Three Cups of Tea: Book Review

Three Cups of Tea
By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

I read this book hoping to be inspired as I was when I read Mountains Upon Mountains. In truth, I liked Mountains better; however Three Cups of Tea was still good. I won’t summarize the plot, visiting their website will give you the basic idea of it.

One thing that I found particularly interesting was that in 1993 Greg Mortenson was just a regular guy. He didn’t have a Bachelor’s degree, he wasn’t rich; he didn’t even know how to use a computer! But he had a determination to fulfill a promise he made to build schools in Pakistan.

Comparing the resources I have now with what Greg had in 1993, it seems that I certainly could (and should) make a bigger difference in the world.

I confess being troubled somewhat at the price Greg had to pay in leaving his family so often. It seems that his wife was cool with it though, and that is the most important thing.

My favorite part—the pictures that are included in the book. After reading about Mouzafer Ali, Haji Ali, and Jahan to see their pictures brought tears to my eyes as I realized once again how very similar the peoples of the world are.

Book Review: Rapid Instructional Design

Rapid Instructional Design by George M. Piskurich

One of the key takeaways from the book is that in order to have good instructional design you need to do extensive analysis before you begin. What are the people like for whom you are designing the training? Why are they taking your training? What are their needs? Discussing this pre-design information gathering was the subject of about ¼ of the book. Interviews, questionnaires and other resources can be helpful in gathering this information. He states, “The last question I always ask [in interviews] is ‘Is there anything that you are surprised that I did not ask about?’” I use this question or a variation of it no matter what the purpose of the interview is” (55). Seems like good advice.

An impatient designer (like me) doesn’t want to do the pre-work he describes. Nor do I want to do the beta tests that he recommends to find out if the training is really hitting the mark. I was convinced after reading his book that if I’m serious about producing training that will often be reused and bring quality results (and not all training is going to be used multiple times, thereby needing extra rigor) that beta tests and pre-design research are critical.

In addition, you should evaluate the course if you plan to reuse the training. Simple evaluations could be to ask four simple questions:

1. Rate this class on a scale of 1 to 5
2. State the one thing you liked best about the class
3. State the one thing you would most like to change about the class
4. What do you think was the most important thing you learned from the class?

On pages 198-201 he had a nice list of teaching activities. Some that I liked were:

• Getting anonymous questions from participants
• Have trainees critique a demonstration
• Panels
• Role reversal role play—in which the players assume the roles of others with whom they normally interact on the job.

Page 259 had a handy list of tips for facilitators like,

Overprepare
Observe others as they facilitate and take notes on what they do that works.
Use name tags and name tents
Memorize your instructional content
Start and stop on time
Use nonbreak breaks, like throwing a ball, stretching, or mind relaxers
Everybody likes prizes
Candy breaks, particularly in the afternoon, are real energizers.

Overall I liked this book. I felt that if I didn’t have access to the Internet to help solve specific problems that it would be a resource I would want to continually look at. One weakness of the book was that the e-learning sections felt that they were eight years old (although the copyright shows 2006).

Book Review: The mind and the brain

The Mind and The Brain

By Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D. and Sharon Begley

This book was recommended to me by Russell Osguthorpe, author of Choose to Learn. I thought it was fascinating.

Schwartz begins by talking about his treatment of people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Since I mildly manifest some OCD symptoms this was especially interesting to me. One of his keys points is that contrary to the belief that we are controlled by our genes, and basically predestined to certain outcomes, we have the power to make choices not only to override these predispositions, but to actually alter the composition of our brains. (For a quick and interesting read on this topic, see "Does Thinking Make It So" published in the most recent Harvard magazine).

Schwartz weaves the stories of several scientists and their experiments to show this thesis to be correct. One of his key ideas for changing the way our mind has to do with Buddhist practices of meditation. The four steps he suggests are to “Relabel their obsessions and compulsions as false signals, symptoms of a disease, they reattribute those thoughts and urges to pathological brain circuitry (“This thought reflects a malfunction of my brain, not a real need to wash my hands yet again”). They refocus, turning their attention away from the pathological thoughts and urges onto a constructive behavior. And, finally, they revalue the OCD obsessions and compulsions, realizing that they have no intrinsic value, and no inherent power” (14). [see end of this review for more on these “re’s”.]

Schwartz’s story of how he developed this theory is quite interesting. Previous treatments of OCD seemed quite strange (forcing people to do the behaviors that they hated) and the cure rate was very low. Piece by piece he put these four keys together and eventually began using them in therapy with great success. In fact he showed that there was substantially decreased metabolic activity in that part of the brain that is overactive in OCD patients. He stated that “This was the first study ever to show that cognitive-behavior therapy—or, indeed, any psychiatric treatment that did not rely on drugs—has the power to change faulty brain chemistry in a well-identified brain circuit” (90).

A corollary of this finding is that the brain remains subject to change and grow, not just in childhood, but throughout life. Additional evidence to demonstrate this comes from the Silver Spring Monkeys. A researcher named Taub experimented on these monkeys by altering a small part of their brain making one of their limbs unusable. Then he put the good limb in a straitjacket forcing the monkey to use the arm that it thought was useless. In time, the monkey was able to use the “useless” arm. In other words, the brain was able to become active and have other parts of the brain learn how to control its arm. This work with monkeys was later applied to stroke patients, and many were able to regain use of limbs that they thought they would never be able to use again. Taub says, “If a stroke knocks out your Broca’s region, I am suggesting, you can in effect grow a new Brocas’ region” (196).

Another interesting finding reported by Schwartz is that mental activity can have the same effect on the brain as physical activity. “Pascual-Leone…[had] one group of volunteers practice a five-finger exercise, and a comparable group merely think about practicing it. They focused on each finer in turn, essentially playing the simple piece in their hands, one note at a time. Actual physical practice produced changes in each volunteer’s motor cortex, as expected. But so did mere mental rehearsal, and to the same degree as that brought about by physical practice…merely thinking about moving produced brain changes comparable to those triggered by actually moving” (217). This shows that the mental processes of relabeling and so forth that Schwartz described have the potential to actually change the physical structure of the brain. This was also related to how dyslexia (Fast ForWord) and Tourette’s might be treated.

The part of the book that caused Dr. Osguthorpe to recommend it to me was the final third which focuses on volition. “Mental force acts on the physical brain by amplifying the newly emerging brain circuitry responsible for healthy behavior and quieting the OCD circuit” (295). In simple terms, you are not controlled by your genes or your brain. The things you do and think about can literally reconfigure your brain.

One insight that I found particularly interesting as a teacher was that we can choose what we pay attention to, and that the things we pay attention to changes the way our brain works. “Attention to shape and color pumps up the volume of neuronal activity in the region of the visual cortex that processes information about shape and color…in people, paying attention to faces turns up activity in the region whose job it is to scan and analyze faces” (329).

So when I as a teacher say something like, “Students read verse 8 and look for…” I am helping to focus their attention on a certain point. This will fire up certain neurons and brain activity in a way that would not happen if they were reading without looking for something specific. “The way an individual willfully focuses attention has systematic effects on brain function, amplifying activity in particular brain circuits” (334).

So the implication for me as a person trying to become better is that by choosing to pay attention to certain things, or looking for certain things I can literally change my brain. Perhaps “looking for the positive” actually changes neurons in my brain and helps me to be a happier person. As a teacher I can work carefully to help focus students’ attention in meaningful ways.

[More specifics on the “re’s.]:

Speaking of what he came to term relabeling he said, “To register mentally the arrival of each and every OCD obsession and compulsion, and to identify each as a thought or urge with little or no basis in reality, would require significant, willful effort. It would not be sufficient just to acknowledge superficially the arrival of such a symptom. Such superficial awareness is essentially automatic, even (almost) unconscious. Mindful awareness, in contrast, comes about only with conscious effort. It is the difference between an off0handed “Ah, here’s that feeling that I have to count cans again,” and the insight “My brain is generating another obsessive thought. What does it feel like? How am I responding? Does the feeling make sense? Don’t I in fact know it to be false?” (78).

On reattribution: “Relabeling and reattributing reinforce each other…by reattributing their symptoms to a brain glitch, the patients recognize that an obsessive thought is, in a sense, not “real” but, rather, mental noise, a barrage of false signals. This improves patients’ ability not to take the OCD thoughts at face value” (82).

For refocus he “developed a ‘fifteen minute rule.’ The patient had to use an ‘active delay’ of at least fifteen minutes before performing any compulsive act. Setting a finite length of time to resist giving in seems to help patients…the fifteen minutes should not be just a passive waiting period, however. Rather it must be a period of mindful adaptive activity intended to activate new brain circuitry, with the goal of pursuing the alternative activity for a minimum of fifteen minutes. This seems to be the length of time generally needed for most patients’ OCD urges to diminish noticeably” (84). “When patients changed the focus of their attention…the brain might change too” (85). “Refocusing is the step that, more than any other, produces changes in the brain” (86).

“Revalue is a deep form of relabeling. Anyone whose grasp of reality is reasonably intact can learn to blame OCD symptoms on a medical condition. But such relabeling is superficial, leading to no diminution of symptoms or improved ability to cope….revaluing went deeper” (87) “…[it] means seeing matters as they really are” (88).

Good stuff…I should practice it! :)

Here Comes Everybody: Book Review

Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky

Special thanks to Cahlan Sharp for originally recommending this book, and SaraJoy Pond for loaning me her copy. Shirky starts off with an interesting tale of a woman named Ivanna who lost her phone. Turns out it was stolen, but her friend Evan using new media brought the situation to the public’s attention and eventually the phone was returned. The full story can be read here.

What makes the story so incredible is that it could not have happened ten years ago. Media outlets would not have picked up the story and there would have been no way to get the NYPD to pay attention to Evan’s claims. One key lesson is that new media allows groups to be formed (and dissolved) more easily and rapidly than ever before.

Shirky introduces chapter two by discussing the Birthday Paradox. Shirky uses this paradox to point out that he more people involved in a community, it become exponentially more complex. This creates organizational challenges, and in fact it is extremely difficult to force large groups of people to organize. But new media tools allow people who want to organize to do so fairly easily. He points out that using Flickr groups of people who do not know each other can easily pool together their pictures of a specific event.

These tools break down barriers that have existed for a long time. Now a woman living in Thailand can blog and post pictures about a military coup and get more press time than a report for the New York Times. People can easily create and distribute books, music and movies. As available content proliferates how this content is annotated, or tagged will become increasingly important.

One thesis of the book is that the ability to coordinate is power. There are several examples, such as using facebook to force a bank to change its policy towards students, using new media to protest the Catholic church’s handling of sexual abuse allegations, complaining about airline treatment, and so forth.

Shirky uses The Prisoner’s Dilemma to illustrate the importance of trust. And there are plenty of tools that allow people to build trusting relationships even though they never meet face to face. This allows people to meet and work together in new ways.

So what does all this mean? Well, if you are trying to change the world, you had better tap into the power of the masses. Shirky states that “Caterina Fake, one of the founders of Flickr, said she’d learned from the early days that ‘you have to greet the first ten thousand users personally’” (264). It takes effort to create a space (like Wikipedia, or Linux) where people will want to contribute to a project. The simplest promise to make to contributors to whatever you are creating is that if you help build this _____ it will improve.

Shirky concludes by tell of technology pioneer Aldus Manutius, who is 1501 began publishing books in a size small enough to easily fit into a man’s bag. Shirky writes, “Rather than either lamenting the influence of the [printing] press or continually marveling at its initial usefulness, he took it on himself to make an improvement that seems obvious in retrospect but that was at the time a small revolution extending the big revolution of moveable type” (302-303). The challenge for us then is to follow in his footsteps in our day.

The Book of Learning and Forgetting: Book Review

The Book of Learning and Forgetting by Frank Smith

Charles Swift recommended I read this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It reminded me of the writings of Eleanor Duckworth. If I were forced to summarize the book in a few sentences I would say that Dr. Smith’s view of learning is very similar to that articulated by Lave and Wenger of forming communities of practice. Smith states that basically you learn by the company you keep. It is by being with people who do certain things, and participating with them that you learn to do those things. As a case in point, my brother-in-law is in dental school. About 80% of his school time is spent in a dentist office where he works on people’s teeth, under the watchful care of a licensed dentist. He is learning by participating in the activity and associating with others who do it.

Smith uses a “club” metaphor for this—stating that a good way to think about learning is to join a club. It’s voluntary, you’re with other people who share the same interest, and you work together. A less-effective way to learn Chinese—copy characters and use brute memorization force. More effective—join a Chinese club with native speakers and practice speaking with them.

Smith points out that people learn an enormous amount of information without formal schooling. One of his major points is language acquisition. Third grade children learn on average 3,500 words per year just from naturally living life. That would be like learning ten new vocabulary words per day—but everybody knows how easily vocabulary words are forgotten. Because these children aren’t forcing themselves to memorize these new words they are likely more easily remembered.

Smith states that learning that is hard, intentional, based on rewards or punishments, assured by testing, etc. is learning that will soon be forgotten and is not, in the classical sense, true learning.

If you want to teach your children to read, read to them. Don’t worry that you are crippling them by reading for them, as soon as they are able they will start reading, because kids want to do things for themselves. Don’t worry if your kids like to read the same books over and over again, or if they are reading books that are “too easy.” This is part of joining and feeling a part of “the literacy club.”

Smiths rips into researchers such as Ebbinghaus stating that our whole theory of learning is based on memorizing (and forgetting) nonsense syllables, and creating learning systems that work well for the military, but not for creating true learning. Behaviorism and testing also get the cold shoulder.

Sadly, I felt that Smith was describing some of my tests when he said, “Memorization is emphasized, the inevitable forgetting is ignored, and no attention at all is paid to what students actually and permanently learn about themselves and education” (65).

The challenge I grapple with at the end of the book is, if I throw out my tests, how can I realistically tell what students are learning. Smith states that if students are engaged in activities and don’t seem bored or confused that they are learning. But how can this be realistically determined? I truly want my students to join a “club” so to speak as they participate in my class and become in their own ways scholars of the Book of Mormon with an ability to think and write about it. I want them to be able to find new insights from the text and effectively share those with others. But how to measure it?

Real Love in Parenting: Book Review

I recently finished the book Real Love in Parenting, by Greg Baer, M.D. It came highly recommended from several of my aunts, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The following is a summary of the ten chapters of the book.

The First Principle of Parenting: More than anything else, my child needs to feel loved

Just like plants die when they are not watered, children act badly when they are not loved. What children need is real love—not imitation love. Analogy—if you have a ten minute conversation with a person and for nine minutes they are loving and kind, but for the last minute they yell and scream at you, what will you remember? The one minute. Even if we are loving towards our children 90% of the time, sadly, they will remember the one 10%. Needs to be closer to 99.9%! If you are angry or not loving towards you child it is because you do not feel enough real love yourself.

Analogy—imagine that you are hungry and only have $2.00 left to buy food. I come in and steal your $2.00. How do you feel? You are probably very angry. But what if you have 1,000,000,000 dollars and I come in and take two. How do you feel? Not mad at all. So it isn’t me stealing $2.00 that makes you angry, it is that you only have $2.00. Similarly, when our children are yelling and arguing, that isn’t what makes us angry, it is that we do not have enough love, patience or other resources to deal with the problem.

The Second Principle of Parenting: When my child behaves badly, he or she does not feel loved

There are many ways that we show imitation love to our children. Any time it is about me as the parent it is probably imitation love. For example, I am often guilty of this with doing activities with the kids. A lot of the activities are really things I want to do, as opposed to things I do unconditionally for them. When our children are angry, hit, cling, whine, etc. it is a sign that they don’t feel loved.

Analogy: you are at a pool giving a speech. Somebody from the pool splashes you. Once. Twice. A third time. You are getting angry. You turn to yell at the person and see that it is a person who is drowning. Does your perspective change? Of course…when your kids are exhibiting bad behaviors it’s like they are drowning and trying to let you know.

The Third Principle of Parenting: When I’m angry, I’m wrong.

When you are angry you feel bad and your child feels bad. What does it teach children if we yell at them? We typically get angry because we are empty, we’re afraid of losing control, we’re worried about how their behavior inconveniences us, or makes us look bad. These are all essentially selfish behaviors.

Analogy: If behavior “causes” you to become angry, but another person is not angered by the behavior, this is proof that the behavior does not cause anger.

Analogy: Suppose your child breaks your camera, which “makes” you angry. Then your mother gives you one million dollars. Would that make you less angry? Yes, you say. And then we could say, “if the million dollars would make your anger go away, then the cause of your anger is not the broken camera, but your lack of one million dollars.”

Children do need to be taught manners, and to respect and honor their parents. What we need to do is make sure we are teaching them for their benefit and not to fulfill some need that we as parents have.

Five steps to eliminate anger: 1. Be quiet. 2. Be wrong—acknowledge that simply because you are angry, you are in the wrong. 3. Feel loved (remember the love that the Savior and others have for you). 4. Get loved (reach out to adults who can express real love to you). 5. Love and serve others.

The Fourth Principle of Parenting: I can’t give what I don’t have—I must find real love for myself

You have to have real love for yourself. Four keys to find unconditional love are 1. feel the desire to change. Tell the truth about yourself. Exercise faith. Give up your getting and protecting behaviors. Tell the truth about yourself means to state that at times you are selfish, or focused more on you than your kids. As you acknowledge the truth you create opportunities for people to see you as you really are, accept you and love you. You don’t go to your kids seeking this love but to “wise men and women” who have real love to give you. Telling the truth means many things…For example, “how many times do I have to tell you…” means “I can’t believe you’re so stupid, but you must be, or I wouldn’t have to keep telling you the same things over and over. If I were more loving I would teach you this lesson as many times as it takes, but my life is so empty and unhappy that if everything around me doesn’t go smoothly, I get upset and angry” (106). “Be quiet” means, “I’m so selfish, intolerant and controlling that I can’t live with the noises that all children make at your age.” “Can’t you hold still?” maeans “stop moving around and acting your age. Behave like and adult” (107).

The Fifth Principle of Parenting: My child needs to be loved and taught.

Sometimes what we should do is teach our children to tell the truth about themselves and their motives by 1. telling the truth about ourselves, 2. loving them when they tell the truth about themselves and 3. telling them the truth about themselves. So when kids are arguing you could say something like, “What we all really want most is to be happy, isn’t it? Everythnig we do is worthless if we’re not happy…there’s a lot of quarreling and irritation, which means people aren’t happy. Lately’ I’ve been doing some studying…and I’ve been learning that most of the unhappiness in our family is my fault. As a mother I’ve been making some huge mistakes…think about all the times I’ve been irritated with you when you didn’t do what I wanted….did you like that? You had it when I’m angry at you, because when I’m angry, I’m thinking of myself, not you” (130). By telling the truths about ourselves it helps our children to see that when we got angry at them it was not a manifestation of lack of love towards them, but that we are acknowledging that it was our own problem. You don’t tell children about your mistakes to get love from them, but rather to help them see the past differently, to give them an example of being truthful and to help them feel your love for them.

It’s important to love children even when they make mistakes. “Children judge whether we really love them according to how we treat them when they’re behaving badly. The absence of disappointment and anger when they’re ‘bad’ is the only kind of love that counts” (138).

Express love to your children by looking at them and giving them your full attention.

Some rules that can be helpful in arguments: 1. One speaker at a time. 2. Whoever speaks first is the speaker. 3. the speaker can only talk about their own feelings, not what others did or did not do.

When you need to correct a child, show genuine love—you have to really tell them the feeling, and tell them the truth. For example to a little boy who ate the last cookie help him see that he feels selfish and not as happy as in times past when he has shared.

The Sixth Principle of Parenting: After my child has been loved and taught, he or she needs to be loved and taught again

When children get angry, see accept and love your children. Teach them about real love and discuss the effects of anger on happiness. Teach them alternative ways to behave and at times impose consequences.

With respect to “time out” it should only be to accomplish a specific purpose to allow them to cool off. It isn’t a punishment but an opportunity to learn something, and a loving invitation is giving to come back as soon as they can kindly be a part of the family.

Keys to preventing anger, clinging, etc. love our children unconditionally, teach them to responsible and loving, establish clear rules, consistently apply consequences, learn how to say no, be grateful when your children are loving.

When praising children, frame it in loving and teaching. You don’t want to say that you are good person, but rather when you did such and such a thing you felt good. E.g. What did you do differently to have things work out so well? What did you learn from this?

The Seventh Principle of Parenting: The law of Choice.

“The most important principle in relationships is the Law of Choice: We all have the right to choose what we say and do” (262). If you feel disappointed and/or angry with your kids it’s probably a sign that you are limiting their choices for your own convenience, and not for their benefit. When possible let children make their own choices and suffer from (or be rewarded by) the natural consequences. For example, remember the purpose behind the requirement. Cleaning your room is important to teach responsibility and so that your kids can find stuff when it’s time to get dressed in the morning or go to bed at night.

The Eighth Principle of Parenting: Happiness comes from being loving.

When your children are fighting see and love them. Talk to them. How do you feel when you’re fighting? We’ve talked before about how when we are angry we aren’t feeling loved. What is happening that is having it be so that you don’t feel loved. Help your children see the truth, that when they are fighting over a toy they are being selfish.

You don’t have to be a doormat to be loving. You can teach your children about setting limits. He gives an example of a sibling always taking another sibling’s bike, and then helping that kid get a lock for his bike so his sibling wouldn’t always take it.

Two keys of success in relationships are 1. tell the truth about yourself. 2. Never expect any one person or group of people to love you. The only way you can make a difference is to change yourself, not blame or worry about what others are doing, because you cannot control those things.

The Ninth Principle of Parenting: Happiness Comes From Being Responsible

This chapter was similar to Merilee Boyack’s book on teaching children responsibility. Have meetings to discuss chores, give children choices where possible and set up assignments and deadlines with everybody’s agreement. Also suggests having one-on-one interviews with your children.

But What About…

This chapter covers various scenarios like “what if the kids are fighting” “what if they don’t go to bed…” etc. Most of the solutions were pretty common sense and in harmony with what I’ve read in other parenting books. One part that I thought was interesting was what he taught about “teaching children about sex” and how similar it was to what church leaders have taught.

“In the absence of real love…many of us use sex as a tool to create happiness and that never works out…The biggest reason young people experiment with sex is that they’re not happy. They’re looking for anything that will make them feel less unloved, powerless and alone” (392, 393).

As far as “what is the line of how far you should go” he gives an analogy of driving down a mountain and staying as far away from the edge as possible. Elder Boyd K. Packer taught something similar. He also states, “I suggest that children not be allowed to date before age sixteen” (398). Also, “Steady dating…encourages intimacy that children are not emotionally prepared for. Exclusive dating is therefore unwise until people are prepared for a committed, mutually loving relationship, like marriage” (398).

Book Review: The Future of Ideas

Book Review

The Future of Ideas
By Lawrence Lessig

One of the things about this book that I really value about this book is that it is free. You can read it in its entirety or download it at http://www.the-future-of-ideas.com/download/ I think it is pretty cool that an esteemed author such as Dr. Lessig is willing to put his whole work out there to be read and revised as the world sees fit.

Lessig describes an interesting interview he had with (I believe) the head of the RIAA who accused him of being a hypocrite because he was selling his book. Lessig has shown that he is not a hypocrite by releasing his book to the public for free. Will Hollywood follow? Doubtful.

In this book Lessig explores the evolution Internet and how it is a resource that has dramatically altered our society in many ways. He also shows how if we are not careful the freedoms provided by the Internet can be controlled and underutilized to meet the needs of big business and/or other stakeholders whose interest is not the common good.

A theme in the book is the “tragedy of the commons” and Lessig shows various scenarios in which this tragedy does and does not apply. For example, he argues that bandwidth is does not fall in this category because there is an inexhaustible amount of it (although it may currently be untapped).

Although this book was written in 2001, there are still many theoretical nuggets that are valid today, though I was glad to see that some of the more dire predictions have not come to pass (yet).

Lessig suggests many creative solutions to problems we face that should be considered. He strongly feels that the patent office is out of touch and that a radical overhaul is needed as to how long patents can be enforced, and under what conditions.

In this short review I have not done justice to the ideas in this book. But to be brief, I will state my three biggest takeaways.

1. Patents should offer some limited protection, but our current law gives patents that are WAY too long.

2. Control is not necessarily bad, but we need to think carefully about how it is used.

3. Innovation is key to continued growth, and openness is a key to innovation.

Musings on the Social Life of Information

Today I read a chapter by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid in their book The Social Life of Information that I wanted to comment on. They talk about the difference between “know that” and “know how.” “Know that” refers to learning about facts, data and information. “Know how” is how to do something. And “we learn how by practice” (quoting Ryle, 128).

Brown and Duguid quote from Lave and Wenger describing how communities of practice add to “know how.” They describe different settings in which newcomers were able to associate with expert practitioners and learn from them. They also describe how situated learning is more effective than learning out of context. Using an example of learning how to speak by reading, listening and talking as opposed to looking up new words in a dictionary they found the former to be much more effective.

To lampoon the “know that” crowd they quote from Hard Times in which Gradgrind states, “Teach these boys nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing less and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts…Stick to Facts, Sir” (135).

Using the metaphor of “supply and demand” Brown and Duguid point out that although we often think of teaching and learning stemming from supply (finding somebody who can teach us), the more critical part is the “demand” that students have to learn. If one really wants to learn, it will make all the difference.

Book Review: The Ten Faces of Innovation

The Ten Faces of Innovation

Introduction

Picture the scene—a new idea is being discussed, and somebody says, “Let me play the devil’s advocate.” This person then goes on to tear apart the idea, leading to its untimely demise.

Tom Kelley and Jonathan Littman, authors of The Ten Faces of Innovation believe that this is anathema to the process of design and idea creation. Instead of the “devil’s advocate,” they propose ten roles individuals can play that will lead to increased creativity and more successful innovation. In this paper I will review these roles and discuss applications that I see from them in the design process.
The Anthropologist

The authors quote Marcel Proust as saying, “The real act of discover consists not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes” (16).

This quote captures the basic role of anthropologists, which is to carefully observe, and learn lessons from what they see. The authors posit that there is much to learn if we will simply open our eyes to observe. One of the keys of being an anthropologist is to, as much as possible, have the experiences of those that you want to study. For example, one IDEO “anthropologist” spent 48 hours in the hospital with a patient to better understand the kinds of treatment she would receive.

I related this to how I, as an author, could spend time in bookstores interviewing people who chose to buy (or not buy) particular books. I could learn a great deal from watching what customers pick up, how they interact with, and talking to them about why they purchase the products they purchase. This information could help in the designing of future books.

Another key insight from this chapter is that anthropology holds a key for understanding the future. The authors quote Henry Ford who said, “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse” (37).

Therefore, customer surveys will not necessary tell you what products to design, because the customers themselves have not thought of them yet. But by talking with people and coming to better understand what they really want, one may be able to uncover innovative ideas.

The Experimenter

The experimenter tries to create physical representations or prototypes of ideas, even if they are rudimentary, knowing that just getting started on something often leads to more successful iterations. This is one manifestation of the IDEO axiom to “fail often, to succeed sooner” (52).

As an example of a simple experiment, a store called The Good Guys inserted an advertisement into a magazine that when unfolded was the actual size a 42-inch flat-panel TV would be. One of the reasons people had not yet bought these TVs was that it was hard to picture how it would look in their family room. But this cutout helped them to visualize how the TV would look in their home, and sales dramatically increased as a result. It wasn’t a fancy experiment or design, but it brought great success.

A key to being a good experimenter is to come up with multiple prototypes. If you show somebody a solution to a problem they are having, and you only give them one solution, their response to it “is muddied by what they think about you” (55). But if you are able to give two or three solutions (prototypes) to the problem it will be much easier to further experiment and play with the possibilities.

The Cross-Pollinator

The third type of person discussed is the “cross-pollinator.” Many common inventions we have today came from cross-pollination—the escalator and the Frisbee being two examples. Cross-pollinators are people who can take knowledge from one area and transfer it into another. Oftentimes they have deep knowledge in one area, and broad knowledge in others. They combine their deep knowledge with new things they learn to create innovative ideas.

To increase one’s ability to cross-pollinate, one should learn about a variety of topics and travel to different places. Look for connections between what you are learning and what you are an expert in. For example, as I am learning about design, I can take what I learn and apply it in an area where I have deeper knowledge (religious education) and find new ways of doing things (cross-pollination).

The Hurdler

The hurdler does things even if, and sometimes especially when, they are hard. Regardless of budget constraints or other difficulties, hurdlers find ways to accomplish their goals. One example of a hurdler is Richard Drew, who as a young employee of 3M invented scotch tape, even when his superiors told him to focus on other things, and refused to budget for his research. He leaped through the hurdles and succeeded anyways.

In some respects the hurdler is the opposite of the devil’s advocate. While the devil’s advocate will say all the reasons why something can’t be done, the hurdler will focus on ways things can be accomplished. When somebody plays the role of the hurdler solutions will be uncovered where none were previously seen.

The Collaborator

The collaborator is a bridge-builder one who can help get people with different points of view to work together. They “stir up the pot. They bring people together to get things done” (114).

One of the innovative ideas a collaborator can use is an “unfocus group.” This means pulling together a group of people who are different, and are all extremely passionate about what they believe in. They can often bring new ideas to the table and a collaborator can help capture these. “Quirky, fun, and often surprising, unfocus groups give companies a chance to see real people interact and experiment with products and things they care about” (122).

A great metaphor for collaboration is the relay race. In an Olympic relay, each of the four runners in the 400 meter could run the 100 meter in about 10 seconds. But they could run the relay in 37.4 seconds. How did they do this? It was possible because by the time the handoff occurred, the second runner was already running at top speed.

Recently I have been involved in a collaborative effort in designing a book. This book was conceived to be something totally different for anything on the market for LDS youth. The three main collaborators have been two co-authors, and the publishing director. Chris, the publishing director on this project has been the quintessential collaborator. He has mediated difficulties, inspired new ideas, and reached out to others with a variety of specialties to make the project better. This experience has shown me that multiple heads are better than one, and the person who can successfully stimulate collaboration is a very valuable team-member .

The Director

The role of director is likened to that of a director in a movie. He brings together a good cast of individuals and then lets them have the limelight. Directors do not have all of the ideas themselves, but can pull great things from others. For example, directors often engage in brainstorming. The authors state that one of the keys to have successful brainstorming is to “Begin with a clear statement of the problem of the problem, a question that’s open-ended but not too broad.” (151).

IDEO has rules such as “go for quantity, encourage wild ideas, be visual, defer judgment, [and] one conversation at a time” (151). These rules help keep things flowing and prevent good ideas from being killed too soon.

They also suggest numbering the ideas and to “capture…ideas in visual, low-tech mediums that everyone can share. Spatial memory is a powerful force you can use to guide the participants back on track” (152).

The Experience Architect

The next type of individual discussed is the experience architect. These individuals are “people who focus relentlessly on creating remarkable customer experiences” (166).

There were several examples of how companies had been able to make breakthrough designs by considering the experience that the customers were having. For example, when one needs to put antifreeze into a car there is often a complicated mixing that needs to take place in order for the antifreeze-water ratio to be just right. An innovative company changed this “experience” by creating a product that had a pre-blended mix; making things much easier for the consumer, and changing the experience they had.

As another example, Coldstone has created a whole new “ice cream experience” in which customers get to participate in the creation of their own personalized ice cream treat. Coldstone realized that they were serving more than just ice cream—it was the whole experience of going out to eat a treat that they focused on.

One key suggestion they gave to enhance experience is to bring it to the customer where possible. For example, one dentist would go to a large corporation and do checkups on-site, dramatically reducing the amount of time that employees had to take off for their dental checkups. Having the dentist on-site totally changed the experience.

Currently I am working on the design of some websites that I hope will encourage people to learn more deeply from the scriptures. To take on the role of the experimenter, I need to think about the “experience” that people who use the site will have. There is more to design than the “what to teach” and “how to teach;” the overall experience must also be planned for and created.

The Set Designer

The set designer knows that the space you work in can have a large impact on what gets accomplished. This can be as simple as making sure critical supplies are stocked close at hand, or by changing the surroundings of a room. As an extreme example of the power of set design, when the Cleveland Indians changed their arena they began winning more games. Was this a coincidence? The authors did not think so.

It is important to note that one set is not right for everyone. Some may crave privacy, while others want to be close to others. Realizing that different activities and people may need different types of spaces to work with is all part of the role of the set designer.

I recently changed office locations, and thought carefully about what I would bring to the new office. I am teaching the Book of Mormon and noticed that I had no pictures of the Savior up in my office. I found that putting up a picture of the Savior teaching, along with a picture of my wife, and pictures of former students creates an environment where I can better prepare to teach.

The Nurturer

The authors state, “Think of your best personal experience with a good physician, how they took care of you in a professional way and at the same time nurtured you…that’s exactly the sort of caregiver we all hope for…” (216).

There are several ways that companies can give this kind of care—and the benefits of doing so are obvious. One personal experience I have had with this was an experience related to me by a customer service manager at a Toyota dealership.

He received a call from an angry customer who had been told by a technician that his brake pads needed to be changed. The customer had gone to get a second opinion and had been told that his pads did not need to be changed. The customer accused the Toyota dealership of trying to cheat him.

The customer service manager said, “I want to make sure that you have not been cheated. I will come to your home and personally check the pads for you again.”

The manager did so, and discovered that in fact the pads did not need to be changed. He apologized profusely and offered the man some free services from the dealership. Although this required time, this kind of nurturing won him a client for life.

A specific idea the authors give to increase nurturing is to keep customers informed about wait times. One of the things that customers dislike is uncertainty. Netflix provides a good example by emailing customers notifications of when movies have been received or shipped. This decreases the uncertainty, and increases satisfaction—part of the nurturing process.

When it comes to designing products they should have a nurturing feeling to them. An example of this that I recently saw was an online course in new media (not David Wiley’s). The course had a fun and energetic feel to it, and I felt welcomed there.

The Storyteller

The final role discussed in this book is that of the storyteller. Stories “trigger emotional responses that frequently spark valuable insights” (255).

At IDEO they will often begin design sessions by listening to stories from clients. For example, listening to a story from the benefit of a medical device could be of benefit to them as they begin seeking ways to improve that device.

Not only should companies and individuals tell stories to captivate viewers, they should also listen to the stories of their customers. For example, “Instead of asking questions like ‘what do you like or dislike about your mobile service?’ [say,] ‘Tell me a story about the time your mobile let you down.’” (247).

Engaging in this type of conversation allows more doors to be opened and experiences to be sharer. I believe that story-telling can help me in my efforts to help people gain more from their scripture study. Rather than asking people, “Do you read your scriptures?” I could ask, “Tell me a story about a time when your scripture study helped you.” This latter statement would help me gain much more valuable information.

Conclusion

To me there are two key implications from The Ten Faces of Innovation. First, when I am involved in a design project, I should try to use the lenses of these different roles to help in the design process. In group discussions, rather than looking for reasons why it won’t work (devil’s advocate) I can try to make a prototype of what is being discussed, or facilitated brainstorming as a director would. As I develop proficiency in these additional roles, my usefulness as a part of a design team will increase.

A second implication is that I should consider these different roles in the actual design of products. I could ask questions like, how could we make this a better experience? How can we capture the stories our customers or end-users will have? What can we do to make this a more comfortable (nurturing) design?

Sharing, Part 3

I had a bit of fun with the tools this week!

One good slideshare presentation I found sums up several of the web 2.0 tools we've been talking about in class:

http://www.slideshare.net/phauly/w2-234160

I also uploaded my own PowerPoint and embedded it into a wordpress site I've been working on at http://ldswhy.com/

I may not have mastered Diigo yet... I left a comment on http://boyceducation.blogspot.com/ and I can see it...but can anybody else?

Still working on Google Analytics...right now I haven't been able to integrate it properly into wordpress...but I will get there...or maybe I should use the WP Plugin (?)

Sharing (part 2)

Some of the sharing things this week get me really excited. First, http://youtube.com. What an incredible invention! A couple of years ago I discovered http://youtube.comand was excited about the opportunities that it presented for sharing the gospel with others. At the time I had recently produced a DVD and I decided to upload some of it. It has been seen a few times, and I feel good about that. I also taken some spiritual videos I have (like one of President Hinckley expressing his love to college students) and posted them as well.

In addition, I’ve added some videos that I thought were funny (Grinchmas) and some that are good family videos. All of these videos can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/user/johnhiltoniii To celebrate the “sharing” of this week, I uploaded a new video this week. Be one of the first to see it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwzguixUDYc

I also found a great way to do podcasting. Go to http://gabcast.com and check it out. You can record a phone conversation and turn it into a podcast or save it as an .mp3 file. And it’s 100% free. I will soon be adding some podcasting features to a new website I am working on: http://ldswhy.com

There are clearly lots of great gospel-sharing sites on http://youtube.com, and I have used some in the past. Sadly the fact that I am doing research for this blog at BYU limits my ability to provide you links at this time. But I did check out http://revver.com (why is http://youtube.com blocked and revver is not?) I found a great video clip that is doubtless available on youtube, but you can find it here:

http://revver.com/video/1153811/mormon-christian-faith-mormons-are-christians/

Well worth watching. Great LDS video.

As to the educational values of these kinds of sharing there are many. In fact the challenge is finding ways to sort through all of the information that is there. For example, http://lecturefox.com/mix/ has hundreds of high-quality university courses that can be downloaded as audio or video files. If I had hours of free time I would listen to them…but right now I am so engrossed in my other studies that I “don’t have time.” But as I look backwards I saw that in my “pre-doctoral” life I did have some time, especially when I was traveling that I could have used to listen to these lectures, and so I hope that I will have this kind of time in the future.

Delicious and Flickr

This week was "sharing, part 1" studying the bookmarking and photosharing tools.

I created accounts with delicious and flickr--should you care to check them out you could visit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31162943@N04/

Flickr was a fun site. In the past I have never been able to use it because my old CES computer had it blocked. I liked looking at the top new pictures and saw many visuals that I thought, "I could use this in a talk." I liked it.

My delicious account is: http://delicious.com/johnhiltoniii yet sadly no bookmarks have been placed in here. I only use one computer and so I couldn't really find a good use for it. I did look up some of the "top bookmarks" and I thought they were good at pointing me towards good information. One site I liked was: http://lecturefox.com/mix/

Seeing as 1 Billion new pages are added to the Internet everyday, bookmarking tools can be very helpful for sifting through all the information; the key for me is finding people I like and trust point me to good places to go.

Interestingly enough (but perhaps not surprising) there are lots of groups looking at how to use these resources for educational.

Flickr sites:

http://www.jakesonline.org/flickrinclassroom.pdf
http://www.flickr.com/groups/33384223@N00/

Bookmarking for education:

http://www.edtags.org/ This site is not a "delicious" site, but it is pretty cool. It is a way to rank different education sites. I was impressed as it was a good way for me to sort through many different sites through finding out what others have found effective.

PS--I should say it is cool in "concept." Upon further looking into it, it appears that this isn't as developed as it could be. What I thought was #1 vote, was actually that only 1 person had voted on it...

Second Post About Facebook in 1 Day (see--I am addicted).

Have you ever started reading websites and following links, finding so much cool stuff that your brain was going to explode? Then you started closing tabs, only to remember what you had started searching for!

That happened to me today. While searching for educational uses of social networks I first read http://venturebeat.com/2007/12/03/facebook-education-app-gets-funding/ It was an interesting article about the future of how within facebook students could easily form study groups, share notes, and so forth.

Then I went to http://www.infinitethinking.org/2008/01/social-networking-in-education.html which had a host of links (this is where I got sidetracked). One site that was interseting was http://www.classroom20.com/ Two things I found that are somewhat unrelated, but amazing were this Karl Fisch video: http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=6f2c2eba77f39993d118&page=1&viewtype=&category= and this one that syncs "We Didn't Start the Fire" with visuals: http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=f061977fb2f7ba36d74d&page=1&viewtype=&category=

BYU is not currently blocking teachertube. Sweet.

Anyways, back to the article, the author works for Ning...an social network for educators. They had lots of interesting links--but for the ones I clicked on you had to be a part of Ning...

I am left with a lot of thoughts in my mind from the Fisch video, thinking about how much web-traffic myspace and facebook currently generate, and yet they did not exist just five years ago. What an interesting task to think about how social networks can affect education.

I have become a facebook addict

I have been an avid email user since 1996. Back in "those days" you had to pay $3.00 per month to have a BYU email account and the online place I knew how to access the Internet was in the labs at the Talmadge building. Then I went on a mission, and when I came back it was a whole new world.

Email has been my primary communication since then, and I have frankly been annoyed when some people don't promptly return my emails. I noticed this particularly among my institute students in Miami, many of whom always talked about "facebook."

Alas, my computer (owned by the Church Educational System) blocked facebook so I never got to join in the fun.

Fastforward to September 2008. I want to keep in touch with all my loved ones in Miami, co-workers at Deseret Book are insisting I get facebook, and even my mom has an account. I waited until we were supposed to open an account for this class (the original date) and then began my facebook experience with gusto.

Now my life has changed.

Okay, that is a bit dramatic, but facebook has become a significant part of my communications life. I've reconnected with people from my mission (companions and converts), touched base with people I have met at different stages of life, and even become "friends" with some new people.

One of the reasons I was persuaded to try facebook is that I want to see how it can leveraged as a means to communicate uplifting messages. I'm not too interested in updates like, "I hate the testing center. lol." But I do think facebook can be leveraged for good. I have made two "status updates" both of which were along these lines.

First, I made my status a gospel question that I was asked in a religion class I am teaching. It was a question that I did not know the answer to! About seven people responded (either by commenting on my status or writing me a message) and the question was answered, so hopefully some knowledge was gained.

My second post included a link to an article I wrote for Deseret Book's Timeout for Women (http://deseretbook.com/time-out/devotional?dev_id=1602) My hope was that my former institute students, and others, would read the message and benefit from it. About the same number of people (seven) wrote on my wall or sent messages indicating it was helpful to them. I wonder, does that mean that only seven people followed the link? Is there a generalizable rule...if 7 people commented, then 14, or 21, etc. actually read it? I do not know.

I still think it is somewhat inconvenient to check email and facebook (why can't people just send me an email instead of writing on my wall) and email is my preferred mode of communication. But I still check my facebook account from my phone while walking up the hill to campus. And sometimes even during class. (don't tell anyone).

Education Use of Social Objects

Can educational content be a social object? Why or why not?

Absolutely! Social objects, by definition, are objects that gets people “talking.” A video clip for example could be shown, with the instruction to discuss its implications afterwards. That video clip becomes a social object. An interesting challenge for educators is how to make their content “social” while still maintaining the necessary content and rigor.

Can assessments or assignments be social objects? Why or why not?

I believe so. I want to throw out something I’ve done and see if it fits the bill. In the Book of Mormon classes I teach, I have the students bring a written (yes, on paper) summary of insights they have gained from their scripture study that week. I will often have student read each others papers as class begins and give each other (positive) feedback on it. In this respect I’m trying to take an assignment they’ve done and turn it into an object for social conversation.

If you've ever taken a class that used a learning management system (LMS) like Blackboard, how compatible does the idea of social objects appear to be with the notion of a learning management system?

I’m using blackboard for the first time this semester and so far it seems like a less-effective way. There are probably features I haven’t explored yet; but it seems mostly like a good way to transmit information (download assignments, take quizzes, etc.), rather than an effective way of encouraging conversation. Wikis or blogs would probably do a better job of that.

A good post on the educational use of social objects was:

http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2008/01/whats-a-social.html

A key takeaway I gained from this article was that content itself is a key “social object,” although it often gets pushes aside in favor of other, flashier, objects.

The second post I found was http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/437 Curiously enough this post was from David Wiley and he quoted from the exact same blog I had just read. Weird. Of course, it has good insights—and—just for fun, let’s carefully examine this phrase:

“The campfire does, of course, have important nonsocial functions (like providing heat) just like educational content has important nonsocial functions (like conveying information), but the most important function of both the campfire and educational content is the manner in which it draws people together.”

What is the most important function of the campfire? As one who hates camping (ouch) I have still sat around a few campfires in my day. When I first read this statement I thought, “Well the most important part of a campfire is the warmth” (leading to, the most important part of educational content is conveying information). I was remembering some cold nights.

But as I thought on more recent camping trips I have been on, the campfire really wasn’t for warmth. If you go too close it was uncomfortably hot and there was smoke (I’m sure there are educational analogies to this as well). What kept me warm were my clothes, and at times, a sleeping bag.

This led me to reason that there are other ways of conveying information as well—time spent in class is not the only way students will gain knowledge.

After thinking more about it, I think an analogy similar to the campfire is the dinner table. Yes, part of the family sitting down together to eat is to build caloric intake; however, the most important reason for sitting down together is the social interaction that takes place.

Educational uses of wikis

I found several sample classes where "wiki's" have been used in education.

http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com/page/Intro+to+Economics+and+Microeconomics is one example, and frankly this one was not too impressive. Probably you should save your time and not visit it.

Some seemed to have a good idea such as http://mathjmss.wetpaint.com/?t=anon. In this site the hope is that people will share ideas they have for math education. Sadly, few have shared, which is a danger of counting on others to contribute content.

A much more useful educational wiki is at: http://businesslaw.pbwiki.com/ Here, there is a "business law" class and you can hear podcasts, read chatpers from the text, download contract forms, links to articles, powerpoints and more. It wasn't quite perfect, I would have liked to see all current textbook assignments linked onto the wiki (they were using an assigned text that had to be purchased), but this was one of the better examples that I saw.

I did find another "new media" class wiki at : http://jmsc.hku.hk/blogs/webjourno/

Given David's comments on other blogs about donuts and brownosing, I will not comment on which syllabus I found to be more exciting.

My changes are still in!

About 30 hours ago I made my first changes in Wikipedia...and nobody has changed it back yet! I made a small change about the which of the twelve tribes native americans are "typically" or "sometimes"

I made this change because although Lehi came from the tribe of Manessah, Joseph Smith taught that Ishmael came from the tribe of Ephraim. Because most patriarchal blessings are private anyways, it didn't seem to make sense to say that Native Americans "typically" are from Manessah.

I use Wikipedia all the time and now that I know how easy it is to use, I want to edit more often. I read more about how it was started in a book called Wikinomics, and it is fascinating. Wikipedia is a powerful testament to me of the power of the masses, both to create and self-regulate.

Some thoughts on teaching and learning

In IP&T 620 we were assigned to write a reflection paper on our theory of learning. I'm including it below:

What does it mean to learn? What does it mean to teach? How can people improve their ability to learn? These are simple, and yet exceedingly complex questions.

First, different kinds of learning exist. One type of learning concerns factual information[1]. For example, a student could learn the names of people and places in the Book of Mormon. A second kind of learning is the acquiring of new skills. To continue the preceding example, students could learn how to search the Book of Mormon for patterns, or how to liken the scriptures to their lives.[2] A third kind of learning is more difficult to quantify. It involves personalized revelation from the Holy Ghost, and could include gospel insights, inspiration on what to do, and so forth.[3] As a learner and teacher I should monitor my study and pedagogical practices depending on the types of learning I hope to facilitate.

A second key facet of learning is the desire of the student. Meaningful learning occurs only when the learner wants to learn. From my own experience, I have sat in classes where a professor gave an informative lecture, but I did not learn anything from the lecture—because I chose to not focus on it. The same thing has happened to me when “involved” in a pair/share activity. It was meaningless because I did not want to learn. As a learner I need to increase my desire to learn, and as a teacher find ways to enhance students’ desire to learn. A key component of student desire is having a heart that is prepared to learn. Students have the main responsibility to prepare their hearts, but teachers also share in this role.[4]

Third, learning is enhanced when the learner has questions. [5] If I as a learner think I know everything, I will be less motivated to learn.[6] As a teacher I need to help students ask questions.

Fourth, learning is much more likely to occur when participants are actively involved in the process.[7] “Active involvement” includes reading, writing, speaking, engaging in hands-on activities, and so forth.[8] Listening in a lecture can also be an “active” process, as listening can be active, although this skill does take some practice.

Fifth, one of the most important parts of learning is the action it produces in the life of the learner. Knowledge that does not change what one does or is, may not be very important learning. [9] As a learner I should ask myself, “What will I do as a result of this class?” Similarly, as a teacher, I can help students apply what they learn in a variety of ways. I must help students make and keep commitments that will help them improve their lives. [10]

Sixth, some of the most important lessons that can be learned are based on observing the actions of others[11], and learning from the kind of person they are.[12] Some of my most valuable learning has occurred not from listening to a lecture, but from observing how my professor interacted with others. For example, one professor stressed in class the fact that teachers should encourage their students by getting excited about their ideas. On one occasion, when I shared an idea, she expressed genuine enthusiasm for my idea. What she did at that time has had a lasting impact on me.

Seventh, a key factor in learning is the expectations that the teachers and learners have about their capabilities. If I as a teacher can exhibit high expectations for my students, they will be more likely to attain those heights.[13]
Eighth, as President Gordon B. Hinckley taught, “Repetition is a law of learning”[14] I should not be afraid of re-learning concepts that I thought I already “knew.” Repetition often increases retention.

Finally, one of the most valuable sources of learning is gained through inquiring of the Lord.[15] This often comes through prayer, scripture study, and pondering.[16] As a teacher and learner I can inquire of the Lord to know what my next steps should be. The most valuable instruction I have received has come through this way of learning.

The preceding paragraphs have been an outline on some of my views on what it means to learn and teach. They hold keys to increase one’s capacities in these areas.

[1] “What have you learned by heart? Some of it is factual or informational. Such learning is useful. It helps us solve daily problems and meet immediate needs” (Susan W. Tanner, “Learning by Heart,” http://speeches.byu.edu/ [2006]).
[2] “As gospel instructors, you and I are not in the business of distributing fish; rather, our work is to help individuals learn to “fish” and to become spiritually self-reliant” (Elder David A. Bednar, “Seek Learning By Faith,” http://speeches.byu.edu/ [2006]).
[3] “The third level of learning comes from qualifying to obtain spiritual direction in your life. It is the most rewarding yet possibly the most difficult initially to feel confident in using” (Elder Richard G. Scott, “Learning to Succeed in Life,” http://speeches.byu.edu/ [1998].)
[4] “It’s important that you know this. The inspiration you may draw from the General Authorities as they come here to speak to you depends only partly in the effort they have expended in the preparation of their sermons. It depends much more considerable on what preparation you have made for their message” (Elder Boyd K. Packer, “Follow the Brethren,” http://speeches.byu.edu/, [1965]. Elder Gene R. Cook of the Seventy also stated, “You, as the teacher, must do all in your power to prepare the hearts of men so the Spirit can teach” (Ensign, Nov. 1988, 38).
[5] “The more questions we can get from the learners about something, the more they are engaged in the learning” (Julie B. Beck, Ensign, June 2007, 101).
[6] “But do you suppose that he [the slave] would ever have enquired into or learned what he fancied that he knew, though he was really ignorant of it, until he had fallen into perplexity under the idea that he did not know, and had desired to know?” (Socrates, in Plato’s Meno).
[7]“My personal experience confirms that to gain knowledge of great worth requires extraordinary effort through personal involvement. This is particularly true when our desire is to gain spiritual knowledge” (Elder Richard G. Scott, “Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge.” http://speeches.byu.edu/ [1993]).
[8] “A skilled teacher...asks, ‘What will my students do in class today?’” Teaching the Gospel Handbook, 13.
[9] “When teachers present a doctrine or a historical event, they should teach a related principle—something hearers should do, something they should apply to their lives” (Elder V. Dallas Merrill, Ensign, October, 2001, accessed at http://lds.org/).
[10] “[Helping] individuals…become spiritually self-reliant…is best accomplished as we encourage and facilitate learners acting in accordance with correct principles—as we help them to learn by doing…One of the fundamental roles of a [teacher] is to help [students] make and honor commitments—to act and learn by faith. Teaching, exhorting, and explaining, as important as they are, can never convey to [a student] a witness of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. Only as an [student’s] faith initiates action and opens the pathway to the heart can the Holy Ghost deliver a confirming witness”” (Elder David A. Bednar, “Seek Learning By Faith,” Address to CES, [2006]).
[11]“As you study and learn and grow during your time as a university student, I hope you also are learning about and becoming quick to observe. Your future success and happiness will in large measure be determined by this spiritual capacity” (Elder David A. Bednar, http://speeches.byu.edu/ “Quick to Observe.” [2005].
[12] “Our children and the youth of the Church will learn the most from what we do and what we are—even if they remember relatively little of what we say. (Elder David A. Bednar, “Marriage is Essential to His Eternal Plan, Ensign, June 2006).
[13] “It begins with expectations, yours and theirs. If you expect little, they will feel your lack of faith in them and in the Lord’s promised outpouring of the Spirit. If you communicate, by word or action or even by your tone of voice, that you doubt their spiritual capacity, they will doubt it. If you see [powerful potential] in them, they will at least have the chance to see it in themselves. Your choices of what you expect will have powerful effect on their choices of what to expect of themselves.” (President Henry B. Eyring, “Raising Expectations,” [2004], 2.)
[14] President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, Nov. 2000, 50.
[15] See Mosiah 26:13-14
[16] “Teach the importance and power of pondering; provide time in class to ponder, to think.” (Elder Robert D. Hales, Teaching by Faith [address to religious educators at a satellite broadcast, 1 Feb. 2002], 3–4.)

A little bit about me

I like to know people's names, and why they were given those names.

My full name is John Levi Hilton III, obviously after my father and grandfather. My grandfather received his first name from his paternal grandfather (John Hugh Hilton) and his middle name from his maternal grandfather (Levi Mathers Savage). That family heritage is important to me.

I hope to learn your name and why you were named it.

My life revolves around my family and my religion. My wife Lani and I met during our undergrad years at BYU, and we have been married for 8 years. We have four children, ages 7, 5, 3 and 1. Some pictures can be viewed at our family website, http://thehiltonfamily.org/ (sadly it is 8 months outdated).

Professionally, I am a "religious educator," in various facets of that phrase. Some of my published works can be accessed at http://johnhiltoniii.com/ (also outdated).

I am beginning this blog as an assignment for IP&T 692. I'm taking this class because I use few "Web 2.0" tools, and want to learn how using them could assist in sharing religious content, and more specifically, improving open-access religious education classes.