Continuing my post of
My Top 10 Mobile Apps for 2014, I share my top 10
productivity enhancing mobile apps. In the last year, I found myself using the
smartphone mobile more and more, not requiring me to use my laptop many a
times. These apps allowed me to access my data anywhere and allowed me to be ubiquitous
online.
My Top 10 Productivity Mobile Apps:
- Calendar: While there are many Calendar apps available, I settled for native HTC
Calendar app as my preferred app. The native app allow me to sync multiple
accounts. I synced Microsoft Exchange for my office calendar. You can
additionally sync Google, Outlook.com and Yahoo for your personal calendars. I
found useful the ability to search for location on Google Maps directly from
the calendar invites if the location was entered in the meeting invites. It is also
extremely easy to dial conference call numbers by simply clicking on the
numbers within the invite text. The HTC native app shows me the invite text
while making the call so I don’t have to remember the call dial-in codes while
making the call.
- Email (Mail, Gmail, Outlook): When on the move, you need access to email. Technically you could
use one email client for all your work and personal email accounts. However I
prefer to use different email clients for different email accounts. For my
office Exchange account I use native Mail app. There is an email client for
most services so you can use the ones you prefer. Interestingly as I write this
post, I notice that there is a pre-release version of OWA for Android, which I believe will allow for better
integration with Exchange and Office 365. Currently the ratings and reviews
aren’t flattering but the app looks like a promising one to improve
productivity.
- OneNote: I use OneNote for taking notes. I can create different notebooks
and within that organize my notes in sections, sub-sections and pages. If you
aren't already using a software to organize your notes, I would highly
recommend OneNote. You can sync your notebooks with your Outlook.com account
and then access them on your phone using the OneNote app. You could also try Evernote which is also a popular app, though I haven't used
it much since we use OneNote at work.
- Google Keep: While OneNote is a full featured notes organizer, I just love
Google Keep for its simplicity. Keep is a much lighter note taking app. This
too can be synced on multiple devices so you have your data available on all
devices whenever you need it. A very handy app for quick note taking.
- Task: I tried a few To Do apps but finally settled for native
HTC Tasks app. I can sync multiple accounts and have my tasks with me all the
time. the app has the usual end dates, reminders etc. If you sync to your
office Exchange server, just remember to save your tasks on the server and not
in the local PST while using your laptop.
- Online drives (Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox): I am a late user of online drives that have been around for a
while now. If you need to access your files wherever you go and on whichever
device you use, you gotta use one of the online drives to store your files.
Based on your preference, you can use Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or
Dropbox. All three have their laptop interfaces and mobile apps that allow you
to sync and access files from any device. I use OneDrive since it works better
with Office365.
- Editing files (Microsoft Office Mobile, Polaris Office): While I don’t edit or create documents too
often on my phone, but on the few occasion that I needed to, I was really
thankful that I could actually edit document, spreadsheets and presentations on
my phone. I started using Polaris Office for editing documents since this came
pre-installed with my phone. It is a simple to use app and does the work just
fine. I have since also discovered Microsoft Office Mobile that I prefer to use
because of its better integration with OneDrive and Dropbox. If I need to edit
documents on my online drives, it is easier to use Microsoft Office Mobile. If
you are using Google Drive, you can always use Google Docs.
- Gesture typing / Trace keyboard: Not really an app but a feature on
Android phones is Gesture typing (on most Android phones), or Trace Keyboard
(on HTC). This allows you to type by simply tracing your fingers over the
keyboard letters without lifting your finger. This is a great feature to start
typing faster and I would recommend you get used to this feature. It is easier
to use this feature if you are comfortable with the QWERTY keyboard layout. I
am not sure if the iPhone has this built in feature, but I discovered Swype
app on iTunes that allows you to type without lifting your finger.
- Conference Caller: If you are on conference call bridges a lot,
then you need to give Conference Caller a try. Conference Caller works like a
general phone book for your conference call meeting details. Each phone book
item consists of name, conference code and (optional) pin. I stored details of
my various conference call bridge numbers in the app. It makes dialing in to a
conference call bridge a one touch affair since the app dials your conference
ID and pin numbers after dialing your conference call bridge number. You may
need to experiment with settings for your conference call service but once you
manage to do that, this makes getting on to a conference call so much easier.
- Pocket: Online bookmarking has been around for a while now,
even though it no longer seems to be very popular now. However I found Pocket
really handy. While browsing online either on the laptop or the phone, I can
send/share any link to Pocket. The app has a neat interface to access my saved
links. You can tag your saved links for better retrieval.
The year 2014 was the year when I feel I actually started using my smartphone smartly. I could get much of my work done on my mobile, many a times not requiring me to switch on my laptop. In the new few posts I will share with you my top apps for networking, productivity, music, photography, chats, reading/news and games. Since I use an Android phone, the links below are Google Play links. I am sure you can get most of these apps for iPhone and perhaps Windows Phone.
My Top 10 Mobile Apps that I used and liked most in 2014 are:
- CamCard Business Card Reader: I collect a lot of business cards as part of my job. It is hard to manage these physical cards even though I have a nice card file. After trying out a few card scanning apps, I have narrowed down to CamCard Business Card Reader. I can just take a photograph of the business card and the app will scan and store the info in different fields. I can save the contact details in my Google account and they will then automatically appear in my phone book. The free version allows you to scan only 5 cards in a day and up to 200 cards.
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary: What use is a smart phone if it doesn’t have a dictionary? I use the Merriam-Webster Dictionary app to quickly browse words and even hear their pronunciation. This app has been really handy for me and my savior when my kids ask me the meaning of any word.
- Google Maps has become my most favorite companion on my drives every day. Almost every time I get into the car, I switch on the GPS on my phone and feed in the destination in to Google Maps. I use this primarily to check the traffic and it gives a fairly accurate time to destination. I have found the ETA is very accurate for shorter distances and reasonably accurate for longer distances, given then unpredictability of Delhi traffic. The Greens, Yellows and Reds representing the traffic are quite accurate. At times I have used it to follow the shortest route to my destination but I wouldn’t recommend it for the weak hearted. It has taken me through the smallest of the lanes in Delhi that I didn’t even know existed.
- Waze Social GPS Maps & Traffic is another cool navigation app that I used during the year. This is an interactive and social navigation app. You can see other drivers online, you can see other drivers sharing hazards on the road (like an accident, or construction on the road). You can connect with friends, share your destination, and see each other’s ETA. The few drawbacks I felt it has is that the traffic situation is not as accurate as Google Maps, the connection to the server seems to keep breaking and there aren’t enough other people using this app in India to really get the benefit of social driving.
- Delhi Traffic Police app is really useful to get alerts about Delhi traffic. You could get the same alerts on Twitter or Facebook, but it is useful having an app just for these alerts. I found these updates quite current and extremely useful.
- HTC Sense TV app is really useful if you always have trouble finding your TV or Satellite set top box remote. Since I use HTC phone, I use the HTC Sense TV app, but you should check out other similar TV remote apps. I can set up the phone as the remote for TV, Set Top Box, and the Home Theatre system. It configures well with Indian DTH providers and once configured, it provides complete program guide too.
- Truecaller Called ID & Block: The DND directory hasn’t been very helpful in stopping unwanted calls and SMSs. I have been relying on app to help me get rid of unwanted spam calls and SMSs. The app not just identifies the called, it even tells how many other people have blocked that number. It also helps identify the caller even if you don’t have the number stored. Don’t expect it to work on ALL numbers, it is not an official telephone directory. It works on the basis of reading and uploading your address book (with due permission from you, thankfully).
- Sync.ME also propagates itself as a Caller ID and Block app. However I have found this app most useful to link contacts to Facebook or LinkedIn accounts. You can sync your accounts with Facebook and/or LinkedIn and it will show you the latest picture and other info about your contact.
- Unit Converter: This is fantastic app to convert almost any unit of measure, even currency conversion. The app gives you a long list of units that you can convert. You can add to favorites the most used ones to access these quickly.
- Flightradar24 is a cool app just to play around with, and a really useful app if you are going to pick up someone at the airport. You can see planes around the world move in real-time on a detailed map. In the paid version of this app, you get detailed info about each flight, including ETA. The cockpit view is a simulated view and it quite cool initially. After the initially euphoria, you don’t find it much useful. You can even point the phone above the horizon to see planes around you, but this is also just a pizazz feature rather than anything really useful.
Also see:
•
My Top 10 Productivity Mobile Apps for 2014
Look out for my other soon-to-be-published lists:
•
My Top 5 Social Networking Mobile Apps
•
My Top 5 Reading and News Mobile Apps
•
My Top 5 Music Mobile Apps
•
My Top 5 Chat Mobile Apps
•
My Top 10 Camera and Photos Mobile Apps
•
My Top 5 Mobile Game Apps
Image courtesy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfgangkuhnle/4163909778/
It’s been a rather quiet 2011 on this blog. Thanks to a
couple of guest posts, there were 12 real posts in the whole year. As I reflect
on last year, the usual excuse of getting very little time was the first one
that sprung to mind. But in reality, I think I just didn't make enough effort. There
were many blog posts that crossed my mind that didn’t get written. Many reflections
that I wanted to share, many questions that I wanted to explore. Hopefully 2012
will be a better year for this blog. With renewed vigor in the New Year, I am
hoping that I will post a lot more frequently in 2012.
Here’s a summary of blog posts of 2011:
- I
explored the question of whether an organization/business unit should be delivery led or sales led. I am still struggling to find
the right balance.
- Taking
a stab at rants, I make a case that It's Not This Or That, It's This AND That.
- A
sponsored guest post by Ronnie Friedmann on Painless way to get and give employee feedback.
- Picking
up a question on Twitter, I share some of the lies I have heard by people while quiting their job.
- In
a guest post by Puja Anand, she shares her categorization of Clients from Hell.
- A
video presentation talk by Sir Ken Robinson triggered my thoughts on driving divergent thinking in our children.
- Rupa
Rajagopalan has been instrumental in running the Instructional Designers
Community of India for the last few years along with some other enthusiastic
members of the profession published my interview in their newsletter IDConnect.
- Another
guest post by Puja Anand in which she shares her experiences of dealing with clients from different cultures.
- An experience sharing event at work triggered this post in which I share my defining customer moments.
- I
explore the question Is changing jobs the best way of getting a raise.
- In
the quest for learning something “new” all the time, the younger people are
losing the quest to hone and improve what they know and keep struggling with “I am not learning anything new”.
- A
call from a recruiter who had not checked my LinkedIn public profile made me
wonder why recruiters aren’t using social networking to hire.
2010 was a rather quiet year for my blog. My blog didn’t see much of me this year, only 24 posts this year. As for my other social media presence, it’s been mostly quiet all across. My RSS reader missed me, on many occasions I would mark 1000s of unread items as read and try to start again. Tweeting also took back seat. Tweetstats tells me I posted only 854 tweets in 2010 against more than 2000 the previous year. And still, sometime during this year, this blog completed three years, crossed 50,000 hits and more than 370 feed subscribers. Google Analytics tells me that hits this year were marginally more than last year.
During the year, my role changed from primarily developing elearning content to providing learning solutions for the Indian market. It’s mostly about selling training in various form factors, including instructor led and elearning. What’s interesting is the work we are doing with various ministries in the Government of India on employability and skill development, something that I hope to write more about in the coming year. The new role also takes me even closer to the actual implementation of learning solutions and is providing me new insights. I am hoping to make up for my sparse blogging last year in 2011.
Some of the posts I wrote in 2009 and 2008 continue to be popular and appear in the most read posts in 2010. My top 5 read posts in 2010 were:
- Rules for Kids and Teenagers for Facebook Usage (2009) is the most read post on my blog, not just last year but in this history of this blog.
- Top 10 Qualities of a Good Manager (2010)
- Instructional Designer Competencies (2008)
- eLearning and Content Development Salaries in India (2009) continues to intrigue the readers
- 5 Reasons Why You are Not Being Promoted (2009)
As for the posts I wrote in the year, my personal top 5 posts of 2010 are:
- How to Become a Thought Leader
- Recognition Beyond Awards
- Would You Fire Your Best Performer
- Collaboration: It’s Not About Technology, It’s About the Culture
- Dealing with Office Bully
Thank you again for continuing to read this blog.
Jane Hart
seeks rebuttal to
reasons commonly given by organizations for banning social media at work. I have heard some of these. Here’s why I believe organizations should NOT ban social media, rather find ways to leverage it. Some of these are in the Indian context of hiring and retaining workforce. I am adding an 11
th reason that I have heard for why organizations ban social media that could perhaps make it to the list.
11. Social media takes up too much of company’s Internet bandwidth hampering other work.
Given the advantages of social media, and reducing cost of bandwidth, it might be a very worthwhile investment by the organization. Investing in bandwidth is probably as critical, if not more, than investing in higher-end machines and laptops.
10. Social media is a fad.
If so do you want to be left behind and not know anything about it?
9. It’s about controlling the message.
If it is are you using the channels available to you and the employees? Just because social media is banned at work does not mean employees don’t have access to it at all. They are on it whether you like it or not. And if you are indeed worried about controlling the message, are you on the same channels are your employees are?
8. Employees will goof off.
If employees have to goof off they will, whether they have access to social media at work or not. If you are managing your work allocation and performance management well, and have the right business measurements in place, it doesn’t really matter whether employees goof off or not. If you are measuring the time they are spending on activities rather than the results they are expected to achieve, you are probably a lawyer or a consultant billing by the hour. I can’t comment on lawyers but as a consultant, you better focus on results or you’ll be out of business.
7. Social media is a time waster.
See point 8.
6. Social media has no business purpose.
If your customers aren’t on social media, investors aren’t on social media, stakeholders are not on social media, employees are not on social media, competition is not on social media, and you don’t believe in continual learning, keeping track of market trends etc., then yeah, perhaps social media serves no business purpose for you.
5. Employees can’t be trusted.
If you can’t trust of your employees, why are you in the business that needs employees? Do you trust them enough to let them talk on phones, use email? Then you can trust them with social media. Yeah sure there are sensitivities of using social media on which you should coach your employees, just as you would to use the phone or email. The
video talks about employees can’t be trusted to not put up photos on the office party. Well what’s the harm? It’s a great opportunity to tell the world what a fun place to work your organization is, and therefore attract more talent for your organization, especially when the workforce is getting younger (also see point 4).
4. Don’t cave into the demands of the millennials.
Enough demographic studies show that in India the workforce is getting younger. Wouldn’t you want to create an environment that your workforce relates to and enjoys? Would you want to create an environment that your workforce finds stifling? You could potentially use social media access as a retention strategy.
3. Your teams already share knowledge efficiently.
Cool, so you will understand how social media makes it easier to serve this objective.
2. You’ll get viruses.
So get better anti-virus protection software and better processes to update your computer with latest patches.
1. Your competition isn't using it, so why should you?
Don’t all business gurus tell you to do things your competition isn’t doing to get ahead in business? Do you really have this as a reason for banning social media at work? Duh!
Loved this post by Taruna Goel where she asks if you are a manager by choice or by chance. Taruna nails it when she shares her view of
top 10 qualities of a good manager. These are:
- It is about people.
- It is about management.
- It is about mutual respect.
- It is about work ethics.
- It is about being responsible and accountable.
- It is about letting go. Good managers never micro-manage.
- It is about communication.
- It is about thinking out-of-the-box.
- It is about developing yourself.
- It is about still being friendly.
Head over to her blog to read the whole post.
2009 was a continuation of my journey of online self-learning. I share with you the top learning resources from my PLE (personal learning environment) for the year 2009. I have found these valuable in my learning during the year. This is definitely not a comprehensive list.
Here are my top learning resources for the year 2009 (in no particular order):
- Twitter has been one of the most valuable learning tool for me this year. You can find the learning professionals I follow here and here.
- Stephen Downes OLDaily newsletter – The best of online learning daily updates, the one email subscription you should have
- Workplace Learning Today, Brandon Hall – A great aggregator blog of happenings around workplace learning
- Tom Kuhlmann’s Rapid E-Learning Blog. If you thought PowerPoint was boring, you’d be dead wrong. A great resource to learn to transform your elearning using PowerPoint and Articulate.
- HarvardBusiness.org Voices – various authors, very insightful management and leadership posts
- Great Leadership by Dan McCarthy has been a find this year. Great writing on leadership.
- Sumeet Moghe’s Free as in Freedom
- Zaid Ali Alsagoff’s ZaidLearn – The best lists, you can find almost everything here.
- Harold Jarche’s blog
- Ken Allen’s Blogger in Middle-Earth
- Clive Shepherd’s Clive on Learning
- Tony Karrer’s eLearning Technology
- Upside Learning blog started their weekly finds that have been very useful.
- Learning Practice by Vasan has had some interesting posts that got me thinking.
- Sahana Chattopadhyay’s ID and Other Reflections
- Tom Stone at Element K blog provides useful summaries of learning and development events and news. (Disclosure, I work for Element K)
- Gina Minks shares her Adventures in Corporate Education in her blog
- Ellen Behrens’ alearning or Association eLearning to be exact.
- Jane Bozarth's Bozarthzone has thoughts about the training and development field.
- Clark Aldrich On Simulations and Serious Games as the name says it all.
- e-Clippings (Learning As Art) by Mark Oehlert
- Informal Learning Blog by Jay Cross
- Karl Kapp’s Kapp Notes is another great resource for learning in 3D.
- Cammy Bean shares her Learning Visions.
- Clark Quinn shares useful Learnlets.
- Cathy Moore’s Making Change is a must for practical instructional design and elearning tips.
- Patrick Dunn’s Occasional Rants are not mere rants.
- George Siemens writes about learning, networks, knowledge, technology, community in elearnspace.
- Serious Games Market, another find this year.
For updates about technology, I rely on my Twitter network. If there’s something interesting, it gets retweeted around anyway.
I also developed interest in photography this year. Two photography blogs I follow are Beyond Megapixels and Digital Photography School.
I also share specific posts that I find useful. You can view them here.
Hope you find these resources as useful as I have found them.
I have updated my list of Indian learning professionals on Twitter. I have included company Twitter accounts in the list. Feel free to leave a comment to suggest more professionals and companies who should be on the list. I have been less discerning this time and have included all professionals who have more than one tweet on the list. Also listed them in alphabetical order.
You can now use the TweepML link to easily follow these professionals on Twitter.
| aanteladda - aanteladda Education Strategist, Coach, Bridge, Entreprenuerial Catalyst, Mum |
| abhijitkadle - Abhijit Kadle interests range from genetics, evolutionary biology, biochemistry, engineering, technology, computing to electronic games, media, communication, and design |
| Abhinava - Abhinava biker... dreamer... sapiosexual |
| amitgautam - Amit Gautam |
| atuljog - Atul Trainer,Executive Coach & a curious learner! Passionate abt adult learning, bringing fun and learning into training n designing content which are impactful ... |
| baxiabhishek - Abhishek Baxi geek / new media guy / photowalker / microsoftie / windows7 PC / blank noise guy / critical movies fan / windows mobile |
| bishtumesh - Umesh Bisht learning and development professional, digs web 3.0 , e-learning, and content |
| dbhasin - Dolly Bhasin Am a Knowledge Enterpreneur with focus on Small Enterprises, Travel, Tourism, Hospitality for eLearning and emarketing |
| deepak1279 - Deepak |
| dineshmagadi - dinesh magadi |
| dominicrajesh - Dominic Rajesh HR Professional with focus on Learning and Development. Motto: Help others help themselves. |
| elearningtyro - E-Learning Tyro Instructional Designer and E-Learning Specialist |
| followVasan - vasan e-Learning professional committed to making difference through learning solutions |
| gaganadlakha - gaganadlakha |
| gargamit100 - Amit Garg eLearning Outsourcing, Learning 2.0 |
| GautamGhosh - Gautam Ghosh HR and Social Media geek. Perpetual Learner. Interested in how emergent technologies are changing Organizations. Organizations 2.0 if you please! |
| geetabose - Geeta Bose Run Kern Communications -a learning solutions & usability consulting company |
| gJaideep - Gerald Jaideep Innovation Initiator or Hunter/Gatherer for FireStarters |
| harmalbhu - Harini Instructional designer. Love: Fiction, techie tools.Sharing Knowdlege. |
| indug_72 - Indu Gopinath |
| Jax - Xavier Roy I get paid to write :-) |
| JosephineShobee - Josephine Shobana Delivery Manager at Element K. Interested in learning, innovation, leadership, strategy… |
| kamalbatra - kamalbatra |
| kanchanshine - Kanchan Shine Instructional Design Consultant |
| kapil1312 - Kapil Bhatia Enjoy discussing Education, web 2.0 , edupunk, elearning. Hate people who block youtube and twitter in schools. |
| karthicku - Karthick |
| KavisMusings - Kavi Blogger. Dreamer. Optimist. Coach. Believer in people and potential. Citizen of the world. Ranter in general. |
| lakshmanr - lakshman rajagopalan Learning professional, Management, Leadership, enthusiastic trekker, amateur photographer, follower of techie news, avid reader |
| lakshmik_92 - Lakshmi Krishnan Learning and OD professional |
| manishmo - Manish Mohan Collaborative and Informal Learning, Management, Performance enhancement, Entrepreneurship, Technology, Amateur photography |
| Mohammedhb - Mohammed HB |
| mrmwrites - swamimo Technical Writer, Blogger, Web Admin, Secretary - ITC SIG of STC, Employment Manager - STC India Chapter |
| MuhammadAnas - Muhammad Anas |
| preetamrai - preetamrai Tracking tech and music from Africa, E.Europe and Asia |
| poojajaisingh - Dr. Pooja Jaisingh eLearning Professional |
| rajesh_pankaj - Rajesh Pankaj |
| RaviBramha - RaviBramha AVP Technology, 24x7 Learning |
| rjaideep - R.Jaideep elearning professional,tech lover,future enterpreneur |
| rnarchana - Archana Narayan Constantly evolving as an instructional designer at Kern Learning Solutions (www.kern-comm.com) to ensure richer learner experience |
| rucsb - rucsb Web 2.0 buff,IBMer,Learning professional, Indian, geek,netizen, thought leader, luvable ! |
| ruparajgo - Rupa Rajagopalan Instructional Designing - My Passion |
| sahana2802 - Sahana Chattopadhyay Learning evangelist, instructional designer and social learning enthusiast. Believe collaborative, participative learning is the future... |
| sekar_jd - sekar_jd |
| shaji0508 - Shaji Design Specialist at NIIT |
| shana1729 - Nishana Senior Flash Developer |
| shishirsh - Shishir Sharma Project Management, Technology, Instructional Design, Learning Solutions, Amateur photography, Sketching, Languages, Astrology |
| sreyadutta - Sreya Dutta Instructional Designer by profession, working at Oracle. |
| sundararajt - Sundar Thondaman An ardent fan of social media..learning consultant in the enteprise space..venturing into management consulting, and life skills training... |
| svsm67 - Sonia Sant |
| thoughts - Geetha Krishnan Learning professional |
| togetherinlife - kaushik Love.Life.Great Parents.Training,Blogger.Speaker.Travelling.See India.Trekking.Himalayas.Reading.Long Drives.Yoga.Beer.Making Mistakes.Explore Life Everyday! |
| VaiVai - Vaishnavi An Instructional Designer by profession, passionate about literatures from across the world and enthusiastic about new experiences! |
| vijeesh - Vijeesh Shankar learning - mobile, classroom, web, social, informal..(a-z of learning :-) |
| write2tg - Taruna Goel “A learning professional” – an instructional designer, trainer, recruiter, supervisor, mentor, coach, change initiator, training manager…and more. |
Learning Companies
| 24x7Learning - 24x7 Learning 24x7 Learning is India’s premier Intellectual Infrastructure partner |
| Astutix - Astutix Learning Effective Learning - Delivered! |
| niitimperia - niitimperia NIIT Imperia Center for Advanced Learning has been specially created to provide quality Management Education to working professionals. |
| NIIT_Imperia - NIIT Imperia NIIT Imperia offers world class senior management programs with IIM Calcutta available for working professionals and organizations at NIIT-Imperia. |
| NIITLtd - NIIT This is the official Twitter site for NIIT Ltd.- leading Global Talent Development Corporation and Asia's No.1 IT Trainer |
| niituniversity - NIIT University The NIIT University is a not-for-profit institution offering UG, PG and Doctoral Programs in IT, Edu Technology, Bioinformatics and Biotechnology. |
| trainingdotcom - Training.com Training.com is an eLearning initiative by NIIT to provide convenient, personalized and affordable training to students and working professionals. |
Ken Allan tagged me to a rather unique meme, the 4 R’s Meme: Favorite Posts. He asks those tagged to select 4 of their favourite posts from their own blog, one from each of the categories: Rants, Resources, Reflections and Revelations.
The posts are then listed with a brief summary on each describing:
* why it was important,
* why it had lasting value or impact,
* how you would update it for today.
The intrepid bloggers are to tag all of their selected posts with the label postsofthepast and then select five (or so) other bloggers to tap with this meme.
Rant: Now that I look back, my first post was actually a rant about job sites encouraging attrition. Those were the heady days of jobs available dime a dozen, competition undercutting each other offering ridiculous salaries to jump jobs. There was some interesting discussion in the comments on this post. Today the situation is a little different. At this time jobs are not so easily available and salaries offered are more realistic. Well, at least until the economy booms again and we fall into the same trap of head hunting.
Resources: I have tried hard to induct some of my team members to blog about their learning. It proved harder than I thought. I looked around to see if there were other learning professionals in India blogging. My first list of top 10 had 4 blogs that weren’t really updated in a while. I did however over a period of time manage to identify more blogs by learning professionals in India. So my recent post listing the blogs by learning professionals in India is a useful resource post. I will continue to update this list.
Reflections: Instructional design is about creating learning experiences and not ‘writing content’. This was a valuable comment in my post Death of the Instructional Designer. I also reflected on what I believe are the Instructional Designers competencies.
Revelations: I have been experimenting with Blogger and Wordpress and use both, well actually all three (Blogger, self hosted Wordpress and Wordpress.com). I wrote a post comparing different these blogging platforms. While writing this post it dawned on me that the platform doesn’t matter. It’s the CONTENT that matters.
I tag following people to continue this meme.
Viplav Baxi
Sumeet Moghe
Rupa Rajagopalan
Dave Ferguson
Jeff Cobb
Catherine Lombardozzi
