NogginLabs Blog

Taking Control

2010-07-15T13:56:35+00:00

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.

You Will Be Assimilated

2010-06-15T13:53:27+00:00

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.

Gamers

2010-05-24T15:47:02+00:00

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.

Of Boxes and Arrows

2010-04-22T22:00:32+00:00

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.

Your Daily Netflix Inspiration

2010-03-01T19:22:38+00:00

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.

Learning by Driving

2010-02-22T16:31:03+00:00

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.

Football, Kangaroos and e-Learning

2010-02-08T21:19:33+00:00

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.

The Squishy Wetware in Our Skulls

2010-01-14T15:25:25+00:00

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?

Variety

2009-12-22T21:01:27+00:00

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?

Game Night

2009-12-04T19:31:54+00:00

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.

In The Know

2009-11-10T15:51:48+00:00

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.

Confusion

2009-11-05T17:53:13+00:00

What happens when you're confused? Some items in the news suggest that you're probably getting smarter.

Dinner with Timothy Geithner

2009-11-02T22:04:35+00:00

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.

HBO Imagine

2009-10-21T16:20:08+00:00

A Noggin talks about how cool HBO's new Imagine site is and how it's cool in ways that apply to e-learning.

Baked Green Tomatoes

2009-10-07T21:12:44+00:00

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.