Week 2: Online Resources

I browsed many sites and stumbled on to www.business balls.com while trying to look for more information about learning styles. I came onto the site from a search on google.

http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm

There is some great information on David Kolb’s learning styles model. This site was designed as a free learning and development resource. I noticed several other things worth noting while I was on the site including Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning, Kirkpatrick’s Learning and Training Evaluation Theory, McClelland’s Motivational Needs Theory, and many others. In addition to information on various learning theories there are guides and resources for developing training as well. Some topics that I found interesting were a guide for team building activities, a guide to facilitating effective experiential learning, and many more. I will use this as a resource in the future for brief explanations of theories to ideas and help in developing training.

The second resource that I found is The International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. The article that drove me to this journal was Brain-Based Learning: Possible implications for Online Instruction. Where Stephanie Clemons talks about brain-based Learning and how that theory can be implemented in an online environment. I browsed through several other issues and there were many interesting topics. There were several articles that spoke to incorporating technologies into instruction such as wikis, blogs, and instant messaging to name a few. I will bookmark this Journal and review past and future issues. The link to this journal is:

http://itdl.org/

In addition to these resources I would like to add that membership in professional organizations is important as well. For the past several years I have been a national member of ASTD. They have a magazine that comes out every month that has great articles in it. In addition to the magazine I also subscribe to an ASTD group on linkedin which offers some great discussions and networking. The national chapter has many benefits but I really find my local chapter to be the most valuable. I get to network with other people in my area that face similar challenges in learning development. They also offer opportunities to attend meetings, luncheons, and hear speakers. The local chapter is of course cheaper than the national chapter but I find them both valuable.