After reviewing numerous blogs on the topics of instructional design and educational leadership I have narrowed the pool down to my 3 favorites. Well, my 3 favorites as of today as I tend to be fickle. If/When I find new favorite blogs I will be sure to post those as well. I am new to the study of Instructional Design and Technology and I am excited and optimistic about my new field. I am also always working to improve my teaching skills as that is my current profession and one of my passions, thus two of my favorites focus on ID in K-12 education which is where I see myself in the future.
Patrick Higgins, Jr. trains teachers and this is exactly what I am working towards (at this point). He writes about his thoughts around training teachers and the things he experiences as a trainer. He also discusses the need for change in education and his philosophies tend to be in alignment with my own. While it is nice to read things I agree with, I will be interested in reading the comments to his posts so that I can stretch my thinking and open my mind a bit more. Patrick has his finger on the pulse of the needs of the students as well as the needs of the teachers. He speaks from experience and from what I have read thus far there are many tomes of wisdom that are applicable to me now as a teacher and will be applicable to me as an instructional design professional.
Jay Cross blogs about instructional design, a profession he has been a part of for over 30 years. He discusses how people learn, informal learning, technology (including social media), and motivation. According to one of his entries, he also has started a new blog specifically for informal learning. This blog seems to have a wealth of useful information to the ID professional. I get the feeling when I visit his blog that I could learn or be connected to a multitude of topics in ID. I can see myself using this blog as a resource whenever I'm tackling a new problem. What I have learned thus far in the Instructional Design and Technology program at Walden University is reinforced in Jay's posts. This carries a certain level of comfort for me as this venture into the field of ID is essentially new to me.
Former K-12 music teacher, Nancy Flanagan talks about teaching, training, and educational policy. If I am to work in the instructional design field focusing on working with k-12 educators, I need to be abreast of the current education policy. I also would like to be aware of the teacher's perspective on these policies. Nancy will give me one perspective and those who comment on her blog will give me other perspectives. Nancy also discusses training and her conducting of professional development opportunities for teachers which is useful to me both as a teacher and as a future instructional design professional.
I enjoyed learning and teaching in an informal setting. Of course that is my learning preferrence. I enjoyed this blog, "Getting informal in San Paolo", by Jay Cross,(2010). It was comforting to know that I am not the only one who feels comfortable using this learning technique. It is important to me, at work, to be able to learn informally and use my classroom learning along with social techniques.
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