Closing out the month

Happy 2nd birthday to Neurons Firing! I celebrated in a big way by attending two different independent school associations’ annual Tech Retreats over the past week – one in Connecticut (CAIS) and the other in Maryland (AIMS). To top that off, I presented keynotes at both!

Met some new folks, connected in person (some for the first time) with “old” friends from online, and feel part of new professional communities. Stimulating, encouraging, and cognitively expanding. 🙂

All of this accounts for the relative quiet on Neurons Firing for the past two months; my thinking, writing and reading have been focused on preparing the interactive keynotes. And my husband, son, and two talented colleagues at school have generously been providing guidance on the process. Am guessing they are all celebrating that my celebration has finally wound down. 😉

Have started to write about the CAIS Retreat, and the AIMS Retreat will surely follow. Meanwhile, a birthday celebration would not be complete without thanking all of you who have stopped by to read and comment over the past two years. 

Brainstorm (in SketchUp) by Fred

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.

iPhone for WordPress

I am sitting on the stairs in the hallway, tapping out this entry on my iPhone and using the keypad in landscape mode. Quite looking forward to ver 3 of the iPhone software, when all typing can be in landscape!

Woke up to glorious sunshine and am imagining some of the CAIS Tech Retreat folks taking exhilarating walks!

Will post to see how this all works, and write more later.

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.