Moving from Teacher to Facilitator
As a leader and teacher in the classroom and online for over 15 years, I still face the challenge of making content “real” for learners. Even with the help of the newest technology tools to communicate...
View ArticleOnline Academy Helps to Keep Lectures Where They Belong: Out of the Classroom
Where do the most innovate ideas in learning come from? Until recently, the debate over this question had two primary camps: academia and corporate America. Now, there’s a third possible answer:...
View ArticleWhat Can March Madness Teach Us About Blended Learning?
Opening weekend of March Madness is over. Yes, it hurts just typing it. Although two weekends of mayhem remain, there’s nothing like that first weekend. Those of you that enjoyed the non-stop...
View ArticleThe Wisdom of Experience: Simplifying Complex Learning Targets
In recent months, I’ve been working on a project to redesign a national training program for bulk plant employees in the propane industry. The material is being written at an 8th grade reading level...
View ArticleBrain Rules for Learning: Who Knew? We All Did.
Recently, I was lucky enough to attend a keynote speech by Dr. John Medina on his book Brain Rules at the eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions 2011 conference. When I think of Dr. Medina’s address,...
View ArticleWho’s Building the Social Learning Roads?
Over the last few months I’ve discussed with my brother, a professor at Bethel University here in Minneapolis, how to incorporate social media into his classes. Without throwing him completely under...
View ArticleEmbracing Innovation in Learning
In her recent blog post Wonders or Woes of Change, Dr. Ellen Weber discusses the paradigm shift from traditional leadership to brain-powered, or innovative, leadership. This shift in leadership style...
View ArticleCan Bill Gates Lead the Informal Learning Revolution?
A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to hear Julie Dirksen, an instructional designer from Minneapolis, give a presentation on the use of games in learning. She described games’ effective use of...
View ArticleSilicon Valley Parents Question Value of Technology in Learning. Should We?
According to the recent New York Times series Grading the Digital School, parents in some of the most tech savvy places in America are questioning whether the investment in classroom technology is...
View ArticleThe Flipped Learning Revolution — Coming to a Brain Near You?
One of the concepts in training that has taken the biggest strides this year has been that of the “flipped classroom.” My colleague Jon Matejcek first covered it back in March in his article “Online...
View ArticleThe Ten Commandments of Elegant and Effective PowerPoint Design
1. Thou shalt know thy audience and context Good design is good communication. PowerPoint is used in a variety of contexts and despite the rigid and inherently presumptuous title of this blog post,...
View ArticleILT Instructor Guides: Are You a Helicopter or a Free-Range Instructional...
It is hard to escape all of the news and opinion stories I have seen in recent years arguing for and against Helicopter Parenting and, conversely, Free-Range Parenting. In the unlikely event you have...
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