In no particular order…
Dropping AdSense from Flash For Learning.
I’m not getting any click-through (not that I really expected any) and it’s absolutely as ugly as I thought it was — before I started using it. I know how to share what I know, and given an honest task to do — I can make a good buck or two doing just that. Some people are awesome at making Amazon or Google revenue. I’m awesome at E-Learning, so I’m sticking with that, and getting rid of AdSense will help me stop worrying about why no one isn’t clicking on the crappy ads that have been appearing on this blog.
Focus my writing (on this blog) to three domains that I really care about:
- Learning Content (tools, tips & tricks, tech stuff, design)
- Observations on how younger generations of workers are impacting my organization
- The convergence and evolution of Information Management, Knowledge Management and Learning Management.
I may from time to time write in on any number of other issues that come up — like how I might go back to school this coming year for some kind of Business/Adult Learning/Organizational Change degree (want: Ed.D. — might get:MBA of some stripe). But my passion is growing far beyond playing with the tech toys — I’ve been really re-energized this last year from looking at the change I’ve helped stir up in my organization and I want to hone my strength in the Force (metaphorically) so I’m not just wielding “change” like a wild person — I want to be focused, measured, deliberate and most of all — I want to be even more right, and I want to keep doing it at a higher level with larger and measurable impacts. I think I sit very much at the generational divide in both actual age this coming year and in work habits, and these should be some very exciting times to be a professional educator. Toss in a hefty dose of shifting an organization that loves structure, silos and hierarchy and transition it to a knowledge economy that bubbles up information from the users… it’s going to make the change from buying E-Learning to rolling our own E-Learning this past year seem like a very very small thing.
Plan the next five years…
This year has in many ways been a big payoff for several years of effort. I got the job I pretty much always wanted, working with smart people who work hard and (luckily for me) are gracious with feedback (both glowing AND poignant). But as my favorite song of 2007 recites, “It can’t all be wedding cake, it can’t all be boiled away…” I can’t rest on my laurels, and even though I’m rolling on with the growth I’ve had in 2007, I know that I need to have a direction to go in (and the plan on going back to school isn’t quite good enough).
With any luck, this year’s going to be another wonderfully stable year professionally for me, with another kid on the way and a spouse returning to full-time school in the fall (that’s the plan anyway). But I’d be lying if I wrote that I didn’t miss speaking at conferences, learning what’s at the bleeding edge of our craft and trying to make it make sense. Our first learning game is underfoot; there are some opportunities opening up in my organization to do some very interesting things with Knowledge Management, Performance Support and user-generated content… I’m interested in so much that’s going on in this profession — I just need to pick a handful of ideas that are at least vectoring in a similar direction and then “go that way.”
Get better.
I meander a lot. I also “go native” as a techie when I’m under stress and I need to get better about keeping up with what questions I’m really being asked — because often I’m answering questions that no one is asking. I get cut a lot of slack (both in the FFL mailing list, the blog and even at work) because I come up with good responses more often than not — but I can do better as a consultant.
REALLY learn ActionScript 3.
It’s not unnoticed by me that I write a lot more about everything but Flash on this blog. I need a practical reason to use ActionScript 3 so I can learn and apply what I learn to a task. Once I have that (or create it), we’ll be talking about a lot of code.
