Learning from the Movie Maestros, "Anatomy of a Scene"

From the New York Times, Anatomy of a Scene is a great example of self-directed, learner-controlled elearning. Viewers are provided a palette of scenes from a range of films. Each is voiced over with the movie directer discussing ideas and techniques behind scenes in the film. Viewers can adjust the audio levels between the scene and the director's commentary.

You will likely need a NYT account to view, but it is free.



For a film-buff like me, this is a candy store.

An Idea that Resonates, and its Implications for Presentations (and Training)

From the Duarte Blog comes a great analogy and concept to improve training and presentations. He asks the question: "What Does It Mean to Resonate?"

Please read his post for the full story on this great video and his conclusions for its implications for presentations. However, I will share two excerpts:

"But what does it mean to truly resonate with someone? While doing research for Resonate, I learned about lovely phenomenon in physics. If you know an object’s natural rate of vibration, you can make it vibrate without touching it. Resonance occurs when an object’s natural vibration frequency responds to an external stimulus of the same frequency."

And, his conclusion...

"The audience does not need to tune themselves to you—you need to tune your message to them. Skilled presenting requires you to understand their hearts and minds and create a message to resonate with what’s already there. Your audience will be significantly moved if you send a message that is tuned to their needs and desires. They might even quiver with enthusiasm and act in concert to create beautiful results."

Creating the right context to best facilitate learning. Or, through the prism of behavior change (which requires motivation, self-efficacy, and skills), infusing the reason for motivation in the presentation.

Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

A visualization debate - Traffic Light Food Labeling

A proposed visual learning "job" aid for healthy eating is debated in Europe. Information Aesthetics posted this article on the EU's proposed "Traffic Light" food labeling job aid.

My natural instinct is to distrust the industrial food industry, but they do have some good points here. This is a great example of weighing the pro's and con's that come with simplifying complex information into an "at-a-glance" graphic form.

Finds: "Analog" Presentation Visual Aids a la Ikea

As Hans Rosling presents on global population growth at TED, he uses what he calls "new, analog" visual aids alongside the "old, digital" kind. It's a great one-two punch.

Finds: Games for Change

Here's a double win: elearning games for social change.


From their website:

Games for Change (G4C) is a non-profit which seeks to harness the extraordinary power of video games to address the most pressing issues of our day, including poverty, education, human rights, global conflict and climate change. G4C acts as a voice for the transformative power of games, bringing together organizations and individuals from the nonprofit sector, government, journalism, academia, industry and the arts, to grow the sector and provide a platform for the exchange of ideas and resources. Through this work, Games for Change promotes new kinds of games that engage contemporary social issues in meaningful ways to foster a more just, equitable and tolerant society.