The MALAT Virtual Symposium sessions provided me with a valuable opportunity to critically reflect on various practices in digital learning environments. One of the first sessions I attended was Mary Burgess’s on neurodiversity and inclusion, which in a way reminded me of a neuro-lingustic programming book I was gifted in the early 2000s, entitled “In Your Hands,” by Jane Revell and Susan Norman. As an ESL instructor at the time, I was fascinated by its focus on communication, learner engagement, and the psychology of language learning. At first glance, Burgess’s (2026) session and Revell and Norman’s (2000) NLP book seem to belong to completely different worlds. However, for me, there is a strong conceptual connection between them, especially around human-centred design, agency, and the role of tools in learning and performance.
In Burgess’s (2026) session, Visual Studio 2026 is framed as a tool that should be lovable. One that removes friction so developers can focus on thinking, creating, experimenting, and solving problems. The emphasis is not on the tool per se, but on how it supports human cognition and productivity. Revell and Norman’s (2000) approach to NLP is designed to help learners access their own internal resources, where the teacher facilitates conditions so learners can think more clearly, engage more deeply, and take ownership of their learning. This emphasis on reducing cognitive barriers and supporting meaningful engagement reflects broader research on cognitive load, which suggests that learning is more effective when unnecessary mental effort is minimized, and attention can be directed toward deeper processing (Sweller, 1988).
I also make a connection of this perspective with the idea of openness in digital learning environments, which emphasize flexibility, accessibiity, learner agency, and collaborative learning. Open learning environments are also designed to remove structural and cognitive barriers, allowing learners to engage with content in ways that are meaningful to them, at their own pace, and according to their needs (Wiley & Hilton, 2018). Much like the ‘frictionless’ experience that Burgess (2026) described and the learner-centred facilitation in Revell and Norman’s (2000) work, openness prioritizes adaptability and empowerment, providing pathways to more inclusive, customizable, and participatory experiences, reinforcing the central idea that efective educational environments, whether digital or not, are those designed around human needs.
References:
Revell, J., & Norman, S. (2000). In your hands: NLP in ELT (Reprinted). Saffire Press.
Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive Load During Problem Solving: Effects on Learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1202_4
Wiley, D., & Hilton Iii, J. L. (2018). Defining OER-Enabled Pedagogy. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 19(4). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i4.3601