Which blogs to read in learning and development?
Yesterday in a phone call with a developing member of the L&D profession, I was asked which blogs I would recommend following. Following what I did last March to write What books to read in learning and development? and rather than simply produce a list from my own RSS feed, I put the question to my Twitter network:
Learning folks -which blogs should you follow to develop yourself in L&D? Was recently asked and would value your opinion
I kept this to 122 characters to enable retweeting to spread the word as widely as possible and was immediately rewarded with an RT from Steve Wheeler (@timbuckteeth). This started the ball rolling.
By the end of the day there were 14 suggested blogs. By the end of day two, it had more than doubled to these 29 (in alphabetical order):
Ben Betts
Bianca Woods
Cammy Bean
Cathy Moore
Charles Jennings
Clark Quinn
Clive Shepherd
Connie Malamed
Craig Taylor
David Kelly
Donald Clark
Donald H Taylor
Harold Jarche
Jane Bozarth
Jane Hart
Jason Silberman
Jay Cross
Josh Bersin
Julie Dirksen
Julie Drybrough
Mark Aberdour
Mark Berthelemy
Mark Oehlert
Nick Shackleton-Jones
Nigel Paine
Ryan Tracey
Steve Flowers
Steve Wheeler
Tom Kuhlmann
I can think of many names missing from this list, but as of today – 30th April 2013, I’m going to draw a line under it. However, if you feel that a great blogger is missing from this list, please feel free to add their name and blog URL in the comments section below.
Why am I stopping adding to this list? For the following reasons, which occurred to me as the comments and suggestions came in:
First, another, very comprehensive list of 86 Workplace Learning Professionals who blog and/or tweet already exists, compiled by the redoubtable Jane Hart. I always tell other people not to re-invent the wheel on the internet, and am rather embarrassed to have done so myself.
Second, although this list is fine, if I allow it to grow by suggestion, it will soon get spammed by self-promoters. It’s certainly good enough now as a starter for someone beginning in L&D. (And once they’ve looked at these, they go to the super set of Jane’s list – see above.)
Third, and importantly, Stephanie Dedhar and others pointed out that ones’s area of interest changes as one’s role in L&D changes and one’s experience grows. While this is a good enough list for someone starting out, it certainly has biases. There a fair deal about strategy and design, for example, and not so much about performance improvement. My hope is that this short list will act as a jumping off point to other blogs.
My thanks to all those who contributed; my apologies to those whose blogs are not on this list (but who almost certainly are on Jane’s list) and my best wishes to all those in L&D who use this as a leaping off point to stretch themselves and keep learning about learning.
