158 — Attention spans: With apologies to goldfish

You may have seen headlines claiming that the average human attention span has dropped below that of a goldfish. But what does the evidence actually tell us, and how should we apply it to learning design?

This week on the podcast, Ross D is joined by Owen and Jonathan Marshall, Head of Learning at the UK's Diplomatic Academy, to discuss:

• what we mean when we talk about 'average attention spans'
• how environment affects our ability to focus
• how L&D can win (or at least not lose) the battle for attention

If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can find us on Twitter @ross__dickie, @owenferguson, and @LearningFCO.

To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus.

The growth mindset study Owen mentioned can be found at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1466-y

'How Not to Run a Panel' by Yascha Mounk can be found on The Atlantic's website: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/how-not-run-panel/594814/

For a frustrating example of what UI means and why it matters, check out https://userinyerface.com/