I am headed to Florida this week for a much needed business planning retreat. This may sound indulgent but let me assure you that is is nothing of the sort. Having been so highly engrossed in the day-to-day activities of my business, I forgot to realize this summer that my consulting practice celebrated it's 4th year. My lack of acknowledgment of this significant milestone highly annoys me...as do many things now-a-days.
This blog is being posted to stake a claim to the fact that big changes are coming at ASC. We just launched the first of several white papers on a range of eLearning topics - more are coming. We are going to reformat the Blended Learning Seminar for association executives - more is coming in that area too.
But I do have to say that I feel that big things are coming. This thought is pretty scary and exciting all at the same time.
OK. I have to disclaim this posting from the get-go. My second child is now six months old and I am actually getting sleep...a first in more than two years. (I have a 27 month old as well).
Functioning with sufficient sleep is a relatively surprising state and one that I had frankly forgotten about. It is also a scary thing because I am starting to be much more aware of things that really annoy me in my professional world. Keep in mind these things probably occurred for a while, but I was too tired to realize it.
If you don't know me personally, you should know that I have a very directly, no-nonsense way about me. This was fostered by my Texas upbringing and has now created a highly opinionated consultant. Most folks say this is a good thing, and my frankness is one of the reasons clients hire me, but it does get me in trouble sometimes.
One of the big changes you will see is a diversion from my typical political-correctness to a much more edgy perspective on professional development and eLearning. It's time for a reality check and a wake up call to associations. It's critical that the old school mentality of "education" be replaced with new thinking in the areas of knowledge creation, collaboration, peer-to-peer learning, and content repositories.
Technology is a critical aspect to the future of professional development, training, education, etc. Get use to it. Deal with it. Embrace it. There are so many cool things out there and part of the excitement of eLearning and education technology is the ability to play, experiment, learn, share, and adapt. Being nimble is critical.
You'll begin to see more postings, starting this week, on this need to be quick to respond to all of the changes coming to the world of association learning. Get ready!
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