Review of 3 Instructional Design Blogs and Resources

Review of 3 Instructional Design Blogs and Resources

1. Instructional Design (http://instructionaldesign.org/)

This is a website with various links about the field of instructional design. On the home page, the reader will find, a working definition about what instructional design really is. Having a working definition is very important because many people do not know exactly what instructional design really is-- all that they know is that it sounds good.

On the home page in addition to the definition, it also lists links to instructional design models like ADDIE and Iterative design, among others. This can be useful to the instructional design student because in addition to their course texts and scholarly resources, the student can come to these places within the website as a starting part if they would like to learn more about an instructional design or reinforce what they have already learned.

This site also lists notable instructional designers. Knowing who has been successful in the field of instructional design might help future instructional designers because they can perform further research that would enable them to find out how these instructional designers conquered certain obstacles in the field of instructional design. The future instructional designer may be able to apply some of those methods to their own practice.

Other parts of the website include links to finding jobs in the field of instructional design, as well as links to yearly instructional design conferences. Instructional design conferences would be helpful because it is an opportunity for peers to share new research and instructional design improvements. In addition to the various links on the website, many of the links lead to other websites as well as books that would help to clarify concepts. This site is maintained by Richard Culatta who is a leading educational innovator.

2. Williams Instructional Design, LLC (http://williamsinstructionaldesign.blogspot.com/)

This is an instructional design blog. This blog is maintained by Mary Williams who is an instructional designer who specializes in performance and training improvement in the workforce. Her entries are not just a stream of conscious but a clear perspective about the topic for which she chooses to talk about. In her blog post from January 31, 2011, she refers to another blog and provides her own spin on something that was posted there. This does two things, it lets the reader explore her conclusions on the subject material and it also provides another blog resource for the instructional design student or professional to view on their own. Ms. Williams also seems to like the concept of mind mapping as an instructional design tool. Professionals and teachers may also want to use the mind mapping tool in their own practice.

While there is plenty of instructional design information, as well as some quirky tidbits scattered about, Ms. Williams also provides links to other learning and instructional design blogs in the sidebar on the right. Providing these links can be a great resource because the professional or student can gain more insight and different perspectives in the field of instructional design and learning.

3. The Usable Learning Blog (http://usablelearning.wordpress.com/)

This blog is very informative. The author prides herself with providing information that the instructional design professional may not have learned in school. She tends to focus a lot on game design as a learning tool. This site is also full of slide show presentations to help to clarify what the blogger is saying. The information is by no means boring and provides numerous examples that the instructional designer and other learning professionals are able to relate.

One of my posts on the class discussion board is related to the teacher creating a proper learning environment. Well, one of the posts here is focused on the learning environment. But this post provides other insights and example that I might not have thought of. However, this does reinforce what some of the points that I have brought up in my posts.

In the future, I would be able to use this blog to reference current trends in learning and instructional design. Thus, I might be able to use these certain tactics and techniques to apply to my own practice (or learn what not to apply to my own practice.

The blog also provides links to other blog sites to help professionals and students learn more and relate to experiences in instructional design and learning.