Quick Challenge (For Tool #6): Teach Someone

If you have done this one in class, good job. We hope that you think that teaching a topic is a good way for the roots of knowledge to grow deeper in your mind.

Now you could try it out again. Teach something that you're currently learning. (Before you begin, if want to watch a video or get some more background on the technique, be sure to check out the post for Tool #6.)

Give yourself a set amount of time to prepare a lesson to teach your topic. If it's a small topic, try to teach it in just a minute or two. If it's bigger, give yourself about five minutes to teach it. It's a good idea to keep your teaching to a short amount of time. This will force you to be clear and efficient, using simple explanations.

Now, how did it go? After you do it, why not post a comment below so that others can benefit from your experience. 

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?