Friday Finds — Using AI to Do Stuff, Mind-Body Connection, Nudgestock

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We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.

Marcel Proust

Guess what? This week, I became the proud owner of a new-to-me car. With three of us already jostling for car keys and another soon to get their license, it was time we added another set to the mix. As much as I entertained the thought of an e-bike – picture me, hair blowing in the wind, saving the planet one pedal at a time – the usually unfriendly and always unpredictable weather around here made the car a more practical choice. So here’s to no more early morning car key hunts, and to the freedom of having an extra set of wheels in the driveway! (But I’d still really like one of those sweet e-bikes!)

As always, thanks for reading.


What I’m Listening To: This artist is one I often find myself taking notice of but until recently didn’t pay much attention to who it is. I think you’ll like Ashes to Amber – check it out.


Last Week’s Most Clicked:

Sources of Cognitive Load


📰 News & Notes

How to Use AI to Do Stuff: An Opinionated Guide

This helpful guide by Ethan Mollick talks about how to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for all kinds of things. The article explains how AI works, showing us how to use it in our day-to-day lives to make things easier. It tells us how to train AI systems using a mix of data and step-by-step instructions. Plus, it gives good advice about using AI responsibly, reminding us to always consider people’s needs first in this age of advanced technology. In short, this article by John Doe is a great beginner’s guide to understanding and using AI effectively and responsibly.

🎯 Take away: Helpful advice on using AI responsibly written in a way that’s easy to understand.


Mind-body connection is built into brain

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered that the mind-body connection is built into the structure of the brain. Their study, published in Nature, reveals that areas of the brain controlling movement are also connected to networks involved in thinking, planning, and controlling involuntary bodily functions. This discovery provides scientific evidence for phenomena such as the calming effect of mindfulness and the positive mental outlook of regular exercisers. The study suggests that this network evolved from a simpler system, becoming more complex as humans developed advanced cognitive abilities.

🎯 Take away: This study finds he connection between the mind and body is not just a philosophical concept, but is physically built into the structure of the brain.

The Top 9 Facilitation Newsletters You Want in Your Inbox

Imagine this: You’re sipping your morning coffee, you open your inbox, and instead of the usual clutter, you’re greeted with a treasure trove of insights that can take your facilitation skills to the next level. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Well, you can that into a reality. Cheska Teresa from Butter has sifted through the digital haystack to bring you the crème de la crème of facilitation newsletters. So, buckle up and dive in!

NOTE: Use the RSS feed or Kill the Newsletter to get all the wisdom and keep your inbox clean.

🎯 Take away: Tap into the facilitation wisdom of these top nine facilitation newsletters.

Nudgestock 2023

Nudgestock is the world’s biggest festival of behavioral science and creativity, where we inspire brands and people to impact the world. It happened last week and the theme was MESSY. That’s because our heads are messy, our organizations are messy, and the world is messy. But where there’s mess, there’s opportunity to change behavior. Watch talks from these four categories:

  • The world is a mess;
  • Studying the mess;
  • Making mess work;
  • Your messy humanity

🎯 Take away: ​Choose from 15 excellent talks from some of the world’s boldest speakers including Rory Sutherland, Paul Zak and more.

5 Dozen Canva Tutorials for Teachers

Richard Byrne has just shared a big list of 60 easy-to-follow Canva guides for teachers (or anyone else) on his website, Practical Ed Tech. These guides are great for beginners who are just getting started, people who have used Canva a little bit, and even those who are already good at it. With Canva, you can make a wide range of digital designs including posters, slideshows, worksheets and more.

🎯 Take away: This collection of Canva tutorials can help you create a host of professional looking digital and print items.


Are you looking for helpful, practical, and strategic eLearning resources – available for free – to expand your eLearning toolkit? Subscribe for insights and resources sent to your inbox by visiting the Neovation Learning Hub!


Become a better designer in 5 minute lessons
Join 50,000+ people learning design in short, practical lessons. Original, illustrated design tutorials to help you design better websites & apps.
Check it out for free!

Prompt Engineering Daily
Get the most simplified and tactical AI prompts, insights and tools to stay ahead of the curve. Read by over 85,000+ readers from Apple, Microsoft, Google, Meta and more!
Check it out for free!

The Knowledge Newsletter
The Knowledge 🧭, is a newsletter helping creators and professionals to think deeper and work smarter.
Subscribe for free


🎧 Podcasts

These are the conversations that caught my ear this week.


Start every learning project off right with a Learning Environment Analysis (LEA), a powerful framework for uncovering learners’ problems, constraints, and needs to prescribe the right solution. This comprehensive guide introduces the LEA and the specific tools to use at each stage, from learner discovery to analyzing findings.
Download the free LEA Guide

🧰 Tech Tools & Tips

If tools are your jam, check out my new Work Smarter newsletter.

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Playground AI

Playground AI is a free-to-use online AI image creator. Use it to create art, social media posts, presentations, posters, videos, logos and more.

playgroundai.com

SVG Hub

A library of over 70 elements ready to paste into your design project.

http://svghub.vercel.app

Calendo

Book meetings faster. Integrate multiple Google and Outlook calendars and share your availability with ease. No more back and forth of emails.

https://www.calendo.xyz/

Prompthub: AI Prompt Management for Teams

Collaborate, version, and test with PromptHub. Keep your prompts organized and leverage top-tier templates to streamline your process.

www.prompthub.us


An Old-School Learning Activity That Works Every Time

Wow your learners with a retro jeopardy game. 5 minutes into it and they’re on the edge of their seats! The best part? You can create it using only PowerPoint. Watch this 4-minute video tutorial to see how.

Watch the video

Or read a step-by-step guide to delve deeper into the topic.


🧳 Where’s Mike?

NASJE
August 28
Columbus, OH

CUNA Learning Live
October 16
San Antonio

Friday Finds is an independent publication that I produce in my free-time. You can support my work by sharing it with the world, booking an advertising spot, or by buying me a coffee.

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Published by Mike Taylor

Born with a life-long passion for learning, I have the great fortune to work at the intersection of learning, design, technology & collaboration.

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