Welcome to my blog

Hello everyone,   I am starting this blog as part of my journey of learning.  I am studying for my masters in education in instructional design and technology.    I've read some blogs before and used them as a source of information, but I never really considered writing a blog or having my own.   This is a new experience for me. Looking forward to this part of the journey!

My task this week was to take a look around the web and see what types of blogs are out there.    I did a lot of looking and quite frankly, once I got the hang of it I can see how this is addicting.    I limited my review to three blogs as requested by my instructor. They are  Kapp notes, ELearning Provocateur and Learning Snippets.   I've listed a few thoughts on each.
 
Kapp notes - Fusing learning, technology and business.   http://karlkapp.com/kapp-notes/
This blog exposed me to such concepts as gamification, edutainment, and ways to make learning interactive and full of adventure.   I had no idea that their would be so many similarities in learning simulations and game simulations but it completely makes sense.    I also learned a little about the author as he shared his personal experience at an event called DevLearn.   This blog has very useful information and seems to focus on some of the very technical aspects that create an excellent online learning experience for the adult learner.

E-Learning Provocateur - http://ryan2point0.wordpress.com is a blog written by Ryan Tracey an E Learning manager.   His blog is all about corporate elearning.    Here I discovered what a Mooc is.   I also learned about Udemy,  which is a free software that allow you to develop elearning modules.  Both of these terms are brand new for me.   This site is exceptional for finding out what the latest trends are and learning the lingo.   His site is listed as one of the 10 EdTech ELearning Blogs. 

Learning Snippets  http://learningsnippets.wordpress.com
This blog is a diary of what the author is learning about learning.  It is as though a trusted colleague is sharing their journey with the rest of us instructional design students.  The articles take a look at learner motivation and cognitive load.   The author writes several 'showing my work' series where he details what he is learning.   This is something I found extremely helpful.   In one of these excerpts he shares  a process he established for elearning module development.  It outlines the kickoff meeting, to working with the SME's to obtaining feedback and all of the challenges in-between.  This blog is very insightful and useful for tips and processes that I can implement in my corporate work environment.

For me,  all of three of these blogs have very useful and diverse information around the education of adult learners.   I am currently in a role where I have an opportunity to create and develop learning activities and I am very excited to be able to incorporate all of this shared knowledge so quickly.