So, group projects. I've... never been a fan. Even in real life classes with class time devoted to working on the projects I just can't get into them. I don't like the idea that other people's scores are resting partially on my meager shoulders and mine on theirs. There's too much that can go wrong.
But, that's neither here nor there.
As far as it goes, the technology was marginally effective. The wiki was a bit confusing for me and I'm still a bit fuzzy as to the real world applications of a wiki that's not a massive encyclopedia or set up for a huge fandom, like Marvel Comics or Star Trek (personal favorites. Yes, I'm a nerd. We've established this before). What does a wiki succeed in doing that a message board or email string cannot? The possibility of one page viewing? Maybe. But if that's it, it seems like it's a lot of hassle for not a lot of benefit.
Discussion boards were discussion boards. I'm not great with them, but I'm getting better with the practice that is demanded from being in online classes.
That's about it, I guess.
K
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
POST-it
The internet community at large is reading, writing, and responding to blogs. And there is no reason whatsoever that a company cannot get in on this trend to keep their employees informed about company changes, policies, and events.
One thing that needs to be considered is the target audience. In this case, it's likely the employees of a company, who range from the night guy who empties the trash to the CEO. Sometimes, some information may not be necessary for all levels of employees in the company, but other information is pertinent to everyone. The objective then would be to figure out a way to diagnose which pieces of news are important or fun for everyone and which are not. This is probably relatively simple, since the company picnic and the pictures from it are great for everyone to see, but financial reports for a specific department may not be necessary for people outside that department. What is the purpose? Is this for purely informational purposes or is it intended to bring the company together better as a team by giving them the opportunity to learn about each other.
And how will you, the blogger, take on this task? What will your online voice be like? Will it read like a transcript of a collegiate math lecture or will it be vibrant and conversational? What will the timeline be? Every week like an old time small town newspaper or daily to keep people interested or even as news becomes available and needs to be put out there?
These are just a few things to consider when beginning an internal blog for an organization. It's different from a consumer blog because while both are intended to inform, the reasons for that information are vastly different. A consumer blog will be with the intent of garnering more sales and feedback from customers while an internal blog is intended more to keep your employees in the loop of events and situations within the company.
K
One thing that needs to be considered is the target audience. In this case, it's likely the employees of a company, who range from the night guy who empties the trash to the CEO. Sometimes, some information may not be necessary for all levels of employees in the company, but other information is pertinent to everyone. The objective then would be to figure out a way to diagnose which pieces of news are important or fun for everyone and which are not. This is probably relatively simple, since the company picnic and the pictures from it are great for everyone to see, but financial reports for a specific department may not be necessary for people outside that department. What is the purpose? Is this for purely informational purposes or is it intended to bring the company together better as a team by giving them the opportunity to learn about each other.
And how will you, the blogger, take on this task? What will your online voice be like? Will it read like a transcript of a collegiate math lecture or will it be vibrant and conversational? What will the timeline be? Every week like an old time small town newspaper or daily to keep people interested or even as news becomes available and needs to be put out there?
These are just a few things to consider when beginning an internal blog for an organization. It's different from a consumer blog because while both are intended to inform, the reasons for that information are vastly different. A consumer blog will be with the intent of garnering more sales and feedback from customers while an internal blog is intended more to keep your employees in the loop of events and situations within the company.
K
Saturday, March 20, 2010
There she goes...
Righto. So, mark this as the first blog post of the new quarter. The class this go around? Twenty First Century Communication Technology. Nice to know that I'll get to use this blog a second time around rather than just setting it up to look pretty on the internet for one 12 week course. (I like to get my money's worth out of things, even free things like blogs.)
So, to those of you who have ventured into my realm, welcome. I'm Kiri. I know, I know. My name on the discussion postings says 'Christina', but that really only matters for taxes and employment and anything else that might be considered 'official'. For the rest of the world I'm Kiri and I prefer it that way. It's a nickname that I picked up in high school that has stuck and that the general consensus, even from my parents, is that it suits me better than my legal name. (And before you ask, I am planning to have it legally changed as soon as I can scrounge up the extra funds to do so.)
Currently, I'm a telephone slave for a large company in Omaha. I'm not good at the work and neither do I enjoy it, so the hunt is on for something that fulfills both of those requirements. At least I am able to have a job while I search for something better, which is more than can be said for many people these days, so I try not to complain too long or loud.
When I'm not nagging people on the phones or working on school stuff, I'm an inveterate bookworm (seriously, 4 - 6 books a week is a fairly regular free reading schedule), sometimes writer (recently more fanfic than original work, but it's for fun and practice more than anything), and occasional pirate goddess. ...well, the goddess part might be pushing it a bit, but just a bit. I perform with a renaissance faire troupe called The Ladies of the Salty Kiss every so often when the stars align and the winds blow true and I can actually get to a gig. Which basically translates to performing when they come to the Omaha faire out at Scary Acres. I also do some crafty stuff, like bastardizing Barbie dolls to look like characters that my friends and I have made for various writing projects and some counted cross stitch. I'm also a bit of a comic book geek (more Marvel than DC) and am getting into the video gaming scene when I can schedule a few hours to waste playing Ultimate Alliance 2.
I graduated from Rogers State University in the spring of 09, tried for a summer and fall to not go to school and realized that if I don't have about a million things going on at a time and/or constantly have my hands busy and my mind engaged in something I'm going to get so bored that I don't do anything! I'm one of those weird people that's got to be busy and maybe even moderately useful.
I'm rather excited to be taking another of Prof. Artz's classes, and no, I'm not just sucking up. I enjoyed the Ethics and Decision Making class that I took last term immensely, and look forward to just as enjoyable of a learning experience this term as well. Besides, it's a class on technology, and that just makes my inner geek squee. I like technology, for all it doesn't appear to like me most of the time.
I guess I'll stop rambling there. I look forward to getting to know you all! Feel free to pop in and say hi at any point.
Ciao!
K
So, to those of you who have ventured into my realm, welcome. I'm Kiri. I know, I know. My name on the discussion postings says 'Christina', but that really only matters for taxes and employment and anything else that might be considered 'official'. For the rest of the world I'm Kiri and I prefer it that way. It's a nickname that I picked up in high school that has stuck and that the general consensus, even from my parents, is that it suits me better than my legal name. (And before you ask, I am planning to have it legally changed as soon as I can scrounge up the extra funds to do so.)
Currently, I'm a telephone slave for a large company in Omaha. I'm not good at the work and neither do I enjoy it, so the hunt is on for something that fulfills both of those requirements. At least I am able to have a job while I search for something better, which is more than can be said for many people these days, so I try not to complain too long or loud.
When I'm not nagging people on the phones or working on school stuff, I'm an inveterate bookworm (seriously, 4 - 6 books a week is a fairly regular free reading schedule), sometimes writer (recently more fanfic than original work, but it's for fun and practice more than anything), and occasional pirate goddess. ...well, the goddess part might be pushing it a bit, but just a bit. I perform with a renaissance faire troupe called The Ladies of the Salty Kiss every so often when the stars align and the winds blow true and I can actually get to a gig. Which basically translates to performing when they come to the Omaha faire out at Scary Acres. I also do some crafty stuff, like bastardizing Barbie dolls to look like characters that my friends and I have made for various writing projects and some counted cross stitch. I'm also a bit of a comic book geek (more Marvel than DC) and am getting into the video gaming scene when I can schedule a few hours to waste playing Ultimate Alliance 2.
I graduated from Rogers State University in the spring of 09, tried for a summer and fall to not go to school and realized that if I don't have about a million things going on at a time and/or constantly have my hands busy and my mind engaged in something I'm going to get so bored that I don't do anything! I'm one of those weird people that's got to be busy and maybe even moderately useful.
I'm rather excited to be taking another of Prof. Artz's classes, and no, I'm not just sucking up. I enjoyed the Ethics and Decision Making class that I took last term immensely, and look forward to just as enjoyable of a learning experience this term as well. Besides, it's a class on technology, and that just makes my inner geek squee. I like technology, for all it doesn't appear to like me most of the time.
I guess I'll stop rambling there. I look forward to getting to know you all! Feel free to pop in and say hi at any point.
Ciao!
K
Monday, March 8, 2010
The Final Post for Ethics and Decision Making
Yeah, it's not as creative as I'm used to. Mr. Migraine has come to visit, so I'm not at my best. Many apologies in advance.
When I came into this class, I honestly didn't know what to expect. Ethics is alternately a clear cut realm and one fraught with disparity. Just because I think that my actions are ethical doesn't mean that they are to another person.
I went back and looked at the course objectives for this class and I think that I've at least learned to do the items set out on that list better, though I'm by no means an expert. Like any skill, it's going to take more than a 12 week course to set up and maintain the habits that will last a life time and actually get good at doing the things. But, by getting the information and the basics, I can go on and with practice get better.
The part that I thought was the most interesting was the bits about decision making. I mentioned it in my previous blog, but it's worth stating again: now that I have a better idea of why I make the decisions that I do make I stand a better chance of being able to out-think myself. (It makes sense if you think about it.) I think that people need to be able to out-think themselves and not just react on their instincts when making choices and decisions. We need to be able to see what other people's points of view are on situations and be able to compare that to our own views while stepping outside ourselves to see the best course of action.
Overall, I really enjoyed this class. And considering that I'm not much for online class taking, that's saying a lot. But then, being able to take and succeed in an online classroom setting is as much of a skill as anything else. And I'll certainly get plenty of practice with this degree programs.
See you around.
K
When I came into this class, I honestly didn't know what to expect. Ethics is alternately a clear cut realm and one fraught with disparity. Just because I think that my actions are ethical doesn't mean that they are to another person.
I went back and looked at the course objectives for this class and I think that I've at least learned to do the items set out on that list better, though I'm by no means an expert. Like any skill, it's going to take more than a 12 week course to set up and maintain the habits that will last a life time and actually get good at doing the things. But, by getting the information and the basics, I can go on and with practice get better.
The part that I thought was the most interesting was the bits about decision making. I mentioned it in my previous blog, but it's worth stating again: now that I have a better idea of why I make the decisions that I do make I stand a better chance of being able to out-think myself. (It makes sense if you think about it.) I think that people need to be able to out-think themselves and not just react on their instincts when making choices and decisions. We need to be able to see what other people's points of view are on situations and be able to compare that to our own views while stepping outside ourselves to see the best course of action.
Overall, I really enjoyed this class. And considering that I'm not much for online class taking, that's saying a lot. But then, being able to take and succeed in an online classroom setting is as much of a skill as anything else. And I'll certainly get plenty of practice with this degree programs.
See you around.
K
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
So, the first thought out of my head when I read that I was supposed to be posting about a book we finished a few weeks ago was '...but I've slept since then!' (Yes, I'm a snarky excuse of a wench, thank you for noticing.)
Once I got the snark out of the way, a task easier said than done, mind you, I sat back to contemplate. I even did a contemplation pose, which is similar to Winnie-the-Pooh's thinking pose. What did I learn from this book?
One of the primary things that I learned was a great deal about recognizing the underlying reasoning for decisions that I make in my everyday life. This is good information for just about anyone to know, even though the book is technically about managerial decision making. How can we make decisions in a corporate setting if we don't recognize why we make our most common choices? By being able to recognize the patterns of my decision making I can sort of map out the way my mind tends to work and do one of two things with it:
1. Make it work better for me. What I mean by that is once I know the pathways I can navigate them that much more efficiently. It's like getting a new car. At first, you're relatively careful because you don't know all the little quirks and triggers she might have. Once you've been driving her for a while you know what makes her tick and you can use that knowledge to make the car work better for you. Knowing the underlying reasons for making decisions is like knowing what makes you tick.
2. Work around myself. Say I've got a a bad decision making habit, or just a decision making habit in general, that will not work for a particular problem. Before I knew how my mind was mapped out I might have made a choice without realizing the reasons for that choice. But now that I know the way it works in my mind I can consciously work around my natural inclinations. It's not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but at least I can do it now.
So, yeah. That's what I learned mostly from that book. I've started doing a lot more self-examining about the way I make choices and decisions not only at work but in my everyday life because the skills of noticing and even re-routing my natural inclinations need to be developed. That can't wait til I've got to make a corporate decision. I need to start working on it now.
K
Once I got the snark out of the way, a task easier said than done, mind you, I sat back to contemplate. I even did a contemplation pose, which is similar to Winnie-the-Pooh's thinking pose. What did I learn from this book?
One of the primary things that I learned was a great deal about recognizing the underlying reasoning for decisions that I make in my everyday life. This is good information for just about anyone to know, even though the book is technically about managerial decision making. How can we make decisions in a corporate setting if we don't recognize why we make our most common choices? By being able to recognize the patterns of my decision making I can sort of map out the way my mind tends to work and do one of two things with it:
1. Make it work better for me. What I mean by that is once I know the pathways I can navigate them that much more efficiently. It's like getting a new car. At first, you're relatively careful because you don't know all the little quirks and triggers she might have. Once you've been driving her for a while you know what makes her tick and you can use that knowledge to make the car work better for you. Knowing the underlying reasons for making decisions is like knowing what makes you tick.
2. Work around myself. Say I've got a a bad decision making habit, or just a decision making habit in general, that will not work for a particular problem. Before I knew how my mind was mapped out I might have made a choice without realizing the reasons for that choice. But now that I know the way it works in my mind I can consciously work around my natural inclinations. It's not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but at least I can do it now.
So, yeah. That's what I learned mostly from that book. I've started doing a lot more self-examining about the way I make choices and decisions not only at work but in my everyday life because the skills of noticing and even re-routing my natural inclinations need to be developed. That can't wait til I've got to make a corporate decision. I need to start working on it now.
K
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
And so we'll see what we've learned today...
Oh jeeze. It's the "what have I learned so far post". This is always a fun one, mainly because...
Well, ok, I'm entirely certain why exactly it fall under the category of 'fun' but it does. Maybe because I like to wax poetic about the expanding of my brain muscle. Maybe? I dunno.
We just got done reading the book The Seven Layers of Integrity (it even has theme music in my head when I say that. Sort of a daunting, powerful da-dadada! Impressive, no?), and I'll be honest, I'd never considered the world of ethics to have that much detail. Good is good, bad is bad, do the good and not the bad and you're ethical (and occasionally there a little gray area thrown in for kicks which makes for great debatings!). Ok, maybe that's a little bit of an over-simplified version of my thoughts on the concept, but the point remains: seven layers? For real?
But, it makes sense. You've got all these interconnecting bits and pieces that sort of tie in together or glance of one another in passing or completely clash and a person has to figure out what to do. Like, say, what if your job wants you to do this, but you think it's wrong? What's a person to do? That my friend, is like a 10 car pile up on the ethics super highway.
I think the chapter that I've enjoyed the most so far, and got the most out of, was the chapter on moral values. And it's not because, as I've often joked, I've sold my morals, unused, on eBay to pay for school. Actually, I liked the fact that the authors talked in plain language about how everyone has different morals and spiritual values that are going to shape their views and their actions and they didn't mince words. So often it seems like the idea of holding a set of values or personal spiritual beliefs that might clash with someone else's is so taboo that it can't even be talked about. The authors stated staight out that Bob is going to believe something completely different from Jim and Jim's got another view than Suzy, so deal with it. Ok, maybe they weren't so rude, but I'm a casual writer by nature.
But they didn't stop there. They pointed out that by having a set of ingrained moral and spiritual values, it actually set a person up for how they would respond to the other six layers, sort of like a domino effect.
Another interesting observation: Everything builds on one another, from morals on up. You can follow the letter of the law or a contract without necessarily following your morals, but if you follow your morals, you're set up for the interactions with your personal relationships, community, and on up the ladder.
I'm still trying to figure out what impact this has had on me personally, because when I get into school mode I tend to get a little cerebral and distant and don't necessarily notice if I'm actually applying things I'm learning right away. However, I can say that I found it all very interesting and I'm certain that sometime down the road I'm going to smack my forehead and go "DOI!" and realize why I changed something or adjusted a behavior pattern or something.
K
Well, ok, I'm entirely certain why exactly it fall under the category of 'fun' but it does. Maybe because I like to wax poetic about the expanding of my brain muscle. Maybe? I dunno.
We just got done reading the book The Seven Layers of Integrity (it even has theme music in my head when I say that. Sort of a daunting, powerful da-dadada! Impressive, no?), and I'll be honest, I'd never considered the world of ethics to have that much detail. Good is good, bad is bad, do the good and not the bad and you're ethical (and occasionally there a little gray area thrown in for kicks which makes for great debatings!). Ok, maybe that's a little bit of an over-simplified version of my thoughts on the concept, but the point remains: seven layers? For real?
But, it makes sense. You've got all these interconnecting bits and pieces that sort of tie in together or glance of one another in passing or completely clash and a person has to figure out what to do. Like, say, what if your job wants you to do this, but you think it's wrong? What's a person to do? That my friend, is like a 10 car pile up on the ethics super highway.
I think the chapter that I've enjoyed the most so far, and got the most out of, was the chapter on moral values. And it's not because, as I've often joked, I've sold my morals, unused, on eBay to pay for school. Actually, I liked the fact that the authors talked in plain language about how everyone has different morals and spiritual values that are going to shape their views and their actions and they didn't mince words. So often it seems like the idea of holding a set of values or personal spiritual beliefs that might clash with someone else's is so taboo that it can't even be talked about. The authors stated staight out that Bob is going to believe something completely different from Jim and Jim's got another view than Suzy, so deal with it. Ok, maybe they weren't so rude, but I'm a casual writer by nature.
But they didn't stop there. They pointed out that by having a set of ingrained moral and spiritual values, it actually set a person up for how they would respond to the other six layers, sort of like a domino effect.
Another interesting observation: Everything builds on one another, from morals on up. You can follow the letter of the law or a contract without necessarily following your morals, but if you follow your morals, you're set up for the interactions with your personal relationships, community, and on up the ladder.
I'm still trying to figure out what impact this has had on me personally, because when I get into school mode I tend to get a little cerebral and distant and don't necessarily notice if I'm actually applying things I'm learning right away. However, I can say that I found it all very interesting and I'm certain that sometime down the road I'm going to smack my forehead and go "DOI!" and realize why I changed something or adjusted a behavior pattern or something.
K
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