Ideas

Intangible. Can’t touch them, but you can try to wrap your head around them. For me, I need a reason to ponder an idea. It doesn’t have to be a practical reason, but it has to be a reason that gets my head in gear and focuses it on thinking.

At the recent CAIS and AIMS Tech Retreats, we did a lot of pondering of ideas, in particular, ideas about optimal conditions for getting adults to learn. The focus of my CAIS session was how adults learn, and at AIMS it was professional development and collaborating with colleagues, but the topics certainly overlap. In both instances, an overflow of ideas emerged from group brainstorms.

At CAIS we used index cards to collect ideas, one item per card. You can read more about this activity and see pictures here, or get a summary of the ideas and see the related wordle here. 

Anytime you ask teachers to generate ideas about how adults learn, you are bound to get a combination of thoughts based upon themselves as both learners and teachers. The result is a well-rounded list of suggestions, which I entered into a Google Doc. There are any number of ways that this list could have been organized, and if I have the opportunity to try this exercise again, sticky notes may be substituted for index cards so that people can play around in real-time with categorizing the feedback.

The almost thirty participants touched upon the major components necessary for adult learning:

• having a reason to learn
• feeling in control of the process
• being in a safe environment
• tapping prior knowledge 
• appealing to emotions
• providing an experiential component
• setting aside time for reflection

as well as accommodating varied learning styles.

After looking over their ideas, what, if anything, would you add to their brainstorm list? 

 

Making the CAIS

Approximately 175 index cards filled with brainstormed ideas generated by 30 people. Wow!

After a first attempt at categorizing the cards by laying them out on the floor, I quickly realized what a wonderful potential activity they presented. What if the cards had been stickies, and every sticky was placed on a wall, easily available for large scale viewing. We could generate a sticky bar chart, a visual summary, a large-scale categorization, ideas that can be handled and readily rearranged.

For this first summary, all of the index cards were categorized so as to organize the number of related but differently worded entries. Each category was then labeled using one or two words. Next a list was created of the labels, with each label repeated on the list for as many times as there were index cards in that category. The resulting list was popped into wordle, which generated a visual summary. For those not familiar with wordle, the size of the words is determined by the number of times any given word is repeated. Larger words = repeated more often.

Later this week I’ll pop all of the cards, verbatim, into a Google Doc and share the URL in another post. Meanwhile, what ideas do you have about optimal conditions for getting adults to learn? Think: activities, conditions, venues. And remember, a good brainstorm includes all ideas, no matter how silly or ridiculous it sounds to you.

Cards from CAIS

Go ahead and brainstorm optimal conditions for getting adults to learn. Think: activities, conditions, venues…  And remember the rules for a good brainstorm: include all ideas, no matter how silly or ridiculous sounding.

Each person writes one item per card, using as many cards as possible.

At the end, collect the blank cards, and build a tower with the remaining ones. My apologies to the folks at the table – I boggled the picture when saving the rescaled image.

Voilá!

Next post will contain all the ideas generated by this brainstorm.

CAIS Tech Retreat

One week from today I will be in the Berkshire Mountains, participating in the CAIS (Connecticut Association of Independent Schools) Academic Tech Retreat at the Trinity Conference Center. I have the pleasure of speaking Thursday morning, and it seems a most fitting way to celebrate two years, to the month, of Neurons Firing! [Update May 15: The CAIS wiki includes a summary of the Retreat, as well as some additional links.]

I could tell you the topic of my session, but how much better if you try and figure it out from the list of resources below. After all, that’s a much better way to get your neurons firing!

Brain Bits
• Exercise grows neurons
• Ongoing learning strengthens memory
• Novelty fosters synapses and creativity
• Communities stimulate thinking

Videos
• Ben Zander – Davos Annual Meeting 2008 closing talk
• TED Talks – Tim Brown: The powerful link between creativity and play
• TED Talks – Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?
• TED Talks – Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight
• main page for all the amazing TED Talks

References
• Building Online Learning Communities by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt
• Teaching with the brain in mind by Eric Jensen
• Learning & Memory: The Brain in Action by Marilee Sprenger
• Achieving Optimal Memory by Aaron P. Nelson with Susan Gilbert
• Brain Rules by John Medina, plus the website
• Neuroscience for Kids, perhaps the BEST site about the brain, and it’s not just for kids!
• SPARK, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John Ratey with Eric Hagerman
• The Neuroscience of Adult Learning edited by Sandra Johnson and Kathleen Taylor
• The Art of Changing the Brain by James Zull

Staying Sharp Pamphlets, produced by The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and NRTA: AARP’s Educator Community
• Your Brain at Work: Making the Science of Cognitive Fitness Work for You, 2008 (produced by the DANA Alliance and The Conference Board–Mature Workforce Initiative)
• Learning Throughout Life, 2006
• Memory Loss and Aging, 2006

National Center for Learning Disabilities
• Executive Function Fact Sheet
• Executive Function: A Quick Look

SharpBrains articles
• The brain virtues of physical exercise
• interview with Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg
• interview with Yaakov Stern – Build Your Cognitive Reserve
• 5 Tips on Lifelong Learning & the Adult Brain

Conferences
• Learning and the Brain conference, which takes place three times a year – February in San Francisco, May in Washington, D.C., and November in Cambridge, MA
• The Brain, Learning and Applications: CAIS Summer Institute, which takes place in August

Activities
• Writing Exercise
• sketching comes from the Tim Brown TED Talk (see above)
• all other activities provided by Candy, Middle School Learning Specialist

Thanks
• Dulcie, for patient tutelage
• Candy, for mentoring
• F and R, for listening, looking and suggesting
• Justine, for asking in the first place!

The slides for this presentation are available here, on SlideShare.