All The World's A-Twitter

I've succumbed to Twitter.

After reading Jane Hart's article Understanding Today's Learner, I realized I'd better be walking the talk and trying out all the hot new "learning" tools.

So Wednesday, I signed up. Within minutes, I was greeted by a number of people. That sort of freaked me out and I momentarily panicked -- how do I reply back and just how did they find me so fast? (oh, yeah, I decided to "follow them" and they got an email from Twitter).

Sue Waters sent me off to a great post she'd written on getting started with Twitter.

Within 34 minutes, I was a pro. Sort of. Not a bad start-up time, if I do say so myself.

Like Tracy Hamilton, I'm enjoying the endless thought streams. I know that Karyn Romeis has a cold. That Janet Clarey and Clark Quinn were watching the vice-presidential debate last night.

I'm having fun hearing the stream of people's activities and thoughts ("ambient intimacy"), but is that all there is to it?

SoulSoup sent me a link to a post he'd worked up on Twitter for business.

It feels endless now -- all the places I need to go to keep in touch with my peeps: my phone, my email account (Outlook for work, gmail for life); Facebook; Google Reader; Twitter. I know people consolidate and slim down (Brent, for instance), but I'm not sure I'm ready for that challenge.

I'll let you know what I decide.

How 'bout you? Do you Twitter? Why? Why not?

I'm cammybean on Twitter.

Testing Twitter Feed

Just testing folks. Move along. There's nothing to see here.

Blogging the Personal

Janet Clarey's recent post On Growing Facial Hair is right up my alley of interest. But frankly, I have nothing interesting to add to the conversation.

In fact, I've had very little of interest to add to any conversation of late, mostly because I'm much more focused on my personal life and the many transitions I'm handling there. If I were to blog it all, we'd be WAY off the topic of instructional design.

If the women bloggers who make Zaid's next list are the ones who don't interject their personal lives into their blogs (ala Cathy Moore as reported to Michelle Martin), then I don't think I'll make that list. Which is fine. Really. Blogging's not a contest...

But personally, I like the personal. And yet, I also like my boundaries.

Of course, I do see some connections that bridge the gap between my personal and professional lives:

• My 3 and 5 year old kids are at the end of their first month of Montessori school. I'd love to apply Montessori principals to eLearning instructional design.
• My son is really into his Wii. We've had to find some more age-appropriate games than Super Smash Brothers and the like. Recently discovered Endless Ocean. You're a scuba diver exploring different dive spots in a fictional spot in the South Pacific. Awesome experiential game. Kind of like Second Life in how open the environment is, but there are challenges and a bit of a story woven into that keep it a game. Plus, swimming around with whales is really cool.

So. This is me trying to get my blogging energy back.

Connectivism: Week 1

With little time these days, I'll be auditing the auditor's version of the 12 week Connectivism course happening now. I haven't signed up anywhere, I haven't taken part in any of the sessions, but I'm like a moth drawn to the flame: as I peer in on all the conversation beginning to happen, I can't help but join in. In my own lazy way, at the very least.

• Am I creating a new pattern?
• Am I growing new knowledge? (As opposed to building it?) See Christy Tucker's musings on this topic: Does Learning Grow or is it Built?.

As I sift through this week's reading assignments, I'm trying to pick out how this learning theory effects my work as a creator (an instructional designer) of self-paced eLearning experiences for the corporate market. (Justifying why I might spend my time doing this...filtering this info through my own context in order to create patterns that make sense to me and can be applied to me...)

Little nuggets that stand out to me:

George Siemens writes, in Connectivism: Learning Theory or Pastime of the Self-Amused?:

Educators today face challenges relating to: (a) defining what learning is, (b) defining the process of learning in a digital age, (c) aligning curriculum and teaching with learning and higher level development needs of society (the quest to become better people), and (d) reframing the discussion to lay the foundation for transformative education—one where technology is the enabler of new means of learning, thinking, and being. (p. 9)

Stephen Downes (What Connectivism Is) talks about the role of the teacher = model and demo; the role of the learner = practice and reflection. The best self-paced eLearning does this well, providing scenario-based learning and demos with plenty of opportunity for reflection and practice.

More on this later?

Technorati Tags: connectivisim,CCK08

Instructional Designers with ID Degrees? Survey Results...

The great thing about blogs is that you don't even have to be around, and people still come visiting. I haven't posted in ages (hoping this will start to change as my work-life settles back in), but responses are still coming in to my survey.

As of today, 166 instructional designers have responded to the survey: Do You Have a Degree in ID?

About 34% of instructional designers have an advanced degree in ID. And 66% of us don't.

As reported earlier, there continues to be a wide range of backgrounds for IDers, mostly in the liberal arts.

Take the survey now.

View the latest survey results here.

In Loving Memory of My Father

Captain Robert M. Morrison (USN Ret.)

January 20, 1933 - August 18, 2008

Back to Work

Monday was my first day back to work after almost three months. I put in a nice five hour effort, appearing on site at our new office space. Citrus colored walls, big windows that let the sun pour in. Not too bad.

So. What have I been doing all that time? Enjoying the best summer vacation/maternity leave of my life. My husband is a stay-at-home-dad, so we had the benefit of two parents home all summer with the kids. And a completely mellow baby, who appears to be a good sleeper. The way it should be!

I did this:










A lot of this:










Some pleasure reading, which included 50% of the complete works of Jane Austen (that's three novels...but no, I'm no Janeite), Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Michael Pollan's The Ominivore's Dilemma (which only took me about four months to read, but was well worth it), Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, and Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father (still in progress, but summer ain't over).

A bit of gardening. Tomatoes every night this week!

Finished up some lingering sewing projects (and yes, I did finish that baby blanket I started knitting last winter).

Baked a lot of cookies.

I have thought surprisingly little about things eLearning and instructional design, although probably more than you would think.

I've got a fresh and open mind. Committed to enjoying my work -- 'cuz if I don't enjoy the time that I have to be away from my family, then it would just be hell, wouldn't it?

Expect to start hearing from me again, although probably in spurts and dribbles.