Brain Matters Newsletter - Vol. 2, No. 17 - May 27, 2016

  Happy Memorial Day - Let's Try to Actually Remember

Happy Memorial Day _ Let_s Try to Actually Remember
This weekend we celebrate Memorial Day in the U.S. Originally, this was a rather somber holiday, created to honor the dead on both sides during our horrific civil war. As we continued to collect more wars in our history, the holiday expanded to cover all of our fallen heroes.

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Your Brain Needs a Vacation

After months of cold, windy, dreary winter, summer is finally upon us. Traditionally, this is the time to take a vacation, travel to new sites, take it easy, and break your regular routine.

Neuroscience tells us that this change of pace is extremely valuable. Your brain uses these new sensations to build new neural pathways, and the break from routine stimulates higher, more creative thought while it reduces stress.

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What Does Your Brain Learn from Multi-tasking?

It's no longer newsworthy to report that multi-tasking is a myth. Neuroscience has discovered what psychology long suspected - our brain doesn't really perform multiple cognitive tasks at the same time. Rather, it switches attention between them, spending precious fractions of a second to re-orient to the new task at hand with each switch.

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Featured Infographic: How We Learn



In this issue I'd like to share an infographic called How We Learn by Justin Ferriman. I've just discovered his learning blog and it promises to be a great source of practical ideas for the learning professional. His infographic avoids jargon and manages to actually present concepts with attractive, engaging images, rather than just positioning a bunch of text around an elongated page as so many poorly designed infographics do.

Buy it now!
New Addition to Margie's Bookshelf
The Geography of Genius
by Eric Weiner

Most of the books on my bookshelf have been written by someone I know, but today I'm making an exception. Eric Weiner is author of the "New York Times" bestseller "The Geography of Bliss," which has been translated into eighteen languages, as well as the critically acclaimed " Man Seeks God." His latest book, " The Geography of Genius" studies how socially-acclaimed "geniuses" tend to run in packs. We have a history of geniuses befriending each other, competing with each other and helping each other reach new heights of insight and impact. He also explores some questions about so-called "modern geniuses" and found that the jury is still out, for example, on Steve Jobs. Personally, I'm voting for genius on that one, but apparently about half of you will disagree, based on Weiner's research. Many of you know that I'm particularly interested in the concept of genius, as seen through the lens of the neurosciences. We dedicated our first Brain Matters conference to that subject next year and I'm working on my own book on the subject as we speak. I'm recommending all of Weiner's books to anyone who is interested in the human condition and how our brain influences the quality of our lives. (And I'm hoping that by giving his book a plug I can entice him to join me for an interview on the Learningtogo podcast someday soon.)

 
See all the books on Margie's Bookshelf! 
Upcoming Events

Upcoming Event_ Enterprise Learning_ Conference 2016 _Jun 6-8_ Anaheim_

The Enterprise Learning! Conference 2016  (ELC16) hosts the exclusive Learning & Workplace Technology Conference for corporate, government and higher education executives. ELC16 provides executives an engaged environment to network, share and learn from leaders across the globe. Coupled with cutting edge research, Learning! 100 award winners, and expert learning technologists, this is the "Must Attend" forum for learning and performance executives.

Read more about this conference and Margie's Workshop: Smarter Brains for a Smarter Organization



Essentials of Brain-Based Learning

If you could understand what was happening in the brains of your target audience, would you be a more effective trainer, designer, consultant, or leader?

Thanks to recent advances in neuroscience, learning and talent development professionals now have an opportunity to alter their approaches to change management, leadership development, training, and instructional design.

Learn how the brain receives, encodes, and retrieves information to construct knowledge, and use these insights to improve your learning programs.

Visit the ATD site for full details.