Category Archives: Barriers to Learning

Do your stories face inwards or out? Thinking about our messages in learning design

Posted on March 5, 2013 by julianstodd

There’s a problem with organisational learning: sometimes it faces inwards when it should face out. ‘Facing in‘ is when we tell stories that have meaning just to us. ‘Facing out‘ is when we tell stories that have meaning to others. … Continue reading →

Posted in Accessibility, Barriers to Learning, Clarity, Communication, Context, Effectiveness, Engagement, Everyday Reality, Learning, Learning Design, Meaning, Stories, Storytelling, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

Early to bed, early to rise… understanding everyday reality in learning design

Posted on October 18, 2012 by julianstodd

In an effort to counter the effects of jet lag when i fly to the conference next week, i’ve been getting up ever earlier in the morning. Singapore is nine hours ahead of me here in England, a painful transition … Continue reading →

Posted in Barriers to Learning, Coffee, Community, Context, Effectiveness, Empathy, Engagement, Everyday Reality, Learning, Learning Design | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Strength in numbers: the power of a learning community

Posted on September 28, 2012 by julianstodd

This focus of this week has been learning culture: how it’s created, who owns and influences it and what the balance is of informal and formal learning within it. The ‘Amsterdam Diary’ series of four articles let me explore this … Continue reading →

Posted in Barriers to Learning, Blog, Blogging, Community, Community of Practice, Culture, Forbidden, Formal Spaces, Forum, Ideas, Learning Culture, Popup Learning | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Amsterdam Diary – Day 4: Forbidden learning – what they never wanted you to know

Posted on September 27, 2012 by julianstodd

All week i’ve been exploring learning culture from Amsterdam. We started by looking into how the culture is created and went on to run a global popup learning session asking questions about the role of leadership and the individual, as … Continue reading →

Posted in Barriers to Learning, Challenge, Control, Disturbance, Forbidden, Graffiti | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Exploring Learning Styles: does an understanding of them make us better able to design learning?

Posted on July 17, 2012 by julianstodd

The notion of learning styles is interesting: that we can identify different ways that people learn and, through this understanding, design materials and experiences that best suit each of these styles. It’s appealing: an engineering approach that tells us we … Continue reading →

Posted in Barriers to Learning, Concepts, E-Learning, Education, Instructional Design, Learning, Learning Design, Learning Styles | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Martha Payne: The freedom to speak – exploring the challenges as social media invade formal spaces

Posted on June 15, 2012 by julianstodd

Martha Payne is nine years old. She’s an active blogger who has gained a great deal of publicity and fame by posting everyday about her school dinners. For those of you who hail from overseas, i should mention that school … Continue reading →

Posted in Authority, Barriers to Learning, Blog, Challenge, Control, Education, Family, Freedom, Informal Spaces, Journalism, Learning | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Unimaginably large numbers: why we have to keep learning relevant to what we know.

Posted on April 18, 2012 by julianstodd

Do you know how many people died in the Second World War? I was reading a book about Yuri Gagarin last night, when i read something that stopped me in my tracks. I literally had to stop reading and think … Continue reading →

Posted in Barriers to Learning, Complexity, Education, Effectiveness, Information | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The thing and the fear of the thing: why electricity may not be all that bad after all.

Posted on March 23, 2012 by julianstodd

Herman was built in 1967, making him reassuringly older than me. He starts with a bang and a cloud of smoke, has a top speed of 40-45mph, depending how steeply you’re going downhill, and brakes that are, at best, optimistic. … Continue reading →

Posted in Barriers to Learning, Complexity, Fear | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Designing for mobile learning. Considerations and constraints.

Posted on October 20, 2011 by julianstodd

Tomorrow i’m facilitating a seminar on ‘Designing for mobile learning’, so i thought that today was a good opportunity to think about it before opening my mouth. Consider this my rehearsal. When we think about mobile learning, we can consider … Continue reading →

Posted in Apps, Barriers to Learning, Design, Instructional Design, Learning Design, Learning Methodology, Learning Technology, Mobile Learning | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

When is a Lavatory a Toilet? Getting bogged down in jargon…

Posted on January 19, 2011 by julianstodd

Sometimes i have to reset my brain to the particular flavour of acronym in use by a specific client. One man’s PBA is another man’s FW. What, for someone, is CBT is, for someone else, e-learning. To one person, Mobile Learning is flavour of … Continue reading →

Posted in Barriers to Learning, E-Learning, Engagement | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment