Challenging 2009!

It is the time year when year end accomplishments are on our mind. This was a challenging year of heavy workloads, watching pennies and closely monitoring sales at ASHA. Being part of the recession in an association environment has been a interesting endeavor. We antcipated a defeciet budget and planned on making it using our reserves. But we actually are almost to the break even level and the last ten days of the year are actually usually very high in terms of sales. So we could actually end the year in the black! Strategies involved watching every penny you spend even on things post-its and pencils. If it could wait till 2010 then wait. If you think you could do it yourself and not use a vendor then try it. This worked for almost everything this year and it paid off!

Cool Introduction to the ISD process

Edutainment Media has a really interesting intro that explains their company's purpose and the ISD process at the same time.

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

Non-Profits and Web 2.0

Good Webinar!
How non-profit organizations are using Web 2.0 to attract, inform, engage and serve online communities
Description: Panelists discussed how you can use Web 2.0 to achieve benefits like building communities that mobilize volunteers and doors, maintaining control of your message while enhancing overall brand reputation, and using Web Content Management (WCM) to aggregate and deliver highly personalized content.

project development and life

Sometimes your personal life provides insight into your professional life. Here's the inspiration for my post today.
"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward."
I'm working on a web program that has been plagued with issues from the very beginning. It begin with heated discussions in the narrowing of the scope and evolved into securing an SME and then investigation into format delivery type. Recordings went badly as there were ground issues in the electrical plug in the room and video clips were never secured. After solving many many many issues and many many many months later and we are on the verge of completion. At this point I'm already looking back at the project for lessons learned. And I thought wow that quote really applies to this project.
It took so long to complete because life had to continue forward-- by this I mean that projects on the current project plan had to be completed and this one had to fit in whenever there was down time (which where I work doesn't happen often). And this project couldn't be understood without looking back at it. It's easy to see the pitfalls in reverse.
Just a thought.

US Stimulus Package and Training

Well it seems like there is a lot of talk about the amount of money that is going to be devoted to training in the US Stimulus Package. ASTD has posted a document summarizing the information and a new linked in group FEDERAL BIZ Network-American Government Stimulus Teaming Jobs Contracts Funding Sales Opportunities and one of my friends is asking me if I want to write a grant to get some of the "training" money.
Despite all the buzz I'm wondering how long it will actually take for this training money to actually produce a better workforce and the potential for more jobs. It should be a slow yet interesting ride!

Webinars Everywhere!

I receive lots of emails about Free Webinars. I'm going to start a list to keep track of all of them. This post will be the first of many that I probably will then pull out into it's own list. I'd love feedback on the quality of these Free Webinars.


KRM Information Services
On Demand Recording: "Pitfalls Marketing Non-Dues Revenue Webinars in This Economy"

Netspeed Learning Solutions
One every month: Live and very limited attendance, usually only 50 so logon early!
March 19, 2009 The New Blend: Effective Virtual Learning In and Out of the Classroom

February 10, 2009 The Virtual Facilitator: Creating Collaborative Learning Experiences Online
Two collegues reported to me that they could not logon even though they registered. Let me know if others had a problem.

iCohere Free Webinars
Live
Various Topics and Dates in February and March 2009
Online Conferences —Moving Beyond Webinars
Communities of Practice & Online Events — Tips for Success
Collaborative eLearning — Student Interactions Increase Learning
Web 2.0 for Beginners – An Introduction to the New Internet

Brandon Hall
2/25/09 Multi-Generational Learning in the Workforce: Overview and Instructional Design Considerations


Avenue Z Writing Solutions
Provides information about Free and Low Cost Tools for your Organization
Contains a list of seminars and maintains two great blogs
2/10/09 Seminar was good! A little clunky to join the meeting but the content was helpful.

iLinc
Various events and webinars both live and on-demand recordings available
2/17/2009 Marketing Sideways to Succeed at Social Media

GeoLearning
Various events and webinars as well as archives of all their webinars
To get to the archives go to events page and choose Free Tools, in the drop down you'll find Webinar Archives which will pull up a menu with all the names.
I receive a newsletter each month from them listing the live events.

Conferences, Conferences, Conferences!

Is it me or is there an overwhelming amount of information about upcoming conferences. I guess they know we are thinking about our education plans for 2009.

I have to say I'm sorry I missed the first virtual ASTD TechKnowledge Conference but time just slipped away before I knew it. Here's my list of upcoming conferences that sound great!

Training 2009 Conference & Expo February 9-11, Atlanta Georgia

Using Social Brain Research To Enhance Learning February 19-21, San Francisco California

Articulate Live '09 March 9, Orlando Florida

eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 2009 March 10-13, Orlando Florida

IMPACT 2009: The Business of Talent April 14-16, St. Petersburg Florida

ASTD International Conference & Exposition May 31 - June 3, Washington D.C.



Tony Karrer has a great blog post for those interested in conference geared toward eLearning techonology http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2009/01/elearning-conferences.html



Let me know if you know of others.

Welcome!

I am excited about creating my first post on my new blog. I have been blogging since 2005 to follow trends involved in instructional technology. It began as a project for my graduate work in Instructional System Development and continuted as I transistioned from a job focusing on training technology into one that focused on instructional design and elearning.
This blog will explore training theories, practices, technology and trends as my journey continues in instructional design.
I look forward to sharing my experiences and hope you that it will spark ideas and conversations for others in the field!

Just in case you want to see the archives from my Instructional Technology blog from 2005 through 2008, you can find it at http://mtlinstructionaltech.blogspot.com/

Michele