Reflections

Wow, I’m finally on the 23rd thing. What a deal!

Okay, on with the reflections:

Favorite Discoveries
My favorite discoveries would have to include the online applications and the wikis. I’m no workaholic, but I do appreciate a useful tool when one comes along. Wikis on the whole are (IMHO) still very experimental, but are probably an early encarnation of a future building block of tomorrow’s Web. For good reading, check out the comments from Tim Berners-Lee (the creator of the World Wide Web) on Web2.0, wikis, ajax, etc. in this article (full of some pretty handy links, I might add) and this podcast transcript.

Unexpected Outcomes
I don’t suppose there were really any unexpected outcomes of this program from my point of view. I think I had a pretty good idea of the things that I’d do and discover. That’s not to say that I’m not glad I did it, however. I’m very glad because I likely would never have taken the time to do this much exploring if there weren’t a real program to participate in.

Improvements On The Program
Well, I suppose anything could be said to “need improvement” on retrospect. So, while this Learning 2.0 program was certainly a huge and greatly successful idea, I do think that it was a lot easier for some folks to get through it than others. I’ve heard grumblings from folks lacking the basic computer skills necessary to participate, and from others lacking the time and managerial support to get through the long list of challenges. But most of the grumblings I heard (and read) seemed to be grumbling for the sake of grumbling, and that’s just annoying.

Would I do it again?
Heck yeah! Like I said earlier, I probably wouldn’t have done all this without a well structured program behind it, but I certainly feel that I’ve gotten a lot out of it. I like the overall process, and I really appreciate opportunities where employees are encouraged to learn on their own and enjoy it at the same time.