learning techniques are not suitable for pre-teens. Indeed, they may be instruction manuals for the brain and so as useful as other instruction manuals. People who had their VCRs blinking at 1200AM may have had their brains blinking at the same time.

The metacognitive skills of the Thinkerer would generally include the learning techniques in the above materials. I did not see as much place-learning and story-learning as I would want to include.

But I would like to start with the instruction manual problem. I think the materials I saw are adequate instruction manuals. Instruction manuals tell me all the things I can do under all the circumstances I may find. But I am here, now, in this moment, in these circumstances. I must choose what to do. (And my choice is not going to be: read the instruction manual.)

I am tending toward one (or more) of the following ideas:
>>make Cuepons with relevant ideas to try;

>>make Clipits with several suggestions from people like Sally Startalittle and Paul Putitov;

>>make very short scenarios about how some schematic characters solve simple homework problems.

The Engineer’s story: Check your resources.

2005-05-29T09:22:00.000-05:00

The most obvious metacognitive resources for homework are generally in the class of learning and memory. A supporting category is motivation, goal setting, and engineering the job.

A common homework task is to take in content knowledge about some small instructional unit and prepare some product that demonstrates effective “understanding” of the content. Understanding is instructionally defined here; in practice, it means that the child becomes able to respond to questions presented by some part of the instructional system.

Here are some Thinkerer pages that may be useful in this context.
Memory Sparks: http://thinkerer.org/Cuepons/CueMemory.htm
Memory tools: http://thinkerer.org/Tools/ToolsMemory.htm
Memory Clipit: http://thinkerer.org/Tools/ToolsMemPage.htm
Memory methods (the 4 doors): http://thinkerer.org/Tools/Tools4DoorMemory.htm
Imagery: http://thinkerer.org/Tools/ToolsImagery.htm

The memory sparks (Cuepons) carry suggestions in card format. We might make up a new set specifically designed for parents to use with children. We might also bring in some characters from the Head Staff.
Head Staff: http://thinkerer.org/HeadOffice/HOffIntro.htm
Characters relevant to homework are:

Hunters: How will you know when you’ve won this game today? How will you know when you have won this game tomorrow?

Engineers: What memory doors will work best for finding the answers you are going to need? What memory tricks might be useful?

Storyboarders: What kind of story can you tell about this topic? What pictures can you see in your head?

Networkers: Connect what you are learning to other things you know: Things you learned earlier in class. Things you learned last year. Things you know from outside of class.

Empaths: How will other people feel about this topic? How do you feel about it? How would you tell other people about this topic?

Learning power-packs: Cooperative learning, cooperation scripts, structured maps, Galton’s walk (fits well with processes and structured maps), mnemonic naming. There are relevant materials on the TCU site. See booklets (pdf) on memory and thought teams: http://www.psy.tcu.edu/acr/skills.htm

Comprehension in general

2005-05-20T13:08:00.000-05:00

A little Vulcanization:
I take it that comprehension, in general, is demonstrated by performances such as:

1. Vocabulary: Subject uses relevant terms correctly in conversation.
2. Recall: Subject can correctly answer questions that call for information in the presentation.
3. Inference: Subject can make reasonable inferences derived from, but not included in, the presentation.

I think this list is complete taxonomy at the top level of abstraction. I think we know how to measure these performances in any give instructional case. I think we also foster these abilities.

I take it that instruction, in general, has two major goals: 1. Development of content relevant skills. 2. Development of metacognitive skills. Metacognitive skills support generalized applications and may be specific to some domain that includes the original content. I don’t think we have a good taxonomy of metacognitive skills. But we can probably identify major metacognitive skills in grade and middle school education.

Here is an initial taxonomy of methods (not explicitly limited to reading as input.)

Acquisition methods: span of attention, controlling input, chunking and chunk selection, content selection, engagement of processes, spaced learning, cue selection, mnemonic tricks, similes, metaphors, imagery, dramatization. Other methods may be found under terms such and memory or cooperative learning. (Note that parent helping child is a for of cooperative learning.)

Rehearsal methods: spaced practice, cues for practice, cue differentiation, multi-modal practice, generalization by simile, timing of rehearsal.

Production methods: questioning, use of methods matching acquisition and memory, selecting level of abstraction, production tricks.

System integration: Coordination of methods to match production objectives.

Other taxonomies may also be useful: A taxonomy based on production objectives might be of interest, although the initial planning of the instruction (by the educational system) may have already adjusted for that. A taxonomy based on skills will probably be in interest to us if we can produce a small and credible taxonomy. Perhaps we could get some use from a task analysis of reading comprehension.

Starting

2005-05-19T12:42:00.000-05:00

I called up my Startalittle, who suggested:

1. Make a plan in your head of how you will do the job.
2. Make a list of several things you will need to do at the beginning.
3. Collect ideas about how other people do a job like this.

My Explorer liked the third item and wanted to start with a search of the web. A Google search on parent guide help homework 4th grade got a thousands of results. I found some well-organized sites with content-specific material. The material looked useful. It included reasonable suggestions about games and other activities. (Un: It also looked like a lot of work.)

My impression at this point is that a parent could find plenty of content-specific material. On the other hand, parents would not easily find help on the development of metacognitive skills presented in the Thinkerer.
To narrow down the search, I limited it to .org and added the terms: “cognitive psychology” “study skills” strategy. I also did a search though research materials with Google scholar, using the same terms.
Perhaps the most strongly related item I found was

http://www.seameo-innotech.org/training/compete/higher%20thinking%20skills.pdf
This is a 46 page document that appears to be an instructional module for teacher education.
Title: Higher Thinking Skills
Objectives: After studying this module, you should be able to:
• analyze and explain your thinking process;
• demonstrate curiosity and inquisitiveness in your daily life;
• identify, analyze and find solutions to problems and issues using critical and creative thinking;
and
• practice independent thinking and action.

I found other material for teachers that is supposed to improve their thinking skills, apparently with the expectation that they will transfer some of those skills to their students. I also found an instructional system with classroom materials that has objectives:

Enhancement of learning and thinking skills by correction of specific deficient cognitive and metacognitive functions to increase achievement.
Enhancement of self-concept and intrinsic motivation to learn and solve problems.
http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/ie/hur.htm

More search is needed, but my impression is that parents would not easily find help in fostering metacognitive objectives. An obvious and standard metacognitive objective is reading comprehension. I will have to do some further searching to see what is available for parents on this topic. But I think it will be useful to look into the metacognition of reading comprehension and the tools that exist or might be developed to help parents.

Objective

2005-05-19T12:27:00.000-05:00

The goal of this blog is to support the development of material that ties principles from the Thinkerer to methods for helping parents work with their children on homework. The primary focus would be on ages 10 to 12 at present.

Since the Thinkerer presents common skills of cognition and learning, the main difference between a child and an adult is the stage of development. An associated issue, in the case of homework, is that the objectives of the activity may include the development of these common skills.

I don’t expect much public interest in this blog, since it will be developing ideas rather than presenting finished work. Any finished work that comes out of it will appear on the Thinkerer site. But I am leaving it public and open for comment in case somebody has an interest.