Twitter, Facebook, Yammer, LinkedIn Oh My

I've been experiementing with all these social networking tools over the past few months.
I'm still not sure if they have actually helped in my personal and professional development but they sure are fun and time consuming. I created a twitter account so I could tweat during several training sessions I've been taking on iCohere platform. I found it intriguing to type my ideas and read those of others while taking the online sessions. But I haven't really gone back to the ideas for any real purpose yet. Will I? I don't know. I do check the account to see what others are posting and have found some interesting information and somewhat relevant to my profession but again time consuming.
Yammer is the platform we are using at work for internal social networking and again I find out it intriguing yet distracting at the same time and having messages sent to my email box was a big mistake as I get way too many already. This became something I rarely use fairly quickly.
LinkedIn groups are great. Lots of relevant discussion to follow and a great networking tool.
Facebook has been a purely personal investigation. I'm not using this for professional purposes at all and yet it fullfills a missing part of my life--socialization friends and family that I hardly ever find time to see. It has been a great way to connect and stay connected and believe it or not it makes our face to face meetings more enjoyable because we already know the basics of everyones day to day lives.
Finding a balance for the right amount of time to spend reviewing and contributing to these social networking tools is challenging. Finding value in the tools is easy. Finding an effective way to use the tools is not so easy.
More to come......

Color Theory

Investigating color theory to help inspire new color palette for elearning course I'm working on.

Best Practices in Certification Training

Great article in Training Industry Quarterly

ISD principles for a dry technical topic

I am working on a web program which discusses the anatomy of swallowing and how it applies to a clinical or instrumental exam. It has been a challenge not to make the program feel like the reading of a text book. Weaving pratical information throughout has been critical. But I'm thinking that some sort of interesting cartoon narrative throughout might make this dry topic a little more entertaining.

Computer Musuem

If you are interested in the history of computers you should check out the Computer Musuem that System Source has started. The company is located in Hunt Valley, Maryland and provides great AV Presentation services as well.
Enjoy!

Twitter as a Learning Tool Article

Intersting article

ASTD Learning Circuits---
Savvy trainers are using micro-blogging to foster informal learning and meet likeminded peers.

Association Webinars Abound

Working in an association for almost three years has helped me realize that the non profit sector really is broken down into many subsectors. I'm trying to gain a better understanding of the association sector and somehow have made it onto the email list for webinars about business strategies specific to associations. I'll list them below and keep updating as I receive.



The Nondues Revenue Expert
http://www.nonduesrevenueexperts.com/
latest offering: 6 Ways to Laugh in the Face of Recession and Build Member Loyalty At the Same Time



Boston Conferencing
Association Innovation Webinar Series
http://www.bostonconferencing.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=709&Itemid=144&mid=0