The Learning Hack podcast

John Helmer talks to David Wilson, Founder and CEO of Fosway, Europe’s #1 HR Industry Analyst. Fosway has recently released first findings of research into how COVID-19 is changing learning, and David sees this as a breakthrough moment for learning tech. But do the changes that the research reveal signal broader shifts in the content and platform market, and in particular, has it changed David's generally quite sceptical view of the learning experience platform (LXP) as a meaningful category?   03:09 Skillsoft files for Chapter 11 10:17 Summary of Fosway Covid 19 research 16:33 Surprises in the research - content 20:43 Surprises on platform 30:50 Marketing hype over LXP 36:31 Is LXP a change of paradigm? 50:18 Advice for L&D & vendors coming out of lockdown   Links Fosway's Covid-19 L&D research: first take https://www.fosway.com/research/next-gen-learning/covid19-research/ Fosway's website: https://www.fosway.com/   Contact David on Twitter: @dwil23 David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwil23/   John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/

John Helmer talks to Juliette Denny, Managing Director and Ideologist-in-chief of award-winning learning tech company Growth Engineering. Juliet’s life mission is to eradicate dull online learning, ‘It breaks my heart, she says, ‘that something that should be so fun has all the qualities of a beige sock.’ They discuss the controversies over gamification and its basis in brain science and learning theory.   01:50 Her start in learning 04:13 Does gamification work? 09:02 How does game psychology work in learning? 13:32 Tapping into the limbic brain 19:30 The social dimension of gamification 25:35 Learning theory and the theory wars 33:05 How is she coping with the crisis? 36:27 What should we focus on in the return to 'normal'   Mentioned in the discussion:   Digital Game-based Learning by Marc Prensky https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Digital_Game_based_Learning.html?id=XBwiAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y   Self Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan) https://www.learning-theories.com/self-determination-theory-deci-and-ryan.html   Growth Engineering website: https://www.growthengineering.co.uk/   Juliette on Twitter: @juliettedenny Juliette on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/juliettedenny   Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/

John Helmer talks to Donald Clark, EdTech Entrepreneur, CEO, Professor, Researcher, Blogger and Speaker, about his work in AI for learning. Donald was CEO and one of the original founders of Epic Group plc, which established itself as the leading company in the UK online learning market, floated on the Stock Market in 1996 and sold in 2005. He is now a director of numerous learning technologies companies, and a noted, sometimes controversial speaker and writer.   01:31 State of the art in AI  09:42 Challenges in using AI for learning 16:10 What is Total Recall? 20:22 How can we use AI in learning? 24:32 Data issues and L&D 29:34 Ethics & AI 37:02 Will AI have a bad effect on learning design? 40:46 What's next for AI? 46:03 Are dogs smarter than AI?   Links Wildfire's website http://www.wildfirelearning.co.uk/   Donald on Twitter: @DonaldClark Donald on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-clark-04553022/   Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/

John Helmer talks to Reda Sadki, President of the Geneva Learning Foundation about how he is using digital learning to help health professionals respond to the crisis on an international scale. What lessons can be learned from previous epidemics and pandemics? How will the developing world be affected when Coronavirus gets going in earnest there – and can his Scholar programme and Teach to Reach initiative, which connect international health professionals to spread good practice, have an effect in mitigating the ravages of Covid-19?   01:38 The Impact Accelerator programme 05:34 Lessons learned that can apply to Covid-19? 08:50 The 2 narratives about Covid in the developing world 13:09 Relevance to corporate learning 22:24 Is international co-operation getting tougher? 33:10 Big ideas or marginal gains? 39:42 Tensions between the centre and the local hubs 44:44 The future for the Geneva Learning Foundation   Links   Wikipedia definition of a Skeuomorph: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph Website of the Geneva learning Foundation: https://www.learning.foundation/   Anna Petherick writing in The Lancet on Ebola: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60075-7/fulltext   Reda on Twitter: @redasadki Reda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/redasadki/   Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/

John Helmer talks to Steve Dineen, Chief Storyteller and CEO of Fuse Universal about the passion and sense of purpose that has driven him in making a success of this innovative company. Steve is a second-time-around entrepreneur, having built up and then sold his previous company Fuel in 2007. Fuse had its genesis in an altruistic drive to bring digital learning to the developing world, and Fuse School still continues to offer free online schooling, with a renewed sense of relevance and purpose in the Coronavirus crisis.   02:10 How did he get into learning technologies? 05:14 How did he get back into it after the sale of Fuel? 09:47 Where does Fuse sit in the learning tech landscape? 19:38 Does Fuse straddle two markets? 21:58 How is Coronavirus affecting his company? 25:57 Is the crisis driving conservative buyer behaviours? 28:15 How is the crisis affecting Fuse School? 32:36 What will we see from Fuse in the future? 35:08 Is there a difference between performance support and learning?   Fuse Universal website: https://www.fuseuniversal.com/ fuseschool: https://www.fuseschool.org/users/sign_in   Contact Steve Dineen Twitter: @stevedineen LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stevedineen   Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/

John Helmer talks to Dani Johnson, Co-founder and Principal Analyst at Redthread Research, about her work on learning ecosystems. Citing the growth of point solutions as evidence of a change in the learning technologies market away from the 'big suite' solution, she says learning professionals need to intentionalize their ecosystems.   03:19 Intentional and unintentional ecosystems 04:44 Is ecosystem more than a buzzword? 06:24 Types of ecosystems 09:54 How does this affect L&D? 11:22 Integration is the name of the game 12:21 Suites vs specialists 13:55 Redthread's learntech taxonomy 17:31 How are buyers' views towards their vendors changing? 20:20 Responsive organisations 24:50 Current state of the learning technologies market 26:25 Is the crisis driving conservative buying patterns? 28:17 What has she seen recently – good and bad?   Redthread Research https://redthreadresearch.com/ Reports mentioned in the conversation: 1. The Art and Science of Designing a Learning Technology Ecosystem Authors: Dani Johnson and Priyanka Mehrotra 2. Learning Tech Landscape: The Wild, Wild West Author: Dani Johnson   Contact Dani Johnson Twitter: @danij2 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dani-johnson/   Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/

John Helmer talks to Henrietta Palmer, Learning Solutions Manager at a global travel company and joint winner of Gold in the 'most innovative new learning technologies product - UK' category at the Learning Technologies Awards Awards 2019 for the Otto learnbot. They talk about her early career, other pioneering AI work she has done, and the importance of good partner relationships with learning tech vendors.   01:23 How did she get her start in learning? 03:14 Did the move from vendor to practitioner change her view? 06:52 How has she seen L&D change during her time in the field? 09:04 Has broadband made us sloppy about learning design? 11:34 Developing an AI-driven learnbot 22:43 AI for content creation 25:28 What's next? 27:42 Analytics 36:16 Are new L&D skills needed for analytics? 32:14 The current state of organisational learning   Contact Henrietta Palmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrietta-palmer-learning-professional/   Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/

John Helmer talks to Paul McElvaney, CEO of Learning Pool, one of the fastest growing and most innovative companies in the learning technologies market. From its origins as an elearning business for local government organisations, formed around Paul’s kitchen table, Learning Pool has grown to employ more than 200 people on seven sites and is now moving into the US. The company has won a dazzling array of awards and completed a slew of acquisitions, including last year’s purchase of innovation leader HT2.   01:24 Where did it all begin? 05:57 Key turning points for the business  09:53 Enter private capital 12:14 What has this experience shown him about the market? 13:57 Suites v specialists 16:02 Current state of the market 20:49 LXP 24:28 Innovation at Learning Pool 28:30 Outputs from Learning Pool Labs 31:52 Preserving the culture through growth   Contact Paul McElvaney Twitter: @mcelvaney LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-mcelvaney-73243011/ Website: https://learningpool.com/ Contact John Helmer Twitter:   Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/

John Helmer talks to Leonard Houx, Director at the eLearning Network and Senior Instructional Designer at Cass Business School. In an age when people who do his job are more often called learning designers or learning experience designers, how relevant is the history of instructional design to challenges we face today? As someone who knows both higher education and organisational learning, Leonard is uniquely placed to give insights on both. He also talks about his early love of skateboarding and how it causes him to reflect on how successive generations of designers tend to reinvent the wheel.

01:24    Skateboarding and Instructional Design 03:52   Who should we be reading? 04:51    ID in Higher Education 08:55   Pitfalls of learning experience design 12:43    Zombie Ideas 20:19    Can people learn from experience? 28:09   Learning experience design and UX 34:30   Ignorance of ID in Higher Ed

Writers and thinkers on instructional design referenced by Leonard in this podcast: David Merrill Robert M. Gagné Siegfried Engelmann Charles Reigeluth John Sweller Paul Kirschner Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer Books cited: Diana Laurillard Laurillard, D. (2002). Rethinking University Teaching. A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies. London: Routledge ISBN 0415256798 . Didau, D. (2015) What if everything you knew about education was wrong? Carmarthen: Crown House. Also mentioned: Donald Norman, who coined the term 'user experience' (UX) Jacob Nielsen, co-founder with the above of influential UX consultancy Neilsen Norman Sponsors: Visit Make Real’s shiny new website: https://makereal.co.uk Contact Leonard Houx Twitter: @leonardhoux LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonardhoux/ Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/

 

John Helmer talks to visitors, exhibitors, speakers and all-comers to get a picture of why people come to this event, what they get out of it, and what it has to tells this year about the state of the market in learning technologies and the progress of thought about learning more generally.   01:57    Ken Ross 06:46    Fiona Leteney 11:22    Carsten Storgaard 19:20    Connie Malamed 24:33    Martin Couzins and Barcamp 27:59    Day 2 - Caroline Ford 29:12    Morten Zetlitz & Anders Heivoll of Galdr Studio 33:54    Vivian Heijnen & Jos Arets 702010 Institute 37:16    Caroline Ford - Conference 2nd day wrap-up   Links: Now Communications https://nowcomms.com/ Fosway Group https://www.fosway.com/ Laerdal https://laerdal.com/gb/ Connie Malamed http://theelearningcoach.com/ Galdr Studio https://www.galdr.no/ 702010 Institute https://702010institute.com/     Sponsors: To learn more about Powtoon's Business solution (and claim your Learning Hack discount), visit https://go.powtoon.com/learninghack/   Visit Make Real’s shiny new website: https://makereal.co.uk      Contact John Helmer Twitter: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: http://johnhelmerconsulting.com/