Wow, So much information that seems it should all be learned in a week! I recall a commercial that always made me chuckle...a husband comes out of a room and his wife is in the kitchen; she says to him, I thought you were surfing the internet, his response, I'm done, I got to the end! I couldn't even tell you what the product was, but I remember that dialogue.
Obviously, just like we'll never get to the end of the earth, it appears we'll ever reach the end of the internet. Since I started my new class in Instructional Design, just within the past week, I've learned so much. The computer continues to evolve and it's as though over the last 5 years I've learned absolutely nothing. I had to sit back for a moment and ask the question, Michael, what have you been doing on this thing? If my computer was an airplane, and I were a pilot logging in flight hours - I'd be a seasoned captain on logged-in time alone, but knowledge-wise, I'm an apprentice.
Recapping some of the past week; we explored the beginnings of the nature of learning theories and philosophy. I mean, even Socrates and Plato are fully credited for aspects of early, and I mean early, learning.
In an article by Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. 1993, Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 6(4), 50–71, offers an overview of the differences in learning theories based on the processing of information. Behaviorally is learning through mental cues, stimulus-response. Cognitive learning, the learner takes an active role in their learning experience. The most complex is constructivism, where learning effectively creates meaning and applicaton to the information.
You obviously came here to get something out of this other than a recap lesson. Some of the interesting blogs and resources that caught my attention this week are listed.
Experiencing E-Learning, http://christytucker.wordpress.com/. Christy is an Instructional Designer working in Education and primarily writes about developing on-line learning. Why did I find her blog interesting enough to include in my Google Reader? There are a few reasons, first, her blog caught my attention because she discusses in recurring themes and posts the career of IDT, which is important to me since I'm new to the IDT field. Second are the interesting comments from readers. Being a "newbie" to the field of Instructional Design, I find the different viewpoints from IDT professionals from varied experience levels to be educational. From a myriad of information to choose and offering other creditable sites, this blog is useful.
Another blog I found worthwhile is from Tom Kuhlman, The Rapid eLearning Blog, http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/. Tom displays a great overview of different tools that help create those captivating e-Learning visuals and designs that originally drew me into e-Learning. He also offers some great tips and free tools to assist in creating your own training aids. The blog is well-organized and easy to navigate. I haven't found this to be true with all of the blogs - some can be confusing and uninviting. After working all day, I prefer a site that livens me up rather than drains what I have left. Definetly a cool site with lots of colors and quick reads. He also provides samples of visuals and graphics that you can play.
Another excellent resource found is the eLearning Learning site. This can is located at http:www.elearninglearning.com.This particular site is more of a community resource rather than a blog. However, I liked that it is a useful one stop shop for other resources in the IDT world. My only negative critique is that you can find yourself sifting through lots of information, lots of reading and become overwhelmed. On the other hand, if you enter this site looking for a specific piece of information, it's most likely available. You'll also find this library resource to be more text than fancy graphics, but still a worthwhile site for the engaged IDT professional.
Please enjoy the information I shared and the blog recommendation.
Have a great rest of the week!
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