Cara Gervasi

In chapter four of the connected educator, it discusses the importance of building a collaborative culture.  When people learn how to collaborate with each other, it cultivates learning.  Relationships are equally as important to create a learning culture.  Being positive and striving to grow relationships will help to maintain a stronger culture and create more room for further collaboration.  In my future career as an event coordinator, building relationships is a great way to maintain personal growth within the industry.  Maintaining relationships with clients as well as co-workers is important because it will only help to grow an individuals success as an event coordinator.  This may lead to future relationships being built because you are growing your network with others. Establishing trust between co-workers and clients can help to create a collaborative culture.  Trusting that co-workers will do their job correctly and efficiently, give ho...

Social book marking is very beneficial in order to keep track of the websites you are using.   This is a strategy that can be used to stay organized which is great for event planners.   Bookmarks can also be shared between people within your network which is great for collaboration between employees, clients, etc.   Some websites that are mentioned in the connected educator are Delicious and Diigo, which allow you to bookmark websites etc. Blogs are a great way to connect and collaborate with other people in all areas of careers and life.   As an event planner it would be beneficial to read blogs to stay up to date on current trends, new information about the hospitality industry, and expressing new ideas.   It also might be an option for an event planner to create a blog to show customers previous events that might have happened.   This is a great marketing strategy, especially for weddings.   Podcasts are also a great way to learn through lis...

The application that I chose for this smackdown was Airbnb.  Airbnb is a relatively new revolution in the hospitality industry and is also contributing to the industry as a substitute for hotel lodging.  Airbnb allows regular people to rent out their houses and rooms to people through this application, generally being a more affordable option for travelers.  This is great for people that are traveling with a large group of people and want a space that can hold upwards of 10 to 15 people in the same common space, which a hotel cannot generally do.  Airbnb also is also great for the hosts because it generates income for the hosts of the houses, apartments, or spaces that are being rented out. As a student in hospitality, this is a great application to learn not only for personal use but for educational value.  Understanding the trends within the hospitality industry will help to better prepare myself for my future career.  Airbnb is definitely a forwar...

Building your connected learning community through a three-pronged approach using a personal learning network, professional learning community and community of practice will help to gain professional development.  In chapter six of the Connected Educator, there is in depth analysis of this three-pronged approach. A personal learning network is used for a one’s personal gain and should reflect your goals and experiences.  Using multiple tools such as blogs, note-taking applications, photo sharing websites, twitter, etc. can help to aid in the growth of a personal learning network.  It is important to remember that these tools each bring a different aspect to the continued growth of network. Being an engaging member of these networks through continued conversations in an ethical way will help to expand the possibilities of learning. In a career path such as event planning, building a personal learning network would be beneficial in many areas, considering that...