The day after I posted about the backfire effect, I received a forward from a good friend. You know the kind of message—full of heated passages about this or that awful thing that some person or group is supposedly doing. There’s a Blue Sky in There Somewhere I’m writing out what happened to show how… Continue Reading
When we point out to someone that a favorite myth isn’t a real thing, in many cases people will hold onto that belief even more than before. This is often true, even in the face of scientific evidence or facts that we might think are hard to refute. But wait, my whole idea is wilting!… Continue Reading
I wanted to tell you about Dave Ramsey’s new, free, online budgeting tool called EveryDollar. To make it relevant to learning, performance, productivity, and/or healthy living, I looked for information about money worries. Specifically, how worrying about money affects productivity and performance. Here’s what I found in a nutshell: money worries are tied to increased… Continue Reading
I was talking with a long-time customer today, and he mentioned that some instructional designers are stuck in their instructional design world. Enamored with design models, techniques, and technology Not focused on performance We don’t want to be those stuck-in-our-own-little-world designers. So, here’s a reminder about why we design instruction: It’s not because we love… Continue Reading
For those celebrating, Happy Easter! Every day is a new day, which is so easy to notice as the trees leaf out and flowers bloom all over. This is a great season for starting fresh. In other words, if yesterday I wasn’t as productive, focused, present, connected, or compassionate as I wanted to be, today… Continue Reading
As I write this, it’s April Fool’s Day (and also National Walking Day). So I’m going to share a three things that you might find interesting, but that don’t necessarily go together. Really? I didn’t know that. Possibly a Surprise. Guess what? There’s a personality trait that both men and women find sexy. This surprised… Continue Reading
Back in the olden days, when programmed instruction (precursor to online learning) was a thing, we learned not to write questions called “copy frames.” Do Not Point too Obviously to the Obvious Right Answer What that means is, don’t give a little bit of information and then ask a question that only requires glancing at… Continue Reading
If you follow me on Twitter, you might notice tweets several times a week saying that I just walked a few miles for charity. Several people have asked how they can walk (run, bike) for charity, too. Sunday Afternoon on the Guadalupe River Walk It’s easy. Here’s how: Go to the App Store (or Google… Continue Reading
One of my ISPI friends asked a group of us if we’d be willing to help get the word out about The Debunker’s Club. It’s a new website and group of folks who are banding together to help clean up some of the myths, mistakes, and misinformation that are common in the learning field. Early… Continue Reading
Podcasting is a fairly young idea. Anybody with a microphone and access to the Internet can put up a podcast. Given that, some are terrible, and some are really great. One of my favorites is Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything. You might think it would be boring, because “Freakonomics” sounds like “economics,” but no.… Continue Reading
