Category: Learning Technology

Individualised learning and student motivation

A really interesting conversation on the Huberman Lab podcast with Joe Liemandt, a technology entrepreneur and principal of Alpha School, a K-12 model that uses AI and individualised learning. There is so much in this episode, anyone who works in education/learning should listen.

Just one of the highlights is that Alpha seem to have cracked the AI personalised learning approach – allowing students to learn at speed. However, motivation is mentioned as still the key element and there are some interesting (and controversial) ideas included in the pod. In addition, the role of teachers is still mentioned as essential – but as a coach or guide. Apparently 100,000 people applied for such roles with Alpha last year!

Some other interesting points include having kids dream board on what they want to do in the future as well as inclusion of building (an enterprise, sport, design, etc) in engaging beyond just the cognitive domain.

Anyway – go have a listen.

Thoughts on the Mindtools L&D Podcast’s “Navigating the fog of learning design”

Link to this recent podcast.

Dr Guieswende Rouamba’s reflections on the podcast, including why they have written “The Instructional Designer’s Guide to Project Management” were very interesting so I thought I would share some reflections:

  1. My MSc covered project management for instructional design in quite a lot of detail so I would say I have a different experience to that described as the norm.
  2. An approach of having two levels of PM (as described by Dr Rouamba) between instructional designer as project manager and a higher level person performing portfolio management is certainly similar to a lot of my organizational experience.
  3. The challenge and vagueness of “engaging” learning and the need for clear expectations. This resonates due to some recent experience in considering engagement vs outcomes vs brevity vs constraints.
  4. How can ID work best given the challenge of shifting priorities and SME availability challenges? This has certainly been my experience and, again, makes ID (in my opinion) unlike some other areas – for example, common business tools like RACI, KPIs and SMART goals can be tricky in ID.
  5. The importance of clarifying roles. I am increasingly viewing this as the major challenge in many projects (not just ID ones) as the professional profile and mentality of different people can be quite different to what you expect.

Storyline in Teams: THE solution for ‘working out loud’?

In a move that will confuse/annoy some in the learning industry, Microsoft have chosen the name “Storyline” for new functionality in Teams:

Just as Teams bundling has reduce the appeal of separate task managers, chat (i.e. Slack), and other tools, Storyline appears to be a very nice solution to replace any legacy Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs) that are out there. Indeed, I suggested Teams would go this way back in 2017.

The solution seems to be a nice way to do internal coms from within Teams, but outside of chats/teams, it will be interesting to see if this gets much traction. Presumably, anyone who really wanted to do this in Teams already has a team setup for their staff body, office, or other structure where such broadcasts were needed/desired. All in all, an interesting one if annoying for us Articulate users.

Will Still’s lessons for organizational leaders

A bit of hyperbole in the video’s title (Will Still’s incredibly fascinating tactical insight with Jamie Carragher on Monday Night Football) but as a recent YouTube algorithm recommendation it was still worth a watch.

Will Still, at the time managing in France and now Southampton, runs through some of his pre-game approach. A lot of what he outlines will make sense to L&D/learning leaders but perhaps some lessons here for the leaders of non-sporting organizations about how performance improvement/support can be taken seriously:

  1. keep things short (including knowing your audience)
  2. focus on clarity of message (simplify as much as possible)
  3. spaced through the week (L&D folks would see this as reinforcement and tackling the forgetting curve)
  4. visual aids for different situations (using real situations where possible)
  5. meaningful simulation (i.e. the players themselves in realistic situations)
  6. video evidence (for watching back and reflection)
  7. additions/animations on the video evidence to reinforce key points
  8. key points reinforced before point of application
  9. be able to adjust your plans based on needs
  10. Have a manager/coach on hand for performance support.

Skipping the Learning Technologies show (again)

Not all that long ago, a year without attending the Learning Technologies show would have seemed unfeasible. The exhibition (and occasionally the conference) was a key part of my annual networking, current awareness and personal development.

Instead I am now nearing a decade without attending – having attended the main exhibition in 2016 and the Summer Forum conference in 2017.

Covid has a played a role here in my low attendance of in-person events, but there has also been a shift in the focus of my roles to broader topics than learning (technology) as well as a move to webinars, podcasts (more on that coming in a future post), LinkedIn Learning, and other sources for personal development.

I post this as the end of day one of the conference/exhibition closes – predictably, from a quick look on LinkedIn, all the talk is about AI. That said, following events via LinkedIn is certainly not as good an experience as Twitter/TweetDeck used to be.

For those who are attending in April 2025: I hope you find it useful, and I will certainly try and be there in 2026 for my 10th anniversary of last time.