I’ve been freelancing now for eight months and it’s been an interesting journey. By no means did I think the move from full-time salaried employment to one where you didn’t know where the next job was coming from was going to be easy. I anticipated that I was going to experience the full range of emotions. Elation […]
First Reflections of a Social Learning Program
Okay, in the spirit of trying something different, rather than blog my reflections, I’ll record them. One of my goals for 2015 was to experiment more with video – but don’t get ahead of yourselves thinking that I’m going to be the next Oliver Stone or something like that. If anything, I’m just dabbling with the […]
The Newest Group of Friends in the Oldest Pub in Melbourne
Last night a large group of members from Third Place met at the Duke of Wellington pub in Melbourne for dinner and a catch up. Third Place is a social networking, learning and co-working group I founded in September 2013 for anyone interested in learning regardless of the industry or profession they are from. There […]
A Visit to Business Networking International
This morning I attended a breakfast for visitors to the Business Networking International club in the local area. Some years ago, I came across this global networking club through Rotary. At the time I was researching on industry and business in my local area and created a program to connect more business with social responsibility through community […]
How I Developed the Work, Connect and Learn Program – A Social Learning Program
It’s now getting towards the pointy end in preparation to deliver the Work, Connect and Learn Program for Coca Cola Amatil and it’s fair to say, that I’m getting quite excited. I have been working with this client since late last year to analyse performance needs and develop a strategy and a solution that would enable their […]
cMOOC, Social Learning Guided Design or Community of Inquiry – All The Same?
This week I started a cMOOC called Exploring Innovations in Networked Work and Learning where we will explore the four models of learning and how they can be applied in the workplace. These are: Networked learning Personal learning networks MOOCs Communities of Inquiry Our first task of the week was to either: Option 1: Explore […]
January – A Month of Books & Back Pain
What I have Been Working On? My main achievement was completing the development of 4 modules of the Work, Connect and Learn Program for Coca Cola Amatil. This took me over 8 weeks to complete with various edits and version controls as well as exploring and learning more about SharePoint 2013 and Lync. This project […]
What’s Your 100 Year Vision?
This year I started a 12 month business coaching development program through David Guest Business Coaching Solutions. I figured after 24 years of working for someone else, now as a freelancer, it was time to invest in personal development that took me out of my comfort zone. If freelancing wasn’t risky enough, I needed to have someone […]
How Working, Connecting and Learning Is Like Driving a Car
Last week I had an opportunity to work with Michelle Ockers who had travelled down from Sydney for work. We caught up at the co-working space at the NAB Village to go through some final editing to four of the modules of the Work, Connect and Learn Program. The Work, Connect and Learn Program is a social learning guided […]
Here’s One Way To Save Your Back
For the last two weeks, the frivolous tones of my tweets were hiding the pain that I was experiencing with my lower back. Oh, what possessed me to move that heavy pot plant of my treasured coriander and dropped it – and abruptly bent my back with it? I spent a few days on the […]
An Open Course in Exploring Innovations in Networked Work and Learning
Back in 2013 I participated in an open course (cMOOC) in Exploring Personal Learning Networks through Northwestern University Master’s Program Learning & Organisational Change run by Jeff Merrell. One of the standout features of this course was not only the excellent reference material on PLNs (which I still refer to) but that it made me […]
In the end, they’re just tools…
The last few weeks have been busy as the silly season wound down and the focus was to get back to work and look forward to 2015. I’ve been mindful that I haven’t been blogging as frequently and instead, my time being taken up with client work, catching up with reading of articles on the […]
Part 3 of a Social Onboarding Case Study
Over the last year, I have been writing a case study of an Onboarding Program I developed for a financial service organisation Retail Store Managers (Branch Managers) in 2014. The onboarding program used a blended learning approach that had different audiences; specific learning, communication and change management needs as well as delivered the program and associated […]
The Giving of Freedom
A story 8 days ago: It was the last working week for the year, and I was about to leave the house for a hectic day of deadlines. I’d planned to go in earlier than usual to get a head start on things I had to do. But…just as I was about to head out the […]
My Top Posts for 2014
There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same […]
Rhetoric on Marketing and Greek Philosophy
Last night I picked up a copy of Aristotle’s Ethics that was on our dining table and flicked through to Book 4 on “Other Moral Virtues” in particularly, the section in 1127b4-24 titled “The boaster or exaggerator”. (I don’t want to give you the idea that I have philosophy books casually discarded around the house. […]
End of the Year Review
Every year I write some professional and personal goals to achieve by the end of the year. It was no different for 2014. Professionally, it was a big year for me so I’m happy how things have transpired. Professional Goals And Here Are the Results for 2014! Activate Activate Learning Solutions Check. Quit Full Time Work. […]
Work, Connect and Learn Program: The Strategy Phase
I am currently working with a client, Coca Cola Amatil (CCA) to design a social learning guided experience (or a cMOOC by any other name) for their engineers and maintenance staff to be rolled out as a program in February 2015. You can read more about the introduction to this program in my previous blog […]
What Will Your 2015 Look Like?
Last year I stumbled upon this great concept called Blog Secret Santa. The idea is that you register on the website to gift a post to someone’s blog and in return, you get a post placed onto your blog. On the 5th of December, you ‘ll find out who you’re writing for. Before Christmas Day, […]
A Way To Work, Connect and Learn in Your Job
Many who have been following my blog, know my love of MOOCs – the connectivist kind. Having completed many of them in the past few years, they have been instrumental in my broadening my own personal learning networks (PLN) but also giving me the confidence to use, explore, play and apply different social tools in my work. (If […]