EduBlogs+-+Comparison+and+Reflection

Review by: Shawn Banks
 * EduBlogs: Evaluate “Professional” Education Technology **


 * __Part I:__**

The list of EduBlogs is virtually endless because of long held practice of teachers networking and sharing best practices. Teachers, by nature, are knowledge sharers. The internet has facilitated this networking and helped it to grow to new heights. EduBlogs fulfill a teacher need to share their best practices and helps other teacher learn from experts with the click of a mouse. All this sharing helps to engauge our students and help make education better. I have chosen to compare and contrast Will Richardson’s Blog, Kathy Schrock’s KaffeeKlatsch, and David Jakes’ Presentation Resources.

Will Richardson has been blogging for over ten years. His old blog Web-logg-ed has been relaunched as WillRichardson.com. The blog discusses a wide range of topics all dealing with education. Much of the content is reblogged from other sources. It is very random with no way to filter content into topics. The articles are great but are listed chronologically with random topics. It would be hard to find something specific. Articles are mostly text based and making it more difficult to pick up on items of interest. The articles are tagged but are hard to find even when looking for it. It would be much better organized if they had a page devoted to the tags that showed the different topics/tags. This blog allows users to rate and or comment on the individual articles.

Kathy Schrock is a longtime education technology guru. Her KaffeeKlasch is text based by generally has a picture to go alone with the article to draw the reader in or to help illustrate the topic discussed. Her articles are also listed chronologically which would be helpful if you were looking for an article from a specific date. They too have tags/labels on each article. I think it would be much more reasonable if there was a navigation bar that listed the topics as opposed to submission dates. Like Richardson’s, this blog allows you to make comments. It also has icons at the end of each article to share the article via social networking or email. It also has a link printable version of the article, which could be handy.

David Jakes’ Blog is a blog of professional development resources. Most of these presentations are ones he has developed and given. He does have links to others he found compelling or cited. This blog is in stark contrast to the others not just in design but in content. It talks about a wide range of topics that are organized by presentation. Their application however can be applied to education, team building, entrepreneurship, etc. Most topics however deal with contemporary technologies and how they are changing society, which includes education. This blog does navigate by topic because each presentation is on a specific topic. The reader can easily scan to see if there are items of interest.

The biggest problem with many of these “professional” blog is that they all seem to be selling themselves, maybe with the exception of Kathy Schrock. They are peddling a book or a service. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the concept of intellectual property and to provide all this information on educational technologies, you almost have to be doing that full time to be able to share and speak. If you are a speaker, then you are going to have to do that as a profession. The problem is that sometimes these “professionals” lose touch with what it is like in the trenches. If you are surrounded by the latest and greatest technologies, one sometimes forgets what it is like to work in a school district with limited resources. It’s easy to forget the lack of tech knowledge some of our students have. Some of these blogs also seem to be limited by their chosen blog hosting software, especially if it is template driven. One of the most important lessons I got from this project was from a video from Steve Jobs. He said, and I paraphrase “Apple tries to create what the consumer wants and then design backwards.” If these blogs would think of what their readers will want and how they will want it, they may become better providers of that information.

Will Richardson’ Blog: by Will Richardson [] Kathy Schrock’s KaffeeKlatsch: by Kath Schrock [] David Jakes’ Presentation Resources: by David Jakes []

Part II
 * World History Class Blogs **

I chose two blogs that I felt best represented the purpose of the assignment. I also chose the two best examples I could find. I am not sure if world history teachers are too rooted in the past to create good blogs or it is a problem with all educators. That being said, I will try to contrast and compare the two.

Mr. Harrison’s Blog is devoid of much content. He seems to be using it as an assignment calendar. He provides assignment documents. Items are listed chronologically. This blog is disappointing as it could have links to supplemental information, videos, etc. He has no student work and no visuals aside from his masthead. It provides very little justification for the use of this technology

Mrs. Siegmund had put more time and effort into her blog. She has also allowed students to submit work for the blog. Content is listed by unit, chronologically, and has links to student blogs of their work. She provides pictures of students and gives unit information. It is all organized in a welcoming fashion and gives students a reason to visit again. It obviously has more going for it than my first example. I do think more subject related content could be included. Links by subject would also be helpful.

Mr. Harrison’s World History Blog: by Bill Harrison [] Mrs. Siegmund’s World History Class Blog: by Carrie Siegmund []