Wow, this challenge was harder than I thought it was going to be. I am glad I have done it though. It has made me review the blogs that I follow and I have to admit I had a bit of a cull but I probably have more idea now of why I follow the blogs that I do.The other thing this challenge has made me realise is that I follow all of these blogs and probably not one of them knows that I do! Why? because I haven't been brave enough to comment on any of them. I will have to change that. maybe it can be one of my personal challenges after the blogfest has run it's course?
On to Task #4: Following Blogs.
How do I keep track of all the blogs that I follow? I use Flock which has an inbuilt RSS reader and also allows you to keep track of the activity on your social networks. The RSS reader allows me organise the feeds from the blogs that I follow into collapsible folders. it also lets me know when there are new posts to read. You can then choose to read the post via the RSS feed or visit the site. The other REALLY handy thing about Flock is that when I am visiting a blog RSS feeds are automatically detected. An orange button next to the URL lights up and when you click on it, it takes you to a feed page with a 'subscribe' button that you can drag into your RSS feed folders. It is really easy to use.
If the blog is on blogger then I use the Followers block rather than my RSS reader in Flock. This means that when I sign into my dashboard in blogger, I see the latest posts from the blogs that I am following and can also manage them. I found the Followers block really helpful when I was participating in the 365 Photo challenge in 2009. It helped me stay update with viewing the other participant's blogs and I was also able to broaden the network of blogs that I followed by discovering new blogs through it.
What blogs to I follow and why (in no particular order):
Literacy, families & learninghttp://trevorcairney.blogspot.com/
In Trevor's own words "This blog aims to provide practical, timely and sound support and advice for parents, teachers and teachers in training." Trevor Cairney is Master of New College and Adjunct Professor of Education at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Trevor's blog offers practical information on activities to do in the classroom and I like it because he is not focussed on new online tools. Instead he uses an online tool to describe and share his experiences of real life teaching situations. In that way it is very refreshing :)
Successful teachinghttp://successfulteaching.blogspot.com/
The author of this blog is Pat Hensley who for 30 odd years taught special education in the public school system of America. She now teaches graduate courses as an adjunct instructor for Furman University.
The Clever Sheephttp://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/
Rodd Lucier is the Clever Sheep! He is a American teacher who uses media and ICT to engage his learners. I like some of Rodd's posts because he sometimes posts a video or audio clip to give his posts a little context. Some of the topics he blogs on go straight over my head so the media helps.
Birds Fly, Fish Swimhttp://steveshann.wordpress.com/
This blog is written by an Australian English teacher, Steve Shann. Steve works in a Canberra secondary school and is also a convenor at the University of Canberra of a postgraduate course called 'Literacy across the curriculum'. I enjoy reading Steve's posts because I find them very "honest". Steve reflects on his successes and failures in the classroom and writes about them in his blog. When you read Steve's posts he lays all of his thinking bare and you go along for the ride as he reconstructs it to find a solution to his problem.
Brave New Worldhttp://tsheko.wordpress.com/
Tania Sheko is a teacher librarian at Whitefriars College in Victoria. Her blog was started in 2008 as part of professional development discovering web 2.0 and it has just kept going.
2c worthhttp://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
David Warlick has been blogging since 2004 on his 2c Worth blog. David's blog "is a place where I record the thoughts and ideas that shape themselves in my head as I read, listen, talk, and observe. I write in this blog to have my ideas criticized, deconstructed, recombined, added to, and, when possible, to be used.". He aims to converse rather than just publish.
LisaHillSchoolStuff webloghttp://lisahillschoolstuff.wordpress.com/
Lisa Hill is the Director of Curriculum, and the teacher-librarian at Mossgiel Park PS, Endeavour Hills, in Melbourne. Lisa is a very avid blogger and you'll find links to her other blogs about Travel, school blogs and her ANZ LitLovers from her About page.
Moving at the Speed of Creativityhttp://www.speedofcreativity.org/
Wes has a very varied blog and covers and extensive range of topics from digital storytelling, digital citizenship and educational leadership (and much much more!). I don't always fully understand Wes's post's and I find them quite long to read but he always provides a lot of other resources to follow up when he discusses a topic. Wes is also very good at providing step by step information on using tools that he has used. Wes is a teacher in the USA.
Bright Ideashttp://slav.globalteacher.org.au/
The bright Ideas blog is a multi-author blog and as such is a place to go when you want to find something new in ICT and education, rather than a blog that gets into deep discussions on topics of interest. The primary audience of the blog are school librarians and they try and encourage librarians to use some of the tools they showcase on the blog in their own schools.
Langwitcheshttp://langwitches.org/blog/
The main focus of this blog by Silvia Tolisano is technology in the classroom, digital storytelling, multicultural and global education. Silvia is right at the forefront of discovering new tools and gadgets to use and then sharing her experiences and examples of it's use.
OllieBrayhttp://olliebray.typepad.com/olliebraycom/
"Creativity and Innovation in Education". Ollie is a Head Teacher currently seconded to work as National Adviser for Learning and Technology Futures at Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS). Ollie reflects on conferences that he has attended and shares what he has learnt. He often shares videos that he has found on what teachers are doing in their classroom and also guides teachers in exploring topics through online technologies. I follow Ollie's blog because all the other bloggers I follow are either from Ausralia or the USA, so I like to keep up to date with what is happening in the UK.
The Power of Educational Technologyhttp://edtechpower.blogspot.com/
Liz Davis is just helpful. She shares what she is doing as the Director of Academic Technology at an all boys school in Boston USA and also offer helpful tips to get other teachers started with online tools.
So that's the end of my list. I have a lot of other blogs that I follow but these are the ones which I tend to gravitate towards the most. Do you have any others that aren't on my list which you like to read?
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13 comments:
Thanks for the tip Ali. I will try Flock and maybe we can compare notes later. Interesting about the blogs - I think that comes from selecting in an organic way rather than having a list of criteria or guidelines - what do you think?
Hi Ali,
Thanks for the mention of the Bright Ideas blog. Hope that you find it useful.
Thanks for including my blog in your list, Ali. Good luck on your learning journey; bump into you again soon.
Thanks for the list Ali - I like the way you have listed them with the flags, and thanks for the info about them. I haven't tried Flock - I probably should
Wow! That's a wonderful challenge.
I love Flock, but I let it become so bloated, that my poor tablet can't keep up. The RAM memory is a finite number.
I'm glad to see you are blogging and picking up great information.
@Rachel thanks for dropping by. If I find something I like then goes straight to the RSS reader!
@Judith Most definitely!
@Tsheko Hi Tania, thanks for leaving a comment. I will one day be brave enough to leave one on your blog. Keep up the excellent work!
@Kerrie I thought I should add a little bit of visual stimulation to break up the post a little more. I learnt that from one of our tasks
@samccoy Bloated is a good description for my flock as well. I am glad that I have now go back into the swing of things after a little hiatus and I hope I will keep going once this challenge has ended.
Ali - this list is awesome. I have learnt so much in less than 10mins by reading through your recommendations. Thanks.
Caroline
Because I only follow a few, it's easy enough just to browse them when I feel like it. But thanks for the tips on how to manage things when I find more.
Thanks so much for including me in your list (so glad I made the cut) and for introducing me to some new people to add to my (already bursting at the seams ;-) PLN!
Thanks for dropping by Caroline, Helen and Liz - this challenge has been great because it has introduced me to some blogs which I hadn't known about previously.
ASPERO
really amazing
Thanks for including my blog Ali. I really loved the way you described it.
Cheers,
Steve
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