“A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.” — Bruce Lee
November is birthday month for the boys in our house. It is hard to believe our oldest is kicking off his teenage years (as if I needed any more signs of my own advancing age!) With birthday celebrations, Thanksgiving and a quick adventure to Disney lined up, this is looking like an action-packed month. Here are a few action-packed items to kick off this week’s finds from the Learning, Design & Technology world. Thanks for reading!
P.S. – Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply to last week’s request. I always welcome and appreciate hearing from you and getting feedback.
Last week’s most clicked item:
Research Reveals PowerPoint Is Not to Blame
The Cognitive Science Behind Learning That Resonates: The AGES Model
Judy Albers (@judy_albers) share the AGES model which says that new concepts are more likely to stick if you adhere to these principles:
- Attention is critical.
- Generating insights takes time.
- Emotions govern.
- Spaced learning sticks.
Research on Emotional Learning Design
An interesting debate has taken place in the past decade over whether learning materials should be aesthetically appealing to promote learning. Chris Drew, PhD (@helpfulprof) shares some research on how aesthetically pleasing texts can enhance positive emotions for learners. This can have the effect of increasing motivation and helping facilitate comprehension.
https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2019/10/31-1
Expertise in the Age of YouTube
In this article from the Behavioral Scientist blog, Ed Bradon (@EdBradon) shares some reasons we should be optimistic about the potential for learning facilitated by the internet. “We can, by putting a few basic elements in place, move large groups of people quickly up the learning curve of almost anything.”
Design Thinking is Like Cooking
Design Thinking has been a popular topic lately. Check out what Sarah Gibbons (@segibb) Chief Designer at the Nielsen Norman Group has to say about how you progress through stages: being a beginner, an intermediate practitioner, and possessing advanced expertise. This progression is like learning to cook: you won’t be a master chef on day 1, but there are appropriate #skills to aim for at each level. This goes for anything you’re learning not just design thinking. If you’re curious for more, you might want to check out the entire Design Thinking playlist that has a lot of good stuff.
Grab These Helpful L&D Resources from the Marketing Playbook
These are a few of the resources from the workshop I led with Bianca Baumann at DevLearn last week. Pop over and check out a few useful resources for creating learner personas, along with a few things to help with writing better copy and headlines.
https://mike-taylor.org/2019/10/29/grab-these-helpful-ld-resources-from-the-marketing-playbook/
Dynamic Video-style PowerPoint Transitions [Free Download]
I was reading a post about transition effects in Adobe Premiere recently and realized they could easily be created in PowerPoint (or Storyline, etc). These are the resulting transitions you can download and use in your next project.
Learning, Design & Technology Miscellany
A few other things just because I can.
Tools & Resources
- Subdex – Interesting new option for creating & sharing collections of links & resources
- Brill App – slick way to capture sticky notes digitally and send them to places like Trello, Slack & email.
- HiHaHo – easy way to add interactions to your videos that supports SCORM packaging and xAPI
- VidIQ – Set of tools to help you reach more people with your YouTube videos (via Craig Taylor)
- Rock Your LinkedIn Profile – Linkedin Learning course to help you upgrade your LinkedIn profile
(Check your local library for free access.) - 18 Gorgeous Elearning Portfolios Created in Articulate Rise
- Free xAPI 101 Webinar by Sprout Lab November 14
- Psychology and the Good Life – Laurie Santos’s class on the science of happiness is now available as a podcast at The Happiness Lab.
What I’m listening to
I’m not sure how he discovered it but my son has taken a liking to Queen and other classic rock tunes which is reminding me of many fond memories this morning .
Conference Roundup
- KM World was happening in Washington DC this week. Peek in via the #KMWORLD hashtag
- Elearning Guild’s Business of Learning Summit was Wednesday & Thursday this week.
- For more check out the upcoming schedule.
- L&D webinars and professional development events calendar by Kari Knisely (@KariKnisely)
Check out the upcoming conference action and please let me know if you see any I´ve missed.
Interested in the things that didn’t make the cut here? Follow me on Twitter or even better, subscribe to my newsletter.
I’m always looking for great people and organizations who want to help people learn and work better. If you’re one of them, let’s talk! Speaking and Workshop Information Sheet.
Mike Taylor 
Hi Mike! I always enjoy your Friday Finds newsletter! This week, I’d love to read more about this, but can’t seem to find a link to it: “Chris Drew, PhD (@helpfulprof ) shares some research on how aesthetically pleasing texts can enhance positive emotions for learners. This can have the effect of increasing motivation and helping facilitate comprehension.”
Can you point me in the right direction for this? Thank you!
Sheila B Robinson, Ed.D Custom Professional Learning, LLC http://www.sheilabrobinson.com/
Adjunct Professor, University of Rochester Warner School of Education Lead Curator, aea365 Tip-A-Day By and For Evaluators Coordinator, AEA Potent Presentations Initiative (p2i) Past Chair, AEA PK-12 Educational Evaluation TIG
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Whoops…sorry about that Sheila. Here is the link and I’ve updated the post as well. https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2019/10/31-1
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