David Kelly’s Curated L&D Content for the Week of 1/1/18

This week’s curated content looks at 6 different topics I have my eye on as we flip the calendar to 2018, including:

• Augmented reality’s true value
• The role of habits in learning
• The importance of reflection
• Tech to watch in 2018
• “Microlearning” outside L&D
• Books to add to your reading list

Here’s the content for this week:

Augmented Reality’s Real Power Will Come from Substance, Not Flash by Clive Thompson
Augmented reality is poised for a big 2018, with both Apple and Google placing a priority of the tech in their latest smartphones, and multiple new hardware devices planned for release. But the real value of AR, especially in the context of learning and training, isn’t in the impressive hardware; it’s in the problems that AR will solve. This post does a great job of demonstrating that value.

Why Trying New Things Is So Hard to Do by Sendhil Mullainathan
Many of us start the new year off with optimistic goals of the things we’re going to do to improve our lives: losing weight, saving money, etc. Too often the challenge with these new things isn’t in the new things at all; it’s in the breaking of old habits. Habits are a huge part of the training equation, so posts like this that explore why habits are so powerful are a good reminder as we look to make and support new habits in the new year.

How to dream like a professional via Without Bull$hit
Reflection is a huge part of learning, and allocating time for reflection has always been important to me. Whether it’s writing a blog post about a book I just read, exploring action items during the flight home from a conference, or scheduling a call with a peer to talk through something we shared, I’m a firm believer in scheduling time for reflection to add structure towards making sure it happens. This post provides a number of questions to ask yourself related to your career. It’s not only a great exercise in itself, but it’s a nice example of how you can add structure to your own reflective practices.

Magic Leap One: All the things we still don’t know by Andrew Tarantola
When I think of the new technologies coming in 2018 that excite me, one platform quickly rises to the top of the list: Magic Leap. If we want to understand how technology will change how we learn, we need to follow how technology is changing how we live. That’s in many ways why Magic Leap is so intriguing. It’s rumored to be much more than just augmented reality and to be a new way of interacting with digital information. It will be interesting to see what this platform can do and to explore its possibilities for learning and training. 

Micro-Moments Now: 3 new consumer behaviors playing out in Google search data by Lisa Gevelber
Microlearning continues to be one of our industry’s top buzzwords as we enter the new year. It’s  a term that I worry has lost some of its potential via the overly broad applications of its use in our field. However, that potential is still there, and perhaps we can recapture the value by looking at how other industries are leveraging technology to provide people with the in-the-moment support of behaviors and tasks. This post highlights just one resource: the work Google is doing with what they call micro-moments.

5 Books On E-Learning from 2017 that Caught Our Attention by Hema Gopalakrishnan
If there’s one goal that routinely appears on my New Year’s list every year, it’s this: Read More. Reading is one of the most powerful ways we can learn and keep our skills sharp, yet it’s something too many of us (myself included) often allow to fall by the wayside. If you’re like me and hope to allocate more time to reading in 2018, this post provides a number of great recommendations to get you started.

Take Your Strategy Further in 2018

The learning and performance strategies of the past cannot effectively support the evolving organizations of today. While important, training itself just isn’t enough anymore. In order to engage and connect with the whole of our organizations, we need to expand our strategic perspectives.

If building a stronger strategy is part of your 2018 goals, consider joining your peers for the Executive Forum on Learning and Performance Ecosystems. This is an elite event for senior L&D leaders that consists of a one-day experience prior to Learning Solutions, plus the opportunity to continue the connections and conversations through exclusive learning opportunities at the conference. It is an opportunity to connect with other leaders as you explore how individual and organizational learning and performance can be enhanced through a combination of strategies.