I attended the Web 2.0 Summer Institute hosted by TBR (Tennessee Board of Regions) at the University of Memphis’ FedEx Institute of Technology this week. Due to work constraints I was only able to attend the morning keynote speakers:

• Barry Dahl – Vice President of Technology and Virtual Campus, Lake Superior College
• Clarence Maise, Instructional Designer, University of Missouri – St. Louis
• Michael Grant, Professor of Instructional Design & Technology (ITD), University of Memphis

Although this was more geared toward faculty and the teaching community, I was invited as a guest of the Workforce ADL Co-Lab and was thoroughly pleased with the content and speakers. My focus was to absorb what, if any of the Web 2.0 tools I could use in the workforce…a front line retail associate.

My thoughts were summed up by a phrase Barry said the first day which was quoted by someone I cannot recall, “We have Web 2.0 learners in a Web 1.0 learning environment” or something to that extent. That is so true!

My son not only works at the front line of the same company in which I am developing training for, I get first-hand feedback on how boring our content is, plus I get to see a true Digital Native in pure form.

More later…