Teach42

I’ve been thinking about why there aren’t more teachers drinking the blog Kool Aid. At every conference, blog sessions tend to overfill their rooms. Blog was the word of the year last year! Everyone has heard of it, but it still seems to me that relatively few educators are actually making use of it. So why is that? For many people, technology is a little scary. They need someone to personally guide them through getting started in order to feel comfortable trying something new. There are a bazillion ed-tech blogs out there. The reason why is obvious; tech oriented people are comfortable trying new things and they tend to be the early adopters. I’d like to see more math oriented blogs, more kindergarten blogs, and more science related blogs. In order for that to happen though, all of us early adopters have got to do something that may not seem so natural at first; adopt a non-techie. I’m thinking about having a “Share your Kool Aid with a colleague” week near the beginning of the next school year. A week where we have every ed-blogger try to introduce at least one new educator to the world of blogging. Whether it be as a consumer, or as a producer, I think the blogosphere has content that would benefit people from every walk of life.

Blogvangelizing indeed!

Direct link to the show

Show notes:
This show didn’t really need too many notes, so I’m posting a few links depicting how to get started with blogs.
Blogging & RSS: An article by Will Richardson. This is a fantastic place to start exploring. It has a great explanation of what blogging is, what RSS is, and the implications for them in the educational setting.
Webquest - Blogs and RSS: Someone created this web quest for as a class assignment. Very well written though, it’s pretty darn thorough though. I’m definitely planning on using this the next time I teach a new group of teachers about blogging.
Student Journals on the Web: I like this one. It’s basically a step by step guide to getting started in the world of classroom blogging. It has some good suggestions.
Blogging Scavenger Hunt: This is a Web quest of sorts. It’s a Microsoft Word document with hyperlinks throughout it. Sort of a fun way to get started!
Education World: A primer to education blogging. It’s a nice write up with quite a few tools and suggestions.
Classroom Blogging: Dave Warlick’s new book. I’ve seen it. It’s fantastic. Especially for teachers that really need something concrete to follow along with. Takes you through it all one step at a time.
The Academic Aesthetic: The Art Guy’s latest podcast where he talks about Podvangelizing.

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