The Learning Success Blog

For some folk, these words: Speling, Spieling, Spelling, Spealing,  look so similar that it’s very confusing.

Which one is the correct one? 

Good spelling is vital because it allows the writer to focus on what they want to say. It frees up brain space for their ideas to flourish.

As children learn to spell, their knowledge of words improves, and this makes reading easier.

There is no denying that the Covid-19 global pandemic has disrupted just about every aspect of our lives, including our children’s education. By the end of March 2020, interruptions were experienced at schools in every state. Although the extent and timeline of the closures differed from one region to the next, the Australian education system as a whole was impacted greatly.

Even now, a year later, great uncertainty still remains, with lockdowns being enforced and lifted without much forewarning. Although Australia has managed to avoid much of the large-scale devastation the pandemic caused elsewhere in the world, the country’s education system remains vulnerable.

There are actually a number of ways in which the pandemic is changing education across the world. 

Speaking almost sixty six years ago Professor John McCarthy, one of the founding fathers of AI said at the Dartmouth University conference 1956 , “Every aspect of learning... can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.” 

Stephen Hawking, the famous theoretical physicist, said “Every aspect of our lives will be transformed by AI” and it could be “the biggest event in the history of our civilisation”.

Financial literacy is a skill that is vital for us all to learn, particularly considering the fact that many young adults seek their first loans soon after leaving school or when they are at university.

Recent research by the University of Western Australia has found, however, that around 45% of adults in Australia lack financial literacy. When it comes to investment, budgeting, and other financial matters, it is never too early.

To ensure children feel confident about making money and managing it well, teaching them vital skills in investment may be the first, crucial step towards financial literacy and expertise.

Are you time poor and would like to quickly cover 40 years of research into:

• attention, 
• neurofeedback, 
• neuroscience and 
• how this is being used in schools, sport and business? 

You can access just the “nuggets of gold” on the above topics in 5 x 1 hour sessions delivered by 5 industry experts, each of whom is passionate about their subject.

People with autism may simultaneously have too much connectivity in some parts of their brain and poor connectivity in other parts, according to new research from Carnegie Mellon University, USA, published in Nature Neuroscience in January 2015.

The research compared brain scans from a group of people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and brain scans of a control group with normally developing brains.  The resting brains of the control group looked very similar to each other whereas the scans of the brains in the autistic group were all different. They showed unique patterns of connectivity, different patterns of excess or poor connectivity in each brain.

More than 3.8 billion people use social media, making it a powerful tool for businesses to market themselves and for anyone to reach a large audience. For those looking into a career in the field, such as a position in social media marketing or management, knowing where to start your education journey can be daunting.

However, by taking a few courses and simply gaining your own first hand experience, you can effectively learn the basics of using social platforms, all the while gaining valuable skills that can kickstart your dream social media career.

Artificial intelligence and other machine learning principles may be taking over a plethora of industries, but there will always be room for design. Within this industry, there are a few future creative roles, including those of augmented reality designer, fusionist, and intelligent system designer. 

Creativity, originality, and vision are three elements that are usually present in youngsters with a flair for arts-related topics but when it comes to design, there are key principles children can learn so they can aim to create quality work with a real value from the time they are very young.

After all, ‘design for life’ - lasting design that has value in the real world - is considered a universal aim for designers from a wide array of industries.

Being a student can be a full-time job, and pupils from kindergarten all the way to higher education have the daunting task of keeping themselves focused and their full attention on their studies to absorb the broad range of information and knowledge day by day.  

One of the best ways for students to improve their focus and attention is to play fun and engaging brain games!

Playing games designed to activate different parts of the brain is the perfect way for younger and older students to work on their attention span and sharpen their minds!

Luckily, there are hundreds of interesting and entertaining brain games for all ages to keep students busy. Everything from basic jigsaw puzzles to online brain games can help them grow their minds for their future academic endeavours!

Australians are struggling to cope with recent world events, with around 13% reporting high or very high levels of psychological stress. In New Zealand, the situation is also somewhat worrisome, with around 31% reporting some level of stress. It isn’t only adults who are affected. Even prior to this year, teen stress rivalled that of adults, with issues such as academic and sporting pressure weighing on their minds.

Parents wishing to help their children improve their mental health often look to natural yet effective ways to lower stress levels. Some of the most powerful methods studied to date include mindfulness based activities like meditation, time spent in nature, a healthy diet, exercise and music - both as a hobby and in the form of therapy.