Category Archives: Delicious and Diigo

Blogging, Delicious and Diigo, Web 2.0

How to Get Something out of Education Blogs

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Though I have been blogging about education for almost two years, I still do not flatter myself with the notion that I’m an expert; however, in those two years of blogging and reading others’ blogs, I have learned a few things that I think make the experience better for everyone, whether you blog yourself or not.

How to Find Blogs

The best method I have found to find blogs that you like is to check out blogrolls. Most bloggers keep a blogroll, or list of blogs they link to, in a sidebar to the left or right of the text on their own blog. If you find a blog you like, chances are you might like some of the blogs listed in their blogroll.

Another good method for finding good education blogs is to visit the Carnival of Education every week. EdWonk’s blog is the home of the Carnival of Education, but he has encouraged other bloggers to host it on many occasions.

Read Blogs Written by Teachers in Your Field

Two years ago, I would have to say that the edublogosphere was somewhat dominated by English teachers. It is, I suppose, our natural inclination to write, so that is perhaps not surprising. Today, however, bloggers can be found in every discipline, whether K-12 (elementary, middle, and secondary) or college, math, history, English, foreign language, social studies, science, and more.

I would encourage educators to read a few blogs written by someone who teaches the same subject matter for the same reason that we all have departments and department meetings in our own buildings — we share ideas with one another and our shared subject matter means we will be teaching the same things, more or less, so we would do well to listen to one another.

But Don’t Neglect Blogs Outside Your Subject Matter

Just because the blogger teaches science and you teach history doesn’t mean you can’t learn something from his or her blog. Whether it’s commiserating over the teaching craft and the shared hurdles all teachers face or just branching out and learning how someone else approaches his/her subject, you can learn a lot from bloggers outside your subject.

Engage in the Conversation

Don’t be afraid to leave comments and ask questions. If a teacher describes a lesson that you want to try, but you’re not sure you understood all the particulars and want more information, just ask! I think edubloggers as a whole enjoy the conversation on their blogs. At the same time, if you disagree with an edublogger, go ahead and say so, but stay within the bounds of civil discourse, or the blogger won’t listen to you. I know I wouldn’t. Would you?

Don’t Worry Over Bloggers You Don’t Like

Time for me to fess up. Two prominent edubloggers get on my last nerve, as they say here in the South, so I don’t make myself more furious by reading their blogs, even if they link to me. I won’t go so far as to link them or tell you who they are. If you have a blog, don’t feel compelled to link to or read bloggers you don’t like just because other bloggers do. This bit of advice might seem like a big no-brainer, but I can remember actually reading the blogs of these two edubloggers I don’t like for some time, my dislike intensifying all the time, just because I was sure I was missing something since everyone else linked them. With all the choices available today, trust me, you’re not missing anything.

Use an RSS Aggregator

I mentioned using RSS aggregators or feed readers in a previous post, and won’t rehash all of that here, but suffice it to say it will make it easier for you to keep up with your favorite blogs.

Try Technorati

If you’re looking for posts on a certain subject, you can discover new blogs through Technorati. You can search for certain tags. For instance, let’s say you want to read about Geoffrey Chaucer. You can search for Geoffrey Chaucer at Technorati and find out what bloggers are saying about Chaucer. You might run into lesson plans, comments from readers about Chaucer’s works, or even Chaucer’s own blog, but the point is that you will most likely find interesting blogs through Technorati.

Follow the Links

Bloggers link to sites within their posts for a reason — whatever they linked to will help you get more out of their posts. Again, this might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t bother to check out the links.

Try Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is an online bookmarking system. In the early days of Firefox, I noticed that my bookmarks would mysteriously disappear every once in a while. I love Firefox, but I hated having to find my links again. Plus, I didn’t have the same links saved on my work and home computers, so I sometimes got confused looking for sites. Del.icio.us solved all of that. I have all my favorite links stored at del.icio.us. Try browsing del.icio.us for education links, and you will find some great new blogs. If you find a del.icio.us user with a real knack for finding great education websites, you can subscribe to the RSS feed for their education tag and be notified when they add new links.

[tags]education, blogs, RSS, del.icio.us, Technorati[/tags]

Delicious and Diigo

del.icio.us

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Every once in a while, something funky will happen with Firefox, and I will lose all the links in my Favorites. It is very irritating, given that it shouldn’t happen anyway, because then I have to hunt down the links and save them again, assuming I remember what they were — didn’t I “Favorite” them to begin with because I wanted to find them easily later? Anyway, I’ve given up on saving links that way. I figure it is too much of a gamble. I know some of you folks that know more about technology might be kind and try to help me troubleshoot my problem. Don’t worry about it. I have started saving all of my links to del.icio.us. I have had an account for well over a year, but I didn’t really use it much until recently. I think the last time I lost all my Favorites, I thought, “That’s it! I’m sick of this!” Also, using del.icio.us has the added benefit of being available to me on whatever computer I decide to use, rather than just my home desktop.

Robert shares some of his del.icio.us links on Tuesdays. I decided perhaps sharing my own links once a week might a) give me something to post about at least once a week, which is hard when things get busy, b) enable me to share some things I use and/or learn with other teachers who might be interested.

My first link is something you may have seen if you regularly read The Reflective Teacher. A few days ago, he posted a link to Brian Benzinger’s post “Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0: Part 1” at Solution Watch. I don’t constantly bug my colleagues with links, but I thought this one was so valuable, I not only sent it to the entire faculty at my school, but also shared some of it with my students. One of my students told me he has already tried the application Gradefix and loves it. Brian now has Part 2 up, so check it out, too.

Another link that I have used extensively over the past few weeks is this ReadWriteThink lesson plan, “Reader Response in Hypertext: Making Personal Connections to Literature.” The author of the lesson plan suggests using this lesson plan with novels “that contain a strong sense of place, that focus on closeness of characters, and that are metaphorical in character, such as A River Runs Through It, Montana 1948, and The Bean Trees.” Based on examples in the lesson, my assumption is that the author, Patricia Schulze, uses it with A River Runs Through It. I used it with The Bean Trees, which is a summer reading selection for incoming college prep 9th graders at my school, and I have to say it worked very well. Instead of creating websites, however, I elected to adapt the lesson to a wiki, which made creating the sites and editing much easier, I think. You can check out my students’ Bean Trees Wiki and see what I did with this lesson plan. At this point, all of the students are supposed to have four quotes and four writing assignments posted, but there are a few who need to get caught up.