A lot is shifting in my world right now. My youngest is heading into her last year of high school (how did that happen so fast?), my personal life is going through a bit of a restructuring, and I’m doing my best to approach it all with a sense of curiosity instead of fear.
One thing I’ve been sitting with lately is the value of 'boredom' or doing nothing. With all the noise, devices, and constant inputs we juggle, I’m realizing how rare it is to just be—and how refreshing that can actually feel. I’m curious: does the idea of turning it all off—no screens, no scrolling, no background noise—sound appealing to you? Have you tried it? If so, what works for you? I’d love to hear your experiences.
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Which Multimedia Strategies Actually Improve Learning?
The Rundown: A new meta-analysis of Richard Mayer’s multimedia learning research shows that while certain strategies reliably boost learning, others (like VR) fall short. The key: match the tool to the learning goal and context.
The Context:
Simple wins: Text + diagrams consistently outperform flashier tools, supporting factual, inference, and transfer learning.
Context matters: Age, subject, and prior knowledge shape outcomes — university/medical students and STEM fields benefit most.
Not all tech delivers: VR shows little advantage, and games/simulations work best for reasoning tasks, not memorization.
Why It Matters: For L&D pros, this reinforces that cognitive engagement beats entertainment. The best strategies aren’t about novelty — they’re about helping learners process, organize, and apply knowledge efficiently.
❓Are your learning designs built around how people learn, or just around the latest tech trend?
The Paradox of Memory: Forgetting Makes Learning Possible
The Rundown: Forgetting isn’t a flaw—it’s what makes learning stick. By pruning details, our brains free up space for patterns, comparisons, and durable knowledge.
The Context:
Borges’ character Funes the Memorious shows the curse of perfect recall: endless detail, no abstraction.
Research by Robert and Elizabeth Bjork shows that forgetting creates “desirable difficulties.” Effortful retrieval, not easy review, strengthens long-term memory.
Testing, spacing, and interleaving work because each act of recall—even failed attempts—signals the brain to store knowledge more deeply.
Why It Matters: L&D pros often design for fluency—easy study, smooth practice—but real learning requires friction. Forgetting and struggling to recall are not setbacks but the very conditions that make knowledge flexible and lasting.
❓If forgetting is a feature, not a bug, how might you design training that embraces struggle instead of avoiding it?
The Rundown: About 1 in 10 ChatGPT messages are for learning, making it the world’s biggest tutor. But quick answers don’t equal mastery. Dr. Philippa Hardman spotlights 10 evidence-based strategies—like interleaving, feedback, and authentic assessment—that turn AI study sessions into real skill-building.
The Context:
Global scale: Billions of weekly chats already look like tutoring, especially among younger users and emerging economies.
Illusion of learning: Polished summaries feel helpful but rarely stick without effort, retrieval, or feedback.
Science-backed fixes: Hardman’s 10 strategies add the right friction—spacing, retrieval, feedback, authentic practice—to make knowledge durable.
Why It Matters: AI is already teaching at scale. The opportunity for L&D is to shift from “easy answers” to evidence-based prompts that build transferable skills.
❓ Which of the 10 strategies could you embed in your next AI-assisted learning design?
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This is the conversation that caught my ear this week. Check out previous episodes in the Friday Finds podcast playlist.
How L&D Gets Leverage
Lori Niles-Hoffman joins John Helmer to reveal the eight levers of learning transformation—why ecosystems beat platforms, how to break free from legacy mindsets, and what AI means for the future of L&D.
If you or your event needs a speaker or workshop that is highly interactive and super practical, we should talk.
Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro
This book is for everyone tired of watching marketers effortlessly grab attention while we're over here begging people to care about compliance training.
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