Shouting Out Loud...Welcome to CrowdED Learning!

Hello everyone! My name is Jeff Goumas, and welcome to CrowdED Musings!

This actually is my first blog. This is my first time really broadcasting to the world—to my full circle of professional peers, former colleagues, friends, loose connections, and anyone else who has decided to meander to this post—that I’ve made the jump out of educational publishing and into a great big unknown for me: starting up an educational nonprofit organization. 

I've been wanting to announce this, but I've been waiting for everything to be "perfect." Well, I've had to resort to the fact that "perfect" is a pretty unreasonable goal. And, the more I've talked about what I'm working on with colleagues, friends, and a broad range of complete strangers over the past few months, the more excited I've become....so it's time to shout out loud that this is what I'm doing, and I want you to be a part of it!

[imagine a really cool image here of a crowd...unfortunately, Blogger is not being my friend today, and my images are not showing up...("There is no such thing as perfect...there is no such thing as perfect...")]

The organization I’ve launched is CrowdED Learning. The goal? To support adult learners and the amazing folks who work with adult learners by working to provide the best possible free content in a manner that is more efficient, effective, and meaningful. How? Through developing and using crowdsourcing protocols to leverage the collective knowledge and expertise of educators, subject matter experts, and anyone in between who wants to help make a difference in supporting learners who wish to improve their lives and expand their opportunities through education. I’m excited and possibly a bit horrified (no, most definitely horrified!), but it’s the next career step for me in what has been a continuous journey to try to bring the best possible educational tools and practices to scale.

My musings here will include a lot of observations regarding this adventure and how they connect to lifelong learning and the needs of adult education, as well as reports out on what is going on with CrowdED Learning. There will also be dialogues by me and others about the broader world of adult learning, free and open educational resources, and lots of things in between. And, if I’m being true to CrowdED Learning’s mission, I’ll be using this as a vehicle to call upon you for support by lending your opinions, suggestions, critiques, and great ideas (or even cries for help...for example, why the heck aren't my images appearing in this?!?!). Consider it a healthy mix of information, observation, and conversation with anyone who wishes to learn more and contribute to helping make a difference in the world of adult education and lifelong learning.

I have so much more to say, but in starting my new life as a part-time hack blogger, I have a personal mission to work on brevity in spoken and written word. So, for now, I leave you with “Hello. Welcome to CrowdED Learning!” I am looking forward to doing great things together.

To learn more and stay up to date on our goings-on, please take a gander at www.crowdedlearning.org and sign up to stay in touch, volunteer your expertise, make a recommendation, or join the crowd. We look forward to hearing from you!