After spending 5 days browsing and reading more blog posts than I could count, here are my favorite blog sites. There are so many to choose from, but I found something different about each of these that complimented each other. Let me know what you think. - Kate
Word Press: Blogs about: Instructional Design
http://en.wordpress.com/tag/instructional-design/
This is a wealth of helpful links to blogs and articles, as well as “How To” web pages new Instructional Designers will find useful. You may recognize Shelley A. Gable, since I have seen several of her ‘How To” instructional videos already. However, this blog has numerous contributors. I see that some of my fellow classmates have chosen Word Press blogging service for their blogs. I liked that the site has a place for “Related Tags” and is easy to subscribe to. One of the posts is “Ten-Plus-One Must-Read Books for Instructional Designers”. You should recognize a book or two in the list. In addition to a link to read comments for each post, they’ve added a section for “Recent Comments” and the Archives are easy to reach. And since we are studying learning theories, you should find the post “How To Learn Better: Space Out and Get Tested, Early and Often” especially interesting. All in all, I found this blog site very easy to use with more than enough useful and interesting information to keep me busy far beyond the time span for this course.
The Rapid E-Learning Blog:
http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/
I found this blog extremely helpful. It is written by an experienced online course developer who aims his blogs at various levels of experience and skill. There are additional resources on the site for when you need to slide off in those other pertinent directions, such as “Designing the Right Course” or “Managing E-Learning Projects”. Also, he usually includes videos demonstrating how to do what he is suggesting as well as templates to download. However, I believe that Articulate and Rapid E-Learning are learning management systems you can purchase, but in spite of the commercial aspect of that, the insights in each blog are worthwhile for instructional designers at all levels.
Inspire2Learn Blog:
http://richardwatson64.wordpress.com/
This is different looking blog with a different slant on the kind of information and links provided. His blog is mostly black and white with red titles. However, on September 10, 2010 he talked about how different colors mean different things in different cultures. Good to know if your classes are going global. The author covers a wide range of topics that seem different from the other Instructional Design bloggers. As in my other favorite picks, there are plenty of links for downloads you will find helpful. One of them I especially liked was “Basic Competencies for Instructional Designers.” He lists six and then asks for comments for additional ideas. My favorite post so far on his site is “Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010”. He lists his top 10 from last year, provides a link to the compilation of 100 tools, as well as his top 10 so far this year. Each of his new additions to the list is a hyperlink for you to follow to the appropriate website. One of these newer ones is http://www.evernote.com/. This one looks like something worth trying. (I’ve been using Barnes & Noble Nook Study, but I think I will switch and try this out.) This author also does a good job of eliciting responses from his readers. I am finding that the discussion in comments makes the blogs extremely worthwhile or worthless, depending on the readers of each blog. Most of the comments on his posts are worth reading. Additionally, his blog includes Twitter comments as well as those posted directly to the site.
Elearning instructional design ideas - Making Change Blog Site:
http://blog.cathy-moore.com/
According to this blog’s author Cathy Moore, “In this blog, you'll find practical ideas that will help you create lively, powerful e-learning for adults in the business world.” Ms. Moore adds interesting and quite useful posts that contain a variety of non-text attention grabbers: hyperlinks, pictures, diagrams, videos, and comics, to name a few. She has numerous categories to help you find the posts you are most interested in such as Instructional Design, Project Management, Elearning examples, Tools, Writing Tips, etc. Her latest posting discusses “Do we really need narration?” In it she refers to current studies that show narration slows down the learning to one speed and that “New studies suggest that learner control + text works better.” That is just the kind of up-to-date information I am looking for as an up-to-date instructional designer. She included links to two recent studies, a book, and another blogger’s post, as well as two of her previous blogs touching on the same subject from other perspectives. She also uses Twitter, showing how many people have tweeted about the post, as well as providing a link for you to ‘retweet’ it. Of course, each post allows you to comment, and has a hyperlink to view the comments for each post. The blog is laid out easy to use for all, even beginners. If you use Twitter, another post offers to share an instructional design idea each day with you. I was impressed with her post on “Why you need to set limits.” While this post did not include hyperlinks to support her statement, her argument stands on its own merit and is more common sense than anything else. You finish reading it and immediately have that information as part of your knowledge-base. I am not sure if she has to or if it is just her, but there are several links to excellent texts provided, with embedded links to Amazon.com to buy them. (Amazon.com even provides a “Get Widget” button for you to do the same thing on your web site.) In short, I look forward to seeing her new posts in my RSS reader, as well as browsing back through her previous posts.
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