This week I look at three different educator blogs. Here's the first one:
The most recent post from Angela's blog (June 28th) is a short one about a book called A World Gone Social (Coine & Babbitt). Angela did a recap of the major points of the book and linked a video interview she did with the authors. One of the major points is that we are not in a technology age, but rather in a social age. They explain that it's not the technology that's changing our world, but rather the ability that technology has given us to "connect and be productive". One of the ideas that I really liked was the idea that the role of the educator has changed along with the age. The blog doesn't expand on the idea, but I think that it's fundamentally true. With student's abilities to communicate on a global scale, we are changing how they work and how they learn. The authors believe that companies have to adapt to this style of environment and thus as educators we have to prepare them for that.
I like this blog overall. It's short and precise without being to wordy or technical. One of my pet peeves is buzzwords and she stays away from them for the most part. One of the things I don't like about the blog is the volume of "other stuff". I understand some people use their blogs for an income so ads are necessary and I understand the desire to display one's credentials, but the combination of the two makes the site look busy and over done. I'm not sure how this blog can help me better understand technology, but it does has some excellent ideas about education. Between the blog posts about specific events, she discusses things like collaboration and how to engage students. There was an interesting post about the 2-5-2 method. Stuff like that I find interesting - it's stuff I can use immediately without going and doing my own hours and hours of research.
The second blog that I looked at was:
Darren is a doctor of education (EdD) and the director of education technology at Canyons School District. Plus, he's an awesome blogger. I really enjoy his writing style, it's engaging and thoughtful plus it includes all the background material he draws his conclusions from. Now, this may be because I agree with him on the posts that I read, but I think he's brilliant. I don't find any negatives about this blog. It's well constructed, there are good tabs and excellent post sorting techniques. It flows well and its easy to read. So, I guess, you might say its' too good?
One of the post I enjoyed most was his post on cell phones for children. It's a great look at how students learn technology and how they adapt to it. Like anything, they have to learn how to use their phones. I would love all of my parents to read this post because it has some excellent insight on how to introduce and teach children about this ubiquitous piece of tech. This really leads me to think about how parents learn these things. They are coming into this technology in a very different time in their lives. Do we, as educators, need to educate parents? Would a one night seminar help parents navigate these waters?
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| Can she handle the technology?!? |
The third blog I looked at was:
The first post I read was a review of a piece of technology. Very helpful! She has used and tested out this device and even goes over some of the finer points of it. For a technology blog, it's a great post. For an education blog, not as great, but the second post was fantastic. I don't think it's necessary for a great blog to hit both education and technology in every post. And the second post (about PowerPoint) actually taught me a valuable technique in animation. Here's the video on the basics of how to do it. It's narrated by a student, which I think is fantastic.
Over all the blog is good. Visually it's a little sterile for me, but she includes images and links in her work efficiently. The blog has an excited feel to it. As I was reading it, I felt like Kathy was super excited about this topic and sharing it with everyone. That makes me want to keep reading her work.
Okay - there you have it. The Great Hunt for the Blog has resolved and these three fine resources are at your disposal. Good hunting, my friends! Part 2 to follow.
I brought out the 2-5-2 example also. Easy to remember, really nice to put in your routine.
ReplyDeleteI like all three and really love Darren Drapers blogs as well. He is interesting and I do relate well with his writing. The 2-5-2 model is great and I have her book Habitudes. I really like it a lot. I have seen her speak at conferences and she is really engaging. I do agree. Too much advertising sort of takes away from the purpose of the blog at times. I try to ignore it and focus on content I guess.
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