“…dive into the deep end of the ignorance pool”

Isn’t that a fantastic turn of phrase?  I was trolling through google search on blog posts about e-learning (as you do), and found Wayne Hodgin’s blog, who introduced us to Learning Objects.  He decided to ditch his comfy life and throw himself into learning by living aboard his sailboat.

I want to write about my opinion on this, but I think most people aren’t that interested in my opinion, but visit to find out what neat stuff I might have turned up.  So, here’s a high tech and a low tech freebie:

High Tech – everyone I read seems to be talking about LiveJournal…kind of like an online aggregator – instead of having Facebook profiles, twitter log-ins, blogs and other social networks, LJ puts it all together and allows you to manage it on your own megasite.  I liked this post: https://benwerd.com/2009/07/building-the-user-centered-web/ and Jay Cross might pull the plug on his blog and migrate to LJ.  I will throw myself into the deep end of this ignorance pool and check it out and let you know what I think!

Low Tech – at my last “job”, there were a substantial number of employees in this organization that had been around a long time and would talk about programs/initiatives/decisions assuming that all involved knew what they were, what the purpose was and why they were developed.  Except me.  I was leading a team that had to educate me on the historical decisions.  I coined a phrase that started with “I’m going to have to play my ignorance card here, and ask what is XX and why are we doing it?”  I didn’t mind labelling myself as ignorant on the subject and it signalled to all that they needed to dumb down their explanation for me.  I began using it with other departments in discussion as well, and the most interesting thing happened.  People started questioning their sacred cows and we were able to have real discussions about what problems we were trying to fix.  So, don’t be afraid to play your ignorance card and see what happens!