Is Blogging Dying?

I recently read an article in The Economist highlighting a report that shows that "the rate of growth of blogs has slowed in many parts of the world. In some countries growth has even stalled".

Yes, perhaps it is true that blogging is growing at a far lesser rate than it was 10 years ago. But I don't think blogging is dying! The trends are changing. Our expectations as bloggers and readers are changing.

Since 2004, many Analysts have written about how social-media is just a fad and how twitter and facebook status messages will eventually take over blogging. If we were to believe reports, then in 2007 Gartner predicted that blogging will peak in 2008 and then it will fizzle out. But I don't think the fizzle is out just yet.

But here are some interesting statistics that provide another view:
Annual State of the Blogosphere 2009 report provided by Technorati states that:

• More than 133,000,000 blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002
• 86% of the respondents have been blogging for at least a year - 68% have been blogging for two years or more 
• 57% say that their future plans include blogging even more (including 74% of 18-24 year olds)
• The most common rate of updating a blog is 2-3 times per week
• 900,000 is the average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period

There are many more interesting statistics.

Just like everything else in life, we want access to the latest and the most cutting-edge! But that does not indicate that we forget the old or that old is not needed anymore. Just like a traditional classroom never got replaced by elearning, blogs can't be replaced by 140-words of twitter or facebook updates.

What is happening already and is likely to happen at a much faster rate is:

• People will follow quality blogs that have something meaningful to discuss and stop reading things that don't matter. People are not as interested in posting or reading about minute-by-minute updates about personal lives.
• There will be significant advances in blogging technology that will give us applications and tools to create dynamic blogs that are more than just text. Syndication and aggregation of all 'content' will happen more seamlessly.
• Many more industry verticals will take to blogging - it won't be limited to the 'IT folks' or the politicians.
• Professional blogs and Corporate Blogging will continue to rise in the coming years. Companies will connect with their employees, investors, and customers more transparently through blogs.
• Blogs will continue to create clouds of meaningful social discussion. An inspired voice will continue to draw crowds of followers.

Blogs are here to stay. Shorter isn't always better.

Culture-Neutral Instructional Design – Fact or Fiction?

As an instructional designer and learning specialist, I like to believe that I am aware of the cultural difference between me and my intended audience. I also believe that I try my best to ensure that my training design and developed content is devoid of any cultural bias and the instructions are unambiguous.

However, can instructional design ever be culture-neutral?

The Meaning of Culture

To begin the discussion, let’s probe a little about culture and what it means. The Wikipedia definition of culture says:

“Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate") is a term that has different meanings.”

This statement is enough to let us know that the definition and understanding of culture is changing.

Culture can be defined as “the sum total of ways of living, including values, beliefs, aesthetic standards, linguistic expression, patterns of thinking, behavioural norms, and styles of communication” (Powell, 1997, p. 15).

The above statement clearly reflects that culture plays an important role in our daily lives. It is all pervasive yet not very obvious. The way we are and the way we perceive situations and react to them is a product of our culture. Culture is therefore learned behavior; it is not genetic.

The Need for Culturally-Neutral Learning
In the 21st century, all training and content providers and educational institutions want to ensure that they provide culturally-neutral learning environments. As more and more learning moves online, the audience has become global and widespread rather than local and captive. The boundaries separating cultural groups are now getting blurred. To be successful, training and content providers and educational institutions are sensitised to the impact of culture on learning.

Learning is a social phenomenon and it pervades culture. Learning is embedded in everyday situations. There is enough research to prove that learning is best achieved when it is used and applied in real-world contexts.

But as I am drawn to the paradigm – context (and not content) is king – I face these questions:
• How can I build the right context without incorporating the element of culture?
• Isn’t context culture-specific?
• Aren’t popular instructional design models themselves a product of a particular culture?
• How can I as an instructional designer be immune to the effects of culture – my culture and that of my learners?

Culture and Instructional Design
Culture not only affects how we behave and think but also how we learn. There is a growing recognition that learning strategies and tactics are influenced by culture.
According to Henderson (as cited in McLoughlin & Oliver, 2000), “Instructional design cannot and does not, exist outside of a consideration of culture”. Aspects such as the perceived role of the facilitator, usage of technology towards learning, type of assessment systems, more lectures versus more hands-on learning, various types of rewards of learning etc. are some of the factors that are deeply influenced by our culture. While we talk of inclusive design and culture-sensitive learning strategies; there isn’t enough or concrete research to help us design instruction that can help cross-cultural learners learn in ways that map to their culture, their values, beliefs and styles of learning.

Culture and learning both are evolving. There is not enough discussion about models that can help us design courses that are culturally-neutral. However, in my research, I came across one particular model proposed by Henderson. Henderson (1996) has argued that instructional design is about the creation of cultural identity and cannot be culturally neutral. Henderson proposed the multiple cultural model of instructional design. This model proposes a design approach that considers various cultural realities or zones of development. These include designing learning interventions that reflect multicultural ways of learning and teaching.

Application of Multiple Cultural Model on Instructional Design

Application of this model calls us for being culturally-sensitive and develop a global perspective about learning and teaching.

• Based on this model, we ought to adopt not one particular but multiple pedagogies that provide flexibility and a variety of learning approaches to learners based on their cultures and contexts.
• We should utilize learning and assessment strategies that can help minimize cultural misunderstandings between diverse audience groups.
• By using more constructivists’ approaches to learning, we can ensure that the learner is the centre of all learning and we offer increased flexibility and interactivity in all learning interventions.
• By becoming more aware of our own ‘implicit’ assumptions about culture and by appreciating the differences, we can design and develop learning interventions that are more culturally-sensitive.

So, can instructional design be culture-neutral? Perhaps not as much we would like it to be. But by adopting a more diverse view about learning and the differences in cultures, we can surely design and develop culturally-sensitive training that is more meaningful to our learners.

Are You a Manager by Chance or by Choice?

Are you a manager by chance or by choice?

The reason I ask this is because most managers become managers only by a matter of their vertical growth (by chance) in the organization and not necessarily because they can manage people well or that’s what they’d like to do (by choice).

I believe that most people are not prepared for the transition from managing self to managing others. Being successful as an individual is no measure of success for being successful as a manager. And I have seen several failures where the past glories and successes of individual contributors could not be replicated once they had a team to look after. It seemed as if they lost their own edge and couldn’t do a good job at getting others to perform either!

So what is it about becoming a good manager that is so illusive? Well, hardly anything! We have articles and books galore about how to become a good manager. They talk of leadership, managerial skills, trust and team-building skills, time-management skills and plenty more!

In my view, here are top 10 qualities of a good manager:

1) It is about people. People make companies not the other way around. Let no one tell you otherwise. So, effective managers focus on developing their people. Good managers know the skills and talents of their team and assign work accordingly.

2) It is about management. Good managers can’t do well if they don’t understand the business! Strong project management skills lead to an effective manager. If you have a great team but bad business – you can’t be a good manager.

3) It is about mutual respect. Good managers never flaunt their position or power to gain respect. They give respect and get it in return. Effective managers earn respect by their confidence, honesty, and skills at work.

4) It is about work ethics. Good managers have values and ethics and they live by them irrespective of the type of situation. They have high expectations from themselves and people who work with them. They are a living example to their team.

5) It is about being responsible and accountable. Good managers never shy away from taking responsibility and being accountable for their actions – no matter how good or bad. They are ready to face the consequences, accept mistakes, and learn from their actions. Their teams are able to follow the same.

6) It is about letting go. Good managers never micro-manage. They assign tasks, ensure the team has the right resources, and then let go. They delegate and they trust. And their team thrives.

7) It is about communication. Good managers know that communication is a two-way street. They are available to their team, listen openly, share information readily (not hoard it), and enable their teams to feel free to discuss any issue. They share feedback on time and expect to receive feedback from their teams too!

8) It is about thinking out-of-the-box. Good managers never shy away from processes but also don’t let processes and rules stop them from innovating. Good managers enable their teams to think creatively and are willing to take the risk.

9) It is about developing yourself. Sounds cliché – but good managers can’t develop people if they don’t focus on developing their own skills. Effective managers don’t end their learning at becoming the ‘boss’. Infact they just about start it there.

10) It is about still being friendly. Good managers don’t stop being friends just because they are the boss now. Instead, they are able to maintain a professional relationship at work without destroying their personal relationships. They are direct and never ‘use’ their friendships to get ahead.


Good managers are not born. They are made. And they are made by years of experience including both success and failures. Just remember to practice being a good manager, prepare yourself for the role, and don’t be like the boss you always disliked!