“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.”
Richard Feynman
Happy Friday! Just the other day I had a LinkedIn conversation about whether or not PowerPoint is a reasonable tool for print design. This person said that PowerPoint is not a “professional” tool. I totally disagree and I’m super curious to hear what you think?
Thanks for reading!
What I’m Listening to: Today I’m working along to a nice album called “Easy Wonderful” by Guster. How can you not like something called Easy Wonderful?
Last week’s most clicked item:
7 Neuroscience-backed Facts for Better Learning Experience Design
Cognitive Load Theory and Its Applications for Learning
Cognitive load theory, developed in the 1980s by psychologist John Sweller, has become a dominant paradigm for the design of teaching materials. In this essay, Scott Young explains the theory, some of its key predictions, and potential applications for your learning.
https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2022/01/04/cognitive-load-theory/
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With No-Code, a New Kind of ‘Citizen Developer’ Emerges
No-code has been around for some time now, but it’s only starting to gain momentum in the mainstream. The term essentially consists of software tools that anyone can use without having to learn how to code.“I think, really, what no-code is, is technology that enables people to build technology,” explains Adalo co-founder, Jeremy Blalock. “It enables people to build things that they would not have been able to build without code before.”
https://www.jotform.com/blog/with-no-code-a-new-kind-of-citizen-developer-emerges/
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Online Learning Can Be Engaging and Effective
Howard Rheingold reminds us that online learning, done right, can be a delight — and achieve learning objectives. It appears that teaching online by necessity rather than aspiration has led to a many online attempts at learning that have fallen short of the mark, leaving those who were forced into it unsatisfied with the outcome and sometimes outright hostile to the whole idea.(Be sure to check out the links and resources at the end!)
https://hrheingold.medium.com/online-learning-can-be-engaging-and-effective-87200d37dc62
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Watching A Lecture Twice At Double Speed Can Benefit Learning Better Than Watching It Once At Normal Speed
What impact does sped-up viewing have on learning? The answer, according to a new paper in Applied Cognitive Psychology, is, within some limits, none. In fact, if used strategically, it can actually improve learning. However, what students think is going to be the best strategy isn’t actually what’s most beneficial, Dillon Murphy at UCLA and colleagues also report.
https://digest.bps.org.uk/2021/12/21/watching-a-lecture-twice-at@-double-speed-can-benefit-learning-better-than-watching-it-once-at-normal-speed/
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Content design: a great way to make user-centered content
Do you know about content design? This process is aimed at making content production much more structured and user-centered. Content design prevents you from simply typing out 500 words about a particular topic without really thinking that through. For this, the inimitable Sarah Richards coined the term content design. It’s a way of improving content and aligning it with user needs, while also cutting fat.
“Content design is answering a user need in the best possible way for the user to consume it.” Sarah Richards of Content Design London. Catch her talk with some good examples on this topic here.
- A portfolio is your new resume with Tim Slade on the If You Ask Betty podcast
- Voice over narration tips from Josh Risser on the That’s Awesome podcast
- Tackling PowerPoint Templates with Echo Swinford and Julie Terberg on the 356 Labs podcast
- Popsy is a slick option for creating websites with Notion for free
- Mr Cutout is a good source for free images with no backgrounds including people, scenes & more.
- Text Blaze is a browser add-in that lets you save time by dropping in snippets of text with quick, easy shortcuts.
- Greenshot is a nice, free screenshot app for Windows
- If you ever have more to share than what will fit into a single tweet, try Chirr App to create Twitter threads like this one I shared recently
- Learning & Development Conference – February 2nd (Online)
- Suncoast ATD – February 23, 2022
- TICE Online – March 22-24, 2022
- PACT –– Professional Portfolios May 2022
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Mike Taylor 