Useful Links

www.brainconnection.com

The web site is dedicated to the learning process of children. It contains a large variety of exercises, links, and articles. The available resources contained on this site range from games for children to research journals and assessments.  The site also provides field related book reviews, blogs and forums.

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~smflanag/edtech/cip.htm

This site provides comprehensive coverage of  Cognitive Information Processing. Information is provided on both the most basic level (definitions) to higher level thinking materials (theory elements, analysis). I find that this site is more appropriate for those just beginning to study this theory, as it holds your hand at first and gradually presents more sophisticated information as you move throughout the resources




http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/think/methods.htm

This site focuses on teaching problem solving  skills, organized by learning style. The best feature is that the site is organized so that each section is separate and easy to read. The site differentiates between problem solving in educational settings and non-educational settings.  The site also has an abundance of links throughout each section that lead to more valuable resources.

Three Instructional Design Blogs That You Should Be Following...

One of the most important duties of an Instructional Design student is to seek out knowledge/information, which aids in every educators quest to be a life-long learner. I have found several informative sites, for both Instructional Design and Digital Strategy, which I will be sharing on this blog in the coming weeks, but I will focus on three for the time being: Instructional Design & Development Blog (http://www.iddblog.org/); The Rapid eLearning Blog (http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/); Making Change/Cathy Moore (http://blog.cathy-moore.com/).

Instructional Design & Development Blog

This blog is the first ID blog that I began following and is, in all likelihood, my favorite. Individuals are permitted to create posts, which allows for a more dynamic collections of thoughts and ideas in one place. Instead of just responding to the thoughts of one blogger, you have multiple to choose from, saving you from searching from site to site. Some people most technical information and/or design samples while others post from a more personal point of view; both being helpful and informative.

 

The Rapid eLearning Blog

This blog focuses on eLearning and Distance Instruction. This blog is ripe with technical information, samples, templates and advice (you even get a free e-book when you sign up to follow the blog). It is a really good resource if your focus is on distance learning as the information presented on this site is thorough and sound. Where this site really shines is its tutorials. There are a lot to choose from and they are created and presented by an experienced distance learning instructor. I would advise checking this blog often.

Making Change/Cathy Moore

Making Change is an instructional design blog that is written form a philosophical perspective, also providing a lot of information related to conferences seminars and other happenings in the field. Cathy Moore posts to her blog once a month; the reason for this is because each of her posts is fully-fleshed out and thought provoking, serving to create in depth professional discussions. This is the most impressive part of this blog. Almost every post has a vibrant comments section where individuals engage in field discussion and debates providing a wealth of knowledge, questions and answers. I recommend logging on to this site during your work day (even from your phone) and checking out a post, think about the information that is being presented and then join the discussion at some later point. This serves as a great way to stay engaged with the ID community, as well as sparking original thoughts within you.