Welcome to my links page. This page contains links to several important information sources in the field. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list; there are many of those elsewhere. Rather, it is a small sample of some information sources which are helpful to researchers and practitioners.

Organizations

  1. American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) - ASTD is one of the premiere organizations for training and development professionals in the United States and around the world. I am a member of the national chapter of ASTD.
  2. International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) - ISPI is another major organization for training and development professionals. According to their website ISPI has been "Dedicated to improving human and organizational performance since 1962."
  3. Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) - AECT's mission is "to provide international leadership by promoting scholarship and best practices in the creation, use, and management of technologies for effective teaching and learning in a wide range of settings." AECT has several divisions which target professionals working in both educational and corporate settings. A few of the divisions perhaps of most interest to professionals in corporate settings are Design and Development, Distance Education, and Training and Performance. I am a member of the national chapter of AECT.
  4. International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) - ICDE is one of the major organizations in the field on an international level. It "is the global organization for flexible learning and teaching." Its website goes on to say, "An important aim of ICDE is to promote intercultural co-operation and understanding through flexible learning and teaching throughout the world." I am particularly interested in this organization because of my interest in how culture interrelates with distance education, particularly online education.

Journals

  1. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL) - IRRODL is, as the name suggests, focused on distance education in an international setting. Since this is an area of great interest to me, I find this journal particularly worthwhile.
  2. Educational Technology Research and Development (ETR&D) - ETR&D is published by AECT, one of the organizations I mentioned above. This journal has many "must read" articles in almost every volume. Each volume includes an International Review section which contains great articles of international interest.
  3. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning (EURODL) - EURODL is another online journal, having a European focus, with many articles of international interest.
  4. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication (JCMC) - JCMC is not directly related to training or education; nevertheless, since good training is very much dependent on good communication, many volumes contain articles of interest to those engaged in training and performance improvement.

Blogs

Blogs, short for Web Logs, are one of the newest information sources available. There are literally hundreds of blogs dedicated to education and training. However, because anyone can publish a blog without editorial or content oversight, it is important to carefully consider the validity of material presented in a blog. Nevertheless, blogs can be a good source of the latest, most up-to-date thinking in the field. This points to one characteristic of blogs - they typically present the author's own ideas or opinions rather than information about research-based theory or practice. Here are a few blogs in the field.

  1. elearnspace: Learning and Technology Blogs - Rather than an individual blog, this is a listing of many blogs devoted to learning and technology. It is a good starting place for those interested in using blogs as information sources.
  2. Stephen's Web - OLDaily - This is one of the blogs I read most often. It is written by a leading educational researcher, Stephen Downes, in Canada.
  3. Internet Time Blog - This blog is written by Jay Cross. According to his site "Jay Cross is an internationally acclaimed strategist, speaker, consultant, and designer of corporate learning and performance systems."
  4. CogDogBlog - This site is written by Alan Levine. Alan just (in April of 2006) moved from Maricopa Community Colleges to the New Media Consortium. He is a fairly prolific writer about instructional technology.
  5. EdTechPost: Technologies for Learning, Thinking, and Collaborating - This site is written by Scott Leslie, an educational technology researcher in British Columbia. I enjoy reading it because he often refers to educational practices in the UK, Australia, or other parts of the world. Thus, he gives a good international perspective on the field.
  6. Robin Good: What Communication Experts Need To Know - As the title suggests this blog is geared more towards communication than education. Nevertheless, as I have written elsewhere, communication is a key ingredient of education. Therefore, this blog is a worthwhile read.

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