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Hello everybody and welcome to another great episode of my EdTech Life.
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Thank you so much for joining us on this wonderful day and, as always, wherever it is that you're joining us from around the world.
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Thank you for your support.
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We appreciate all the likes, the shares, the follows.
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Thank you so much for all the lovely messages and the comments and for sharing our content and finding value in our content.
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Thank you, as always, from the bottom of my heart.
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As you know, we do what we do for you to bring you amazing conversations, and today is no different than any other episode.
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Today I have a wonderful guest that I have been following on LinkedIn for quite a while, probably well, more more than a year now.
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She puts out amazing content.
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She really puts herself out there, but she also gives great strategies and great learning about L and D and ID and I know we're talking acronyms right now, but we'll definitely break that down right now in just a second.
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But I would love to welcome to the show today Holly Owens.
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Holly, how are you doing today?
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I'm doing great.
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Fonz, how are you?
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I'm doing wonderful.
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And like I mentioned, just a longtime follower, a big fan of your work and also yeah, also I do want to share.
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Thank you so much for your support because I know you're always you know engaging with the post you're always sharing, and also thank you so much for all the support through Yellowdig, as well as being one of our show sponsors.
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So I really appreciate you seeing value in what we do and just bringing these conversations into our education space to continue to grow.
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So, thank you so much.
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But, holly, before we get started and dive in into the world of L&D and ID and, of course, ai so talk about an alphabet soup there Can you give us a little brief introduction and what your context is within the education space?
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Absolutely so.
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My context within the education space currently is higher education, so working at Yellowdig as a growth marketer, our main ICP or target client is higher education students and faculty.
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So I started out my career as a K-12 teacher, as many guests of your show have, and many people that listen to my show are also.
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So then from there, I switched over into e-learning developer with the government for about six months and then I went to higher education as an instructional designer, instructional technologist, doing all the ed tech trainings, helping people design courses, spent the better part of my career in higher education, you know, started teaching in higher education as well.
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I've been adjuncting since 2012.
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I currently work at twirrell university, uh, which is a university based in new york, manhattan, uh, remote of course, because I'm in wilmington, north carolina, um.
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And then after higher education, I got into uh instructional design.
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I was an online program management company, which has a corporate field but works with institutions to stand up online courses and programs, accelerated courses and programs.
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Then, after that it was really a big surprise and a lot of fun I got a role at Amazon.
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So I worked for Amazon Pharmacy for about two years as a corporate ID and, as most of you know, amazon decided to RTO, which equals return to office, and I'm a remote person so that wasn't gonna happen.
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So I did a little bit of like a brief freelance thing and then Sean F Rory, the CEO and founder of Yellowdig, brought me on as like a marketing person and then promoted me to the director of growth marketing based off of all my experience he's been on my show and we just, you know, just have her from there.
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I didn't apply for the role.
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So here I am no marketing degree sitting in a marketing role, have a vast amount of instructional design experience, ed tech, all the different things.
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You know my degrees are in those different areas, but I do a variety of different things.
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As you said out on LinkedIn, I do job postings and I've really built a large following there of helping people.
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I love it and with that background, I mean you've seen pretty much a little bit of everything and a lot more, and so I love that you bring that lens and so many different perspectives.
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As far as you know the learning and development and, of course, instructional design, because I mean working with so many different companies and a variety of learners, I mean you really really have to know your learners and as you go from area to area, I mean you really need to know who your audience is, how they learn and things that are easiest for them.
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And, to be honest with you, I really like that you mentioned that here I am with no marketing degree, and so it's very interesting because it's a little similar to myself and I know I've mentioned it in a lot of episodes it's like I came into education not with an education degree.
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I actually came into education with a marketing degree.
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So we're the opposite.
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Yeah, so the opposite, but it falls in line with what you said.
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It's like here I am being in charge of marketing, but for me, marketing and what I learned through sales in my four years of experience and knowing customers, I truly, truly believe that that has helped me be very successful in the classroom.
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Not knowing, let's say, the education theory.
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Of course, as you go through the years you start learning that, you start building up your skill set within the education setting.
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But at the end of the day I always saw my classroom is customer first, my students.
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I have 30 different customers that I have to sell a subject to.
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In that case, when I first started, it was algebra.
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So I had 30 customers I had to sell algebra to and not everybody bought it the exact same way.
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So I had people here that wanted cup holders, people here that didn't want cup holders and things of that sort.
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But it's all a matter of leveraging their strengths and you're really it's interesting because in math we're trying to solve problems, but in reality I'm trying to solve their problem, to help them solve those problems.
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So it's very interesting.
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Like I said, that you mentioned knowing your customers.
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I think that's something that is very.
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It just goes back to the basics of it in anything that we do, and I think that that's fantastic.
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And, of course, your tech background.
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I mean geez chef's kiss to that, because I know that that helps you stay at the forefront of a lot of the things that you're currently doing, so I love that.
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That's multiple hats right there, for sure.
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Yeah, yeah, you really got to know the ecosystem right.
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You got to be in it, you got to.
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If you are in the selling side of things, you have to understand what's happening internally and what the different moving parts that exist, the barriers, the challenges, in order for you to sell, quote, unquote the technology and get it integrated into the institution.
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So we are actually like examples of how things, how transferable skills between different industries are like.
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It does happen.
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I know some people are like, well, if I don't have a degree or if I don't have this insert sense skill here, I can't do this job.
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I think that's a blocker for many people and that's the imposter syndrome creeping in.
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But you and I are prime examples.
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Marketing degree, ed tech, a not marketing degree in ed tech.
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Yes.
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Yeah, we're great examples.
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Exactly.
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And you know, 18 years later, I mean believe it or not, like I always tell people, it's like I never expected to go into education.
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As a matter of fact, it was never at the forefront for me, it's like.
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For me it was like, oh, business, finance, I'm going to go make millions of dollars and take care of my parents and do all of this.
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But I landed in education and I absolutely fell in love with it.
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There was just something about it.
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And 18 years later, here I am, and probably within the next month I'll be defending my dissertation, and I was like who would have thought?
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Who would have thought, you know, like you mentioned?
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And, and so I want to touch a little bit about what you said.
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I know we'll get into the meat of it, but I think that this is very important.
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That you mentioned is many times people think, well, I don't have that specific or particular skill, and that imposter syndrome sets in.
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But oftentimes maybe we don't see that we do have that skill, because maybe it plays out different whether you're in a classroom, or it plays out different whether you're in corporate or whether you're in sales.
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But there is that transferability.
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And so one thing that I always recommend and even for myself, that I learned some wise words, and I don't know where I picked them up from is don't disqualify yourself, let them disqualify you.
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So you go ahead and put that app in.
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You go ahead and you know, update that resume and put in that application and, you know, don't let the imposter syndrome kick in.
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So and which is something that we'll talk a little bit about now because one of the things that you do on LinkedIn and you do so well, like you mentioned is you really put yourself out there.
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It's the human first learning strategist.
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That's something that you put there, you know continually, and you always have this human connection with so many people as far as job postings and things of that sort.
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But I want to ask you, you know, as far as that is concerned, tell me a little bit about that.
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Like, what is it that you love about helping you know, of course, our learners and our educators and all our friends there on LinkedIn?
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What is it that really drives that for you?
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I think it's just the part of giving back.
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Like once you're at a certain, you reach a certain stage of your life or a certain stage of your career, it's important to kind of mentor the people who are coming up and offering that opportunity.
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It's kind of like when you have a kid, you don't want them to make the same mistakes that you made in life, so you mentor them to do things differently than you did, and that's how I feel.
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Not that the linkedin community are my children, because that's too many children, but I feel like there is a, there's a um, there's a purpose there, uh, to share my experiences, share the tips.
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Don't keep things a secret.
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That's one of the things I love about the L&D community is we're all so open.
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I'm an L&D.
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Is learning and development if you haven't picked that up yet is we're all so open and willing to share our experiences.
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And everybody's is different, but you'll see some commonalities across there.
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So that's what really keeps me going is giving people the opportunity to step outside.
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Teachers.
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Really keeps me going is giving people the opportunity to step outside.
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You know, teachers come from a lot of trauma and step outside the classroom and do something different.
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That's still meaningful because teachers go into teaching because they are a particular person, they have particular goals, they're intrinsically motivated, they understand people, they're emotional, they they're intuitive, they feel different things and I think that you know stepping into an L&D role is a great one for educators.
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So, just to answer your question, it's definitely time to give back.
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I'm middle age now, been in the game like you for about 18 years and I'm just like you know what it's important for me to tell people like this is how things are going in the job market or this is how things are going in instructional design and what's impacting us as an ecosystem, and then offer them actionable tips, advice, resources, things that they can use to get started, where they don't feel like, oh my gosh, there's 10,000 different things to do.
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Well, here are three things you can do today.
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Like bang, bang, bang.
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Do those things today.
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You know, I did a webinar recently with iSpring on the id make or the makeover of your resume, and I can't tell you like I just shared exactly what I did and people were like they're like blown away by some of these tips and how easy it is.
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Like you said, we have.
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We create this barrier inside of ourselves that when we're applying for roles or when we're transitioning positions, that we're not good enough, we're our own worst critic, in the sense that we are creating this manifestation in our minds that we're not going to be able to do this or they're not going to hire us because we don't have this experience.
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But in my mind, when that's happening, you are interviewing that company and organization just as much as they're interviewing you, because you want a place where you fit and you feel passionate and they support you and your endeavors just as much as you're supporting them.
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So leave imposter syndrome at home.
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I get it all the time, so I have to be my own like, take my own advice, but you know you're interviewing them just as much as they're interviewing you.
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So you want to be at a place where you fit.
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I love it, great tips and I know recently you've been doing a lot more of that on LinkedIn and putting yourself out there and really, like you said, one of the great things that I love that you do is not only you know, do you help by putting up job postings, but also just the fact that sharing your own experiences and you know, here are the things that work, or here are the things to look out for, and just practical advice that for many that, like you said, those two to three gems that they can sprinkle to what they're already doing great, can just really open up doors and open up, you know, opportunities for them and overcome that imposter syndrome, like you mentioned.
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But going back again to the human first learning strategist tagline, you know of course we see it on LinkedIn, on your podcasting community, but I want to ask you, what does that mean to Holly Owens, especially when right now we see AI getting pushed or keep pushing the learning?
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Yeah, what I'll say is that it doesn't matter to me how many different AIs, or if we step into, like this iRobot scene of the Will Smith movie and AI is taking over things.
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I recently and this is a full side note I saw an article on People Magazine that somebody asked the AI bot.
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They proposed to them like engagement.
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I'm like this is getting a little bit out of hand here.
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So one of the things I believe is that AI, you know a lot of people feel like it's going to replace you, but the emotional aspect of the human mind, that's irreplaceable.
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So putting the human at the center of everything at the conversation to me means being able to still talk to each other not through AI, but you know, as real individuals, and share those human experiences is important because many times you'll see out at LinkedIn or even in some of the social media platforms as people are just sharing their lives.
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They're sharing with you what they want you to see.
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They want you to see the butterflies and the rainbows.
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But really that's not how the experience is, and I'll give you an example Although I worked at Amazon, I didn't get the job the first time.
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Give you an example Although I worked at Amazon.
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I didn't get the job the first time.
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I had to wait a whole year to get the instructional design job at Amazon Pharmacy when I first applied for it, and in Toronto County they got that, and that happens more often than not.
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So the human piece to me is just supporting each other.
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I mean, ai can only do that to a certain extent.
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You know, with writing different cover letters or helping with your resume or sending different emails or communication out.
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There still needs to be that piece of you in the conversation, the piece of you in the story, and your story is so unique to anyone, like what you've experienced in life.
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It's not just about your professional life.
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We also all, believe it or not, have personal lives.
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I remember when my students used to see me in the grocery store and they're like you, grocery shop.
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I'm like, well, yeah, how am I supposed to eat?
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You think I could just like I'm a normal person.
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I do different things outside of the office, outside of the podcast.
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So I think bringing us back to the basics and to that is really connecting with each other on this level, whether that be in a virtual space, because some of my very best friends are I've met through linkedin, like some of the people that I trust the most, like luke hobson, heidi kirby um, you know, just interacting with those people, um, it's important to to do that still, um, one of the things that yellowdig, that we value, is authentic connections and conversations with people.
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You can sit down and I can guarantee, within probably 60 to 120 seconds of the conversation, you're going to find something you have in common with the person.
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You're going to be like your brain's going to go off and be like, oh yeah, I've had that similar experience.
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I don't think I can do that yet.
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Yet.
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Yeah so but that's the like you mentioned and right now I know there's a lot of hype.
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There's, we do see where there's some practical uses for it and it's like, okay, it's great, that's fantastic.
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There's also the other side where it's like hype, this is it Like, this is this is going to solve the world's problems.
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And then of course, you get both sides and you know, and I always say here on the podcast, it's like I really find myself kind of in the middle.
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I'm kind of like a wait and see, but I like to move, but just being able to really research and discern what is out there, because you know people are passionate on both sides, people that you know.
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Of course there's articles that will come out, you know.
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Is AI or LLMs destroying?
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our neurons, so those that are in favor of and no, it's not.
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How do we know that?
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Yet it hasn't been out that long.
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It hasn't been out that long.
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How do we know that yet?
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How do we do this and how do we do that?
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And then, of course, there's people that are, you know, like yes, yes, it is, and this is what we're seeing, and so you see both sides.
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But you know, I always try and keep it balanced and I'm always like, ok, I'm cautiously reading and doing those things, and I think that's so important in our job roles and in our spaces where we do work with ed tech, so much.
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So I want to ask you, for example, I know recently one of the tools that I dug into was something that you had shared, which I think it was TruePeer AI.
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I hope I'm pronouncing it right, because I know it looks like it's Trooper, but I thought it was Trooper at first.
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It's TruePeer.
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Yeah, yeah.
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TruePeer, you know where it shows that you can record, and then you do a screen share and then, of course, it'll create you know course material like in minutes, like in a flash.
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So I want to ask you what goes through your mind working in the L&D space learning and development and then, of course, in the instructional design space, as you go and find tools like this that you discover and, like you said, openly share.
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What are some of the things that you look for before this is something that you would roll out to your learners and how, if anything, does that conflict with, is there a conflict with that human first strategy many times?
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Tell us what your thought process is in all of that.
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Yeah Well, first of all, it's important to evaluate the tool like that you're about to share and I'm not sharing anything that I haven't used myself, I'll say that.
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So anything like I'm a brand ambassador and I'm not sharing anything that I haven't used myself, I'll say that.
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So anything like I'm a brand ambassador for, I'm sharing that on LinkedIn world, I've used it and you know I put it into practice and I can say that some of those like Troop here, you know there's Synthesia, like with the AI tools.
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I've used all of them and I'm actually using Synthesia in my courses that I'm teaching online.
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I think it's important.
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One of the first things I try to look for, or that I make sure is available, is the accessibility information about the tool, because if they are not putting accessibility at the forefront of everything, then what's the point Like people are going to there's?
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That's going to create barriers for people, whether they have a learning disability or not.
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So it's important that there's accessibility in the tool, that they're able to navigate it with keyboard navigation, that kind of stuff.
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So those are the tools.
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That's one of the first things I look for.
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Also, look to see, I'm pretty like I don't want to say selfish, but I want it to save me time and save me money.
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So, and then companies are looking for that too.
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So with Truepeer, that saves a ton of time when you've recorded something and it's spitting out like the how-tos and the video with the captions and all the different things.
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Just think about pre-AI how much time that took instructional designers to create that.
00:20:34.213 --> 00:20:40.213
That would probably take me a week or two to do those things manually and type everything out and make sure it sounds right.
00:20:40.595 --> 00:20:48.701
So now, instead of just you know coming up with the description of the video or coming up with the script, ai is doing that for me.
00:20:48.701 --> 00:20:50.548
And I'm going through what I'm reading.
00:20:50.548 --> 00:20:54.667
I'll say, nope, take this out, this doesn't sound like this is a part of this, because you know ai is not perfect.
00:20:54.667 --> 00:20:56.071
Or put this in this sounds more like you know AI is not perfect.
00:20:56.071 --> 00:21:05.074
Or put this in this sounds more like you know it's giving you an insider perspective, or like a tip that you should use, like at this portion or with this feature of the tool.
00:21:05.074 --> 00:21:09.173
So you still have to go through and evaluate what is actually being said.
00:21:09.173 --> 00:21:12.871
You can't just say, okay, put it in there, it's all done, put it out.
00:21:12.871 --> 00:21:19.869
No, there still needs to be a process where you're like okay, does this sound good for the learner?
00:21:19.869 --> 00:21:21.174
Is this something that they're going to understand?
00:21:21.194 --> 00:21:31.434
There's a lot of jargon that possibly ai is getting wrong or is putting into the conversation because you know, from accessibility, you're supposed the reading level is supposed to be around sixth to eighth grade.
00:21:31.434 --> 00:21:35.448
Um, so it's simplified enough so that learners can like understand it.
00:21:35.448 --> 00:21:37.192
Um, so I think that's.
00:21:37.192 --> 00:21:44.068
Those are some of the first things that I do, but if it's a tool that saves me time and saves the company money, why not try it?
00:21:44.068 --> 00:21:47.592
You know, test it out, see what's gonna happen.
00:21:48.346 --> 00:22:02.628
And yeah, there oftentimes is a conflict between the human aspect of that and because we're all right now with AI, we're moving even faster to get things done, so sometimes that quality might get sacrificed.
00:22:02.628 --> 00:22:06.137
And that's the human piece of it, like the emotional tie, the psyche.
00:22:06.137 --> 00:22:14.191
Um, you know figuring out like, is this something an activity that people are really going to like enjoy doing, or am I just doing this to get it done?
00:22:14.191 --> 00:22:15.795
Is it a checklist item?
00:22:15.795 --> 00:22:33.070
And then you know if you have a long to-do list, like many us do, you're, you're checking it off the list, you're like I did this, but you you may or may not have properly and appropriately evaluated the tool, so I recommend doing like some pilots with people, or testing with the end user.
00:22:33.070 --> 00:22:35.539
Before you full blown, just put it out there.
00:22:35.539 --> 00:22:37.450
Insane, it's solving all your problems.
00:22:37.450 --> 00:22:43.336
Because, as far as I'm concerned, there's no technology at this point that's out there that solves all the problems.
00:22:43.396 --> 00:22:50.236
Instructional designers and learning and experience designers and everybody in the L&D whoever are trying to solve.
00:22:50.236 --> 00:23:02.412
But this AI is giving us what we need in terms of having the creative mind space, because, as an instructional designer and a human first person, I want to talk to other people.
00:23:02.412 --> 00:23:08.568
I want to sit in a space where I can share my ideas and be creative.
00:23:08.568 --> 00:24:09.994
Doing all that manual work of setting stuff up that that ai is taking care of now allows me to do that, so it frees me up to have coffee chats or conversations with my coworkers instead of like, well, I got to think of another fun, fun FOMO webinar description.
00:24:09.994 --> 00:24:13.074
Or I got to think of a title that's going to work.
00:24:13.074 --> 00:24:14.951
I got to set up all the components of it.
00:24:14.951 --> 00:24:25.387
I know I can actually sit in my creative space and think about, like, how am I going to make this meaningful to people and really focus on the what's in it for me from the learner perspective.
00:24:26.189 --> 00:25:02.073
Yeah, and you know and I love that you mentioned that because I wanted to highlight it kind of goes in with the next question that I was saying you know you still need that human piece because, as you mentioned, with tools like Synthesia or Synthesia and you know being used, and heavily in the instructional design space, sometimes you feel like, okay, you know, this is great because it's saving me that time, but then at the same time is it turning into just kind of like a bland homogenization of you know, excuse me homogenization of learning, where it just seems like very cookie cutter and it's just very bland.
00:25:02.073 --> 00:25:05.721
So I think, like you mentioned, it just seems like very cookie cutter and it's just very bland.
00:25:05.721 --> 00:25:18.656
So I think, like you mentioned, you know, you have to find that right balance where you are using the tech appropriately, again, like you mentioned, to save you time, but then, of course, revising and going back and still adding that human component and that quality piece to make that connection.
00:25:18.656 --> 00:25:39.378
And I think that I wanted to bring in just a comment from a good friend of mine that I follow and she mentioned, she said and she posted, she said that she just got out of the keynote and she delivered a keynote and she said I already had this keynote months ahead, months behind or, you know, months prior to this.
00:25:40.730 --> 00:25:47.656
Yeah Well, I don't know if it was, she was prepared, it was well, I guess it was just having the keynote just ready to go, because you never know when you're going to get called.
00:25:47.656 --> 00:25:51.056
And so obviously she mentioned and she said, guys, she goes.
00:25:51.056 --> 00:25:56.148
I used, you know, obviously, ai to help me do this keynote.
00:25:56.148 --> 00:26:05.221
But she said, as I was delivering this keynote and I'm looking and I'm feeling the presentation and I'm going, it's like this isn't me.
00:26:05.221 --> 00:26:10.497
Like she came to this realization where, like this isn't my voice and she goes.
00:26:10.497 --> 00:26:11.266
You know what, she goes.
00:26:12.288 --> 00:26:33.354
I'm going to kind of dial it back just a little bit, just to kind of like and that is something that was on my mind many, many months ago where I was like, okay, where do we get to the point where, like you said, we're pulling it, we're putting out the quantity, but then we're losing ourselves within the quality of that and losing our own voice and just kind of reeling it back in?
00:26:33.354 --> 00:26:35.518
How have you dealt with that?
00:26:35.518 --> 00:26:43.201
Have you come to a point where you feel like, man, I'm doing all this great work, I'm doing what I need to for my jobs, for my learners.
00:26:43.201 --> 00:26:46.629
And then you think about like, oh my gosh, like, like.
00:26:46.629 --> 00:26:48.133
Is there enough of me in here?
00:26:48.133 --> 00:26:53.973
Is there enough voice, is there enough of my personality in here to make that human connection?
00:26:53.973 --> 00:26:57.067
What has gone through your mind during this time?
00:26:57.769 --> 00:27:01.728
When AI spits out stuff that doesn't sound like me, I prompt it to say sound like me?
00:27:01.728 --> 00:27:09.118
Or I put more stuff into it that sounds like me, like recently, um working in the podcast and working in the tool that I use.
00:27:09.118 --> 00:27:11.690
Um, it does, it can do the AI voice.
00:27:11.690 --> 00:27:14.176
It does not sound like me, it is just.
00:27:14.176 --> 00:27:22.219
It is so far from what it sounding like with the intonation and the different things that we can do as humans.
00:27:22.219 --> 00:27:31.414
Um, so one of the things that I like to do is, you know, I go through whatever I'm prompting it to do and I'm like this, this yeah, I get that feeling it really doesn't sound like me.
00:27:31.414 --> 00:27:40.308
So I say tell to sound like me a little bit more and then I tweak it a little bit more to give it that more positive spin, because sometimes ai is just so generic and top level.
00:27:40.308 --> 00:27:47.394
It doesn't really have that emotional part of it, and I think that's the part we touch on most as humans is the emotional aspect.
00:27:47.394 --> 00:28:03.896
So I go back through it and I put some emotion into it, like really deep, like feeling connected to each other, instead of this like very generic top level, like, okay, here's, here's a resource you know, have fun using it.
00:28:03.936 --> 00:28:06.400
I think storytelling AI also helps with that too.