Curated Industry Content for the Week of 07/18/16

twist-curated-content-1Every Monday we curate a number of articles and blog posts that have relevance to members of the eLearning Guild Community, and to the learning and performance field as a whole. Each piece of content that we share includes a brief introduction from the member of the Guild Community sharing why they think the content is important.

Here’s the content for this week:

Pokémon Go isn’t a fad. It’s a beginning. by Ezra Klein
The hype around the Pokémon Go phenomenon is unreal. What’s interesting is that there are two camps of people: Those celebrating the game and those condemning it. Regardless of which side of the debate you may reside on, the conversation can not be ignored. The article quotes venture capitalist Chris Dixon who says “The next big thing will start out looking like a toy”. That’s why Pokémon Go matters. If you want to see how technology is changing how we learn, you watch how technology is changing how we live. -David Kelly

Why wearables will replace your smartphone by Mike Elgan
For many, wearables are mostly seen as something used to track fitness and activity, but not much else. That’s about to change. While technologies like Google Glass might have been too much, too soon, the next generation of wearables will be more powerful and less visually disruptive; and they are poised to take wearables to the next level. -David Kelly

Designing Beyond Empathy by Michael Chapman
Great design requires that you keep in mind that more often than not you’re desinging for someone who is not like you at all. This article talks about how to go past a superficial understanding of your audience for a project and instead dive deep into what their experience is like and what can truely help solve their problems. While written specifically about product design, these same ideas are equally important to consider in L&D as well.  -Bianca Woods

Scientists say giant asteroid could hit earth next week, causing mass devastation by Elizabeth Bromstein
Don’t let the title of this article scare you away. The title speaks to a common problem on social media- people sharing articles they have not even read. This is a very interesting read, and one that has incredibly important implications as L&D continues to look towards curation – more specifically, quality curation – as a tool to help us support tomorrow’s learning and performance needs. -David Kelly

Microsoft announces professional degree program to fill the skills gap by Lucia Maffei
The decision by Microsoft to create this course reflects the growing need for data scientists in organizations. But there’s a deeper thing here for learning professionals to consider. The need for data scientists speaks to the continued growth in interest in mining data and making it actionable. While that is not an L&D discussion, it is a discussion that will have impacts on L&D. Even if L&D Departments are not harnessing the potential of data science themselves, their organizations are. Having at least a general understanding of these concepts will enable L&D to better interface, collaborate, and support this new function of the organization. -David Kelly

Dear Instructional Designer: Jane Bozarth by Kristin Anthony
One of my favorite sources of professional development is sharing my work with others. One of the primary opportunities to do this is by speaking at conferences and other professional events. Many people are interested in speaking at events, but struggle with where to get started. In this episode of the Dear Instructional Designer podcast, Jane Bozarth shares her experiences as a public speaker and shares numerous tips for those looking to get started with speaking at conferences. -David Kelly

What are you reading?

If you have an article, blog post, or other resource that you think we should consider sharing in a future Curated Industry Content post, please feel free to send a link to the resource to David Kelly along with a few sentences describing why you think the resource is valuable.

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