Upskill, Reskill, Thrive: Optimizing Learning and Development in the Workplace offers readers an accessible guide to understanding and applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to the workplace. Universal Design for Learning is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Using exemplars from across sectors and industries, James McKenna highlights how learning and development professionals can redefine the goals of learning in the corporate environment - not only for the benefit of the organization but also, and perhaps more importantly, for the individual.
Upskill, Reskill, Thrive illustrates how to create and sustain learning and work environments that honor and empower individuals in ways that promote knowledge generation and sharing. This book will help L&D educators and corporate leaders motivate their teams from the inside to improve performance and become part of an inclusive culture across an organization.
About the Author :
James McKenna loves to learn and help others learn and improve. He supports organizations to develop, sustain, and leverage inclusive learning and working ecosystems so that individuals and teams can learn, innovate, and thrive. He is a leader, instructional designer, trainer, and facilitator.James serves as the assistant director of Professional Learning and Leadership Development at the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence and is the founder of McKenna Learning, a learning and development consultancy. He is a regular speaker at national conferences and leads the development of digital resources to support inclusive learning at scale. Previously, James was a consultant, administrator, and special education teacher for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, a musician, a nightclub doorman, and veteran of the United States Navy. In short, he's worn a lot of hats.He received a BA in music from the University of Massachusetts - Boston, an MA in education from the University of Phoenix, and an EdD in education leadership with a focus on education psychology from the University of Southern California. He is also certified as a master instructional designer by the Association for Talent Development (ATD). A native of Revere, Massachusetts, James currently lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife, Janine, and his children, Juliet and Jack. Kendra Grant's first career (and love) was in K-12 education. She was a teacher, teacher-librarian, district special education coordinator, and assistive technology specialist in a large school district. Her second career, as the cofounder and chief education officer for a professional learning company, focused on UDL and technology implementation. Today, in her third career, Kendra's goal is to bring UDL to the workplace. Through intentional, inclusive design, her goal is to help companies move away from one-size-fits-all corporate training to help every employee develop learner expertise and reach their maximum potential. She was senior manager of learning design anddelivery at Walmart, and now is principal of her own L&D practice. Kendra holds a master's of educational technology degree from the University of British Columbia. She is a past president of ISTE's Inclusive Learning Network and was honored to be the recipient of the Outstanding Inclusive Educator award in 2019.
Review :
"McKenna offers a compelling guidebook for utilizing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to create 'expert learners' in your organization -- learners who assess their own capabilities, tailor their own learning opportunities, and fulfill an organizational impact that so often evades traditional training. This isn't about accommodation, but rather enablement. Using UDL to understand and leverage variability across learners--in language, learning differences, disabilities, backgrounds and experience--McKenna outlines the considerable learning science underpinning the framework, and culminates with a detailed guide for applying UDL Guidelines. This is a great entry point to UDL for anybody involved in corporate learning and training." - Denis Saulnier, Director of Digital Learning, Ariel Group
"The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework strongly supports on-the-job learning and skill development. Whether we're six years old or sixty, sitting in a classroom or on a job site, we learn things well when we have reasons to engage, ways to take in new information, and opportunities to practice and take action. ... In Upskill, Reskill, Thrive, James McKenna brings the UDL conversation back to its roots in brain science and the psychology of how humans learn in authentic learning spaces-our workplaces. McKenna's easy-to-follow UDL progression of learners, the environment, neuroscience, emotion, intellect, and strategy will help you to create just-in-time and point-of-need learning, at scale, for the wide variety of learners in your workplace. He relies on his own career in industry, education, and military service, as well as conversations with leaders across the workforce in North America to deliver practical, evidence-based strategies for lowering workplace-learning barriers and making your learning & development efforts smoother, easier to facilitate, and more effective. I strongly recommend this book to every L&D leader." - Thomas J. Tobin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, author of Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone, UDL in Higher Education
"No matter where you are in your UDL journey, from novice to expert, this book will support you as you shift the focus from problems to people. James' unique framing (and explanation) of UDL within the L&D context and his use of personal stories and thoughtful questions and examples will not overwhelm you (or make you feel guilty), but will encourage you to make changes to your corporate learning structure, one countermeasure at a time. You hold both a framework and a heuristic guide that will help you create within your organization a robust learning community that recognizes, celebrates, and leverages the diversity of today's workforce." - From the Foreword by Kendra Grant, former Senior Manager, Learning Design at Walmart
