My (Current) 19 Favorite Education Blogs

I read a lot of education blogs. And from all corners of the ed spectrum, both in terms of policy and instruction. Here's a list of the folks currently topping my blogroll; these are the ones I make sure to keep abreast of post-by-post.

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1. Andrew B. Watt's Blog: Watt is the Jon Krakauer of the new paradigm in education. He's a writer who sees both the beauty and the danger inherent in our expedition into the digital mountain ranges. He's honest and and critical and he writes about this stuff with a poet's knack for succinct detail. Strongly recommended.

2. Free Technology for Teachers: Byrne publishes a mind-numbing plethora of tools for teachers on a daily basis. Here's a recent -- and representative -- highlight entitled 'Beyond Google'.

3. Moving at the Speed of Creativity: Wes Fryer's work is always a substantive treat. His recent posts from China have been eye opening; especially his recent post concerning proxies and web filtering on the Mainland.

4. Dangerously Irrelevant: One of the standards by which a blog should be measured is the extent to which it galvanizes conversation among its readership. With his merging of singularity theory and ed leadership, McLeod never fails to catalyze discussion.

5. Sustainably Digital: This is a new blog that I've been following ever since reading a great post there on Super Mario and the Scientific Method. Good stuff; will be following this one with much interest.

6. Concrete Classroom: Michael Kaechele never fails to prove that a true teacher is always an artist of learning. Check out his students' recent work with Lego Robots.

7. Open Thinking: Alec Couros' blog is where I go when I'm itching for new ideas. And, we once had a Twitter conversation where somehow we (or at least I) confirmed that the future of education had something to do with Holodecks. How cool.

8. Ideas and Thoughts: Shareski is a generous blogger. His posts, Tweets, ideas, and thoughts have kept me up way too late on way too many nights thinking about the present and the future of education.

9. elearnspace: With Siemens, it's all about the links -- nuggets of information for your perusal and debate. An elegant blog.

10. Digital Education: Where Ash and Manzo demonstrate that mainstream ed journalism ain't all bad.

11. Magistra's Musings: I'm sure I'm not the only educator who really came to realize the power of Twitter through Mahoney's work; and with the wiki she's created to help teachers harness the power of a Twitter network, I doubt I'll be the last.

12. The Fischbowl: Fisch is a legend. Perhaps you knew.

13. SpeEdChange: From the 'constantly challenging your preconceptions' department, Socol is probably my favorite blogger. His recent work on Twitter as Liberation Tool should be required reading in every ed school in this country.

14. Nashworld: Nash is a one-man instructional make-over machine. Check out his 'Four Pillars of Technology Integration'.

15. 21st Century Learning: Nussbaum-Beach is an ed blogger always bringing provocative ideas to the table. Her recent post on Digital Education and the 'Fabric' of Community is one such post -- full of important questions.

16. EducationalInsanity: Somebody, please tell Jon Becker to blog more.

17. The Edublogger: Sue Waters regularly posts on issues specifically related to the concerns of blogging educators. Great information from a great educator.

18. Weblogg-ed: Often stunning posts by Richardson. Definitely a source of frustration in the ed tech community is the fact that we can't force Will to blog several times a day.

19. Design 4 Learning: When a guy who writes a post like this calls you an educational anarchist, you know you're doing something right! [BTW, originally this was a list of '18', but I thought you all needed a little something 'extra' in your lives... enter Dean Groom.]

This list is in no way meant to be inclusive of all that's out there. As I said, there are a bunch of blogs I read that I don't mention here. But as for what's been topping my blogroll recently, this is it.

Please do subscribe to these, and please leave ideas for blogs I should be checking out!

One End Result: an example of a student translation via a Tweet test and thoughts about the nature of what a blog means in terms of end-of-year review

Here's an example of the final result of one student's translation from the Twitter-enhanced Latin test. Not too shabby for a Latin II student.

This is the first of two paragraphs... my comments back to the student are in brackets; I post my edit as a comment to the student's blog post and then record the grade in my PowerGrade online gradebook.

No paper.

LATIN:
His rebus adducti et auctoritate Orgetorigis permoti constituerunt ea quae ad proficiscendum pertinerent comparare, iumentorum et carrorum quam maximum numerum coemere, sementes quam maximas facere, ut in itinere copia frumenti suppeteret, cum proximis civitatibus pacem et amicitiam confirmare. Ad eas res conficiendas biennium sibi satis esse duxerunt; in tertium annum profectionem lege confirmant. Ad eas res conficiendas Orgetorix deligitur. Is sibi legationem ad civitates suscipit.


ENGLISH:
Persuaded [you got the participles; good job!] by these events and moved deeply by the clout/authority [good -- 'clout' is really the sense of 'auctoritas', though it is often translated as 'authority'] of Orgetorix, they prepared to gather what they needed to be sent out onto the field [they began gathering the things they'd need], to buy the greatest number of mules and carts [in English you can render better by putting -ing on that infinitive: 'buying as many mules and carts as possible'], to do a large amount of planting ['facere' has a broad semantic range: try 'sowing' (think about using an English word that describes better the 'making/doing' being expressed in 'facere')], in order to have enough/sufficient supplies for their journey, and to confirm peace and an alliance with the citizens [in this context, likely 'tribes'] close by. Two years was enough for these things to be led [I'd like you to reconstrue this sentence -- let's go over in class]; in the third year, they confirmed their motion of departure [lege -- 'by law' or 'by decree']. Orgetorix was chosen [nice, you got the passive correct] to prepare these things. He undertook the mission of the citizens upon himself. [Again, bring this up in class; we'll reconstrue together]

In addition, by blogging all of this, the student gets to keep a record of the Tweet-transcript, the final draft, my edits, and the grade on the assessment.

Come preparation for the final exam, the student will be able to go over a record of everything done in class by reviewing the blog. This is beneficial in two ways: first, there is no need for me to reinvent the wheel and handout end-of-the-year review sheets because, in effect, the students have been creating their own reviews throughout the year on their blogs. Second, rather than get a review sheet that reads like a page from a textbook, the students are actually able to review from their own work and work they've collaborated on with fellow students. The result is that student draw not just on prior knowledge, but on prior experience.

The blog itself is essentially a record of experiences interacting with the content of the course.

TechCrunch

Added TechCrunch to my Tech Blogs blogroll after reading back-to-back funny posts. The first about Andrew Keen's terror in the face of the possibility that Web 2.0 might not be about profitability; the second about the spot on the soul of Apple: the Mighty Mouse.

Good stuff.

Examples of Student Blogs

I've added a few examples of 'student paperless-ness' to the sidebar here on the TeachPaperless site.

Included are clips from a paperless term paper as well as student blogs and projects. I left them in micro-versions just to give you an idea of some of the things you can do with blogs. Experiment widely with your own class blogs and tell me what sorts of things you've come up with.

What About Digital Plagiarism?

A reader writes:

I am very wary of turning in essays on a blog, simply because there is so much plagiarism going around. It would both put hundreds of essays out there, for students to copy, and for students to submit via copy/paste. Granted, it's not difficult to plagiarize on paper, but with paper, there is no option to "delete entry." The evidence is there, turned in by the hands of the students.

I've actually caught more cases of plagiarism since going paperless. Every now and then, I take classtime with my students to run Google checks on anonymous blogged essays their peers have turned in. Inevitably, we find copied work. Rather than bust students and deal with it in the standard disciplinary way in the event we do discover fault, I use it as a means to show them how easy it is to discover plagiarism in the digital world. The kids learn quick and I've never had to do this more than once with any class to completely discourage digital copying. It's actually quite a bit more difficult to do that with just paper.

And as for the concern over "delete entry"... let's just say that few things you ever write online actually disappear. And if it's a blog, and you've subscribed to it, you actually get sent a copy directly to your inbox or newsreader. The writer can't take it away from you.

With paper, there are no accusations that the teacher may have manipulated the essay, through a word processing program.

Most blogging apps leave a time-stamp and author signature on the post. Consider that one safe-guard to any accusations. It's got the student's name on it and it's got the exact time and date that they posted it. Just refuse to accept any work that's not posted with a time-stamp.

Easy.

Video: Link Building Top Secrets

By Luis Galarza - Internet Marketing And Make Money Online Tips.

This Video Shows The Simple Mix Of Web 2.0 Marketing And Link Building That Can Power Your SEO Efforts!

Remember that content is design to retain and build a loyal readers, and link building is what shows the search engines how important your website or blog really is, the more one way links means better search ranking and higher position on natural search results. Many marketers try to tell you that most of this basic strategies are top secrets, when the fact is that every online marketer beginners and advanced need to know the basics about SEO (search engine optimization) that will help you start tuning your site to gain better ranking that will increase your web traffic.

Traffic is very important, the one that is targeted, but don't forget that you need to have a website with relevant quality content that's original, your site needs to be easy to use, and your sales copy need to turn your visitors into leads, and then with good communication you can turn them into loyal customers.

Here a video that combines web 2.0 tools like Squidoo, Hubpages, and blogs to build a targeted list of back links, not just to your homepage, but to your sub-pages as well.



I hope you link the video. It doesn't matter how many lens, or content sites you create to build link backs, you need to provide quality unique content on each of this sites, for the strategy to work.


Recommended Resources.

- Bebiz: Niche Internet Business Builder. New.
- Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business Online. New Version.


To learn how you can be part of an online association full with Internet business experts and advisers for less than 4 dollars, visit the Internet Entrepreneurs Club.


In Conclusion: Make sure you build as many Squidoo lens, Hubpages, and write a lot of blog posts, to help you gain the most from your link building marketing campaign.

To your success,

Luis Galarza, Internet Marketing Consultant Massachusetts.

A proud member of
- The International Association of Home Business Entrepreneurs
.

Introducing Google Innovation Blog

Check out my new Blog dedicated to Innovations at Google:

http://googleinnovation.blogspot.com

Google Innovation

Google Innovation Blog contains the latest:

News, Reviews, Articles, Case studies, Best practices, Insights, Ideas, Success stories, Blogs and more about Innovations at Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)

I am planning to incorporate the latest technology, business model, partnerships and software advances at Google as they are announced, and provide my review and analysis on the same. What insights can be gained from these new innovations? How successful will these innovations be in the marketplace? The Blog articles and posts will be as I see it, my opinion, my analysis, my thoughts on how Google is shaping new innovations and bringing them to the marketplace. There will be the occasional interviews with the innovators and product champions at Google. I also plan to include some of the best materials found on the web and the blogosphere on everything to do with Google innovations. Some of the pertinent blog posts on Google Innovation will find their way to the Creativity and Innovation Driving Business Blog.

For instance, in my latest blog post:

Google Trends: Everything Out in the Open, Move Over Zeitgeist

Bottomline:

Google Trends and Hot Trends are definitely Hot! It not only gives you a pulse on the latest happenings online as seen by Google Search, but also gives you comparisons on two or more trends over the time frame of your choice: today, yesterday, or any given day. Now if only Google can tell us what will be Hot tomorrow!! Move over Zeitgeist.

Google's New Search - Step in the right direction - Still some ways to go

Bottomline:

Google's new search technology is an early effort towards making searching for information better. Google has the right vision of integrating the search across various dimensions of Web, Images, Video, Products, etc. and providing comprehensive results. However, implementing this algorithm for new search, producing the results in parallel, and showing the results in a visually appealing and contextually easy-to-understand manner is going to be key as Google moves forward. Google may also be faced with the problem of what a majority of the user population may be seeking: a simpler answer to their search query. The more sophisticated users may appreciate the comprehensive answer that Google will provide. How would Google know whether the user is a layman user or a sophisticated user? One thing is certain though: Google has the ability to mine the world's information and present it in a contextual setting that is relevant to the user. Google just needs to make sure that in creating a new search, it does not make it confusing for the end user, as this would be huge step backward.

Google to create new R&D Center in South India

Bottomline:

Google is poised to expand its base in India with this new R & D center that can house up to 4,000 engineers. Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh in South India wins the nod from Google, partly because Google has already a 1,000 person engineering and services operation for the online sales running quite smoothly; however, when you have the chief minister of Andhra and his team wooing you to do more with all the incentives, it would have been very hard for Google to say no. Timing is everything. Don't be surprised if by the end of 2010, Google has a four thousand people strong R & D center in South India with plans to make it a ten thousand employee organization across all of India based on the kind of growth Google is seeing and its position as one of the top innovators of the world.

I invite you to explore the Google Innovation Blog, and provide me your valuable comments and feedback.

Here's to blogging on Google Innovation.

References:

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is one of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index.