Friday Finds: The Best of Learning, Design & Technology | July 9, 2021

Before we reinvent the wheel, it’s worth looking back to leverage what we’ve already figured out.

Lessons From Shakespeare

Happy Friday! After a late start and a rain delay, We had a late finish to my daughter’s softball double header last night. She just started catching and seems to have some natural instincts for it. It is such a treat to watch people you love doing so well. Now, I need more coffee!

Thanks for reading!

What I’m Listening to:  I’m exploring some new “lo-fi jazz” artists like Phlocalyst on this gray, rainy day.


Last week’s most clicked item:
The Nuts & Bolts of Instructional Design: A Beginner’s Toolkit


Periodic Table of Learning Experiences

Check out this interactive site that accompanies Brian Washburn’s book  ”What’s Your Formula?: Combine Learning Elements for Impactful Training”. It is a nice guide to experimenting with different instructional methods and technologies. 

https://www.51elementsoflearning.com/


Is Audacity Really Spyware? 

In case you haven’t seen this news yet, starting with version 3.0 Audacity will start collecting limited personal data for sharing with law enforcement and third parties including things like your IP address, OS version, OS name, CPU details, error codes, and crash reports. As it stands, there’s no evidence to suggest Audacity is leaking your private information, or the audio that you’re using in Audacity, to any third parties or governments. But you should be aware so you can make your own decision on whether or not you want to use it. 

https://lifehacker.com/is-audacity-really-spyware-1847230028


How to Breathe

Don’t skip past this one. I know it seems overly simple but this is really fascinating stuff. Respiration influences many of the processes in our body that have a direct impact on our physical and mental health. In short, we can change our breathing on demand, which can be a hack to accessing the rest of our physiology. I also recommend a great book “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art” by James Nestor

https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-breathe-your-way-to-better-health-and-transcendence


An ode to slowness: the benefits of slowing down

I’ve often said “Sometimes you have to slow down to go faster” and there just may be something to that idea. It may seem counterintuitive, but slowing down can be a faster way to achieve your goals. Fighting our urge to live and work faster can lead to clearer thinking, deeper connections, and better mental health.

https://nesslabs.com/the-benefits-of-slowing-down


Try Something .New

.new links are shortcuts to your favorite actions on the websites you love. Posting, linking, designing, recording — it’s all possible with action-based .new links. Replace menus and long URLs with easy-to-remember shortcuts. 

Check out the full list of .new shortcuts and find one for your favorite web apps including Google Workspace, Miro, Adobe, Canva, Office and more. 

https://whats.new/shortcuts/


Podcasts


Tools & Tips

  • Walling.app is a great visual workspace to manage all your work, projects and ideas.
  • Scale Illustrations are free, customizable illustrations you can use without attribution
  • Clipchamp is a free video editor, compressor, converter and webcam recorder
  • Narakeet is an easy way to turn your powerpoint slides into narrated videos
  • FilmForth is a free video editor, movie maker & slideshow video maker for Windows 10

Where You Can Find Me


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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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