E-Learning Curve Blog

The E-Learning Curve Blog is Two Years Old

Welcome to my blog, The E-Learning Curve.

So began my first post on the E-Learning Curve Blog on this day in 2007. Upon reflection, I don’t think that I really had any idea about what I was letting myself in for by setting forth on the enterprise, in terms of the discipline and commitment, not to mention the sheer effort required to create and maintain a high-quality blog about Electronic Learning & Development.

I don’t think that I had any real understanding about how the blog would unfold either; I guess that for me, that was part of what attracted me to the idea of keeping a blog in the first place: I wanted to see what would emerge over time.

If you’re a fan of pop or rock music, you’ve probably heard the phrase “the difficult second album.” Traditionally, this is a musician’s opportunity to transcend their origins, and take on the mainstream. A great sophomore effort can launch a relative unknown into the big time – take Radiohead’s The Bends or Nirvana’s Nevermind as examples. Conversely, it can kill the buzz stone dead (too many bands to mention). I think that the same dynamic is true for most creative endeavors, including blogging.

So, in it’s first year the E-Learning Curve Blog was there to discuss the impact on the training and development industry of a world lurching from the subprime mortgage financial crisis, to the tipping point of the Credit Crunch, and followed by the Great Recession of Aught Eight.

This has gave me the opportunity to discuss e-learning in society-at-large, and in the workplace in particular. What better opportunity was there for learning professionals to introduce the benefits of technology in education?

But twelve short months ago, I had to ask “What Next?” of myself. How do I follow such an enjoyable year of communicating with my peers and fellow e-learning professionals? The second year was my Difficult Second Album.

In retrospect, I’ve concluded that my first series of articles for 2009 – a review of Techsmith Camtasia and Adobe Captivate (see below) set the tone for the following months; it was time for me to investigate the tools, technologies and theories e-learning practitioners use to undertake their activities. Hence, the great part-works of 2009: podcasting, instructional design, and development tools – interspersed of course with commentary, opinion and digressions down the interesting highways and byways of e-learning.

The E-Learning Curve Blog itself changed too, with:

• Migration from Blogger to being WordPress-hosted on my own domain michaelhanley.ie
• The introduction of two (count ‘em) podcasting services – the E-Learning Curve Podcast and the Other Podcast
• Twitter happened
• Social news site integration
• …And last but not least, my weblog’s title lost the definite article and gained a prosthetic ‘Blog’ in its name

The blog was also a finalist in two 2009 Irish Web Awards categories (no word on nominations for the EduBlog Awards 2009 yet, but if anyone wants to nominate this blog I’d be …happy).

As a constructivist, I would assert that the practice of blogging is an excellent example of Bruner’s Learning Spiral: the act of maintaining a blog transforms information and enables the  construction of knowledge, based upon my extant cognitive structures or mental models. These cognitive structures – what Roger Schank calls “scripts” in his Dynamic Memory Model (1982) – provide meaning and organization to experiences and allow the individual to go “beyond the information given” (Bruner, 1974).

What better time, then, for individuals and organizations to look at educational strategy and learning technologies than in a period of profound change – these are the times that test the mettle of ideas and concepts and where they prove their value; if the reality lives up to the perception, if the potential can be realized.

What have I learned?

In a response to a Learning Circuits Blog Big Question, once upon a time I once described myself as a ‘learnivore’ – a bit of a duff term, but accurate. Writing and maintaining a blog is one of the best motivators I know to continue developing my professional knowledge – to discuss the kind of topics I like to cover requires a comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of the subject of e-learning and all that understanding e-learning entails.

My view is that the e-learning blogosphere is inhabited by a population of knowledgeable, dedicated, and critical (in the positive sense) contributors, and if you want to be in that company, you have to know your stuff.

Top Ten for 2009

On a more practical note, here’s a list of the top ten topics according to you, the readers of the E-Learning Curve Blog courtesy of the fantastic web tracking and analysis tools available on Statcounter – not just cool because they’re Irish. Note that for topic series (such as Podcasting for E-Learning) I have linked to the first post in the series: just work your way forward from there to read the subsequent articles.

1. Podcasting for E-Learning (series of articles from August-September 2009)
2. Discovering Instructional Design (series of posts from May-June 2009)
3. Open Source E-Learning (series of posts from October–November 2009)
4. Non-formal workplace learning
5. Is free software really free? Open e-learning development
6. The Problem with Web 2.0…
7. Is Social Learning a fad? One Organization Seems to Believe So
8. M-Learning using the iPhone (series of articles Feb-March 2009)
9. E-Learning and Depression 2.0 Revisited
10. Capture that E-learning Demo: Camtasia and Captivate Compared (series of posts January 2009)

Thanks to all of you who’ve read, contributed to, and debated the topics covered over the last twelve months, and I hope you’ll continue to engage with me in the times to come.

_________________

References:

Bruner, J. S. (1974) Going Beyond the Information Given. New York: Norton.
Schank, R. (1982) Dynamic Memory: A Theory of Reminding and Learning in Computers and People. Cambridge University Press.

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Read more: http://elearningcurve.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html#ixzz0XmmXjB8B

November 27 2009 03:15 pm | e-learning

3 Responses to “The E-Learning Curve Blog is Two Years Old”

1. Amit Garg on 28 Nov 2009 at 12:26 pm #

   Congratulations Michael. You are doing a great job.

2. Michael Hanley on 28 Nov 2009 at 12:42 pm #

   Thanks Amit – much appreciated – here’s to many more years of blogging.
   Michael
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3. Ken Allan on 02 Dec 2009 at 9:13 pm #

   Kia ora e Michael

   You are now moving into what’s known as the ‘terrible twos’! I move to that status in the middle of next year.

   I must say I admire the bloggers who have been blogging for years. There are some great exponents of blog-technology out there. You would be among them, Michael. Well done!

   Rangimarie!