I have been working as an Instructional Designer for over 7 years. My primary function has been as a facilitator in the corporate and education setting. I teach adults – a career that I love. I became an instructional designer because the opportunity presented itself – I was hired to teach classes for the Training Specialist Certificate Program at the University of Washington Extension Program. I designed Adult Learning Principles and Applications and Linking Training to Organizational Results. I had the pleasure of teaching those courses for five years.

I am now working toward my Master’s Degree at Walden University. This has been a goal of mine for many years and now that my daughters are in their teens, I felt like this was an opportunity for me to pursue my goal to achieve a Masters in Instructional Design and Technology. That last part, technology, will be a new learning venture for me and I am ready.

As part of my course this fall, I am analyzing and reviewing various learning blogs. Let’s take a look at three blogs.

I learned about this first blog when I was teaching at the University of Washington. Donald Clark has written a comprehensive blog about Instructional Design and learning since 2004 called Big Dog, Little Dog. In his blog, he covers everything from Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy: Cognitive processes and levels of knowledge matrix to Mapping Pedagogies For Performance. His tables and images are clear and well incorporated. His writing style is on topic and to the point. My only comments are his own personality seems to rarely come through. This blog is factual and reads like a text book. His frequency of posts is also inconsistent.

The next blog I found interesting is ID and Other Reflections by Sahana Chattopadhyay. She is an instructional designer based out of Mumbai, India. One of my favorite blogs is, Love-Hate Theory, Learner Motivation, Connectivism and Other Such Thoughts… I like this blog because she speaks in a conversational voice and elicits the reader to ask themselves questions. She links to other sources well and allows the learner to curate their own experience.

The final review is for the blog, Cathy Moore – Let’s Save the World from Boring Training! This blog is funny and insightful. I learned about designing scenarios for instructional design and how to respond to learning style believers. She is comprehensive in her links and citations, including an article from The Onion on Nasal Learners. This is fun to read and educational. It’s a refreshing change from some of the more serious approaches.

This has been a fun assignment. I look forward to continuing this journey with you.

Aimee Windmiller-Wood