Learning How to Learn: Final Project on Learning

Perhaps the most import take away I’ve gotten from this class (and from reading Barbara’s book prior to this class) is that learning is deliberate.  It requires concentrated effort which is always hard, but worth it.  These points are nothing new to this course or to most people.  What is new to me, is that learning is a process with structure and subject to our brain’s physical restrictions.   Those restrictions include: 1)  a working (short-term) memory which provides space for rapid processing but on average can only hold 4 concepts at once (Cowan, N. , 2001), 2)  a longer term memory with almost limitless storage, but whose formation requires practiced learning and access over spaced intervals(Carpenter,et. al., 2012) and perhaps most importantly, 3)  the need for recovery time.  This last point is, from my point of view the most underappreciated physical limitation to learning; our brain needs rest.  Our working memory is extremely energy demanding from a physiological viewpoint, which is why our ability to focus wanes after 20-30 minutes of concentrated learning.   Additionally, our brains need down time to remove metabolic waste products, which is why we require sleep on a regular basis to form long term memories and consolidate learning into easily retrievable chunks (Xie Lulu, et. al., 2013).

At this point I’m going to stop and take a diversion from the assigned writing task to explain why I’m posting such a minimal effort for this assignment.  Right now it’s 8:50p PDT., and this assignment is due in 10 minutes.  I began writing this post about an hour ago, knowing that I wasn’t going to come close to meeting this assignments requirements or my own standards for such a task.  Unfortunately, my job suddenly required all of my free time and mental energy just as I was beginning to work on this assignment.  Nonetheless, I believe submitting something, however poor, is better than nothing; or as the Woody Allen quote goes, “Showing up is eighty percent of life”. 😉

References
Cowan, N. , 2001. The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(1), 87-114.)
Carpenter, S. K., Cepeda, N. J., Rohrer, D., Kang, S. H. K., & Pashler, H. (2012). Using spacing to enhance diverse forms of learning: Review of recent research and implications for instruction. Educational Psychology Review, 24(3), 369-378. doi: 10.1007/s10648-012-9205-z
Xie Lulu, Hongyi Kang, Qiwu Xu, Michael J Chen, Yonghong Liao, Meenakshisundaram Thiyagarajan, John O’Donnell, et al. “Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain.” Science, 342, no. 6156 (2013): 373-77

Writing 101, Day 4: Serial Killer

Learning from losing

Ask anyone who’s known me for a while – or even for a few minutes 😉 – I am a very competitive person. It’s part of my nature for sure, but I also grew up in a household with 2 older sisters and a younger brother. We had to compete for everything, so nurture had a lot to do with it as well. Winning was highly valued; losing not so much. And for most of my life that has made perfect sense to me. Probably to many of you as well. However, it’s only recently that I’ve learned that not everyone looks at winning (or succeeding) and losing (or failing) this way. I was always aware that some people did not put as much weight on winning vs. losing, but I had always felt those people were simply in denial about it’s importance.

Then I became a parent. Kids, at least initially don’t see the world so black and white. So I tried to temper my competitiveness, somewhat reluctantly, as I tried to learn how to parent. But the pressure I placed on myself, never really diminished. My son is now a teenager, who also like to play tennis and unsurprisingly is also very competitive. Probably not quite as intensely as I am, which is good to see, but he definitely hates to lose. I want him to be successful and I want him to learn that he won’t always win (or succeed). the way he would like. And this made me realize that I too need to learn how to lose. What does it mean to learn how to lose? It starts with acceptance. That you’ve done your best, and for whatever reasons it was not enough to win the match or succeed at what you intended. For some, I think, this is where it ends. For me, acceptance was not enough. I railed at my losses and failures. I took them personally. Perhaps I had chosen my efforts unwisely. I just wasn’t ever going to be good enough or as good as I’d hoped to become; whatever that might be. But recently, within the last few month, I’ve started to change my perspective ever so slightly. That’s what I want to write about in the next installment of this series.

Writing 101 Day 3: Commit to a Writing Practice

3 most important songs in my life

 

Jumping at the Woodside by Count Basie Orchestra

This song is important because it reminds  me a when I first started learning how to ballroom dance.  In particular, it was the first swing song I ever had down pat.   I First started learning to ballroom dance at the urgings of my 1st college girlfriend who lived for dancing.  At first I was very  embarrassed at my crude dancing ability and would only reluctantly join her on the dance floor on weekends when we would join our other dance friends at the local  VA club.  For some reason this song inspired me to overcome my shyness.

Free Man in Paris by Joni Mitchell

Pretty much anything off of “Court and Spark”  would fill the bill  for this exercise, but ‘ Free Man is Paris ‘ came to mind first.  “Court and Spark”  was an album (actually a tape) which my backpacking buddy, Peter and I would play during all our drives  as we traveled to and from our backpacking destinations.  Peter introduced me to Joni Mitchell during this time and now whenever I hear anything from this album, I’m instantly whisked back to a time when I had few obligations and many possibilities; just like the “Free Man in Paris”.

Black Dog by Led Zeppelin

Again almost anything by Zeppelin will do, but Black Dog is the song that introduced me to this band, probably beginning in Junior High school.  That was my first introduction to school  dances  and partner dancing.  Zeppelin is not really dance music, but because  this was the late 70’s they were still on all the kids playlists.

Writing 101 Day 2: Peaks and valleys as far as the eye can see.

Approaching the North Cascades National Park of Washington State for the first time with my backpacking buddy, Peter, I was awed by the size and expansiveness of the peaks as we drove towards our trailhead. We had planned for 4 days of backpacking over a Labor Day weekend starting with a long day’s pack up a ridge to a small lake nestled in a cirque at about 5000 feet. I pointed to the tall peak I could see outside the window of Peter’s 1979 Toyota Corolla wagon and naively asked, “are we going to hike as high as that peak today?” Peter chuckled and told me that these massive peaks were just the foothills. At the end of today, we should be camped almost twice as high at the one I’d just pointed to. It was starting to sink in that my perspective of size and elevation was about to be altered forever.

Writing 101, Day One: Unlock the Mind

I’m starting this part of the challenge thinking that I’ll probably not be able to sit down for 20 minutes straight.  At least that’s what my mind and body are telling me.  Perhaps I’ll get there without even knowing it.  Oh wait, how about I just set a timer for 20 minutes…there we go; that was easy.  Now where were we.  Oh yeah, I’m starting the first day of this blogging challenge.  Actually, today is June 3rd, so I’m going to have to complete 2 writing challenges today.  No problem ;-).   I just checked my personal WordPress blog and my last (first as well) was on Feb. 28., more than 3 months ago.  Pathetic.  Which is why I decided to participate in this challenge.  On Saturday, May 31st, I held a very important event for my job which celebrated the year’s achievements of the people I work with.  Planning for this event was very stressful.   We had a very short timeline and an extremely slim budget with which to carry it out.   It’s success was also dependent on having a lot of people show up who didn’t RSVP with me until a few day’s before the event!   On top of all that, event planning is not really one of my strengths; in fact, it’s something I usually try to avoid.   Maybe not avoid, but I would rather not be the one responsible for it’s success, especially when others are counting on me.   I’m still trying to figure out why I feel this way, because there are a lot of events I do like planning for.  I used to love to plan long backpacking trips with my hiking buddy, Peter.   We would approach our trips like general approach the launching of a major military campaign.  The trips almost never lived up to our plans, but it was so much fun to consider the possibilities.  And even afterwards we had learned so much about ourselves.  Perhaps there’s a lesson in there…somewhere.  And my 20 minutes are up.  That was easier than I thought. 😉

Writing 101 badge for your June 2014 course

 

From Crowdfunding To Open Access, Startups Are Experimenting With Academic Research

Sometimes It Bears Repeating

12/13/13

This may be only my second blog post, ever, but those of you who know me will attest to the fact that I can never get enough of watching some good tennis on the TV; especially when Rafael Nadal is on one end of the court. Right now I’m watching a repeat the this year’s Roland Garros semi-final match between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. I can hear my family asking, “haven’t you seen that at least 100 times?” Yes, but some things just bear repeating. At the time we Rafa fans didn’t know it, but he was just getting into the heart of perhaps his greatest (and one of tennis’ greatest) season ever. Instead we knew that Rafa we trying to come back from a 7 month injury layoff to win a tournament that he had won 7 out that last 8 tries. The first time I watched this match I felt a sense of resignation. Rafa was still not playing at his previous god-like level and had struggled to get this far. But now he was up against the current #1 and a player who had owned him in 2011 and the rest of the tour in 2011 and 2012. Novak had beaten Rafa just a month earlier in another tournament (Monte Carlo), the Rafa had owned for the last 8 years. I just wanted Rafa to make him work and keep it respectable. But Rafa had other plans. And so the match went on with several changes of momentum.Eventually they got to a 5th set, Novak got to a 4-1 lead, but Rafa fought back to win the next 2 games. Then at deuce in the 8th game, Novak appeared to hit a winner at the net, but stumbled to touch it before the ball had bounced twice; point Nadal. Eventually Rafa held serve to win his 3rd game in a row and Novak, instead of serving for the match, had to serve to stay in it. Finally, serving at 7-8, Novak lost his confidence and the match with 4 straight points to Nadal. Probably one of the best French Open matches I ever watched, but more importantly it reinforced to me why I love to watch and root for Rafa; he never gives up. He believes that no matter how well his opponent plays or how relatively poorly (Rafa never plays badly) he play, he can always find a way to win. So it bears repeating, accomplishments (large or small) don’t always come to the best player, just the one who wants it more.

Note: I started writing this post on 12/13/13, but decided not to post it. Then a few days ago Rafa was playing in the semifinal of the inaugural Rio Open again Pablo Andujar, a player to whom he’d beaten twice before in straight sets. Again, Rafa was not at his best and still came out ahead against an opponent, who later said he’d player the match of this life and still lost. So I was inspired to revisit these thoughts and finally post them for your benefit. 😉

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