Collected+Blog+Sites

TODD
[] A review of free technology resources and how teachers can use them. Ideas for technology integration in education. Most of these things I am not sure how to use yet, but some interesting things about visual vocabulary for students, contests and an educational technology link.

[] this is a blog written by a teacher with links to the best educational blogging site and many more. It looks like a K-college site, variety of subjects/content area. Useful for sparking some projects for your class.

[] a Kansas State University working group led by Dr. Michael Wesch dedicated to exploring and extending the possibilities of digital ethnography. This looks at technology through the lenses of anthropology. For me, some rather disturbing stuff is going on and being “shared”. Worth a look to see what is being done with technology and the social responses to it. Graphic language.

“…if you do not grab my attention with your message, a tease of what I will get, at an in-person conference, I am heads down in my laptop doing other things. I’m in mail, twitter, getting my boarding pass, buying music…. In an online conference, I am in the other room barfing, getting coffee, or in another desktop window, or just exiting the conference software. I am gone.” -Alan Levine, [] I didn’t have to go far to find Adam Levine’s blog. I found it mentioned right on the My YC portal, though under the Faculty Tab. This quote comes from his rant on presentations which he feels are often more about the speakers than about the subject or the listener. He argues for new ways to present material, getting the meat out early and addressing the “What’s in it for me” stuff right up front, rather than wasting the listener’s time with credentials, personal history, family photos etc. His blog has entries from George Siemens (and links to his blog), one of the authors of the Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning. Personally I like his laid back, humorous approach. Also I noticed a lot of typos, which I actually didn’t mind so much. Instead I felt like I was reading a letter he wrote to me, rather than an article. This blog feels down to earth and personal. Lots of personality here. A Lot of great ideas about ways to use blogs. [Too much to mention…How many tabs can one have open on their browser at one time anyway?] Here is the link to Alan’s blogroll. A wealth of blogs listed by subject. I have barely scratched the surface of this list or this man’s blog! []

Digital Inspiration A blog by a “professional blogger.” Interesting links to examples of blogging techniques and lots of information on the industry. The more I dig around in here though, the more I realize this is a great big world and one should start with baby steps. This is some advanced stuff that leaves me feeling a little small. []

Funny thing is I found this blog sitting on my coffee table. The Chronicle of Higher Education is the source of an article I have been reflecting on. The article, on the use of micro lectures, recorded and then used in places like blackboard, appeared in Educator Update, The National Association of Emergency Medical Services Educators, Spring 2009. I like this blog a lot, although, as with all the others, I have only begun to dig through the content. I really like this blog. [|http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/] The first educational blog that I use on a daily basis is The Chronicle of Higher Education ([] is today’s link). Of course, until I took this class, I didn’t realize that it was a blog (I thought it was an online newspaper) but there are interactive portions (never noticed the word “Blog” on them!) and I have commented on there. So, I was blogging unknowingly! This is a great way to stay current on the happenings in higher education, statistics, reporting, best practices, policy, legislative and budget info, as well as hiring practices in the field. You can sign up to get daily e-mail links to the day’s info with blogs, links, video & audio components, or you can sign up for an RSS feed.

Finding additional blogs worth talking about was time consuming for me, because many I looked at seemed like they were just personal diaries of people who don’t have enough to do and therefore, not relevant to me or worth sharing. The second blog I reviewed was somewhat of an accidental find through Google. It is [] and is the journey of another person getting the same degree I am pursuing, through the same university, also working full-time, and the same age – she even saw the same movie that I did last week and had the same thoughts. I found this both spooky and exhilarating that I may have found a person that I can connect to about our online PhD process. So, I’ll consider this one to be a personal interest blog discovery, with an educational purpose, and amazingly relevant.

The third blog I found of some interest is at [] and is called the E-Learning Queen by Susan Smith Nash. In this blog, the author interviews providers of e-learning programs for teachers, and I found one called Knowledge Delivery Systems that might be worth looking into for some educational programs. Also reviewed were Sclipo, another e-learning organization, and some books that sounded very good, so I’ll be bookmarking this site for future reference.

1. [] Ask not what your blogger can do for you - ask what you can do for your blogger! Great ideas on how to utilize online tools for classroom organization like google calendar to organize your schedules(http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlecalendar/about.html) and animoto ([]) which creates video’s from your still pictures for free; he uses it to make movie trailers for the books the students will read during the course. Organized by topics, so it’s easy to find what resources you are looking for and includes “must reads!”. Content is written in an informal format, like you are sitting down, sharing a cup of coffee with the author.

2. [] All the information you can stand on how Web 2.0 Tools and technology in general can be used in the classroom. This is a great blog with tips for integrating all kinds of web 2.0 technology in the classroom. All blog posts have links to appropriate sites for more information. I learned about Assign-A-Day from this blog ([]), which is a free tool designed to enhance teacher and student communication through an online teacher-managed calendar. Teachers create a calendar for each of their classes and add assignments for the students to view. Students view their teachers' calendars in order to see assignments for classes they might have missed, or to get an overview of the class. This link can be added to your classroom blog. I really think I might use this one! I am very impressed with this blog as it is FULL of educational tips and tools on using technology to enhance learning in the classroom, across the curriculum. Resources are organized by labels so it’s easy to find what you are looking for.

3. [] Great, strait forward blog, filled with tons on help using online tools for education. Formal blog entries, no nonsense, with great ideas and links for help incorporating technology in education and making technology work for you! It has great posts about sharing power points presentations online using slideshare ([]). Author also has a great blog post all about google apps ([]) including its history and all the array of online applications available for free. All blog entries seem very complete, professional, and fully researched.

[|thisweekineducation.com] - Written by journalist and former Senate education staffer Alexander Russo, This Week in Education gives the latest education news and politics. A variety of news-worthy articles concerning state and federal level education issues. This is housed on the Scholastic site. This blog gives a good, quick overview of education news in the style of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

[|mscofino.edublogs.org] – written by an elementary teacher at the International School Bangkok in Thailand, the author chronicles her ideas and attempts at using websites, blogs, wikis, video and podcasting to create a global/international learning environment for her students. (It’s like YC 255 on steroids.) My first reaction was that global networking for children was a bit lofty and maybe even pretentious, but after just a few minutes of reading and then some settling into the idea, I have become very intrigued with the possibilities for social and cultural understanding these “global tools” have to offer. All that hidden curriculum!?!

[|studyskillsblog.com] – this blog is a compilation of articles on different study skills that could be a helpful resource for students to use independently or to use as a class. Some topics are: [|More Tips For Effective Note Taking During Lectures], [|The Importance Of Independent Studying] and [|Improving Your Problem-Solving Skills]. This blog is part of a commercial Google site and contained advertising. Although sometimes annoying, advertising does not automatically negate the quality or integrity of the material posted to a site. This seemed like sound advice to me.

[] Qatar is one of the many places in the world that one of my twin daughters and her husband (who works for Conoco) and children have lived. I have never desired to go to Qatar, but on this blog, they have a Flat classroom Conference (obviously a take-off of the flat earth concept) that is held in a different international site each year. If you can’t afford to go F2F, you can attend virtually through webcams, etc. The wealth of material that is on this site is incredible. There is a video entitled, Eracism, which was inspiring. It is a video about a group of students trying to “erase” racism, thus Eracism.

[] This blog is also chock full of ideas – mind boggling to say the least. The pop-up ads were distracting to me, but overall the blog is great. I checked out the math section, as that is my area of interest. The explanation of parabolas, with movement during the explanation sold me on blogs in mathematics. I clicked on a Math 4 U link, but it did not do anything, so there is a glitch there.

[] This guy has got to be a GREAT teacher! I can’t figure out how he has time to teach AND keep up with his blog! There are literally hundreds of links to other links ad. Infinitum!! Everything from checkbook to a virtual body with an audio clip which explains all the major bones in the human body are in his blog. Where have I been all this time???

[] ( I thought it was interesting even in Australia they are curriculum mapping ) The curriculum mapping was using the web. As I perused through the blog I had a déjà vu feeling. Is this guy teaching our class too.

[] I did not subscribe to this one but from the titles of different articles it is right up our alley. One presentation was titled “Cultivating ‘global competencies’ among students (and faculty.” What I got out of it is the classroom is no longer and edifice, it’s a global institution

[] (this isn’t a blog but it is titled How to: Build a Social Media Cheat Sheet for Any Topic I thought it had relevance to class) Follow the link to WEB 3.0

[] I followed the link “internet” and found an article titled No More Textbooks: Online Teaching Materials Thought it was interesting to think that textbooks as we know them could become obsolete. My wife uses Amazon’s Kindle for most of her reading material. Then the I realized I also use “online books” my PDA uses acrobat reader which I use to buy books online too. Ad Microsoft reader, the internet, Sony book reader and the paper text book may become a thing of the past [] a good (an brief) discussion about the importance of blogging and who should be using this very useful tool.

[] nice because it details a method for creating a blog, demonstrates some of the uses for a blog, and the author used wordpress something I am ashamed to say I learned about only 2 days ago.

[] some good ideas and resources for the harried teacher!

[] more good ideas for technology teachers, as well as some interesting links to other resources

1) [] This blog is to Mira Costa's Vocational ESL program. Not only are student blogs listed, but when you log on, there are excerpts of audio interviews with the students & video resumes. Extremely cool in my book & truly inspirational in what can be done!

2) [] You'd think this is a web site, but noooo -- it's in the ol' familiar EDU 255 Class Blog format. The intriguing part of this blog is the content & focus on connecting classrooms worldwide. As Steve writes in his blog, "I'm holding a special online meeting on Monday, June 1st, to work out the details of building resources that can help educators easily connect classrooms of students together from around the world-especially using [|Elluminate's] audio/video/more environment for communicating and collaborating." (Guess Dude works for Elluminate...que-ce que c'est, Todd, Thatcher and Stacey?)

3) [] I got a kick of this guy his "2 cents worth" blog because he's Right Brainy and just plain creative (great writing style that I can appreciate, photos and graphics). It's geared toward the K-12 set, but I think there might be worthwhile & relevant ideas with a bit of digging around... Clicking around led me to []? And another mention of Technorati, which I need to check out….

[|http://www.stevehargadon.com/] This one is from Steve Hargadon. It's a long blog with many topics. The first one is how to connect classrooms together worldwide, the second is about a program called Dropbox and one called picnik, and the third is about a webinar entitled "Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders Through Innovative Technology." There are about 5 more topics listed too many for my brain to absorb.

[|http://kathyschrock.net/edtechblogs.htm] This is a blog by Kathy Schrock where she has captured 19 blogs that she considers "good one" for educational technology. She makes no other comments on them other than to simply list them. Turns out I can't copy this list here as I get an error, something about and opening tag not matching a closing tag.

[|http://educational-technology-blog.blogspot.com/] Here is a blog by Mark Litt. He shares 8 "Things" That he finds usefull in the classroom. Several are the use of flickr pictures to make games or simply share photos, others are about how to read and gather infromation from a wide variety of blogs, and still others are how to use blogs in the classroom. a pretty good blog all in all.

1). []

This is a very personal blog site from an educator writing about her struggles to become a drama and or theatre/film teacher. In one of her posts she describes the dream film class she would like to teach. I found her ideas very interesting and inspiring.

2.) [|http://www.dramaineducation.blog]

A blog with tips for drama teachers as well as links to web pages with ideas for teaching drama.

3). []

A blog with ideas for developing curriculum for drama classes.

I loved this blog. The NCFL is focused on creating a literate nation by influencing the family. There are resources for both educators and parents.. [|http://www.famlit.org/ncfl-and-family-literacy] I was excited to know that Encyclopedia Britannica has a blog. I subscribe to its website and didn’t know that this existed. It has blogs on almost any subject, politics, history, culture, society, books, technology etc.

[|http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/10/brave-new-classroom-20-new-blog-forum/] This educational blog is designed to motivate students, with some interesting teaching tips & strategies. It also has helpful health information, news and educational updates. They also have a category called “Lifestream”; the postings are stories about learning through failure, which most are posted on Tweeter. It also has a category called “Parenting Guidance”, which gives parents information about how to help their children.

[] I thought this was a great sight for an educator to connect with their students. It’s free and you can customize your blog system.

[] The first blog I found was Teacher Lingo: []. This blog is a collection of educational blog posts supposedly by teachers who teach at a college or university. I found it to be an eclectic list of blogs by teachers from various levels and disciplines. One instructor was from Developmental English, so hers was interesting to me. Others were from high school teachers or math teachers. There are tabs across the top entitled “Find Teachers,” “Lessons,” Message Board,” and so on.

The second blog I found was Online Freshmen English: []. This blog shows a training exercise on debate for online students. The concept is interesting, and I may choose to try it in one of my classes. As I worked through the navigation bar, I realized it actually links back into the Teacher Lingo blog above, so it may be a subset. Once I read the link name, I realized it was also part of the address, so I am sure it is. So much information is in this site that I felt overwhelmed.

The third blog I found was Beth Ritter-Guth’s College English: []. This site appears to actually be a teacher’s course for the semester. She has a series of videos for her students to explain how to do each week’s assignments. She also has information about vozme, pocasts, and other forms of technology tools. Her readings are also included in this one page. I found it a bit strange, but feel many students would love it once they got used to it since there probably isn’t any book to buy for the class, and there also is great communication with all of her explanations in the mini videos

Since two of these are from the same area, I will include a fourth: College English: []. This blog area includes tabs for E-Learning, Literature, Writing, and more. It also includes course blogs for Gladly Learne: English 280, LiveJournal Course Blog for 150 and 286. There is also a list of various professors who participate. On the right side there is a list of items recently on Del.icio.us talking about Twitter, YouTube, and other Web 2.0 technologies. I believe this blog has much to offer.

High Techpectations [|http://elemenous.typepad.com] Ideas and Resources for Educators by Lucy Gray Summary: Lucy provides an extensive collection of information and links to Internet resources for educators. She is an Apple Distinguished Educator and Google Certified Teacher and makes use of technology in her classroom. She uses her blog to share resources with other teachers and friends. An interesting link was found in her main header links to [|Google for Educators] which is worth looking into further.

Adobe Education Technologies [] Information, insight, and tips from Adobe’s technology team dedicated to education by Adobe.com Summary: The main goal of the Adobe Education Technologies blog is to provide access to Adobe CS4 resources. Like many other blogs, there is an over abundance of information to resources throughout the Internet. This site focuses on education IT departments and their deployment of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 across their organization.

The Official Google Blog [|http://googleblog.blogspot.com] Insights from Googlers into our products, technology, and the Google Culture Summary: The mothership of Google information and cool stuff for those using and researching Google technologies. I am using it to benefit my own use of Google and to learn how to enhance the use of these technologies in the school district where I work.

The Fischbowl - [] This is actually a blog by Karl Fisch, dedicated to the changing nature of education and Constructivism in 21st century education. I strongly suggest you visit and then go to YouTube and see his video 'Shift Happens'. YC Employee Day showed this video - insteresting stuff. His latest post shows a Skype interview with Cory Doctorow, and his controversial book, Little Brother, to the 8th grade reading list. Heck, we should all read it.

High Techspectatins - [] is a Weblog about sites and resources for educators by Lucy Gray (and educator!). There's almost too much info here, but lots of links and resources to lessons, conferences, and instructor comments.

Moving At The Speed of Creativity ([])- So this blog talked about Web 2.0. But apparently this blog is also a gateway to a whole presentation about Web 2.0 and some other technologies which I found cool.

Educational Blogs You Should be Investigating ([])- So this website is really a blog roll of all sorts of educational blogs, they cover like all sorts of topics from things that can make teachers more nerdy to things that can be taught to children, or how-to's.