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“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.”
Leo Burnett
I’m back from vacation and already heading back out on the road today for a softball tournament with my daughter. We’re probably in the car right now as you’re reading this and it looks like it will be a little toasty. So I’ll be thinking cool thoughts, soaking up some sun and cheering like crazy for all the Ohio All-American girls. I hope you’ve got something to cheer for this weekend as well.
As always, thanks for reading.
What I’m Listening To: I’m off with my daughter to an out of town softball tournament this weekend, so today I’m queuing up Classic Road Tip Songs
Last Week’s Most Clicked:
ChatGPT Driven Instructional Design: Dreams, Results, and Horrors
📰 News & Notes
Sources of Cognitive Load
Cognitive load theory is about how things affect our working memory. It has three types: intrinsic, extraneous, and germane load. Intrinsic load is about the task itself. Extraneous load is about the task’s design or environment. Germane load is about the resources used for the task. Cognitive load is influenced by motivation, task elements, and background knowledge. It’s a useful model for learning. But it doesn’t cover convincing students to use effective study strategies.
🎯 Take away: Cognitive load theory provides valuable insights into how various factors impact our ability to effectively use our working memory resources
Slow Ideas
Some innovations spread fast. How do you speed the ones that don’t? In this article, Atul Gawande highlights the powerful impact of direct human interaction and personal engagement in driving change and implementing critical practices. He shares some examples of initiatives that vividly demonstrate the effectiveness of person-to-person efforts in transforming norms and saving lives. These initiatives underscore the vital importance of understanding existing norms, fostering trust, extending practical support, and embodying kindness and empathy. They highlight the undeniable significance of establishing genuine connections and active engagement to bring about transformative improvements.
🎯 Take away: The primary takeaway here is the importance of human interaction and personal engagement in driving change and implementing critical practices.
This company adopted AI. Here’s what happened to its human workers
AI has the potential to boost productivity and customer satisfaction in the workplace. Incorporating AI chatbots improved the productivity of customer support representatives by 14% and resulted in faster issue resolution and higher customer satisfaction. Less experienced representatives benefitted the most, performing at the same level as their more experienced colleagues. However, there are concerns about income inequality and the distribution of AI’s benefits. While AI can make our economy more productive and raise living standards, there are no guarantees of how these benefits will be shared. Additionally, AI’s impact on the labor market and job automation needs careful consideration.
🎯 Take away: AI has the potential to significantly improve productivity, customer satisfaction, and address income inequality, but careful consideration and proactive measures are needed to ensure its benefits are shared.
The joy of plain language; a Bob Ross inspired approach to content design
Bob Ross simplified complex ideas to achieve success, and you can do the same in your content design. Aim for a reading age of 9-11 with simple sentences and everyday words. Use active language like “we” and “you” for a personal touch and give clear instructions. Structure content to frontload important information, use headings and lists, and break up large blocks of text. Remember, create content for individuals, not just for the internet. Keep it plain and understandable to engage your audience effectively.
🎯 Take away: Be like Bob Ross and simplify your content for better results.
Unleashing the Mind: 5 Best Neuroscience Courses to Take in 2023
Whether you want to know how the brain works, how to learn better, understand human behavior and even brain injury and pathologies, these courses have got you covered. Class Central has curated a list of the top online neuroscience courses, including beginner and advanced levels, courses relating neuroscience to learning and behavior, and courses exploring brain injury and pathologies.
If you’re looking for other topics, check out Class Central’s Best Online Courses of All Time
🎯 Take away: This is a collection of highly-rated online neuroscience courses curated by Class Central
Do you want helpful, practical, and actionable eLearning resources – for free – to expand your eLearning toolkit? Subscribe for insights and resources sent to your inbox by visiting the Neovation Learning Hub!
Become a better designer in 5 minute lessons
Join 50,000+ people learning design in short, practical lessons. Original, illustrated design tutorials to help you design better websites & apps.
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Prompt Engineering Daily
Get the most simplified and tactical AI prompts, insights and tools to stay ahead of the curve. Read by over 85,000+ readers from Apple, Microsoft, Google, Meta and more!
Check it out for free!
The Knowledge Newsletter
The Knowledge 🧭, is a newsletter helping creators and professionals to think deeper and work smarter.
Subscribe for free
🎧 Podcasts
These are the conversations that caught my ear this week.
Start every learning project off right with a Learning Environment Analysis (LEA), a powerful framework for uncovering learners’ problems, constraints, and needs to prescribe the right solution. This comprehensive guide introduces the LEA and the specific tools to use at each stage, from learner discovery to analyzing findings.
Download the free LEA Guide ↓
🧰 Tech, Tools & Tips
If tools are your jam, check out my new WorkSmarter newsletter
Join over 4 million people who start their day with Morning Brew
Get 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 for free!
🧰 Tech Tools & Tips
If tools are your jam, check out my new Work Smarter newsletter.
Journalist’sToolbox.AI
A collection of AI-enabled content creation tools.
Free SVG Generators
👉 Discover these free SVG generators on the web to handle the time-consuming task of creating patterns, textures, blobs, illustrations, and more.
www.svgbackgrounds.com/free-svg-generators
TxtPages – Create fast text webpages
Super fast and easy way to create text-based webpages.
daily.place
Create your perfect space to focus on your daily tasks.
Everything You Need to Know About Building an Impressive ID Portfolio
Wondering if your current portfolio has what it takes to land your dream job? Download this ultimate guide and discover how to make your portfolio sell. Gain insights and best practices, see examples and top portfolio platform options, and get step-by-step instructions for creating a strong portfolio from scratch.
🧳 Where’s Mike?
NASJE
August 28
Columbus, OH
CUNA Learning Live
October 16
San Antonio
Friday Finds is an independent publication that I produce in my free-time. You can support my work by sharing it with the world, booking an advertising spot, or by buying me a coffee.
Mike Taylor 