Last week @Matt Guyan and I had a short Twitter conversation on a recent blog post I wrote about Social Onboarding and as these things do, the conversation turned to what would happen if our lives as learning and development professionals turned into movies. What would your career movie look like? Who will play your part? […]
Part 1 of A Social Onboarding: A Case Study…
(Please note that I will provide this case study over a series of parts over time. The project took me 3 months and it had a lot of “moving parts” and stakeholders. This is the first part which covers the background, the business problem and the analysis). Background A few months before I left my previous […]
99 Days of Facebook Freedom
For over a month now, I have been Facebook free – but forgive me, I have sinned. There have been times I had to use it. Let me explain. I’ve had a Facebook account since the beginning. I was one of the people who saw it as a means of connecting with friends and family […]
Where are all the Third Places?
They’re all over Melbourne. In fact, they’re popping up in cities all around the world! Last year I started an informal networking group for anyone in the field of learning, training, instructional design, coaching across any sector – whether it’s academia, vocational, public, private, not-for-profit or freelancers as a way to connect people in our […]
5 Lessons for the New Freelancer
It’s been nearly two months out of the contracting world and into the world of freelancing. Many people have asked me how I’m finding the transition. All I can say is that “so far so good” and that it is tracking the way I thought it would be. That is, it’s given me time to […]
My Top 10 Learning Tools for 2014
Ever realise that you should have kept records to view trends of your own learning progression and use of various tools? After seeing Andrew Jacobs blog post on his top learning tools, I figured I’d do the same. However, this time, I wanted to see the trend of tools I’ve been using since submitting my […]
How Do You Start Out in Twitter? Find the Why First
Yesterday I conducted a webinar on “Getting Started in Twitter” for the VET Development Centre. The centre provides and supports the professional and educational development of vocational trainers, managers and staff through access to events, seminars, conferences and webinars. You can see some of the offerings in their Events Calendar. I was first introduced to the VET Development Centre […]
How To Connect With Our Audience (or Customers): A Lesson from the Arts
Last night, we saw the new musical production of Les Miserables at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne. We bought a souvenir program and wandered up the stairs to seek out a comfortable lounge to relax before the show started. I flicked through the program and read the short biographies of the cast and was surprised to […]
How Do You Explain Yammer and Other Stories
[View the story “How Do You Explain Yammer And Other Stories” on Storify]
Haven’t Met Your Online Buddies? Hang Out With Them!
Last Wednesday night, I organised a Google Hangout for Third Place. For those who aren’t aware, I created Third Place, a meetup group for anyone interested in learning, performance and development across all fields. What started out as meetups in Melbourne only are now in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane and Adelaide and all run by a […]
Have You Completed Your Online Compliance Training?
This week the Australian Institute of Training Development (AITD) invited me to be one of the panel members to the Equal Opportunity Employment Network (EEON) held at the Landers & Rogers law firm in Melbourne. The discussion was on “Compliance in the Age of Online and Social Learning” centred around lessons learned from a high profile […]
Yammer for Learning & Networking
Many people have asked me what I have been doing now that I’m out of the corporate world and smack bang into the freelance consulting world. It’s now been four weeks out of a 9 to 5 job and the best thing about my new lifestyle is that I don’t have the dreaded commute every morning battling […]
Are You a Twitter Wally?
Here’s a nifty little tool for your next conference or workshop. It’s called TweetWally. I liked the name. Wally – hence I thought it was worth 15 minutes of my time playing around on it. Okay 5. With Australian vernacular, a “wally” is someone who keeps making mistakes but it’s said in a friendly, endearing […]
What’s My Niche…Part 2
For the last few weeks, I have been busy planning. You should see my study walls filled sticky whiteboard paper with my ideas of what I can ‘package up’ and start to sell. It’s been a creative and stimulating time as I let my ideas get ahead of me but at the same time, it’s […]
What Have I Been Up To This Week?
It’s been a ripper of a week. I was introduced to new ideas and discussions that got me excited so I thought I’d cover them off in one blog post although I could easily write a post about each interaction. Skype with @twofacedHR Lady Vanessa Wiltshire It seems awkward to write her Twitter handle (because she […]
What’s Your Niche?
People have been asking me ‘where to from here?’ and it’s an interesting question. There are so many opportunities and ideas to explore every time I meet new people who inspire me. These ideas then float around in my head and it’s hard to snatch at just one to see it through. It’s frustrating because my […]
How Fascinating Are You?
I’m in my third day of freelancing and truth be told, I’m feeling scattered. So many ideas tumble around in my head that I need to make sense of them. In my home office, I’ve stuck “Magic Whiteboard” on the walls and as the ideas come to me, I grab the coloured markers and scribble them […]
Does Learning & Working Out Loud Help Graduates?
Well I guess we’ll find out soon enough…. Last week I had the pleasure of presenting to our graduates on Yammer. I was asked by the Graduate Committee to run a virtual classroom for our graduates to encourage their use of Yammer. The committee wanted graduates to learn how to use the tool so that they had a way […]
How to Cycle in Puerto Rico when You’re Not There & It’s 6 Years Ago
Many may not know (well you do now), that I’ve been blogging since 2005 about various things unrelated to learning, work or performance on my Ramblings blog. In fact, Ramblings was more of a movie and book review site, with lots of knitting and travel stories, posts about Demis Roussos, Greek politics, cat gifs and a […]
How to Wrangle WordPress – Learning Out Loud
I’m always a bit anxious when I get onto my WordPress site to do some maintenance. Why? There’s a morbid fear that when I press, “Update Plugin” that I will lose the content of my blog. Years of writing, reflections and photos gone at the single click of a button. However, there’s a paradox to […]