November 20, 2008
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Best of the Education Blogs Easy to Find Online
By Elaine Larson, AIT’s Director of Education
The Pew Internet study estimates that about 11%, or about 50 million, of Internet users are regular blog readers. According to Technorati data, there are about 70,000 new blogs a day. Bloggers—people who write Weblogs—update their Weblogs regularly; there are about 700,000 posts daily, or about 29,100 blog updates an hour.
Weblogs dedicated to education and technology for teaching are proliferating, and there are scores of outstanding blogs. If you haven’t entered this blogging realm yet, grab a cup of coffee and dive in. Some recent “finds” in this trend are described here. These blogs provide opportunities for discussion of issues, compiling of news about education trends, links to a wealth of valuable Web resources, and practical ideas for teaching. Topics are far ranging—from education in general to the use of blogs themselves as teaching tools.
A note on the evaluation of education blogs: As with all other resources, especially new Web resources and innovations, blogs should be read with a critical eye. Some highly regarded education blogs are cited below—blogs that win awards, are authored by educators with outstanding credentials, and get cited positively by those “in the know.” But blogs are mostly still opinion pieces. The democratic nature of blogging, however, is that every post by the blog author is open for discussion. Sometimes that discussion challenges the opinions of the author; sometimes it affirms them. At the very least, education blogs foster the sort of open discussion of education issues that educators agree is essential. This is probably the best outcome of the blogging experience.
Before that, however, we offer some basic information about Weblogs—the “what” and “how” of them. Although this information isn’t new, it’s still current and relevant to blogging today.
The Art of Blogging—Part 1
Overview, Definitions, Uses, and Implications
By George Siemens, found at eLearnSpace
The Art of Blogging—Part 2
Getting Started, "How To," Tools, Resources
By George Siemens, also found at eLearnSpace
eSchool News Online’s Ed-Tech Insider
The eSchool News staff felt it was so important for educators to have an online space that constantly examines the integration of technology into school management and curricula that they created an online community devoted to discussion of technology solutions for the daily challenges educators face.As they say, “You don’t have to be an expert to be part of the eSN Ed-Tech Insider, and we look forward your participation. Only you can share real-life experiences that could go so far toward helping a colleague faced with a similar dilemma. This is a two-way street, and we’re confident you’ll take advantage of it, because if educators can’t engage in a lively and free exchange of ideas, then who can?
“Blogs, as they are called, are one of the fastest-growing aspects of online communication and are expected to have a big future in schools. So it’s only appropriate that in addition to offering valuable advice, the Ed-Tech Insider gives educators the chance to experience a blogging environment first-hand.”
Check out the site’s Teacher Toolbox (see “Categories,” in left-hand margin of main page) with links to these sections:
Education Week’s online magazine has a blog section—“In Other News”—that collects recent online stories related to various education issues and asks for reader feedback through discussion.
And, Ed Week’s Teacher Magazine (online) features “what’s new and noteworthy” in educator blogs.
Weblogg-ed—The Read/Write Web in the Classroom
One cannot talk about education blogs without highlighting Weblogg-ed—the highly regarded, always interesting, sometimes controversial blog from Will Richardson. Nominated for a 2005 International Edublog Award, Richardson’s site, like most other blogs, is a combination of his own personal ideas and thoughts on a variety of education topics and a compilation of posts from other ed blogs. Richardson is especially conversant in the use of blogging and other communication technology in the classroom.
According to Richardson, Weblogg-ed is “…All about the use of blogs, wikis, podcasts and other Read/Write technologies in the K–12 classroom. Focused on practice, not politics.”
The popularity of Richardson’s blog is apparent by the fact that 636 other Web sites link to it, a mark of success in the online world. This statistic is compiled by Technorati, a site that aggregates stats on links to Weblogs. (See “About Technorati.”)
All Weblogs, including education blogs, will link to a myriad of other interesting and valuable blogs. In fact, the linking can go on ad infinitum, and no one has time to read them all. However, starting with some of the most well-known and respected blogs can be a wise use of time when beginning to dig into this communication venue.
Kairosnews is “an open community of members interested in the intersections of rhetoric, technology and pedagogy.” Visitors can access the usual blog content, including reading news gathered from other sites by the Kairosnews aggregator, and joining in the many discussions by posting comments. But you can also create an account that allows you to be a site author and post a blog. Members can also subscribe to a daily email newsletter of updated site content.
In bbblogging Barbara Ganley reflects on “…my teaching-with-technology journey and my evolution as a user of New Media in the writing classroom as I try to keep up with developments in the field and entice peers into discussions with me about their experiences with blogs, digital media and all manner of emerging tools and applications.” She was nominated for a 2005 International Edublog Award “…alongside some of my heroes and mentors in this work, including Will Richardson, Stephen Downes, Adrian Miles, Dave Warlick, and George Siemens among many others.”
Ganley’s September 24 post, titled “Parallel, Transparent & Collaborative Blogging in the Liberal Arts Classroom: First-years, Juniors, and A Teacher,” is an example of a typical edblog post and also a statement on the power of blogging as a teaching tool.
“If we want to encourage our students to use blogging as a powerful communication tool, we have to teach them the difference between blogging as daily diary, and blogging as a way to dig deep into ideas and to grow communities of discourse, of knowledge and of action. So, of course it isn’t simply a matter of handing blogs to students as they enter our institutions and saying, go ahead, write; you have to give students a chance to grow in this work within a learning community—the new wall-less classroom—and then turn them loose to develop their own blogging practices within a supported framework. The institution and its faculty must mentor and model this practice of reaching out in the world to discuss and share ideas, ask questions, and work collaboratively. In other words, it is in the second-wave blogging, the blogging that my juniors are doing out in the world as a way to express, explore and understand the world in which they have been thrust that will teach them huge lessons about the role of communication, of technology, of community in bringing about change in this stumbling world.”
End Note
One could go on forever with examples of the education blog trend, but every blog described above provides plenty of links—enough to more than fill any educator’s limited time. It is worth some of that time, however, to take a look at education blogs; to find what might be useful in them, to evaluate the usefulness of this tool for the classroom, and to just plain enjoy the experience.
Contact Elaine Larson at elarson@ait.net.