The Future of Learning Podcast
Welcome to "The Future of Learning Podcast," where we dive deep into the innovations that are transforming the way we learn and develop. Hosted by leaders in education and technology, each episode explores the latest trends in AI, VR, AR, microlearning, and more.
Join us as we interview experts, share insights, and discuss how these advancements are shaping the future of education and corporate talent development. Whether you're an educator, learning professional, or simply passionate about the evolving landscape of learning, this podcast is your go-to source for staying ahead in a rapidly changing world.
Tune in and be part of the conversation shaping the *Future of Learning*!
The Future of Learning Podcast
Navigating ADHD, Personal Growth, and the Power of Mobile Learning
What happens when the challenges of mental health and adult ADHD collide with the drive for personal and professional growth? Find out through an inspiring personal story, as I recount my journey from immigrating from Puerto Rico, overcoming significant language barriers, and grappling with the hardships that led to my dropping out of high school. A profound turning point came with the birth of my first child, igniting a relentless pursuit of self-development that ultimately led to achieving multiple degrees. This episode shines a light on the significant impact of ADHD in the workplace, from chronic employment struggles to impulsive job quitting, and the pervasive stigma that often accompanies the condition.
The second half of our discussion unveils the transformative potential of mobile learning for professional development. Discover how this innovative approach offers unprecedented flexibility, enabling lifelong learners to access education anytime, anywhere. Ideal for those who struggle with the constraints of traditional training, mobile learning promotes personalized learning paths, reducing anxiety and improving focus, time management, and retention. We emphasize the importance of selecting platforms with features like gamification, progress tracking, and designs tailored to ADHD, to maximize engagement and educational outcomes. Wrapping up, I underscore the essential nature of continuous learning and staying proactive, and extend an open invitation for further support and engagement. Don't miss this episode that combines personal triumph with innovative educational strategies for a brighter professional future.
Welcome to the Future of Learning podcast, where we explore the boldest innovations and cutting-edge trends in corporate learning and development. This podcast dives deep into how AI, mobile learning and immersive tech are rewriting the future of how we work and grow. If you're ready to push boundaries, challenge the status quo and empower your workforce in ways you never imagined, you've come to the right place. The future isn't waiting. It's happening right now, and Dr Paudine is here to guide you through it. Let's go.
Speaker 2:Well, welcome friends, yet again to another episode of the Future of Learning podcast. I am your host, rajiv Adin, and I am so glad you are here, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining me, taking some of your valued time to be here with me as we talk about all things learning and development and the future of learning and development. More importantly, as you know, we have been through an explosion of change in the marketplace and it doesn't seem like it's going to slow down anytime soon. So it's very important, I think, that, for us to have these types of discussions. So thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2:This podcast is really brought to you by Learnfinity. Learnfinity is an application that really helps the professionals learn anything, anytime, anywhere, and you can start for free. So if you haven't done so, please go ahead and download the application today and start learning. If you are a leader, a business owner, a CEO, you know how important learning and development is and you're tired of sort of what. You know what the norm is for learning and development. This could be the application for you. It's AI-powered content, along with book summaries and micro-learnings, and the most important thing is that you can upload your own content. You can upload your own knowledge and it's going to stay secure within your environment, and so the AI is going to be learning even more about your business, your policies, your procedures, how things are done, and it's going to be able to feedback that to your employees and it's going to be a tailor-made learning experience for them. So that's my shameless plug. I promise that you won't be disappointed. You can download Learnfinity for free today at the App Store Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
Speaker 2:So a year or so ago I think, I did a podcast where I opened up about some of the issues that I had been dealing with with mental health For the longest time. I noticed something in me that was not it was. I felt that it was. It was just I was off. I mean, basically, and for the longest time, I was, you know, so busy and so I didn't have time to really sit down and think about what was going on in my life. It wasn't until not too long ago that I really hit rock bottom, and one of the things that I was diagnosed with was adult ADHD. Now, not in a million years would I thought that I had it. I thought that there were other factors that were causing these things. So I came to the States when I was 10 years old from Puerto Rico and I didn't know the language and I felt like I was always, always behind, and so I attributed a lot of the struggles that I had in school to the fact that I didn't know the language. I was new to the culture. It was a radical change for me, and so I attributed a lot of the issues that I was going through to that.
Speaker 2:If you've read my story of Get Out of the Dumpster which, by the way, it's out of print right now but I'm doing some changes to it it's going to come out probably in the next year or so. Changes to it is going to come out probably in the next year or so. I talk about how I was a high school dropout. I dropped out of school when I was 17 years old and married very young and started having kids very young. And if you are somebody who doesn't have an education and you're young and you know you don't have a lot of experience, you know what that leads to, and what it led me was to live a life of basically poverty. But something changed in me when my, when my firstborn was born and I was. I remember holding him and looking at his little, tender, tender face and you know I started crying and I couldn't believe that I was a father and I started thinking you know, what kind of life am I going to give my son? And so that really, really impacted me to my core and I remember, like it was yesterday, I looked into his face and I said I promise you that I'm going to do everything I can to make you proud of me. And that was that moment was the trigger that sent me on a journey of self-development and education. I went back and got my GED and really in record time, was the first person in my family to graduate from college. I have two master's degrees and a doctorate, and that was rough. It was rough. It was during times when that was rough. It was rough. It was during times when adult education was not well developed and I went to institutions that really did not cater to adult learning, except for my doctorate at Nova Southeastern University. They were great in really helping me through that process, helping me through that process.
Speaker 2:But you know I struggle with, with ADHD, and the reason why it was diagnosed really was right after I lost my dad not too long ago and I, you know I it really really affected me, and then so I started. You know, I'm the type of person that I don't like making excuses or feeling sorry for myself. I'm one of those people that tries to look for answers in everything. It's risky not to acknowledge or even recognize how this is impacting the workplace. Employees with ADHD are 30% more likely to have chronic employment issues, 60% more likely to be fired from a job and three times more likely to quit a job impulsively. That is significant when you think about it, and not to mention the stigma right, the stigma I remember. You know, one of the issues that I still struggle to this day and you can listen to it in my podcast is that sometimes it's tough to you know, come up with the right words. The brain is racing faster than you know you can keep up with. In my case, my brain is constantly operating in Spanish and in English and I try very, very hard not to go into Spanglish mode, because that would be probably the easiest thing for me to go into Spanglish mode.
Speaker 2:So, if you're listening, you're a business leader, a manager, a CEO, an HR professional keep in mind that you have people in the workplace who are struggling with this. If that wasn't enough, now you have to consider other problems that are taking place in the workplace if we don't pay attention to this. You know interpersonal conflict, tardiness, high absenteeism. You know making high error rate, the inability to change high error rate, the inability to change the lack of dependability, the lack of follow through, and so it's very, very important that you, if you see this in your work, in your workplace, that you pay close, close attention to it. That's why I am so excited and motivated by the topic of micro learning and mobile learning.
Speaker 2:The key challenges that adults with ADHD face in the workplace is one of them is sustaining focus, is sustaining focus, and if you cannot sustain focus, it's going to be very difficult to learn how to do your job correctly. You're going to be more prone to making mistakes, and some of these mistakes could be really costly to the company. Now add to that the fact that, as a whole, now add to that the fact that, as a whole, we are living in a time where the attention span of individuals has drastically decreased and there's so much coming at the individual. So we're, you know, individuals today are overstimulated with information, and so for people who are dealing with ADHD. Microlearning and mobile learning, again because of the decrease in attention span.
Speaker 2:Here's why microlearning, I believe, is particularly beneficial for professionals with ADHD. Number one is short-focused and short bursts of learning. Microlearning allows adults with ADHD to absorb that information in short, manageable chunks. Microlearning really goes to the heart of that because it really aligns with that cognitive pattern. Rather than requiring long periods of sitting there in a class or listening to a long lecture, or assuming a long online class sitting there and consuming a long webinar, learners can engage that content in brief periods of time and that reduces the cognitive overload that we're feeling. It sort of really motivates because you know, going in, that it's going to be brief.
Speaker 2:You condition the mind knowing I'm going in and I know this is going to be only five 10 minutes and so it's going to be easier to pay attention. You're going to be motivated to stay there. So if you know that you're going into a training and you know it's going to be five 10 minutes, the chances of you paying more attention are going to be increasing. And, of course, if you're paying attention, then that means there's going to be an increase in retention and so it's a win-win. You know you're going in for a short training, it's a win, it's a win-win. You know you're going in for a short training and so you condition your mind to say, okay, you know this is going to be short, so let me pay attention to it, and the more that you do that, that repetition really helps improve retention and allows employees with ADHD to, you know, sort of revisit that without feeling the you know feeling pressure to remember everything in a very long session. Which, again, the nice thing about microlearning is that overall it tends to be self-paced, so you know that you can always pause and come back to it and you don't have to rewind the entire one hour, two hour training. You know that it's going to be just a short, brief training module. You can always come back to it without having to revisit the whole thing. Which brings me to another reason why I really think that microlearning and mobile learning are great.
Speaker 2:When it comes to people with ADHD and again I don't want to just talk about individuals with ADHD I think it's something that most people can really benefit from. I think it's something that most people can really benefit from, and that is that microlearning tends to be flexible and accessible. With microlearning, employees can access content on their own schedule, on you know, at any time, whether it's during lunch break or in between meetings or in between calls. The individual can you know. Especially if it's a mobile-friendly training. They can get their phone out or tablet out and, you know, revisit whatever it is that they were learning. This really helps the learner integrate more easily what they're learning with what they're doing and they know they can always come back to that content in order to do their jobs even better. Add some gamification with that. If you incorporate, you know, game elements and badges, points, rewards, it really taps into the dopamine reward system, which is crucial for motivation in people with ADHD. And so gamification if you add that to your strategy of micro mobile learning, it really enhances the experience for the learner. So that's micro learning.
Speaker 2:Now, why I am so jazzed about mobile learning is that it's learning on the go, that you can learn at any time, about anything, about anywhere. And for those of us who struggle with staying seated for a long period of time, adhering to the rigid training schedules, mobile learning really provides that flexibility. If you're on a commute, you can be listening to a podcast or to a brief lesson, you can pause and take a break and come back to it, knowing that you don't have to go back 45 minutes to learn or to find the place where you were learning. It's there, you know exactly where to go. So on-the-go learning allows you to pick it up when you feel that you are at your best to learn and you can go at it. You're not forced to have to sit there and learn. The other thing about mobile learning is that it really allows for personalized learning paths, and these are not the traditional ones, right where you have to sit there and take seven long two-hour courses. These are again, if you think about it and you envision it. These are like steps You'll get to the destination if you don't give up. Right, but it's just making it to that next step.
Speaker 2:With mobile learning, the workforce, people in the workforce, can progress at their own speed, which is very, very something that you know. Time is money and you have to provide this training to everybody, and so and usually you know you have spent. If you're if you're a business owner, ceo, an HR professional you have spent so much time and so much money on the logistics and the trainer and all of that, and of course, you got to make sure that you know you get your money's worth. But you know, not everybody's going to be at that same level. So you may put a training program for which only a handful of people are really benefiting from. Even if it's a small little step, here you made progress.
Speaker 2:One other thing to consider about mobile learning is that if you know that you have learning on the go whether it's your mobile device or your tablet or even your laptop you know that you only have to spend time. You know five minutes, 10 minutes, seven minutes, 12 minutes on that one thing, and so it really focuses your attention on that, and so it really becomes distraction-free learning. Not only is every little movement and everything that is happening around you sort of stimulating you, not paying attention, and of course in your head you're saying, well, I wonder how long this is going to go, and oh, my goodness, I have to take care of this, that and the other. When you know that you're going to be spending five or 10 minutes on your own learning path, right, it becomes a distraction-free zone. It allows you to focus on that. And so what does this translate to?
Speaker 2:How does microlearning and mobile learning translate to professional success. Well, you know it really improves the focus and time management of that individual. When you shorten, you know you shorten the learning experience. When you have targeted lessons that can be accessed on demand, micro learning encourages for better time management. Employees can take learning in small doses, improving their ability to balance work and skill development. They know they can do that at any time, at any place and they know that these brief lessons really can be woven into a busy schedule, a busy workday, and usually the way I design these things is with a call to action at the end right, hey, these are the three things we were going to learn.
Speaker 2:Here's the content. You know, this is how long it took you. Now let's put it to practice, right. And so it really incentivizes the learner to put it to practice right away, to think about it, to write about it, to do something with it. And the more that you do that, the more you learn. And the more you learn the you know, the better your self-esteem is and the better you're going to perform. And it's a great, it's a great number one, it's a great personal feeling, but it's great for the organization because everybody is contributing. So we've talked about. It improves focus and time management and reduces the level of anxiety, and also, it provides a greater level of retention and the application of those skills. Right, you don't have to remember, okay, which were the 15 steps. All I have to remember is one thing two things, right, and then I can put it to practice. If you can add very interactive quizzes and simulations and scenarios, real world scenarios and case studies, it's a plus. If you add some badges along the way, it's a fun way to really promote that sense of repetition. Come back to it. You have to come back to it every day. You know, micro mobile learning can really boost that sense of professional engagement rather than dread right, that comes with most of most of the training that takes place.
Speaker 2:But let me, let me wrap up with probably giving you some key ways in which you can implement this. Obviously, I'm going to be biased and I'm going to say, hey, you know, call us, let's, you know, let's. Try out Learnfinity in your organization. Try it out for yourself. It really starts. This is the way you can implement Number one you have to choose the right platform. It really starts. This is the way you can implement Number one you have to choose the right platform. Opt for micro learning and mobile learning rather than you know the traditional ways of learning. Really choose a platform that is user-friendly, that includes, again, gamification, that includes progress tracking, that includes some badges, that includes, maybe, some competition. You have a leaderboard, something that is on the go that they can access anywhere anytime. So choosing the right platform is key. Don't try to force mobile and microlearning to a system that really doesn't lend itself, because then you're going to be frustrated and your workforce is going to be frustrated.
Speaker 2:Number two, I would say and this is more for L&D professionals you have to incorporate ADHD-friendly design. Keep that in mind. Keep the visual elements simple. Include some interactive features in it. Include some interactive features in it. Break down the you know complex topics into small, digestible lessons. Don't think hour long, think you know five minutes long. How do I break this one hour, two hour, three hour training into small chunks and then do it in a way that is fun for the individual? So you know that is key. Right, because you can have the best platform in the world, but if the design of the learning is it doesn't fit with that, then it's. You know you're just wasting time.
Speaker 2:The other thing is really as a leader. This is where you you're the only one that can make a difference here. I cannot stress this enough If you want people to really buy into it, you have to model it right, and so promoting a culture of learning starts with you. And so promoting a culture of learning starts with you If you listen, if you make it a habit of listening to a three-minute, five-minute, seven-minute podcast, or sitting down for a 10-minute book summary. You know, let people know. Hey, this is what I learned, and it only took me five minutes to learn this.
Speaker 2:And I would urge you to not only model, but really promote a flexible learning culture where people can learn at their own pace, have flexible training schedules. It's really something that offers something for all different learning styles and you can still have your overall goals. You could say, this year, as a company, we want everybody to spend XYZ time in self and professional development. But promote it in a way that is not going to happen overnight. But if you're consistent, if you are passionate about it, if you are focused on it, if you really implement it and stay with it, you're going to see transformation take place in the workplace. So it's about really leveraging the technology that we have today which is amazing, only getting better. It's offering and really leveraging that and offering it to your workforce in practical, accessible, engaging ways. In practical, accessible, engaging ways, and then you're going to see your people thrive. People are going to be more motivated to learn, and so I truly believe that by at least keeping this in the forefront, by embracing these methods, I think both employees and employers can really foster an environment where learning really is enjoyable and beneficial to everybody.
Speaker 2:So that's enough for today. I hope you got something out of it. Again, I can go on for days talking about this, if you have any questions, and I can go on for days talking about this. If you have any questions, please feel free to DM me, send me a note, give us a call, set up an appointment. I'll be glad to help you and your organization address these realities and, as I always tell you at the end of every single episode, keep learning. I'll see you next time. You, you, you, you, you.
