Last week I was at ATD TechKnolwedge. This is an important conference for instructional designers, developers, and learning leaders, particularly those who use instructional technologies.

Last week I was at DevLearn 2018. This is the premier technology-based conference for designers, developers, and leaders in workplace learning and development. I love going to conferences like these and seeing all those people who are “pushing the envelope” with learning and technology.

I moved to North Carolina about 3 weeks ago. Prior to that I’ve lived in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Michigan, so I’m used to big snow storms, but I’ve never had to prepare for a hurricane. Two days ago, Hurricane Florence was predicted to be the most powerful hurricane ever to hit the Carolinas, with a direct hit on the coast 130 miles from my home in the Raleigh area, and a direct path here.

So here I am – a person who knows nothing about hurricane preparation, learning at breakneck speed how to prepare for the possibilities of flooding, being without water or power for an extended period of time, and countless other issues. Florence isn’t just some little storm so I could ease into my learning – this was the big one and I had to learn fast.

TLDC (Training, Learning, and Development Community) hosts a daily Cast – a conversation with a guest about some aspect of training and development. It’s a fun form of professional development, with Brent Schlenker talking with a different guest every day! (For those who’ve been around a while, you may remember Brent from his work with The eLearning Guild.)

My son is five years old so he’s learning something new every day. Watching him learn often makes me reflect on things we do – or should do – for our adult learners. I was struck recently by how often I was giving him feedback, both positive and negative.

Last week I was in Chicago teaching a Mobile Learning Certificate program for ATD (the Association for Talent Development). We talked about all the reasons why training teams and their organizations want to “go mobile.” One of them that we discussed was “because mobile is cool.”

I recently read “How Well Do We Learn From Experiential Or Inquiry Learning Approaches?” by Patti Shank. It’s an excellent article where she compares direct instruction and indirect instruction.

I just read “How Well Do We Learn From Experiential Or Inquiry Learning Approaches?” by Patti Shank. It’s an excellent article where she compares direct instruction and indirect instruction.

I was cleaning out my basement and found the notes and articles I’d kept from my last college degree. Just by the fact that I kept these notes you have probably guessed that I was an eager student. I did my readings (most of the time), studied hard, and engaged fully in my classes.

I was on a flight recently and I was sitting close enough to the front that I could see the flight attendant looking at her phone. Watching her reading and swiping, at first I thought she was checking her email. But then she took a little too long and she started looking a little too frantic.