I went blog hunting this week as a graduate course assignment to see what’s out there and available for instructional design, e-learning/on-line learning, and web sites and tools for the face-to-face or electronic classroom. I found three blog sites that I would like to suggest for your consideration. I was looking for sites based upon topic variety, perceived reader ability level, and usefulness for e-learning and on-line learning.
The first blog site is The Rapid E-Learning Blog hosted at www.articulate.com. As its subtitle states, it provides “practical, real-world tips for e-learning success!” The layout (the typical 2-columns with 2/3 for the blogs and 1/3 for the resources) is very clean, simple, and friendly-looking; the organization of the site is very easy to understand and very easy to get around in. It may not look scholarly or have professional “bells and whistles” but don’t let that fool you. Tom Kuhlmann has been in the instructional design business for 15 years and his information and advice is down to earth but real jewels, just like to subtitle says.
In addition to the home page with a snippet of the blog, there is a category section called “Resources” which is one way to organize his past blogs. There also is an archive link at the bottom of the page (the only negative point about the site – I’d advise moving it to the 1/3 column under “Resources”) with blogs organized typically by month/date/year going back to July 2007. The volume of blogs tells us this has been quite an active site since its inception. Click anywhere on the top banner to return home, or click the home button at the bottom.
The articles are well written: easily readable for a teacher or do-it-yourself-er, segmented with subtopics, using static visuals, and not overly technical in explanation. Reader comments appear below the article followed by the field for providing your comment when you go to view the site and read some of the blogs. This definitely seemed like a user-friendly site for novice or intermediate users of web technology and makers of e-learning or on-line learning materials.
The next blog site is Weblogg.ed hosted at www.edubloggs.org. This is one of the virtual homes for Will Richardson, author, consultant, and presenter; you can see more of his publications and web promptings on his wiki and on MySpace. He writes and speaks prolifically about teaching and learning with technology and the “Read/Write Web”. Eaton Web: The Blog Directory (oldest blog directory) describes his commentaries as “current and insightful” and states that he “elicits great conversations” from his readers.
The layout of the site is set up in the typical 2-column format (2/3 for blog and 1/3 for categories and archive). Click anywhere on the top banner to return to the home page. Above the banner are 9 tabs, most linking to his many writing and speaking activities: SPEAKING – one paragraph summaries of a web concept he addresses at conferences and workshops; VIDEO – recordings of some of his conference keynote addresses; RESOURCES –a link to his wiki which is a hub connecting to other resources; ED BLOGS – a link to SupportBlogging.com – an outside source which is a hub to other resources; and MY STUFF which didn’t seem to work.
The posted blogs are called “On My Mind” (nice), and the Categories section to the right organizes the blogs into 44 topics. The archive for the blogs shows active use and the blogs are organized by month/date/year. They go back as far as July 2002, but strangely the archive is not listed on the home page. You must click on the SPEAKING or VIDEOS tab to access the archive list.
The articles are definitely thought-provoking and attempt to challenge ideas about the traditional tools and methods of teaching in light of the information-age and the 21st century. The entries are short and easily readable, not filled with technical and educational jargon. Although the blog site is about education, it is not a “how-to” about tech toys and doesn’t provide sample lessons. It is a site devoted to sharing and discussing innovative concepts about the intersection of teaching, the web and its tools.
The third blog site is Sasha's e-learning Blog hosted at www.wordpress.com. This definitely is a blog site for intermediate, advanced, and expert web technology buffs and professionals. The site has a professional look to it and is intended to “share knowledge and discuss approaches and techniques in the field of e-learning.” The blog site has only been in existence since September of 2010 although the author Sasha Scott has been in Instructional Design since 2002.
The layout of the site is basically set up in the typical 2-column format (2/3 for blog and 1/3 for categories and archive). There are 8 tabs at the top of the page covering skins, discussion, opinion, design, theory, tips, tools and tutorials. At the bottom of the page are 3 equal sections for links and the archive listing. Five of the links are to other blog sites, a great sign of networking and “community,” and 2 links are to product vendors. The 8 tabs above are not distinct categories but inter-related in terms of content. The articles are not just on the same topics but are close variations of each other. At the present time the categories seem grouped: discussion/opinion; tips/tools/tutorials; and design/theory/skins.
The articles so far cover sophisticated tools (dynamic powerpoints through animation and interactivity which Sasha created) and complex concepts of design with an emphasis on explanation and demonstration. Each blog has a number of links embedded in the article as well as a demonstration link that shows his own interactive design. So secondarily the blogs are directed toward advertising the author’s skills. Readers are able to make comments related to an article. Currently the comments are compliments and not discussions. As the site ages I suspect readers will go further in their comments, and the 8 categories will eventually cover separate and distinct topics.
No comments:
Post a Comment