Walking into each felt like an invitation to learn. And that feeling is no accident. Educators have known for a long time that creating a beautiful place to learn helps students learn better. Beauty motivates us to learn before we even realize it.
Universities, for all their other faults, have taken advantage of this principle for centuries. In contrast, most LMS software is generic at best. Often, it’s ugly and distracting. LMSs tend to feel more like a functional tool than an immersive environment.
At Pathwright, we believe that a beautiful place to learn is even more important in the virtual world.
Here are four ways we believe beauty empowers learning:
This reputation can’t be faked. Good branding grows from the inside out. Your brand should be a natural outpouring of your educational goals. What educator doesn’t believe strongly in their goals? Let your brand promote what you believe at your core. If it does, it won’t fail to draw in the right learners.
Think back to when you bought textbooks in college. Virtually no one enjoys buying textbooks, because textbooks rarely reflect a passion to learn. They are often poorly bound and horribly laid out. And they’re never fun to read. Information piled on top of facts is not a good look.
Online lessons shouldn’t be that way. If your content is worth teaching, then it’s worth packaging well.
🌊 Against flow. You know the phrase “they make it look easy”? The idea that high performance is done with the grace, poise, and serenity that beholding it implies? It’s just appearances. This article points out through the lens of ballet that doing your best work is constant self-analysis and gritting your teeth on the inside. For everyone. The mythical state of flow is usually just a myth.
⏳ Chronos vs Kairos: Understanding how the Ancient Greeks viewed time will make your life richer. McKinley Valentine, one of my own favorite newsletter folks, writes about kairos through Greek, Roman, Indian and even Christian culture. Chronos refers to our construct of time as measurable, linear. Kairos is not time so much as timing, opportunity, with all of its joyous unpredictability. Our Labs at Pathwright are based on kairos.
🗞️ Podcasts as a source of news and information. The Pew Research Center found that half of all Americans listen to podcasts sometimes, and most get some of their news from them. They think the news they get is mostly accurate, though their podcasts aren’t usually from a news organization. I guess podcasts are our current watercooler?
🔼 Space Elevator (scroll up). I picked a blue scarf, orange spacesuit, and turned on the elevator music. Oh, and learned a lotabout the levels above us. This is from the person who brought you Absurd Trolley Problems, among several other things.
🧑💻 You, me, and UI. The Verge brings you a series on good design, bad design, and why design matters at all. Runs the gamut from poop emoji to Apple’s Lisa.
😴 Why adults still dream about school. I don’t dream very often. But when I do, it’s one of two things: A boring task like restocking cans on a grocery store shelf, or I’m my current age but have to move back into a dorm room with roommates and go to classes. A stress dream classic.
🍔 McDonald’s is upgrading its burgers. As it turns out, making a better product makes a better business. Focusing on core distinctives over trendy gimmicks translates to happier customers. Makes a lot of sense to me.
🏛️ Mariah Carey and Super Mario inducted into Library of Congress collection. Glad to see the voices of the women who shape our culture getting permanent credit. Also, this marks the first time any video game soundtrack joined the registry. Fun!
🟥 Also in Mario news, Super Mario Bros recreated in Excel stop-motion. Says it took about a thousand pictures and several hours to accomplish, which I completely believe. Hopefully it at least calculated a high score.
📀 Netflix will end its DVD-by-mail service in September. To be honest, I didn’t know they still did this. But I remember well building my queue, waiting for the next disc to come after I dropped one in the mail. Pedantic note: The article states that “the DVD service has shipped more than 5 billion discs across the U.S.,” which cannot possibly be true. I think it’s true that they shipped over 5 billion packets, but surely not 5 billion unique discs? I do wanna know what’s happening to all those movies though…
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I've been reading books a lot more lately. I didn't fall out of the habit, exactly. I just hadn't grabbed anything that grabbed me back in a long time. I'm not a high-brow reader—my favorites are thrillers and mysteries. I loved Magpie Murders, which pits the formats of an Agatha Christie whodunit and of a modern mystery against each other.
For me, reading a novel for twenty minutes with a cup of coffee slows down my busy brain. Like a mindfulness exercise, it clears my mental cache. Force-quits all those runaway mental processes. I get out of the chair with a calmer, more accurate sense of what really needs doing (and how).
What kinds of books grab you? What have you read lately that I should put on my reading list? Email me back and I'll tell you a sneaky trick for using your Kindle.
Editor, Brand at Pathwright