“Friendship … is born at the moment when one man says to another “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .” — C.S. Lewis
School is out for us and we are dashing off to the beach for a few days to celebrate and relax a little bit. I hope this finds you with something ahead of you that you are excited about too! Here are the things from the learning, design, and technology world that excited me the most this week. Cheers!
Thanks for reading! If you find anything good, forward it to a friend or spread the word with a tweet.
Should We Use Background Music With Instruction? No.
The general rationale for not using background music is that it increases harmful cognitive load. Dig into Patti Shank’s (@pattishank) article to learn more.
http://pattishank.blogspot.com/2019/05/should-we-use-background-music-with.html
What we already know determines what, how, and how well we learn
More great stuff from Mirjam Neelen (@MirjamN) and Paul Kirschner (@P_A_Kirschner) “If the learner doesn’t have the basic ‘hooks’ (i.e., relevant prior knowledge) to hang the more complex information on, then they’ll start swimming using trial and error and then drown very quickly as they don’t know how to do it effectively.”
5 Learning Technologies 2019 Videos Everyone Should Watch
Emma Webber (@emmawebber) shared her recommendations from the Learning Technologies conference. If you like any of these, you might also like dipping into any of the other sessions. I love that they are all online and freely available anyone.
https://transferoflearning.com/five-learning-technologies-2019-videos-everyone-should-watch/
The productivity pit: how Slack is ruining work
This article prompted a serious question for me “Is Slack (or any other similar tool) helping or hurting the way you work?” I’m super curious to hear what your experience has been? .
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/1/18511575/productivity-slack-google-microsoft-facebook
20+ Free Creative PowerPoint Templates For Your Next Project
Almost all of us need to create slide decks at some time or another. Here are some nice-looking options assembled by 24slides (@24slides) that might save you some time putting together your next one.
https://24slides.com/presentbetter/free-creative-powerpoint-templates/
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Learning, Design & Technology Miscellany
A few other things just because I can.
Design Resources
- Material Icons Library – Free collection of 1000+ icons
Apps & Tools
- Polypane: A browser built from the ground up to create and test websites and apps.
- OpenShot – Open source video editing software (sort of Camtasia-ish)
Books, Podcasts, Courses:
- Animation Do’s & Don’ts – The Presentation Podcast
- Changing the World of Work. One Human at a Time. – What it means to be a change agent, through the eyes of professionals working on the front lines of transformation
What I’m listening to:
- My latest listening discovery, Tycho is like a nice relaxing sound bath that I´m working along to today.
Conference Roundup
There were lots of learning pros in Washington, D.C. this week. Most of them were at ATD ICE and the rest were nearby at the ICICLE conference. Whether you were there or not it is worthwhile to peek-in on those happenings. David Kelly’s #ATD2019 backchannel resources are a nice place to start.
Here’s a peek at the conference action for this week and next.
Looking for your next conference? I’ve recently updated my global collection of L&D events with new 2019 dates. Let me know if you see one I missed or have a new one to add.
You can find me at these UPCOMING EVENTS:
- June 13: New Zealand Auckland Branch ATD Webinar
- June 17-18: Learning Tech Day, Gent, Belgium
- July 12: State of Ohio Training Association Keynote, Columbus, OH
- October 22-25: DevLearn
Interested in the things that didn’t make the cut here? Follow me on Twitter or even better, subscribe to my newsletter.
I’m always looking for great people and organizations who want to help people learn and work better. If you’re one of them, let’s talk! Speaking and Workshop Information Sheet.
Mike Taylor 