Around here the temperatures are dropping, but things are still hot in the world of learning, technology, and social media. In addition to our regularly scheduled articles and insights, there were several great conferences and events this week. So be sure to carve out a few minutes to take a spin through the backchannels. (This is just one way you can benefit from Twitter and you don’t even have to tweet about what you ate for breakfast!)
TalkTime: A Free Presentation Time Management Add-in for PowerPoint
If you are someone who speaks or facilitates training of any kind, you’ll want to check out this nifty time management enhancement for PowerPoint. TalkTime is a free and simple add-in from Nolan Haims (@NolanHaims) and Jamie Garroch (@YOUpresentUK ) that adds a small set of tools to the transitions tab. TalkTime helps you keep track of how much time each slide and/or section takes to deliver and my favorite feature is that it enables me to print slides by section without needing to manually select them all. Check it out!
http://presentyourstory.com/talktime-free-presentation-time-management-add-powerpoint/
The empty brain: Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories.
In short: your brain is not a computer
For a long time now, people have been asserting that the human brain works like a computer. That is not true and this is a great article by Dr. Robert Epstein (@DrREpstein) that will set you on the correct path for thinking about how the brain does and doesn’t’ work.
We don’t store words or the rules that tell us how to manipulate them. We don’t create representations of visual stimuli, store them in a short-term memory buffer, and then transfer the representation into a long-term memory device. We don’t retrieve information or images or words from memory registers. Computers do all of these things, but organisms do not.
https://aeon.co/essays/your-brain-does-not-process-information-and-it-is-not-a-computer
The Business Illustrator
I was quite happy to stumble upon this site in my adventures this week. Whether you plug-in via email, Twitter or feed reader, this will be something you’ll always look forward to seeing the latest from Virpi Oinonen (@voinonen).
Conference Backchannels
Now it’s time for a dip in the backchannel pools of these recent events. Come on in. The water is warm!
DEVLEARN #DevLearn
Lots of learning pros made the trek to Las Vegas this week for the Elearning Guild’s Devlearn Conference. It is big, bad and full of great opportunities to learn about the latest and from the greatest — even if you can’t be there in person. Personally, I’m bummed to have missed Levar Burton and Glen Keane.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/devlearn?src=hash
Learning 2017
Michelle Obama and other big names made appearances this week at Elliott Masie’s #Training2017 conference in Orlando.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/Learning2017?src=hash
World of Learning #WOL17
Our rich pool of backchannels even span across the world to other continents like the one for the World of Learning event that took place over in the UK.
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23WOL17&src=hash
Wise words from @shackletonjones #wol17 – Technology alone will fail. Design meaningful user experiences instead. pic.twitter.com/eJx00y26E1
— geoff stead (@geoffstead) October 17, 2017
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Daimler’s #NWC17
You can even get a glimpse inside top companies like Daimler via their netWorker event in Germany.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/nwc17?src=hash
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Mike Taylor 