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Learning how to learn is one of the best investments of your time.
Well, would you believe it – I went and missed the deadline for Jane Hart’s famous annual Top Tools for Learning survey! I don’t know how it slipped my mind, but one minute the deadline was weeks away and the next thing I knew, it had passed me by. Even though it was too late for the official survey, I still put together my list of favorite tools for 2023 and shared it on my blog. I’m hoping Jane will forgive my scatterbrained slip-up and let me sneak my picks in anyway. But just to be safe, I put a reminder on my calendar for next year’s survey deadline. No way I’m missing it twice!
Jane, if you’re reading this – I’m sorry I dropped the ball! I’ll be sure to get my 2024 picks in on time, no excuses. And thanks for putting together the Top Tools for Learning list each year – it’s such an invaluable resource.
Thanks for reading!
🎶 What I’m Listening To
Tears for Fears was quite popular a few weeks ago, so I’m back today with The Best of the 80’s (and they are the best!)
👆 Last Week’s Most Clicked
📰 News & Notes
Introducing the C.U.R.A.T.E.D Model
Ever thought about how we’re all essentially curators? Every time we design a course, we’re sifting through a sea of information, selecting the best bits, and presenting them in a way that’s palatable for our learners. That’s curation in its essence! Enter the C.U.R.A.T.E.D. model – a structured approach to elevate your content curation game. Here’s a quick breakdown:
📌 Clarify Objectives: Set clear goals. Know where you’re heading.
📌 Unearth Content: Dive deep, but pick only the pearls.
📌 Review & Refine: Polish those gems. Ensure relevance and accuracy.
📌 Arrange Systematically: Organize for easy digestion.
📌 Transform Presentation: It’s all about the delivery.
📌 Engage & Enrich: Make learning interactive and collaborative.
📌 Develop & Deliver: Keep iterating. Stay updated.
This model isn’t just a strategy—it’s a mindset. It’s about ensuring every piece of content we curate is purposeful and impactful.
🎯 Take away: The C.U.R.A.T.E.D. model offers a structured, holistic approach for L&D professionals to master content curation, ensuring every piece of content is purposeful, valuable, and aligned with learner needs.
Beyond Stock Photos: A Neuroscience Approach to Imagery
Dr. Carmen Simon shares lessons from recent study looked at how image choice impacts buyer behavior and engagement. Cliché stock photos can feel predictable and familiar but don’t necessarily boost attention to content. More effective images are functional, grounding in reality, emotionally provocative, and specifically linked to the text. These types of images can enhance understanding, lighten cognitive workload, and direct focus. Replacing clichés with carefully chosen visuals tailored to the message can significantly improve business content. This is not just for buyers – there are lots of application of this for learning contexts as well.
🎯 Take away: Go beyond cliché stock photos by using purposeful images that explain and enhance the text for your audience.
Learning Using the Socratic Method and ChatGPT
The article by Stephen Kelly explores how the AI chatbot ChatGPT can be used in education through the Socratic method of asking questions to stimulate critical thinking. The author provides examples of using ChatGPT to coach students through complex topics and self-reflection. While not a replacement for human teachers, ChatGPT shows potential as a supplementary tool to enhance personalized learning.
🎯 Take away: The Socratic method of conversational questioning can make ChatGPT a powerful AI teaching assistant.
Visit and subscribe to the Neovation Learning Hub for free eLearning resources – L&D superpowers that you can use to improve your eLearning initiatives and help you be more creative, productive, and valuable to your L&D team!
🧰 Tech Tools & Tips
If tools are your jam, check out my new Work Smarter newsletter.
Ideogram
A free Midjourney alternative for generating AI images you should try out.
Eagle – Organize all your reference images in one place
Organize all your images all in one place – inspiring images, design mockups, illustrations, screenshots and more with this free app.
Get smarter in 5 minutes with Morning Brew (it’s free)
There’s a reason over 4 million people start their day with Morning Brew – the daily email that delivers the latest news from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Business news doesn’t have to be boring…make your mornings more enjoyable, for free. Check it out now for free!
🎧 Podcast
This is the conversation that caught my ear this week. Check out previous episodes in the Friday Finds podcast playlist.
Hot take: Most employees aren’t actually that interested in L&D
Most employees aren’t actually that interested in L&D. We discuss: the extent to which we think this ‘Hot Take’ is true the importance of development to employees vs ‘learning and development’ as a function what L&D teams can do to market and promote themselves. During the discussion, Phil referenced the Kirkpatrick Model of evaluation. Ross referenced the work of Shannon Tipton to help L&D teams develop a brand.
sponsored
Learning to Make Difficult Decisions Easily with Marina Arshavskiy
When creating a course, one of the most difficult challenges is to avoid overwhelming learners with information. There’s so much they need to know to understand the topic at hand, right? But if you don’t keep your course short, you’ll lose them.
So, how do you decide what should be in the course and what can be omitted?
Attend this webinar by Marina Arshavskiy to gain expert strategies and techniques that will help you prioritize essential content for your course with precision and ease.
Spaces are limited, so save your spot now!
🧳 Where’s Mike?
- Central Ohio ATD Annual Conference, Sept 12, Columbus, Ohio
- CUNA Learning Live , October 16 San Antonio
If you or your event needs a speaker or workshop that is highly interactive and super practical we should talk.
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Mike Taylor 
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