Google Micro-lessons

I just opened google and saw an adorable scene of birds in trees and a birdwatcher looking at them. When I scrolled over the scene, it said "Phobe Snetsinger's 85th Birthday" with this link to further information. There, I could see at a glance that she  was an American bird-watcher famous for having seen and documented birds of over 8,000 different species of birds. She lived from 1931 to 1999. Fron there, another link to me to her intriguing-sounding book,  Birding on Borrowed Time and saw that "Phoebe's quest to see as many birds as possible only began at the age of 34, when she first laid eyes on a resplendent Blackburnian Warble."

So - let's do the math; She lived to be 68.  She started watching birds when she was 34 - halway through her life.  That means that in about 34 years, she documented more than anyone else had at that point: Birds of more than 8,000 different species. Even to a non-bird-watcher, I know: That's a lot of bird-watching! 

That's a lot of determination. People find this kind of thing striking, and inspiring.  And google knows it.  They give us a bit of inspiration, along with some historical facts on people or events every day. They use a visual for engagment, to draw us in. And let us do the rest; relate to our own experiences, think about determination, look at something with new eyes.

Google gives us micro-lessons every day. We take them for granted, but there are so many ways they could be used. A daily writing prompt, or art prompt. Math questions; if she viewed 8,000 species in 34 years, on average how many did she view a year? Each month? Geography questions, science questions....limitless. Next time you need something quick and engaging, remember google. A micro-lesson a day, for any learner. 

The 3-day rule

My husband and I studied Japanese together and then lived in Japan for 12 years studying Japanese music and language (and of course teaching.)  While we were there, we had what we called the "Three-day rule."  That was, whenever we learned a new, useful word or pharse, within three days, we would suddenly hear someone using it.

What was amazing about this was that of course people had been using those phrases all along, but since they weren't in our active vocabulary, we weren't hearing them. As second-language learners, we clung to what we could recognize, took in body language and context, to glean much of our information. And then suddenly, HEY!! Everyone has been saying this phase to me that I just couldn't hear because there was no context. After I had learned the phrase, I was able to scaffold it into my active listening ears and mind.

We are both optimists, and didn't let the fact that the endless learning of new phrases was, well...endless.  As soon as one three-day rule phrase popped up, we'd learn another one, again and again.  We persevered with our learning, enjoying the process. When you take on something as big as a language and culture, the journey never ends.

Recently I've revised that three-day rule to apply to the  language and culture of the internet.  During winter break I went to my neighbors' annual New Year's party and she told me she was taking a Coursera course in contemporary poetry. She's a nurse.  "What's that?" I asked, and she explained what a MOOC was. When I got back to my work computer, I signed up for a Coursea course (I was in the one that crashed) and also suddenly noticed the email titles with MOOC in them. I know they were there before. I just had no context for them.

The same has been true for OER (such an incredible concept that many teachers are just getting a grasp of), and the many offerings of Google. (Have you tried a hangout? Amazing.) The challenge is to stay on top, keeping  my ears and eyes open for the most useful, developing skills to see how they can be used, and make effective use of it as an educator.  

It makes Japanese look easy.