Cammy Bean's Learning Visions: Learning to Work, Working to Learn

This post is my contribution to this month's Work/Learning Blog Carnival hosted by the venerable Dave Ferguson.

The last time I posted for this carnival (almost a year ago!) I wrote about trying to build learning into work when you're just too busy doing work.

This go-round, I'm at the other end of things: in a much-needed lull between projects, taking a breather. Opening my eyes, looking around, and seeing what I can see. A great time to brush up on skills, seek inspiration, and learn learn learn.

Here's what I've been doing lately on the job:

Tinkering

I've been tinkering around with new and old tools, expanding my skill set.

Audio:

I've been learning the basics of using Adobe Audition for sound recording and have been creating narration for a course we're currently building. This reminds me how much I like to make stuff.

PowerPoint:

Tom Kuhlman's got some great demos and exercises on his Rapid eLearning Blog, like this one on building an eLearning Template in PowerPoint.

Getting Inspired

Looking at what other, more creative people are building for eLearning seems like a no brainer.

Here's some of what I've been tapping into lately for instructional design inspiration:

Tom Kuhlman's Resource List for the eLearning Guild's ID Zone at the recent Annual Gathering.
Articulate Guru Awards 2009
Clive Shepherd's 60-Minute Masters

What else should I be looking at? What are you looking at?

Reading

I'm still in the midst of The Adult Learner by Malcolm Knowles et al. My attention has admittedly wandered to shinier, more gripping things.

I've got a long wish list going in Amazon of books I'd like to read. Just need to make some decisions and add them to the cart. At the moment, my book wish list includes:

Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire (Cliff Atkinson)
Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (Book & DVD) (John Medina)
From Training to Performance Improvement
(Jeanne Farrington) via Harold Jarche
Non-Designer's Design Book, The (3rd Edition) (Non Designer's Design Book) (Robin Williams)
Principles of Instructional Design (Robert Gagne)

Be sure to check out Essential Reading for Instructional Designers for more great book ideas. Have any to add?

Revisiting

Things don't seem to stick in my brain the way they used to.

Now's a good time to go back and thumb through some of my old favorites be they books, blog posts, articles, whatever. I pull something off my shelf (Essential Reading for Instructional Designers ) or head over to delicious and browse my bookmarks.

Sharing & Digesting

Since 2006/7, my blog had been my main vehicle for chewing things over and spitting them back up. The past year has seen a reduction in my posting. Some of that gap because I feel like I've said it all already. Some of the gap has been sheer laziness.

Since September, I've been blogging less because I've been twittering more. I wasn't at the eLearning Guild's Annual Gathering this year, but I felt close thanks to Twitter. So many resources to share.