Create Personality. I am attracted to people who are similar to me. I am even more attracted to people who are at peace with themselves and act in a way that is consistent and predictable. Research shows I am not alone. The book “Wired for Speech” by Clifford Nass and Scott Brave shows […]
Create Consistency. I am attracted to people who are similar to me. I am even more attracted to people who are at peace with themselves and act in a way that is consistent and predictable. Research shows I am not alone. The book “Wired for Speech” by Clifford Nass and Scott Brave shows […]
Create Flattery. “Kind words promote instruction”. King Solomon spoke this proverb three thousand years ago. Modern research proves that flattery works pretty well, too. In their book, “The Media Equation”, Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass show that humans treat computers like real people, and that we expect computers to act like people. People have […]
Create Praise. Are you a nice caveman or a mean Einstein? Would you like to be a nice Einstein? Too bad. Research shows that when you criticize someone, people think you are mean but smart. And when you praise someone, people think you are nice but less intelligent. We are attracted to people […]
Create Purpose. Adam Smith said the ‘Invisible Hand’ of self-interest guides human economic activity. Buyers will purchase what they believe will fulfill their needs, and sellers will produce what they believe people in their community want to buy. One problem with this theory is that we do not always act in our best […]
Create Mastery. The Beatles played 10,000 hours of music before they recorded their first song. They played the same songs over and over in bars every day for years, until they mastered their instruments. Their road to mastery began with picking up a guitar. Strumming the guitar strings led to playing music instead […]
Create Autonomy. A person free to choose their work is more productive than someone who must obey the will of powerful overseers. Once masters are removed from the situation, people do not stop working. We still need to feed and clothe ourselves, even with no boss telling us what to do. There are […]
Create Motivation. People accuse professional basketball players of not playing with the same heart as college basketball players. I have friends who say that an NBA game is forty-three minutes of jogging with five minutes of playing right at the end. For some players, it appears that the game has become work. Students […]
Create Kindness. When someone is kind to us, we instinctively want to please them by being kind in return. How does this relate to Blended Learning? The lessons we create online have an actual personality. When students study, they see the lesson as a friend they expect to be thoughtful and to […]