Clark Quinn
Chief Learning Strategist, Upside Learning
Clark Quinn, PhD is the executive director of Quinnovation, co-director of the Learning Development Accelerator, and chief learning strategist for Upside Learning. With more than four decades of experience at the cutting edge of learning, Dr. Quinn is an internationally known speaker, consultant, and author of seven books. He combines a deep knowledge of cognitive science and broad experience with technology into strategic design solutions that achieve innovative yet practical outcomes for corporations, higher-education, not-for-profit, and government organizations.
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Cognitive Apprenticeship: Develop the Thinking for Outcomes Needed in Today’s Workplace
There is growing evidence that today’s learning, focused on presenting information and testing knowledge, is ineffective when it comes to producing meaningful outcomes for business. Is there a better way to create learning experiences? Clark Quinn lays out a fundamental model that incorporates the ways people naturally learn, together with some extensions he has found effective.
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Doug Engelbart: More Than the Inventor of the Mouse
Douglas Engelbart (1925 – 2013) is a key figure in the development of the technologies we use today to “boost our collective ability to solve complex, urgent problems on a global scale.” The devices and systems for which he is best known were only the minimal infrastructure necessary to realize that vision. Comprehending that vision can bring clarity to our own work in facilitating learning.
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Book Review: Innovative Performance Support, by Conrad Gottfredson and Bob Mosher
Performance support is not a new concept, but it is undergoing a renaissance; the appearance of new resources for performance support design is providing help and structure for practitioners who wish to add this important discipline to their repertoire. Gottfredson and Mosher make an excellent contribution in this regard, as you will learn in this review of their new book.
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Research for Practitioners: Does Problem-based Learning Work?
Is it more effective to instruct—to present concepts and examples and then provide practice—or to challenge learners with ill-structured but carefully chosen problems and to facilitate dialogue about solutions? It’s a complex and somewhat controversial question, but research offers some important guidelines that will help you fine-tune your learning designs.
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Research for Practitioners: Student Annotation of Examples Improves Learning Outcomes
A constant challenge for instructional designers is finding or developing well-designed examples, including explanations. Could learners provide and document the examples? Research to the rescue! You may be surprised (and pleased) by what this study discovered.
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Research for Practitioners: Can Text Messages (SMS) Support Learning?
Support for learners, especially “at risk” learners, is valuable, but providing learners support beforehand tends not to have long-lasting effects and ongoing methods of support can be cumbersome. Could a lighter weight intervention help? Here is a report on a study that looked at using text messaging to provide ongoing support without being a headache to learners or to staff.
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The Next Step for Learning: Practical Contextualization
Computing devices—especially mobile ones—continue to add sensors, to store and process more and more personal information (contacts, schedules, tasks, goals), and to connect more widely to other devices and to the Web. This context awareness opens huge learning opportunities. Are you ready? Here are some things to think about.
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Content Systems: Next Generation Opportunities
If you’re ready to think about mobile, you really ought to think about content systems. The effort invested in developing such systems pays off hugely in being able to flexibly deliver content based on the consumer and the context. This is one of the Next Big Things, and this article explains the basics you need in order to be ready for it.
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Mobile Learning: The Time Is Now
In this report, author Clark Quinn assesses how mobile learning is changing, and recommends strategies to make the most of the technology’s emerging opportunities. He also examines the current trends in mLearning, analyzing usage, perceived barriers, availability, ROI, and other aspects that will help you make the decision of how and when to go mobile.
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Book Review: Design for How People Learn, by Julie Dirksen
Julie Dirksen has just published an excellent guide to better learning design. Here are the details. Her book is recommended for beginning designers, and for subject matter experts who have found themselves drafted into creating eLearning.