Welcome to 2012, everyone!

Yes, I’ve been a bit quiet this past year, on my blog, that is. I’m more active on Twitter, and somewhat active on Facebook. But, what happened?

Moving across state lines can be a huge endeavor, and it involves all kinds of adjustments for loved ones. In addition, I gained new clients, and that ramp-up work does take time to get used to new systems, and build trust and confidence in new business relationships.

Most importantly, our new community has a full schedule of fun events, as well as wilderness areas and national forests that begged us to explore the outdoors in Real World. I still pinch myself that I’m only a 10- to 15-minute drive from thick pine forests and lakes.

So, my blog fell silent in 2011.

What Did I Learn in 2011?

• Moving across state lines is a huge endeavor. LOL
• A cat person of many years can become a dog person when adopted by a wonderful canine
• Some client projects are great “fits” and create long-term relationships
• Some client projects are not a great fit, and it’s okay to move on/forward
• Twitter is still a great networking tool for me
• Still love and adore my iPad (Gen 1) and am convinced tablets can be a great mobile learning tool
• My new, semi-rural, community has some great resources
• Colleagues die and leave us with an emptiness inside. (RIP @TerrenceWing)

What Do I Hope for in 2012?

• Master a few IT programs and platforms that have been on my To Do list for too long
• Learn instructional design for mobile platforms (mobile learning)
• Gain new mobile learning clients and projects
• Connect with key people and resources in my community
• Continue working with my wonderful clients and their projects
• Regularly communicate with, and appreciate, colleagues and loved ones (life is so short)

Thank you for sharing journeys with me over the past few years.

I look forward to hearing about your new adventures in 2012!

Guy Kawasaki (The Art of the Start) has a venture called Alltop.com, and through Cammy Bean‘s tweet on Twitter, I learned that Alltop.com has added the e-learning category at:

http://elearning.alltop.com

What is this? It’s all the top news about e-learning! In one place, on one Web page.

Twitter

You can follow me, Cammy, and Guy:

@jenisecook

@cammybean

@GuyKawasaki

My Minnesota born-and-raised mom said that phrase often while I was growing up, and it easily slipped into my DNA. Yet, the “geeky” truth behind my introduction is that I am so excited about WordPress’s latest upgrades, I can’t keep it inside. I have to post about it.

I’m not new to blogging; we have a private family blog created in Blogger that’s a couple of years old. However, one of my pet peeves with Blogger is that I cannot easily upload my custom Flash movies to share with my family “peeps”.

The key word there is: easy.

Sure, Blogger’s developers and fans have created workaround solutions, but that’s not the point. In today’s 21st century, social-networking world, blog software should be flexible enough to adapt to what the admins/bloggers want and need. Today. Now.

So, when I found out that WordPress makes it easy to insert custom SWFs, I told myself,

“Self, I’d rather switch than do workarounds.”

I finally carved out the time, found Tom Johnson’s tutorial (see the “Welcome!” post), and started this blog. When I logged in just now as my blog’s Admin, I saw this link on the Dashboard page:

http://wordpress.org/development/2008/03/wordpress-25-rc2/

If you click to visit, notice the embedded Flash movie!

That’s why I voted with my fingers and chose WordPress. Now I, too, can embed movies easily in my blog. Just think of it: e-Learning “courselets” , Flash demos, screencasts…the blogosphere is now my oyster! Well, maybe not, but WordPress provides the features and functions I want. And, all of us wp-admins will get a new Dashboard UI to boot! As a new wp-admin, I cannot wait to see the “reveal” next time I log in.

Thanks to WordPress, I’m “Always Learning”.