Monday, December 28, 2009

A Year in Books (2009)

2009 was a big year for me.  New job.  New company.  Working full time from a home office.  Oldest child in kindergarten.  New challenges – and some old ones too.  

A great year, really.  Thanks for joining me in this journey and for all you’ve contributed to my learning over the past 12 months.

To try and hold on to – if 2009 booksjust for a brief moment – some of what’s been going on in my brain this year, I thought I’d take a moment to catalogue the pile of  topical books I’ve read.  Hopefully I learned something from all that book reading.

 

In no particular order:

Instructional Design and eLearning

Because this is what I do.

Multimedia Learning, Richard Mayer.  The classic, in which Mayer looks at research and provides conclusions on effective use of multimedia in eLearning.  Ruth Clark works with Mayer’s research results (in fact, much of Ruth Clark’s presentation at DevLearn this year was a summary of Mayer’s Multimedia Principals).

Designing World Class e-Learning:  How IBM, GE, Harvard Business School, And Columbia University Are Succeeding At E-Learning, Roger Schank.  I hadn’t read any Schank before this one.  In depth case studies, looking at goal-based scenarios.  Great e-Learning on a huge budget, no doubt!

Michael Allen’s E-Learning Library Creating Successful E-Learning: A Rapid System for Getting It Right First Time, Every Time, Michael Allen.  Another Michael Allen classic.

Moodle 1.9 Multimedia, Joao Pedro Soares Fernades.  Ideas and best practices on using multimedia effectively in Moodle.  Working with and designing for Moodle was new for me in 2009.  I have much to learn.

Visual Design & Presentations

In 2009, I co-presented two sessions at DevLearn, gave a talk at the Massachusetts chapter of ISPI and presented a few online webinars.  2010  looks to be more opportunity – I’ll be co-presenting three sessions at the eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions conference in Orlando in March, running an eLearning Guild Online Forum in January.  And who knows what else.   That said, I don’t want to be one of those boring presenters who gets tomatoes thrown at me for putting up horrible text slides.  Oh yeah – good stuff for e-Learning too!

slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations, Nancy Duarte

Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, Dan Roam

Other

Catching up on the pop business books from the last few years, these books gave me a little insight into current thinking.

Free: The Future of Radical Price, Chris Anderson.  Ironically, I paid more for this book than any other book this year.  $28 impulse buy at an airport. 

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, Seth Godin. 

And also, The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead, Max Brooks.  Critical for getting through DevLearn!

************

I’m sure I’ve missed a few. 

Long live books!

(So what should I be reading in 2010?)

3 comments:

Sahana Chattopadhyay said...

Cammy, thank you for the list. There are quite a few I have not read and now intend to after reading your post. Yes, long live books!!

Have a wonderful 2010! Looking forward to sharing and learning in 2010.

Dave Ferguson said...

I think it's also good to read stuff that's not very closely related to your work. A mild puzzle to me is that, despite my undergrad major in English, I don't read much fiction (and the fiction I'm currently reading is in French).

Maybe the not-too-related principle is another way of saying go places you're interested in but don't often get to.

One value of a book is the promise of range, depth, or both, like an extended conversation (or an extended relationship) with someone you enjoy.

So, not that you asked, at the moment I'm reading:

-- A Great and Noble Scheme, a history of the forced expulsion of the French Acadiens,
-- In the Land of Invented Language, about the numberless attempts to create more "logical" human languages,
-- PrairyErth, a history of the Kansas tallgrass (and a travel through time)
-- Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, not "deep" history but Cahill's ideas on why the ancient Greeks matter
-- Alphabet Juice, a chance to lean back and enjoy the sly Roy Blount, Jr.

Cammy Bean said...

Dave, I love seeing what you're reading. Definitely out of the field.

I do foray into fiction and the occasional New Yorker article. But mostly, I read a LOT of children's books out loud to the kids. Had I actually listed all of the books I've read this year, I would look like a complete reading stud.