This is just a rant

Ever since the lockdowns, more people are comfortable with remote workforces and remote training. However, (especially if they’re HR) they also want team-building games and ‘fun activities’, regardless of their learning value. And, let’s be honest, those keep people awake and also have high recall value. Games and the concepts…

How to get the information you need without a seven-hour interrogation [Update: I tried this for an actual project. Check below the article for the actual results.] If you’ve worked in organizational L&D for any length of time, you’ve probably received training requests for all sorts of ‘issues’. Sometimes a…

I spent a few years of my life in a futile campaign for ‘Meetingless Mondays.’ That didn’t work, so I had to settle for sending colleagues ‘This meeting should have been an email’ memes at regular intervals. But it’s something I still thought was worth fighting for and so I…

You want kids to remember things? How…quaint. — If you’re a teacher, instructor, educator, trainer, or instructional designer of any sort, you’ve probably heard “remembering” or rote-learning talked about as something that died out with bustles and crinolines and corsets. “Teach them how to think, not what to think,” say all the best educators. By extension, many teachers…

The first thing to note is that it’s not about the smell. Maybe books have a smell. I don’t know. Or the feel of the pages. Pages feel good, I guess. But it’s not so much about that. But the convenience and modernity and coolness of digital books! Think of…

A story my sister told me sums up a particular type of ‘green consumer’: A classmate bought a juice box, the kind that comes with a plastic straw attached, threw away the plastic straw, and proceeded to drink with the metal straw that he carried with him. Every year, thousands…

It happens all the time. Someone gives an interesting TED talk or TEDx talk or SXSW speech, there’s ‘buzz’ about it, and the next thing you know, book deal. Which is fine. They’re interesting ideas and people deserve to profit from their ideas, but, BUT, they could do that without…

One habit many Catholics find frustrating about Pope Francis is his fondness for speaking off-the-cuff in ways that can be open to multiple interpretations (unlike his predecessor Pope Benedict’s precise statements, which could usually be accurately understood if taken in context). No one doubts that Pope Francis’s statements come from…

If you’ve ever taken an online course or MOOC, you’ve probably had to go through some form of peer interaction, either on a discussion forum or by reviewing other learners’ assignments. Some studies indicate that learners who complete courses and earn certificates are much more likely to participate actively in…