Things You Really Need to Learn ~ Stephen's Web - The Diigo Meta page

• 19 Mar 21
  

  valerie taylor

  learningliteracies cis2

• 28 Mar 15
  

  jaycross

  Learning to learn is the same as learning anything else. It takes practice. You should try to learn something every day - a random word in the dictionary, or a random Wikipedia entry. When learning this item, do not simply learn it in isolation, but look for patterns - does it fit into a pattern you already know? Is it a type of thing you have seen before? Embed this word or concept into your existing knowledge by using it in some way - write a blog post containing it, or draw a picture explaining it.<br /><br />Think, always, about how you are learning and what you are learning at any given moment. Remember, you are always learning - which means you need to ask, what are you learning when you are watching television, going shopping, driving the car, playing baseball? What sorts of patterns are being created? What sorts of patterns are being reinforced? How can you take control of this process?<br />

  aha! downes

• 26 Aug 14
  

  roland legrand

  skills learning education creativity downes

• 19 Jun 14
  

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• 23 Nov 13
  

  Chris Verhaegen

  Web 2.0

• 23 Jul 13
  

  Lakyn Arrick

  learning education communication creativity thinking

• 19 Jul 12
  

  Derick Daniels

  writing

• 17 Mar 12
  

  Константин Бугайчук

  downes learning docs

• 16 Mar 12
  

  myweb 2learn

  connective knowledge connecitivism power cck12 week8

  • explanation
  • The fact is, most people are very bad at predicting

    consequences
  • 
    The prediction of consequences is part science, part mathematics, and part visualization. It is essentially

    the ability to create a mental model imaging the sequence of events that would follow,
  • what might happen
  • explanation
  • argument
  • description
  • The four major types of writing are:

    description, argument, explanation and definition.
  • The first thing to learn is to actually question what you are told, what you read, and what you see on television.
  • Analyze each sentence, analyze every word, and ask yourself what you are expected to believe and how you are expected to feel. Then ask whether you have sufficient reason to believe and feel this way, or whether you are being manipulated.
  • Part of this process involves seeing things through someone else's eyes.
  • So make sure you spend at least some time in different role-playing games (RPGs) every day and practice being someone else, with different beliefs and motivations.
  • in order to be creative, the first thing to do is to learn to look for problems to solve, things that merit a response, needs that need to be filled. This takes practice (try writing it down, or blogging it, every time you see a problem or need).
  • pattern recognition
  • Communicating clearly is most of all a matter of knowing what you want to say, and then employing some simple tools in order to say it.
  • to learn how to structure your writing is to learn how to give speeches without notes.
  • Winging It.
  • e written more on this, a
  • master the tools the professionals use. Learn the structure of arguments, explanations, descriptions and definitions. Learn the indicator words used to help readers navigate those structures.
  • Learning is a matter of practice and repetition.
  • repeating the words
  • Taking notes
  • learning is more like recognition than remembering
  • "what is the pattern"
  • Learning to learn is the same as learning anything else. It takes practice. You should try to learn something every day
  • look for patterns - does it fit into a pattern you already know
  • Embed this word or concept into your existing knowledge by using it in some way - write a blog post containing it, or draw a picture explaining it.
  • minimizing exposure to disease or toxins, and maintenance of the physical body.
  • The subjects of proper nutrition and proper exercise should be learned and practiced.
  • create a habit of eating good foods and practicing beneficial actions.
  • Every day, seek to be active in some way
  • every day, seek to eat at least one meal that is 'good for you',
  • society is a giant conspiracy to get you to feel badly about yourself,
  • Valuing yourself is partially a matter of personal development, and partially a matter of choice.
  • In order to value yourself, you need to feel you are worth valuing.
  • How we think about ourselves is as much a matter of learning as anything else.
  • if you repeat, and believe, and behave in such a way as to say to yourself over and over, I am valuable, then that's what you will come to believe
  • you are good enough to have an opinion, have a voice, and have a say, that your contributions do matter
  • you are capable, that you can learn to do new things and to be creative.
  • independent,
  • autonomous, c
  • they will never be given to you. You have to take t
  • Be good by doing a good deed
  • your dedication to some purpose or goal
  • realization that your place in the world, your meaningfulness, is something you must create for yourself.
  • Too many people live for no reason at all
  • you control your thoughts.
  • the only thing that matters at all is this present moment.
  • what you are doing right now is the thing that you most want to do.
  • consequences - are for the most part a matter of choice.

  48 more annotations...

• 27 Sep 11
  

  Paris Sevenam

  inspiration blog interesting life motivation philosophy lessons

• 10 Sep 11
  

  skiggy

  article on the big picture - critical thinking and important skills

  learning education thinking downes

• 22 Aug 11
  

  Craig Sylvern

  pedagogy education

• 19 Jun 11
  

  Fauzia A.Omar
• 18 Apr 11
  

  Shane Hopkinson

  gradcert

• 08 Mar 11
  

  Bonni Stachowiak

  learning education effectiveness creativity writing

• 

  Gillian Palmer

  CCK11 downes education skills

• 18 Feb 11
  

  Chantal Hochstrasser

  learning education communication creativity thinking downes skills writing

• 10 Feb 11
  

  Great post from Stephen Downes. 10 Things You Really Need to Learn. http://tinyurl.com/2bpomt

• 09 Feb 11
  

  Alison Slack

  education

• 

  Cathy Germano

  Things You Really Need to Learn by @downes http://bit.ly/11LMcI Fantastic.

• 08 Feb 11
  

  Bonnie Feather

  great "general" productivity and leadership thoughts

  leadership professional

• 

  Scott Voss

  learning education writing creativity

• 07 Feb 11
  

  Doug Peterson

  Here, then, is my list. This is, in my view, what you need to learn in order to be successful. Moreover, it is something you can start to learn this year, no matter what grade you're in, no matter how old you are. I could obviously write much more on each of these topics. But take this as a starting point, follow the suggestions, and learn the rest for yourself. And to educators, I ask, if you are not teaching these things in your classes, why are you not?

  learn school learning education communication creativity thinking downes skills writing

• 

  Jill Gough
  • creativity involves a transfer of knowledge from one domain to another domain
  • pattern recognition
• 

  Steve Hargadon
• 06 Feb 11
  

  Bo Adams

  Top10 learning

  • This is, in my view, what you need to learn in order to be successful. Moreover, it is something you can start to learn this year, no matter what grade you're in, no matter how old you are.
  • And to educators, I ask, if you are not teaching these things in your classes, why are you not?
• 

  Tom McHale

  Good stuff

• 05 Feb 11
  

  Jason Zagami

  Education learning

• 

  Sallye Martin

  What should you learn? School will try to teach you facts, which you'll need to pass a test but which are otherwise useless. 

  learning education communication creativity thinking skills writing

• 

  Debbie Coleman

  criticalthinking

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  Adam Provost

  lifehacks

• 

  Cary H

  stephen_downes

• 

  Marcia Logan

  blog teaching tips

  • How to predict consequences
  • People don't think ahead
  • 2. How to read
  • 3. How to distinguish truth from fiction
  • 4. How to empathize
  • Being able to understand how this change in perspective may change what they believe is important.
  • role-playing games
  • You will be able to feel someone's hurt if you are rude to them.
  • It is a genuine feeling in yourself that operates in synch with the other person, a way of accessing their inner mental states
  • 5. How to be creative
  • Genuine creativity is almost always a response to something.
  • creativity involves a transfer of knowledge from one domain to another domain
  • you need to learn how to find things in common between the current situation and other things you know
  • typically meant by 'thinking outside the box'
  • pattern recognition.
  • The arts very often involve finding patterns in things
  • it is better to spend time being sure you understand what you mean than to write a bunch of stuff trying to make it more or less clear.
  • matter of structure
  • learn how to give speeches without notes
  • force you to employ a clear structure
  • Learning is a matter of practice and repetition.
  • learn by repeating the words aloud
  • notes when someone talks
  • learning is more like recognition than remembering
  • it is better to learn a connected whole rather than unconnected parts,
  • Drawing pictures often helps
  • try to learn something every day
  • 8. How to stay healthy
  • 9. How to value yourself

  27 more annotations...

• 

  Karl Fisch

  education_change stephen_downes

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  stefaan vande walle

  downes learning skills

• 04 Jan 11
  

  UTD C-SER

  learning

• 21 Dec 10
  

  alex yu

  learning education downes

• 20 Dec 10
  

  Max Ugaz

  Stephen Downes sobre las cosas que necesitamos aprender para ser habiles en el siglo xxi

• 

  michael chalk

  Stephen Downes on the vital things you need to learn. (1) how to predict consequences (2) how to read - to understand (3) distinguish truth from fiction (4) to empathize (5) be creative (6) communicate clearly (7) how to learn (8) stay healthy (9) value yourself (10) live meaningfully. Great article, deserves a thorough read.  

  stephen.downes education learn list important skills health creativity

• 08 Dec 10
  

  Anne De Manser

  Things You Really Need to Learn http://www.downes.ca/post/38502 [Stephen Downes]

• 30 Nov 10
  

  M. Circe

  literacy writing creative

  • Oddly, by this I do not mean 'literacy' in the traditional sense, but rather, how to look at some text and to understand, in a deep way, what is being asserted (this also applies to audio and video, but grounding yourself in text will transfer relatively easily, if incompletely, to other domains).
  • The first thing to learn is to actually question what you are told, what you read, and what you see on television. Do not simply accept what you are told. Always ask, how can you know that this is true? What evidence would lead you to believe that it is false?
  • Genuine creativity is almost always a response to something.
  • Creativity, in other words, often operates by metaphor, which means you need to learn how to find things in common between the current situation and other things you know. This is what is typically meant by 'thinking outside the box' - you want to go to outside the domain of the current problem. And the particular skill involved is pattern recognition. This skill is hard to learn, and requires a lot of practice, which is why creativity is hard.

  2 more annotations...

• 29 Nov 10
  

  Janice Stearns

  This article expertly summarizes those essential things that everyone needs to learn to be successful, productive, and ...happy in life.

  learning education communication

• 25 Nov 10
  

  AJ Viens
• 

  good things to learn

  learning education communication thinking downes

• 24 Nov 10
  

  Matt Johnston

  "Guy Kawasaki last week wrote an item describing 'ten things you should learn this school year' in which readers were advised to learn how to write five sentence emails, create powerpoint slides, and survive boring meetings. It was, to my view, advice on how to be a business toady. My view is that people are worth more than that, that pleasing your boss should be the least of your concerns, and that genuine learning means something more than how to succeed in a business environment.
  
  But what should you learn? Your school will try to teach you facts, which you'll need to pass the test but which are otherwise useless. In passing you may learn some useful skills, like literacy, which you should cultivate. But Guy Kawasaki is right in at least this: schools won't teach you the things you really need to learn in order to be successful, either in business (whether or not you choose to live life as a toady) or in life.
  
  Here, then, is my list. This is, in my view, what you need to learn in order to be successful. Moreover, it is something you can start to learn this year, no matter what grade you're in, no matter how old you are. I could obviously write much more on each of these topics. But take this as a starting point, follow the suggestions, and learn the rest for yourself. And to educators, I ask, if you are not teaching these things in your classes, why are you not?"

  learning education communication thinking creativity skills writing

• 23 Nov 10
  

  MARCIA FERREIRA

  learning living a better life

• 

  Colin Matheson

  learning education creativity skills writing thinking communication

• 

  Jenny Gilbert

  Really usefull advice for all students but especially VCE students

  vce study_skills learning headtsart

  • But while you are in school, you should always be taking the opportunity to ask yourself, "what will happen next?" Watch situations and interactions unfold in the environment around you and try to predict the outcome. Write down or blog your predictions. With practice, you will become expert at predicting consequences.
  • The four major types of writing are: description, argument, explanation and definition. I have written about these elsewhere. You should learn to recognize these different types of writing by learning to watch for indicators or keywords.
  • learn how sentences are joined together to form these types of writing.
  • A lot of writing is fill - wasted words intended to make the author look good, to distract your attention, or to simply fill more space. Being able to cut through the crap and get straight to what is actually being said, without being distracted, is an important skill.
  • find a basic book on informal logic (it will have a title like 'critical thinking' or something like that).
  • The first thing to learn is to actually question what you are told, what you read, and what you see on television. Do not simply accept what you are told. Always ask, how can you know that this is true? What evidence would lead you to believe that it is false?
  • Every day, subject at least one piece of information (a newspaper column, a blog post, a classroom lecture) to thorough scrutiny. Analyze each sentence, analyze every word, and ask yourself what you are expected to believe and how you are expected to feel.
  • But it is important to at least recognize that there are other people, and that they live in their own world as well.
  • Part of this process involves seeing things through someone else's eyes.
  • When you are empathetic you will begin to seek out and understand ways that help bridge the gap between you and other people. Being polite and considerate, for example, will become more important to you. You will be able to feel someone's hurt if you are rude to them.
  • The trick is to understand how creativity works. Sometimes people think that creative ideas spring out of nothing (like the proverbial 'blank page' staring back at the writer) but creativity is in fact the result of using and manipulating your knowledge in certain ways.
  • Creativity also arises in response to a specific problem: how to rescue a cat, how to cross a gap, how to hang laundry.
  • earn to look for problems to solve, things that merit a response, needs that need to be filled.
  • Creativity, in other words, often operates by metaphor, which means you need to learn how to find things in common between the current situation and other things you know.
  • Knowing what to say is often a matter of structure.
  • Inside this overall structure, writers provide arguments, explanations, descriptions or definitions, sometimes in combination.
  • Learning to write clearly is a matter of learning about the tools, and then practice in their application. Probably the best way to learn how to structure your writing is to learn how to give speeches without notes. This will force you to employ a clear structure (one you can remember!) and to keep it straightforward. I have written more on this, and also, check out Keith Spicer's book, Winging It.
  • Then practice your writing every day.
  • When you learn, you are trying to create patterns of connectivity in your brain.
  • you need to repeat it over and over, in order to grow this neural connection.
  • Think about learning how to throw a baseball. Someone can explain everything about it, and you can understand all of that, but you still have to throw the ball several thousand times before you get good at it. You have to grow your neural connections in just the same way you grow your muscles.
  • but learning is more like recognition than remembering.
  • you should be asking, "what is the pattern" (and not merely "what are the facts")
  • Learning to learn is the same as learning anything else. It takes practice.
  • Think, always, about how you are learning and what you are learning at any given moment. Remember,
  • Every day, seek to be active in some way
  • Advertisers make you feel badly so you'll buy their product, politicians make you feel incapable so you'll depend on their policies and programs, even your friends and acquaintances may seek to make you doubt yourself in order to seek an edge in a competition.
  • but they are meaningless if you do not feel personally empowered to use them; it's like owning a Lamborghini and not having a driver's license.
  • Valuing yourself is partially a matter of personal development, and partially a matter of choice.
  • How we think about ourselves is as much a matter of learning as anything else.
  • But if you repeat, and believe, and behave in such a way as to say to yourself over and over, I am valuable, then that's what you will come to believe.
  • For example, it's the belief that you are good enough to have an opinion, have a voice, and have a say, that your contributions do matter. It's the belief that you are capable, that you can learn to do new things and to be creative. It is your ability to be independent, and to not rely on some particular person or institution for personal well-being, and autonomous, capable of making your own decisions and living your live in your own way.
  • Tell yourself that you are smart, you are cool, you are strong, you are good, and whatever else you want to be. Say it out loud, in the morning - hidden in the noise of the shower, if need be, but say it. Then, practice these attributes. Be smart by (say) solving a crossword puzzle. Be cool by making your own fashion statement. Be strong by doing something you said to yourself you were going to do. Be good by doing a good deed. And every time you do it, remind yourself that you have, in fact, done it.
  • your dedication to some purpose or goal. But it is also your sense of appreciation and dedication to the here and now.
  • What is worth doing? That is up to you to decide.
  • If you don't decide what is worth doing, someone will decide for you,
  • you control your thoughts. Your thoughts have no power over you;
  • Another aspect of this is the following: what you are doing right now is the thing that you most want to do. Now you may be thinking, "No way! I'd rather be on Malibu Beach!" But if you really wanted to be on Malibu Beach, you'd be there. The reason you are not is because you have chosen other priorities in your life - to your family, to your job, to your country.
    

  36 more annotations...

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  Terry Elliott
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  Sheri Oberman

  learning education 10 downes

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  Gilmar Mattos

  thingstolearn learning education communication creativity

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  Miguel Mendoza

  Stephendownes

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  Robyn Jay

  learning education thinking communication downes creativity skills

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  John Mehnert

  Article on what you need to learn in order to be successful.

  21stcenturyskills blog communication creativity curriculum education elearning environment health inspiration interesting learning lessons reading writing web school development learn downes life motivation philosophy thinking

• 

  Carla Arena

  learning education communication downes creativity skills writing

• 22 Nov 10
  

  David Willadsen

  Thought-provoking article

  creativity skills education

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  Allison Burrell

  learning education thinking communication creativity skills writing

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  Phil Taylor

  learning education thinking communication downes creativity skills

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  Amy Gearhart
• 

  Amber Bridge
  • How to predict consequences
  • schools never seem to think to teach them how to improve.
    
  • he prediction of consequences is part science, part mathematics, and part visualization. It is essentially the ability to create a mental model imaging the sequence of events that would follow, "what would likely happen if...?"
  • When preparing to jump across a gap, for example, you may visualize yourself landing on the other side. This is good; it leads to successful jumping. But you need also to visualize not landing on the other side. What would happen then? Have you even contemplated the likely outcome of a 40 meter fall?
    
  • You need to compare the current situation with your past experience and calculate the probabilities of different outcomes.
  • you should always be taking the opportunity to ask yourself, "what will happen next?" Watch situations and interactions unfold in the environment around you and try to predict the outcome. Write down or blog your predictions. With practice, you will become expert at predicting consequences.
  • bserve patterns and generalities
  • but rather, how to look at some text and to understand, in a deep way, what is being asserted
  • The four major types of writing are: description, argument, explanation and definition. I have written about these elsewhere. You should learn to recognize these different types of writing by learning to watch for indicators or keywords.
  • how sentences are joined together to form these types of writing. For example, an argument will have two major parts, a premise and a conclusion. The conclusion is the point the author is trying to make, and it should be identified with an indicator (such as the words 'therefore', 'so', or 'consequently', for example).
  • find a basic book on informal logic (it will have a title like 'critical thinking' or something like that). Look in the book for argument forms and indicator words (most of these books don't cover the other three types of writing) and practice spotting these words in text and in what the teacher says in class. Every day, focus on a specific indicator word and watch how it is used in practice.
  • The first thing to learn is to actually question what you are told, what you read, and what you see on television. Do not simply accept what you are told. Always ask, how can you know that this is true? What evidence would lead you to believe that it is false?
  • Every day, subject at least one piece of information (a newspaper column, a blog post, a classroom lecture) to thorough scrutiny. Analyze each sentence, analyze every word, and ask yourself what you are expected to believe and how you are expected to feel. Then ask whether you have sufficient reason to believe and feel this way, or whether you are being manipulated.

  11 more annotations...

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  Anne Fox

  Didn't I already bookmark this several years ago? Apparantly not. Making up for lost time.

  StephenDownes

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  Jessica Schmitz

  article_of_week blog

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  Brian Beaver

  Guy Kawasaki last week wrote an item describing 'ten things you should learn this school year' in which readers were advised to learn how to write five sentence emails, create powerpoint slides, and survive boring meetings. It was, to my view, advice on h

  21stcenturyskills lifeskills meaning creativity curriculum education elearning philosophy reading thinking skills inspiration interesting learn learning lessons web writing life motivation development school

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  Jean Potter

  Interesting list of things to learn - nothing to do with testing - but something to think about

  learning education communication thinking creativity skills

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  jon mannion

  fundamentals learning downes thinking skills curriculum anti-school

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  Tammy Worcester

  teachers learning

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  Bruce Atkinson

  web 2.0 marzano summarization

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  dean groom

  learning downes

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  michael fawcett

  Things You Really Need to Learn http://www.downes.ca/post/38502 [Stephen Downes]

  via:packrati.us del

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  elizabeth helfant

  blog learning delicious

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  Doug Belshaw

  Things you really need to learn http://www.downes.ca/post/38502 from Stephen Downes. Worth exploring with a class.
  – jennyluca (jennyluca) http://twitter.com/jennyluca/status/6686331040178176

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  Julia Rocco

  learning education communication writing creativity thinking 10 list

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  Annette Burden

  resources

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  Dimitris Tzouris

  learning blog downes 10 things education

• 21 Nov 10
  

  Paul Carson

  wsc001

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  Audrey Nay

  really_need need need_learn learn learning important

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  eflclassroom 2.0
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  khoraa

  lista de lucruri care tb invatate. pt proiectul cu cursuri.

  filosofie educatie

• 10 Oct 10
  

  sbeleznay

  learning

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  Kevin Ryan

  elearning education learning thinking curriculum for:@twitter

• 08 Oct 10
  

  Dean Shareski

  Nice post by Stephen the might also be used in the 21st century skill conversation. 

  skills learning education downes

• 29 Aug 10
  

  Terry Herman

  creativity development education elearning inspiration 21stcenturyskills

• 14 Aug 10
  

  Christopher Allen

  RT @NurtureGirl @jhagel: Great older post by @downes - Things You Really Need to Learn http://bit.ly/cvfB5N (via @timkastelle) #wisdom
  – Seb Paquet (sebpaquet) http://twitter.com/sebpaquet/statuses/21118254081
  

  wisdom via:packrati.us lists howto packrati-done

• 20 May 10
  

  Guillaume Janssen

  creativity learning reference

• 12 Apr 10
  

  Lisa Rosa

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• 15 Mar 10
  

  David Hood

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• 10 Mar 10
  

  Daniel Kirk

  howto meaning value understand learn create communicate read predict

• 09 Mar 10
  

  Tim Kastelle
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  Irmeli Aro

  ESRproject

• 07 Mar 10
  

  Scott Casley

  learning education life creativity inspiration thinking communication writing downes

• 03 Mar 10
  

  seturri

  lista di cose che si dovrebberoro imparare

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• 01 Mar 10
  

  emapey

  21centuryskills motivationtolearn 21stcenturyskills lifeskills

• 18 Feb 10
  

  sazais senan

  ThingsUshouldthink

• 11 Feb 10
  

  Alicia Anderson

  skills

• 05 Feb 10
  

  Alex Ko

  learning self-improvement

• 26 Jan 10
  

  Beth Lovell

  education learning

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  Robyn Kalda

  education learning

• 25 Jan 10
  

  Galadriel Chilton

  creativity writing learning education thinking communication skills

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  Adam Roades

  A good list of things to learn in life.

  life lessons learn learning kids children education

• 24 Jan 10
  

  Art Gelwicks

  "But what should you learn? Your school will try to teach you facts, which you'll need to pass the test but which are otherwise useless. In passing you may learn some useful skills, like literacy, which you should cultivate. But Guy Kawasaki is right in at least this: schools won't teach you the things you really need to learn in order to be successful, either in business (whether or not you choose to live life as a toady) or in life.
  "

  learning education communication thinking creativity

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