Instructional Design Blogs and Newsletters

Here are some websites and blogs that I have discovered that can be helpful to teachers and designers in instructional design. They also detail the effective ways that instructional design can be implemented and taught through blogging. 

 

The Teachers' Podcast

Link: http://teacherspodcast.org/

This is a website lead by Dr. Kathleen King and Mark Gura. Despite a rather simple website design and a few broken links, there is extensive information that can be very useful for teachers and instructional designers to read and utilize. This site contains several archives of virtual podasting, along with links to e-learning, k-12 virtual schools, Nings, and Facebook. Mark and Kathy discuss the opportunities offered by virtual learning communities. There are also lessons offered about adult learning, advancements of podcasting and classroom application.
In a section on podcastforteachers.org there is a link to The Adult Education and Human Resource Development Master’s program at Fordham University. It is designed to address the needs of people who are responsible for staff development, training and human resource development of adults in educational settings. There is also a concentration in technology training and working with teachers as adult learners.

Class Blogmeister

Link: http://classblogmeister.com/

This website emphasizes learning as a way of conversation. Users can find a list of bloggers by state or country. The blogs are about various aspects of life and culture.  The site contains related links to other sites pertaining to the particular topic. Teachers can realize the value and benefits of classroom blogging, as a source of communications, and mechanism for gaining insight into what and how students are learning. This blogging service is specifically intended for classroom use. The accounts are established and maintained by the classroom teacher. Teachers can use the site for professional blogging publishing functions, and to manage and publish student assignments and activities.

Edublogs

Link: http://edublogs.org/

Edublogs touts its ability to create and manage student blogs. Edublogs allows users to quickly customize designs and include videos, photos and podcasts. One of the most powerful features described is the ability for teachers to seamlessly create and manage blogs for students. This functionality gives teachers the right to decide if students can post on blogs. Additionally, posts and comments must be approved before being unveiled to the public. Teachers are also able to log in as administrators on student blogs to help create new themes or make necessary changes. The site offers three blogging services: Edublogs Free, Pro, and Campus.

University of Florida Academic Technology Newsletters

Link: http://newsletters.at.ufl.edu/topics/instructional-design

This is a newsletter site consisting of articles about instructional design from the University of Florida. Among the highlights on the home page, is a conversation on whether Twitter has a place in education? An instructor explains that Twitter can create a community outside of class since she has used Twitter with students in order to communicate with themselves and other “tweeters” outside of class. It is apparent that this can be useful; in a language class, students are required to tweet three times a week in the target language, and also have to respond to a classmate’s tweet. The instructor believes that this type of communication helps to create a stronger connection both within and beyond the class, and creates relationships during the semester. Additionally, fluent and primary speakers of that language can join in on Twitter.

There are newsletters available on the site for faculty members and students. They pertain to teaching with technology and teaching by design. The Teaching with Technology newsletter highlights emerging technologies in education, services provided at UF, and training opportunities. The Teaching by Design newsletter provides instructional design news and techniques for using technology in online and classroom education as well as information about the latest workshops.