5 minute read
DIRTYWORD the E-Learning Magazine Issue 7
We’re back! Our first official issue of 2025 and we’re already running a bit late to print - sorry about that! We lost a week exhibiting down at Bett and handing out 1,000s of copies of our special show edition of the magazine. If you saw us down at London’s ExCel and are here reading this as a result, then the effort and lateness were all worth it - welcome, new reader!
If you’ve been here since Dirtyword #1 and don’t care for hearing our excuses, I’ll get back to this issue’s rundown...
In this edition of the world’s greatest free E-learning/ Ed-Tech magazine, we have more guests than ever, starting with some new faces in the form of Lamsa’s Badr Ward, Goethe Business School’s Magdalena Slawinska and Media lecturer Hannah Greenwood.
We caught up with Badr at Bett to discuss the humble origins of the Lamsa LMS and its evolution into the recently launched Unified Education Framework.
Magdalena is the recently appointed Head of Technology Enhanced Learning at Goethe Business School in Frankfurt and tells us how she sees education changing in the midst of all this new AI nonsense they keep throwing at us.
Talking of the dreaded Artificial Intelligence, Cursive’s Joseph Thibault returns to talk us through how process tracking is effectively fighting fire with fire to weed out plagiarism but also to protect students from accusations of ChatGPT-ing (other Large Language Models are available) their way to a university degree.
Miranda Verswijvelen is back to explain how your e-learning characters - and learners - can benefit from ditching fact-based profiles and switching them up for traits that encourage emotional investment in the learning stories you’re trying to tell.
Dr Asegul ‘Ace’ Hulus joins us once again with a Matrixflavoured explanation of AI hallucinations - trust no one, especially not your friendly AI chatbot.
Trevor Garrett turns to Mother Nature to illustrate why you should be employing e-learning to grow diversity in your business, and in a tenuous link, I look at why you shouldn’t be stuffing diverse characters in your courses, willy-nilly.
Lewis tells us that boring e-learning is good e-learning, and looks at why we should be emptying our brains of useless stuff we’ve stored there for years, in order to make room for new methodologies and skills.
All of this, plus a techless future from Hannah Greenwood, teachings on course length from Sam Harold, a round-up of Bett, a warning from Lew about over-accessibility-ing and one more from me on rethinking your case studies as case stories... Last but not least, we’ve got the usual news, comic antics from Whisper and advice from Dr. Carl.
Enjoy!Mark
In this issue...
Whisper tries to get some work done.
All the news that's hot in EdTech right now.
Lewis tells us to shed our outdated mindsets.
Got an e-learning problem? The Doctor is in.
Mark rethinks how we explain problems, processes and outcomes.
Joseph Thibault looks at process tracking in writing.
Miranda Verswijvelen explains how to design compelling characters.
We interview Magdalena Slawisnska, Head of Technology-Enhanced Learning at Goethe Business School.
AI Hallucinations in the E-Learning Matrix
Dr Asegul Hulus explains why you shouldn't trust AI knowledge.
We exhibited at Bett and had a snoop around.
Lewis explores the hidden power of downtime in online learning.
Trevor Garrett offers survival tips from Mother Nature.
Badr Ward talks about Lamsa's plans for a universal educational framework.
Accessibility x AI = The End of E-Learning?
Lewis asks whether we have shot ourselves in the foot with accessibility.
Mark discusses the dangers of diversity-washing in your e-learning.
How Long is a Piece of String?
Sam Harold measures the perfect course length.
Hannah Greenwood imagines a world of learning where digital tech goes extinct.
This issue is brought to you by...
We’re always on the lookout for guest writers and contributors who want to see their name in a future issue of Dirtyword. It’s all for the kudos and the community spirit - we’re looking for non-commercial editorial, tutorials and life wisdom; no sneaky advertorials pushing your wares (we can sell you some ad space for that).
If you’re interested, get in touch at info@dirtywordmag.com
