Introducing The #DevLearn Bloggers

I’m a passionate believer in the power of blogs as a source of learning. For me there are two major prongs to how I use blogs for learning.

Reading

Reading blogs is one of my favorite ways to tap into industry knowledge. There’s a full spectrum of people blogging in our industry, from the industry veteran’s sharing their wisdom and experience, to the newcomers narrating their work as they learn through trial and error, and everything in between. There’s plenty to be learned from all that is being shared.

Writing

For me the more powerful learning associated with blogs comes from writing posts. It’s through the writing that I can contextualize ideas. It’s a place that I can reflect in what I’ve learned. And by doing it publicly, it’s a place I can share my thoughts with others and invite conversation.

Of course, this is just the value that I see in blogs; others see the value of blogs differently, and use them in different ways. And to me that’s the real potential of blogs in learning – the personalization. Blogs are much more than just words on a page today. People are using them to share thoughts and ideas in many different ways, each with a unique learning value proposition.

It’s this potential that has inspired us to place as spotlight on blogging at this year’s DevLearn Conference and Expo.

Introducing

Blogs are often used by conference attendees to share and expand upon conference learning. At this year’s DevLearn we’ve decided to put a spotlight on how people use blogs to enhance their conference learning. We’ve invited the following bloggers to join the DevLearn Bloggers team.

• Cammy Bean
• Jane Bozarth
• JD Dillon
• Clark Quinn
• Tracy Parish
• Shawn Rosler
• Kasper Spiro
• Kevin Thorn
• Bianca Woods

Part of the reason we’ve selected these individuals is that they each approach their use of blogs differently. This enables us to share a wide variety of ways that blogs can be used to enhance learning. You’ll see reflections, live notes, mindmaps, sketchnotes, tips, videos, and more.

What’s Next?

I’ve invited each of the bloggers to write a post for TWIST Titled “How I Blog” where each blogger will share how they use blogging to enhance learning. We’ll be featuring these posts in the next few weeks in the lead up to DevLearn.

We’ll also be curating the blog posts contributed by the DevLearn Bloggers and other members of the eLearning Guild Community that expand upon the learning taking place at DevLearn.

Get Involved!

The DevLearn Bloggers aren’t the only ones blogging at DevLearn; they’re the ones that are helping us sound the call to action. We encourage everyone to contribute to the conversation, and to explore the many ways that blogs can be used for learning. Make sure you share what you’ve blogged using the #DevLearn hashtag so we can include it in the curated DevLearn Bloggers resources.

It’s our hope that the DevLearn Bloggers program helps people see the potential of blogs for learning.