I recently listened to a podcast with Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi. Roberts was asked about the use of Social Networking Sites. He stated that in order to fully understand the consumer, it was necessary to develop great insight and foresight into their behaviors. Roberts emphasized the importance of being creative, forward thinking, and acting before the competition. He implied that Social Networking sites should be recognized as valuable because they offer so much insight into consumer behavior. The interview ended with a discussion about the importance of being innovative. “It’s all about getting to the future first.”

The Brandon Hall Conference, entitled “Innovations in Learning”, focused on the use of Web 2.0. Companies such as Intel, Sun Microsystems and IBM are building Wikis, social networking sites, and Second Life. More corporations need to embrace Web 2.0 technologies to be innovative and current. Employees are using these technologies at home to communicate, save time, learn and keep in touch. Why not offer the same opportunity to communicate, save time, learn, and build networks on the job?

One of the highlights of the Brandon Hall conference, was a full day pre-conference workshop called “Visualization in Learning - Approaches, Tools, and Applications to Improve Effectiveness”. The session was primarily facilitated by Tom Crawford of VizThink, www.vizthink.com.  Tom was assisted by Christine Martell of VisualsSpeak www.christinemartell.com. Christine ran a highly engaging activity which had the participants use kits of photographs to build stories. Tom ran an activity in which he had the participants use post-it notes to brainstorm outlining a course on the popular tale of the three pigs and the wolf.  Both of the activities used very basic techniques for teams to design instruction creatively, quickly, and effectively.

·   Why did you start blogging?

·   Did you think about what you wanted your blog to be about?

·   What were your goals when you started blogging?

·   What are your goals now? changed?

·   How (if at all) has blogging changed you?

·   Do you set any ground rules? (personal information, language, etc.)

·   What platform do you use? hosted free or host yourself?

·   Do you have any technical advice? (SEO, linking, tagging, etc.)

·   How do you connect with your readers and commentors?

·   How much time do you spend blogging?

·   What did you give up to make time for blogging?

·   Do you have to deal with sexism and if so, how do you handle that?

·   Do you think that being a woman impacts how you blog? Do you think there’s a difference between how men and women approach blogging?

·   What keeps you blogging?

·   How do you re-engage after periods of not making time to blog?

·   Do you have women bloggers you particularly admire? Why?

·   Do you have more women subscribed to your blog than men?

·   Do you promote that your blog relates to womens views?

·   How do you decide what to blog about?

Here is a list of women bloggers who participated in facilitating the conference. I hope you find them as interesting as I have found them to be.

Janet Clarey

http://brandon-hall.com/janetclarey/

Michele Martin

http://michelemartin.typepad.com/

Christine Martell

http://www.christinemartell.com/

Kristina Schneider

http://technogenii.wordpress.com/

Emma King

http://www.brandon-hall.com/emmaking/

Cathy Moore

http://blog.cathy-moore.com/?page_id=2

My undergraduate degree is in Fine Arts. My drawing, painting, glass blowing, printmaking, and pottery classes were all taught using the constructivist approach. The professors didn’t focus on how to use charcoal, pastels, paint or the like, they taught us to experiment with them and to make them our own. They also taught us to ask questions, to look at color, darkness and light, and how to truly see. We were taught to express ourselves through our art and to experience the entire process. We had “critiques” where we would evaluate one an-others work. This was all a process that came to life through sharing and participating in a learner centered experience. This constructivist class has reminded me of my experience in art school. My classmates have been very open to discussion and willingness to share their thoughts and feelings. It is so refreshing to be in a class that’s focus is to think outside that little box.  This is my final class in the program. It couldn’t be more appropriate. I have come full circle.

I am finding this very challenging to get started. I feel very vulnerable posting my thoughts in such a worldwide forum. I haven’t viewed many blogs, but the ones that I have read are very interesting and inspirational. It is a lot to live up to!

For now, I am mostly going to use this blog to write about the Designing Constructivist Learning Environments class that I am taking. I have wanted to begin to blog so this is a perfect opportunity to do so.

Today I needed to observe classroom training. Within the first half hour, the trainer had the class watch a 5-minute video on the web about concept mapping. I didn’t feel or observe that the learners were able to understand the point of watching the video. At the end, the trainer expressed how cool she thought the video was and then quickly stated that she hoped it helped them with how they would be expected to take notes during the class. This scenario made me immediately think about what Dr. Ackerman had expressed in class. Class was speaking about the icebreaker activity that Dr. Ackerman had designed. We were all talking it through and about the necessity to debrief all classroom exercises so the learners are able to really understand the activity, make a connection and to further impact learning. I am not a trainer, and I don’t have the experience writing instructor lead training so this is a learning experience for me. However, I was able to see very clearly the importance of debriefing the activity. I think that using a constructivist approach would be really helpful in this case. The next time that this video is used I believe that the trainer should set-up exercises, create a more learner centered experience and always debrief.

One of the really valuable things that I have gotten out of Penn State is collaborating with my colleagues on projects. I have been able to keep more up-to-date in terms of technology. It has also been great to share classes with K-12 teachers. They are using technology that is light speed ahead of the corporate environment. We are all connected. Each year the K-12 teachers pass on their students to higher learning institutions and to the corporate world. We need to be prepared and ready for the expectations and ways in which these students have been learning. Here is a link to a video by Michael Wesch, Digital Ethnographer from U of Kansas. He also created the Machine is Us/ing us.  This may give us an idea as to what these learners may very well be thinking when entering the corporate environment.