Much thanks to Karl for guest blogging in January. He not only offered some insightful posts about how "gamification" is affecting the world of learning, he kept us abreast of happenings at ASTD TechKnowledge 2012.

In February, the LC Blog invites Connie Malamed to take the helm. Connie is a frequent contributor to Learning Circuits, and has spoken at several ASTD events about the fields of online learning, information design, and visual communication. She is also the author of Visual Language for Designers, which presents visual design principles that are based on cognitive science. In other words, it explains how to design for the human mind - something that's very important in e-learning.

However, Connie is probably most well-known for The eLearning Coach (http://theelearningcoach.com), which is her own blog where she shares actionable strategies, practical content, product reviews, and resources to help practitioners design, develop, and understand online learning. Indeed, with degrees in Instructional Design and Art Education, she energetically pursues ways to improve instructional and information graphics.

Following Karl's lead, Connie promises to pass along to readers what she learned at ASTD TechKnowledge, as well as lend her thoughts on visual design and discuss current trends in our field.