Six qualities for success in learning Kris Baldwin, Education Technology Specialist

What is stickiness?  Mental duct tape—like mental velcro but stronger!  The Kidney Heist and other urban legends  Halloween Candy—from 1958 to 1985, there were no “candy from strangers” related deaths  Successful is predictable. Photo from Simon Davison on flickrflickr Page 3

You want to invent new ideas, not new rules. Created in WordleWordle Page 16

The Curse of Knowledge  Partner up  Tappers—you will tap out a song  Listeners—you will try to guess the song

Results  How many of you thought you did a great job of tapping out the song?  How many of you correctly guessed the song? Perception 1 in 2 50% Reality 1 in % Page 19

Simple  No plan survives contact with the enemy.  Find the core  Translate the core using the SUCCESs checklist  In education, Wiggins and McTighe call this  The BIG Idea  Explains the need to “unpack” standards  The Goldilocks Principle Page 27

Clarifying Content Priorities Worth being familiar with Important to know & do Big Ideas Nice to know Foundational concepts skills Big Picture Online Resource:

Simple = Core + Compact  A pomelo is the largest citrus fruit. The rind is very thick but soft and easy to peel away. The resulting fruit has a light yellow to coral pink flesh and can vary from juicy to slightly dry and from seductively spicy-sweet to tangy and tart. Tell your neighbor if you think pomelo would taste good mixed half and half with orange juice.  A pomelo is basically a supersized grapefruit with a very thick and soft rind. Page 53

Remember…  Simple is hard.  Unexpected takes effort and creativity.  Concrete is fairly easy, and incredibly effective.  The villain for Concrete is easily overcome. It’s forgetfulness. We forget to be concrete and tend to slip back into abstract-speak.

Unexpected  Surprise—gets attention  Interest—keeps attention  Avoid gimmickry; create a GAP  Gaps between what we know and what we want to know create curiosity.  K-W-L Charts  Open the gap by creating a mental itch. Page 65

Concrete  Remember the capital of Kansas  Remember the first line of “Hey Jude”  Remember the Mona Lisa  Remember the house where you spent most of your childhood  Remember the definition of “truth”  Remember the definition of “watermelon”  Talk to a neighbor about how it felt to remember these different things. Author’s Note: If the phrase “Hey Jude” drew a blank, please exchange this book for a Beatles album. You’ll be happier.Beatles Page 109

Concrete  Write down as many things you can think of that are white in color.  Write down as many white things in your refrigerator as you can think of.  Most people can list as many white things in their fridge, as they can list white things in general, despite the fact that our fridges do not normally encompass a large part of the universe. Page 119

Credibility  Personal Experience  Authority  Status  Honesty and Trustworthiness  Details  Statistics illustrate relationships  Generate internal credibility  Testable Credentials  Where’s the beef?

Beyond War  How to convince people that the nuclear weapons race was out of control?  Hiroshima—1 bomb  US nuclear sub—10 bombs  Worldwide in 1985—5,000 bombs Page 141

Emotional  The most basic way to make people care is to form an association between something they don’t yet care about and something they do care about. Page 167 & 173 Food shortages in Malawi are affecting more than 3 million children. In Zamibia, an estimated 3 million people face hunger. More than 11 million people in Ethiopia need immediate food assistance. Please help. Rokia is desperately poor and faces the threat of severe hunger or even starvation. Her life will be changed for the better as a result of your gift. $1.14 Donation $2.38 Donation

WIFFY  What’s in it for me?  How are we ever going to use this? Imagine that a company offers its employees a $1,000 bonus if they meet certain targets. There are three ways of presenting the bonus to the employees: 1. Think of what the $1000 means—down payment on a new car, or home improvement you’ve been wanting. 2. Think of the increased security of having that $1000 in the bank for a rainy day. 3. Think of what the $1000 means—the company recognizes how important you are to its overall performance. It doesn’t spend money for nothing. Page 185

Maslow understood sticky.

Stories  Stories are told and retold because  They contain wisdom.  They inspire us to act.  They are part entertainment and part instruction. Page 212

Stories  Stories = Simulations  Visualizations work because they stimulate the same regions of the brain as if the person were actually doing the activity.  Focus on process, not the outcome. Page 212

Stories  Plots: Challenge, Connection, and Creativity  David and Goliath  The Good Samaritan  MacGyver MacGyver Page 212

The Villains-A Review  Natural tendency to bury the lead.  Tendency to focus on the presentation, rather than the content.  Facing down decision paralysis  The Curse of Knowledge

For an idea to stick, it has to make the audience…  Pay attention.  Understand and remember it.  Agree or Believe  Care  Be able to act on it.  Unexpected  Concrete  Credible  Emotional  Story Make the audience…SUCCESs Checklist

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