The Things AI Can’t Teach: The Value of Huamnity
Reference:
DeSchryver, M., Henriksen, D., Leahy, S., & Lindsay, S. (2024). Beyond automation: Intrinsically human aspects of creativity in the age of generative AI. Central Michigan University & Arizona State University.
Annotation:
In a world where GenAI is getting better at writing, designing, analyzing, and even “creating,” this article asks a surprisingly grounding question:
What parts of creativity are still fundamentally human and why should we care?
The authors argue that while AI can mimic creative output, it cannot replicate the experience of creativity. They highlight six intrinsically human creative capacities:
Curiosity
Intuition
Mindfulness/Patience
Imagination
Empathy
Embodied Thinking
Each of these capacities is shown to stem from lived experience, emotion, bodily awareness, and cultural or ethical context, things AI cannot meaningfully possess.
The article concludes with a bold call for education and training programs to prioritize these human strengths, especially as workplaces adopt more AI tools. What makes this article compelling for L&D practitioners is how clearly it demonstrates that the deepest forms of learning transfer rely on human senses and embodied cognition, not just content delivery.
Even in corporate e-learning or hybrid training, learners use their:
sense of movement
perception of space
emotional resonance
curiosity-driven discomfort
intuitive pattern recognition
empathetic social awareness
reflective stillness
These are not “nice to have” elements. They are the mechanisms through which information becomes memory, memory becomes understanding, and understanding becomes real-world behavior change. AI can support training, but it cannot replace these body-anchored processes.
The article’s strengths lie in its clear framework of six human creative traits, which provides educators with a practical structure for evaluating AI’s role in learning environments. It also connects theory to real educational practice, offering concrete implications for classrooms and instructional design.
The authors thoughtfully distinguish between AI’s ability to mimic creative outputs and the uniquely human experience of creativity, and they incorporate cultural and embodied perspectives that highlight AI’s current limitations. However, the article can be dense at times, relying heavily on academic theory, which may feel abstract for practitioners seeking immediate application. Its cultural analysis leans largely on Western research, leaving room for broader global insight, and while it acknowledges that AI may evolve toward more human-like traits, it stops short of fully exploring emerging areas such as embodied robotics and multimodal agentic systems.
The article does not explicitly frame creativity in terms of the body’s senses—but it could, and doing so makes the implications for learning transfer even more powerful.
Below is a reframing of the six traits through the lens of innate human sensory faculties, capacities AI cannot authentically replicate.
1. Curiosity → The Sense of “Cognitive Hunger”
Linked to dopamine systems, orientation reflexes, and the brain’s drive toward novelty.
In training, curiosity sparks attention — the first gateway to learning transfer.
2. Intuition → Gut Sense (Interoception) + Pattern Experience
Humans feel intuition physically: tightness, ease, resonance.
AI has no interoceptive system and no lived experiences to shape intuitive judgment.
3. Mindfulness/Patience → Temporal Sensory Awareness
Humans perceive time through emotional and physiological regulation.
Incubation, the moment when learning quietly consolidates, depends on embodied calm, not computational speed.
4. Imagination → Mental Imagery + Visuospatial Processing
When we imagine, sensory cortices light up as if we are seeing or hearing.
AI recombines text and image data but does not experience imagery.
5. Empathy → Emotional Resonance (Affective Sensing)
Humans detect microexpressions, tone, posture, and relational energy unconsciously.
AI can label emotions but cannot feel them or use them for moral discernment.
6. Embodied Thinking → The Entire Sensorimotor System
Creativity is deeply body-based: gesture, movement, rhythm, weight, balance.
These physical cues are essential for problem-solving, skill acquisition, and long-term memory encoding.
New Ways to Engage Remote Learning
Reference:
Dirkin, K., Hain, A., Tolin, M., & McBride, A. (2020). OMMI: Offline MultiModal Instruction. Central Michigan University & Dare County Schools.
Annotation:
If you have ever tried to run training for a decentralized workforce, especially sales teams who seem to always be on the road, you know the struggle. WiFi drops. Airports are loud. Hotel connections crawl. And yet these employees have the greatest need for frequent learning because success in sales depends on constant skill improvement. That is exactly why OMMI jumped out as such a refreshing idea.
The Offline Multimodel Instruction (OMMI) model, originally built to support students without broadband access, is all about sending rich, interactive learning experiences without relying on the Internet. This is done through something called datacasting, which delivers videos, documents, and other multimodal content straight to a device even if the user has zero connectivity.
The fun part of OMMI is how simple but clever it is. Instead of reinventing the wheel, it repurposes everyday tools that already exist on a device to mimic interactive digital learning. Think PowerPoints that behave like mini websites, Word documents with layered clickable elements, and packages of media organized into a weekly learning hub the authors call an anchor document. The whole idea is that offline learning does not have to be boring worksheets. It can be designed to feel interactive and intentional even when it arrives through a one way delivery system.
Now picture how this translates to a remote sales workforce. Sales teams often squeeze learning into airplanes, Uber rides, hotel rooms, and fifteen minute breaks between client visits. They need training that is portable, reliable, self paced, and available without a perfect Internet connection. OMMI offers a way to package skill boosters, micro lessons, role play prompts, and scenario based challenges in a format that they can always access no matter how chaotic their travel schedule gets.
A sales rep could receive a weekly module that includes short videos, interactive exercises built inside slides, and a performance task like drafting a product pitch or analyzing a customer scenario. They do the work offline and upload it whenever they finally get stable connectivity again. This is exactly the kind of system Allegiant Professional Resources can leverage for companies that want to keep their sales staff sharp without forcing everyone into routine Zoom sessions or LMS logins.
Allegiant could design OMMI style modules that mirror the realities of sales work. For example, a “road ready” toolkit for new features, a rapid update package before a product launch, or protocol based reflection activities that help salespeople strengthen their pitch structure and questioning strategies. Because OMMI encourages balanced assessment, Allegiant can design tasks that show real learning instead of relying on simple quizzes. Offline pitch recordings, annotated product sheets, or quick customer mapping exercises can all be part of a multimodal package that requires no WiFi but still drives real capability improvement.
In short, OMMI takes the pressure off connectivity and puts the focus back on learning. For decentralized workforces, especially those with heavy travel demands, this approach can make professional development feel more accessible and more human. And for Allegiant, OMMI opens up a path to deliver high quality learning experiences that follow salespeople wherever the job takes them.
Building the Path to Innovative Employees
Reference:
Glăveanu, V. P. (2020). A sociocultural theory of creativity: Bridging the social, the material, and the psychological. Review of General Psychology, 24(4), 335–354.
Annotation:
Glăveanu advances a comprehensive sociocultural theory of creativity that moves beyond individualistic models and instead situates creativity within the dynamic interplay of social context, material environments, embodied action, and cultural tools. The article challenges traditional cognitive-only explanations and proposes the Perspective–Affordance Theory (PAT), emphasizing that creativity emerges when people shift perspectives, engage with others, explore alternative ways of acting, and perceive new affordances in their environment. Creativity is framed not as an innate trait but as a relational, developmental, and context-dependent process shaped by interactions, dialogue, and the physical tools and spaces individuals work within.
Glăveanu’s framework is particularly valuable for the professional development sector because it recognizes that learning and creative problem-solving are highly dependent on context, tools, and modes of interaction, all of which can be barriers or catalysts for neurodivergent employees. The article subtly highlights how creativity is fostered through multiple perspectives, flexibility in interactions, and diverse ways of engaging with material environments, which aligns strongly with the learning needs of neurodivergent adults who may process information differently or thrive with alternative formats of communication and collaboration.
In asynchronous and hybrid work environments, where many neurodivergent employees may struggle with reduced social cues, inconsistent feedback loops, or rigid digital tools, Glăveanu’s emphasis on dialogue, affordances, and repositioning directly supports the need for more adaptive learning structures. His theory reinforces that employees learn best when they engage with materials hands-on, have opportunities to shift roles, and when learning platforms allow for exploration rather than one standardized pathway. These insights provide an evidence-based rationale for designing multi-modal, flexible professional development experiences that accommodate varied cognitive styles.
Allegiant Professional Resources focuses on helping companies elevate employee skills through inclusive, targeted professional development. Glăveanu’s work provides a strong theoretical grounding for Allegiant’s approach by illustrating that meaningful learning, particularly for neurodivergent adults, requires environments that support varied perspectives, adaptive tools, and opportunities for creative interaction rather than one-size-fits-all instruction.
His theory supports Allegiant’s efforts to:
build learning programs that incorporate multiple modes of engagement,
design asynchronous content with clear affordances that help learners explore and self-direct,
create social learning opportunities that allow for perspective-sharing without overwhelming participants,
and guide employers in crafting hybrid work/learning environments that reduce barriers for neurodivergent thinkers.
Overall, Glăveanu’s sociocultural perspective offers a research-backed justification for Allegiant’s mission to create flexible, inclusive, creativity-enhancing professional development pathways that improve skill-building outcomes for all employees, regardless of neurotype.
Can Feedback Elevate the Quality of Online Learning?
Reference:
Ertmer, P. A., Richardson, J. C., Belland, B., Camin, D., Connolly, P., Coulthard, G., Lei, K., & Mong, C. (2007). Using peer feedback to enhance the quality of student online postings: An exploratory study. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 412–433. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00331.x
Annotation:
Ertmer et al. (2007) explores whether structured peer feedback can sustain or improve the quality of graduate students’ online discussion posts in a fully online course. Using Bloom’s taxonomy as a scoring rubric, the authors examined students’ perceptions of both giving and receiving feedback and measured changes in posting quality over time. Although peer feedback did not significantly increase scores, it successfully maintained quality levels and fostered deeper reflection, metacognition, and engagement. Students valued instructor feedback more but acknowledged peer feedback as a meaningful mechanism for clarifying thinking, validating ideas, and reinforcing learning.
Ertmer et al. (2007) offer a carefully structured and methodologically transparent case study, especially notable for using a variety of tools like surveys, interviews, and rubric-based scoring. By adopting Bloom’s taxonomy as a consistent evaluation framework, the authors ensured a high degree of face validity, which is something often missing in online-learning research. A major strength lies in how they operationalized “quality” through observable cognitive indicators, rather than relying on self-reports alone. Their mixed-methods approach allowed them to capture both the stability of posting quality (quantitative) and the rich internal reasoning students engaged in while giving feedback (qualitative).
The study’s clarity in describing its procedures, anonymity protections, and reliability checks makes it replicable and trustworthy. Moreover, the article’s discussion is unusually candid about logistical constraints, like delayed feedback cycles, showing an awareness of the real-world instructional design challenges that L&D professionals regularly navigate. Overall, the study stands out for its practical applicability and its nuanced treatment of peer review as both a cognitive and social learning tool.
For Allegiant Professional Resources, where our mission is to elevate workforce learning outcomes for clients and consumers, this study reinforces a core truth: learning quality improves when learners actively evaluate and articulate understanding, not just consume content. Ertmer et al.’s insights support our belief that learning frameworks must move beyond passive LMS modules or gamified environments that prioritize activity over cognition. Giving feedback deepens learning more than receiving it and this study helps us further understand the dynamics of learning to better design effective training programs. Allegiant’s vision for a next-generation corporate learning architecture that uses reflective, socially driven, neurologically aligned pathways to strengthen memory, decision-making, and skill transfer.
As we build frameworks that tailor learning to cognitive profiles, peer-based scaffolding can become a powerful differentiator: it honors neurodiverse strengths such as pattern recognition, deep analysis, or verbal reasoning while fostering equitable, inclusive knowledge construction. This article directly informs the L&D ecosystems we design for clients, where meaningful interaction, self-assessment, and cognitive challenge become cornerstones of higher retention and real-world performance.
Applying Activity Theory to Transform Learning Impact
Reference:
Marroquín, E. M. (2025). Activity theory as framework for analysis of workplace learning in the context of technological change. Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences, Elsevier.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.later.2025.1000083
Annotation:
The rise of AI has happened faster than businesses and experts can adapt to the changes it has inevitably caused. Marroquín (2025) explores how Activity Theory can serve as a powerful framework for understanding how workplace learning evolves within technologically mediated environments. The author argues that as artificial intelligence and automation transform job functions, learning must be viewed not as a discrete event but as an integral part of the work activity system (comprising tools, rules, roles, community, and the object of work).
Rather than focusing on isolated training sessions, the study suggests that learning occurs through the contradictions and adaptations that arise as employees interact with new tools and changing structures. By examining these tensions, the article highlights how organizational learning can drive systemic transformation and measurable performance outcomes making this incredibly relevant to the field of organizational development.
Marroquin’s use of Activity Theory offers a rich, systems-level analysis that transcends traditional learning frameworks focused on individual cognition. The methodology draws on the framework’s core elements such as mediation, contradictions, and expansive learning which provides a structured yet flexible lens to analyze real-world complexity in workplace settings.
The strength of this article lies in its integration of theory and practice: it effectively links conceptual depth with practical implications for managing learning in AI-enabled environments. At Allegiant Professional Resources, our learning and development initiatives echo Marroquin’s perspective: learning is only valuable if it changes work outcomes. We’ve moved away from counting inputs such as “2 hours of training completed” or “5,000 skills tagged” and instead focus on impact measures, such as reduced error rates, faster cycle times, or improved decision accuracy after interventions.
Activity Theory helps us trace how those results occur by analyzing the full activity system like what tools employees use, which rules or norms guide their work, how their roles interact, and what the shared object of their activity is. When contradictions emerge (for example, when a new AI dashboard changes reporting workflows), we view them as learning opportunities rather than inefficiencies. Marroquín’s work reinforces our philosophy that training is not the outcome but instead - performance improvement is. It provides a theoretical foundation for measuring not activity, but transformation within the work system, a principle that continues to shape Allegiant’s evidence-based approach to organizational learning and impact measurement.