Blog

I keep up with developments in educational technology out of interest, as well as to maintain this blog and to be in the know. Here are a few of the blogs and news sites I read.

Christopher Sessums' Thoughts on learning, teaching and computing
Chris is a PhD candidate and Director of the Office of Distance Education, College of Education, University of Florida. He blogs his thoughts quite thoroughly, linking to the sources he cites. His posts are more like mini-essays, where he throws out ideas and waits for feedback. Reflective and insightful.

The Chronicle of Higher Education | The Wired Campus
This is a news site which features the latest updates in educational technology in the US.

Ewan McIntosh's edu.blogs.com
Ewan is a K-12 educator based in Scotland.  He highlights many uses of social media in the classroom, most of which are applicable or can be adapted to the higher education environment.

George Siemens' elearnspace
George explores "elearning, knowledge management, networks, technology, and community".

Kairosnews
EdTech news site.

Kevin Lim's theory.isthereason
Kevin is a Singaporean doing his PhD at the School of Informatics, University of Buffalo. He is a gadget freak and social media enthusiast advocate. He explores and shares the latest in social media and how it can be used in education. Currently, Kevin teaches at SIM. His classes make use of blogs and other read/write web tools.

Stephen Downes' Online Learning Daily
Stephen's blog is a daily annotated summary of significant developments in educational technology. One of the first edtech blogs I came across.

Tony Karrer's eLearning Technology
Tony is CEO/CTO of TechEmpower. He ponders about a range of elearning topics. He has lots to say about Rapid eLearning.

Will Richardson's weblogg-ed
Will is "Learner in Chief" of Connective Learning. He's a great resource for read/write web in the classroom.

If you're wondering how I keep track of the latest content on these blogs and news sites: I use Google Reader. I don't have time to visit each one daily, so I let the content come to me.

UPDATE Tony Karrer just listed his Top Ten eLearning Blogs.

Blogs are about conversations. While most people conceive blogging as writing your own blog, it's very much about reading others' blogs and responding.

Google the area of your interest; you'll probably find blogs about it. Then follow Darren Rowse's tips on engaging with other bloggers. Read his post.

  1. Highlight what they said well.
  2. Show what they missed.
  3. Answer questions.
  4. Summarise what others are writing.
  5. Show how it applies to you/your students.
  6. Extrapolate to the future.
  7. Reflect on the past.
  8. Build on ideas.
  9. Be the opposition.
  10. Ask: what if?
  11. Be the Devil's Advocate.

Through the conversations you develop, you'll find that over time, you've built a community which can be invaluable to you.

Listen to a 5-minute podcast on the new Centre for Life Sciences (CeLS) - download the mp3 (via RSI).

On a related note, besides educational use, there is plenty of scope for new media tools to be used in corporate and public communication. The School of Business seems to be on to something, but there is potential for so much more. I wish I could share a video from BizAd Vibes, but it's not meant to be repurposed.

Related media coverage

Henry Jenkins, Director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program puts forward the concept of the YouNiversity, suggesting that blogs will play a central role:

Blogs represent a powerful tool for engaging in these larger public
conversations. At my university, we noticed that a growing number of students were developing blogs focused on their thesis research. Many of them were making valuable professional contacts; some had developed real visibility while working on their master's degrees; and a few received high-level job offers based on the professional connections they made on their blogs. Blogging has also deepened their research, providing feedback on their arguments, connecting them to previously unknown authorities, and pushing them forward in ways that no thesis committee could match. Now all of our research teams are blogging not only about their own work but also about key developments in their fields.

Original photo by Matt Kaliner from here, reproduced under a cc by 2.0 license.

Semester is back on track after the Chinese New Year break. I hope it was a good one for all of you.

Instead of pointing out something blogging/web 2.0-related today, I will introduce a website called Arts & Letters Daily.

As the title implies, AL Daily features "some of the best writing on the Web" (so claims The Chronicle of Higher Education, which runs it) relating to the Arts and Humanities. It is updated six times a week.

I can't find an email subscription service there, but if you would like to get updated on the latest content daily, you can subscribe to their RSS feed