The practice of instructional design often places the designer in the role of the learner. To ensure we are creating the most effective, relevant, and engaging training programs, instructional designers need seek out opportunities to hone their craft and further their knowledge and skills. The challenge area of “Acquire and apply new technology skills in instructional design practice” showcases my ability to both learn technologies that are new to me and incorporate them into the practice of instructional design. For a technology selective course, EDCI 560, Educational Technology for Teaching and Learning, my final course project was to create a blog website containing six published blogs and run audience analytics on visitor traffic. My blog can be accessed at www.rebeccajudkins.com.

The use of blogs in teaching and learning is not a novel idea. Numerous studies have shown a positive connection between peer interaction through the use of blogs/comments on blogs and learning course content (Li et al., 2013; Yang & Chang, 2012). In order to realize the learning and community benefits described or believed to be the result of media like blogging, in this project, I needed to first address the development of the technology skills required to build a blog website. After careful consideration of numerous blogging platforms, I chose WordPress.org as the platform for my blog website, as it has numerous plugins, widgets, and templates available at no- or low-cost. These resources allowed me to develop my growing technology skills while still being able to focus on the content I was posting in my blog. I also made liberal use of various internet resources (basic search engine searches, reading blog entries, watching video tutorials, etc.) to most efficiently navigate the build, successful functionality, and aesthetics of my blog website. Along with the acquisition and application of the new technology skills, the blog content I curated was a reflective blog focused on my thoughts and reflections as I journeyed through the first two terms of graduate school. I pulled in numerous references from my previous classes and my past learning experiences. In that way, new connections to knowledge are created and shared with my peers, as well as any other person who reads the blog. The goal is that my personal journey, coupled with my growing knowledge and skills, will lead them to learn something new while reading my blog, despite the structure not being strictly instructional.

Having worked as a contractor for several years prior to attending graduate school, I did work as a blog writer for a retail jewelry store. However, this project was remarkably different. In my previous experience, I was focusing only on the content of the blogs, not the building of the website, audience analytics, etc. I had some familiarity with meta data, keywords, and other content-related concepts, but beyond that, this project represents a major growth area for me, particularly in the area of technology application and website development and maintenance. I believe I could have been a stronger asset to the client if I had a greater understanding, as I do now, of the back end of a blog website. I may have been able to streamline their processes and approach by posting and managing the blog directly, instead of furnishing the blog copy for them to manage.

My personal learning journey blog exhibits the key components of this challenge in that a new technology was learned and applied in order to share academically-supported personal reflections about my growth as an instructional designer. My growth as a professional was affected significantly as a result of this project; I was provided the opportunity to develop a platform through which I could tell my learning journey story while hopefully supporting the learning of the readers. I have predominantly worked in the corporate learning space and although I am not familiar with a wealth of professional training blogs that speak to the learners’ specific areas of content (for example, an in-house instructional designer maintaining a training blog for the company’s workforce that relates to their specific training needs), I think that would be an excellent application for this type of technology/learning approach. Research supports the use of blogging as a way to support learning content. However, if I were to embark on such a project, I would include an interaction comment section, as the research also indicates that this is important when maximizing the positive effects of learning and blogs: “the data suggested that dialogues in the form of blog comments were associated with positive attitudes towards academic achievements in course subjects and online peer interaction, compared with no such engagement” (Yang & Chang, 2012, p. 133). In my course project, the comments features were under-utilized, but in a corporate setting, where the content could be managed and monitored effectively, I think that the peer interaction and support would be a net positive for the corporate learning community.

Li, K., Bado, N., Smith, J., & Moore, D. (2013). Blogging for teaching and learning: An examination of experience, attitudes, and levels of thinking. Contemporary Educational Technology, 4(3), 172-186.

Yang, C. & Chang, Y.-S. (2012). Assessing the effects of interaction blogging on student attitudes towards peer interaction, learning motivation, and academic achievements. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 28(2), 126-135. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00423.x