Some Assembly Required

Here’s a simple way to determine whether you are primarily a visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner. When you buy or receive something labeled with the three scariest words in the English language, some assembly required, how do you react?

Do you look at the diagrams, read the instructions, or just dive right in and try to figure it out yourself?

If you look at the diagrams, you are a visual learner.

If you read the instructions, you are an auditory learner.

If you dive in and figure it out for yourself, you are a kinesthetic learner. You’ve heard the expression, when all else fails, read the instructions, right? Strong kinesthetic learners won’t read the instructions even when all else fails. If they have to, they might have someone else read the instructions and then tell them what to do.

Of course, the smartest people are the ones who find someone else to put the thing together for them.

# # #

Looking Back

Alyson Stanfield, the Art Biz Coach recently shared this list of year-end questions to evaluate progress over the last twelve months. With a few adjustments, I think it will work for just about anybody, artist or not. I plan to use it as a guideline for planning 2009.

How did you promote your art?
What did you do to enhance your online presence?
What technological skills did you learn or improve?
How many people did you add to your mailing list?
Who were the top ten cool or influential people you met?
Whom did you mentor or help out?
Did you create a new business card, portfolio, or other marketing piece?
What medium or skill did you attempt or master?
What did you try that was completely new?
What did you try that was uncomfortable, but helped you grow?
What worthy cause did you support in some way?
What new art events, galleries, and museums did you visit?
What resources did you discover?
How did you improve your studio habits?
What books did you read to help your career? What videos or films were useful?
What seminars/workshops/lectures did you attend or teach?
How did you enhance your office or studio environment?
What organizations were you involved with?
What grants/honors/awards did you receive?
What articles were written about your work?
What exhibits, grants, contest, etc. did you submit your art to?
Where did you save a wad of money?
What was the single best thing that happened to your art career in 2008?

# # #

No Snow Day

It’s brutally cold in Denver: Minus 19° overnight and a high today of only about 20°. All I want to do is burrow in somewhere cozy and wait for warmer weather. One of the disadvantages of working or studying at home is that you don’t get any snow days. We didn’t get much snow out of this storm, so nobody’s getting a snow day today, and I thank my lucky stars that I didn’t have to join the rush hour madness this morning.

When I face new students at the University of Phoenix, one of the first things they always ask me about is weather cancellations. They react with surprise when I tell them that we just don’t do them. Denver’s national reputation for cold and snow aside, our weather really isn’t bad. The bigger issue, though, is that dealing with the impossibly full schedules of adult college students is extremely difficult. We can’t just cancel classes and forget about them; we have to make them up within the same week, a Herculean task.

Staying cheerful in freezing temperatures can be an adventure. Yesterday ten people showed up at my church to go caroling even though it was only 5°. We had a good time and maybe even brought a few people a little Christmas cheer.

# # #

What About Granny Einstein?

My little great nephew, Griffin Wilson, (is he a cute kid or what?) celebrated his first birthday this week. At a loss at what to send as a birthday gift for a one-year-old, I asked several people for suggestions. The idea I liked the best was a Baby Einstein DVD.

Although I hesitate to advocate using the TV as a babysitter, my friend Maureen assured me that the DVDs are great when you need to take a shower. I talked to my niece (Griffin’s mom) later and she told me that he loves his Baby Einstein videos. “He doesn’t normally pay any attention to the TV,” she said, “but when his Baby Einstein video comes on, he is immediately drawn to it.” His interest is so intense, in fact, that she wonders if there’s some kind of subliminal messages included, although she didn’t know what a subliminal message for a baby might be. Griffin is currently learning sign language from his signing video.

It led me to wonder where are the Granny Einstein products? If these are such good learning tools, why are they only made for tiny tots?

Maybe Video Professor is at the other end of the spectrum, although they focus exclusively on computer skills and there are plenty of other topics I’d like to learn. YouTube is filling in the gap. Want to learn about investing, time management or losing weight, chances are good that somebody out there has posted a video on that topic on YouTube. Here’s one of my favorites about the perils of PowerPoint.

# # #

Gift of Time

Your gift this year is the secret to time management. It's elegant in its simplicity and so obvious that you'll wonder why you didn't think of it yourself. Interested? The secret to time management is this: Do less.

I know; you don't want to hear it. You want to know how you can continue doing everything you're currently doing and still have plenty of time left over to do MORE. Americans have succumbed to a cult of terminal busy-ness. This is the only country in the world with a national monument called Rushmore.

Part of this greed for time stems from our belief that time is money. It isn't. If time were money, you could put it in a savings account and use it whenever you chose. You could take out a time loan, then pay it back with interest. We would all carry time credit cards and live on borrowed time. Killing time, like destroying money, would be a federal offense.

Time has become our most precious commodity. If time were money, people would stand on street corners begging for spare time. You could buy extra time when you need it. For example, I could have bought an extra 24 hours to write this column -- and I could pay it back some day when I have the flu and time is really dragging.

If time were money, privileged people would have more than the rest of us. Instead, we all have the same 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You can't earn more, no matter how hard you work. In fact, the harder and longer you work, the less discretionary time you have available. Remember, work expands to fit the time available.

No matter how lucky you are, you can't win more time. There is no time lottery. You can't put a nickel's worth of time into a slot machine and win back 500 minutes. If you spend your time doing something that doesn't turn out the way you wanted, you can't return the activity and get your time back.

On the other hand, we do experience time inflation. As we get older, an hour simply doesn't go as far as it used to. Scientists say that soon we may reasonably expect to live 150 years. Unfortunately, those are 21^st century years and they'll only go as far as about 75 years in the 20^th century.

Time isn't money. Your time is your life, so don't squander it on nonessentials. The only way to have an abundance of time is to use it only for things that really matter. That's my wish for each of you this year--that you will get less done and enjoy it more.

# # #

Money to Learn and Learning to Earn

The latest economic forecast for Colorado is in and—big surprise—it shows that we face a recession in 2009, just like the rest of the country. Three sectors will hold their own or even grow: government, health care, and education.

Education always thrives in hard times. As people lose their jobs to layoffs and plant closures, they turn to schools to reboot their careers. Most of my students tell me that they decided to enroll in college at a time when their lives are already full for three reasons:

1. To qualify for a better job.
2. To enhance their employability in case of a layoff.
3. To change careers.

Ironically, in an economic crisis, going to school usually means diving deeper into debt. At least one older student thinks she has found an answer to this problem. Since student loans only become due when the student’s education ends, she vows to continue going to school, earning one degree after another until she dies.

We all need to keep learning throughout our lives, so maybe she has a point. I’m looking forward to seeing what innovative methods the Obama administration comes up with to finance education.

# # #

To Teach is to Learn

I can’t quit teaching because I learn so much from my students. This week I learned about gauged ears. The first time I saw someone (outside of National Geographic) with these large stretched earlobe piercings, I was horrified. Why on earth would somebody want to do that to themselves? Of course, I have the same reaction to all kinds of body piercings and tattoos.

I’ve been noticing more and more of these odd mutilations (my word), so I asked one of my younger students what they were called. Gauging is the colloquial term and refers to the incrementally sized tapers used to gradually stretch the skin, sometimes (as in my waitress) forming holes as big as several inches across.

My student wants to grow his fairly large because the larger the holes, the wiser the person. I can’t really follow that logic, but according to Wikipedia, stretched piercings were popular thousands of years ago in Asia and Africa. “The re-emergence of body piercing in the developed world has been accompanied in an interest in stretched piercings. Much of this activity was initially associated with the modern primitive movement, but like piercing in general, it has become a more mainstream activity, common amongst young people and members of many subcultures as an identifier and due to its aesthetic appeal to the masses.”

The fact that it doesn’t appeal to the masses of my generation is probably the point.

# # #

Sleep on it

When I tell my students that sleep is very important to their brain functioning, they nod in boredom and roll their eyes. While they can accept that some of them are natural morning people and some are nightowls, they typically believe that sleep is a waste of time. Most already sleep fewer than six hours a night.
A few months ago, I discovered Brain Rules by brain researcher, John J. Medina. This fascinating book describes 12 principles for surviving and thriving at work, home, and school. Rule #7 is Sleep well. Think well. The book comes with an entertaining and accessible DVD.
Apparently, people are more likely to listen to a scientist than a teacher when it comes to the need for sleep. The week after I showed the video, a student reported that he had tried taking a 30-minute nap before studying and found, much to his surprise, that he was able to finish his work quickly and easily and retain more of what he read.
Faced with his testimony, some of his more skeptical classmates thought they might just try it themselves.
Today came news that a national panel of medical experts is recommending mandatory sleep breaks and more structured shift changes for medical students to reduce the risk of fatigue-related errors. It’s nice when doctors finally accept that they are not super-human after all.

# # #

Audio Textbooks: Listen and Learn

I didn’t really discover audio books until a couple of years ago. I never considered myself an auditory learner. Then I accidentally ordered a copy of Janet Evanovich’s book, Twelve Sharp, on CD from the library. I listened to it and I was hooked. Now, I always listen to a book on CD when I’m in the car, and I’ve been known to sit in the car long after I’m parked to hear the end of a chapter.

Since I teach learning styles, I am aware that many of my students prefer to learn by hearing. Now, I also realize that audio books are a real time saver for adult students. Adults who attend college are already juggling many responsibilities. They have families, jobs, church, and other activities, and they have to fit studying into already full lives.

Audio books could be a real time saver. Students could “read” their assignments as they do the laundry, mow the lawn, cook dinner, or drive. They could also save money, and textbook publishers could more quickly, easily and inexpensively update CD books. Unfortunately, few textbooks are available on CD. Some students have approached their school’s ADA office for access to audio versions of books for blind students.

Now the University of Phoenix is trying out audio books as an option for students in a few classes. Although these books feature the mechanical voice that reads everything on the page (“illustration here”) instead of the professional actors who record most popular CD books, the students love it and are clamoring for more. Let's hope the textbook publishers are listening.

# # #

The Perfect Use for a Kindle

Textbooks.

At the University of Phoenix, we use electronic textbooks almost exclusively, many of them delivered in PDF format. Although they save the students quite a bit of money, most of them would prefer to buy an actual book. They’re portable, easy to read, and familiar.

I admit that I usually find a used copy of the textbook online and buy it, so I won’t have to rely solely on the electronic version. Because I teach the same class many times, it’s worth it to me.

According to my students, all the other colleges they have attended still use books, so UOP is apparently ahead of the curve in the use of ebooks. As we were discussing the relative merits of paper versus digital formats, it occurred to me that the Kindle could solve most of the issues. It’s small, lightweight, and portable like a book. It creates a library of books for students to access at will and is available wherever they go, without computer and internet access. The small page-sized screen and adjustable font size is easier on the eyes than a computer monitor.

Of course, the lower cost of Kindle books would be a major attraction in these days of skyrocketing education costs.

If Jeff Bezos isn’t pursuing this market, he needs to get crackin’. I’m not the only one who thinks so. Engadget also touts the potential of Kindle as a textbook substitute. A few top universities—Yale, Oxford, Berkeley and Princeton—are beginning to offer textbooks on Kindle.

Rumors abound that a student version of the reader with a larger screen is due out after the first of the year.

# # #

Subjects I Wish I’d Taken in College

I’ve told the story before about how I found my best friend, Chris, from high school after 36 years. Since we’ve been back in touch, we are frequently amazed at how much we still have in common. We are both readers, writers, and teachers. We both like cats.

When she and her husband, Peter, were in town this fall, she asked me an intriguing question. Was there anything I wished I’d studied in college instead of what I had? “Not instead of,” I replied, “but in addition to. I want to learn everything.” She grinned and looked meaningfully at Peter, as if to say, “See? That’s why we’re friends.”

Here’s a partial list of subjects I wish I’d taken in college:

§ Economics

§ Calculus

§ Physics

§ Marketing

§ Public Speaking

§ Graphic Design

§ Geography

§ Comparative Religion

Of course, the question seems to assume that it is all over, that we will just have to finish our lives without knowing much about these topics. Not true. I may still go back to school and take that economics course, or I may get some books and study it on my own. It’s never too late for learning.

# # #

Favorite Things

When Oprah announced that the Amazon Kindle was her new favorite thing and offered a $50 discount, I was tempted to get one. After all, my Indian name is Nose in a Book. I read an average of ten books a month and keep a book diary. I’m also internet savvy and long ago ran out of room to store books in my house. In short, I’m exactly the sort of person Kindle was designed for.

And yet, I resisted.

A few months earlier, my friend Kathy showed me the Kindle she had gotten for her birthday. Just a few weeks after that, Chris, my best friend from high school, was in town and whipped her new Kindle out of her bag. They both loved their new toys. Some of their favorite features were the built-in dictionary that allows you to look up any unfamiliar words immediately, the adjustable text size, and the ability to download new books, magazines and newsletters through the Kindle’s wireless connection. Amazon automatically backs up each book online in case you need to download it again. No more lost books.

All these features appealed to me, too, but still, I haven’t bought one.

My problem is that I’m hooked on the library. Years ago, when I ran out of bookshelf space to house my lifelong addiction to books, I discovered that I could get just about any book I wanted from the library. I look it up and order it online and, a few days later, pick it up at my local branch library. Now, I can even download ebooks and audio ebooks directly to my computer without making a trip to the library. I love the internet.

Also, at $9.95 or less, Kindle books cost much less than traditional books, but that is still quite a bit more than free. So, here’s the deal: when the library starts offering books in Kindle format, I’ll buy one. Until then, I’ll probably keep resisting.

# # #

More on Basic Skills

Once you have decided which skills you consider basic and which you need to add to your repertory, go directly to WikiHow and find a tutorial on your topic. EHow is another popular online learning community. Both feature easy-to-use tutorials on all kinds of subjects, from understanding politics to carving pumpkins. While you’re there, think about sharing your own expertise by contributing a tutorial. The directions, of course, are right there.

If you’re a learning junkie like me, click on the Random Article link and see what you find. I subscribe to the WikiHow “How to of the day,” which frequently yields an fascinating juxtaposition of topics. Monday, for example, I could have chosen either How to Stop Feeling Like Your Life Isn’t Good Enough or How to Make a Beaded Lizard. Tuesday’s choices included How to Reuse an Empty Altoids Tin.

Whatever you want to learn, chances are good that someone online wants to teach you.

Getting Down to Basics

Lifehacker, the blog offering tips and downloads for getting things done, recently ran a poll to determine their readers’ top basic skills. Among the top vote getters:

• Iron a shirt 4% (10598 votes)
• Put out a fire 4% (10468 votes)
• Install a graphics card 4% (10167 votes)
• Move heavy stuff 4% (10060 votes)
• Change a tire 4% (9750 votes)
• Jump start a car 4% (9495 votes)
• Grill with charcoal 4% (9142 votes)
• Tie a necktie 4% (8858 votes)
• Ditch your hard drive 4% (8821 votes)
• Fix a toilet tank flapper 4% (8526 votes)
• Sew a button on a shirt 4% (8512 votes)
• Shoot a home movie 4% (8500 votes)
• Shine shoes 3% (8067 votes)
• Perform the Heimlich 3% (8036 votes)

I’m not sure how many of these skills I would consider necessary. I mean, who irons shirts? It reminded me of a very different list from Robert A Heinlein’s book, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

My personal list would have to include keyboarding, and my students who never learned it agree that it is one skill that would really help them.

However, I recently found a quote from Steven Snyder that I might adopt as my personal mantra:

“The primary tool that one needs in modern day culture are to know how to make things up and how to figure things out. This is creativity in two of its forms. These are called imagination and problem-solving.”

Design-it-Yourself

“Success in life may have more to do with how you can accept and get started on the new game than with how good you got at playing any of the old ones.” David Allen

In the updated paperback version of Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail, he has added a chapter on marketing. In the world of social networking, blogs, and search engine optimization, most college marketing curricula are hopelessly out of date. Businesses, of course, are desperate for people who understand the new media and can use it to promote the organization. Until the universities catch up, Anderson suggests a curriculum for in-house social media coaching:
• Who’s influential in our space (and how we know)
• What/who influences them
• How to get Digged
• Effective blogging
• Using beta-test invite lists as marketing
• The art of begging for links
• Stunts, contests, gimmicks, memes, and other link bait
• Sharing versus oversharing; how to know when what you’re doing is ready to be talked about.
The increasing pace of change guarantees that the business world cannot rely on academic institutions to keep their employees current with the latest technologies, attitudes and models. The lesson is that those who wish to stay in the forefront of their industry must learn to seek out resources and design their own customized learning projects.

Individualized Learning

If you read my previous post about my difficulties in communicating with Western Governors University, you might well wonder why I’m still interested in finding out more about it. Three words: competency-based learning. Students earn their degrees by demonstrating skills and knowledge instead of by taking required courses. Working independently with a mentor, students develop personalized action plans and complete their programs in their own time.

Quite simply, this is the way I think all education should be designed. I’m not alone.

John Medina, brain researcher and author of Brain Rules has found that “Every student’s brain . . . is wired differently. That’s The Brain Rule. You can either accede to it or ignore it. The current system of education chooses the latter, to our detriment. It needs to be torn down and newly envisioned, in a Manhattan Project-size commitment to individualizing instruction.”

Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen applied his theory of disruptive innovation to education in his recent book, Disrupting Class. He touts computer-based learning as a significant development because it is

· Convenient and mobile

· Customizable for each student’s preferred learning style

· Flexible in allowing a student to move through the material at any pace

· More affordable than traditional education.

Western Governors University is currently the only accredited university in the U.S. offering competency-based, online degrees. That’s why I want to find a way to be a part of it.

# # #

Failure to Communicate

My initial contact with Western Governors’ University was not especially positive. As I was searching the website for information about its Instructional Design program, I was annoyed by a pop-up enrollment counselor who wanted to chat. I ignored her.

I had a few questions that were outside the usual how to enroll genre, and I found a list of academic leaders, but it contained no contact information. Back to the pop-up counselor, I asked how to contact the person whom I thought could help me. Unfortunately, she had never heard of him and had no information about him. Her explanation was that he was “too high up” for me (or presumably, anybody) to talk to. Fine. I called the general information number, entered voice mail hell and discovered that, unless I had the person’s extension number, I couldn’t reach anybody but enrollment counselors.

Finally I googled the person I wanted, found an article he had written which included an email address and wrote him. He answered my question within a few hours, but I had to work MUCH too hard to contact him.

I don’t really understand the philosophy behind making it so difficult. If anybody has an insight into this, I’d love to hear it. Still, I’m very interested in learning more about WGU. Stay tuned.

Education Pyramid or Landscape?

It has always bothered me that traditional education is represented by a pyramid, with high school forming the broad base and successive degrees from associate’s to Ph.D layered above. Somebody defined education as learning a little about a lot and a lot about a little. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for all of us. It doesn’t make sense to me to continue to narrow my focus when there are so many fascinating things to learn in the world.

My style of learning, which Barbara Sher has brilliantly described in her book, Refuse to Choose, looks more like a mountain range, with peaks of all different sizes and shapes, and the occasional lake and stream. I call it a learning landscape. My pastor, who shares a similar learning style, says she is more interested in breadth than depth.

I’m a little annoyed that our education system doesn’t recognize landscape learning, but maybe that is changing. Author Frans Johansson, in The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts & Cultures, reports that “(college) students today have more hyphens in their majors than in the past.”

He also quotes Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, who said, “Most major advancements involve multiple disciplines.” That’s music to my ears. I’d like to see colleges offering more inter-disciplinary, individually-designed degree and certificate programs, breaking out of the single-discipline boxes.

Over the next few weeks I will examine some educational innovations and the cultural changes that both demand and allow them.

###

Another Bookworm Gadget

The ThumbThing is an elegant little piece of plastic that fits over your thumb to hold books open with one hand. Simply slip it on your thumb and position it in the center of your open book. The wings hold the pages open without damaging the spine. Flip it over and use it as a bookmark. Manufactured in the UK, it comes in four sizes and several colors. At only $2.95, this handy tool would be a fun stocking stuffer for all the booklovers on your gift list. Available in bookstores and through many online outlets.

Gadgets for Booklovers

One of my favorite new toys is a lightweight plastic book holder, called a Gimble. It comes in two sizes for use with standard-sized paperback books, allowing hands-free reading in bed, in the bathtub, or on the train. When not holding the book open, it makes a handy bookmark. It takes almost no space in my backpack or briefcase. At $7.95 for both sizes, it’s a must have. The only drawback is that it won’t work for hard cover books. I bought mine at the Tattered Cover bookstore, and Barnes and Noble also carries it, but it was out of stock when I looked today. Check your local bookstore or find it online.

At my desk or a table, I use the Fellowes wire book stand, which works for just about any size book, soft or hard cover, and holds the book at the appropriate angle for reading. Using it at a restaurant always attracts attention from other booklovers, who frequently stop to ask me where I got it. Available at some office supply stores, it costs a reasonable $4.95. I found mine on the internet for about half that and ordered in bulk. A friend bought an even dozen and gave them to everybody on her Christmas list.

# # #