Learning Nerd’s Diary #84
Welcome back Learning Nerds!
This week’s edition is all about what I did not have last week to send this out - motivation 😜
Motivation is omnipresent in learning. It is there whether you know it or not. The more intentional you are about it - the better your experiences will be. Let’s unpack motivation in learning...
An existential question this week for you!
👀 Sneak peak
Here is what I have in store for you this week -
💭 Learning About Learning: A Day in My Life - Motivation Style
🥜 Learning Nugget: Motivation is like breathing
💥 Coolest Thing I Learnt This Week:
Chat GPT Prompts to Drive Learner Motivation
Self Determination Theory
What Motivates Students to Learn?
🔦 Spotlight: The Golden Circle of Motivation
Let's jump right in!
💭 Learning About Learning
I get a lot of questions around what a learning experience designer does exactly. There is no better way to explain that - then deep diving into what my day looks like. And since we at the LxD Lab have been talking a lot about motivation these past few months, I’m going to use that as a lens to unpack that on the end :)
Context
Some context before we begin - I’m currently working on 2 large projects at this point. The first one is the LxD Lab Motivation Handbook - a Handbook coming out on 5th September with case studies and tools that our community of ~20 learning experience designers (aka the Lab Rats) are putting together. The second one is a partnership between Harsh Doshi & me - something in it’s early stages where we’re still trying to figure out what do we want to do.
7:30am
Get-up, exercise & get ready
For me mornings are for 2 things - movement & introspection.
I start my day with exercise. Since I fractured my ankle 2 months back - rehab has taken its place. I also like to use some of my morning time to journal and make my favourite meal of the day - breakfast!
9:30am
Figuring out what a case study looks like
I spent a chunk of my morning trying to figure out how a case study for the LxD Lab Handbook could come together. These case studies are examples of real programs/ products that have solved for motivation.
I started with a version 1 of the content of the case study and was trying to figure out how it can come together on a website in the best way possible keeping this in mind:
How do justice to the work done by our partner organisations without it seeming overwhelming for our readers?
12:00pm
Brainstorming on a workshop plan
After these first few hours on the case study, I got into a meeting with Harsh to iron out a session plan for a workshop Harsh & I are doing next week. The workshop is going to be on the Golden Circle of Motivation - a tool we’ve developed at the LxD Lab.
Since learning by doing is more a philosophy for us, we spent a large chunk of this meeting trying to figure out -
How might we get people to truly experience this tool meaningfully during the workshop?
2:30pm
Reading on AI
We’ve been trying to figure out the role that AI can play in the LxD Lab Handbook and address 2 things:
How can we streamline the creation of the handbook using AI?
For the end users who are consuming this handbook, how do we help them discover the right content through AI?
I spent the afternoon going over some resources shared by one of our advisors - Dr. Philippa Hardman, an educator doing some amazing work in the world of AI & Learning. I put down some ideas and shared with the Lab Rats.
4:00pm
Figuring out the business
Harsh & I spent the earlier part of this month workshopping our way through designing our business. From a Theory of Change to a Business Model Canvas - we put down everything we had in our minds on what we want to do & how we plan to get there.
We spent this meeting trying to unpack some of the feedback we’d received on a concept note we’d put together on our plan. A question both of us have been going back to again and again -
How might we build something that we love and can continue to do for the rest of our lives?
6:00pm
Getting my hands dirty
I spent the evening painting a Mandala using this kit a friend gave me.
Since I was a kid, I have loved building things from my hand. Over the years I’ve realised I’m happiest when I’m building things and try my best to integrate some part of ‘creation’ in my day. Depending on how my day is going it takes the form of craft/ cooking/ drawing.
7:00pm
Unwinding with family
I ended the day by watching a series with my family. We spoke about how our days went over dinner. I read a book a friend gave me - Four Thousand Weeks and called it a day!
My Recipe for Motivation
Over the years (& many burn outs later), I’ve realised that I need these things everyday for me to be motivated -
Movement: Exercise in some shape or from
Thinking: Some time to just sit in silence with my thoughts
Learning: Something new I’m learning
Building: Creating something tangible
Collaboration: Working with people on meaningful projects
Connection: Feeling a sense of belonging
At different points of my day above, I have tried to activate different things in my recipe for motivation.
What is your recipe for motivation? What keeps you going? I’d love to hear from you!
🥜 Learning Nuggets
Motivation in learning is like the breath in humans.
It is there whether we realise it or not.
And just like breathing, being intentional about motivation too can be transformation for learning.
💥 Coolest Thing I Learnt this Week
Chat GPT Prompts to Drive Learner Motivation
I found this amazing resource by Dr. Philippa Hardman on how you can leverage ChatGPT to increase learner motivation in your experiences.
Self Determination Theory
Lavinia unpacks learner motivation using Self Determination Theory here. She talks about 3 things:
Competence (🧠) refers to a sense of mastery, feeling able to do the behavior and interact with the context effectively
Autonomy (⛄️) has to do with a sense of volition and control (at least to an extent) of someone’s own life and behavior
Relatedness (❤️) refers to the human need to interact with, care for, and be connected to others
What Motivates Students to Learn?
The New York Times did an interesting piece - they asked teenagers “What Motivates you to Learn?”
The responses are heartwarming and I was amazed to see how learners articulated the different ‘theories’ we talk about in the world of learning in their own words! My favourite two quotes from the piece -
“I am most engaged when there is emotion and relation to my current life during the lesson.”
“For me, knowingness was like a lock; someone had to give me the key. I used to be the type of person who never wanted to ask questions for fear of not looking like the “smart girl” I was supposed to be. But just because you ask a question doesn’t mean you are stupid, it’s actually quite the opposite.”
🔦 Spotlight
I’m going to be facilitating a workshop on the Golden Circle of Motivation for the Teach for India alumni this week. So excited to share this framework we’ve developed at the LxD Lab!
Love & Learning
Until we meet next week, a message for you & your learners -
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