NogginLabs Blog
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Taking Control
Picture a three year old girl, Eden, who has two older siblings. When Eden is in the presence of a one year old boy, he draws attention that she is used to getting from adults—Eden cries and pushes the one year old down.
“Why did you do that?”
“I don’t know,” she replies.
Watching this interaction from the outside, it’s obvious why she’s acting this way—because Eden can’t stand that the one year old is stealing her attention and because she is used to being the baby. So she regresses.
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Tuesday, June 15, 2010
You Will Be Assimilated
The elder Fitings are a study in opposites--my dad is a technophile and early adopter. Because of him, we were the first on our block to have both a VCR and a home computer. Now that he's entered retirement, he torrents episodes of Doctor Who like a true Internet pirate, has a Facebook account, and routinely mocks me for the things I don't know about computers. My mom, on the other hand, is the epitome of a technophobe. She didn't learn how to use said VCR until the world had moved on to DVDs, and as far as she was concerned our home computers were little more than oversized paperweights. Read more »
Monday, May 24, 2010
Gamers
Last week, I went to Los Angeles for a wedding in the penthouse of the Chateau Marmont. Yes, there were some real-life rock stars there, but you’ll be proud to know that I didn’t stare. That would be so uncool. Read more »
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Of Boxes and Arrows
One of the first lessons that you learn in the custom content development process is this: Behind every hundred slide PowerPoint deck… every hilariously complicated flow-chart with arrows connecting dozens of different shapes that all have multiple variations of color, size and gradient… every not-so-clear ACRO(n)YM (Activating Change, Results and Optimization for Your Managers!)…. there is someone who earnestly and sincerely believes that it's clear as day. This is the person who made the first draft of whatever it is that's confounding you. Read more »
Monday, March 1, 2010
Your Daily Netflix Inspiration
I watched Waltz with Bashir a few weeks ago. 99% of the movie is animated in a kind of harsh-gorgeous style, but the last few moments of the film are given over to news footage of the Sabra and Shatila massacre aftermath. It’s fascinating to me that this movie about such a serious, devastating event was done using animation. And it got me thinking about the way in which we and our clients decide how to “style” each course. Will it be photo-realistic? Will there be a video narrator? Will we have animated characters? Graphic novel effects? Sound effects? There are endless possibilities to how a course will look. Read more »
Monday, February 22, 2010
Learning by Driving
If NogginLabs has a core philosophy, it’s “learn by doing.” We apply this to many different fields and topics, but if I had to come up with an easily relatable example of learning by doing, it would have to be driving. Read more »
Monday, February 8, 2010
Football, Kangaroos and e-Learning
This month, Wired magazine ran this article about the effect EA’s Madden NFL series has had on professional football. Rookies have grown up playing football simulations and now have a knowledge and understanding of the game never seen before in new players. This reminded me of my own time tossing the ol’ virtual pigskin. Read more »
Thursday, January 14, 2010
The Squishy Wetware in Our Skulls
A warning about this post: although I am about to discuss the brain on a cellular level, I am not a neuroscientist. I am a writer, and perhaps that has something to do with why I’m so interested in how the brain works. What makes us humans do what we do, think what we think, remember what we remember? Read more »
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Variety
A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to catch up with a college buddy who was in town for two days of training on corporate finance. We met out after he’d completed his first day of the training, and at one point I asked him how it went. He told me about how his flight has been delayed, that his hotel was nice, and how it was always fun to visit Chicago on the firm’s dime. As for the actual class? Read more »
Friday, December 4, 2009
Game Night
While I was home for Thanksgiving, I had all of my favorites: turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, etc. Some other holiday traditions (at least for my family) include watching football, skirting potentially awkward political discussions, playing games, and telling the story of when I was a baby and learned to crawl, how I tried to eat the food out of the dog’s dish in the kitchen. I still assert that it’s a logical assumption on my part, since the dog and I were both quadrupeds at the time.
Read more »Tuesday, November 10, 2009
In The Know
We didn’t know NMDP was entering, so imagine our excitement to hear that In The Know took silver in the Best Interactive Site category. When I reflect on how far the content has come, it’s doubly-exciting to know that the site is getting this extra boost of post-launch attention.
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Thursday, November 5, 2009
Confusion
What happens when you're confused? Some items in the news suggest that you're probably getting smarter. Read more »
Monday, November 2, 2009
Dinner with Timothy Geithner
Last week, I had the good fortune to be invited to the Economic Club of Chicago’s annual black tie event. The guest speaker was US Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, who answered questions submitted by the members of the club. Read more »
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
HBO Imagine
A Noggin talks about how cool HBO's new Imagine site is and how it's cool in ways that apply to e-learning. Read more »
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Baked Green Tomatoes
Let me preface this blog post with one caveat: a baker, I am not. However, approximately 2.3 times a year, I fail to recognize this fundamental fact and optimistically think that I can overcome my baking curse. It typically results in a messy kitchen and a pan full of edible-enough results, which is usually enough to consider it a success and give me hope to try it again roughly five months later. Read more »
