Podcast introduction (more to come...)

Well, I finally gave it a shot and tried my hand at creating a poscast. Here's the intro for what I hope will eventually be a somewhat regular entry to this blog.

I chose the theme from the old radion show "The Shadow" partly because of this passage from The Masters' Collection:

"According to psychologist Carl Jung, we have an unconcious shadow that periodically erupts. Your shadow operates without your awareness and often, we project our shadow onto others. Our shadow is made up of our fears, insecurities and unmet needs. Often our shadow erupts just like a volcano, rolling over things in its path. We protect our shadow by giving it to another person - the people we manage, our spouse, even our children. Great leaders are aware of their dark side, and "own it"." (Kay Johnson)

Pollard, A. (ed.) (1999). Words of mouth... the masters' collection: Executive insights for the global leader. Calgary, Alberta: Ink Ink Publishing & Presentations.

Learning, management, and leadership

Learning, whether self-directed or other-directed, requires both management and leadership. What does that mean? Is there a difference between management and leadership? I think so, and so does Jack Hayhow, as shown in the video below.



I believe learning requires good leadership to generate and maintain motivation, and to keep the goal (vision) clear and in mind throughout the learning process. Learning also requires capable management skills to plan and facilitate the necessary activities, and to maintain forward momentum, to prevent slowing down (or stopping!) after reaching milestones throughout the learning process. This holds true wheather the learning is self-driected or other-directed.

Management and leadership: different, but equally important in learning!

Hayhow, J. (2006). Are management and leadership the same? [video]. Retrieved October 10, 2007, from http://youtube.com/watch?v=s_AIbuF-R-4.

Why this blog?

I'm using this medium to accomplish a number of personal goals:

1. to reflect on and deepen my learning about lifelong learning and adult education;
2. to share my reflections on the topic with my MA cohort;
3. to learn more about the use and effectiveness of blogging;
4. to show my Internet Skills learners a living example of blogging for a purpose; and
5. to generate, explore and prepare information for formal papers.

With that in mind, this blog will be a blending of casual information sharing, critical reflective thinking and writing, and random musings. Some posts will be academic in nature, complete with APA citations and references, while others will be conversational style wanderngs.

So... onward ho!