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Free Tools: Who Is Using What – And Why : Publications Library
Free Tools: Who Is Using What – And Why : Publications Library
Jane Bozarth's latest ebook includes a collection of free tools used by people in L&D plus quotes about how they're used. This is a great resource for anyone with limited budgets (and let's face it, most of us have limited budgets at least some of the time).
5/13/25#tools#free
·learningguild.com·
Free Tools: Who Is Using What – And Why : Publications Library
AI-Generated Images: Missed Opportunities and Moral Shrugs
AI-Generated Images: Missed Opportunities and Moral Shrugs
Tom McDowell reflects on how much of our current AI image generation is very derivative and replicates specific artists. I agree with a lot of this. We could use these tools to create brand new and useful images, but there's a lot of use right now that feels problematic.
5/13/25#imagegeneration#AI
·idtips.substack.com·
AI-Generated Images: Missed Opportunities and Moral Shrugs
How People Are Really Using Gen AI in 2025
How People Are Really Using Gen AI in 2025
How do people use generative AI? I was surprised at how much of the use is for interactions like therapy and personal interaction. "Personal and professional support" was the top broad category in this research, which also includes tasks like organizing your life, resolving disputes, building lists, etc. "Content Creation and Editing" was second, followed by "Learning and Education." The popularity of learning on the list was also an interesting finding.
“Personal and Professional Support” is now the largest theme by far, stealing most of its new ground from “Technical Assistance & Troubleshooting.”
5/13/25#AI#research
·hbr.org·
How People Are Really Using Gen AI in 2025
The power of generative marketing: Can generative AI create superhuman visual marketing content?
The power of generative marketing: Can generative AI create superhuman visual marketing content?
This abstract of a marketing research paper explains how they compared AI-generated images and ads to human-created ads. The AI images were not just comparable, they were better than what people created. While this research is specific to marketing, I think it's relevant to images we use in training and elearning.
First, we prompt seven state-of-the-art generative text-to-image models (DALL-E 3, Midjourney v6, Firefly 2, Imagen 2, Imagine, Realistic Vision, and Stable Diffusion XL Turbo) to create 10,320 synthetic marketing images, using 2,400 real-world, human-made images as input. 254,400 human evaluations of these images show that AI-generated marketing imagery can surpass human-made images in quality, realism, and aesthetics. Second, we give identical creative briefings to commissioned human freelancers and the AI models, showing that the best synthetic images also excel in ad creativity, ad attitudes, and prompt following.
5/13/25#AI#imagegeneration#images#research
·papers.ssrn.com·
The power of generative marketing: Can generative AI create superhuman visual marketing content?
How to create a simple 2-page business plan
How to create a simple 2-page business plan
If you're a freelancers, you're often a one-person business. You don't need a really complicated business plan, but you do need some sort of plan. This is a list of questions to ask yourself as a freelancer to clarify what you do, who you do it for, and how you make money. I did this for myself a few years ago, and I'm probably due for a refresh of my business plan now.
4/8/25#freelance
·blog.freelancersunion.org·
How to create a simple 2-page business plan
Inspiring Examples of Storytelling in eLearning
Inspiring Examples of Storytelling in eLearning
Great examples of how different perspectives (1st, 2nd, and 3rd person) can shift the feel of storytelling. Jonathan Hill also describes Vonnegut's "Man in a Hole" model for stories where a character overcomes a problem. I think that simpler narrative structure is much more useful for storytelling in training than the more complex "Hero's Journey."
4/8/25#storytelling#writing
·litmos.com·
Inspiring Examples of Storytelling in eLearning
When AI and Disability Rights Collide: A New Frontier in Workplace Accommodation 🤖♿
When AI and Disability Rights Collide: A New Frontier in Workplace Accommodation 🤖♿

This article is about accessibility and AI tools in the workplace, but it's good to keep in mind as we experiment with and evaluate AI tools for training purposes too.

"5 Ways AI Tools Create New Barriers

1️⃣ Inaccessible interfaces – Not compatible with screen readers or voice recognition software.

2️⃣ Rigid productivity metrics – Penalize neurodiverse work patterns.

3️⃣ Communication analysis – Misreads communication styles tied to certain disabilities.

4️⃣ Cognitive assumptions – Built around neurotypical thinking.

5️⃣ Sensory requirements – Require inputs (voice/vision) not accessible to all. "

4/8/25#AI#accessibility
·linkedin.com·
When AI and Disability Rights Collide: A New Frontier in Workplace Accommodation 🤖♿
A little Friday fun. Thanks, Tracy Parish and Chad Udell.
A little Friday fun. Thanks, Tracy Parish and Chad Udell.
A structured prompt inspired by the first published Choose Your Own Adventure Book, The Cave of Time. Copy and paste into an LLM like Claude or ChatGPT and play an interactive version of a CYOA story.
4/8/25
·linkedin.com·
A little Friday fun. Thanks, Tracy Parish and Chad Udell.
OpenAI.fm
OpenAI.fm

Test out OpenAI's voices, available through their API. The "vibe" option lets you describe the tone, voice, and delivery. These voices do better at emotions than many of the other AI voices.

The cost is lower than ElevenLabs, but you need to use the API for actual production. I assume they'll create a web interface for use at some point in the future. OpenAI is vague about the data used to train its voices, which I assume means they didn't pay to license voice actors like ElevenLabs does.

4/8/25#AI#audio#text-to-speech
·openai.fm·
OpenAI.fm
Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors - Copyright Overview by Rich Stim - Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center
Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors - Copyright Overview by Rich Stim - Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center
As intellectual property is one of the topics to discuss related to AI, the question of fair use has become more prominent. This is a good overview of the four factors to determine if something is fair use or not.
The four factors judges consider are: the purpose and character of your use the nature of the copyrighted work the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and the effect of the use upon the potential market.
4/8/25#copyright#fairuse
·fairuse.stanford.edu·
Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors - Copyright Overview by Rich Stim - Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center
illustration.app - AI Vector Illustration Generator
illustration.app - AI Vector Illustration Generator
I haven't tested it out yet, but this looks like another viable option for creating vector illustrations in consistent styles. One feature I haven't seen elsewhere is the color palette generator. Give it a word like desert, nature, or neon, and it will generate a color palette that you can use in your images. You can edit and recolor images or make the background transparent directly in this tool.
4/8/25#imagegeneration#AI#images
·illustration.app·
illustration.app - AI Vector Illustration Generator
Teamed Career Resources Board
Teamed Career Resources Board
Teamed has collected a number of resources for helping instructional designers and others in related roles develop their careers. This includes training, degree programs, resources, coaching, credentials, and more.
3/11/25#instructionaldesign#career
·teamedforlearning.com·
Teamed Career Resources Board
Beyond Cutouts - Issuu
Beyond Cutouts - Issuu
Miranda Verswijvelen shares tips for creating and writing believable characters in interactive stories for learning.
Do not confuse traits with facts. Ages, shoe sizes and job titles do not make an interesting character. Are they impulsive or thoughtful, trusting or suspicious, assertive or passive?
Elements in backstory and traits that really matter for the story need to be released slowly: through flashbacks, dialogue, or actions. This gradual discovery keeps learners intrigued and invested.
3/11/25#storytelling#branchingscenarios#scenario#writing
·issuu.com·
Beyond Cutouts - Issuu
Broadcast and Media Volume 30, Volume 1 (Ultra-realistic media created by biomorphic AI) (2025-01-30)
Broadcast and Media Volume 30, Volume 1 (Ultra-realistic media created by biomorphic AI) (2025-01-30)
This page is in Korean, but you can use Google Translate to read the page. I bookmarked it for the article by Oh Jewook titled "AI-based virtual human-related technology and commercialization." The author used one of my collections of Midjourney images as an example of consistent character images (with citation and permission, of course). Very cool to see my work cited in such a different setting! I never know when I publish a blog post where it might end up being useful to someone else.
3/11/25#AI#imagegeneration
·kibme.org·
Broadcast and Media Volume 30, Volume 1 (Ultra-realistic media created by biomorphic AI) (2025-01-30)
LABS.GOOGLE
LABS.GOOGLE
Google Labs has an "Experiments" page with a collection of AI tools for a variety of purposes. These are very explicitly experimental and probably not ready for production environments. I also expect many of them will disappear later (this is Google, after all--look at their track record). Still, this looks like a fun site to spend some time exploring what tools can do right now.
2/11/25#AI#tools
·labs.google·
LABS.GOOGLE