John Cox

Blogs · @wyome

Tagged learning · everything

Pocket

Want to Retain Information Better? Try This Popular, 70-Year-Old Note-Taking Method

The Cornell Note-taking System divides a page into three sections—a narrow left column for "cues" (key points and self-generated test questions), a wider right column for standard notes, and a bottom section for summaries—to help you engage more deeply with material through active review and self-testing. The article recommends personalizing the system by adding emotions you experienced during the presentation and specific commitments or actions you'll take based on what you learned, both of which strengthen memory retention and encourage behavioral change.

Permalink productivityeducationlearning

Fast Company

4 ways AI can improve your thinking

Rather than using AI merely to automate routine tasks, this piece argues for leveraging it as a tool for deeper thinking and creation—such as using it as a devil's advocate to stress-test decisions, building personalized learning curriculums, generating visual concepts iteratively, and creating custom tracking dashboards without coding. The author provides specific prompts, recommended tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Ideogram), and practical examples of how each approach can slow down work to challenge assumptions and build new capabilities rather than just work faster.

Permalink productivityaicreativitylearning

www.howtogeek.com

BASIC ruled the '80s. Here's why Python quietly became the new gateway to coding

Framed as a nostalgic case for why Python has effectively replaced BASIC as the default on-ramp into programming, this piece walks through the parallels: both were bundled or trivially accessible on the machines of their era (home computers then, Linux/graphing calculators/downloads now), both offer low-stakes interactive environments with immediate feedback rather than compile cycles, and both are backed by a huge ecosystem of beginner-friendly books and tutorials (from type-in BASIC programs in old magazines to Sweigart's "Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python"). The author, drawing on his own '80s/'90s BASIC background, argues Python earns the "spiritual successor" label precisely because it preserves that approachable, tinkerable feel while scaling up to serious work like data science.

Permalink historyprogrammingsoftwareeducation

www.upworthy.com

How do you know someone is smart?

The Dunning-Kruger effect causes less intelligent people to overestimate their abilities while highly intelligent people underestimate theirs, yet humans have evolved to judge others' intelligence reasonably well. Drawing on Reddit responses, the piece identifies eighteen behavioral markers of genuine intelligence, including intellectual humility (admitting what you don't know), adaptability (changing views with new evidence), clear communication tailored to your audience, and curiosity. Rather than displaying confidence or dominance, truly intelligent people tend to listen more than talk, ask thoughtful questions, and focus on getting things right rather than being right.

Permalink communicationpsychologyadviceeducation

Open Culture

Yale Rolls Out 10 New Courses – All Free | Open Culture

Yale University has made 10 new courses freely available online through multiple platforms including iTunes, YouTube, and its own website, bringing its total open course offerings to 35. The new courses span disciplines including economics, literature, history, environmental science, physics, and political philosophy, taught by Yale faculty members. Each course is accessible in multiple formats (video lectures, audio, and web-based) to accommodate different learning preferences.

Permalink educationlearning

www.jarche.com

Harold Jarche » The Evolving Social Organization

As organizations grow beyond roughly 150 people, they become "complicated" rather than simple, developing hierarchical layers that push decision-making and innovation to the periphery and fragment knowledge into silos. The piece argues that today's complex business environments demand a shift from traditional hierarchical structures toward "wirearchy"—networks based on knowledge, trust, and credibility—enabled by social learning practices where employees continuously learn through peer conversations, collaborative problem-solving, and informal knowledge sharing rather than formal training. Companies like SFR, Ford, and SunGard demonstrate that implementing social learning platforms generates measurable business benefits while helping organizations navigate complexity, generational diversity, and the need for constant innovation.

Permalink leadershipbusinesslearning

www.khanacademy.org

newton.nap.edu

Contents | How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School

This National Research Council report synthesizes cognitive science research on how people learn, covering how experts develop knowledge differently from novices, how learning transfers across contexts, and how children's minds develop. It examines the implications of this research for classroom teaching, teacher professional development, and educational technology, grounding practical recommendations for schools in evidence about memory, problem-solving, and knowledge organization in the brain.

Permalink scienceeducationbusinesslearning