Top 19 eLearning blogs

I had a look at some of the top 19 eLearning blogs as identified by Gabe Anderson. This is a great starting point for identifying great eLearning blogs and many of the blogs are TOP notch. However, I must say that a few of them didn’t impress me. I guess this may be because I am new to blogging and maybe I don’t have the basics down yet. What I found were references to other prominent people in the industry, rather than substantive discussions about important topics in the eLearning industry. In addition, many of the blogs promoted products and tools either by the company or other related companies. Some of the blogs looked like a random collection of ideas, rather than a discussion around a particular topic. Again, I am new to blogging and I am admittedly not connected to the big dogs of the eLearning industry, so I may be missing the larger context as an ‘outsider’. In my opinion, blogs are about sharing best practices, lessons learnt and learning from others.

Having said that, I do think that my observations highlight an interesting dynamic i.e. the thin line between entertainment and learning content. Admittedly the two can overlap, but in some cases that is not the case. Do people want to read entertaining ‘fluff’ blogs or are they looking for substantive discussions regarding the industry? In some cases they may be looking for both and many of the top 19 cater to that very well. Another interesting dynamic that is evident in the use of blogs is the blurred line between the personal and the business environments. This begs the question of how much time you spend in the blog describing yourself and your personal life, rather than sharing information that is relevant to your audience. Again, your personal life may be of more interest when you are a big dog in an industry, rather than a smaller guy. Your thoughts?