Overview of Blogs on my RSS Feed
There are many blogs regarding instructional design that stimulate my thinking regarding the design of instruction and the use of technology within the design. I have chosen four different bloggers to link my RSS feed to for various reasons. All are easy to read and the authors make their blogs interesting by having a sense of humor. Some blogs initially caught my eye because of their Blogs name while others I learned about through the other blogs I found first. Each blog discusses ways to improve skills as an instructional designer while taking into account the way in which people learn, motivation and designing instruction for E-Learning that is more interesting. As a trained high school teacher and a future instructional designer I believe that there is not one correct way and these bloggers will aid me in looking at instruction differently.
2Cents Worth
The first blog that I am following is called 2cents Worth by David Warlick. His blog is interesting and entertaining. He discusses a myriad of topics in education and the things he witnesses with his keen eyes that have been in education for 35 years. He likes to ask a lot of questions about education and encourages people to think about education beyond the historical view of a schoolhouse. I look forward to reading his blog because he has intriguing thought provoking posts, like the one about his idea for a new video game where instead of building a restaurant and maintaining it you would build and run a school (Warlick, 2011). Mr. Warlick’s blog will be interesting to read because he is not about the status quo but rather pushes for interesting ideas about educating. In the future, although his blog is not specific to instructional design, his blog will keep me thinking outside the box and consider different views I have not thought of before.
Cathy Moore
The second blog that I am linked to is Cathy Moore. She is a renowned instructional designer and her name kept appearing while I was searching for instructional design blogs. Upon visiting her site I was impressed with her candidness and humor. Her goal is to create instructional design that aids people in using information not just knowing information. I found her site very interesting because as a teacher I have always tried to help my students connect world history to more than facts. To me it is more important that a student understand why World War I happened and what effects did World War I have on the world rather than when the war began and ended. I have always tried to keep my classroom fresh with different activities that engage students rather than lecture to them because they will remember the conversation they had with Hammurabi (I dressed as Hammurabi for a day) rather than the lecture I gave about the treatment of women during Hammurabi’s reign. Cathy Moore has several posts that sound very interesting from one entitled “Be an eLearning action hero!” to “Scenarios: the good, the bad, and the preachy” (Moore, 2011). Cathy’s blog will be useful to me as I continue my education in the field of instructional design because I believe she has interesting ideas that are relevant to creating lessons that are engaging.
The Useable Learning Blog
The third blog that I will be reading is The Usable Learning Blog by Julie Dirksen. The post that caught my eye is entitled “Is learner motivation your responsibility?” This is a larger than large topic in the public school system these days in Arizona and New Mexico because some in these states believe that tying teacher pay to student performance is a relevant way to go about school reform. While I have not heard the advocates entire plan I have been in a classroom full of fifteen year olds and while I enjoy making lessons entertaining and fun not every lesson I’ve created or borrowed from friends make everyone happy. Back to my point – motivation to learn is what drives students (many times) to do well at school so if a student is not motivated there are intrinsic and extrinsic reasons. Ms. Dirksen’s post caught my eye because the debate still lingers regarding whether teachers can “make” students learn. So, it is interesting to hear about the topic from someone not in my area discuss similar ideas. This blog will serve me well now and in the future by discussing the ways in which people learn while at the same time providing me with things to keep in mind as I design instruction.
The Rapid eLearning Blog
The fourth blog I found is called The Rapid eLearning Blog by Tom Kuhlmann. I found this blog from the Useable Learning Blog. Tom’s posts are typically advice on successful building of E-Learning using graphics, slides and completing this task with the user in mind. I am looking forward to spending time on his site because not only am I a teacher but I am a graphic designer therefore I understand how good design can create interest in a presentation and actually help learners remember topics. Visuals are help people recall information they received more so than just reading the words on a generic page. In the future I look forward to using some of his free graphics and getting hints and tips on designing quality E-Learning lessons.
These blogs look to be informative and humorous while at the same time making me think before I design instruction and I look forward to reading them.
References:
Dirksen, J. (2011, November 5). The Useable learning Blog [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://usablelearning.wordpress.com/
Kuhlmann, T. (2011, November 5). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/
Moore, C. (2011, November 5). Cathy Moore [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blog.cathy-moore.com/
Warlick, D. (2011, September 21). 2cents worth [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
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