How can we motivate people to learn? First challenge: learning is a wonderful thing in itself, so why would anyone need motivation? (see also: vegetables, exercise). Second challenge: if people aren’t turning up to things, they’re giving us indirect feedback and maybe the problem is us, not them. Third challenge: learning is happening all theContinueContinue reading “Begging, Pleading and Cajoling”
Category Archives: Learning & Development
Nine things that surprised me
We’re just finishing a cycle of experimentation at the Diplomatic Academy. We’ve been using the FutureLearn platform to run a free public MOOC (Diplomacy in the 21st Century – still open) and a private course for our global community of learning designers. This is the first of a few reflective blogs. I’ll start with theContinueContinue reading “Nine things that surprised me”
The Learning Conspiracies
I’ve been working on a book called The Learning Conspiracies and I’ve reached that point where, although I know it still needs work, I really need to start sharing it. It’s 50,000 words of non-fiction about Learning & Development and fortunately it breaks down into sections quite easily – well, quite easily after three yearsContinueContinue reading “The Learning Conspiracies”
Learning: The Evidence Is Out There
We have reasonable excuses not to engage with the evidence on learning. ResearchED founder Tom Bennett identified four of them in a recent speech on the “evidence revolution”: we don’t have the time (heard that before?) we don’t need to know the research to be good teachers or educators research is disputable anyway learning is notContinueContinue reading “Learning: The Evidence Is Out There”
L&D and Improbable Aiming Skills
This is a homage to http://www.tvtropes.org , a labyrinth of wit about TV, film, comic and gaming clichés. The clichés we’re all familiar with. The sort of website you can get lost in for hours. At some point the clichés started to remind me of L&D because if you’re in the L&D industry, you tooContinueContinue reading “L&D and Improbable Aiming Skills”
Nine Ways to Avoid Dropout
British Embassies employ more than 15,000 people scattered around the planet, so online and remote learning are a crucial part of the mix for the Diplomatic Academy. Crucial, that is, as long as people take part. We all know the dropout rate on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) looks like the 62m drop on theContinueContinue reading “Nine Ways to Avoid Dropout”
Getting to Grips with MOOCs
Donald H Taylor’s recently updated blog on MOOCs inspired me to write about what we’re doing with MOOCs in the Diplomatic Academy. Basically we’re hoping to support online learners by making MOOCs part of blended programmes, rather than letting them sit there as self-study options. It’s very early days. It would be great to hearContinueContinue reading “Getting to Grips with MOOCs”
On Being Sold To
You have put your life’s work into building a business which makes and sells Fake Zebra Fur Coats. Or recently you got a sales job for Fake Zebra Fur Coats Ltd. Either way, I understand and appreciate your passion for Fake Zebra Fur Coats. We all need to make a living. *cough* Learning Management SystemsContinueContinue reading “On Being Sold To”
Chasing the Goldfish
My last four blogs have covered: Why we’ve got a lot of competition for people’s attention (Waving at Concorde) Why we can’t assume we’ve beaten that competition, even when people are looking right at us (Lights On, Nobody Home) What’s actually going on inside people’s heads when they’re trying to pay attention (Posner and Petersen)ContinueContinue reading “Chasing the Goldfish”
Offensive Tackles
I’m not a particular fan of American Football, but it offers a great metaphor for the brain’s inhibitory system, so I’m suspending judgement for the next 600 words. Anyway Hunter S Thompson liked it so it can’t be all bad. When we’re trying to focus on something – trying to focus on somebody talking toContinueContinue reading “Offensive Tackles”
jonathan marshall 