This class has been intense, wonderful, enlightening, informative, and exhausting. And I loved it all. I think that the Learning Journals were a great way to get my thoughts out on what was going on with school and hope to continue this practice in the following quarters. I think it would be great to incorporate them into BGI’s curriculum from day one. Another valuable part of this was branding myself. It felt a bit rushed trying to create my brand but it was incredibly useful to think about how I wanted to put myself out there to the public. The tagging exercise was an incredibly powerful tool to teach me how others saw me and how I perceived myself.
I also appreciated the BGI beats and enjoyed reading others’ blogs. I don’t think I’ll continue my blog the way it is but I hope to use my new found skills to create a Sustainable Fort Lewis blog. I plan on creating the template for one with a couple of possible entries to present to the Public Affairs Office in hopes of persuading them.
As I’m sure everyone else has pointed out, the social change part of the class was what we were all craving and we all loved. This class brought such an empowering view to social change and really made me feel like I could change things now. Learning to create a video was also a great experience and I will actually be making a couple of videos as Christmas gifts to family. I can’t imagine a better present to my grandparents than a video of their grandkids and great-grandson. They live in Virginia so miss out on a lot.
What was a bit difficult for me was the amount of work involved. While I felt it was all valuable, it was difficult to keep up with. I wasn’t able to even think about checking out the suggested readings. However, I appreciate that they’re there because I plan on going back to it and reading it. I also feel that some of the behavior change information could be incorporated in a different class. In fact, earlier this quarter I participated in a Fostering Sustainable Behavior workshop by Dr. Doug McKenzie-Mohr that touched on a lot of these topics. This workshop was based on his book and would be a good one to read in a preceding class.
Overall, this was probably the best class I’ve taken at BGI so far. I think that I’ll continue using the things I’ve learned for the rest of my life.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Overwhelmed
This feeling should be familiar to me by now. Overwhelmed. There are many days when I wish that I could focus solely on my schoolwork. I love my job but sometimes it's too much. This is one of those times. Some days I have it totally together and I'm getting everything in on time. Now is not one of those times. I still haven't done my video for this class, I'm focusing most of my attention on my team projects with both marketing and social web, and I still have to have a conversation with a tree and write about it. Yes, a tree...and it's pouring outside. I think I'll talk to my indoor ficus instead.
So, all I can do now is hold on, dive in, and work my ass off to get back on top of it all. I know I can, I've been deeper before. My main goal: never let my teammates down.
So, all I can do now is hold on, dive in, and work my ass off to get back on top of it all. I know I can, I've been deeper before. My main goal: never let my teammates down.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Making New Friends
I love how at BGI, there's always someone new and wonderful to discover. This last intensive, I had the pleasure of getting to know Justin Tilson a bit more. I've known him since last year; he's C7, formerly known as Pine, formerly known as Sage. We were even in the accounting team together (and spent hours banging our heads against the virtual wall). But I hadn't yet had the pleasure of having a deep, lengthy conversation with him. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and the ease of sharing our thoughts with each other...no matter how "crazy"!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Inspirational blogs
I really enjoy reading the posts of my classmates. It's like I get to spend more that just 4 days a month with them! There is such a rich diversity of ideas, passions, and voices and there is always a new tidbit of information to glean from them. I've compiled a few of my favorite and quotes I've come across. I have not read every post of every student and I'm sure that this can be said for all of us. So I will share with you what I've found and perhaps give you reason to discover a new blog post.
From HipHop Namaste:
"In the mean time I am thirsty, in transition mode and stumbling around in the dark. And have happened upon a body of water with a beam of light shining from up above. I never thought to look up. Following the spiral of my soul levitation, finally I have risen to the surface to meet the reflection of myself diving into a long deep abyss into the shadows. I suppose we could call this my cyber blogosphere coming out party."
From Shibumi.net:
"We as a species have to start asking ourselves the question “how would nature solve _________?” before we start to create anything. All the answers to live in harmony with the biosphere are there – we just have to develop the capacity to observe deeply."
From Julie's Learning Journal:
"I entered this class curious how our society will reconcile the social networking phenomena with the social disconnect that pervades our streets - wondering whether we can take these opposing forces and align them toward a greater good. Whatever our personal opinion of the trends, there is no denying them nor the opportunities they present. This is much more than entertainment. And like everything else in life, if you want to make a difference, you have to take a chance."
I may make it a habit of doing posts like this because not only can it help readers discover something new and exciting it also serves as a collection of brilliant quotes.
From HipHop Namaste:
"In the mean time I am thirsty, in transition mode and stumbling around in the dark. And have happened upon a body of water with a beam of light shining from up above. I never thought to look up. Following the spiral of my soul levitation, finally I have risen to the surface to meet the reflection of myself diving into a long deep abyss into the shadows. I suppose we could call this my cyber blogosphere coming out party."
From Shibumi.net:
"We as a species have to start asking ourselves the question “how would nature solve _________?” before we start to create anything. All the answers to live in harmony with the biosphere are there – we just have to develop the capacity to observe deeply."
From Julie's Learning Journal:
"I entered this class curious how our society will reconcile the social networking phenomena with the social disconnect that pervades our streets - wondering whether we can take these opposing forces and align them toward a greater good. Whatever our personal opinion of the trends, there is no denying them nor the opportunities they present. This is much more than entertainment. And like everything else in life, if you want to make a difference, you have to take a chance."
I may make it a habit of doing posts like this because not only can it help readers discover something new and exciting it also serves as a collection of brilliant quotes.
Monday, October 26, 2009
The power of You Tube
Watching the work of Franklin Lopez was incredibly inspiring me. It's creative, it's catchy and it has a great message. There is a great deal of power that is available to us with the right amount of knowledge of the system.
I'm curious though, while those clips were brilliant, I'd never seen them. You can be sure that I'll pass them on so their reach is even further but in the case of the voting clip, it's too late for this election. So how long does it take to get a message across the internet? What are the keys for a message going widespread in the matter of days? I suppose that this is a big part of what we're learning in this class. If we're going to change the world with social media we need to learn how to get our message across quickly.
I know it sounds conspiracy theorist but all of this social media stuff has had me thinking about the power of the government over all of this. If they truly decided to take control over the internet, how much control would they really have? Could someone still send an unapproved message to the world? How are they using it to sway our opinions on certain issues? Just curious...
I'm curious though, while those clips were brilliant, I'd never seen them. You can be sure that I'll pass them on so their reach is even further but in the case of the voting clip, it's too late for this election. So how long does it take to get a message across the internet? What are the keys for a message going widespread in the matter of days? I suppose that this is a big part of what we're learning in this class. If we're going to change the world with social media we need to learn how to get our message across quickly.
I know it sounds conspiracy theorist but all of this social media stuff has had me thinking about the power of the government over all of this. If they truly decided to take control over the internet, how much control would they really have? Could someone still send an unapproved message to the world? How are they using it to sway our opinions on certain issues? Just curious...
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Finding the balance
I've been trying to find the balance in my beat between not losing my job (by disclosing information I'm not supposed to) and feeling like I'm able to combine a school project and a work project. Eventually I plan on having a Sustainable Fort Lewis blog but Public Affairs has yet to approve this. I was hoping to be able to feed two birds with one seed and I think I've been able to figure out how.
My beat is "GreenGov" and I think I'll be able to focus on the government's role in sustainability and not specifically discuss the things I do at work. However, if something has already been published in the newspaper (therefore approved by PAO) I will be able to share it.
My initial plan of keeping my beat private did not seem as appealing after speaking with my professor, Christopher. The added benefit of having outside community see my post and comment on it seemed a valuable tool to measure the usefulness of my blog.
On a different topic, I think I'm getting a bit more used to juggling my different social networks. I know that I need to work on commenting on others' postings and linking my blog to theirs. In the next week I will be focusing on improving in both of these areas.
My beat is "GreenGov" and I think I'll be able to focus on the government's role in sustainability and not specifically discuss the things I do at work. However, if something has already been published in the newspaper (therefore approved by PAO) I will be able to share it.
My initial plan of keeping my beat private did not seem as appealing after speaking with my professor, Christopher. The added benefit of having outside community see my post and comment on it seemed a valuable tool to measure the usefulness of my blog.
On a different topic, I think I'm getting a bit more used to juggling my different social networks. I know that I need to work on commenting on others' postings and linking my blog to theirs. In the next week I will be focusing on improving in both of these areas.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Quiet tenacity
This Sunday, we did a tagging exercise where we first tagged ourselves by answering questions and then went around the room anonymously tagging each other. This was a very powerful and fun exercise.
My Tags
Three phrases to introduce myself (I tend to hold my cards close so introduction tend to be pretty surface level for me):
At first I was a little hesitant about finding my personal brand, it sounded almost shallow. I've come realize that it's completely the opposite. Your personal brand has to be your authentic self or people won't buy into it. Finding your personal brand is just another way of delving deeper into who I am. I am excited about all of the ways I am able to explore who I am this quarter
My Tags
Three phrases to introduce myself (I tend to hold my cards close so introduction tend to be pretty surface level for me):
- I live in Olympia
- I'm a sustainable MBA candidate
- I work in the sustainability program at Fort Lewis
- My family
- Sustainability
- Justice and Equity (I'm one of those whose always saying "That's not fair!")
- I hug trees for the Army
- I used to be a missionary
- I'm a birth mother in an open adoption
- fresh
- listener
- dedication
- authentic
- quiet tenacity
- beautiful soul
- neat financials (I'm guessing that came from an accounting teammate!)
- sweet
- real
- love
- Quiet tenacity
- Patient listener
- Authentic dedication
At first I was a little hesitant about finding my personal brand, it sounded almost shallow. I've come realize that it's completely the opposite. Your personal brand has to be your authentic self or people won't buy into it. Finding your personal brand is just another way of delving deeper into who I am. I am excited about all of the ways I am able to explore who I am this quarter
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