Adaptive learning systems were among the first to use artificial intelligence, creating a subcategory in learntech that has been on a slow burn since the 2010s. With the meteoric rise to prominence this year of AI in the headlines, thanks to ChatGPT and other publicly accessible generative AI tools, does the future now look bright for adaptive learning – or does it risk being swept away in the tsunami of over-hyped hopes and fears that this phenomenon has generated? John talks to Markus Bernhard...
Jun 04, 2023•53 min•Ep 82•Transcript available on Metacast This episode is part 2 of a podcast swap with the Video Learning Lab podcast run by Kevin Alster. Kevin is a Learning Strategist at Synthesia, the Denmark-based video learning company, and was previously employed as a designer of learning experiences at The New York Times and Sotheby’s. John talks to him about Synthesia's AI-generated avatars, which are rapidly gaining use in learning programmes. This wide-ranging discussion covers many of the most topical questions about use of AI in learning. ...
May 22, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep 81•Transcript available on Metacast Coming from a background of digital transformation, Matt Wilkinson has created a live elearning company that combines human-delivered and digital learning in a scalable way, stealing a bit of a march on more content-focused competitors. His company, CEyX, help teams build the technology skills and confidence necessary to positively impact their performance. Clients include Deliveroo, PA Consulting and the Department for Culture Media and Sport. John asks him what is unique about his model, and w...
May 09, 2023•48 min•Ep 80•Transcript available on Metacast This episode we're giving the channel over to one of our favourite podcasts, Video Learning Lab. The podcast is hosted by Kevin Alster, who runs an innovative video learning company called Synthesia, which uses lifelike AI-generated avatars as presenters. We're going to feature Kevin as a guest on the Learning Hack very soon, but in this podcast he interviews John. Kevin wanted to know what he'd picked up from running his two podcasts about how best to design learning. They also explore John's i...
Apr 17, 2023•38 min•Ep 79•Transcript available on Metacast Michelle Parry-Slater is Learning & Development Director of Kairos Modern Learning, and author of the Learning And Development Handbook. This guide for learning practitioners is realistic about the organizational context in which L&D has to operate, with its many new stresses and conflicting priorities. She encourages L&D people to think more strategically, and indicates mindsets, skillsets and toolsets for each of the major challenges L&D faces. 0:00 - Intro 2:51 - The Learning & Development Ha...
Apr 03, 2023•34 min•Ep 78•Transcript available on Metacast People use podcasts to gain information and knowledge, about a huge variety of things, in their downtime. Organisations and institutions have been slow to leverage this powerful source of potential to date, but things are changing fast. John talks to Adam Lacey, co-founder of Assemble You, an 'audio-first' provider of learning content. How different are learning podcasts from ordinary podcasts? And how easily – or otherwise – does audio learning sits alongside other forms of digital content with...
Mar 20, 2023•42 min•Ep 77•Transcript available on Metacast At the Learning Technologies France show in Paris this February, John talked to two of the industry's leading commentators, who both released significant pieces of research at the show. The L&D Global Sentiment Survey, run by Donald H Taylor, takes the pulse of the L&D community world-wide. The one-minute online poll asks L&D professionals internationally what they think will be hot in the following year. The Fosway 9-Grid™ report for Learning Systems plots the relative position of solutions and...
Mar 13, 2023•57 min•Ep 76•Transcript available on Metacast A passion for learning brought Dinye Hernada, she says, from a muddy school field in Indonesia to the boardrooms of Germany's top companies. With a double masters in international management, she began her working life supporting digital transformation. Realizing, however, that investing in people often had a bigger and more sustainable impact, she switched to L&D. Dinye is now Senior Learning and Development Manager at HeyJobs. John talks to her about her career path to date, the challenges she...
Mar 06, 2023•43 min•Ep 75•Transcript available on Metacast Ethical Angel is a company that brings together learners in need of development opportunities with charities and good causes in need of the practical skills they are developing. John talks to the company's founder and CEO, Alexander Fahie, a young entrepreneur with a background in investment management. Alexander explains how he had the idea of bringing these two communities togther, how the collaboration works, and the results Ethical Angel is achieving for charitable causes though giving learn...
Feb 20, 2023•43 min•Ep 74•Transcript available on Metacast Leadership learning is perhaps the most prestitigious and well-funded of training staples. In a changing world, it has become democratized in recent years, and now embraces a more progressive (some would say liberal) agenda. Nevertheless it faces criticism from academics in highly respected institutions, who question its value. In this wide-ranging discussion about the current state of leadership learning, John talks to Gustaf Nordbäck, CEO of Headspring Executive Development, a joint venture be...
Feb 06, 2023•50 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast Stephen Downes is a prominent speaker and writer in the field of educational technology and learning, known for his work on open educational resources, digital learning, and the development of the MOOC (massive open online course). He's currently a researcher at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Downes sees three current technologies as being critical for the development of online education; metaverse, blockchain and AI. But rather than making airy pron...
Jan 23, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast 'We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator' (António Guterres, United Nations Secretary General speaking at COP 27). Successive COPs have revealed a lack of will among the world's governments to make commitments that they'll actually stick by. So increasingly, people who aren't in government feel it’s down to them to do something. Every institution and organization of any size, it seems, has an environmental policy, and it falls to HR, L&D and educators of all st...
Nov 28, 2022•39 min•Ep 71•Transcript available on Metacast Empathy is a big word in learning. We want to have more of it, so learning professionals are increasingly charged with helping to promote and somehow inculcate it in their learners. But the efficacy of programmes designed to do that thing has been highly questionable. In this episode we look in depth at an innovative programme designed by Make Real that has pioneered a way of increasing empathy. The programme has shown surprising results, and not just by the (often limited) standards by which tr...
Nov 14, 2022•41 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast Learning Hack is on a mid-season break but here's another chance to hear one our most downloaded episodes. John talks to Dr. Jane Bozarth, Director of Research at The Learning Guild, about how the rise of digital technology is changing expectations about the sort of skills and qualifications a learning professional should have in the 21st Century – and about her own, long career in learning. That career includes numerous books, work as a columnist for Learning Solutions Magazine, and a long-stan...
Oct 31, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast New research says that while workflow learning is thought to be the most effective way of learning by employees, neither L&D or the learners themselves have the time to implement it. What is going on here? To find out, John talked to David James, whose company sponsored the research. David has worked in People Development for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across EMEA. He is now Chief Learning Officer for 360 Learning, working wi...
Oct 17, 2022•49 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast Children often ask challenging questions, but according to John's guest this time, we should see these as valuable opportunities for learning. Dr Rebecca Rolland is a speech pathologist and education lecturer whose recently published book, “The Art of Talking with Children”, gives parents and educators practical strategies for holding what she calls 'rich 'conversations' which she sees as central to effective parenting and education. John discusses these strategies with Rebecca, and explores how...
Oct 03, 2022•42 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast Adaptive learning has been bubbling under for a while in learning technologies, but it’s never quite broken through. Now that the technology to implement it, particularly AI, is maturing, and both investment and adoption are on the increase, is it finally about to go mainstream? John talks to Andy Wooler, Senior VP, Product Management at Area9 Lyceum, about about what adaptive has to offer, and also about the personal journey that has led to his current position. Andy has had a long and interest...
Sep 20, 2022•49 min•Ep 67•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Nigel Paine is co-presenter of Learning Now TV and From Scratch Podcast (with Martin Couzins) and has been involved in corporate learning for over 20 years. Among many career highlights he was head of the BBC's learning and development operation, and for 12 years Advisory Board Member for the University of Pennsylvania's CLO Doctoral Program. T his conversation explores his past career but also the insights to which that lifetime of experience has given rise. He has interesting things to say...
Sep 05, 2022•48 min•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast John talks to Stefaan van Hooydonk, Founder of the Global Curiosity Institute. Stefaan has lived, worked and studied all over the world, in a learning career spanning three decades. He has held numerous leadership roles in large companies. As Chief Learning Officer at Cognizant he was in charge of L&D for 300,000 people. This June he published The Curiosity Manifesto: How Curiosity Helps Individuals and Workplaces Thrive. Curiosity, he believes, is the key to an organization's success in the 20t...
Aug 22, 2022•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast This time the feed is given over to an episode from one of our favourite podcasts, The Death of E-learning. In this episode, the team talk to their colleague at Learning Pool, Paul Stoner, about an article he wrote describing his struggles with Dyslexia, and how learning to code transformed a perceived 'disability' into a positive advantage at work. Paul's article: https://dev.to/learninglocker/programming-as-a-dyslexic-29mh?fbclid=IwAR1GdxAXfP2D6-QeB3aOORzDZw8UEEC7vPvxqSPOLZGVlXL1RMsSJ25MhJE Co...
Aug 02, 2022•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast In a world where content about almost anything you may need to learn is readily available online, what should be the role of organisational L&D? Probably not its present one, which is all too often almost exclusively concerned with the centralized provision and curation of content for the organisation's learners – says Serena Gonsalves Fersch FLPI. Serena is Head of Talent for the SoftwareONE Academy, but also a doctoral candidate, researching the future of learning and the L&D function in techn...
Jul 18, 2022•43 min•Ep 65•Transcript available on Metacast With job vacancies at record levels, wages on the rise after having been stalled for many years and the so-called great resignation underway, workers face a labour market changed beyond recognition by the pandemic and other forces. The workplace learning industry in particular is a volatile place, with digital learning having taken a big step forward during the pandemic. John talks to Nick Jones, co-founder of Blue Eskimo, a specialist recruiter for the sector. The balance of power between emplo...
Jul 05, 2022•40 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, John talks to Tracy Capaldi Drewett, Executive Director at International Centre for Parliamentary Studies, about a programme ICPS launched in February 2022 to train Georgian diplomats. The programme launch co-incided with the outbreak of war in Ukraine, providing another complication compounding difficulties associated with Covid. Despite it all, the programme has been a success, and John also hears how ICPS, like many other organizations, has pivoted during the pandemic towards...
Jun 20, 2022•39 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast The return of workers to offices in the UK had stalled for the first time since restrictions were lifted at the start of the year, and may well have plateaued. Hybrid working is with us, it seems, for the foreseeable future. Laura Lee-Gibbs, Founder of Learn Fox, returns to the podcast to discuss the challenges this is throwing up for learning professionals. Having got through the upheavals of the pandemic, they now have to adjust to a world where hybrid learning is business as usual. 03:17 Chal...
Jun 06, 2022•44 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast With more than 9,000 attendees from 50 different countries, 200 seminars and 200 exhibitors, Learning Technologies is Europe's leading showcase of organisational learning and the technology used to support learning at work. A major conference runs alongside the exhibition, featuring talks from more than 90 of the learning industry's foremost speakers, thinkers, visionaries, and practitioners. This special edition of the podcast was mostly recorded at the show, and features interviews with Paul M...
May 23, 2022•46 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast This episode will be highly relatable to anyone who works in L&D within organizations, but is of more general interest too. Now semi-retired, Performance Analyst and Instructional Architect Guy W. Wallace proves more than happy to spill the beans about the wiliness that is often need to keep programmes on track amidst the sturm und drang of corporate politics and misapprehensions about learning in the C-suite. Guy has been designing Enterprise Learning since 1979, has been a partner/owner at 3 c...
May 09, 2022•52 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast Susi Miller is Founder and Director of eLaHub Ltd, the only provider of eLearning accessibility specialised services in the L&D industry. The company provides training, auditing services and consultancy on every aspect of eLearning accessibility for clients including Amazon, Thomson Reuters, London Stock Exchange Group, and Govt of Canada. In this episode, John talks to Susi about the prevalence of disabilities in working populations, and how to meet all access requirements in production of lear...
Apr 19, 2022•49 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast John talks to Julian Stodd, Captain of Sea Salt Learning, a strategic consultancy that partners on the design and delivery of global solutions around leadership, culture, learning transformation and change. Julian has an academic background in communication theory, psychology and neurophysiology, learning design, educational psychology and philosophy. He has written 14 books, including most recently, 'The Humble Leader', released in March 2022. 00.00 Intro 02:56 'The Humble Leader' 04:34 Definit...
Apr 04, 2022•51 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast Federico Presicci is Head of Sales Training & Enablement at GDS group, an accredited personal coach (ACC) and a certified Meditation Teacher. He won the Gold Award in the Rising Stars category at the 2022 UK Learning Awards. Impressive achievements for any 27 year-old – but Federico came to the UK only five years ago. At the time he knew nobody here, and didn’t speak English. John, who was one of the judges of the Rising Stars award that Federico won, listens to his story, and hears his aspirati...
Mar 21, 2022•55 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast John's guest this time is Donald H. Taylor, Chair of the Learning Technologies Conference, of the Learning and Skills group, of the Learning and Performance Institute, Network Chair of Emerge Education, Editor of Inside Learning Technologies Magazine and a Non Executive Director of Filtered. He's also been called the James Bond of learning. Each year since 2013, Donald has produced his L&D Global Sentiment Survey, which asks the question: ‘What will be hot in workplace L&D next year?’ John and D...
Mar 07, 2022•42 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast 
