A skillful traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving.
TAO TE CHING
Happy Friday! We’re coming down the home stretch on our big national park trip out west. It has been totally amazing – and a bit tiring. We’ve covered countless miles on a plane, in the car, in a raft, on foot and even a few miles on horseback. I hope we’ve made some memories that will be cherished for a lifetime.
Thanks for reading!
What I’m Listening to: While watching the season two debut of Ted Lasso, my new all-time favorite show, I realized there is some really good music in there too.
Last week’s most clicked item:
Asynchronous Design Critique: Getting Feedback
How to Extend Your Brain Power to Maximize Your Intelligence
Your brain has limits. Here are some simple ways to extend your mind, according to science
Acclaimed science writer Annie Murphy Paul says that in order to think the intelligent, informed, original thoughts we’re capable of, we can’t rely on the brain alone. Read on to learn how you can extend your mind.
Top 3 Ways to Discover Inspiring Content as a Creator
I’m often asked how I find so much great stuff. This article by Eva Keiffenheim (@Evti) shares some of the same sources I use to create this newsletter – and they’re all free. Of course, if you’ve been around here very long, you won’t be surprised that Feedly is the foundation.
https://medium.com/swlh/top-3-ways-to-discover-inspiring-content-as-a-creator-4417bed13e47
Pairing fonts – 3 ways to find great typeface combinations
We are all designers and one of the most common, and I think impactful things we do is select fonts. This is a beginner’s guide that will teach you some principles, show you two quick wins you can apply right away, and – if you want more – goes into the nerdy details. (I love nerdy details!)
https://pimpmytype.com/pairing-fonts/
The Fabric of the Org is Links Not Bricks
Lee Bryan proposes that in many cases the transaction costs of coordinating work are now higher within a conventional office-based firm than without. The issue is not office vs home, but collaboration vs meetings.
https://postshift.com/the-fabric-of-the-org-is-links-not-bricks/
How to Implement Active Learning Strategies and Activities
As interest in active learning has grown—and with its value now firmly established empirically—what gets labeled as active learning continues to expand. This post gathers a big collection of resources on Active Learning Strategies, Think-Pair-Share, Active Learning Classroom and Active Learning versus Passive Learning
Podcasts
- Workflow Tools for Frictionless Creation with Jeremy Caplan on the #Creator Spaces podcast.
- Clark Quinn on how learning science underpins instructional design on the Accidental Trainer podcast.
- Teaching Machines: The history of personalized learning with Audrey Watters on the Learning Hacks podcast.
Tools & Tips
- Photoroom Background Remover is another free online option that works very well.
- Extract Pics is a website that lets you browse and download images from a website.
- Pattern Monster is a simple online pattern generator to create repeatable SVG patterns for your designs.
- Animated Illustrations from Icons8 to brush up your designs.
- LinkRoll is a social bookmark manager where you can easily share and organize your bookmarks in a visual and intuitive way.
Where You Can Find Me
- Kansas City ATD – August 17
- Nashville ATD – Using Technology for Training – September 16
- DevLearn October 20-22
- New Jersey ATD – Future of Work – November 10
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Mike Taylor 