Friday Finds: The Best of Learning, Design & Technology | March 19, 2020

“A year from now you will wish you had started today.”

Karen Lamb

Happy Friday! I hope you’re having a great week. I got my first of two COVID vaccination shots on Monday and am looking forward to the second one in a couple of weeks. It was quick and easy – I didn’t even have to get out of the car. It feels good to think that things are trending in a generally good direction and if we don’t get thrown any curve balls, we may be able to see people in person again. I’m excited about that. Thanks for reading!

What I’m Listening to: Today I’m spinning a playlist I created with some of my favorite ‘old school’ artists like Bill Withers, George Benson, Marvin Gaye, etc.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ta8WAHQLVEVK59B5xSGTr?si=6fa418d74e3b4724


Last week’s most clicked item:
Pre-Recorded Videos Prove More Effective for
Student Learning Than In-Person Instruction


Knowing When Tech Does (and Doesn’t) Promote Positive Relationships

In this super relevant article, Jenna Clark tell us that if we want to understand the role technology plays in our well-being, we need to start with the role it plays in our relationships. Sometimes, superficially similar behaviors have fundamentally different consequences. Sometimes online socialization is good for you, sometimes it’s bad, and the devil is entirely in the details.

https://behavioralscientist.org/knowing-when-tech-does-and-doesnt-promote-positive-relationships/


Wonder Tools for Running a Program

The latest edition of Jeremy Caplan’s Wonder Tools newsletter has a great look into the collection of tools he uses to run the online Journalism Creators Program at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. See how he weaves tools from Pathwright, Notion, and Otter to Grain, mmhmm and Slido together with each other. (And subscribe to his newsletter while you’re there.)

https://wondertools.substack.com/p/wonder-tools-for-running-a-program


The Rise Of Personal Infrastructure

This is an interesting take by Herbert Liu on rescuing time and energy by regaining control of it with a “personal infrastructure”, to expand your capabilities so that you are free to pursue more important things.

https://herbertlui.net/the-rise-of-personal-infrastructure/


A tactical guide to kickstarting your community

An inside look at how Orbit grew its community from scratch — how to bootstrap early conversations, ways to connect members to each other, and other specifics of what people did.

https://orbit.love/blog/a-tactical-guide-to-kickstarting-your-community/


The Future of Nudging Will Be Personal

Nudging, now more than a decade old as an intervention tool, has emerged as a noncoercive way to live better in a world shaped by our behavioral foibles. This article by Stuart Mills explores two ways nudges could be personalized: by personalizing the choices or by personalizing the delivery.

https://behavioralscientist.org/the-future-of-nudging-will-be-personal/


A few other things just because I can.

Podcasts

Here are three podcast episodes from this week that are worth a listen:


Tools, Tips & Resources

I also publish a daily L&D Tech Toolbox newsletter. You can find those and subscribe here.

  • Sizle.io  — Track when a PowerPoint file or other type of document is opened. See when and how viewers engage with your documents with live analytics so you can discover actionable insights
  • ipsm.io — Placeholder content (text, graphic, & video) for developers and designers https://buff.ly/3cpDrjt
  • Amigos Illustrations — Free customizable illustration library
  • Form2Sheet — Replace Google Forms by creating a personalized HTML Form and save the responses on Google Sheets.
  • Perfect Recall — Perfect Recall transcribes your calls, lets you take time-stamped notes and make Zoom clips your team will actually watch

Where You Can Find Me

Interested in the things that didn’t make the cut here? Follow me on Twitter or connect with me on LinkedIn

If you’re looking for a helping hand or someone to speak at your event, let’s talk! Speaking and Workshop Information Sheet.

Looking for a previous edition? Check out the archives

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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