★ Jesse Philipsen ★

Every week there's a new AI tool that's going to "revolutionise learning." Every week I ask the same question: what problem were you trying to solve?

Don't get me wrong — I love technology. I've been messing around with computers since I booted DOS from a 5.25" floppy. But there's a difference between technology that solves a real, observed problem and technology that creates a solution looking for a home.

My rule of thumb: if you can't explain the problem in one sentence without using the word "innovation" — you probably don't have a problem yet. And that's fine. Just don't sell it as a revolution.

People are sometimes surprised to hear I studied biology before ending up in e-learning. But honestly? It makes perfect sense.

Biology is about systems — how parts interact, how organisms adapt, how information flows. Learning works the same way. A course isn't a document. It's an ecosystem. And if you design it like a document — front to back, information in, test at the end — you'll get the same result as throwing seeds on concrete.

The best LMS implementations I've ever done weren't about the platform. They were about understanding how people in that organisation actually learn — and building around that.

My first PC was an IBM 386. I was absolutely convinced it was the most powerful machine in existence. It took me three days to figure out how to run a game from DOS without it crashing. Three days. I was hooked for life.

There's something about that era that I think shaped how I work: you had to understand what you were doing. You couldn't just click around until something worked. You had to read, think, experiment, fail, and try again.

Honestly? That's still my favourite way to learn anything.