Just like the Terminator said...

Lonn — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 11:59:00 GMT

"I'll be back."...

And here I am. The Terminator reference is in honour of the new Terminator TV Series (Sarah Connor Chronicles) which I've been watching, and have enjoyed thus far. As the writers strike drags on, I've been spending a lot of time on Hulu.com with my beta account. Great stuff there... Anyways, I digress.

I'm back and ready to blog to the world about the following things:

1. Microsoft courseware. Everything from MOC to Courseware Library, MODL to the MCT Download Center and everything in-between.
2. Interesting tidbits about how people learn and innovations in the training industry. Some may be new to you, some may be old, but anything that I find interesting enough to discuss may find a paragraph or two in an upcoming post.
3. Life in general at Microsoft Learning and insights about how it feels to be the Product Manager for facilitated training products that reach close to 1 Million of the world's brightest minds via our network of super smart Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs) and experienced CPLS Partners.

<Tangent>I love MCTs. These guys are as passionate and knowledgeable about technology as they come and I spend a lot of my time working with them within Microsoft as well as throughout the CPLS channel. I'll have a chance to address them in person at the upcoming Redmond MCT Summit in early Feb and look forward to a lively chat about all the things we're doing around MOC, both in the short and long term.</Tangent>

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Microsoft wide Learning and Technology Forum. Hats off the organizers for the terrific event that brought the top minds at Microsoft together for a day full of expert speakers and knowledge sharing. The keynote was delivered by Will Thalheimer, who is known for his expertise in training measurement. If you haven't already, you might want to check out his blog http://www.willatworklearning.com/. Another great presentation was delivered by my teammate and soon to be blogger Ben Lower, who talked about the innovative Courseware Library and the plans going forward.

I'll let Ben introduce himself shortly, but I guarantee that he'll be a fun and interesting read. He's a guy that everyone likes having around and is the life of the party... that being said, he's got great insights on the facilitated learning industry and I will enjoy posting along side of him.

Feels good to back. Have a great day.

"Hasta la vista, baby." ;)

Lonn

MCT Summit Redmond

Lonn — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:54:00 GMT

Last week (April 16-18) myself and many of my team members attended the MCT Summit in Redmond. I've had my notes from the event and haven't had a chance to until now to provide some of my observations from the event.

Highlights
Met a lot of friendly folks and had some great discussions on the direction of Microsoft Official Courseware (MOC).
Lively discussion as always from MCTs in attendance.
Early look at the upcoming Longhorn training content.
I got a boomerang from the Prometric booth. Cool.

In case I haven't described to you exactly what I do, I am currently the Product Manager responsible for our internal initiative codenamed: KonaH. This initiative is aimed at steadily evolving our MOC product to take into account student and partner (MCT, CPLS) feedback, while improving and enhancing the student, MCT and CPLS experience. Sharon made a great presentation about the future of our courseware products and during this session, she spoke about the KonaH initiative. I spent a lot of my time during the summit speaking with MCTs that had very useful comments, observations and feedback for what we're working on. A lot of this feedback has been used to refine the product. More on KonaH in upcoming posts.

This was the first MCT summit in North America in over 7 years! Let's hope that we don't have to wait that long again, as it seemed as though it was a great success.

(sorry didn't get a chance to publish this until just recently)

Education, Innovation and Inspiration : Conferences

Just like the Terminator said...

MCT Summit Redmond