Tag: learning

Trying on a New Tagline

This past week I raised the issue of rebranding my blog by updating my tagline. Thanks to all those wonderful colleagues who offered their comments on this, I am making an update and will “try it on” for a week or so. If I like it, I will keep it; if it still feels somehow incomplete or inaccurate, I will adjust it again.

So, I went from:

Reflective practice in organizational learning, educational technology, and postmodern society.

to

Fostering the practice of postmodern learning and research.

I believe this includes my passions:

  • reflective practice
  • learning paradigms
  • teaching and learning
  • postmodernism and post-structuralism
  • constructivism and critical theory
  • qualitative research
  • technology enhanced learning and educational technology
  • communities of practice

I wonder if those who know me (or those who may have only recently met me for the first time) think this “fits?”

Personal Branding, or Rebranding

I was recently reading a college oriented document about having a “personal brand,” and while it was aimed at undergraduates who may have little real-world experience to point to and may benefit from a personal message upon which to focus and highlight their lives in a concise and engaging way, I was intrigued.

I did not read this as an elevator speech, but rather as the little phrase (or tagline, subtitle, or caption) that appears at the top of most blogs. It includes interests, perhaps a value proposition, an idea of what I am passionate about, interests, and such.

I did some brainstorming, and found these common words (and threads):

  • reflective practice
  • critical thinking
  • assumptions
  • paradigms
  • teaching
  • learning
  • postmodernism
  • constructivism
  • qualitative
  • online
  • community of practice

I wonder if it is time for me to revise mine?

Currently, I am using:

Reflective practice in organizational learning, educational technology, and postmodern society.

and I have been thinking about changing it to something more along the lines of:

Challenging assumptions to promote learning and teaching

or:

Challenging assumptions to construct postmodern learning

Now, it is time for some feedback and help with this. I am oftentimes surprised by who reads my blog, and invite some feedback and thoughts here. I have been tinkering with this idea for about four weeks, and now want to decide and have something new to live with and try out. Thoughts?

Resolutions, or Perhaps Not

Here we are at the beginning of another year. Most of us made it, and for that I am thankful. Being the season when it is common to look forward and back, I find myself thinking about what changes I want to make this year. However, do not think I will make any New Year’s Resolutions.

I know from my work in organizational and human resource development, that goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. I know that a resolution to lose weight is not specific enough to be measured. It is thus not attainable (how would I know when it happens?), and thus unrealistic. Timeliness does not even fit with it when thought of in this framework. The same goes with saving money, helping the needy more, being a nicer person, and the like.

The reason why I am not making any resolutions this year? For me, there are two reasons. Firstly, it is easy to be idealistic and unrealistic when so many people are thinking about the same things. Easy to get swept up into something that sounds lofty and admirable, though won’t last when times get tough. Secondly, the goals I may set today may not be the same ones I want tomorrow. Yes, I like consistency and smooth transitions with personal growth on a regular basis. With life as complicated and wonderful and chaotic and integrated, can I really set myself something that will, with my personality, make me driven to accomplish something that may continue to develop as I do?

Yes, I want to read more, be more holistic in my learning and teaching, and take a more balanced approach to decision making. I can transform these desires into SMART goals, load them into Outlook, create reminders and rewards, etc. Doing that, they would just feel like they were part of a system, with their own primal Kantian sense of duty; rather than be my own personal aspirations that I can develop when and how I please.

I prefer the these types of aspirations.

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