message - Blogs - DPG Community2024-03-29T01:13:03Zhttps://community.dpgplc.co.uk/blog/feed/tag/messageA blog about blogs (Part 1)https://community.dpgplc.co.uk/blog/a-blog-about-blogs2012-07-23T12:00:00.000Z2012-07-23T12:00:00.000ZMike Collinshttps://community.dpgplc.co.uk/members/MikeCollins<div><p><span class="font-size-2"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1357090?profile=original"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1357090?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="303"></a></span><span class="font-size-2">The DPG community is a community of practice, a shared space for professionals with an interest in Learning and Development & HR to come together and share their experiences, ideas and good practice.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2">It's a collaborative and social space that supports our CIPD programmes, provide evidence for CPD and is a space for our customers to discuss our products & services in an open and transparent way. It's about conversation and more importantly around people; people who are willing to share and learn. This sharing drives value in both personal and professional development and in turn drives value for others.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2">The most popular discussion on the community so far as been Fiona Chatham's discussion <a href="http://community.dpgplc.co.uk/forum/topics/taking-time-out-to-reflect" target="_self">Taking Time Out To Reflect</a></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2">There are some excellent points around how to reflect and gather CPD evidence the reflection process and it got me thinking about the role of blogs and the impact they have had on my own personal development over the last two years.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2">I think blogs can be misunderstood and that got me thinking about how this community can start supporting its members get more from blogs either through starting a blog or finding really good blogs that are interesting, thought provoking or even controversial. So here it is the blog about blogs (Part 1).....</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Reading blogs</strong></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2">Time is often cited as the main reason for a lack of personal development yet it can only take a few minutes to read a blog. OK reading a blog won't perhaps give you practical skills in running a team or facilitating a training session or help you through a large change programme...BUT it will stimulate ideas and provide an insight in to others' experiences who have done or are doing this. It's this reading processes that provides access to new ideas and rich sources of information, if there are comments it may also provide reasoned argument or other resources and even more peoples' experiences that they have been willing to share. To get ourselves set up to get access to blogs with the minimum of fuss we need a RSS reader to aggregate the blogs so it takes the effort out of finding these dynamite development tools.<br></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2">I would suggest using something <a href="http://www.feeddemon.com/" target="_blank">Feed Demon</a> but there are <a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/goodbye-google-reader-or-the-best-rss-reader-alternatives.html" target="_blank">others</a> out there for both PC and MAC users. All offer similar functionality but it's down to personal preference which one you use.<br></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2"><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Finding blogs</strong></span><br></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2">There are plenty of blogs out there, some of which are fantastic and others well.....let's say they are less read. This is where this discussion can help as I'm calling all members to add a link to their favourite blogs (or even their own blog) in the comments to help others find those belting blogs that cause us to think and help us to innovate, change and disrupt what we do normally. So here are 12 blogs I enjoy reading to get you started:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://www.aconventional.com/" target="_blank">http://www.aconventional.com/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://tmiket.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">http://tmiket.wordpress.com/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.co.uk/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://ryan2point0.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">http://ryan2point0.wordpress.com/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://itsdevelopmental.com/" target="_blank">http://itsdevelopmental.com/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://www.learningcafe.com.au/" target="_blank">http://www.learningcafe.com.au/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://www.learningasylum.co.uk/" target="_blank">www.learningasylum.co.uk</a></span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://clive-shepherd.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://clive-shepherd.blogspot.co.uk/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://www.internettime.com/" target="_blank">http://www.internettime.com/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://www.jarche.com/" target="_blank">http://www.jarche.com/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://change-effect.com/" target="_blank">http://change-effect.com/</a></span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://www.changecontinuum.com/" target="_blank">http://www.changecontinuum.com/</a></span></li>
</ul>
<p><span class="font-size-2">I hope you find these blogs interesting, exciting, challenging and thought provoking. All you need is to open the link and look for the '<strong>Subscribe To</strong>' button, once clicked you can then add the RSS feed in to your RSS reader and boom, you're away - every time there is a new post it will automatically appear in your RSS reader ready for reading.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2">It really is easy to read one blog a day.....you just need to get in to the habit of reading them. Finding 5 minutes during your day to support your development is no great sacrifice is it? I guarantee that by doing this you will be exposed to far greater information and knowledge than you would have without reading them, this can then help inform and develop your own ideas. This is Continuous Professional Development, you might not see it like that but it is a great way of keeping your professional knowledge up to date and continually refreshed and indeed at the cutting edge of thinking in your profession.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2">So that's your task, get your RSS reader up and running and start reading a blog a day to support your CPD. If you have any questions post them below and share your favourite blogs below as well - we'd love to read them too.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2">Part 2 will follow shortly (commenting on blogs and starting your own)</span></p></div>