Category Archives: Social Media

Why Organizations Don’t Learn

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I came across the following article on my twitter feed:Why Organizations Don’t Learn. There are a few items that really resonated with me. The author tackles bias and how to handle the organization as a leader to avoid pitfalls.

According to the article there are 4 consequences of a bias toward success:

  1. Fear of failure
  2. A fixed mindset
  3. Over reliance toward past success
  4. Attribution bias

To me, the consequences of failure are the real sticking point. Without success, at some level, a venture will be short lived.

I really like the part that directs leaders in how to overcome the bias toward success:

  • Destigmatize failure
  • Embrace and teach a growth mindset
  • Consider potential when hiring and promoting
  • Use a data-driven approach to identify what caused success for failure

Next, there is the bias toward action, which means reaction. Here are the consequences of this bias:

  1. Exhaustion
  2. Lack of reflection

How do leaders help to overcome this bias:

  • Build breaks into the schedule
  • Take time just to think
  • Encourage reflection after doing

Now, the consequences for a bias toward fitting In are addressed:

  1. Believing we need to conform
  2. Failure to use one’s strengths

How to address bias toward fitting in:

  • Encourage people to cultivate their strengths
  • Increase awareness and engage workers
  • Model good behavior

Finally, there may be a bias toward experts with these consequences:

  1. An overly narrow view of expertise
  2. Inadequate front-line involvement

And how to address this bias in leadership:

  • Encourage workers to own problems that affect them
  • Give workers different types of experiences
  • Empower workers to use their experience

Great article by Francesca Gino and Bradley Staats. I look forward to applying these principles.

Web Conference at Penn State Day 2

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The second day of the conference was very good. Definitely a shout out to the planning committee who did a fabulous job of bringing in great speakers. Both days were great!

The keynote was a good reminder of how easily, we may be left behind if we don’t understand how important disruptive technologies can be. Karen McGrane spoke about a company called DEC that went from being at or near the top of selling computer systems to being taken over by Compaq. This after several decades of being at or near the top. How did this happen? They miscalculated the impact of a less sophisticated technology (personal computing). I thought an important point is that quality usually means little when this type of disruptive market takes over. Usually, the technology brings users into the market that haven’t been around before. After time, the technology improves and replaces the original. I couldn’t help but think of higher ed as Karen made her points. Hopefully, we can make the necessary adjustment. I think that accessibility (disabilities, mobile) will play an important role.

There were several other sessions that I really enjoyed. One was by Eric Kim on Mobile Context. I really loved his analogy of food with mobile computing. He talked about power bars as an example of how mobile is to the desktop. Important point made by Eric based upon research is that mobile is morphing into the preferred method to do computing (not just when you’re on the go). I find that myself. I always have my phone with me. Laptops/desktops are becoming less and less my preferred method.

The rest of the day revolved around social media. Matt Hames talked about how facebook needs to be used carefully. Personally, I don’t understand how facebook is still so ubiquitous. I think that it has alot to do with the difficulty of leaving the environment.

Donna Talarico from my alma mater Elizabethtown College did an awesome session on the use of social media to improve engagement. I was so impressed that I like the fb page and followed on twitter. Definitely good to see Elizabethtown making the move.

Reflecton on Yammer for Teaching & Learning

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Yammer has been a social network with promise here at PSU. Honestly, I use it from time to time, but prefer using twitter b/c it’s open and gives me insight on many areas. Yammer is a good place to have a focused pursuit.

In the session, we saw several applications of Yammer. In two of the courses, the instructors bought into the use of Yammer. The other was skeptical and chose not to use it again. I think that Yammer is a good tool if you plan to do most if not all of the course within the tool. But until Yammer gets integrated into ANGEL, it won’t be a great option. At this point, Yammer has a ton of functionality, but it does not handle grades.

It was also interesting that the instructor who bought the most into using Yammer mentioned that his online course took him 2 h more/week than his face-to-face course.

Reflection on TLT Symposium Keynote: Frans Johansson

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Untitled Document

I also love to attend the TLT Symposium, and one of the biggest reasons is that they always bring in a heavy hitter to start the day. This year, they brought in Frans Johansson, who along with being a dynamic speaker is the author of two books, The Medici Effect and The Click Moment. Often, I go to events like this where I find myself just going along with the speaker without being challenged or inspired. I found myself being both challenged and inspired by Frans, both by his approach to public speaking and to the way that he engages, challenges, and inspires.

I hear so many who have had success in any field talk about their approach. I get the feeling that they feel that what they have learned and what they are doing is somehow superior to what others do. They have the formula to success and everyone else should just line up to drink from their elixir. Frans doesn’t take that approach. He talks about the role of luck in success. That is refreshing! How can success all be so easy to figure and calculate? It can’t. Some who have success are more lucky than skilled. Here are a series of quotes and tweets from the session that highlight this idea,

  • Tweet from @JustStormy (Melissa Hicks) "Frankly, I [Frans Johansson] got lucky [refering to success with his book, The Medici Effect]." Isn’t that how it mostly works? Serendipitous meetings, sudden moments…"
  • Tweet from @stevier (Stevie Rocco) You don’t have to know the field better than anyone else to get it right. Randomness and serendipity make us stand apart.

Of course, success in all fields isn’t necessarily random as Johansson points out using Serena Williams and tennis. If a field has strict parameters, then it is best to use a strategy of repetition and hardworking with the aim of doing things better than others through sheer will. But in a field like technology, art, entertainment, education, and most businesses, the rules change all the time and the audience may make unexpected decisions about what they think is best. For these situations, decisions about what to do will be difficult since it is nearly impossible to determine what will work.

So what do we do? What is the role of strategy in the first place? Should we just act randomly and hope for the best? First, it’s difficult for humans to act randomly. This was illustrated by playing rock-paper-scissors with our neighbor. Truth be told, I lost 3-2 to Melissa. The best strategy in this game is to be able to act randomly. I’m terrible at being random as most humans are. We see this all the time with teenagers who in their quest to be different, create a culture of sameness. I get a bit tenative just thinking about this. Strategies can help to at least start of the process of acting. If you need a strategy to act, then do it.

But how do we ensure that our strategies will provide novel ideas that have a better chance of being winning strategies? This has a better chance of success by putting together diverse groups. Anecdotally, I have seen this myself in my work as an ID. In situations where those with different skills sets and perspectives are placed together in teams, they will accomplish more. That doesn’t mean the environment is always fun or without conflict. But the outcome of having to work with others is tremendous.

I liked how Frans likened ideas as bets. Many times, our ideas are large and involve much investment to start. His suggestion was to place many small bets in order to maximize success. This strategy is what Google employs. Accepting that many ideas will be failures but failing faster and smaller will allow for that one great idea to come to the surface. Here is a great tweet by Melissa repeating Frans comment on Picasso

  • Place many bets. "Picasso painted over 50,000 paintings…most of those sat in basements! Why? They SUCKED!" – Frans Johansson

Employing this strategy of failing smaller and often means that one has to be resilient. It seems to me that many are hamstrung by the thought of failure. It can lead to paralysis. Unfortuantely, I can see this as a problem here at the university. Many are happy to continue on as is. I think this is a result of the success that the univeristy has had. Success can lead to a lean toward being conservative and relying on past successes. I’m not sure what needs to happen to change this. I’m afraid that larger organizational failure may be that thing.

Frans ended the session by telling us to pay attention to surprise. To me, this is a fresh way of thinking and that freshness is the way that we can move ahead. Imagine if Penn State worked on the premise of a barrage of small ideas that may fail. Just by shear size, we could start a revolution in education.

 

 

Reflection 11/12/12 – 11/16/12

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Accomplishments:

  • Prof Dev
    • Didn’t have time this week to work on MOOC called An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python
    • Attended World Campus Faculty Convocation
      • Nice to have the opportunity to present with Keith Bailey and Jen Berghage about Crumbling the Cookie Cutter. Here is a short blurb about our session:
        • Do you feel like courses offered online are mostly cookie cutter or out-of-the box? Are you having a hard time understanding how to create or implement a course because there are too many restrictions? Are you looking for a solution to having a greater say in your courses? If you have said yes to any or all of these, please attend this session.

          During this session we will discuss a cookie-cutter approach to course design and implementation. We will do demos of courses run through World Campus to see what the possibilities are. We will also look at some scenarios familiar to course implementation teams and discuss how to apply the notion of parameter-based design as a way to have greater say in what is in your courses.

        • My thoughts on the session is that is was nice to use google presentation to collaborate. Eventually, we placed the presentation on Keith’s computer.
        • I thought my part went well because I stressed team and had an instructor demo something that they were doing in the course.
      • Found myself tweeting after a bit of guilting by Melissa Hicks. It’s so easy to do with the phone. Nice to follow all of the conversations.
      • Interesting discussion on MOOC’s
        • With all that has been going on in higher ed, MOOC’s are not the 1st attempt at this. How about the Open University?
  • Fall ’12 Courses
    • IST 240
      • Adjustments needed for Clock Assignment
    • IST 250
      • More edits
  • Fall ’12 revisions/developments
    • IST 230 (Newcomer)
      • Met on Tuesday and Table 7 is mostly done
        • Heard back from Larry but already in production mode
    • IST 420 (Ocker)
        • Have readings for the course & need to get someone to create pdf’s – delegated this to Audrey
    • IST 402 (Saab)
        • I adjusted rubics based upon convo from 11/12
        • I also adjusted the discussion forum code. Not sure what David’s objective is in placing the forums the way he is.
        • Next meeting in 11/19 from 10:30-11:30
  • Course Committees
  • Spring ’13 Course Prep – Mapped out on my outlook calendar courses to work on so that I’m done by the first week in December. Going to be difficult since we have to go 1 section at a time. Plan has been in motion and seems to be working well. I finishe up the population of the sites early in the week. Then I contact the next courses instructors to start other courses.
    • IST 110
      • Sec 001 (Mahar)
        • Contacted on 9/27
        • Will use section 002 to populate
        • Received a note that is causing me to delay
        • Completed setting up my end of the course on 10/1
      • Sec 005 (Mike M) – Cancelled sections 2-4 and made 5-7
        • Contacted 9/27
        • Will use dev section to populate
        • Completed on 10/25 and sent out note to Mike
      • Sec 006 (Mary L)
        • Told about this by Amy S on 9/27
        • Added Mary L on 10/1 to dev section
        • Will use dev section to populate
      • Sec 007 (Jim F)
        • Contacted 9/27
        • Met Jim this week f2f on 10/9 to give him some background
        • Will use dev section to populate
    • IST 111S
      • Sec 001
        • Contacted Deirdre
          • She said to move Fall ’12 materials
          • Need to update category weightings and then grading section of syllabus based upon her feedback (90% done)
    • IST 210
      • Sec 001 (Gary)
        • Contacted on 10/2 about the course
        • Completed setting up the Spring ’13 course space
      • Sec 002 (Fred)
        • Contacted on 10/2 about the course
        • Received note from Amy S that I would be getting this course soon
        • Completed setting up the Spring ’13 course space on 11/8
        • Sent Fred an email
    • IST 220 – Hyunjeong and Mike M are teaching in Spring
      • Secs 001 and 002 (Mike)
        • Contacted on 10/3 about the course
        • Completed setting up both sections for Spring ’13
      • Secs 003 and 004 (Hyunjeong)
        • Contacted on 10/3 about the course
        • Found out from Amy S that the 3rd section is open but I don’t see it on my profile. Alice S put me in the course.
        • Completed setting up section 003 on 11/9 and sent out a note to Dr. Lee
        • Completed setting up section 004 on 11/16 and sent out a note to Dr. Lee
    • IST 230
      • Sec 001
        • Contacted Larry, & he will populate his section
        • Had to merge 2 sections since there had been a change in instructors from 2 to 1.
          • Contacted Larry and Buck
    • IST 240
      • Sec 001 (Fred F)
        • Contacted 9/27
        • Will use dev section to populate
        • Walked Fred through the course in the dev section on 10/1
        • Populated course on 10/1
        • Sent note to both Fred and Hal to follow up
        • Contacted by Fred about adjusting syllabus. Redirected since it sounds like this is an unnecessary comstomization to the syllabus. Agreed by Fred and Hal
      • Sec 002 (Hal S)
        • Contacted 9/27
        • Populated course on 10/17
    • IST 250
      • Sec 001
        • Populated on 10/22
        • Met with John on 11/2 to finalize
          • Realized that grading had to be pulled into the Lessons tab to keep the course flexible
          • Made a note to update the syllabus after Fall ’12 is over to make adjustment to syllabus wording
    • IST 260W
      • Sec 001
        • Sent note to Jason L on 11/2 to let him know that I’d be populating his section on Monday 11/5. He replied immediately to say that he was okay with it.
        • Completed populating the section on 11/2 and sent Jason a note
    • IST 295A
      • Sec 001
        • Populated based upon Spring ’12
        • Sent note to Lisa B on 10/22
    • IST 301
      • Sec 001
    • IST 302
      • Sec 001
        • Populated course with materials from Spring ’12 on 10/16
    • IST 331
      • Sec 001
        • Completed populating the section on 11/6
        • Follow up meeting with instructor for 11/13 at pre-convocation
    • IST 402 TIE-
      • Sec 001
    • IST 421
      • Sec 001
        • Populated course by following plan that John and I worked out last Friday on 10/15
        • Asked by John H to changing naming convention on 11/12. Did a find and replace & notified him
    • IST 440W – Filled up quickly, so opening a second section – correction, instructor is at max pay
      • Sec 001
        • Completed populating the section on 11/7
        • Sent note to Jim
    • IST 495
      • Sec 001
        • Populated the course based upon the Fall ’12 version and notified Madhavi

Ongoing Projects:

    • Updated google spreadsheet for Spring ’13 

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

    • None

Back Burner:

    • Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual World Research Committee

Important Dates:

  • WAH in AM (8-12) Dates: 10/15, 11/19, 12/3, 12/17
  • October 15 – December 8 An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python MOOC
  • Nov 6 WAH
  • Nov 13-14 World Campus Faculty Convocation
  • Nov 21 Vacation (8h)
  • Nov 22 Holiday (Thanksgiving)
  • Nov 23 Campus Closure Thanksgiving
  • Nov 26 Vacation (8h)
  • Dec 14 Vacation (8h)
  • Dec 20 WAH
  • Dec 21 Vacation (8h)
  • Dec 24 Holiday
  • Dec 25 Holiday
  • Dec 26 Holiday
  • Dec 27 Holiday
  • Dec 28 Holiday
  • Dec 31 Holiday
  • Jan 1 Holiday

Spring Cleaning on Staying Connected

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Last week, I was doing some thinking (I know that can be dangerous so stand back).

I’m really, really tiring of facebook. It is cumbersome and often I get nothing edifying from it. It was nice to reconnect with people to know how they are doing, but I’m not really interested in the minute details of life. Okay, I said it! If that makes me a bad person, then I’m guilty as charged.

However, I’m not prepared to completely leave facebook since I like to check in daily to make sure that I know of anything huge that may have happened (marriages, births, graduations, accidents or deaths).

Last week I experimented with a new format. I decided that I’d check in on fb in the morning, that’s it. I would set up notifications to see the big stuff. No more trying to sift through the 95% drivel. Then, I would have my twitter stream up and running all day. Last week was awesome! There were several reasons for this. I didn’t have to pour through the facebook garbage. Most of the people that I follow on twitter have great info which enlightens, inspires, or just plain makes me laugh. I never realized how much of a weight fb was, but I feel lighter without it hanging on me.

I also began thinking about my RSS feeds. I’m often feeling so overwhelmed by the 1000+ feeds that I haven’t read, so I deleted all but 2 feeds since I won’t fall behind on those. Many of those unread feeds are covered by my twitter stream. There is no reason to get redundant information.

Social Media and Personal Privacy

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There is an event that happened this weekend that really made me think about social media and how we share information. The event was the passing of legendary coach Joe Paterno. Before his death was officially announced, there were eulogies and messages being posted around the Web, mostly by users of social media. To be completely honest, I was really turned off. No matter how important a person is, they are still a person with family and loved ones. Where do we draw the line? I guess there are many who would call me old-fashioned, but I say let’s show some respect. Let’s let the announcement get out there before starting the frenzy. Just my thoughts.

Reflection 01/16/12-01/20/12

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Accomplishments:

�         Started google doc for Summer ’12-based loosely on what John B and I used at wcld

o   Spoke with Amy S and she updated a bit based on what she knew

o   Checked this with Amy G

�         Beginning contact and items for Spring ’12 revisions

o   IST 210 (Heberling)

�  Sent 1st email about where we are in the process and what we need to do (1/16)

�  Met with Gary on Tuesday via skype to put together a plan to propose to the course committee

�         Here are a few notes from the meeting:

o   Update to the latest textbook edition (http://www.amazon.com/Database-Systems-Implementation-Management-Bind/dp/1111969604/ref=dp_ob_title_bk) and create online assessments to go along with those to replace the textbook activities

o   Remove the online course content since it’s redundant with the text

o   Remove Discussion Activities and replace with a few labs

o   Rethink about how the Labs should be set up maybe to tie in with team project

o   Spread out the grading to make more manageable for faculty

o   Assessment (1/3 of the grade)

o   Labs (1/3 of the grade)

o   Team Project (1/3 of the grade)

 

o   IST 220 (Bertin)

�  Sent 1st email about where we are in the process and what we need to do (1/16)

�  Determined that we will use ANGEL to transfer files

�  The revision will be based on integrating the learning. Labs will tie to the readings

�  The course will be designed for 12 weeks and determined later how to expand to 15

�   

o   IST 240 (Smith)

�  Answering email about how to proceed with work on the project

�         What format he should put his work (html)

�         Provided access to IST 331 as an example of good outside resource/internal material balance

o   IST 402 (Cameron) – I’ll be assisting Melissa when needed

o   IST 402 (Saab)

�  Sent 1st email about where we are in the process and what we need to do

�  Won’t be starting until the beginning of February

o   IST 421 (Hill)

�  Need to adjust the course to be 12 weeks from 18.

�  Will consider this version the course moving forward

�         IST 110 Spring ’12 Section 050: Cliff Maurer

o   Another request for materials from commonwealth campus

o   Imported same materials as for IST 110 WC sections for Spring ’12

o   Moved to supporting materials folder

�         IST 301 for Spring ’12 will have a deaf student

o   Dragonfly Dictate is not working as anticipated

�  The headphone and adapter that same along with the software for the PC are defective

�  The app on the iPhone unexpectedly stops recording before the screenrs are complete

�  Sent the videos for captioning to be transcribed manually for now

o   The Harvard Business Review access has been a problem

�  The link that we originally got was for educators, not students

�  Since staff are not allowed to get into the sight, it is impossible for staff to advise faculty about how to handle student issues

�  There is an email that highlights what we need to do to prepare the space for the semester, but this was not shared, only the link

�  Need to prepare this better next semester

�         IST 402

o   Same issue with Harvard Business Review as described above

�         Syllabus link that does not work: http://up.ist.psu.edu/up/up_msdnaa. Found my Bill C, confirmed by John B and myself and sent off to ist helpdesk to fix which they did

�         Madison proposal

o   Met on Thursday and Friday to complete the proposal

o   Amy S and I worked on submitting proposal on Monday but ran into an issue of having multiple presenters.

�         LD Community Meeting – https://sites.psu.edu/rep129blog/2012/01/13/ld-community-meeting-jan-2012/

�          

Ongoing Projects:

�         Updating google doc for Summer ’12

�         Working on Summer 2012 courses: IST 210, IST 220, IST 240, IST 250, IST 260W, IST 295B, IST 301, IST 302, IST 420, IST 421, IST 440W

�         Working on checking courses (content isn’t always there) from WCLD to be placed in Drupal through OIDI task list

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

�         I’ve had a few issues with students who are taking resident courses but using online materials (IST 230) who are requesting assistance from the WC and IST Helpdesk. This is because we forgot to update some materials in ANGEL, but it is also because our syllabus includes items like MSDNAA and Vlabs which are only available for UP and WC students. Here are some solutions that I think will work:

o   Remove the items referenced above from the syllabus and place in ANGEL so that those items can be removed more easily later

o   Create individual drupal sections for each ANGEL section so that instructors can customize if necessary

�         Would it make most sense to have only content on drupal? The other items seems to be better in ANGEL.

Some things that I learned this week:

�         In order for students to review comments from a survey in ANGEL, need to make sure that the feedback options are checked. Here’s the process: access the settings then look at the Review tab (Feedback Options).

Back Burner:

�         Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual World Research Committee

Days off / Conferences:     

�         January vacation days 24 & 27

�         Dental Appt scheduled for 2/24/12 (Plan to take half day in the am)

�         March 24 TLT Symposium – thinking of using this opportunity to practice session for Madison Conference

�         June 22, 25-29 vacation days

It was decided that WAR reports are not necessary, so I’m changing things up and just using my blog. I really don’t like the mix/match font. Also, it’s a bit redundant to do both.

LD Community Meeting – Jan 2012

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I decided to attend this meeting in person since it’s really not that far and a great way to see and touch base with others in the larger LD community.

Here are a new notes:

9:00-9:05 Welcome by Jeff Swain
9:05-9:20 Suzzanne Shaffer discussion on critical thinking

  • http://www.criticalthinking.org/ – great place to dig deeper into what it really means by critical thinking
  • critical thinking is something that must be taught alone and changes based on the content area

9:20-9:40 John Dolan discussion on the use of wikis in a history course

  • Start with a discussion with faculty
  • Provide a prototype for faculty to see
  • Had ITS support
  • ID sets up the wiki
  • Created groups – only those in the group could access
  • Used PSU wikispaces
  • Had some trouble with permissions and restricted pages (one student)
  • Met with faculty to discuss why students weren’t participating early in the semester
  • Removed restrictions to the wiki later in the semester – had to be done manually
  • Used versioning to salvage work that had been deleted by a teammate
  • Prof will use wikis in the future for other classes

9:40-10:00 Matt Meyer on Yammer Experience

  • Best for more global use, rather than with one course
  • Members are added to Yammer – contained
  • Hard to filter comments

Reflection 11/14/11-11/18/11

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Accomplishments:

�         Continued with IST 331 revision

o   Received emails from Martin about items to update

�  Readings (probably to be added to e-reserves)

�  Activities and assignments

o   Supposed to have everything by the end of the week

�         Gary H submitted for TLT

�         Attended Sloan. Here’s my blog about the conference: https://sites.psu.edu/rep129blog/2011/11/08/17th-annual-sloan-consortium-international-conference-on-online-learning/

 

Ongoing Projects:

�         Working on Spring 2012 courses: IST 111S, IST 230, IST 295A, IST 331, IST 402, IST 495

�         Working on Summer 2012 courses: IST 210, IST 220, IST 240, IST 250, IST 260W, IST 295B, IST 301, IST 302, IST 420, IST 421, IST 440W

�         Check for flash and video that doesn’t show up from the WC version.

�         Adding peer evals in drupal to courses.

�         Working on checking courses (content isn’t always there) from WCLD to be placed in Drupal through OIDI task list

�         Updating syllabi & content in drupal, especially MSDNAA & Virtual Labs section

Immediate Decisions / Issues:

�         Would like to have a better working knowledge of…

o   Kaltura

o   Jaycut

Some things that I learn this week:

�         In drupal to get all of the users in alphabetical order, click on username

�         If a user gets an error in my browser for drupal, have them try another to fix

�         If the camry doesn’t allow the key to turn, press on the brake and turn the wheel. This unlocks the key to turn. This happens when the wheel is turned to sharply before turning off the vehicle

Back Burner:

�         Gaming, Simulations, and Virtual World Research Committee

Days off / Conferences:     

�         May be taking vacation on Wednesday (11/23/11)

�         Thanksgiving holiday (11/24/11)

�         Friday personal holiday (11/25/11)

�         March 24 TLT Symposium – thinking of using this opportunity to practice session for Madison Conference

�         Dental Appt scheduled for 2/24/12 (Plan to take half day in the am)

Welcomed a new designer to the IST team, Kent Matsueda.Great to be working with him again. Looking forward to moving the program forward and working with him on many projects to come.

Had staff retreat today at the BJC. Alot of fun and good to connect with colleagues from around IST.