Last week, I invested part of my 3214th week on this planet in reading 4000 Weeks: Time management for mortals, by Oliver Burkeman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021). 4000 weeks is roughly the amount of time we have in our lives if we live to be 80 years old.^ Yet not a single moment of [...]
If you read into the background of notable people who are exemplary lifelong learners, you can find some common ground – they read quite a bit, they set goals, they experiment, they cultivate curiosity, they schedule time for learning projects (rise early, set aside time before bed), they walk or exercise when they need to [...]
When I was researching the Learning Guild report on self-directed learning, I noted an observation that came up in a few articles: that learners who control their own learning do so rather indiscriminately. They don’t exactly plan their approach; they take what they can find and run with it, continuing to explore as their needs [...]
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose unto heaven. ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1 When people talk about great achievements in self-directed learning, they often cite examples from extreme sports enthusiasts or intense hobbyists. These voracious learners read up on the subject in any way they can. They take lessons from [...]
Annie Murphy Paul’s new book, The Extended Mind: The power of thinking outside the brain, is an enlightening exploration of how we use extra-neural resources to “focus more intently, comprehend more deeply, and create more imaginatively.” Drawing from theories and research around embodied cognition, situated cognition, and distributed cognition, Paul explains and illustrates the ways [...]
This is a working out loud story about building a game for use in a workshop. It’s a long one, so grab a beverage and a snack before you dive in. I would not have guessed the turns this project took, so I hope sharing it will help others in their game development adventures – [...]
The future belongs to those who learn. Never has that been more true. It's cliche to say the world is changing fast, but just look around. The coronavirus pandemic has forced rapid change in our work, in our day-to-day activities, and even in the way we organize and run our lives. And - asked to [...]
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That classic Dickensian opening line perfectly summarizes the state of L&D in 2020. The pandemic has generated immediate learning needs and many L&D professionals have responded admirably using tools and techniques that seem custom-made for rapid response in a social-distanced environment. We’ve helped [...]
In times of change, learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists. ~ Eric Hoffer These are certainly times of change. The world before no longer exists, and the world to come is being enacted into existence every minute of the day. We [...]
Among the many topics coming up in professional conversations these days is a desire to strengthen the learning culture in our organizations. We want to create an environment in which people freely and deeply learn, an environment that creates knowledge and skill as well as passing it on, and an environment that supports the organization’s [...]