Two articles to recommend on this week’s topics

The first is from the Brain Connection website:

http://brainconnection.positscience.com/topics/?main=fa/brain-based

First, I want point out a great quote I found in this article:

“Teaching without an awareness of how the brain learns is like designing a glove with no sense of what a hand looks like” – Leslie Hart

What a memorable quote!  Overall, this article is succinct overview of the current theories in brain-based learning.  Specifically, the 12 Mind/Brain Principles and the 3 conditions for learning of Caine and Caine.

This will definitely be something to refer back to when starting new instructional design projects.

The second is from the website for the University of Valdosta Educational Psychology website:

http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cogsys/infoproc.html

This article is good overview of the material covered in chapter 3 of the Ormrod, Schunk and Gredler text.  I especially liked the table at the end with examples of putting information processing theory in practice in the classroom.

This a good article to bookmark for easy reference.

Review: Three Instructional Design Blogs

Below are my thoughts on three blogs with postings on the topic of Instructional Design.

Instructional Design for eLearning Approaches: http://ideas.blogs.com/

Overview -   This is the blog of Ferdinand Krauss of the University of Toronto.  This blog contains the observations and insights of someone actively involved in instructional design projects in a university setting.  

Usefulness of the site – I would rate it 4 out 5 stars.  The site contains practical tips derived from the author’s own experience on instructional design projects.  In addition, the site contains numerous links to current academic papers in the field of instructional design.

How I might use it as an ongoing resource – First, I think the blog provide convenient reference to a great deal of academic research through the generous amount of links in his posts.  I have already found links to several topics that interest me.  In addition, I will go back and refer to some of best practices the author has used in his own instructional design projects. I will add this blog to my newly created RSS reader.

Internet Time Blog: http://www.internettime.com/blog/archives/001083.html

Overview - This is an archive page on design topics from blog of Jay Cross of the Internet Time Group.  The author is a consultant who has work with several high tech companies put the latest eLearning research into practice.

Usefulness of the site – I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars.  This is static resource with many links to topics of interest to instructional designers.  I particularly liked the database of 50 theories relevant to learning and instruction.  However, since it is a static page, there is no ongoing discussion.

How I might use it as an ongoing resource –  I would mainly use it a reference to access the links on the page.  The author seems to be well connected in the corporate training world (my background), so I will check out some of his other writings as well.

Blogs about: Instructional Design: http://en.wordpress.com/tag/instructional-design/ 
 

Overview- This site is an aggregate of WordPress blog posts with the tag “Instructional Design”.

Usefulness of the site– I would rate it 2 out 5 stars.  Since the posts arrive from a variety of sources, the usefulness of the posts varies widely.  However if you get to recognize authors you like, the usefulness will increase. 

How I might use it as an ongoing resource – There are several examples of blogs about instructional design, so it should provide ideas about how (or how not to) create compelling content for my own instructional design blog.  Also, I noticed some job postings listed, so this may be a good way to connected with prospective employers.

First Post

I am just creating a test post to make sure this is working correctly.

Here is link to my hometown newspaper http://www.boston.com