Best of Learning, Design & Technology

How far that little candle throws his beam! So shines a good deed in a weary world. 

– Shakespeare

Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were happy and spent with people you care about. If you have any money left over you might want to “treat yo self” with a little L&D swag from the L&D Swag store or Learning & Development Swag. Thanks for reading!

Last week’s most clicked item: 3 Questions Answered by an L&D Giant: Julie Dirksen

3 Questions Answered by an L&D Giant: Richard Mayer

This brilliant series continues with Richard Mayer, whose research on multimedia learning is something that everyone, especially in the L&D world, should know.

https://3starlearningexperiences.wordpress.com/2020/12/29/3-questions-answered-by-an-ld-giant-richard-mayer/

The Leadership Lie to Leave Behind in 2021

These words from Mark Britz resonate. “No doubt a leader should always try to be a better human, but if they want a better company, they need to spend less time changing themselves in the hope it trickles down to others and spend more time changing the conditions in the organization so change happens quickly.”

The Leadership Lie to Leave Behind in 2021

Why Doesn’t Your Company Have a Curator?

In this post, JD Dillon propose that every company needs a curator because every company struggles with enabling the rapid, consistent and meaningful flow of workplace knowledge. Hop on over and see what he says about how this foundational problem manifests in a variety of ways, what a curator should do and where to find them.

https://www.learngeek.co/2020/12/why-doesnt-your-company-have-a-curator/

The Learning Tech Landscape

If you like to keep up with what is happening with learning technologies, you should be plugged in to Red Thread Research. This is a good overview that addresses how the learning tech market has changed and grown in the past couple of years.

https://redthreadresearch.com/the-learning-tech-landscape-more-just-more-complementary-version/

NPR’s Book Concierge

I like big books and I cannot lie! This site from NPR is awesome. Mix and match the filters below and the years above to explore nearly 2,500 recommendations from NPR staff and trusted critics.

https://apps.npr.org/best-books/

A few other things just because I can.

Podcasts

Here are three podcast episodes from this week that are worth a listen:

• Sharpening Your ID Skills – Nicole Papiaonnaou Lugara, PhD with Yoland Faction on the L&D Lounge podcast
• Jane Hart, Nicole Lam and Harold Jarche – Modern Professional Development Approaches on the Learning Uncut Podcast
• Applying Digital Marketing To L&D at SwissRe with Satoshi Probala on the Learning & Development podcast

Tools & Resources

• Streamyard is a live streaming studio in your browser. Interview guests, share your screen, and much more. Stream directly to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other platforms.
• MelonApp is very similar to Streamyard and another great option for streaming.
• Panopto Express is a robust free online screen recording tool.
• Mazwai is a nice source for free stock video clips
• Kbee is a slick option for turning your Google Docs into a knowledge base or any type of searchable site. This is similar to Nocode.works shared here previously.

For more tools & resources like these check out my Tech Toolbox posts where I post new tools to help you work smarter, not harder.