Just 2 Things - Part I

A major project kept me away from blogging for a long time - luckily that's slowly winding down. Part of that project involves a focus-year for professional development for our school on technology. If it seems odd that I'm blogging about the importance of reading blogs...this was also emailed to my colleagues. Hopefully I don't end up in somebody's permenant blacklist for spam.

This is for those teachers that would like a head start on their pro-d, before classes, marking, and the usual marathon starter gun goes off. Funnily, most of the things you can do as 'pro-d' also qualify as an enjoyable summer's afternoon, so in this series of blog posts I will very roughly outline a few suggestions. Pick and choose or ignore.

1.) Start Reading blogs.

Whether it's in education, or your own interests, simply becoming more familiar with the ever increasing blogosphere would be a great investment in time. There are is a blog for every interest, some of my personal favorites are Bad Astronomy, Pharyngula, Skepchick, and Skepticblog, all of which keep me loosely up to date on science and critical thinking and any Internet memes that happen to be flying about. And if a student asks me an off-the-wall question about the Moon Hoax, I might have a chance of answering it.

Educationally, the following is my current list of education-based blogs that I'm reading:

• 2¢ Worth
• A Plethora of Technology
  
• always learning
  
• Change.org's Education Blog
  
• Countdown to Teachhub
  
• Dangerously Irrelevant
  
• Generation YES Blog
  
• HeyJude
  
• Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech
  
• James McConville
  
• Moving at the Speed of Creativity
  
• open thinking
  
• Practical Theory
  
• The Fischbowl
  
• The Thinking Stick
  
• Weblogg-ed
  

Of course, I haven't been doing this long enough for my list to necessarily be a good guide, but there are many other places for recommendations. Sylvia, from the Generation Yes blog published a list (Bookmark This!), and for science and critical thinking www.resurch.org is a wonderful list from the author of the SkepDad blog, and of course as previously mentioned Discover Magazine and Seed Media Group both host many quality science blogs.

I also have my own blog, which is either linked in this email, or you're reading this article in it. It contains such amazing advice I find I often have to hid it amid poor grammar, spelling and logic just to ensure Blogger isn't overrun with readers.

You may have noticed a particular theme running through my recommendations, vaguely along the lines of science-based resources. On the Internet, however, if you can think of a resource, somebody else has either invented it, or written about it. From the Blog "Making Teachers Nerdy", I found a much better list than my own: "Educational Blogs You Should Be Investigating", covering a wide variety of interests, plus 50 Must-Read Up and Coming Blogs by Teachers, and focusing on educational technology, check out 20+ Must-Read Education Technology Blogs. Beyond that, it would be useful if, having found some great blogs in your own subject area, share their recommendations here in the comments section for everyone else.

So, when your significant other mentions that some chore needs to be done, or certain relatives need visiting, you can slump your shoulders slightly and claim that you've already got some critical work to do for next year. And then snuggle up with your laptop/desktop and some good reads. My wife is probably far too busy to actually read my posts, so I should be able to still get away with this for some time yet.

2.) Write your own blog.

You didn't think blogs created themselves did you? And you don't think your own thoughts are important enough to publish? Nonsense. If everyone had that kind of attitude, the Web wouldn't be the kind of place it is today!

Seriously, even if you never intend to blog, investigating how it's done is useful in and of itself. I know of two people that write private blogs, viewable only by themselves, as it can never be 'found' in the house, and is accessible for writing anywhere there is an internet connection. I write a family blog with family photos that's only my immediate family can see. Whether you write for an audience of one or one million, or are even just exploring the process, set up an account and start.

There are many free alternatives for blogging, obviously I'm most familiar with Blogger, but there's also Live Journal and WordPress as two others that immediately come to my uninformed mind. Like always, somebody else has already created a great list of 40+ Free Blog Hosts.

Of course, I can't quite leave it at that without a word of warning. As will be true of anything that involves people putting content on the web, rather than just receiving content, use good judgement. As a rough guideline, if you wouldn't want to see it attributed to you on a public billboard, don't put it on the web.

Remember, nothing suggested is mandatory. If you find one blog with one article that was useful, you're good.

Cheers,

Ron Neufeld
Canada's Best Boarding School