To begin, here is a link to a listing of blogs. These focus on educational technology, inspiration and will help you stay informed.
In replies to this posting, I have highlighted my 5 favorite sites and have reviewed them, as well as providing Tips for the New Blogger, for your reading enjoyment. :-) Hint: Click on this posting's title "Blogs for Everyone!", and scroll down to immediately see them!
You may certainly reply to any of them, letting me know your comments and possibly share one of your favorite blogs for education professionals!
Mark
CoolCat Teacher Blog
ReplyDeletehttp://www.coolcatteacher.com/
CoolCat Teaching is the personal blog of Vicki Davis, a full time teacher and IT Director for a school in Georgia. Her guiding focus is to help all teachers become better; stay motivated and how to collaborate with others. She is an avid reader and writer, so many of her blog postings focus on how to encourage students to be better in these areas. She posts regularly. 4-6 times a week seems typical and her following is quite dedicated, with many shares and likes for her postings, and she has a total reach of over 239,000 viewers.
As I mentioned, Davis helps teachers help students learn. This may be articles for using social media tools, such as Padlet, to offering articles and hints on reducing teacher stress in the classroom. Featured in a category called Easy Classroom, where classroom techniques are shared, an article entitled Brain Breaks is very interesting. It suggests giving students a break during the day to help keep them fresh. The article is by teacher Rob Donatelli and he offers 5 uses for these breaks.
The audience for CoolCat Teacher Blog is quite involved in replying to postings. They are quite timely, with some being only minutes after the post is published. Comments range from praise to questions being asked, but it seems the majority is anecdotal and offer kudos to the author.
In my opinion, the audience acceptance of Ms. Davis' content helps to show the credibility of this blog. The blog has been in existence since 2005, and longevity does help to denote credibility. Her blog has also been featured in articles published by Forbes, The Washington Post, NPR and The New York Times.
The content of any web site is a direct reflection of the site owner or blogger. If you do not offer sound, factual, and credible information, harm comes to the reputation and that will spread like wildfire on today's Web. Reader's comments also reflect how reputable a site is. If they are constantly correcting the information offered, that can indicate poor offerings. Reputable sites seem to have readers comment in a collaborative manner, indicating they are accepting of this site.
Class Tech Tips
ReplyDeletehttp://classtechtips.com/
Class Tech Tips is a website with attached Blog. Dr. Monica Burns features her consulting company, EdTech, on the site and the blog. As a consultant, Dr. Burns' mission is to place the tasks of teaching before the technology and then promote deeper learning using technology. The blog began in 2012 and now has about 171 pages of postings. The postings are quite regular (from Dr. Burns), sometimes daily.
The content of the blog varies greatly, but is focused on helping the teacher in the classroom with new ideas, using technology efficiently and in a manner that enhances the student's learning. Postings contain key words, showing the focus of the posting. For instance, a company called Nearpod, offers ready to teach lessons that utilize Apple iPod and iPhone apps, primarily in reading and writing.
Reader engagement is little, on the blog. After reviewing a number of postings, I find that there are no reader comments in many of them. It seems that Class Tech Tips is very active on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, with over 5000 followers and many Likes for each social media tool.
This blog seems to be more a bulletin board of article postings. While this is not negative, I am surprised that readers have not reviewed or commented on most of the offerings. I do not believe this affects the credibility and reliability of the blog, but it does cause readers to visit other social media to be able to learn what others feel about the site's offerings, and I find this an inconvenience.
edshelf – Find the right educational tools for your needs.
ReplyDeletehttps://edshelf.com/
Edshelf is a collection of websites, mobile apps, programs and products for teachers, teaching and learning. You are able to search for tools by type or keyword, or you may browse freely. There are featured tools and "shelves," which are categories and have collections of appropriate apps available. One app, Super Teacher Tools, is an application that allows teachers in K-12 curriculum to help manage the classroom, such as seating charts and study groups. It also has a quiz creator that is a drag/drop for the answer and is timed. Within the Classroom Tech Tool shelf are tools such as diagram creators, screen capture tools, a tool to create formative assessments and an app for TIME for Kids, the News app.
By looking at the statistic numbers on each of the application offerings, it seems there is a good amount of activity with downloads and followers for each. What seems to be lacking are feedback comments, which I find interesting with educators being the primary audience. Most comments offered are brief in regard to whether the reader liked the tools available.
From the standpoint of a blog, this site is more a downloadable collection of some very interesting and useful tools. The conversational and collaborative aspect of a blog is not visible really. I do not think that affects the credibility of the site, or what they offer, but it certainly is not a location I would post a question in general.
Lisa Nielsen – The Innovative Educator
ReplyDeletehttps://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/
The Innovative Educator began in 2008 with Lisa Nielsen at the helm. Her school experiences left her bored and feeling the work was irrelevant. She developed her blog to help change that for educators. The blog has over 25,000 followers, with 5,000 daily view and 150,000 views on an average month. Lisa's blog is also recognized as a member of the Top 100 Education blogs, by Teach.com.
Articles cover a range of topics, such as how to be an effective blog user, formative assessment tools for the classroom, to useful literacy resources. These are geared towards educational professionals but not out of the question for student interest or researching. One article that grabbed me was how teachers can enhance the class visit to the museum. By creating a Podcast, curate the student's visit to the museum by selecting a few items about which to speak. Have students do the same, as though they were reporters, and then enjoy them as a class after the trip has concluded. This provides big picture of the visit.
The visitor engagement is quite good, as evidenced by the statistics previously mentioned. Comments are quite regular and participants offer reviews of articles and introduce their own ideas. I feel this is a credible blog for educators. Timely topics are discussed and Ms. Nielsen does also offer references for further information. Due to its popularity, I find the reputation of The Innovative Educator to be very good, which is also supported by the popularity of this site and the following Lisa Nielsen has on Facebook and Twitter.
Principals Page
ReplyDeletehttp://www.principalspage.com/theblog/
School administrators can benefit from this site! Michael Smith, superintendent of schools in Tuscola, IL began the blog to allow administrators from all corners of education to collaborate and share hints, opinions and stories. The Principles page offers articles and published papers as well as an active blog. Mr. Smith publishes articles, scenarios and resources quite frequently and readers are quite active with their replies. Readers share experiences and anecdotes about the topic. Some are asking questions, while others provide answers. Articles and topics such as "Not every bad behavior is bullying" and "Cell phone contracts. Do this for your child," are examples of situations in the classroom or at home, where students can be assisted.
Because of the reader's collaborative discussions about the presented topics, I feel that the site is credible to the point that everyone must determine if any advice given is suitable for their specific situation. I do not see where any of the replies that I have read indicate any outlandish or malicious advice. All participants seem genuinely interested in helping or in seeking advice.
Hints for the New Blogger!
ReplyDeleteWhen you realize that you would like to use blogs for information on any chosen topic, the first item you must keep in the forefront of your thoughts is "is this a credible place to take advice from?" While not all blogs are personal social media sites for keeping one's personal journal, many are and there are many self-proclaimed experts, more than willing to share their opinion with you, and many sound quite believable!
After you have narrowed down your area(s) of interest, it is as easy as performing a Web search (Google, DuckDuckGo, bing, Yahoo! and so forth) for that type of blog. For instance, one might be interested in cooking Asian food, so a search such as "Asian cooking blogs" can be used. In this example, Google returned over 18 million hits, but I would say the first 10 pages of listing is sufficient for you to find something that might be of interest.
Once you have a selected blog, get in and see what is of interest, read the visitor's replies and begin interacting if that is warranted. Typically, you can subscribe to the blog as well and receive emails of new postings, or subscribe to the RSS feed (if available) and have a 'newsfeed' of activity. It can take a bit of time to familiarize you with any given blog, but rest assured, they are all about the same in functionality.
As an active participant, there are certain to-do's to keep in mind. This gives your postings a professional look, enhances your credibility and will spawn more replies to your comments. These items include proper spelling and grammar, short and concise postings, useful images, and engages readers by asking questions.
Above all, have fun and enjoy the collaboration, social learning experience and camaraderie of the blog.