Self-directed learners are everywhere, as Kio Stark is finding out as she writes her book: Don’t Go Back to School. This is a handbook for independent learning that shows you how to learn almost anything with or without school. Watch this video and read more about Kio Stark’s project here at Kickstarter
Self-Directed Learning
eLearning Coach Training Video
Nellie and I met at a local cafe to do this interview on what self-directed learning skills meant to her and how this training has impacted her thinking and teaching. With a simple background videos like these can impact others.
MassCUE 2011: Follow-Up
I would like to extend a big thank you for all who attended our presentation at MassCUE2011. Meg and I hope you came away with some tips you are now able to implement in your classroom or are at least giving some serious thought to what self-directed learning skills are all about and how important they can be in your life.
We had a fabulously, posh space for our presentation. Gillette Stadium is home to the Patriots [who happened to be on another field practicing-no photos allowed]. The view out onto the field was spectacular. This would put a whole new light into watching a live game.
Be sure to join us for our free webinars where we will continue the conversation surrounding self-directed learning skills and how you can hone them and share them with your students, fellow colleagues and administrators.
The Divided Brain
For some time now we have thought of the 2-sides of the brains, now British psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist looks at the evolution of Western Civilization through a neuropsychological prism. In his recent book, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, is re-thinking this the left-brain right-brain concept.
McGilchrist is quick to point out that the old left-brain, right-brain clichés of the 1960s and 1970s were greatly oversimplified. Recent research has shown that both sides of the brain are deeply involved in functions such as reason and emotion. But the dichotomy is still useful, McGilchrist says, and should not be abandoned. Watch what RSA has done here and learn more about self-directed learning skills here.
Self-directed Learning Skills
How do teachers, parents, paraprofessionals and other working with children help those students develop self-directed learning [SDL] skills? How can we help students plan for and reach their potential? I built and co-facilitate this course [within Moodle] to teach the skills necessary for developing 21st century habits of mind.
Participants learn to:
- Negotiate student learning contracts
- Teach independent thinking skills
- Motivate and empower students
- Become fabulous coaches
- Build an ePortfolio
There is so much more to learn by participating in this course. Come hear me and Meg Robbins give a one-hour presentation: Motivating students to becoming self-directed learners. MassCUE 2011.
Visual Acoustics
Do check out this beautiful film called Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman.
Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, VISUAL ACOUSTICS celebrates the life and career of Julius Shulman, the world’s greatest architectural photographer, whose images brought modern architecture to the American mainstream.
You can get it at NetFlix.