Three Questions Series: #8

With Nikolaj Plagborg-M?ller, Future Learning Manager at DTU Learn for Life

?? What's one thing you're most excited about around the future of work and learning?

Nikolaj: I usually point to four main areas, where I think further development will have the biggest impact on future learning: learning in the workflow, motivational learning, experiential/immersive learning, and facilitated social learning.

But if I can expand on just one, I will choose motivational learning as it's easy for anyone reading this to start changing it for the better. Yet, it plays little role in our educational systems.

An inspired learner will find a way to learn about whatever she’s inspired by. But you can have the most pedagogically correct and accurate material, and few will care to really learn it, if they haven’t been motivated first. Therefore, unless you’re dealing only with students already passionate about what they’re about to learn, it makes sense to place much - if not most - emphasis on raising motivation.

It has to be very clear to the learner how the material is relevant: (1) to them personally and (2) in a greater context (e.g. to society). Why does it matter? Here are two quick ways I’d recommend to start raising motivation

(1) getting acquainted with Yu-kai Chou’s hollistic gamification/motivation framework, Octalysis. It’s more detailed and practically structured than other popular motivation frameworks.

(2) Curate videos from YouTube where passionate people explain why they’re passionate about their topic. If you don’t know how, or don’t have the time to really dig into the importance of a topic - fear not - it’s likely that someone else has already done it and would love it, if you shared it. YouTube is probably the #1 source of free and always accessible motivation on the planet today.

 So I’m very excited about the current lack of motivation in education, as there’s vast potential in improving it :)

??What's your approach to your own learning/self-development?

Nikolaj: My own learning journey zig-zags a lot, as it is very relevance-driven - or you could call it agile ;) Since my job is dynamic and changes often, I rarely commit to long-term educational courses, but try to pave my own learning path, which changes often.

That’s not to say that I don’t commit to long-term goals, of course, but what I’m learning at any given moment needs to have utmost relevance, or I’ll feel like I’m wasting my time, as there are so many competing options.

I commit to reading lots of whole books for sure, but even with that amount of time commitment, I think it’s important to consider whether simply reading summaries would provide you with much more value over time.

I always consider what format I’m learning from. There should be a fit between format on one hand, and content + context + personal preference (which can vary) on the other. So I’ll learn from a mixture of books, audio (podcasts & audiobooks), video, articles, and on rare occasions, courses, depending on the circumstances.

Each format has its strengths and weaknesses, and I think it’s well worth the effort to spend time up-front considering the most fitting format for learning about whatever you’re interested in.

I also try to learn from the situations and people in my life. As mentioned before, experiential and social learning is crucial, so I attempt to extract as much value from these sources as possible.

Learning from situations, I would say, is mainly about being reflective - continually thinking about what could be improved, but also remembering to appreciate what went right.

Learning from others, for me, is about asking people the right questions and really listening, while trying to always keep an open mind allowing for new perspectives (to counteract my stubborn personality).

?? What's your current favorite learning-related resource, writer/speaker, anecdote or quote?

Nikolaj: I’ll be a bit dramatic (and masquerade as a Steve Jobs wannabe) by going out-of-category with a Bob Dylan quote, that should speak to our educational systems:

"… Admit that the waters around you have grown,

?And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone,

If your time to you is worth savin' you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone -

For the times they are a-changing"

(The rest of the song is equally fitting, by the way)

Because I think nothing less than a drastic make-over of our educational systems is what’s needed. We don’t need to break things to develop new, but we do need to build educational offerings in an entirely different way - much more focus on the four categories mentioned at the top with new digital opportunities as leverage.

The central question for educational institutions to answer is: “How can we better utilize that students and faculty physically gather in our facilities?” Because more and more learning is better delivered online in a global winner-takes-all (or, at least, most) market.

Physical institutions no longer have a monopoly on knowledge, so how can they better play to their remaining strength: that they have experienced faculty and lively students gathered physically?

 Apologize for probably taking the question down an entirely different path than intended ;)

 Thanks Nikolaj!

Do join the discussion via the comments, and check back at #3Q4 to follow this (almost weekly) series.

?#learninganddevelopment #learningneverstops #sharing #growthmindset #3Q4