Learning Un-professionals?

I think @cammybean touched on this a while back looking at ID's (Instructional Designers) and who out there had any formal qualifications.

Thinking about myself, I have no formal qualifications in instructional design or e-Learning in the slightest. For the past 5 months I have learnt from Twittering mainly. I bought a book and I have also spent time researching white papers, breaking LMS's and finding out how much I can do with authoring systems by trial and error.

The majority of it all - seems to me - is down to experience. (Note the aptly named title of my blog) I wouldn't say for a moment though that having some form of qualification wouldn't help! Of course it would. It gives you a structure, a foundation and I am a stickler for processes and structure.

If I look at my last job, I was a Communications Rep communicating to the wider internal operations on a Private Sector contract managing the internal intranet knowledge base. I had no experience whatsoever but throwing myself in the deep-end helped me build experience and I ended up being one of the main SME's on the contract. No qualifications needed.

Now I am on a different path and learning how to swim again without the aid of floats!

Whether you are a learning professional or a learning un-professional, the majority of the knowledge you will build will come from experience.

If you have any thoughts on what I have mentioned, arguments to the contrary or are just plain interested, leave a comment on my blog.

Learning Beginnings

It's been exactly 5 months now since I re-joined our company's training team as their first official e-Learning Trainer and what a mighty ride it has been. Exciting developments and a steep learning curve I can tell you.

Before I came on board, e-Learning to me was pretty much unheard of and I had stereotypical perceptions of what it was all about. I thought of companies like Open University and LearnDirect Scotland, things like distance learning, click to advance, text heavy online modules and saying that, I thought e-Learning was ALL online.

Little did I know that 5 months later I would think completely differently. I now have long term visions of a Moodle Learning Management System, games and simulations, virtual learning environments and a smooth team of operators behind it.

And how did I get to where I am now? Easy. Social Networking has had a positive impact on my work and is now part of everyday life and this is why I have also created this blog.

Share, share and share again. It's great to learn from others and also to give a little something back. I have been following a number of learning professionals on Twitter. Some great recommendations would be @cammybean (VP at Kineo), @learning01 (Atlantic Link which is the company that has provided by content authoring software), @clivesheperd (consultant specialising in e-Learning for the workplace).

I love what I do and I crave so much more. I have my biggest project coming up and I intend to take some big steps in creating the best e-Learning I have done so far.

If you like, why not subscribe to my blog? I aim to give you an update on my progress soon and hopefully provide some links to useful resources.

Here's one for starters. E-Learning by Design written by William Horton courtesy of @cammybean.

Here's a thought to leave you with. "Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life". Famous quote by Harvey MacKay.

Tom Ireland