You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'Writing' tag.
I’ve read a number of articles, comments on forums, etc. about how to become an instructional designer. Should you get an advanced degree, do you need special training, if you are a technical writer and writing guides or instructions, how big of a leap is it to actually create training/curriculum? These are the questions I see and ponder myself. If you have read my “About Me” section, then you know I am struggling with many of these questions in attempting to define my career direction and I think I have found my path. And ultimately, I think that is the answer on becoming an instructional designer…what is your path…where did you come from and where do you want to go. The answers to those questions will lead you to making the correct decisions about advanced degrees, addtional training and even the most basic of questions, can I take my technical writing experience and use it to become an instructional designer.
My path is now directed on obtaining my master’s degree. I want to teach at the college level someday and I will need the advanced degree to make that happen. While I have educational theory experience, it is child focused, not adult. I have self-taught most of what I know about adult learning theory, but am looking forward to learning more from my classes. I took my technical writing experience and successfully translated that into writing training and based on the metrics my company uses, I appear to be successful.
What I have learned thus far:
- It is very difficult to write everything, manual, objectives, training, activities, tests, workbooks. Some days the task seems almost overwhelming and others, smooth sailing.
- There are a bunch of folks that know a lot more than I do and I let them teach me. I don’t need to recreate the wheel to be successful. I read several e-Learning blogs, subscribe to several others and belong to my professional organization. All of these sources make me better than I am alone.
- Technical writing and writing curricula is REAL writing!
The first two big pieces of the new manual will be out for review by mid-week. I am so excited that I have actually finished something from the objectives to the manual documentation. Once the SME’s (subject matter experts) have approved, it will take maybe a day to create the training PowerPoints from the documentation.
I completed the second team building class last week and wow, was that an experience! The team in this office is very close, works very well together with only a couple of exceptions. We have one whiner, one not nice person and one person with hygiene issues. I was tasked with continuing to build the team and address these individual issues too, but in a way that was not confrontational. So we all created an action plan of personal behavior in ourselves we needed to improve. The only difficult part was playing the blindfold game and including the hygiene challenged person. No one wanted to wear the blindfold after him and I really couldn’t spray it down in front of everyone! Yes, these are the difficult issues I struggle with on a daily basis, hurting feelings…the Mom skills are serving me well!!!
Personal writing has made NO progress. I just haven’t made the time to devote to my writing or to my own personal development. My boss asked me to think of several things I still want to accomplish this year and she will hold my feet to the fire. I need to make a final decision on when I will start working on my Master’s…Spring 2009 or Summer 2009. I have been accepted into a great program, just need to figure out my schedule for next year. I also need to work much more with Captivate. I have the basics but really need to expand my knowledge to some enhanced capabilities to make my tutorials richer and more engaging. Honestly, my main goal for the end of the year is to continue to set limits on my work outside of the office, regain my focus and concentration so I can be more productive.
The writing has begun! I finally finished the analysis of this very large project and have actually started the work. Completed objectives and test questions on two major groups of nuggets. Written documentation, PowerPoint presentations for the class and activities for two of the nuggets. Should have the entire communication group completed this week and a good start on the second set of nugget writing and another set of objectives and test questions.
Still in the draft state: style guide and Knowledgebase update. We need to weed out obsolete documents and update the folder structure. I hope to make some progress on that front next week.
I have read a couple of other blogs discussing continuing learning and do you schedule it for yourself…I have to schedule it into my calender or I will skip it. I am learning a couple of new software programs for work and that is a part of my day, 2 hours to work the new software and it’s on my Outlook calender.
Outside of work, we found another house and have a contract on this one. It has been accepted. We had the inspection Friday and are still happy with everything. Hoping to close mid-October and move by the first of November. While I really loved the first house, dealing with that family was a nightmare. The first house was their family homestead, built by their father. I just don’t think they were quite ready to let go. We walked away, found this second house within a few days and just love it, yes more than the first one! House 2 is a bit of 100 years old and in great shape. The renovators did a wonderful job of keeping the period details in place while making the house livable for 2008 families. Original doors, windows and transoms over the doors…and just beautiful.
Spent the weekend working on Chris’ house with Mandy and Terry. Mandy made great progress in the nursery, Terry in the yard and I worked on repacking some items to make more room for the baby’s stuff. For such little people, they create a bunch of stuff! Pictures will be coming but have to wait until the work is complete to post any as we want it to be a surprise!
ahhh accountability!
Personal Projects:
Family Cookbook – Mandy asked for a cookbook with my Granny’s recipes in it. She also suggested adding stories from the aunts about their memories of Granny cooking these foods and the first time they tried cooking. I really love this kind of a family history and I and am just starting the contact with my aunts. We are in luck as I have a number of Granny’s favs that she gave me before I got married. I also plan to add some pictures too. Delivery of project: hopefully Christmas 2008.
I read a neat book by Amy Grant while trapped in the Great North. She outlined her influences in her life and music. I loved how she related her faith, family into these sweet little stories and I want to do something like that for my family so they understand how much they mean to me and the impact they have had on my life. I have written 3 very large sections of this project. I am working on the pictures for each section right now. Delivery: Christmas 2008
Both of the above projects are really for personal use and will be self-published. Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year! 
Short Story Collection: My grandparents told me all kinds of wonderful stories when I was growing up. I have written a number of them down and plan to compile into a collection. I want to have a more consistent theme between the stories and not sure if I will keep them split between my mom and dad’s families or just a single family or order them and provide more transition between the stories and make them a single book or stick with the collection idea.
Shoe in the Middle of the Road – my novel. Completed the outline and 3 chapters. I am not sure if this project will ever see the light of day as it is something I just have to express to finish working out my first marriage issues. If I still love it when I am finished and it passes the “it’s ok to have it in public test” from my kids, then I will try to sell it. If not, I consider it very good therapy at the expense of a keyboard or two!
My poetry – always a work in progress and I am ready to work on the getting published part of this process. I have 15-20 that have been extensively work-shopped and I like them….
and that is the status of my personal projects. Updates coming…sometime!
Yesterday I told you I was writing a blog to work on my writing, so I thought I’d tell you what I am actually working on. As I am that compulsive work oriented person, I am starting with work! I wear a couple of hats in this position, forum moderator, trainer, train the trainer person and instructional designer. Right now, I am deep in the forum work. The current admin pushed most of the board to me last week and as we all know, I am not a programmer! It is slow going as I am making changes but very carefully so I don’t break anything. If anyone has advice, tips etc on vBulletin boards, please speak up!
As for actual writing, I have written the “Get Started Guide” for the forum. My next assignment is to complete my training needs analysis, then decide what training modules to work first. The needs analysis is for the internal training, but will expand to include the external at some point in the future. I am super excited about this project as I will finally be able to deliver an on line tutorial! I created several for my last position but I wasn’t able to complete the entire body of work. As I move further into development of the training program, I will have more details of tools I am using, still investigating tools…so any suggestions would be appreciated!
