Participate Actively in the Profession Sub-Competency

Identifies and participates in communities of practice within the field of Educational Technology

Identifies and participates in communities of practice within the field of Educational

Technology
I have shown competence in participating actively in the profession through my
membership and participation in the Association for Talent Development (ATD). I have been a
member since January of 2014 and have not only attended their International Conference in
2014, their TechKnowledge Conference and Chicago Chapters eLearning & Technology
Showcase in 2015, but also participate in or view many of the webcasts and webinars they offer
on a monthly basis. Through these conferences and webinars I have the opportunity to learn
from and engage with other professionals who are currently dealing with the same struggles that
my team is or who have insight into those difficulties because they overcame them. I also have
the opportunity to share what Ive learned in my short time in the profession and provide insights
that may help others.
As an example, my team and I were proud to be recognized as a 2015 Learning! 100
organization by the Elearning! Media Group. With this honor, one of my teammates and I had
the privilege of presenting on how we skirted the system, rolled up our sleeves and got our hands
dirty to accomplish a huge feat with a pint-sized budget at the 2015 Enterprise Learning!
Conference. In a time where budgets across both the public and private sectors are being cut
and, all too often, dollars for education and training are among the first to go, but the need for
these resources continues to rise, a conference session providing insight into how we saved
money as a team and, in the end, saved the company money as well was appreciated. In our
presentation we not only shared what we did, but also what we learned from the experience and
what we would and, most importantly, would not do if we had to do it all over again. These
lessons learned provided the professionals who attended our session with ideas on how they
could save time and money when developing their learning and also mistakes that we made that
they could avoid.