That is why we need to re-shape the way we teach, we need to re-shape education.
Things have changed exponentially over the years in every field but with education the opposite has happened.
If you were to place a 200 year old doctor in today’s operation room he/she would not be able to even recognize most of the tools. On the other hand, if you did the same thing, get a 200 year old teacher and place in today’s classroom, this person would feel comfortable in that environment.
Pushing information, memorizing and fitting tests standards is not how people learn anymore.
Education now needs to bring experiences, emotions and stories which are like food to our brain. You connect experience with content.
Why do you think games are so popular and by 2020 it is said that our lives will be 80% gamified?
Because they provide experience, story line, emotions and when we learn a process we move into another phase where that process will be modified and then you evolve again to a new level.
Just look at the Pokemon Go craze and see why it is appealing to people of all ages. Virtual little cute creatures can populate a virtual reality environment. You go and discover these creatures like in a treasure hunt, then you help them evolve into other beings. You fight to train them and you join a team which makes you belong. Take into account that this game does not even provide instructions on how to be played. Making mystery part of its lure.
This experience is fulfilling and makes people learn all about the game and its creatures.
Education today needs to be exciting, allowing participation and morph into something else with this participation. It needs to create content around stories and experiences. This is how it is going. This is exciting.
It also need to reach people when they want, how they want and where they want. so the formats cannot be put in a box. They need to blend. In person, virtual, exchanging points of views. Not one expert telling what needs to be done but experts facilitating a process that provides a new experience.
This is true to kids as well with adults seeking to improve their skills.
That is our quest at Curious Mondo. Bring a new type of education while at the same time allowing people everywhere to get access to this exciting way of learning and allowing them access to the expert and access to help guide each course.
Let’s take a look how our brain processes information and how we learn:
Our brains do not have the capacity to multitask. For years, multitasking has been considered an all-important skill.
However, research has found that our brains don’t actually have the power to multitask.
According to a 2009 study that was conducted in Paris, the participants’ brains actually worked at half capacity when they were asked to multitask.
In essence, one hemisphere concentrated on one task, while the other focused on completing the secondary task.
As such, it typically takes the brain twice as long to complete an assignment or task, and your error rate goes up by about 50%. This is because we aren’t “multitasking” at all, but “context switching”.
Multimedia tools improve our brain’s memory power.
It’s been proven through multiple research studies and surveys that multimedia in eLearning, such as images and video, not only engage the learners but also help them to actually remember what they’ve learned.
Research cited in a report by Michelle Chau cites a number of examples of how interactive learning tools, such as ebooks, lead to improved knowledge retention. According to research, students who used ebooks that contained sound effects, music, audio narration, and images were able to retain and recite more information than those who were simply given traditional textbooks.
Utilizing these ebooks also led to group collaboration and peer interaction, as the students did not have to sit quietly on their own and privately read the text.
Our brains work best at certain times of the day.
Giving learners the ability to learn anytime, anywhere with eLearning courses has its own unique set of advantages. One of the most significant advantages is the opportunity to tap into the power of our brains at times of peak efficiency, such as just after taking a nap or when first waking up in the morning.
A study conducted by German researchers found that quick naps could allow a learner’s brain to acquire and retain information more effectively.
During the study two groups of participants memorized cards that contained illustrations. Then, they asked the first group to take a nap, and the second to remain awake during a 40 minute break.After the 40 minutes had passed, they had the participants memorize another set of illustrated cards. Those who took a nap during the break remembered roughly 85% of the images and patterns, while those who stayed awake only recalled 60%. It is believed that napping allows information to be moved to the brain’s long-term memory storage centers, leading to improved data retention.
Game play helps to exercise (and motivate) our mental muscles.
Believe it or not, playing games is actually good for your brain. Not only does it help to engage learners in the eLearning process itself, but it also serves to remedy the boredom that so often leads to unsuccessful learning experiences. A report that was released by Leicha Bragg of Deakin University details a study that was conducted in three different schools, which involved 240 students.
According to the research, students were more motivated to learn mathematics when the information was presented in a gaming format. Even their attitude toward the subject changed, as did their confidence regarding the various concepts involved. The students were also more motivated to learn the information, which improved their overall success and alleviated the boredom that is often associated with repetition (especially relating to problem solving).
Our brain prefers images over text.
Adding visual elements to eLearning courses enhances knowledge retention. According to neuroscience research that is referenced in John Medina’s book “Brain Rules”, participants in studies only remember about 10% of information presented orally when they are tested 72 hours after instruction. However, that number jumps by about 65% when an image is added to the learning process. The basis of this idea lies in the “Pictorial Superiority Effect”, which suggests that visual input is more likely to be recognized and remembered.
Delivering live online courses not only requires quite a bit of equipment but also a lot of people involved. Besides being able to perform well during classes in order to create an awesome product, the team also needs to work in synchronicity. It is really a team effort.
The team at Curious Mondo knows how to achieve the right balance and without them the courses would not happen.
We want to show you and allow you to get to know these amazing people. In this video, you will get to know part of our team. We also have Mary our assistant, Petar, our film editor and Lisa Henry.
Note that e-leaning becomes less of a school model to a mentoring model where mentors share experiences and resources while facilitating the learning process
Learning A New Skill Works Best To Keep Your Brain Sharp
Brain training is big business, with computerized brain games touted as a way to help prevent memory loss. But new research shows you might be better off picking up a challenging new hobby.
To test this theory, Dr. Denise Park, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Dallas, randomly assigned 200 older people to different activities. Some learned digital photography. Another group took up quilting.
Quilting, which requires measuring and calculating, also helped improve participants’ memory.i
Quilting, which requires measuring and calculating, also helped improve participants’ memory.
/Courtesy of UT Dallas
“Quilting may not seem like a mentally challenging task,” Park says. “But if you’re a novice and you’re cutting out all these abstract shapes, it’s a very demanding and complex task.”
The groups spent 15 hours a week for three months learning their new skills. They were then given memory tests and compared with several control groups.
“Rather than just comparing them to people who did nothing, we compared them to a group of people who had fun but weren’t mentally challenged as much,” Park says.
That “social group” did things like watch movies or reminisce about past vacations. Another control group worked quietly at home, listening to the radio or classical music or playing easy games and puzzles.
Park’s research, which was published in the journal Psychological Science, showed that not all activities are created equal. Only people who learned a new skill had significant gains.
“We found quite an improvement in memory, and we found that when we tested our participants a year later, that was maintained,” Park says.
Study participants were trained in practical reasoning skills like managing medications.
SHOTS – HEALTH NEWS
Older Folks Get Modest Memory Boost From Brain Boot Camp
Image from a test from the study
SCIENCE
Brain Training Games Won’t Pump Up IQs, Study Says
The greatest improvement was for the people who learned digital photography and Photoshop — perhaps, Park says, because it was the most difficult.
Jimmy Wilson, 82, agreed to learn to use a computer, a camera and Photoshop for the trial. “That was really quite a challenge for me when I got into the photo class,” Wilson says, “because it involved a computer and I had never even touched a computer.”
Wilson is motivated to fight dementia, in part because he saw what the disease did to his wife toward the end of her life.
“When my wife died,” he says, “it would have been real easy to just become a total recluse.” Instead, Wilson embraced being socially and mentally active. He’s a member of the choir at his church, and when he’s not reading current events and books on his Kindle, he gets together with family for Mexican food.
A photo taken by a participant in the UT Dallas trial.i
A photo taken by a participant in the UT Dallas trial.
Courtesy of UT Dallas
Since Wilson participated in the trial, he says, he has noticed improvement in his memory, although he says it still isn’t perfect. He admits it can be frustrating learning to use new technology, but he knows it’s good for his brain.
So how does learning a new skill help ward off dementia? By strengthening the connections between parts of your brain, says cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman. While brain games improve a limited aspect of short-term memory, Kaufman says, challenging activities strengthen entire networks in the brain.
“It really is strengthening the connectivity between these team players of these large-scale brain networks,” he says.
Denise Park likens it to an orchestra.
“Players come in and players go out,” she says. “Sometimes when something is really demanding, the whole orchestra is playing, but they’re not playing harmoniously.”
The goal is to keep each individual player in best form, and make sure there’s coordination. And improving your own coordination, through quilting or learning to play bridge, may be a way to maintain your memory, and have a bit of fun, too.
“We hope that by maintaining a very active brain, you could defer cognitive aging by a couple of years,” Park says.
There’s one more important thing you can do to ward off memory loss: exercise. Art Kramer, a neuroscientist at the University of Illinois, studies the impact of exercise on the brain.
In one study, he found that just 45 minutes of exercise three days a week actually increased the volume of the brain. Even for people who have been very sedentary, Kramer says, exercise “improves cognition and helps people perform better on things like planning, scheduling, multitasking and working memory.”
So if you’re looking to boost memory, there’s reason to challenge both your body and your mind.
Take a look at the infographic below on how millennials like to learn.
You will see that Elearning plays a big role in this aspect.
According to some predictions, by 2020 half of all classes will be taken online. When compared to today’s statistics that say that at least one class is taken virtually, these predictions are astonishing. Obviously, we are rapidly turning to virtual classrooms. With the rapid advent of communication technology, time, space, and money, no longer pose obstacles for improvement. This is why electronic forms of learning provide just about the perfect framework for lifelong learning.
Firstly, eLearning engages students into personally relevant experiences. Moreover, it encourages development of essential skills for the 21st century: creativity, critical thinking, meaningful collaboration. Finally, it enables simulation. In other words, eLearning creates authentic atmosphere and deepens the understanding of real-world issues by fully engaging students. The ultimate goal of eLearning is to instill a high value of learning and foster lifelong learning. In other words, there is something far beyond academic achievement, that is, the learners’ ability of active contribution to the learning process.
teaching millennials