Yesterday afternoon I joined two other alumni to talk to the current Capstone class. There are only 7 of them this go around and they’ll be in two sets this semester.
It was comfortable walking back in the School of Ed building and I got winded on the stairs as usual. I always forget that it’s like climbing a mountain to get to the fourth floor. I think somewhere around the second floor the building slides a couple extra flights in there just to be funny.
It was great to hear the stories of the other two alumni and how they worked through their projects…when you are experiencing the project and the class you tend to say the appropriate things. When you’ve been out for one or two years as we were, you are a little more candid. No matter the struggles we experienced we were overwhelmingly positive about the learning experience.
The Capstone class was one of the most difficult because it wasn’t just about the school work. It was about working as a team, working with a client and producing a product and presentation all in 15 weeks. The class pushes you. It’s the perfect wrap-up for the program. It’s like the last lap in a foot race. You think you are going to blow out your knee and your lungs are on fire, but then you cross the finish line and you kind of want to start all over again.
A course I’ve been working on for months was published on Tuesday. I received five pages of comments/suggestions today from a very reliable source. The SME has yet to acknowledge the announcement that the course was published, much less that I’ve received these five pages of changes. She’s checked-out. My supervisor and I decided to review the comments. I have to admit nearly all of them are excellent points and I wish I’d received feedback of this quality months ago. It would have made such a difference.
As it stands, I am making corrections to a course that is three days old. I’ve had to stop the trainer certification process. It’s kind of embarrassing. I suppose I can chalk one up in the Pro column that at least the course wasn’t trained without these comments. I’m not sure which column this falls into, but the SME is not involved in this process at all. My supervisor and I decided she’s no longer helpful and this is the last straw with her inability to be “open” with us. I feel like this is a learning opportunity for her, but it’s also a management issue that our client will have to handle. The person who handed us the comments is in the position to take care of the issue as he works for the client, is in charge of training and is our liaison.
I’m sure nothing will be said to the SME because the important thing is for the course to be the best it can be and there’s a serious time issue related to this course. It must go out NOW! because it is a vital piece in a larger initiative our client is unveiling. I know there are other SMEs that I would call to personally work through this. I would try harder to work on our relationship because they try harder. But, I’m going to let this issue go and not contact the SME. It’s probably not the best call, but it’s the right thing to do with this already politically-charged situation. I’m not sure what I could do to change the way the SME thinks about her involvement with my organization and training in general. She may not be taking advantage of this learning opportunity, but I am. Sometimes I just have to let things go.
I live in Virginia. It’s been a crazy week in the news. I haven’t done a Fridays post in weeks and somehow this song is running around in my head this week. Now it can run around in yours too. Beautiful voices.
I talked to my supervisor today about applying to an Ed.S. program at another university. Ours doesn’t have a program so I had to look elsewhere. I was a little apprehensive about talking to her about it, but I’m not sure why. She was supportive and said she’d write a letter of recommendation for me.
She’s not given to touchy-feely proclamations but she said that she’d sure hate to have to replace me. I take that as a compliment and not as a statement of what a pain the hiring process is for her. She and I have had many discussions on what we each want to do with our professional lives. She has one last child at home and next year the youngest will take off to another city. My supervisor is thinking of taking at least one class but is really leaning to resuming her formal education to pursue a PhD.
I hope we’re able to remain supportive of each other no matter what path opens for each of us. I know I won’t be at my place of employment forever, but I do appreciate how many opportunities I’ve had and do have working there.
This band has a connection to my hometown and this video was shot somewhere in Germany at a Christkindlmarkt. I’ve been to these in a couple of German cities. They are best at night when the whole square is lit up and people are feeling generous and content as they shop. Even though it is cold in Germany in December the gluhwein served in real cups (not that paper throw-away stuff we have here) will help you stay cozy.
There’s one bit of adult language in the video so cranking it up at work may not be the best idea.
It’s probably no surprise that I’m interested in the idea of using social networking to bring learning out of the classroom and into the everyday work environment.
I recently read an article from the bozarthzone on specific tools that can be used to do just that. I think it is wonderful that this round-up of tools is now searchable in one place. I think for folks who are thinking about using Web 2.0 the idea of searching hither and yon may be daunting and this is a step towards solving that issue.
I mentioned several weeks (or is it months?) ago I mailed a SME an article about a company that decided to use social networking to take learning back to the desks of their employees. I haven’t heard if the SME is considering this idea or not, but I still believe it would be a great tool for these new positions that are being created across the state. Folks need to talk to each other; they need sounding boards.
I think what I’d like to find next is a way to “sell” the idea of social networking to a group of people who consider blogs and other tools to be the milieu of slack-jawed yokels typing “First” or worse on YouTube sites.
I figured it was time to break out the bluegrass. I can remember watching Hee Haw as a kid and my northern-born father would make us all sit still and watch Buck Owens and Roy Clark play.
The other day I sent my SME an article from T&D on using social networks to continue learning. The article is in the October “Best Of” edition of the magazine and discusses how Humana used Twitter to expand on learning. I sent it to my SME because she’s in charge of a new way of doing business and one of the initiatives is to have facilitators all across the state. Wouldn’t it be great if they had a virtual place to share ideas?
In the spirit of connection, I occasionally check out Michael Wesch’s digital ethnography site to see what the next generation thinks about the digital world. I found the video below and I think it’s so well done and really points to how we can collaborate and connect with people we may not know, but we share something in common.
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