Are your kids complaining about nothing to do this summer? Are you wishing they would use their summer vacation to learn something new or brush up on some basic skills? Then this collection of recent posts from The Best Free Training may be worth a second look:
Topic: Brain Training and Brain Games
Format: Collection of informative websites and free brain games
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com
Recently, the BBC’s Lab UK , posted the following statement at its website (my bold added for emphasis):
In September 2009, we launched the Brain Test Britain experiment to answer the question: does brain training actually work? We asked the public to help and you responded in your thousands, making this the biggest ever study of its kind. … [This study] has found no evidence that playing brain training games can meaningfully boost your ‘brain power’.
As you can imagine, this set off a storm of controversy. In this post, we provide an overview of this controversy and plenty of links to resources that will help you decide: Is brain training worth the effort? And if so, where can you go to get the tools to train your brain?
Topic: How to distinguish right brain activities from left brain activities; some ways to get practice (i.e., training) using your right brain
Format: Online articles & links to text, graphic, and video training materials
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com
In Part 1 we examined why right brain perspectives and abilities are so important in today’s job market, what right brain consciousness really means, and how to begin to quiet your left brain so your right brain can work its magic. In this post, we’re going to examine some tools & training that will help you:
Topic: Why right brain perspectives & abilities are so important in today’s job market; what right brain consciousness really means, and how to begin to quiet your left brain so your right brain can work its magic
Format: Video and audio downloads (MP3s & Podcasts)
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com
“The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind—computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind—creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people—artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers—will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.” — From Daniel Pink in A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
In this post, I’m going to share some ways you can learn more about your so-called “right brain” and why it’s so important to your job security (and your career) to develop your right brain perspectives and abilities. In addition, I’ll share links to some great interviews from Oprah’s Soul Series that shed much light on these issues.
Topic: Brain training, brain teasing, mental challenges
Format: Interactive, graphical, web-based game
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com
“When you exercise or stimulate your brain through new or merely unfamiliar activities, you can trigger changes in the brain, such as an increase of connections between neurons. These changes contribute to an increase in what is called your brain reserve. Research suggests that the more brain reserve, the more resistant the brain is to age-related or disease-related damages.” — Pascale Michelon, Ph. D. in Brain Plasticity: How learning changes your brain at Sharpbrains.com
So, for the health of your brain, take the challenge! Here are four animated brain games that will tease and stretch your brain cells. Three are from Scientific American and HAPPYneuron and one is from Luminosity.
Topic: Introduction to the study of aging and its implications for families, society, and health care
Format: Website with PDF files of slides from lectures, suggested readings, links, and reference list
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com
Given the huge and aging baby-boomer population, health-care institutions and society in general face some trying times. As voters, as children with aging parents, as older citizens in need of quality health care, we all need to know more about the issues involved so we can help determine the fate of these institutions. This free course from Johns Hopkins: “Introduces the study of aging, its implications for individuals, families, and society, and the background for health policy related to older persons.”
