Developing a Learning Mindset

I was feeling a bit tired at the end of the day at work today and thought it may be a good idea to watch some videos in LinkedIn Learning. 

I looked through my saved list of courses for a light one and decided to watch Developing a Learning Mindset that is only about 30 minutes long. 

I am no beginner in learning but I thought I would still learn something from this beginners course. 

Yes, I certainly did. 

What Gary Bolles said here in the course really resonated with me. 

One of the exercises he recommended was to build my own Learning Inventory. I took time to fill up this sheet provided and I'm still thinking of what I can still add on to it. 

Someone asked me what's the reason for doing this. 

I told her that I agree with Gary Bolles when he said that we always underestimate what we have learnt and what we know. This exercise will show the immense knowledge and experience each of us has. 

The other thing is that we always don't see how unique we are. We all know different things and have different experiences. We need to be proud of who we are and the learnings that we have uniquely accumulated in all those years.

And with that, we continue learning even more. 

Would you also complete your own Learning Inventory and share it with me. 

pearlie

EdX’s Introduction to Big Data by Microsoft

After hearing so much about big data this and big data that, I thought it is high time for me to dig a bit deeper into what it is all about and that’s when I found edX’s Introduction to Big Data. 

I started on it couple of weeks ago and it’s only at the final week 4 that it goes into what big data is. 

The first three weeks is spent on the fundamental concepts of data i.e. data formats, encoding, storing, types of databases, database warehouse, data stores. 

And with that, Big Data is after all just a form of data, just that there is a lot of it, it would come in many different formats and varieties, and it may come in a high velocity—the threes Vs: volume, variety and velocity of data. 

It’s just a taste of what big data is and it doesn’t get too technical though there are sections which I chose to just scan through, but it does give me a very good introduction as to what it is all about.  

At least now I have a fair bit of understanding when people talk about big data. 

pearlie

Understanding the Brain

I stayed in during lunch today and I thought I'd check out Coursera to see if there is something interesting to learn. I have mentioned before that I am interested to learn more about the brain and I found this course. 

Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life by The University of Chicago

I signed up though the course is very long: a full 10-week course. The longest of all Coursera courses I've ever taken. 

The lecturer is Dr Peggy Mason, Professor of Neurobiology and she is actually quite funny and witty at times. I completed Week 1 during lunch today, I enjoyed listening to her and I learnt so much. 

It's going to be long and tedious but I am looking forward to the following 9 weeks. 

pearlie

Do you know what you eat?

I have always been interested in food and nutrition, and had once even tried to see if I could enroll in a degree programme. I didn't commit though. 

And so when I saw this programme being offered by Stanford in Coursera, I quickly signed up.

Stanford Introduction to Food and Health

It's very basic but very good, just nice and enough to learn about food and health for the time being. 

Death by Food Pyramid

by Denise Minger

I also read this book recently and my take away from it is not to believe in everything I read about food and what they claim is good or not good for you. I usually don't because most of those articles usually just go by a few anecdotes to promote their claims and beliefs. But after reading the book, I came to realize that even empirical studies are not as clear cut as they claim to be. 

Food is much more complicated than just its components and nutrients, it's a system. 

Michael Pollan who was featured in the Stanford course said that, "people like to figure [food] out because then you can just adjust that one thing and go on your merry way, but we haven't gotten that down yet. We don't know the answer to that question with any real confidence." 

With that, we still do not know for sure what is good and bad for sure but there are still some foods to avoid especially trans-saturated fats, fats that are made from oils through partial hydrogenation, a food processing method, that will increase unhealthy LDL cholesterol and lower healthy HDL cholesterol. 

I've already banned McDonald's from my food list with it being very calorie expensive. Now I will also be banning food like french fries, fried or battered food (oh no, there goes my fried chicken), margarine, frozen dinners, instant noodles, doughnuts, cookies, crackers, pies, pancakes, waffles, ice cream, nondairy creamer, and cakes.

I don't eat most of those food anymore, but some of them I might not be able to ban completely, but to eat less of them I shall. 

pearlie

Design Thinking for Innovation

I have been introducing Coursera.org to a lot of people and in checking the site on mobile before I sent the link to a friend, I saw this course on "Design Thinking for Innovation".

I have been seeing and hearing this thing Design Thinking for too many times now, at work and even in church, where the playschool do have some professionals in to run a cool Design Thinking for Kids event. Moreover, I will be meeting someone at work to check it out.

So I signed up to find out a little more about it.

I have just started on Week One but I must say it is a very good start and I look forward to learning more about it in the weeks to come.

pearlie

Need to start thinking and learning again

 

With my recent subscription to Apple Music, I have been listening to it every time I commute to and from work and it is partly good and partly bad. Good in the sense, I am listening more to music but bad in that I am not thinking much anymore compared to when I used to drive in silence. 

So I decided to drive in quietness this morning and it was nice to go back to thinking again. 

I thought about what I have learnt over the past years and my recent fascination in language. 

I thought how I spoke about my fascination in language during my recent training facilitation sessions and the linguistics online course, Miracles of Human Language, which I have started taking in Coursera but never completing it. 

I thought it would be good if I went back to it and finish the lectures and assignments, that I should reduce my time in watching too much TV and do something more useful. 

I stopped the course because it got tough. Linguistics is not an easy topic and I wasn't able to answer some of the quiz questions and that frustrated me. 

But I shouldn't give up so easily. And so I went back to it today. I am thankful they are still running the course and all I had to do was to reapply to a newer stream. 

I hope I will be firm with myself and complete it this time. Crossing my fingers. 

pearlie

Miracles of the Human Language

I was researching for some online language courses for work purpose when I found this very interesting course in Coursera - Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics by Universiteit Leiden & Meertens instituut. 

I don't know much about linguistics but languages fascinates me and so I signed up. Classes have already begun but thankfully just over the week and felt I could easily catch up, which I did. I started two days ago and finished all the video lectures and discussion questions yesterday. I completed the test today, though there are still two nagging questions which I could not figure out the answers to, even after many attempts. 

I learnt that language is a very unique human activity and for a language to be a true language, it needs to fulfil three characteristics:

1. Discrete infinity - the ability to produce an infinite number of phrases and sentences using a finite and discrete system like the English alphabet of 26 letters
2. Displacement - the ability to talk about things out of time and space
3. Joint attention - the ability to cooperate when we speak to each other, to understand and add on to the conversation

But there were two questions that linguists ask which they keep saying that they do not have an answer to, which to me, being a creationist and a Christian have no problems answering: when and where did language originate from? God created us with a language; and if language is so important to humanity, why is there so many different languages? The tower of Babel obviously. 

They certainly would not agree but to me those are plain facts. And as what Dallas Willard has said, "We live in a culture that has, for centuries now, cultivated the idea that the skeptical person is always smarter than than the one who believes. You can almost be as stupid as a cabbage as long as you doubt."

And what is interesting is this: in wanting to load a picture here, I went to Coursera to see what was used for this course. Isn't it an irony that they have used the picture of an oil painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder entitled The Tower of Babel (c.1563)?

pearlie

NT Wright's Online Courses

I was aware of NT Wright's upcoming lectures on Romans and thanks to Kar Yong's reminder, I just checked it out only to realize that he has several MOOC lectures already running in udemy.com and here am I, a MOOC proponent never realizing that my favourite writer is actually running MOOC lectures. But they are not free though, like the other MOOC lectures I that have been following, which explains why I did not know. I have not registered myself in udemy.com yet because they do not give an option to take any courses free.

He has now six courses made available, including the Romans one which doesn't seem to be listed yet in udemy.com though you can access it from his own website. Check them out here in his website where you can send in requests for discounts. The link to the Romans one is here.

• Simply Jesus
• Simply Good News
• Worldviews, the Bible and the Believer
• Paul and His Letter to the Philippians
• Paul and His Letter to the Galatians
• Paul and His Epistle to the Romans

Check out this 20-min video of his Introduction to Romans and see if it will whet your appetite. 

pearlie

Philosophy and Film

I thought I have enough of online courses after taking so many at the end of last year, but I found this I couldn't pass up: Philosophy and Film.

Since I love watching movies and I'm currently interested in the subject of philosophy, I quickly signed up.

It will be a 6-week course that examines several philosophical issues through the medium of film. It does not view film as merely entertainment but culture that is distilled into artistic works created to reflect both who we are and what we want to be. It will look into exploring thinkers such as Aristotle, Marx, and Kant; issues such as “Who am I?”, “What is the good life?” and “What is the role of government?”

There are 6 films to watch with its corresponding theme:

Inception (2010)
Nozick, Strawson, and Nagel: The Experience Machine and Free Will

The Birds (1963)
Sigmund Freud: Psychology and Desire

Match Point (2005)
David Hume: Ethical Subjectivism and Moral Luck

District 9 (2009)
Immanuel Kant: People aren't Objects - The Categorical Imperative

The Hunger Games (2012)
Karl Marx: Exploitation and Alienation

Groundhog Day (1993)
Aristotle: Happiness

I have not watched The Birds, District 9 and Groundhog Day. This is going to be fun.

pearlie

I completed the course on coaching

I've only signed up for two paid courses and this is the second one I've completed.

I've also completed these without any certificates, bringing to a total of six:


I have two more to complete and after that, I think I will take a break from lectures, though there's one on Early Christianity: The Letters of Paul and one on What is a Mind? which I think are too interesting to pass up. Here's learning getting the better of me, again.

pearlie

I completed Introduction to Psychology

pearlie

Completed my practical coaching assignment

I've completed my practical coaching sessions with the final session for my second coachee today, as part of the Coursera Conversation that Inspire: Coaching Learning, Leadership and Change course.

I've started the course back in October and it has been quite a good experience, learning the useful Intentional Change Theory (ICT) model developed by Richard Boyatzis and having very interesting coaching conversations with my coachees.

I've submitted the required written assignment. I will be required to do several peer assessments in the next few days before coming to a completion of the programme.

pearlie

A useful MOOC aggregator

I was introduced to this useful MOOC aggregator that helps group all your MOOC courses in one place. It also allows you to keep track of courses that you are interested in without enrolling, which was what I wanted to do in Coursera.org but was not able to.

And my list in Class Central is certainly growing.

pearlie

Seeing psychological disorders everywhere

I was trying to catch up on the Mental Illnesses lectures in the Introduction to Psychology course in Coursera. Professor Steve Joordens kept cautioning us that "learning about [psychological] disorders makes you see them everywhere, even in the mirror!"

It did in fact happened exactly as he cautioned. I noticed that I became quite down as a result in these few days, and it just might be because of the lectures, what with panic attacks and phobic disorders, depression and schizophrenia.

pearlie

How to best do your peer assessment assignments in online courses

I have again used up my weekend to catch up on my Coursera courses, and time well spent.

However, I was finding it hard when it comes to assessing the assignments of my peers. As much as I want to be generous in my assessment, which I usually am, I found it hard this time in the peer assessment of the final exam assignment in On Strategy: What Managers Can Learn From Philosophy - Part 1.

And from what I have learnt in my own submission, my peers' assessment of my work and my assessment of theirs, I think these will be good pointers on how to submit a good assignment in Coursera.

1. The most important point to take note is that the people who are assessing your papers are not experts. They probably just know as much as you do. Therefore, you need to present your paper clearly in the simplest form and language as you possibly can. If your arguments are all over the place or if your explanations are too complicated, most probably you will not be getting good assessments from your peers.

2. Read the assignment question properly and ensure you have met all the requirements. You need to know what exactly is required of you. For example, if they want two arguments, make sure you do have exactly two clearly different arguments.

3. Take note in the length required. This paper for example puts the requirements in number of characters, not words. I was assessing a paper which was 1500 words in length, when it was actually just 1500 characters required!

4. Arrange your assignment in sections according to the requirements. For example, if they asked for two arguments, title your sections Argument 1 and Argument 2. This will simplify it for your peers to give you the marks you deserve.

5. If you were to write a paper based on a topic taught in the online lectures, state the title and lecture number at the beginning of your paper. Not everyone will remember if your chosen topic were actually from the lectures. And you would have saved them the time to go check and keep their attention on your paper to give you your points.

6. Before you submit your work, check it though the evaluation criteria, i.e. what exactly will award you the points. This will enable you to ensure that you have included stuff that will actually give you the points. I have assessed assignments which have good information and views but because it does not meet the requirements, I could not award any points at all.

This is what I have so far. I will add on more when I come across more examples and when I submit and assess more assignments.

pearlie

Addicted to Learning

I have to admit that I am currently addicted to Coursera! What else am I when I'm currently actively enrolled in a total of five courses. I kept finding courses that interest me. One on coaching, one on psychology, one on philosophy, one on thinking and one on both thinking and philosophy for managers.

And I had to catch up with my coursework in Introduction to Psychology, having kept it aside for too long. I spent my entire day on it today and completed the mid-term exam which was a 64-question quiz, and a peer assessment written assignment.

I was to write a 500 to 700-word paper on a current event relating it to a psychological concept from the lectures. I decided to write about the Bystander Interference effect from the tragic death of Wang Yue.

I might post it here later, after the deadlines are passed. It is a very, very tragic story.

pearlie

Today is a five-star day

Today was a good day. I did not have high expectations but it turned out surprisingly well.

I spent the day in a Learning and Development Seminar organised by People Potential. I learnt quite a lot, reconnected with a former colleague and met some very nice people.

For one, I inadvertently took part in a situation game in stakeholder management and we came out as the winning team. However, I was quite left out because I'm not used to being in simulation games. In my previous experience in taking part in case study games, I normally take a really long time to even get myself into in right context. The other team members were really good. They catch on very fast. But at least it was a good first experience for me.

Next, I was in an Emotional Intelligence session and one of the tool that was introduced to us was the gamification of emotional conversation. The objective of the game was to share our lives and our feelings to inspire one another. I enjoyed it a lot.

Finally in the evening, I received my Coursera third peer assessed assignment grading in the What Managers Can Learn From Philosophers, and I scored another perfect score. Three assignments assessed, two left ungraded.

And when I retired to bed, I assessed my day with a full five-star in my Momento journal app. I can't remember when I last gave myself a five-star. Must have been a long, long, long time ago.

It was a wonderful day. Thank you Lord.

pearlie

My Gallup Top-5 Strengths and Coursera being a big part of it now

My top-5 Gallup strengths are Connectedness, Intellection, Input, Learner and Empathy.

When I first got the results I had no idea what is Connectedness, I don't know why I have Input as one of my top-5, I was proud of my Intellection, I thought Empathy for me was more like a given and I wasn't too impressed with my Learner.

My thoughts about my top-5 has now completely changed as I began to understand more about myself and the five Gallup themes.

My now most troublesome strength is really Intellection. I can lose myself in it and lose you in a conversation. You'll still be talking away but I will be busy thinking about something you have just said. That's bad.

I am most proud of my Input strength. When I finally understand what it represent, I began to see its utility, pun intended (Input is where I collect things because of their utility). This is where my resourcefulness is at its best. Ask my friends and they will attest to the fact that I can usually get them what they need when they ask for my help.

I am still discovering what Connectedness means to me, and this is what I believe is the hugest theme in all of Gallup's 34. Or I may be biased.

There is no change in how I feel about my Empathy theme, in that it's a given for me. Though there will be a time when I discover it more in relation to my values and action.

This brings me to final one of the five - Learner. I said I wasn't too impressed with it. It's like, "yeah, I learn. So what?"

I was in a full learning mode when I was taking my Masters in Christian Studies for 8 long years before. And after that I had wanted to take up something in psychology but I didn't do because I have to manage my family priorities. So in that sense, that left me with not many opportunities to learn. Yes, I read and yes, I watch TEDTalks (though only recently) but those really are just small snippets of learning that never really satisfy me, though I do learn a lot from reading but it's very challenging to find my right next read.

This was the situation till I rediscovered Coursera. I went to it in the mid of this year, and found that since I discovered it in 2013, it has improved a lot and maybe it is also because I'm more ready for it this phase of my life.

Coursera is a dream come true to me as a Learner but I think it will be my undoing as well - because I keep signing up for courses and how I am going to keep with lectures and assignments I have no idea!

So far I have completed one course in Fundamentals of a Project Planning and Management.

I have completed all lectures and quizzes in Conversations that Inspire: Coaching Learning, Leadership and Change, pending a submission of reports on 2 coaching assignments, which is still on-going.

I am midway through Introduction to Psychology. I have started on the lectures in August and almost finished them when they offered the course again in October and I signed up for it. A mid-term exam of 60-question quiz is where I am at the moment. I have not attempted it yet. Sixty questions! Oh boy...

I have just started On Strategy: What Managers can Learn from Philosophy and thoroughly enjoying it. The assignments are really challenging but I find them brilliant. Come to think of it, this course is like an amalgamation of my two strengths - Intellection or Thinking and Learner.

I should be happily settled with learning from these three courses running in tandem but I went and signed up for two more! Most probably I will not be actively following them. They are Introduction to Philosophy and Think Again: How to Reason and Argue.

But then again, looking now at the titles, I might just make time. So now you see what I mean by Coursera is both a dream come true and my undoing.

pearlie

My Coaching Assignment

I began my coaching assignment today as required by the coaching course I am taking under Coursera, using the above Intentional Change Theory (ICT) by Richard Boyatzis. I am obviously incorporating the Gallup StrengthsFinder tool and it went very well. It is helpful to place it in a framework like the ICT.

I am looking forward to my second coachee tomorrow and subsequent sessions for both of them.

pearlie

What Managers Can Learn From Philosophy

I have signed up for this course in Coursera some weeks ago but have forgotten about it. On top of that, I am currently busy following two courses under their signature programme anyway, and so I wasn't actively looking for any new courses to follow.

I was reminded of it by my colleague today and I went to checked it out: On Strategy: What Managers Can Learn From Philosophy.

I spent some time on it this morning and almost finished the first lecture and it is really very interesting.

There is indeed much to learn about strategy and change from the philosophical point of view - the lecturer posits that there are two kinds of change and the one that he is teaching here refers to change in perception, as opposed to change in reality.

I have actually joined in quite late but for this course, I am allowed to readjust my time line and I did just that. I will be finishing the first lecture soon and looking forward to the peer reviewed assignment due end of this week.

I am very happy for these MOOC programmes now so readily and easily made available to us. With the Learner theme (under the Gallup StrengthsFinder) as my #4 strength, this is really like a learner's dream come true.

I will soon have 4 completed programmes under my belt and looking out for more.

pearlie