Tuning in: Taking your attention back 

Your attention is one of the most contested resources in your professional life. Platforms are engineered to capture it. Algorithms decide what you see based on what keeps you scrolling, not what serves your thinking. Information arrives faster than it can be evaluated, and the pressure to stay across all of it is relentless. Most professionals have adapted to this environment as best they can. But we can do better.

Linking Learning Advisory logo featuring a curved connector line with three nodes in teal and blue tones

The questions Linking Learning Advisory aims to answer are: 

What does it look like to do more than adapt? 

What does it look like to engage with information deliberately, critically, and on your own terms?

Behind the scenes at Linking Learning Advisory

My name is Dr Kay Oddone, and welcome to my new consultancy, Linking Learning Advisory. My background is in education and library and information science, and that combination turns out to be unusually useful for the current information environment.

Librarians have been thinking rigorously about how people find, evaluate, and use information for longer than the internet has existed. Educators have been studying how people learn, change their practice, and develop professional judgement across their schooling and into their careers. Twenty-five years of working at that intersection, including a PhD examining how professionals learn through networked environments, has given me the knowledge and experience which I now apply directly through this consultancy practice.

I have worked primarily in education and library contexts, however the challenges are not unique to education. Across sectors, people are managing relentless information volume with few tools for evaluating credibility, inside organisations where professional learning has not caught up with the pace of change. That is exactly the kind of work I do. 

My research publications and presentations and the Linking Learning blog are the public record of my thinking and expertise. They feature a decade of writing and speaking about information, learning, and professional practice, and they evidence where my work is grounded.

What Linking Learning Advisory offers

My consultancy centres on three interconnected areas.

A three-panel graphic featuring white, rounded-corner cards with teal top borders against a textured light beige background. From left to right, each card displays a teal icon and a heading: the first card shows a filter funnel icon above the text "THINKING WELL WITH INFORMATION," the second has a network node icon above "PROFESSIONAL LEARNING THAT WORKS," and the third presents two speech bubbles above "NAVIGATING AI IN PRACTICE."

Helping people think well with information.

Evaluating sources, recognising bias and misinformation, understanding how algorithms shape what we see, and making better decisions under conditions of information overload. These are learnable skills, and they can be built into educational, organisational and institutional cultures, not just individual practice.

Building professional learning that works.

Research into how professionals actually learn reveals consistent patterns. Effective professional learning is networked, self-directed, and connected to real practice. I help people and teams design and develop professional learning with those conditions in place.

Generative AI has changed the information environment faster than most organisations have been able to respond. I help educators, school leaders, and teams develop a principled, practical approach to AI: neither uncritical adoption, nor reflexive avoidance, but informed, evidence-based engagement.

Reclaim the signal

Taking your attention back is not about disconnecting. It is about choosing, deliberately and with good frameworks, what deserves it. That is a skill. It is teachable, and it is the foundation of everything Linking Learning Advisory does.

If you or your organisation is grappling with any of these questions, I would welcome a conversation. The work is most useful when it starts from your specific context rather than a generic solution.

You can explore the ideas further at Linking Learning Advisory, or get in touch directly to discuss what a consultancy engagement might look like for you.

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