We had to replace our oven a few months ago. Not a choice, really, the old one gave up, and I am a mad baker so cannot live without an oven. The new oven is a marvel. We didn’t spend top dollar, but just being modern it has touchscreen and some cool features. An air… Read More Bake, 180, Done: Why Rolling Out AI Isn’t Rolling Out Software
I have a very particular way of gardening.The weather has to be good. I need to have a good chunk of time, not a scrap of it, a proper block. And I need the energy. All three need to line up. Then I make a coffee, put my gloves on, and head out the back… Read More Designing learning for fluctuating capacity
I went to a webinar last week with my glasses on and coffee ready. That detail matters, because it tells you exactly where my head was.I’d read the post advertising it. The facilitator was talked up, the topic was one I care about, and I really felt it was going to be useful and interesting.So… Read More Access is not interaction: why so much “engaging” learning leaves us flat
I wear bifocals all day, every day. They are, quite literally, the thing that lets me see clearly. And yet at least once a day, I take them off for some perfectly sensible reason – cooking something steamy, wiping my eyes, no idea really – and a few minutes later I genuinely could not tell… Read More What Hope Do We Have? Some Thinking on Learning, Technology Adoption, and the Science of Forgetting
A few months after a significant cardiac event, I found myself thinking about weight loss…well the exercise physiologist delicately suggested it. My heart event was related to a virus and a crappy week that pushed my health to its limits. But when you are poked and prodded during assessment and long-term recovery, they’re going to… Read More It Was Never About Willpower: The Executive Function Cost of Getting Started
There’s a particular kind of optimism that comes with assigning someone a self-paced online course. From an organisational perspective it feels considerate. People can do it in their own time. There’s no scheduling pressure, no room to book, no calendar clash to navigate. It’s flexible, accessible, and respects people’s autonomy. And yet, if you’ve ever… Read More Self-paced doesn’t mean lower effort: the cognitive load of online learning
I’ve dived down a rabbit hole about cognitive load.. and I’m in here with neurons firing exploring ideas and concepts. I’ll move on soon, but for now there are a few more things I am pondering. So far my brain has gone in the direction of tool sprawl, the physical workplace, the sensory and environmental… Read More The cognitive load of showing up to live training
A few days ago I was at a specialist appointment with one of my kids. At some point the conversation turned to teen fatigue across the school week – the kind of bone-tired-by-Thursday feeling that a lot of parents will recognise. The specialist responded in a very matter-of-fact way: “It’s cognitive load”. I thought about that… Read More It’s Not Just the Tech: The Hidden Cognitive Load of the Physical Workplace
I’m trying to walk more at the moment, and walking means alone time, pondering, and ideas… and more writing. The concept of cognitive load has been on my mind, which I think was triggered by a small, unremarkable moment. I was trying to find a file. I couldn’t remember if it was in Teams, SharePoint,… Read More The Hidden Cost of Tool Sprawl: What It’s Actually Doing to Your Brain
There’s a conversation happening in many AI training sessions that I think is missing something important. It usually goes like this: here’s a framework, here are the parts, here’s an example, now you try. And the framework is genuinely useful. I wrote about why I use two of them and when to switch between them. Structures like… Read More Prompting as a cognitive skill, not a technical one