What happens to old training binders?

When I ran across The Funeral for my Xbox 260 (with WORKING pics) via Geekologie, I couldn’t help think what the Training Binder Funeral would look like. What friends from yesteryear would pay their respects? No doubt the three-hole punch would speak. The band-aid and the ream of paper would sit together. Some card stock would be hanging out in the back. Clip art figures would hold their clip art hands in despair. A diverse group of page dividers would form a cluster – 8, 5, and 3 tabs all together at once. The copy machine would roll in. There would  be talk of other old binders – binders working double duty to prop up lopsided desks and LCDs, binders simply for show ( I was here in 1963!). I have exactly one binder at my desk today. It’s from 2002, The Craft of Training. How weird is that? (honest, I am not stoned)

Weirder is that, as I’m writing this, I’m reading Catherine Lombardozzi’s Musings toward new year’s resolutions and realized that there’s a message here. Catherine read over her own blog posts from 2008 (I would need to get stoned to read mine) and made a resolution list for 2009:

• Use more collaboration and reflection in learning
• Develop learning professionals into true experts
• Manage the learning function as a creative, collaborative endeavor
• Use Web 2.0 tools
• Develop the concept of learning environment design
• Keep ‘to-learn’ list fresh and active

That list should make you feel good about what you do. The training binder is dead. The trainer is not if she continues to see the future and plan.