Quick Challenge (For Tool #4): Speech-to-Text

The next challenge is based on the Speech-To-Text strategy we talked about on this post. Maybe you would like to read it again before starting the challenge. 

Read the next text aloud so your cell microphone can record it and create a note out of it. Remember that your mic would need you to enunciate in a clear way. Once the note is created, you can read it to find out if there is any discrepancy, typo or any other kind of difference between the original text and the note on your device. 

Charlemagne has been called the "Father of Europe" (Pater Europae), as he united most of Western Europe for the first time since the classical era of the Roman Empire and united parts of Europe that had never been under Frankish rule. His rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of energetic cultural and intellectual activity within the Western Church. All Holy Roman Emperors considered their kingdoms to be descendants of Charlemagne's empire, as did the French and German monarchies. 

How did it go? How well did the speech-to-text software work? 

Below you have a second text, this time with scientific terms, so you can practice this activity one more time: 

The Mesozoic era began in the wake of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the largest well-documented mass extinction in Earth's history, and ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, another mass extinction whose victims included the non-avian dinosaurs. The Mesozoic was a time of significant tectonic, climate and evolutionary activity. The era witnessed the gradual rifting of the supercontinent Pangaea into separate landmasses that would move into their current positions during the next era. 

How did it go the second time? How might this Learning Tool help someone?

Tool #7: Go-to Websites for Difficult Topics

To get more information on a topic, or an additional lesson to help you understand a tough concept, check one or more Go-To Websites. You may already know KhanAcademy.org, which is a must. This website has literally thousands of short teaching videos on every math and science topic imaginable. Type the title of the chapter or chapter sub-heading you're working on in math or science into the search field. Salman Khan teaches using a digital blackboard, and he's very clear and natural-sounding (he doesn't read from a script). You can take notes from his mini-lessons, which are usually 5 to 10 minutes in length, and pause the video or rewind as necessary.

There are plenty of other popular e-resources, such as SparkNotes (a website with more than 500 study guides about Shakespeare and English literature, plus history, math, biology and more) or NASA for Students (the educational website by the American space agency). If you feel like you want to try different websites, take a look here to find a list of 200 free Educational Resources categorized by subject (Free Audiobooks, Art, Geography, History, Maths, Science...) 

Sometimes you will also find yourself searching for ideas on any essay you have to write. If that is the case, TED Talks are an excellent source of inspiration. With almost 3000 short talks (and counting!) on multiple topics, it is very likely that you will find ideas for creative essays. As an example, you can watch the video below, which is a TED Talk delivered by Salman Khan, the creator of Khan Academy.  

Last but not least, keep in mind that not all online resources are equally reliable. Some teachers, for instance, would recommend Wikipedia, but others will not since anyone can edit wiki pages. The Internet is the most amazing tool ever created to search for some information, but sometimes it is possible to find false information or, more frequently, information that is not objective enough.

What is your experience with online resources? Let us know with a comment about your favorite Go-To Websites and how you usually take advantage of them!

Tool #6: Teach Someone

The contemporary American poet Matthea Harvey once said Teaching is a great way to keep learning and we can't agree more. Ask any teacher you know: they will tell you that they learned much more about their subjects by teaching them. 

It makes sense, right? When you study something you have to find a way to insert that information into your head. A way that works for you. But when you teach someone else, maybe that person would need some extra clarification from your side to understand that information. She would ask you questions about it that you might've never asked yourself, but now you have to answer them. And by doing that, that piece of information is getting absorbed into your mind in new, different ways. You can picture that process like the information being a tree that grows its multiple roots deep into your mind.  

So, if you don't learn something until you have to teach it to someone else...well...become a teacher. If you have the opportunity, teach someone a concept you’ve been studying: a classmate, a younger sister or brother, a parent. Encourage them to make questions and try to answer them in the best, simplest way. If you don’t have someone to teach, teach to an imaginary person. Try to do it out loud, if you can. 

Do you have a situation where you could teach something you're studying to someone? Who? Which course? 

Tool #5: Loci Method, or the "Memory Palace"

You might have watched BBC's "Sherlock" starring Benedict Cumberbatch. If so, you might have wondered how Sherlock can memorize such a huge amount of random data. Well, there are some episodes in which he mentions that his brain is like a Mind Palace, as it happens in the video below. 

This may sound just like a funny line, but it actually comes from a memorization technique called the Loci Method, developed in Ancient Greece. That means that you can "Sherlock" your studies by using this technique. With the Loci Method you imagine a route or set of locations that is very familiar to you (for example, the route you walk to school), or the floor plan of your house or other building you know well (these are called "memory palaces"). Take the information you need to memorize, and “locate” it on this familiar path – in your mind (and even on paper, if it helps). Perhaps you put the photosynthesis diagram you have to remember in your south-facing living room window, and the atomic model on the kitchen counter. Have fun imagining where all the information is located. The crazier the image you create, the more memorable it will be. Click on the video below to better understand how the Loci Method works. 

Tool #4: Speech-to-Text

Do you ever find that when you talk about something, you seem to grasp it better, and that you understand stuff more than you thought you did? Are you the type of person who speaks a lot better than you write? 

As you probably know, most smartphones now include the speech-to-text keyboard so you can convert your speech to words on a page. That feature might be an easy way to text your friends, but have you ever thought of including it as an additional tool for your study time? You could use it to write an email message, brainstorm ideas for a writing assignment, record short summaries of what you've been reading -- any number of things. The more you use the microphone keyboard, the better it gets at recognizing your voice. And the text can be used to create an essay outline, study notes, or the rough draft of a written assignment.

When you use speech-to-text to summarize your reading, you'll find that you'll remember it better. To challenge yourself and try this tool out, click here. 

If you like this tool, you might also be interested in more sophisticated software for these purposes, such as Dragon Naturally Speaking or the smartphone app called Dragon Dictation, which can also be used to convert your speech to words on a page. There are so many available options these days, some of them even for free. 

Tool #3: "Cheat" sheet

A "cheat" sheet is a reference sheet or formulas sheet we are allowed to use during an exam to help memory. Even if you’re not allowed to use one, make a "cheat" sheet for an upcoming evaluation such as a math test. Confine yourself to both sides of an 8½” X 11” sheet of paper. On it, outline briefly the different types of problems that you will be asked to solve on the test, and the steps and formulas you need to know for each. Then, memorize the "cheat" sheet as best you can. (Actually, because making a "cheat" sheet is so involved, you'll find you memorize it easily. That is why "cheat" sheets would also fit under the Memorization Tricks category). The video below is a good example of how to create a "cheat" sheet from scratch, although yours wouldn't need to be that ambitious. 

Also, as you can see below, some people even create their "cheat" sheets on Microsoft Word or any other word processor.

Here's a related idea. Before you start a test, actually before even looking at the test, quickly write out everything you remember from your "cheat" sheet, especially formulas, and that way you will have it to refer to during the writing of your test. Just remember to inform your teacher beforehand about your plan, so they don`t think you are cheating!

Tool #2: Colour-Coding

Do you always use pencil or blue pen to make your notes? Do you have a gorgeous set of coloured gel pens that sit idle? Use colour to make your notes. First, colour improves your learning because you have to decide which colour to use for which concept. For goodness’ sake, don’t use colour to make your notes pretty! The colours you use should represent different categories . . . and whenever you force yourself to categorize the material that you’re studying, you’re learning it! Second, colours are far more memorable than a monochromatic set of notes. Try it and see!

Do you wonder about the best tips on how to color-code your notes? Click here then to find some of them. 

Tool #1: Turn Variables into Little Pictures

In order to memorize a complex formula, try converting some of the variable symbols into little pictures. For the y variable, for example, you could draw a little cat face with its tail hanging down. The x variable could be an x superimposed on a pair of lips, to represent a kiss. The delta sign (∆) could be drawn as a house with a triangular roof. For that matter, assign a colour to different operations (e.g., pink for multiplication, blue for division, etc.) and then always use those colours when writing out a formula you have to memorize. Pictures and colours will be easier to memorize.

Do you want another example? Let's pretend then you want to learn Japanese. One of the first things you would have to do is getting used to read hiragana, a Japanese syllabary in which every character corresponds to a syllable. The image below is just one of many different possible ways to memorize the character き (ki): in this case, turning it into a picture of a key, since both words sound exactly the same.

Here is another example of how to turn the Pi number (π) into a Py-thon.

Do you feel like you are ready to create your own "designs"? OK, let's get started then: just choose any symbol you use in Math or Science (eg. root square, y, Σ) and turn it into a picture. It doesn't matter if the picture makes no sense to other people--remember that this is a memorization trick that should work for you!