Teach42

When I was first notified that Teach42 was one of the Top 100 Education Blogs, I have to admit I got kind of excited. That was until I followed the link back and discovered that the site giving me the ‘award’ basically had no content at all. It seemed little more than a cheap ploy to get some press. If it was, it worked. Many people linked into it at the time and still proudly display the badge. More power to them. It isn’t necessarily a bad list, I just questioned it’s credibility at the time. Since then, the site has definitely filled out quite a bit more, but I’d still be curious to know what their standards were and how they came up with the list. It’s why being in Scott Mcleod’s top 50 list is more meaningful to me. He clearly states how he came up with the list and shares his data with the world.

So this morning, when I checked my email, I got a message that I assumed had to be spam. The subject was “You ranked #8 in out top 100 language blogs list!” Yes, I too found it ironic that the subject line announcing that I was a top language blog had a typo in it. But that’s besides the point. Or is it?

Like I said, I assumed that it had to be spam. It wasn’t. I followed the link over to Lexiophiles.com, and checked out their Top 100 Language blogs page. Lo and behold, there I was:

At first I assumed that this was just a publicity stunt per se, and that they must have just done some keywords searches and put them in some random order. However, they do have a page explaining how they picked the sites, what their criteria was and how they judged them. Not only that, but they claim that they sifted it down from a larger list, and even have a link containing all the blogs that didn’t quite make the list. And beyond even THAT, they’ve created a poll where you can vote for your own favorites, so if they got it wrong, the community can help correct the problem (of course I threw in a vote for Teach42 while I was there).

So what does all this mean? Well, it certainly wasn’t all automated. This took some serious time by at least a few people. Looking through the site does reflect that time and effort was spent creating it. It’s NOT spam. And while they are sponsored by Bab.La, there’s just one small add on the page. Pretty subtle if they’re really behind it. Although, their image WAS attached to the email I received. Despite all this, there’s still just one thing that doesn’t quite add up…

How the heck did somebody review Teach42 and decide that it was the 8th best LANGUAGE blog on the internet??? I don’t even talk about language much, besides mentioning a few tools that could be used by ESL teachers! I’m completely boggled by this one. There are some great sites on there that I recognize that actually focus on language, and ESL learning and so on. Mine doesn’t. So to put Teach42 ahead of blogs like EFL Geek is just crazy! They deserve to be on the list. I can’t for the life of me figure out why I’m there.

I guess the lesson in this is once again that we always need to be looking at our sources and questioning them. Who’s the expert? What are their credentials? What are the ulterior motives if any? And after evaluating it all, does it feel right to you? The internet is a slippery place to hang out.

The funny thing is that I’ll probably get taken off the list for spouting off like this. And that would make me feel sad, melancholy, sorrowful, doleful, woebegone, and desolate. Think that amazing use of language will keep me on there?

Oh, and if you’re from Lexophiles and reading this right now, welcome! Love your site! And I’d love to hear what the real story is.

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