SESSION: Brain Science & Learning: 7 Tips that Will Dramatically Improve Your Learning Presenter: Art Kohn Will update this post with a deeper reflection later. Learned so much even though I just jumped in this session 7 Tips Shared: Delivery of Knowledge Bursts Cognitive Boosting Gamification Pre and Post-Assessment Coaching Social Learning - Harvesting best practices Gamification During the session I created an infographic to support my learning (and remembering ;)). Optimal Duration of Learning Boosts: Received Boosts of 5 seconds -> 5 minutes… got the same levels of retention. Boosting is not reteaching. What you do after training is important to increase retention. I want BOOSTER TRAINING FOR THIS LECTURE! So I left my card with my contact info at Prof. Kohn’s table :) Additional Resources: www.boosterlearn.com Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

STICKY IDEA: Clickly clicky bling bling is NOT what we want to do with our eLearning. Choose wisely. Ppt.  of Cammy’s presentation is here: http://www.elearningguild.com/assets/files/56/dl15_305_bean.pdf All DevLearn .pdfs available are here: http://www.elearningguild.com/DevLearn/sessions/resources.cfm?selection=doc.4027&event=380 My live infographic from the session: My key take aways from this session:  1.) It’s important to consider the big picture for developing good training content (Consider the 4 areas: Creative, Business, Technology, Learning (Pedagogy). 2.) Many eLearnings that fail don’t consider the importance of good design. Design must have a purpose. 3.) This is a great outline for how eLearning content should flow: 4.) Here’s a great example of design that engages emotionally - we think about how gross this is. The images help tell the story and spark and emotional response. The questions are meaningfully written and designed to provoke thought, and it’s intuitive and easy for the user to use!

Image from Morguefile Ideas for designing next learning experience: Years ago I had a simple idea: happy learners are those who get what they need to feel accomplished in their tasks.  Depending on your field or business, successful learners are accomplishments and milestones or happy and loyal customers. So many training efforts focus on wowing learners during the training. 24 hours later, you can ask those same learners what  they learned and they will have forgotten most of it. According to Kohn apparently 70% of all training is forgotten after a day. What does this mean for your strategy for creating happy learners/customers? You need to focus on what is done after the training. According to Art Kohn’s presentation, this can be accomplished by meeting the needs of the 3 part recommendation of activity that focuses on what happens after the training  (see the image below). One example Kohn highlights as part of their business solution is providing learning boosts to training participants which are brief questions, quizzes or polls around the content. Another example includes using social reinforcement in the form of competitive games with learners (badge earning, accomplishment lists). If you don’t "use it (within 24 hours), you lose it." Therefore, it’s in our best interests to get our learner/customers to commit to applying what they’ve learned and give them incentive to do so. This incentive or reward could possibly take different forms according to the audience’s needs/desires: a gift or tchothcke if they share their story/testimonial of putting what they’ve learned into practice within 2 days the opportunity to win a larger substantial prize if they can provide proof that they’ve applied the knowledge/skill post-training simply the opportunity to receive recognition for their accomplishment competing with their peers to earn achievement badges for what they’ve applied at work a warning that inability to put the training in action afterwards may put their work, business, standing, safety, or customers at risk even more examples… Click the image for a larger view Cammy Bean pointed out designers of learning experiences should avoid overusing the clickity clackity and bling, bling where it’s NOT necessary.  Bad Computer Based Training (CBT) is usually pretty flat and is mainly a content dump.  Instead it should address the following questions the right way. How does it make you feel? -> Does it appeal to or touch upon the appropriate emotions to get your attention? How does it look? -> Is it aesthetically pleasing and easy to read? Do you know what to do with it? -> Can the learners just pick it up and learn without 5 pages of orientation and instruction? Is it intuitive? I would add the following question because, as Cammy pointed out, so many people are still resorting to creating page turners (or even content dumps in the form of webinars, which seem to be the bandaid training in many corporate and business environments). Are you just resorting to dumping content? -> Have you created a simple page turner? Or are you engaging your learners and providing opportunities for them to reinforce their learning? I think going forward I’m going to use these questions very similarly to the questions I use in the empathy map I explained in a previous blog post. They can act as reflective and evaluative questions of my own training strategy and design to insure that my learners are the winners. An interesting factoid I learned: The average age of a user on Twitter is 35 and their income is $75K. A while ago I also read somewhere that Twitter users are the introverts of the net while Facebookers are the extroverts. Honestly, that sounds about as real as a "Which Game of Thrones Character Are You?" quiz.  I don’t use facebook, but as a skeptical introvert, even I take what I’m saying with a grain of salt. Here is an interesting post from Fast Company that argues that introverts make the best networkers on Twitter. And about using badges… I like the idea, but as I discussed in my Twitter conversation with @pascalliberte on badges, as a somewhat competitive learner. I like the idea of tracking my progress in learning with milestones and badges. I also might make an effort to be the first to finish tasks. However, I can empathize with those who might feel like badges are as patronizing as using stars and stickers to motivate adults to learn. The use of badges and leaderboards must be done appropriately for the learner audience. Images from the Morguefile: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/95045 http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/864730

Social hub at DevLearn Apologies that this took me a few days to finish. In the spirit of creating an interactive infographic, I developed one that has links to the more helpful presentations and resources I found while attending DevLearn 2015. Click on the image  to open the PDF with active links to both .pdf and web resources. Here’s my summary going clockwise starting at twelve-o-clock. Please note I’m not re-summarizing presentations & ideas I’ve already discussed in previous posts. As always, DevLearn is action packed and full of Design is Key - successful eLearning design takes into account not only look and feel (intended impact on the audience) as well as good user engagement. Bianca Woods also presented an excellent how to demo on how to easily create your own graphic elements without being an "Art Wiz." Badges  - I learned first hand from participating in the badging system for DevLearn using the DL2015 app how competitive I am, and humorously enough, I eventually realized that I wasn’t trying to earn the points to get the swag. I did worry that many people might have been trying to load their points by filling out assessments for sessions they did NOT attend. Oh well. I suppose there’s a way to filter these responses out. Badges can promote growth and learning by sparking learners’ curiousity, competiveness, or providing them with a tangible way to track their progress. Most importantly, they can offer "automated assessment tools" and "learning data." Still, for the execution of a badging strategy to work effectively, trust in the badging system must be built (by using trusted experts, both within and outside). Also, administrators and monitors of the system could effectively be training by having earn badges themselves. Sticky Infographics - you can create engaging infographics using Storyline, Captivate, Lectora and even simple PowerPoint (publishing a linked and media embedded PowerPoint slide as a PPS or PowerPoint Slideshow). Internet of Things - touched upon in David Pogue’s keynote, will change how we collect data on ourselves and others and how we learn from it. Some apps collect data that can drive competition (example: fitness & weight loss apps). Others will give us a picture of our own and sometimes our peers behavior over time. Science and Art are Connected - Through his artfully presented talk, Adam Savage from the Mythbusters showed us how Science and Art have a lot in common and that curiousity sparks and drives achievement and discovery in both.  And Savage’s advice to all learners: Pay attention; speak your mind; stay curious; ask questions; and tell stories/listen to them too. To view a very good summary of the Savage’s keynote, view Cammy Bean’s Live Blog Notes.

I watched the recent men's Olympic ice hockey finals with bated breath. How Americans and Canadians managed to get through it without a coronary is beyond me.But I was tickled by the iconic status of the Canadian netminder (read goalkeeper) Roberto Luongo. Of course, he was a local boy, playing as he does for the Vancouver Canucks, but I doubt that that was the only explanation for the basso profundo roar of "LUUUUUU!!!" that went up every time he touched the puck. The commentators were at great pains to explain that the crowd wasn't booing, because it did sound rather like it.The South African rugby team has a similar figure in the form of Tendai Mtawarira aka The Beast. Every time he touches the ball, the entire stand thrums as every supporter chants a throaty "BEEEEEEEEAST!!!!" As we watch him play, at a remove of several thousand kilometres, and sometimes several hours (or even days) my family does it, too. Four throats joining in with the many thousand in the stands.These characters have inspired an astonishing level of devotion among their supporters. In an odd way, Kwame Nkrumah Acheampong had a similar effect. Apparently the crowd was still chanting "Ghana! Ghana!" an hour after his run. So we can tell that it isn't necessarily about superior skills.I suspect that it is about passion. All these men (and I'm sure there are women like this, too) share an indomitability. They simply don't know when to quit. They. Will. Not. Be. Stopped. In this civilised age, I find it heartening that we are so ready to be won over by this level of passion. There is nothing civilised about the responses to the endeavours of these sportsmen.In fact, let me tell you a little tale. Some years ago, I attended my sons' school sports day. All the parents were doing the usual thing of yelling their heads off for their kids and their friends' kids. Then up stepped a lad I'll call David Michaels. David had a particularly virulent form of muscular dystrophy and it was evident that this was the last year he would attend sports day on his own two feet. As the children lined up for the race, David was given a huge head start. Believe you me, there wasn't a dry eye in the place and, regardless of who they had come there to support, every child, every teacher and every parent present roared for David. Even with the head start, he wasn't able to win, but he did finish second, and the roar that went up was greater than for the rest of the events combined. David would not quit. In fact, the next year, he was back. This time in his wheelchair, being pushed by a willing volunteer.I understand this level of passion. I'm a passionate person myself. As such, I know full well that these people have encountered naysayers, detractors and Job's comforters at every step along their journey. In order to get to where they are (even young David, who may well not even be alive any more), they will have had to refuse to buy into the 'good advice' that people have given them.There are times when our battle on the learning front gets tiresome. There are days when we are tempted just to pack it in and go back to designing mind-numbing tunnels of back and next buttons. On those days, I reckon we could do worse than watch a brutal, uncivilised clash of sporting Titans to stir up the blood again. To remind ourselves that we might be fully clothed, erudite grown-ups on the outside, but every now and again, the inner savage needs a bit of legroom.How's your inner savage today?;o)

This article by Stephen Downes in the Huffington Post is getting a lot of exposure. He explores personal learning environments, networks and knowledge (PLENK).If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know exactly who Stephen is. The problem is, while there are pockets of people who are familiar with his work and actively engage in the debate sparked by his posts, there are great swathes of people who should be thinking along the lines that Stephen addresses, but don't... and have no idea who he is, either. As a result, they continue to churn out the same old same old.The expression goes, if you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got. These days, with change and progress being as fast as it is, I think if you do what you've always done, the best you can possibly hope for is what you've always got, but even that will be a stretch.Hopefully, articles like this will take the ideas into the mainstream.

The BBC occasionally turns out some cracking documentaries. This one is no exception. Hans Rosling is an animated and passionate presenter who loves numbers. The clever use of animation is hugely informative. Although the comments on the BBC's site make it clear not everyone agrees with me.One of the visualisations used in tonight's episode was David McCandless's billion dollar-ogram, a diagram designed to help people get their heads around the huge numbers that get bandied about in respect of the cost of this war or that oil spill. The result is very interesting!If you are able to access BBC programmes via a feature such as iPlayer, I strongly recommend this - particularly if you're keen on facts and figures.

Is it just me? Sometimes I write something - an email, a post for this blog, a journal article, a proposal, whatever - and then edit and re-edit, tweak and retweak before sending it off. Some time later, I will have reason to revisit the piece - perhaps because the reader has requested clarification - and my jaw will drop when I see what a scramble I submitted. Am I the only one?Bear with me. We are going somewhere with this.Our company's London offices are housed in a beautiful landmark building with great views of the Thames and some wonderful meeting rooms and function spaces.But today I want to talk about the design of the cloakrooms on the 10th floor. They're unisex, which some people might struggle with, but that's not my beef. The stall I used today has a little hand basin inside, which is great. But then, with dripping hands, I looked around for the means to dry them. Nothing. Just the loo roll, which isn't ideal for the purpose for several reasons. With wet hands, I opened the door, and there was one of those whizzy air blade thingies on the wall outside. Outside.Um...what...?  It's just a little thing, but it puts me in mind of the basic principles of intuitive design. When you put your first design proposal (no matter it is that you're designing) in front of the client, they will almost inevitably request changes. And that's fine - that's what the initial design proposal is for. But, once the discussions have been held, and the changes agreed upon, it's important to make sure that the impact of the tweaks and changes don't result in something that makes no sense or serves no purpose or becomes a genuine inconvenience to the user.When you've been close to the piece from the outset, you're probably not best positioned to notice where the amendments have actually broken it. This is where things like user acceptance testing, or focus groups, or even just the bloke at the next desk become a useful sounding board to make sure that you're still designing something that works.It's a little thing. But it matters.

So, last week I did a keynote at the Humana Learning Consortium conference, which is a  great little internal conference for Humana’s learning and development folks, and I thoroughly enjoyed my experience there. The topic I spoke on was Design for Behavior Change, which is something I’m pretty passionate about. While I was presenting, the delightful Kelly Young, one of the organizers, tweeted this: I’m quoting her tweet because I like her summation of what I was saying better than the words I actually used. "when (lack of) knowledge is not the problem, more information is not the answer" I think this is going to be really, really, really important for learning and development folks, and I’ll tell you why. Last weekend, I was having a conversation with the wicked-smaht Elliot Felix about the design of libraries and museums.  He was telling me that museums are waking up to what libraries have already started to figure out — they aren’t in the information supply business any more.  There’s more information available online than anybody knows what to do with.  Libraries and museums need to be about services and experiences if they expect to stay relevant. Learning and development folks who are currently in the information presentation business are going to have the same problem.  When everyone is walking around with smart phones in their pockets (which is pretty much now), then who really needs information purveyors? (btw — it’s this mistaken view of the job of learning professionals that leads to the messed up idea that Khan Academy can replace good teachers). So I think that information-deliverers are going to need to add to their skill set pretty quickly, or they’ll find themselves obsolete.  I think we need to think of ourselves as business consultants, experience designers and change facilitators (which means we need to be learning about what the business, UX and change management folks do).  This goes back to some of conversations I’ve been having with Reuben Tozman, and I’ll have lots more to say on this in future posts. Anyway, the topic I was speaking on was Design for Behavior Change (which I hit on in Chapter 8 of the book).  Here are the slides from the talk: Design for Behavior Change View more PowerPoint from Julie Dirksen

These are the slides from my ATD ICE 2015 presentation on the Science of Behavior Change. Thanks!

So I’ve been doing research for a chapter on social and informal learning that I’m adding the second edition, and I’ve been taking a look at some of the resources on social gaming because they know a *lot* about community development. This is collection of some of the best resources I’ve found. Core Concepts for Social Experience Design This is such great stuff.  I know it’s labelled as Gamification, but the fabulous Amy Jo Kim deals primarily with social experience design, and the part about looking at the action verbs for different player types is pure gold. Social Difficulty Curve The always excellent Extra Credit folks did a series on the social difficulty curve — basically, how do you ease players into online social game interaction.  This dovetails well with Amy Jo Kim’s player’s journey as well: These are part of Extra Credits playlist on game design, which if you are interested in game design at all, is just a treasure trove of goodness for learning about game design. Community Development It’s not a game design resource, but Tom Kuhlmann and his team run one of the best learning communities on the web.  Regardless of whether or not you are an Articulate or Storyline user, http://www.elearningheroes.com  is great resource of helping for people who build elearning. In this series of videos, you can see him explaining some of the motivation and strategies behind how they develop and grow that community.            

This presentation for Designing for Behavior Change by Stephen Wendel is pretty fantastic: UXWeek 2015 - Designing for Behavior Change from Stephen Wendel

Jeff sits down with Jason Carroll and Martin McKay of TextHelp to discuss how their Google Extension, Read&Write is helping students in all grades and subject areas. Visit: http://www.teachercast.net/texthelp for a limited time offer after viewing our program. About Texthelp Texthelp software solutions provide reading, writing, research, and studying tools -Read&Write Gold’s customizable toolbar integrates with familiar desktop applications,Read&Write for Google makes Google Docs, web, PDFs, and ePubs accessible in Google Drive on PCs, Macs, and chromebooks, and iReadWrite helps struggling readers and writers on the iPad. Links of Interest Website: http://www.TextHelp.com Twitter: @TextHelpUS About our Guests Jason Carroll is the Product Marketing Manager for North America at Texthelp, an industry leader in literacy support software. He has trained thousands on the effective use of Assistive and Instructional Technology throughout the United States and beyond since his start with Educational Cooperatives over a decade ago. His focus is on bridging the gap between operation of technology and actual implementation and is a popular speaker nationally and internationally on these topics each year. Jason is a graduate of the Assistive Technology Applications Certificate Program (ATACP) from California State University at Northridge, holds an MBA, is a Google Educator, and Authorized Google Education Trainer.  He is a published author, has taught at the University level, and served as an independent consultant prior to his position atTexthelp.  @jkcarroll +Jason Carroll Founder of Texthelp Systems, Martin McKay has led a team of developers to create assistive technologies for use in education, workplace, and at home. Early products focused on solutions for people with severe mobility and communication difficulties. The product focus has since evolved to literacy and language learning software. Since 1994, Martin has led the development of core computing linguistic Intellectual Property in the following fields: Phonetic Spell Checking, Word Prediction, Homophone Detection, Word Syllabification, and Pronunciation Tutoring. Additionally, Martin has filed patents in the areas of Text-to-Speech implementation in Public Access Terminals, Text-to-Speech UI Design, Talking eBook Design, and Talking eBook Creation tools.  @martinmckay +Martin McKay The post Looking for a great way to making reading and writing fun? Check out Read&Write for Google Apps from @TexthelpUS appeared first on TeacherCast.net: Educational Blogs, Podcasts, App Reviews and more. … Read more

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