ScienceDaily (Jan. 21, 2011) — Put down those science books and work at recalling information from memory. That's the shorthand take away message of new research from Purdue University that says practicing memory retrieval boosts science learning far better than elaborate study methods. "Our view is that learning is not about studying or getting knowledge 'in memory,'" said Purdue psychology professor Jeffrey Karpicke, the lead investigator for the study that appears January 20 in the journal Science. "Learning is about retrieving.

Let’s get one thing straight: Content is not education! If content was education, then all of us would be very knowledgeable because we have information at our fingertips through the internet. But content is not education. Just as information and data is not education. Offering Content Is Not Enough People attend conferences for two primary reasons: 1. Education 2. Networking

Too many conferences foster attendee information overload. The plethora of presenters pushing information at warp speeds cause fragmented attention, overburden brains and data excess. It’s a silent epidemic that cause stagnate mental engagement. And our conference schedules stretch attendees in ways that may have bigger implications than just unhealthy eating. They cause mental disconnection. Seven Activities That Promote Good Mental Habits

Cognitive psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania and University of California have shown that an image displayed too quickly to be seen by an observer can be detected if the participant first hears the name of the object.

As a tourism academic with a social science background, I have had an interest in meetings and conferences for some time now, but I have always felt I was pressured into rather economic, market research-type studies. I always felt my social science interests could give the research area an exciting added dimension, but I was not sure how to go about it.

I guess Maarten Vanneste was way ahead of me, and when I read his book, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Meeting content has to be a key research area co-existing with the more organisational and market research studies in the future if the field is ever to be taken seriously. The wealth of research areas and topics this offers is impressive, and to me, as a researcher, very exciting.

(ScienceDaily)  Vision researchers at Barrow Neurological Institute have made a groundbreaking discovery into the optimization of light sources to human vision. By tuning lighting devices to work more efficiently with the human brain, the researchers believe billions of dollars in energy costs could be saved.

(Science Daily) Pop quiz! Tests are good for: (a) Assessing what you’ve learned; (b) Learning new information; (c) a & b; (d) None of the above. The correct answer? According to research from psychological science, it’s both (a) and (b) – while testing can be useful as an assessment tool, the actual process of taking a test can also help us to learn and retain new information over the long term and apply it across different contexts.

(ASTD) Media are not interchangeable, a learner using the Web has a completely different experience from one in a classroom. As we use more electronic media for learning, it's essential that we understand the unique nature of each expressive medium we encounter. Here's a new theory for educational systems that's based on four primordial learning spaces: campfires (information), watering holes (conversation), caves (concept), and life (context). Campfires

(Meetings and Conventions/PCMA)  The Solution Room Oftentimes, groups sit and listen to a keynote presenter offer projections, expound on marketplace challenges, or address other issues of concern. Then the session ends and the attendees disperse without discussing it further or creating action plans. The purpose of a solution room is to optimize takeaways from the presentation.

SEE ATTACHED PDF  ABSTRACT We have conducted a study of meetings to gain an understanding of how conversation is affected by computer use. We videotaped five workplace meetings, noting the disruptions that occurred, and recording people’s disengagements when they performed tasks with paper or with laptops. We saw evidence that people preferred these disengagements not to exceed 10 seconds. When tasks were performed on laptops, disengagements were more likely to exceed this