Learning Doodle – Career
Well, it finally happened. I accepted a new position in the company. I’m both excited and apprehensive. Pretty normal reactions. Before I started I spent some time reflecting the last year and a half of career learnings. I decided on a doodle format as something a little different. I hope it translates well.
Related Your Best Piece of Career Advice
Messages that Motivate
If you saw an image of yourself as an older person would you change your behavior and start saving more for your retirement now?
A research study was done showing people an age-morphed photo of themselves at a retirement age, 65. The study found that when individuals were presented with an older version of their likeness their attitudes change. After seeing an older image of themselves, they were more likely to put a savings plan in place today for tomorrow’s retirement. This potential change in behavior is pretty powerful. So, what makes this work? How could this type of effect be used in a learning environment?
Breaking apart the experiment.
What makes these altered photos such a powerful motivator? The images are….
1) Personal – each person is confronted with their own older self. The presentation is not generalized.
2) Emotional – seeing ourselves age, we are reminded of our own mortality.
3) Concrete – the use of a photographic image is breaks through some of the “intellectual” reasons to save. Getting older, an abstraction to the young, becomes (at least for the moment) a tangible reality.
How can you use these techniques to motivate?
The challenge when presenting ideas is to capture people’s attention, to get them involved in the message, and act on a defined goal. Making sure your design has a personal element, emotional appeal, and is concrete increases the effectiveness of your message.
After sketching out your ideas, go back and look for ways to heighten these three elements. For example, in a scenario I planned learners had three possible choices. My first draft was very simple. “correct” and “incorrect” feedback was provided. To create more emotional impact I scratched the immediate (rather boring) feedback. I added additional material showing the results of a the poor choices. The results of incorrect choices were painful – creating more emotional appeal.
How about you? When you review one of your projects, are you able to think of ways to make your message more concrete, personal, or emotional? How?
The Future of Books
The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.
What will books of the future look like? How will we store them? Will there still be libraries? How “social” will books become? As an avid reader these are a few questions I have pondered. IDEO has provided a great visualization of books of the future.
Three eReader prototypes:
The Debate and Opinion eReader:
Here an informational layer(s) is envisioned to future books that feature ongoing discussions, fact check and current media links as well as historical debate time lines and visualization of the arguments. This type of reader would be a great support of developing critical thinking skills.
Professional Development eReader, supporting learning in the organization and sharing of industry trends:
Your reader connects you to colleagues in your organization to find popular reads, establish book clubs, reading lists for departments, project or the organization as a whole. I love the tag “no water cooler required” for the sharing experience. If enough people by the book it is put in the organizational library available to all. As I’m watching this, I am thinking getAbstract had better be preparing for a business model change. Of the three visions I found the Copeland the most compelling because I would love to share what I read with others. A professional community of interest seems ideal for this.
Interactive Narratives eReader:
Of the three prototypes this is the one closest to other future projections articles I’ve read. This prototype envisions reader participation being actively worked into the story. Examples would be readers communicating with characters or have to manipulate objects on the screen to unlock access to story related information. The concept here seems to be fiction that combines an almost gaming environment. But I can see a Brain Rules or Resonate type book being integrated easily into this type of format.
The Future:
In the move to eBooks it is exciting to see the increased interactivity between people and people and ideas envisioned. The direction we’re going will make the social and active part of reading more visible and facilitate more interpersonal connections. Good developers, learning and game designers will be needed to make these visions of eReaders become a reality. At this point my biggest fear (as a consumer) is the pace of technology. What will happen to books I purchase as the technology improves? Will I be able to easily access my eBooks and my notes on the readings as platforms change and consolidates? Lots to think about. Thanks to IDEO for the great visualization!
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