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elearn Magazine: Writing (And Reading) Conference Session Descriptions
elearn Magazine: Writing (And Reading) Conference Session Descriptions
Clark Quinn reminded me of this article from 15 years ago about writing proposals to speak at conferences. Even though the article is older, the advice is evergreen, and it overlaps with some of the same key points I shared in my recent podcast interview on conference speaking. He also talks about titles and other aspects I didn't address.
What makes a compelling audience experience? What will make them leave in a state of gratitude for the time spent with you?
You need to be answering three questions: Why should I care, how will this accomplish my goal, and why this speaker? In business, what's the pain point I'm feeling, how will this session address it.
2026#instructionaldesign#career
·elearnmag.acm.org·
elearn Magazine: Writing (And Reading) Conference Session Descriptions
Seedance 2.5 animation prompts: the ultimate guide to 10 styles | Magnific Blog
Seedance 2.5 animation prompts: the ultimate guide to 10 styles | Magnific Blog
While I feel fairly confident describing images in prompts, I know I have a ton more to learn about prompting for video, including for animation. This article gives examples of prompts in different animation styles. It's helpful to see both the repeated patterns in the prompt structure (starting with the medium, listing numbered shots, describing emotions) and the specific keywords to convey different styles.
2026#AI#prompt#animation
·magnific.com·
Seedance 2.5 animation prompts: the ultimate guide to 10 styles | Magnific Blog
The Ultimate Guide to Camera Angles & Shots (with AI Prompt Examples for Storytelling)
The Ultimate Guide to Camera Angles & Shots (with AI Prompt Examples for Storytelling)
A guide to different types of shots plus camera angles. This includes examples so you can see the difference (although they're not amazing AI-generated images, they still serve the purpose). The sample prompts give you examples of how to describe and ask for different results. There's also some tips on combining shot types and camera angles (like close up and low angle) for different effects.
2026#AI#imagegeneration
·animationguides.com·
The Ultimate Guide to Camera Angles & Shots (with AI Prompt Examples for Storytelling)
The Psychology of Camera Angles: How Perspective Shapes Every Photo - PhotoWorkout
The Psychology of Camera Angles: How Perspective Shapes Every Photo - PhotoWorkout
As I work with AI images and video more, I find myself needing to learn more about camera angles--how to describe what I want and how to be more deliberate in my choices. This article about the psychology of camera angles and how they affect how the viewer feels about an image.
2026#psychology#images#video
·photoworkout.com·
The Psychology of Camera Angles: How Perspective Shapes Every Photo - PhotoWorkout
When AI Gets Better, Do We Get Worse? – Usable Learning
When AI Gets Better, Do We Get Worse? – Usable Learning
AI is getting better at lots of tasks. But even though we know we should rigorously verify AI outputs, we're less likely to do so when AI is generally better. If the AI does well 4 times in a row, you're not going to check the 5th time very closely. Julie Dirksen explains the psychology and gives examples.
2026#AI#psychology
·usablelearning.com·
When AI Gets Better, Do We Get Worse? – Usable Learning
Why Good Evidence Sometimes Fails to Change Our Minds
Why Good Evidence Sometimes Fails to Change Our Minds
This article is about teachers changing beliefs about instructional methods, but the points about psychology and learning apply broadly. Changing people's minds isn't just about providing good information, especially when those beliefs are tied to key values and identity.
We do not evaluate new evidence in isolation. We interpret it through the understandings we already possess, sometimes reshaping new ideas so that they fit our existing thinking.
If the new information fits comfortably with our existing understanding, learning can be relatively straightforward. But when it conflicts with the way we make sense of the world, we rarely abandon our existing understanding immediately. Instead, we usually reinterpret the new information in ways that preserve as much of our existing understanding as possible.
2026#changemanagement#psychology#research#learningscience#learning#education
·scienceoflearning.substack.com·
Why Good Evidence Sometimes Fails to Change Our Minds
All in Frame
All in Frame
Free stock photos showing authentic images of people with disabilities. This library includes suggested alt text for each image. (Thanks to Kayleen Holt for sharing this.)
2026#images#diversity#disability
·allinframestock.com·
All in Frame
Enhancing workplace eLearning with branching scenarios: An action case study
Enhancing workplace eLearning with branching scenarios: An action case study

A case study on branching scenarios for workplace learning, looking at motivation, engagement, and knowledge retention. The researchers asked how engaging with branching scenarios influenced motivation, what design features supported engagement and minimized cognitive load, and learner perceptions of decision-making support. This is a small study (n=10), with participants from a range of backgrounds and roles.

"Branching scenarios offer design features that can help reduce extraneous cognitive load through segmented content and scaffolded decision-making. Rather than overwhelming learners with dense information, these structured interactions promote focused engagement and facilitate problem-solving."

"The findings indicate that two key design features support sustained learner engagement and minimise cognitive overload. First, relevance was critical: scenarios that closely aligned with real workplace contexts enhanced motivation and perceived usefulness, whereas generic or abstract content reduced engagement (Theme 2). Second, cognitive load was shaped by how content was structured. Overly complex tasks overwhelmed learners, but well-sequenced, chunked scenarios helped them stay engaged and retain information effectively"

"Learners perceived branching scenarios as valuable tools for developing workplace decision-making and applying skills in realistic contexts"

"Participants consistently identified the branching scenarios as a distinctive and valuable feature of the training. This interactive format enabled them to explore different choices, including deliberately selecting “incorrect” options to better understand consequences and reinforce learning. This aligns with the concept of “safe failure” (Sennett & Vasquez, 2021), which allows learners to make mistakes in a controlled environment without real-world repercussions."

"Interviews revealed that participants felt less overwhelmed by branching scenarios compared to previous, text-heavy training modules. Instead of being overloaded with information, scenarios progressed step by step, providing only the necessary details at each decision point."

2026#scenario#research
·chesterrep.openrepository.com·
Enhancing workplace eLearning with branching scenarios: An action case study
My Turn with Claude — Design, Code, and Everything In Between – Visual-e-Learning
My Turn with Claude — Design, Code, and Everything In Between – Visual-e-Learning
Jerson Campos published a great "show your work" post about his experiences rebuilding some old training using Claude, specifically comparing having Claude Design do the work for him versus using Claude AI and Claude Code with more explicit direction. Jerson was happier with the results when he did more steering of the AI. The first Claude Design version looked polished but lacked interaction and depth.
This, I think, is where it’s going to separate instructional designers who let AI build their projects for them from those with a wider breadth of knowledge who can actually direct AI to build effective training.
Test your prototype early. Once you have a sound design for a few slides, have the AI build it out so you can test it. Nothing is more frustrating than finishing an entire storyboard, only to find the course player isn’t what you imagined — and then having the AI go back and edit every slide or module. It’s a great way to introduce new bugs. Be specific about what you want and what you can provide — videos, audio, narration, animations (if the AI won’t generate them for you). Then ask for an asset list at the end covering the deliverables you’ll be responsible for.
Now that the bar has been raised for the average instructional designer, it’s more important than ever to not be average.
2026#AI#instructionaldesign#elearning
·visual-e-learning.com·
My Turn with Claude — Design, Code, and Everything In Between – Visual-e-Learning
Digital Learning Nook | Digital Learning Nook
Digital Learning Nook | Digital Learning Nook
Pooja Jaisingh created a quick warm-up practice activity for L&D called "Learndle." Given a brief description of situation, type the model, tool, or approach to solve the problem. Each time you get it wrong, you get a new hint.
2026#instructionaldesign#AI
·dlnook.com·
Digital Learning Nook | Digital Learning Nook
Recover Your Unpaid Invoices
Recover Your Unpaid Invoices
I've had several conversations with other freelancers and consultants recently about clients not paying their invoices. It's usually not enough money to justify hiring an attorney or sending them to collections, but it's also painful when you work for yourself. This is an AI-supported tool to generate and send a certified letter and follow up until you get paid. Will it work? I don't know. For $50, I'd probably try it myself if I had an unpaid bill. I might even pay the extra for an attorney to send the letter on their letterhead.
2026
·recoverunpaidinvoices.com·
Recover Your Unpaid Invoices
A New Era of Midjourney
A New Era of Midjourney
This is all very early and not in production yet, but Midjourney is working on using their expertise working with image data into developing a body scan machine to provide medical imaging. I think skepticism is smart until it's actually in use and we see results, but I like the idea of using AI to generate images that help doctors and patients make more informed decisions.
2026#AI#midjourney#technology#research
·midjourney.com·
A New Era of Midjourney
The Vibe Coding Crisis: Why AI is Manufacturing Accessibility Debt
The Vibe Coding Crisis: Why AI is Manufacturing Accessibility Debt
Jacob Wood shares examples of technical debt for accessibility caused by using the messy code that vibe coding generates. Yes, we can build activities and websites quickly, but how are we going to make it accessible? If we ignore accessibility and don't plan for it from the start, we're going to accumulate a lot of cleanup work later.
2026#AI#accessibility
·allforgrowth.substack.com·
The Vibe Coding Crisis: Why AI is Manufacturing Accessibility Debt
Why AI Needs Vygotsky: The Case for AI-Based Intentional Friction - Learning Guild
Why AI Needs Vygotsky: The Case for AI-Based Intentional Friction - Learning Guild
LLMs can give nearly instant answers with almost no effort--but effort is what helps us learn and grow. This article connects classic learning science of Vygotsky and the ZPD to how AI can cause harm through cognitive outsources and provides principles for designing for intentional friction.
The absence of “desirable difficulty” or friction in AI interactions is among the most serious concerns for learning and instructional design experts today. This concern is not due to tool speed, but rather because the lack of friction bypasses or eliminates essential stages of the learning process that strengthen human cognitive and neurological foundations. When machines respond effortlessly, the natural learning pathway described in Vygotsky’s ZPD and scaffolding is disrupted. While this may seem “efficient” in the short term, over time it can undermine higher-order cognitive skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity.
2026#AI#learning#learningscience
·learningguild.com·
Why AI Needs Vygotsky: The Case for AI-Based Intentional Friction - Learning Guild
Image AI prompts
Image AI prompts
A large collection of images generated in Nano Banana, ChatGPT, and Seedream plus their prompts. Seeing how others have prompted for images is helpful in figuring out what works and what doesn't.
2026#AI#imagegeneration#prompt
·youmind.com·
Image AI prompts
After Automation | Every
After Automation | Every
If you've ever spent time cleaning up an AI-generated draft, you'll get the initial point here: AI creates more work for humans, not less. But this article digs deeper into how working with AI, especially AI agents, changes the nature of work. Employees at this author's company spend more time directing agents (deciding the goal and what "good" looks like) and on judging the results of AI. The easy work that AI can do gets commoditized, but the hard work of taste and judgement become more important.
There’s no tipping point coming where things flip and the jobs are gone. The new reality is the opposite—the more we automate, the more expert human work there is to do. Here’s why: AI commoditizes the residue of human expertise—whatever can be made explicit enough to train on. That collapses the value of default model output and creates demand for what’s different. Demand for what’s different is demand for human experts, even as we approach artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Across both forms—coworker and embedded—the pattern is the same. Employee agents take over more of the stable, repeatable, well-framed layer of work. But there is a lot of work that still requires a human being in the loop. We’ve found over and over that for any kind of complex task, the best way to get great work is to have an AI and a human going back and forth in the same workspace.
In every example, the agent needs a human in order for the work to, well, work. Someone has to point it at the right thing, decide whether the output is good, catch the places where it is wrong, and turn the result into a real-life decision or process. The further away an agent gets from a human who is in charge of making sure it works well, the less well it works.
When work is abundant and looks alike everywhere, the work that doesn’t fit the pattern becomes the rare, valuable, and high-status thing(5).
This is why, in practice, AI does not eliminate expert human knowledge work. It dramatically increases the volume of work being done, and none of that work is differentiated or valuable unless a human being is involved.
2026#AI#change#career
·every.to·
After Automation | Every
Clinical Case Study: Diane
Clinical Case Study: Diane
This is a short scenario built in 7Taps by IDLance to use as spaced repetition to reinforce prior training. One aspect I really liked in this was the interaction where you listen to two people's arguments for different courses of action. Then, you have to decide which is the better way forward. This technique could help make binary choices feel more realistic in the context of a scenario, especially if the justification for the worse answer is plausible for how people think.
2026#scenario#microlearning
·app.7taps.com·
Clinical Case Study: Diane
Oboe
Oboe
Ask this AI about a topic and get a lesson on it. This is for self study, and it seems potentially useful for basic topics where there's a lot of high-quality publicly available information to draw from. You can generate flash cards or study guides too. This might be something that's more useful for students in school, but I can see it for employees wanting to learn the basics of visual design, copywriting, etc.
2026#AI#learning
·oboe.com·
Oboe
AI Effectiveness Rating
AI Effectiveness Rating
Christopher Lind's simulation tool for rating effectiveness working with AI
2026
·relativ.ai·
AI Effectiveness Rating
21 Ways To Get Visual Ideas
21 Ways To Get Visual Ideas
Connie Malamed recently published a significant update to her article with resources for getting visual ideas and inspiration. This includes so many links to visual resources across the 21 categories.
2026#graphicdesign#graphics
·theelearningcoach.com·
21 Ways To Get Visual Ideas
AI Brain Fry, Workslop and the Ironies of Automation
AI Brain Fry, Workslop and the Ironies of Automation
This is a long article, but worth spending some time to digest. One of the ways that AI changes the nature of work is by increasing the amount of time we spend in cognitively challenging tasks like evaluation. But human brains need breaks and variety.
What remains after automation is not a simplified role but an arbitrary residue of the most demanding, most ambiguous, and least supported work in the entire system. The human is not replaced. In other words, the human is paradoxically left with the hardest parts, and given almost no preparation for them.
Surveying nearly fifteen hundred full-time workers across industries, roles, and seniority levels, the researchers found that intensive oversight of AI tools was the single most mentally taxing form of engagement their participants described. Workers required to monitor AI agents closely reported fourteen percent more mental effort, twelve percent more mental fatigue, and nineteen percent greater information overload than those whose AI engagement was less demanding.
The final irony of automation, she wrote, is that the most successful automated systems, those with the rarest need for human intervention, are precisely the systems that require the greatest investment in human skill.
2026#AI#cognition
·carlhendrick.substack.com·
AI Brain Fry, Workslop and the Ironies of Automation