Learning is a Journey, not a Sprint

Hi All,

Hope you are doing well! At work, I am in full swing with my projects. Unforuntely, the office was closed due to hurricane Irma, so I am feeling a little behind. However, thanks to technology I can stay on top of emails and work on projects from home.

As some of you know and as my Resume indicates, most of this year I’ve spent as an Intern pursuing this thing called Instructional Design. The primary focus of being an Intern is to learn and absorb information like a sponge inhales water. Part of the learning process is to research and to find mentor(s). For me, research came through lynda.com. The topics I considered varied but were motivated by the projects I was working on at the time, and continues to. One of the first courses I took was P

remiere – I had to learn to edit and split up video clips. I learned to cut video and apply audio- it was incredible. Another course I took was Storyline- a staple program for an ID and something I use every day. It took me a month to learn Storyline and was the key to going full time.

Thankfully I was offered a role as an Instructional Designer. It still hasn’t sunk in and is even weirder to introduce myself as an ID. I feel so honored and even more thankful to work for who I do.

Now that I’m full time I don’t believe the learning has stopped. If anything, I feel the pressure is even greater- to continue to perform and learn.

So, as a full timer, how do I go about continuing my learning journey beyond what I’m already doing? What can I incorporate other than an online grad program and researching on the side for skills?

The answer came two weeks ago when my leader, Nick, approached me about attending a conference. I realized that this was the other component I wanted to pursue. I’ve long had an interest in attending a conference but felt that it wasn’t meant for me- too expensive, too far away, basically not enough resources to support me. That was before Nick.

I am thrilled to share that I will be attending Learning 2017 in Orlando learning2017.com. It will be first conference, hopefully of many. Even more exciting is Michelle Obama will be speaking! I’m hoping to learn more about gamification and graphic design, since this are the skills I feel like I need to learn the most.

What conferences have you attended? What did you learn? What are some skills you would like to learn or are currently learning?

-ET