The difference a day can make...

The deadline to post our 'aha's', our culminating thoughts and what we're taking away from the experience was Friday. Exhausted by Thursday night from more goings on than I can even share, my premature snoozing at the keyboard forced me to call it a night before my thoughts were in a blog format. Up at 5AM to see the family off on another college campus visit adventure, I added my favorite coffee blends to the filter creating the perfect brewing aroma while I began to tell all in my blog.

By the time I finished my second cup of java, I'd synthesized thoughts on blog related to significant points during the past twelve week learning experience. I felt good about my accomplishments and my enlightened perspective. What I didn't realized was that the next day was when I would have even more significant learning experiences and want to revisit this very blog to capture the additional impacts of this learning. So needless to say, I'll add a few more thoughts on some learning take-aways from the past twelve weeks.

Ability to Generalize

This is with regard to the big picture and not only as a result of this class but rather of all the course work completed during the past few years. As I made the familiar Saturday morning drive from home to school, engaged in a soliloquise type conversations with myself, above my favorites tunes spewing from the FM, the picture was so clear. Not only could I see how my interests and studies were related, I saw a future. I imagined my career path in progression, moving forward and encompassing my areas of passion. And not only could I visualize it, I could articulate it. I could say the words that were for so long just stuck inside my brain, and they made sense. I felt a sense of freedom from the divergent thoughts that many times remained skewed in my head.

Sometimes the ability to be linear helps with articulation.

Start with the end in mind.

Wow, backwards design is so not the only application of the principles of this methodology. As I though through the framework for backwards design and how it applies to instructional design, I began thinking about other areas where I might apply the framework. What I realized is that I could apply the principles to almost any planned situation personal or professional.
Whether it's Raising kids, creating a technology tool, building a car, grocery shopping, creating a training program -- backwards design is applicable. What outcomes do I want to achieve as final deliverables. Backwards Design is a way of thinking about 'things'.

The application of principles could have a significant impact on leaning and living.

Ready for learning.

It was ironic and evident to me that I needed the final day of classes to become one with the content. I don't know why I had those aha's Saturday morning, but I think it was because I needed to have more time to think in order to get to that place where I was ready to process the generalizations.

Flexibility in deadlines may be significant to the learning and to the process; handle it with care.