My Overview and Critique of 2 Instructional Design Blogs/1 Resource site

Ideas.blogs.com

This blog contained articles and discussions that browsed subject matter such as the benefits of online learning and using technology as a way to develop new learning outcomes and how virtual classrooms can be more student centered and collaborative. There were several articles about the different delivery methods, one in particular addressed how the introduction of cable television alone in the classroom was not enough. The proper introduction of cable TV in the classroom would have consisted of appropriate instructional technology along with the cable TV to ensure proper content delivery.

Teachersfirst.com

This site has a unique collection oflesson plans, lesson units, and web based resources educators are sure to find very useful. The site itself is intended to save educators time by gathering the best web resources to support student learning.

Wordpress.com

This blog site contained critiquesof Instructional design programs, reviews of new training programs, training assessments and training results evaluation. Overall, the blog consisted of entries geared toward increasing effectiveness and efficiency in regard to learning tools.

Ideas.blogs.com is very informative from the pedagogical side of e-learning and other web based technologies. It is a great resource to use when looking to find out about the newest developments within the field of instructional design. It also lists links to other sites the reader can use to investigate the newer practices discussed on the blog. I find that this site would be very valuable to me in my future endeavors within instructional design because remaining current in your field is a great asset to have.

Wordpress.com was quite entertaining to read as well as informative. The blog has a featured blog and many other bloggers appear writing about different aspects of the instructional design field whereas ideas.blogs.com had one featured blogger. The site differed in regard to its layout and you could get to the blog posts much quicker than the other sites I visited. The downside of this format was it wasn’t categorized so if you were looking specifically for a topic you’d have a hard time finding it. Still useful but it’s going to be a toss up whenever you visit the site.

Teachersfirst.com was chock full of really great units on just about every subject a teacher could dream of. I especially liked the fact that the lesson plans and units came with activities that were group based and could be used with an interactive whiteboard, which just happened to be my favorite piece of technology to use in the classroom. The site wasn’t as user friendly as I had hoped but the content is well worth an educator taking some time to browse and implement the plans and units into their curriculum.