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