How to Teach Vocabulary

Begin with a story or explanation of the term. Modeling how you use the word in your life or in conversation may be helpful to students. Have students put information into their own words. This process, which I call “recoding,” is necessary to make sure students understand the word. This is a vital step in the memory process. Skipping this step can be disastrous as students may have a misconception that will be placed in long-term memory through incorrect rehearsals (Sprenger, 2005). Ask ...

 Spherical Cows

Milk production at a dairy farm was low, so the farmer wrote to the local university, asking for help from academia. A multidisciplinary team of professors was assembled, headed by a theoretical physicist, and two weeks of intensive on-site investigation took place. The scholars then returned to the university, notebooks crammed with data, where the task of writing the report was left to the team leader. Shortly thereafter the physicist returned to the farm, saying to the farmer, "I have the ...

 How Brian Eno's Mind has Changed Through Use of the Intenet

I notice that I now digest my knowledge as a patchwork drawn from a wider range of sources than I used to. I notice too that I am less inclined to look for joined-up finished narratives and more inclined to make my own collage from what I can find. I notice that I read books more cursorily — scanning them in the same way that I scan the Net — ‘bookmarking’ them. ... I notice that more of my time is spent in words and language — because that is the currency of the Net — than it was...