A Beginning

I haven’t blogged before, so this should be interesting… If you’re reading this (and of course, you are), here are a few things I think you should know.

Androidgogy? What the heck is that?

It’s a made up word that plays on the term andragogy. This satirical term of endearment is one I’ve come to use in reference to much of the learning content I’ve seen designed or built (some of it I’ve designed and built myself). This reference implies a mechanistic quality to content packaging and design that could easily have been built by machines, for machines.

Androidgogy. It’s meant to be a playful reference.

This site was created to:

• Provide me with a means to capture and share thoughts and connections related to the performance and learning solutions craft (and other stuff that interests me).
• Give me an opportunity to practice writing brief articles and (hopefully) get some feedback to improve those skills.
• Expose some of the projects and models I’ve been working on for external review (external as in outside of my own head).
• Document the connections that exist between my own remixed models and pre-existing work. There are some really dynamite things going on. I want to help to illuminate that work through attribution and interpretation.

This is largely intended as an exercise for improvement and introspection but I hope others can find something useful or entertaining within its pages.

Specific things that interest me:

• Human Performance
• Learning Environments
• Design Practice
• Digital Media
• Visual Thinking
• Linguistics
• Games (for entertainment and study)

A little about me:

There are things I do well and quite a few things I think quite a bit about. I wouldn’t consider myself a thought leader nor an expert in anything in particular. I like to help people help themselves. I really like to help people find ways to do their jobs better / easier and help themselves to learn.

I’ve been an e-learning designer and developer since the mid-90’s. Since then I’ve developed courses for corporate clients and government agencies around the world including the US Navy, Army, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Defense Threat Reduction Agency in support of the Ukrainian Maritime Border Guard and Azeri Coast Guard.

I’ve been with the Coast Guard more on than off over the last 20 years. I currently work at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Performance Technology Center in Yorktown, VA as a Digital Solution Consultant and Solution Producer.  PTC serves USCG FORCECOM as the organization’s HPT center of excellence. The PTC provides performance analysis, recommendations, and solution development for the entire organization when the problem or the solution is broad scope and related to human performance. More than half of the solutions we develop at the PTC are job aids and performance support tools.

I think I have the best job in the best organization on the planet. The PTC is focused on supporting the best missions and the premier performers anywhere. Really. The best. No question.

I’ve served on multiple sides of the government dice from contractor (as a Technical and Creative Services Director for UNITECH) to military member (as a RADAR systems instructor and technician) to civilian employee.

I’m patterns nut and interested in any practice that helps folks do their jobs or do their jobs better.

You can find me on Twitter @xpconcept.