The ability to spot a new trend is partly an ability to notice when some data points are not fitting the general pattern.
As a high school teacher, I need to be putting new information (to update textbooks and teaching materials) in front of my students.
So how do I spot this new information? I read an interesting article in Scientific American and I found these quotes helpful:
Here are excerpts that I found useful.
For example, imagine you’re looking to hire a talented security guard. This person’s job will be to spot things that look odd and out of place, and call the police when something suspicious —say, an unexpected footprint in a flowerbed— is spotted. If this is the person’s task, would you rather hire a person who is an excellent reader, who has the ability to focus deeply and get lost in the text, or would you rather hire a person who is sensitive to changes in their visual environment, who is less apt to focus and block out the world?
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Among other advantages observed, Gadi Geiger and his colleagues at MIT found that people with dyslexia can distribute their attention far more broadly than do typical readers, successfully identifying letters flashed simultaneously in the center and the periphery for spacings that were much further apart. They also showed that such advantages are not just for things that are visual, but that they apply to sounds as well. In one study, simulating the sounds of a cocktail party, they found that people with dyslexia were able to pick out more words spoken by voices widely-distributed in the room, compared with people who were proficient readers.
Whether or not observations of such advantages —measured in the laboratory— have applications to talents in real life remains an open question. But, whatever the reason, a clear trend is beginning to emerge: People with dyslexia may exhibit strengths for seeing the big picture (both literally and figuratively) others tend to miss. Thomas G. West has long argued that out-of-the-box thinking is historically part and parcel of dyslexia, and more recently physicians Brock and Fernette Eide have advanced similar arguments. Sociologists, such as Julie Logan of the Cass Business School in London agree. Logan found that dyslexia is relatively common among business entrepreneurs; people who tend to think differently and see the big picture in thinking creatively about a business.
I am looking for a way to learn about new info more quickly, so I think I need more dyslexic people to send me their recommendations. Then I will be more likely to hear about something sooner than the typical teacher. I started this blog because I didn't hear about the Ambulance Drone until over 8 million views had occurred on YouTube. I need to learn about something more quickly.
You can send your recommendations to
Steve McCrea
Teacher
FreeWebsiteProject2017@gmail.com
or text me at +1 (954) 646 8246
If someone has told you that you have a learning difference, then I and my students can benefit from your ability.
