Splash by iampeas
Taken on July 22, 2006, uploaded July 24, 2006
Well, here it is, my very first blog post! I have been lurking long enough, dipping my toes in with comments to other blogs, sending tweets and in general taking it all in will the social media train pulls out of the station. Luckily, it doesn’t look like it has left just yet….
I suppose the first place to start is who I am and why bother to blog. I consider myself an emerging social media evangelist – still in the minor leagues, but hoping to get to the majors soon! I have long been fascinated with web-based technologies in a variety of guises. I have taught online for many years and have also designed some online courses as well. I am currently working as an instructional designer focusing on sales and leadership course development. I have become a firm believer in the power of social media in the creation ofPersonal Learning Environments (PLEs). Tony Karrer has been a wonderful influence in this regard with his blog on eLearning Technology and more recently on Work Literacy and the skills necessary for a knowledge worker in today’s society. Other influential blogs and bloggers include, Michele Martin’s The Bamboo Project Blog, Alan Levine’s Cog Dog Blog, Clark Aldrich’s Serious Games and Simulations blog, Garr Reynold’s Presentation Zen blog (contributing to the visual learning movement), and Britt Wattwood’s Learning in a Flat World. Britt was instrumental in providing me with a number of resources as well as the simple advice (a la Nike) to just do it. So here I am!
My intention is to use this blog to think about work literacy and social media and how I can help our workers to do their job better in the web2.0 world. I know, I know…who hasn’t heard THAT before. My hope is that my thoughts and ideas can contribute something of value to the blogosphere….but in reality, that is a side benefit to what I expect to gain for myself from thinking about these challenges in a public space. I also hope to gain from fellow bloggers posting comments and ideas to my future posts. Just like the tree that falls in the forest without anyone around, I wonder if anyone has yet to figure out if a blogger blogs and no one comments….will it really make a contribution? I guess we will save that discussion for another day.
So there you have it! My very first blog post in what I hope will become a long and fruitful journey of professional and personal development and a solid contribution to helping the modern knowledge worker make sense of what it takes to succeed in today’s technology enhanced, social media supported world.
Count me in with a thunderous cannonball SPLASH!
