23 Things Kansas - Fail

For those of you who were following my "amazing" progress in the 23 Things Kansas program - I flunked.  It worked well for the first few weeks when the topics were things like blogging and twitter that I already knew about.  I was able to complete the lessons in under an hour and go along my merry way.  Then we got into some topics with which I was not so familiar...not so merry.  While I don't deny that the topics of these lessons were useful and the lessons were well presented, due to my complete unfamiliarity with the subject matter, many of them were going to require several hours to research and complete. I realize this was the point - to spend some time learning new skills - but the time just wasn't there.

Many of the topics, while interesting, do not pertain directly to my job duties.  Therefore, I felt guilty using too many office hours on the lessons and kept pushing them to the bottom of my "to do" list in favor of the actual work I get paid to do.  Also, the reward for completing the project - other than the knowledge gained and the satisfaction of a job well done - is 30 hours of continuing education credit. My library discontinued raises based on CE credits shortly after I started working here (I suspect for just this reason - too much work time spent earning CE credits that don't pertain), so there is no longer a financial incentive.  Maybe if there was chocolate involved?

At this point, the twenty-three weeks are nearly up and I am so far behind that finishing is not feasable.  My apologies to the organizers of this fantastic program.  They put in a lot of hours to provide a great learning opportunity. 

The website - http://www.23thingskansas.org/ - is still available so I (and you) can still complete any lessons we wish.  Be sure and check it out.