Making Confluence Work - Intro.
Back in 2003 the Consumer Division of Microsoft Canada carried out a study on the attention span of average consumers before distraction set in. They reported that attention spans before distraction had shrunk to 8 seconds, from a previously recorded 12 seconds. Although this study has been contradicted by a 'psychologically-based' study from Princeton, it still indicates some important findings.
NOTE: Making Confluence Work For Teams, shown below, which I created in 2017, is now entirely free. Episodes are posted on my LinkedIn feed.
1. Navigating the Confluence Dashboard >>
In today's world, you don't need to be a scientist to observe that people's ability to remain focused on 'just one thing' has dramatically fallen from where it was twenty years ago. The problem is clear - it's in your hand, it gives you reminders, it sits on your car dash and tells you when to turn right, it delivers text and email messages (constantly), it pings when someone likes you on Facebook... and it sits on your desk while you read this.
For those of us old enough to remember what 'work' was like 20 years ago, our working days are now far more complex. Before we became so interconnected 24/7 by email, instant messaging, zoom chats, and all the rest of the digital noise, people's work days and lives were simpler and less prone to distraction. We could focus on a few specific items per day. Now we glance at hundreds. For example, the LinkedIn and the Facebook Wall never stop moving. The pop-ups never stop. We have changed both how we work and how we think. This is new in the global human experience.
The Dopamine Feedback Loop
On top of our regular distractions to our focus, for those addicted to the Facebook wall or online gaming, the dopamine feedback loop is a true hidden danger. This can go unseen, especially if our surrounding peer-group has normalised this constant, repetitive, and quite abnormal checking-in behaviour. In the dopamine feedback loop, small hits of the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine are released through our digital interactions, such as someone liking a picture or comment on the social media wall. It's the same thing that happens when we receive a genuine compliment in real life - it makes us feel good. What creates this feeling is a chemical called dopamine. But in social media and other online activities, this interaction never stops. It's becomes a self-fulfilling loop. The designers of social media and massive online gaming have used this knowledge to their advantage, making their platforms hugely addictive for over a decade.
Bitesize Learning
It was with these factors in mind that I created the first e-Learning content for my old site, learnbycartoon.com back in 2017. I figured people were simply too busy to sit down and read technical manuals any more, and indeed they are usually my last resort to figuring out how things work. And even though I've written large software manuals in my career, I find them pretty dull work to read, and not great as 'a learning tool'.
I've tried other forms of e-Learning, from a disembodied voice telling me to watch a cursor fly about the screen, and 'e-Learning content producers' such as Articulate. Depending on the creator, but sadly all too often, these e-Learning products produce what is little more than fancy PowerPoint presentations (and that are about as dull).
After all this, and studying philosophy and psychology, I decided to build my own courses, mixing my love of storytelling and technical IT Project skills, with some new animation tools that had become available. The Making Confluence Work for Teams course was born. This course was originally sold on my LearnByCartoon.com site, but times change. Now it's available for free, in bit-sized episodes on LinkedIn!
Enjoy!