Learn. Show. Repeat.

Tag: Helen Blunden

  • 10 Blogs Every eLearning Professional Should Read

    Recently my friend Ryan Tracey posted a list of 10 journals every e-learning professional should read in response to my list of 5 Books Every eLearning Professional Should Read which was in response to his 5 papers every learning professional should read (this feeling like the blogging equivalent to a game of tennis).

    So I’m returning the ball with a list of blogs that are worth checking out if you are an eLearning professional and you are looking to improve your craft as each blog is written by someone working in the field. They’re a mixture of writing styles and content – sharing practical tips, showing their work and lessons learned, looking towards the future of online learning and some offer reflections on their own personal learning. Many of these folks can also be found on Twitter and LinkedIn.

    The one thing that each blog has in common is that the author is making a positive contribution to the wider eLearning field (IMHO).

    Here’s each of the blog authors listed in alphabetical order (click on a name to go to their site):

    Kristin Anthony – Kristin also has a podcast series called ‘Dear ID’ where she interviews instructional designers

    Helen Blunden – Activate Learning Solutions

    Donald Clark – Plan B

    Tom Kuhlmann – The Rapid E-Learning blog

    Melissa Milloway Mel’s Learning Lab (Mel also writes articles via LinkedIn)

    Cathy Moore – Saving the world from boring training

    Clark Quinn – Learnlets

    Mike Taylor – Ask. Learn. Share

    Will Thalheimer – Will at Work Learning

    Christy Tucker – Experiencing E-Learning

    I’m also adding Ryan Tracey himself whose blog I came across a few years ago and s one of the first I started to read on a regular basis.

    Feel free to add to this list via the comments below.

    tennis court

    Image from Morguefile.

  • My Word for the Year

    A few weeks ago I saw a post by Helen Blunden where she was talking about her ‘word for the year’. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen a post like this – Dr Jason Fox and Renee Robson also wrote about their words of the year.

    After reading Helen’s post, I spent some time thinking about my goals for the year and what my word could be now that ‘focus’ was taken 😉

    So my word for 2016 is: Build

    tools for building

    The word build can mean building something completely new from scratch or building on the existing  or knocking down some of the old and replacing with the new. I’m doing a little of each and I don’t see it starting and ending this year, it’ll be ongoing. So, this is what I’m going to do:

    I’m going to build my knowledge and skills in coding, webinar delivery, screen casting, learning theory, online facilitation and curation.

    I’m going to build stronger connections with people in my network and build new connections.

    I’m also going to build my fitness levels to take on the City to Surf fun run in August (this will be the hardest one!).

    While it’s all very well to set some goals, but the first question is ‘what am I actually going to do?’. It’ll be a combination of things – looking for information and people who have skills and experience in these areas, experimenting and trying ideas, learning from the experience of others, practice, devoting time to learning, pushing myself outside my comfort zone and documenting along the way.

    So what’s your word for the year?