All Is Well

‘This is where you’ll sit,’ said the Colonel, pulling a chair out for her. ‘Get used to it.’ She sat at the small desk, shifting uncomfortably on the hard wooden chair. She cradled her hands in her lap, examining the objects on the desk. A digital clock, a printed script, a red phone. ‘You know …

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Haunted

Hannah thinks I use my phone too much. For the first time since she left, I think she might be right. There’s a notification on my screen telling me that I used it for three hours yesterday.

Caps

Growing up, there was a burn that ran through our garden. It came through the park, under the road, then skirted a wall that ran the length of our property. This wall got shorter towards the foot of the garden until it levelled out at a stone patio. The day we moved in, my dad …

How can ‘scaffolding’ be used as an instructional design technique in corporate e-learning?

Self-paced e-learning has become a common feature of corporate training around the world, with an estimated global market value of USD 12 billion in 2015 (Business Wire, 2016). This type of e-learning tends to be provided via a central library, or Learning Management System, that employees can access whenever they want to update their skills or are asked to complete mandatory training. However, the ease of measuring cost savings and difficulty of measuring educational outcomes raises questions about how well corporate e-learning is designed for how people learn (see Strother, 2002), and may have contributed to some commentators arguing that: ‘most instructional procedures were developed without any consideration or knowledge of the structure of information or cognitive architecture’ (Paas, Renkl and Sweller, 2003, p 2).

Isolation in online learning environments

From the outset, the internet has had a complicated relationship with isolation. In 1998, Kraut et al highlighted what they termed the ‘Internet paradox’: that this technology, with the capacity to connect people all over the world, seemed to have a negative impact on users’ ‘social involvement and psychological well-being’ (cited in Kraut et al 2002).

4 common instructional design mistakes

Earlier this week I delivered a webinar as part of Sukh Pabial’s Modern Learner Leader (#MLLeader) programme, but ran out of time while discussing common instructional design mistakes. This blog post is an attempt to make up for my rushed ending, with links throughout to further reading.

How will Artificial Intelligence help you at work?

What is the total cost of all of the bills that you pay? How much do you spend each week on food? Where could you cut back if you suddenly found yourself out of work? For most people, these are difficult questions to answer. Like telling the doctor how much alcohol we drink, or how …

Learning technology: What can we learn from Norman Doors?

A few years ago I was loosely involved in the redesign of GoodPractice’s core product: an online toolkit for leaders and managers. My role was simple: I had to spend a couple of evenings chatting to our target users, then take notes as they carried out a few simple toolkit tasks. An example of one …

Commuter Community

Front carriage, 7.15am. So quiet before the rush. When we arrive at Edinburgh Waverley I’ll be the first one off the train and through the gates. So quick before the crush. I take the second seat on the right, next to the window. More leg room than a table seat, but no ‘Priority’ sign for …