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Clark Quinn’s Learnings about Learning

Archives for January 2021

Buzzwords and Branding

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I was reflecting on a few things on terminology, buzzwords and branding in particular. And, as usual, learning out loud, here are my reflections.

The script:

So I’ve been known to take a bit of a blade to buzzwords (c.f. microlearning). And, I reckon there’s a distinction between vocabulary and hype. Further, I get the need for branding (and have been slack on my own part).  So, here I talk about buzzwords and branding.

First, vocabulary is important. I’m a stickler (I’m sure some would say pedantic ;) about conceptual clarity. We need to have clear language to distinguish between different concepts. (You shouldn’t say ‘cat’ when you mean ‘dog’, someone’s likely to get a wee bit confused!)

And, to be clear, there’s internal and external vocabulary. For instance, other people don’t really care about objectives, they just want outcomes. This internal vocabulary can be shortcuts, and help us minimize what we need to say to still communicate. Brevity is the soul of wit, after all.

And then there’s hype. The distinction, I reckon, is when we start tossing in buzzwords that are new, drawn from elsewhere, and promise great things. Adaptive and neuro- are two examples of buzzphrases that are open to interpretation but sound intriguing. Yet they require careful examination.

Then, there’s branding. You attach a label to something to identify it specifically. Harold Jarche’s Personal Knowledge Mastery (PKM), for instance, is a brand for a framework. So, too, would be Michael Allen’s SAM (Successive Approximation Model) and CCAF (Context-Challenge-Activity-Feedback). They’re ways to package up good ideas. And of course, t0 take ownership.

This latter step, I confess, I’ve failed on. The alignment in Engaging Learning and the different categories of mobile are two places I dropped the ball. I recently tried a brief attempt to remedy another, when I released the Performance Ecosystem Maturity Model.

I  do have the 4C’s of Mobile, but while that turns out to be useful, it’s not the most important characterization. In a conversation with someone the other day, he asked what I called the mobile framework I mentioned and he found useful. And I didn’t have an answer. I’ve talked about it before, but I didn’t label it. And yet it’s kind of the most important way to look at mobile! I use it as the organizing framework when I talk about mobile (really, the performance ecosystem):

  • Augmenting formal learning
  • Performance support (mobile’s natural niche)
  • Social (more the informal)
  • Contextual (mobile’s unique opportunity)

I wasn’t sure what to brand this, so for the moment it’s the Four Modes of mLearning (4M? 4MM?).

And for games, that alignment I mentioned I briefly termed the EEA: Effectiveness-Engagement Alignment. The point is that the elements that lead to effective education practice, and the ones that lead to engaging experiences, have a perfect alignment. It’s been a good basis for design for me. But, again, that labeling came more than a decade after the book first came out.

Ok, so I was counting on the ‘Quinnovation’ branding. And that’s worked, but it’s not quite enough to hang products on. So…I’m working on it. (And it may be that having ‘Learnlets’ separate from Quinnovation is another self-inflicted impediment!)

Still, I think it’s important to distinguish between buzzwords and branding. And they shouldn’t be the same (trademarking ‘microlearning’, anyone ;). Again, vocabulary is important, for clarity, not hype. And branding is good for attribution. But they’re not the same thing. Those are my thoughts, what are yours?

Update on my webinars

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I know, I know, I’ve been doing a lot of updates: books, workshops, and now webinars. I promise I’ll get back to my regular posting on learning things, but the benefit of these, unlike books or courses, is that they’re free. And several are coming up! So I thought I’d at least let you have a chance. So, here’s an update on my webinars.

First, I’ll be talking for eLearning Learning on the 27th of January at 11AM PT (2PM ET). They were interested in discussing about the impact on Covid, and of course I’m taking it in an aspirational direction. I’m presenting about how we’re not well aligned with how we think, work, and learn, and what that looks like in general, and in particular online.

Then, I’m doing a ‘make it meaningful’ presentation for iSpring on 25 Feb at 9AM PT (noon ET). The coordinates to sign up are here.   It aligns with their theme and I’ll get into some top-level issues.

Then, on 18 March, at 10AM, I’ll talk with Barbara Covarrubias Venegas on facilitating innovation. Since here topic is on virtual space, I suspect we’ll focus there. It’s a LinkedIn Live event, you can see it as one of her list of interviews.

Finally, at 10 AM PT (1PM ET) on Thursday the 13th (not Friday), I’ll be talking learning science for ATD.  That, as yet, doesn’t have a page AFAIK. More info as it emerges.

(BTW, there’s a recording of my webinar last week on learning science.)

This actually presents a pretty fair coverage of my areas of focus, so if any one (or more) is of interest, here’s a chance to see my thoughts. My general focus, as I like to quip, is on those things L&D isn’t doing, and what they’re doing badly. Which is most everything! 😁  I’m sure more webinars will eventuate, but that’s it for now. So there you go, an update on my webinars. Hope to see you there!

Update on my workshops

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Just as I did an update on my books, it’s time to also let you know about some workshop opportunities. Together, I think they create a coherent whole. They’re scattered around a bit, so here I lay out how they fit together, how they’re run, what they cover, and how you can find them. They’re not free, but they’re reasonably priced, with reputable organizations. So here’s an update on my workshops.

First, they’re three pieces of the picture. I talk about two things, generally. It comes from my cheeky quip that L&D isn’t doing near what it could and should, and what it  is doing, it’s doing badly. So, that first part is about the larger performance ecosystem, and the second part is about learning experience design (LXD). And, that latter part actually pulls apart into two pieces.

I see LXD as the elegant integration of learning science with engagement. Thus, you need to understand learning science (and the associated elements). Then, you  also  need to understand what makes an engaging experience. So, two workshops address each of these.

The learning science workshop is being run under the auspices of HR.com (brokered through the Allen Academy). It’s under their professional education series, called Effective Learning Strategies. It’s a five week course (with a delayed sixth week). There are readings, a weekly session, and assignments. You can earn a certificate. In it I cover the basics of cognitive science, the learning outcomes, social/cultural/emotional elements, and the implications for design. It’s just what you need to know, and very much aligned with my forthcoming book!

The second part of the story is about the engagement side. While I’ve tried to boil down learning science into the necessary core, there are other resources. This isn’t well covered. And note, I’m  not talking about tarted-up drill-and-kill, gamification, ‘click to see more’, etc. Instead, I’m going deep into building, and maintaining: motivation, reducing anxiety, and more. Formally, it’s the Make It Meaningful workshop. This is a four week course, with videos to present the information, then live sessions to practice application, and takeaway assignments from the Learning Development Accelerator. It’s based upon the learnings from my book on designing learning games,  Engaging Learning,  but I’ve spent months this past summer making it more general, going deeper, validating the newest information, and making it accessible and comprehensible.

The final story is the performance ecosystem workshop. In what may seem a silly approach, it manifests as a course on mobile! However, once you recognize that mobile is about pretty much everything but courses (and can do contextual, which is an important new direction). It makes sense. When I was writing the mobile book, the intent was that it be a stealth approach to shift the L&D mindset away from just courses. Which, of course, was made more clear with my Revolutionize L&D book. So I hope you can see that this course, too, has a solid foundation. It’s about courses, performance support, informal and social learning, contextual opportunities, and strategy, in six weeks of online sessions, with a tiny bit of reading, and interim assignments. It’s by the Allen Academy directly.

Together, I think these three workshops provide the knowledge foundations you need to run a L&D operation. Two talk about what makes courses that are optimally engaging and effective, and one looks at the rest of the picture. Evidence suggests there’s a need. And I’ve worked hard to ensure that they’ve got the right stuff. So that’s an update on my workshops. I welcome your thoughts and feedback.  (And, yes, I’d like to pull them all together in one place, but I haven’t found a platform I like yet; stay tuned!)

 

Habits and variety

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Having heard it’s good for maintaining cognitive ability, I like to vary things. And, to keep doing things right, I like habits. Are these mutually exclusive? Maybe, but here’re some thoughts on habits and variety.

It’s been touted that a great way to fend off the diminishment of cognitive capability is to do things differently. So, for instance, turning off the hall light before going down the hall on your way to bed. That is, finding your way in the dark. And, in general, trying things different ways. The notion is, this continual active cognitive challenge keeps your thinking ability from decaying. And that’s a good thing.

On the other hand, habits are helpful. For instance, having a regular approach to brushing your teeth. If you’ve established a good approach regularly, muscle memory can carry you through a late bedtime. And, in general, habits can help us make sure we do certain things that are good for us.

Is there a reconciliation? Here’s my just brainstorming, but I think that  when you have a good awareness of the habit, varying it is a good procedure. You’re actively problem-solving, versus throwing yourself off balance at a bad time. So, taking on a challenge clear-headedly is good.

Now, we know that, for instance, training for emergencies and unexpected situations leads to better learning. That’s why varying practice is helpful. So wouldn’t unexpected challenges be even better? Probably, but I reckon we get enough of these in life anyway!  That time you find out that you’re out of tea unexpectedly. Or when your car won’t start. Then we have challenges. And despite our best habits, the world seems to find ways to thwart our plans.

Now, changing bad habits to good ones is even harder. And then there’s the difference between habits and ritual. But those’er topics for another time.

So there are my thoughts on habits and variety. Do it, when you can devote enough cognitive resources to still be successful. That’s my approach, at least. There’s enough randomness in my life otherwise!

(And, yes, I’m not filming this one. Got to it too late! The world, thwarting my plans…)

Updates on my books

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At this calendar inflection, it’s interesting to note how time flies. I was somewhat amazed to find out that my first three books were already out of print! And there are two reasons to keep them out there. For one, because there’s still some interest (I get pinged occasionally). Two, I wrote them based on principles of how our brains work, to be technology-independent (e.g. mobile still is changing so  fast). So I reckon they’re still relevant. (A review of one I came across said just that.) As a consequence, I sought the return of the rights. Here’re updates on my books.

You could get two of the expired books as ebooks, but now Amazon also has a paperback option. I’ve been able to put all three up as both! The covers have changed, of course, since I don’t know as to rights for the images used. And, I’ve priced them way down (Happy New Year! :)  Anyways, here’re links (they literally came through over the past couple of days) that take you to both options:

The Mobile Academy: mLearning for Higher Education

Designing mLearning: Tapping into the Mobile Revolution for Organizational Performance

Engaging Learning: Designing e-Learning Simulation Games

Of course, two of my books aren’t yet out of print. You can still get them both:

Millennials, Goldfish, and other Training Misconceptions: Debunking Learning Myths & Superstitions

Revolutionize Learning & Development: Performance and Innovation Strategy for the Information Age

And my forthcoming one is now available for pre-order!

Learning Science for Instructional Designers: From Cognition to Application

So those are the updates on my books.

For the record, these are all Amazon Associate links, for which I get a cut: support your friendly and helpful consultant!