Blogs

Links to Educational Blogs:

[|Cybrary Man's Top Educational Blogs]

[|Favorite Educations Blogs]

=Top 100 Education Blogs= from: http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-education-blogs

Published on Wednesday 20th of December, 2006 Education blogs are becoming a means for educators, students, and education administrators to interact more effectively than ever before. [|Technorati] currently tracks [|63.1 million blogs]. [|Over 5,000 of them] are about education.

(**UPDATE:** There are over 30,000 blogs hosted at [|edublogs.org] alone. Thanks James Farmer!) Here is a list of our staff's 100 favorites. Please note that this is by no means an exhaustive list of all of the great education blogs out there. Chances are you may have favorites that are not included here. Also note that this list is not ranked but rather is ordered alphabetically within each topic.

E-Learning
Technology-assisted learning and [|online learning] are topics discussed in these blogs.
 * 1) [|Clive on Learning]
 * 2) [|Connectivism]
 * 3) [|Digital Chalkie]
 * 4) [|Internet Time Blog]
 * 5) [|elearnspace]
 * 6) [|E-Learning Queen]
 * 7) [|Learning and Technology]
 * 8) [|Moving at the Speed of Creativity]
 * 9) [|Stephen's Web]
 * 10) [|The Knowledge Tree]
 * 11) [|XplanaZine]

Education News
These two blogs are good starting points to read more about the latest news in the world of education.
 * 1) [|Eduwonk]
 * 2) [|This Week in Education]

Education Policy
These are blogs written by activists who are looking to reform our school system or just education in general.
 * 1) [|Change Agency]
 * 2) [|D-Ed Reckoning]
 * 3) [|Education in Texas]
 * 4) [|Education Intelligence Agency]
 * 5) [|Jenny D.]
 * 6) [|Practical Theory]
 * 7) [|Schools Matter]

Internet Culture
Internet applications, such as RSS and blogs, and how they can be applied in a teaching/learning environment are discussed in these blogs.
 * 1) [|absolutely intercultural]
 * 2) [|Adventures in Educational Blogging]
 * 3) [|BionicTeacher]
 * 4) [|Digital Writing, Digital Teaching]
 * 5) [|Full Circle Online Interaction Blog]
 * 6) [|Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech]
 * 7) [|Infinite Thinking Machine]
 * 8) [|learning.now]
 * 9) [|Learn Online]

Learning
The focus of these blogs is on learning theory, informal learning, and knowledge.
 * 1) [|2 Cents Worth]
 * 2) [|abject learning]
 * 3) [|Informal Learning Blog]
 * 4) [|Learning Curves]
 * 5) [|Learnlets]
 * 6) [|McGee's Musings]
 * 7) [|Random Walk in Learning]
 * 8) [|The Stingy Scholar]

Library and Research
These are research-based blogs, some of which are library-based or written by librarians.
 * 1) [|David Lee King]
 * 2) [|Deep Thinking]
 * 3) [|Dissertation Research]
 * 4) [|Free Range Librarian]
 * 5) [|heyjude]
 * 6) [|ideant]
 * 7) [|Information Wants To Be Free]
 * 8) [|InfoSciPhi]
 * 9) [|librarian.net]
 * 10) [|librariesinteract.info]
 * 11) [|LibraryBytes]
 * 12) [|Library Stuff]
 * 13) [|LSJ Editors' Blog]
 * 14) [|Panlibus]
 * 15) [|Rambling Librarian]
 * 16) [|Research Buzz]
 * 17) [|Resource Shelf]
 * 18) [|STLQ]
 * 19) [|Tasty Research]

Specialty
[|Music], history, science, and [|law] are discussed at these blogs, respectively.
 * 1) [|Catalysts & Connections]
 * 2) [|History Is Elementary]
 * 3) [|Polar Science 2006]
 * 4) [|WisBlawg]

Teaching
The following blogs deal with issues facing teachers, including teaching methods, lesson plans, aids, and tools.
 * 1) [|A Difference]
 * 2) [|Are We Doing Anything Today?]
 * 3) [|Artichoke]
 * 4) [|blog of proximal development]
 * 5) [|Borderland]
 * 6) [|Bud the Teacher]
 * 7) [|Christopher D. Sessums Blog]
 * 8) [|Cool Cat Teacher Blog]
 * 9) [|FunnyMonkey]
 * 10) [|Infocult: Information, Culture, Policy, Education]
 * 11) [|NYC Educator]
 * 12) [|Teachers Teaching Teachers]
 * 13) [|Teaching Hacks.com]
 * 14) [|Teaching Generation Z]
 * 15) [|teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk]
 * 16) [|The Open Classroom]

Technology
Bringing technology to the classroom and using technology to learn and teach are topics discussed within these blogs.
 * 1) [|A Teacher's Life]
 * 2) [|Around the Corner v2]
 * 3) [|Beth's Thoughts on Technology in the Classroom]
 * 4) [|bgblogging]
 * 5) [|Bionic Teaching]
 * 6) [|Blogging IT and EDucation]
 * 7) [|CogDogBlog]
 * 8) [|Dangerously Irrelevant]
 * 9) [|Derek's Blog]
 * 10) [|Ed-Tech Insider]
 * 11) [|EdCompBlog]
 * 12) [|edtechNOT.com Blog]
 * 13) [|EdTechPost]
 * 14) [|EduBlog Insights]
 * 15) [|Education/Technology]
 * 16) [|Infomancy]
 * 17) [|Remote Access]
 * 18) [|Teach42]
 * 19) [|Techlearning Blog]
 * 20) [|The Tech Savvy Educator]
 * 21) [|The Thinking Stick]
 * 22) [|Weblogg-ed]

This Wiki was inspired by a blog post at [|LANGWITCHES].

So going back to asking myself “Why do some teachers take the time to grow while others are content or don’t see the reason behind changing?” spins off immediately many other questions: What struck a cord with me while listening to Vicki and Julie’s presentation? As a professional and a learner yourself, you can’t afford to be stagnant. Monitor what is happening in the educational arena: Be engaged and get involved by not letting the action pass you by: In my opinion, students will only be as engaged and as enthusiastic as their teacher is. When the teacher spreads a feeling: “I don’t have time for this”, “Let’s get this over with” or “I don’t really get this”, their class picks up on these vibes. If the teacher is not engaged and invested in the lesson, the students won’t be either. If a teacher goes through the motion of asking students to comment on a class blog, but does not monitor their responses, what kind of learning took place?
 * Food for Thought**
 * 1) Why do we ban tools in schools?
 * 2) Let’s not “punish” the tool, but deal with the bad behavior that uses the tool
 * 3) Connecting yourself to a PLN (Personal Learning Network)
 * 4) The role of digital citizenship in schools
 * 5) Digital Pedagogy
 * 6) Communication
 * 7) Collaboration
 * 8) Content Creation
 * 9) Student Leadership
 * 10) Being a DigiTeacher
 * 11) Research Technology and connect yourself
 * 12) Monitor and be engaged
 * 13) Avoid the Fear Factor- Make a Difference
 * 14) The role of educational networks at school
 * 15) Changing role of outside experts in schools
 * 16) Changing role of peer review in schools
 * 17) Improving collaborative creativity in school
 * 18) Students with different learning styles
 * 19) Students have a “whole” brain, not half a brain (ref. to Daniel Pink’s //A Whole New Mind//)
 * 20) Students want to create, connect, invent. Our future is designing “If we have our kids just memorizing, we are missing the point”!!!!
 * 21) Ex. Kids teaching Kids Model: Mathtrain Project: Empowering Students Through Screencasting.
 * 22) New tools on the Horizon
 * 23) Professional Development becomes embedded it what we do
 * 24) Research that is relevant
 * 25) Making IT work
 * Time to Think**
 * 1) Finding the time to grow-
 * 2) Small steps with small chunks of time to get you moving forward, stopping to rest, looking back on what you have achieved.
 * 3) 10 minutes a day to start
 * Encouragement**
 * Persist and laugh sometime
 * Mentorship**
 * Build your circle of wise
 * Goal Setting**
 * What traits does a teacher have, that seems to “get it”?
 * Why are some teachers starting to embrace technology integration in their classrooms while others still cannot seem to “get off the ground”?
 * Why does one lesson, planned together with all teachers of a grade level, work like magic with one class while another completely flops leaving students uninterested or with nothing to take away?
 * Why do some teachers still think that asking their students to type up a paragraph in Word means “technology integration”, while others allow their students to learn to express themselves and communicate in many different media?
 * Monitor and be engaged as a professional and learner yourself!**
 * read journals
 * attend conferences
 * participate in social network places geared towards educators
 * listen to podcasts
 * participate in the conversation by reading and commenting on blogs
 * listen in on micro conversation on Twitter
 * start your own blog
 * get a twitter account
 * connect yourself with colleagues from around the world
 * collaborate with other teachers
 * share and mentor in your own building, community, state
 * Monitor and be engaged with your students!**