On the twelfth day of Christmas

my teacher sent to me Twelve mentors a-menting, Eleven commenters conversing, Ten trackbacks a-tracking, Nine podcasters a-casting, Eight Skypers skyping, Seven geese a-honking, Six tags a-tagging, Five jubilant learners, Four annual forums, Three blogging tools, Two thoughts inspiring, And a joyful network for learning. According to wikipedia: ... the modern use of the word mentor: a trusted friend, counselor or teacher, usually a more experienced person. Some professions have "mentoring programs" in which newcomers are paired with more experienced people in order to obtain good examples and advice as they advance, and schools sometimes have mentoring programs for new students or students who are having difficulties. The world has flattened such that we can come together and share from each our own backgrounds something we know. This peer learning is also a form of mentorship. We are each experienced in our own way. We can leverage each other in the areas where we individually need to. The Joyful Jubilant Learning group is starting small but with mentors like these amongst us, we can all go far. Blaine Collins David Rothacker Greg Belanko-Dickson Phil Gerbyshak Chris Owen Dan Ward John Richardson Rosa Say Terry Starbucker Toni Howard Tim Milburn As 2007 begins, consider subscribing to Joyful Jubilant Learning. Join us in expanding upon these 12 days of Christmas! Pick up some new tools, share some of your best practices, learn tagging, Skyping, etc. And above all have some fun doing so! BTW - we are looking for a few good singers. I don't have a good voice and the others are more reserved.

On the eleventh day of Christmas

my teacher sent to me Eleven commenters conversing, Ten trackbacks a-tracking, Nine podcasters a-casting, Eight Skypers skyping, Seven geese a-honking, Six tags a-tagging, Five jubilant learners, Four annual forums, Three blogging tools, Two thoughts inspiring, And a joyful network for learning. Comments = blogger manna from heaven. Comments = conversation! Conversation, an exchange of views... generally allows for learning to occur. A day without learning is a wasted day. Wouldn't it be cool if there were eleven comments to this posting? Can you help by leaving your comment? Thank you!

On the tenth day of Christmas

my teacher sent to me Ten trackbacks a-tracking, Nine podcasters a-casting, Eight Skypers skyping, Seven geese a-honking, Six tags a-tagging, Five jubilant learners, Four annual forums, Three blogging tools, Two thoughts inspiring, And a joyful network for learning. What is a trackback? When someone creates a post, you can comment on their posting. If what you would like to write would take more time/space than a comment would allow, then you can create a trackback. You create your own post on your own blog, and then link back to the original with a trackback. There is usually a special reference number or URL for this. I use Haloscan to create trackbacks for my Blogger blogs. Trackbacks are not easily created. Haloscan has improved since I first started using it. It now will prefill the title, permanent link and a snippet of the opening text for you. You then need to input the reference number/URL for the trackback and ping the server. S*p*a*mmers did a number on some blogs with automated trackbacks so trackbacks are not very much used today. Trackbacks do create "link love" and are appreciated by most if not all bloggers no matter how much they are a pain to create. Will you trackback today?

On the ninth day of Christmas

my teacher sent to me Nine podcasters a-casting, Eight Skypers skyping, Seven geese a-honking, Six tags a-tagging, Five jubilant learners, Four annual forums, Three blogging tools, Two thoughts inspiring, And a joyful network for learning. Podcasting is fun to do. It does take a little more work than writing but there are benefits. One of the goals of the Joyful Jubilant Learning group is to increase the number of folks who are comfortable with podcasting. Not that everyone has to, or everyone should, but everyone can. Consider podcasting. For samples prepare to listen to: Evolutionary Blogging Today's IPO - How I blog JJL Anthem

On the eighth day of Christmas

my teacher sent to me Eight Skypers skyping, Seven geese a-honking, Six tags a-tagging, Five jubilant learners, Four annual forums, Three blogging tools, Two thoughts inspiring, And a joyful network for learning. Skype is the internet based phone service that provides for free phone calls from computer to computer. When a group is located across as diverse an area as current members of the Joyful Jubilant Learning blog cover, this service allows for good communications at a really reasonable price (i.e. "free"). "Free" because if your system is not already equipped with a microphone, there may be a purchase involved to become fully enabled. You can also use a web cam to share live video during your phone call.

On the fifth day of Christmas

my teacher sent to me Five jubilant learners, Four annual forums, Three blogging tools, Two thoughts inspiring, And a joyful network for learning. A new learner each work day of the week. Is this possible? It is, if you take part, and spread the word about what is happening.

On the first day of Christmas

my teacher sent to me a joyful network for learning

Twelve Days of Christmas, the Joyful Jubilant Learning way

If you feeling like trying out your vocal cords today, you can check out some new lyrics to an old time classic: The Twelve Days of Christmas, the Joyful Jubilant Learning way! Enjoy!