“Every skill you have today was once unknown to you. The human brain is a learning machine. Stick with it.”
James Clear
Happy Friday! Back to a full week here in the US after last week’s Thanksgiving holiday. Wherever you are I hope you have many things to be thankful for. Thanks for reading!
Any suggestions for making this newsletter better? Drop ’em in here.
What I’m Listening to: Here are some sounds to be grateful for from Funkmammoth (How awesome is that name!?) and Oilix. A great playlist for just about any occasion.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E4mzIzXoE7Trv
Last week’s most clicked item:
Ten Tips for Emergency Remote Teaching
The NoCode Mindset
If the #NoCode movement hasn’t come across your radar yet, you should start thinking about it a little bit. The explosion of #NoCode tools is democratizing the creation of software applications. If you’re curious to learn more, check out the next article below ““What is no code and why should I care?”
https://onetobetter.substack.com/p/the-no-code-mindset
What is NoCode and Why Should I Care?
I’m a big believer in the rise of the #NoCode movement that is democratizing how apps and software can be created by us ‘non-developers’. If this is a new concept to you, this is a great introduction and Zapier is an easy way you can start experimenting with it yourself. (It has saved me hours and hours of manual work.) I’m a big believer in the rise of the #NoCode movement that is democratizing how apps and software can be created by us ‘non-developers’. If this is a new concept to you, this is a great introduction and Zapier is an easy way you can start experimenting with it yourself. (It has saved me hours and hours of manual work.)
https://zapier.com/blog/what-is-no-code/
Remote Learning Is Not Going Away Soon. This Is How to Make It Better
Our kids are back to full-time remote learning and it is going to be here for the foreseeable future in many places. This report outlines “10 ways to make online learning work,” covering a range of best practices from the COVID Collaborative, a coalition of education, health and economic experts, including former directors of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology.
3 Questions Answered By An L&D Giant
This is the first in a series of 9 video interviews Mirjam Neelen and Guy Wallce did with “giants in L&D” answering three questions about L&D-related research. Jane Bozarth kicks things off and others will follow every Tuesday for the next 8 weeks on the 3-Star Learning Experiences blog.
How to Become More Curious
Scott H. Young’s thoughts about curiosity resonate with me. Especially when he says that “learning is dialog, not consumption” The attitude that creates curiosity is to see learning as principally driven by asking questions and coming up with answers, not consuming information. While we don’t always have a choice in how knowledge gets presented to us, if you see that there’s always a deeper layer of questions and answers, mysteries and insights, then even seemingly dull topics become a puzzle waiting to be solved.
https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2020/11/30/curious/
A few other things just because I can.
Podcasts
Here are three podcast episodes from this week that are worth a listen:
- The L&D Detective Kit For Solving Impact Mysteries With Kevin M. Yates
- Work, Connect & Learn: A Collaborative Approach with Helen Blunden on the Learning Uncut podcast
- 20 Questions L&D Should Ask Before Talking About Training with Jeff Kortenbosch on the TJ podcast
Tools & Resources
For more tools & resources like these check out my Tech Toolbox posts where I post new tools to help you work smarter, not harder.
- Mixily — Nice event hosting/management platform for both IRL and URL events that handles landing pages, registrations, Zoom integration and more.
- Freepik Editor — Great free online graphics editor and creator by Freepick.
- Yo Polls — Share polls on WhatsApp, Messenger, Twitter, iMessage, SMS or any other way of text message
- Stubborn — Create your own custom illustrated characters for free.
- Better Than Bookmarks – Toby — Organize your browser tabs into Toby so you can access key resources in one-click instead of seven.
Interested in the things that didn’t make the cut here? Follow me on Twitter or connect with me on LinkedIn
I love talking about learning, design, and technology. If you’re looking for a helping hand or someone to speak at your event, let’s talk! Speaking and Workshop Information Sheet.
Mike Taylor 