Twitter Transforms Teaching

Twitter recently tornadoed internet social media platforms, rising to the top. Twitter's now tapped as a teaching and learning tool with opportunities to motivate students and advance achievement. In fact, some professors find...

Using Twitter makes learning more relevant to students David Parry, a professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, talks about using Twitter, a new messaging service, for his courses.

Tools to start using Twitter Check out Michael Hyatt's Beginner's Guide to Twitter.

Ways to use Twitter with your classes You'll learn much by watching this video with your students as you begin to launch Twitter as a new conversational tool. Check out these 25 interesting ways to use Twitter with your students for deeper probes and current information on topics you study.

Tactics to add value to what you say in few words Here are tips to make what you say, clear and meaningful to others.

Organize Twitter conversations, replies and messages so they are easily handled Sites where you can download TweetDeck or Seesmic, which are the most popular and work easily for you.

Enjoy a wide variety of backgrounds for a unique Twitter profile. Here are free Twitter backgrounds to download or customize or you and students can enjoy customizing from your art. How you can create custom Twitter backgrounds.

Ways to carry on conversations about specific topics by using Twitter Chat To engage students on a specific topic set up #hashtags and Twitter Chats so many ideas and possibilities come to the forefront. Here's a short post on using #teach-me for demand driven teaching.

Energize students to create videos about content topics Here are 5 ways to share videos on Twitter.

Follow authors of nonfiction books on Twitter 70+ nonfiction authors to consider following

Be a good listener on Twitter 13 ways to enhance your own listening skills

Raise funds when students want to fund a service project.

Ask 2-footed questions on Twitter 2-footed questions spring from teacher and student curiosity and probe deeply into interests as they connect to a variety of topics.

What do you want to accomplish? Define Twitter goals, a tip for successful use of Twitter.

The British government is recommending "children leave school familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of communication. They must gain 'fluency' in handwriting and keyboard skills, and learn how to use a spell checker alongside how to spell." Twitter's pushing new frontiers!

Ready to stretch and try Twitter to communicate and learn with your students?

Twitter as a Teaching and Learning Tool just one topic at: Aug 17 - 21st MITA Brain Institute here

Faculty Brainpower for Teen Achievement

Practical applications from neuro research can support teachers own fine endeavors for secondary learning and assessment. Certification offered at the first MITA Brain Institute provides educators strategies to work with rather than against the human brain as students learn. This is critical to business since schools are preparing the leaders of tomorrow.

So what difference does using strategies based on the brain make? Students in classes of university and secondary faculty using MITA strategies improved their achievement significantly and it creates ongoing renewal through faculty-learner generated content. When students make critical decisions and experience real world applications, they gain the problem solving skills needed for the business world.

Interestingly, learning becomes more community centered, too, including parents, community and practical experiences in outside organizations.

During the 20 hour certification, participants create classroom-ready curriculum together that'll be ready to use in a variety of disciplines this fall. An added benefit - no new texts are required for classes.

There will be opportunities to:

Transform neuro discoveries into learning tools

Create brain based lessons and assessment

Obtain MITA materials including a recently published book

Facilitate and build learning communities in your school and beyond

Use tactics to draw on diverse cultures for positive, mutual takeaways

Engage parents at school

Participate in monthly support for a year

Connect with wider community in Knowledge Celebration

Dr. Ellen Weber, President of the MITA Brain Based Center, has published several books and dozens of articles about using more brain for smarter solutions, in journals, periodicals and newspapers. I count it a privilege to collaborate with her during institutes, certification and even keynotes - for fifteen years now.

"Thanks for making this institute available to Rochester," writes, Dan Drmacich, Principal of School Without Walls. "With the commitment of educators to implement what they create this summer, we could have the beginning of a real paradigm shift."

What a joy and challenge to bring updates and innovation to materials and approaches each time we work at new sites and take on new projects. We're looking forward to working in Rochester.

Making Changes

Embarking on changes in life feels a little like the sound of an orchestra tuning up. It's dissonant for awhile, yet a lively melody emerges in the hands of a fine conductor and musicians who are tuned-in. Similarly, after enjoying the harmony of nature and laid back life in East Koy farm country, my husband and I made a decision to move from our very large old inn to a ranch home in a small city.



Paring down: Think of paring down in terms of Twitter. You keep only essential parts of your idea, and cut out all that's unnecessary, to say say it so others know what you mean in a mere 140 words. I'm doing just that with all that I possess, as is my husband.

Unlearning: Country life is a culture unto itself. But, I'll put that behind me now to learn different approaches suitable to life in a small city. Living in a smaller space and doing with less will be pleasing and teasing to my mind all at once.

Organizing: What a challenge to organizational skills. Planning what to get rid of, what to auction off and what I most want to put into this smaller space taxes organizational savvy. I'll take a mind-bending learning curve here.

Already I took two big bags of clothes to Salvation Army and I added much paper to the recylcling bucket in the last two weeks. And it's only the beginning. Now I'll step on the gas to speed up with the whole process.

We signed the papers today to get the purchase launched. What a momentous choice...

I'll be posting blogs and sharing insights and new research here at Brain Based Biz... but not quite as frequently for awhile.

Today's Tuesday, But Seems Like Saturday

Ever mix up a day, from the time you waken to think it's Saturday, rather than Tuesday? Suzanna Stinnet's curiosity piqued about this phenomenon, so she asked about it.

Since questions challenge me, I could not get this out of my mind and mulled it over for a few days. As usual, the findings are fascinating...

When someone anticipates, action soon follows "The brain is all about anticipation and prediction," Josef Rauschecker, Georgetown University Medical Center neuroscientist finds.

Weekend and daily routines differ in basal ganglia If you waken, thinking it is Saturday, your brain would follow through your usual Saturday pattern, based on what you've stored over time in your brain's basal ganglia. "Probably you’ve observed how static lives come from dull daily routines," Dr. Ellen Weber observes, "where people settle into status quo, and no longer seek adventure." She describes how the basal ganglia works:

At the center of most ruts, lies your brain’s basal ganglia. Experts call it your mental storehouse for habits, routines and every lifetime experience you’ve encountered. It’s also a place to promote and prolong annoying ruts.

Brain plays trick If you have a Tuesday holiday, such as Independence Day, you may start your day without setting the alarm, as you would on a Saturday. Can you see how your brain might play a trick on you? Perhaps there was a disconnect with the routine or association when the alarm does not go off, so that leads your brain to act as if it were Saturday. What do you think?

Hmmm... The alarm did not go off today, but I awaken with the sun. Oops, sometimes not!

What's your experience?

Thwart Theft of Memory Bandits

"Prudy, where're my keys," I overheard a friend's 30-year-old husband inquire, not so softly.

Putting a planner, keys or other items in a different place can challenge memory no matter your age. To counter forgetful moments, maintaining blood sugar levels, even in the absence of disease, may be an important strategy for preserving cognitive health. Recently, Columbia University Medical Center researchers discovered that high blood sugar can cause you to be "hippocampically challenged."

Memories are stored in your brain's hippocampus, whether new words of a foreign language you're memorizing, an equation to use for an algebraic problem, or where you put down your keys.

"In the era on an aging population, memory is the new sex," David Brooks, Op-ed columnist for the New York Times, claims. So what can be done to keep your brainpower at optimum?

Three actions do much to keep brain's hippocampus at prime performance: maintain blood sugar levels, get plenty of exercise and challenge mind by learning in new areas.

Limit sugar intake People need some sugar to maintain health but too many cans of soda, too many rich desserts and candy consumed from your desk at work are some ways folks can begin to make changes. Regular check-ups at your physician's help you keep a pulse on this.

Regular aerobic exercise When it comes to the hippocampus, the part of your brain vital to certain types of memory, size matters. Numerous studies have shown that bigger is usually better. Now researchers discovered that elderly adults who are more physically fit tend to have bigger hippocampi and better spatial memory than those less fit.

Novelty stokes memory "Not surprisingly, memory strengthens and the brain’s rejuvenated, Dr. Ellen Weber reports, "in the presence of novelty." She adds...

How does it happen? Your brain’s hippocampus releases a shot of dopamine in response to novelty. Anthony Grace at the University of Pittsburgh describes a feedback loop that involves a chemical and electrical interactions between dopamine and novel or unexpected events. This lively process appears to lock in memory, as it also engages the amygdala where the brain processes emotional information.

Keeping the brain in mind as you age?

Losing Your Ability to Concentrate?

My experience is what I agree to attend to William James

Easily distracted? Though many jobs require high concentration, psychologists are finding out that even when people try to focus on a task, they tend to lose concentration... within 40 minutes and sometimes as little as 10.

"You can drive yourself crazy trying to multitask and answer every e-mail message instantly," says Winifred Gallagher, author of Rapt, a guide to living a focused life.

Ever go to a coffee shop or a restaurant where there's a TV and find your eyes quickly diverting to something that catches your attention on the screen to take your focus away from your conversation with a work colleague? I've noticed that if I have TweetDeck on one computer monitor and my work on the other, my focus on work is soon disintegrated. Why is that?

When something bright or novel flashes, it tends to automatically win the competition for the brain's attention. Dr. Robert Desimone, M.I.T. neuroscientist, calls that "biased competition." He found that neurons in the prefrontal cortex, the brain's planning center, start oscillating in unison and send signals directing the visual cortex to heed something else. So if you're reading a book and a television commercial diverts you, you may not have enough resources left to focus on the words.

Why it's hard to multitask

Doing too much makes you slower and dumber

90% of American adults are multitasking. However, they may not be more productive since six out of ten agree they're "busier," but often feel like they get less done.

Multitasking is notoriously inefficient though at certain optimal times it can be efficient.

What helps increase focus then? Gallagher advocates

Meditation exercises

Concentrate on most important task of day during first 90 minutes at work

Use ear plugs to shut out distracting noises

I'd add three:

Play baroque music softly as you write or work

Turn off cell phone, TV and electronic gadgets

Use new and creative approaches for routine tasks

I want to spend every day very mindfully to accomplish work and find pleasure in it, too. Winifred Gallagher discovered she had cancer so she viewed time with new perspective.

How do you overcome distractions to accomplish your daily work?

Cartoon source: Ming.tv