2007’s Top Edublogs
A short post from me today, because I want you to spend time reading some of 2007’s top Edublogs. Visit the EdublogAwards.com Web site, and look for a blog that interests you.
There are 14 categories for different Edublogs. Visit the links on the right side of the page to see the nominees for any of the categories that interest you, then follow links to the best blogs in that category. I want you all to spend time looking for blogs that suit your interests and pick some of your favorites.
Prompt
In the comments field, I’d like you to share your top three Educational blogs. Rank them #1 – 3 along with a brief summary of the blog’s strengths. I’d prefer that your choices come from this list, but you can nominate any other Educational blogs you feel we should know about.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Here are my top three blog sites from the 2007 list of nominees.
#1 – TipLine – Gates Computer Tips http://tipline.blogspot.com/
Some really useful computer tips listed right off the bat. One post showed you how to rig your laptop so that you could track it in the event it gets stolen. The other posting that was awesome showed a computer holo-projecting device that allows you to manipulate GoogleEarth via a touchless interface. The blog was well organized and designed. Unlike a lot of the other blogs I sifted through, it led off with video or easy to see links that took you right too some interesting content. Not as long-winded as some of the other top nominees.
#2 Voices of the World http://onevoice.ning.com/
Not the most visually appealing of the blogs I visited. But the idea behind the project is interesting. It gets children around the world to use their voices rather than just text and images to prepare kids for interaction in a global community. Some really touching videos and excerpts can be found on the left sidebar, that’s where most of the audio/video can be found. Lots of links to some other project avenues, but you have to sift through a bunch of articles to get at it.
#3 Wmchamberlain’s Video Collection http://wmchamberlain.vodpod.com/
I guess after reading through some of the more text-heavy sites, I found this one oddly relaxing. The set up is reminiscent of YouTube with a variety of video clips show anything from a video dairy of someone’s trip to the NECC conference to some clips of student created/narrated videos. A great idea to use a blog as a showcase for student work.
#1: Suffern MIddle School in Second Life
The biggest thing I heard during our Second Life class this summer was “Yeah, right! My district will never go for it.” The fact that a school pulled it off and have had success with it wins my respect!
#2: The Tempered Radical
Intense posts, interesting insights… where does this guy find the time?
#3: Bionic Teaching
Varied topics, straightforward writing style with great visuals, blog is one of the more aesthetically pleasing that I’ve seen
#1 Planetfesto Social network that links Images, info and pledges to protect the environment set up for adults and children.
#2 OLDaily – Stephen’s web roundup of news and online technology info created by three contributors.
#3 CoolCat teacher – has been my favorite blog for the last year or so. Provides many links for collaboration projects between schools worldwide.
#1 Salute to Suess. A website for a Dr. Suess project and to share ideas. Very easily naviagted, nicely set up. I really liked how it was organized.
#2 Betchablog – A teacher edublog. Nicely organized and very interesting content. I really enjoyed the article about the worlds oldest blogger!
#3 Larry Ferlazzo’s English Website – This was one of my favorites because it is geared toward teaching ELL students. Great content.
1. Taylor the Teacher — This is a blog that is written anonymously (her personna is a Barbie doll) and she talks about things educational and not really…she uses profanity even! One blog post she admits to liking Eminem. She says the things that many teachers want to say or only say in private.
2. Blog of Proximal Development — First off, what a great name! This is Konrad Glogowski’s edublog who did his doctoral thesis on the use of blogging communities in education and so his edublog shares his insights on it. I particularly liked this one blog were he uses a painting by Caravaggio (I was originally a Visual Arts major, so it was profound to me) as a metaphor for how teachers need to think about teaching in the 21st century: http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/?cat=3
3. Cool Cat Teacher — lots of good info. (in fact maybe a bit too much!). The first thing that caught my eye was the steampunk movie that was filmed in Second Life (I have recently learned about steampunks because my next door neighbor belongs to that community).
MISC.
I spent a great deal of time reading various posts that originated from the The Tempered Radical which talked about an ongoing discussion stemming from another edublog (Drake’s Takes) and a 14 year old named Arthus who apparently behaved less than maturely on Twitter. This Arthus boy is apparently a Web 2.0 prodigy and he is prominent on the blogoshphere — it was like a soap opera! I got sucked in!
Links links links! So many links!
I have been learning about lots of cool tech tools from different people’s blogs — like I can make a mixed tape online (and it even has a cassette tape graphic where the spools turn!): Mixwit
#1 EduBlog Awards – Does a blog promoting other blogs count as a blog? I like it because it categorizes the “best of___”, making it much easier to find blogs of personal interest. I agree with Tedd that the Spanish class in SL pulled off an amazing feat.
#2 (or probably a tie for #1) is EduTech Wiki. Wikis just rule. There’s a ton of good info in this one. I see myself returning to this one often. EduTech also seems like a good resource to help me figure out how to build and use Wikis.
#3 is Mashable. The term “mashable” appeals to me for some weird reason and the idea of being able to bring numerous tools into one page is really cool. I have no idea how to mash up 2.0 tools or even what exactly it means to make a mash up. The 2.0 Grid is a great resource on this site.
#1
Salute to Seuss: (Best Educational Wiki) I really enjoy this site because it is a site put up by a website of online projects I use in my classroom, technospud projects. It is a great site for collaborative ideas that my students love! The strengths is all of the project ideas you can get to integrate into your classroom.
#2
eLearning Technology http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/
I found this site to be very interesting and appealing to me for keeping up with the newest and most innovative technologies. The toolbar on the right is helpful to access posts in a particular subject you may be looking for. I found the post on Flat World Knowledge to be particularly great and am anxious for the opening of this site of free college text books. We all know how expensive textbooks can be, it is great someone is coming out with this idea!
#3
Classroom 2.0 http://www.classroom20.com/
This is such an interesting blog, visually appealing, the strength is the organization of site as well as all the images used. I found this a great forum for teachers to come for opinions or support. They have the archives organized by area, or subject or tool, which I thought was unique.
It was especially amazing to me the amount of feedback the discussion posters were receiving, telling me that it is a site many people utilize and find helpful, what a great place!
1. TipLine – Gates’ Computer Tips
A great blog site that is full of useful tips and tutorials for canned software like Excel and web tools such as Google Earth. EdTech Talk links to online broadcasts and archived sessions. Blog topics include EdTech Solution- Teaching every child and EdTech review, EduBlog insights and e-Learning. This blog site links to Larry Ferlazzo’s Blog site, my third choice for great resources.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/
2. Science is fun with the right teacher!
Developed by Jerry Mullins, Charleston, West Virginia, Kanawha County School District. What a great site, full of teaching resources for advanced biology, Anatomy, Forensics and Earth Science. Forget the textbook, everything a teachers needs is here, powerpoints, quizzes and videos. Great graphics makes the difficult concepts easy to understand. You can even visit the a virtual autopsy site or view a real autopsy in a HBO video! All the students would love Commander Bio Man!
http://rangerblue.edublogs.org/
3. Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day-For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
He posts information on a host of useful new educational sites and Web 2.0 tools. His site is well organized and easily navigated. The “best of the day, month and year” archives offer visitors a plethora of resources to review.
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/
1) Betchablog. It’s cute (okay, not cute, but sort of precious in a weird way) with lots of graphics and organization. The world’s oldest blogger is a must-read.
2) Classroom2.0. Quite an amazing site. Tons of resources and information for almost anyone. I enjoy the organization, graphics and lay-out.
3) BionicTeaching. I didn’t think a blog could have multiple authors, but what do I know? Just reading about the site’s philosophy was interesting: rational self + technology = harmony in the classroom. Sounds more like a philosophy class than a teaching blog. Cool stuff. Check it out!
#?- The Fischbowl- I liked his post about social networking- how schools need to learn to embrace it in the coming years rather than attempting to block and filter it out, as seems to be the norm. Also liked his post called, “Is it Okay to be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?” I agree with him that teachers should not be proud, but rather be a bit embarrassed to be among the technologically illiterate. What kind of world do they think their students are going to be living in?
http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/
#? Classroom 2.0- I liked its organization, with members and discussion groups for different topics and interests. Lots of resources and how to’s about classroom projects I’d like to try.
#? Tipline- Gates’ Computer Tips – I just dig learning about cool new things I can do with my computer. The recent posts about google earth tools, for example, were just cool! I want a machine that projects a hologram of my computer screen. I immediately added the google earth blog, http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2008/07/hologram_google_earth.html to my bookmarks.
http://tipline.blogspot.com/
I have to say, as a footnote to this post, that I was really annoyed by this assignment. It was too easy to get lost in the endless linking from one interesting site to the next. Maybe this is why I should stay out of the blogosphere. It took me forever to actually write this post!
1. PlanetFesto – I like this blog best because it is image-based, not totally crammed with text and icons like most blogs seem to be. This blog was a welcome relief after sifting through the other, text-heavy blogs. I found myself getting rather annoyed each time I opened a blog and was faced with a sea of text, not really knowing where to look, and not really sure what the focus of the blog was. Most of the time, I would just immediately close the site because all the text was just overwhelming. For text-based blogs, there needs to be a better way to clean up the way they look! There’s something to be said for simplicity. PlanetFesto is nice to look at AND meaningful.
http://www.planetfesto.org/
2. Mr. Smith’s WWII History Page – Another blog that is easy on the eyes. Each item is clearly blocked off, making content easy to locate.
http://smithmel.edublogs.org/
3. GoAPES – What I like is that the first paragraph on the site tells you the purpose of the site, what you can find on it, and what you can do with it. For reasons I don’t understand, many blogs don’t do this; they seem to just expect you to know the purpose of the site.
http://goapes.wikispaces.com/
test
1 Classroom 2.0
Lots of resources and information for almost anyone. I enjoyed looking at all the different topics and interests. Lots of resources Great classroom projects. This is a great blog and forum for teachers! Information organized by subject or area for teachers at all levels.
2 Betchablog
This blog has everything! Lots of project, podcast, and tutorial links for teachers. Great tutorials on Twitter and Voicethreads. Lots of information from teachers bloging with other teachers about the projects podcasts and tutorials. The site is very easy to navigate and very well organized.
3 EduTech Wiki
Lots of useful information in this wiki. I was really interested in the ‘Essential Reading’ list. Also, I found information that would be usful to SDSU Cometteers on Instructional Design, ID models, and Project-oriented learning.
1. http://betch.edublogs.org/
I thought this was a great example of a teacher blog. It had a lot of technology and resources, and I liked the information he presented.
2. http://in-the-middle-of-the-curve.blogspot.com/
I enjoyed this blog because it’s very honest and interesting. I like the humor of the blogger (teacher) and the topics are very interesting.
3. http://www.planetfesto.org/
Very creative use of video and music. I particularly liked the kids section about recycling. All the photographs are great. It’s very simple, but interesting. Turning off the music is a good idea (it gets to be a bit much after a while).
1. http://www.planetfesto.org/
Very interesting way to incorporate photographs (video), blogs and music. The music can be a bit annoying, but it can be turned off. I think this is an innovative way to blog.
2. http://salutetoseuss.wikispaces.com/
This is a fine example of a Wiki that many elementary school teachers might find interesting. Classrooms select a Dr. Seuss book to “review.”
3. http://rangerblue.edublogs.org/
Science CAN be fun with the right teacher. This blog explores advanced biology and is a good example of how to engage students in a subject that can be fun if offered in an interesting environment.
1) The Ed Techie
This blog was great with constant insight to the world of education and web 2.0. It takes a look at the advantages to the merge between the two and how it is evolving the educational process.
2) Mr. Smith’s WWII History Page
Mr. Smith’s provided me with inspiration. As a history teacher myself this site leads me to ides I can use in developing a blog site my students could access for History based instruction and information.
3) Mobile Technology in TAFE
I liked this site for its insight on web 2.0 and as a resource on how to use technology. I felt it also allowed and encouraged other to participate in the blog activities. The commentary on live in Australian provides a comic relief.
1) http://tipline.blogspot.com/
The coolest, by far, of those blogs I visited. Each of the links is handy not only as a teaching tool but also with our COMET cohort. I especially liked the google docs links and the template offerings. The only drawback for me personally is that many of the clips such as the periodic table of elements, is based on youtube which is blocked by our DOD flter.
2) http://taspd.edublogs.org/
This offers a lot of useful tools to help with tech in the classroom but it was also the most entertaining to read because of the philosphical nature of the writing on the blog. I couldn’t help but imagine that much of what the blogger was discussing was about me personally and not just about helping with teaching. This personal touch helps guide and ease the reader into the blog.
3)http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com/?t=anon
I chose a wiki for this last one because it is much of what we are going to do in this class so I wanted to get a sense of what to expect. This is a dream site for me because of its ease of use and its catchy nature. The bar is high now.
My Choices:
1.) The Tempered Radical : Not flashy, but very insightful and well done. Offers many hours of insightful reading. More than I had time for, but the posts I read were illuminating.
2.) A Science Classroom: http://rangerblue.edublogs.org/
Functional and aesthetically pleasing. The science teacher did a good job of rounding out the website to make it very usable for students.
3.) The Strength of Weak Ties: A personal favorite of mine as it pertains to educational technology issues. David Jakes is an experienced technology coordinator in a district in the midwest who really does a good job keeping all of the technology issues in perspective.
http://strengthofweakties.org/
Top 3 Blogs:
1) Gates’ Tip Line: A daily Blog of tips and tools to use on the web. Excellent links.
2) Suffern Middle School in Second Life: Great visual of how to use Second Life in a middle school class. Created a Spanish Celebration and invited the high school Spanish classes to participate in the celebration. Awesome!
3) Second Life in Education: It is pretty much our MULE class in a blog site. Excellent list of possible ways to use SL in education.
Boy, are there a lot of blogs out there! Hard to find the time/desire to sort through them. After looking quickly through several of them the ones that stuck me as my favorites were:
1). Tipline-Gate’s Computer Tips. Marty and a few other people have chosen this as well as one of their top three choices. There is nothing special about the format or layout. Nothing reaches out and grabs you right away. Yet as one scans through the contents, helpful hint follows interesting tidbits follows “who’d a thunk it?” Some good stuff on how to use Google Earth, useful info on Google Docs, and it’s all “searchable”. Very handy in quick little bites.
2.Betchablog. I loved the look of this blog. It makes good use of both pages and links. The site is searchable and includes an RSS feed. The pages include podcasts as well as tutorials on such things as Skype, Skitch, and iTunes. Good blend of education with technology.
3. The Horizon Project. I picked this one just because it sounded interesting. As the site itself says, “This is a joint project between five classes ranging from grades 10-12 at the International School Dhaka, Bangladesh, Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia, Presbyterian Ladies College in Melbourne, Australia, the Vienna International School in Vienna, Austria and the Shanghai American School in Shanghai, China to research, discuss, and envision the education and society of the future according to the six trends . . .” The six trends are:
* User-Created Content
* Social Networking
* Mobile Phones
* Virtual Worlds
* New Scholarship and Emerging Forms of Publication
* Massively Multiplayer Educational Gaming
So the site is a huge conglomeration of writings, links, discussions, and thoughts from both students and teachers from around the world. It is ungainly at times to navigate, but the amount of information is huge, and it is an excellent example of how a wiki can be used in the classroom.
Okay, my reasons for the choices I have made are lame, but here are my favorite and they are all my favorite for a similar reason – They have video content. I spend my whole day reading and writing on a computer (at least now that it is summer). I get so tired of reading on the computer, so I really enjoyed getting to rest my eyes a bit. I also like each for individual reasons:
Planetfesto.com
http://www.planetfesto.org/
Video and audio content that relates to an interest of mine. And it is very unique idea and presentation.
My German Class
http://mygermanclass.com/
I really l like this site, because (I think) it has teacher created video that was made to help the students learn German. Very cool. I would love to have a blog where student made video was posted, so I find this idea inspiring
Mr. Smith’s WWII History Page
http://smithmel.edublogs.org/
Very Powerful videos about History from various sources. But this blog reinforces one of my fears with blogging. Here’s a blog nominated for an award and yet most of the posts have no comments at all. Does this mean no one looks at this blog or that the moderator never approves comments?
1: http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-it-okay-to-be-technologically.html
This blog was the first one I was able to start reading from the beginning all the way through the top post. In this age of ‘not saying the wrong thing’ and kind of sort of still ‘pollitically correct’, this blogger types his mind on this one. That is refreshing. I guess I just got off a few days of dealing with a couple of teachers who were openly techno-illiterate – almost proud of it because they told our group so many times over…..merely and excuse….but I digress. Plain language, an accessible topic, well written.
2 – http://tipline.blogspot.com/
Nothing but tips and cool new stuff I have never heard of. Can’t beat it for a daily hit-or-miss kind of thing. Lots of Google stuff and links for everything.
3 – http://myfla.ws/
An educational blog from the perspective of THE STUDENT. Ahhh..to be young again. This young fella gave his blog a catchy title (which got my attention) and as I read I realized how refreshing it is to know that there are functionally, technologically, and linguistically literate teens in our midst. He defies the stereotype of teenager, not in his ideology, but in his ability to express it with rigor and eloquence.
(Kind of makes me want to be a better wordist, too!)
GregJ
Short, sweet and to the point. My Top 3:
1. Classroom 2.0: Love it! Joining right now. Chats, workshops, resources…what more could you ask for?
2. TipLine: Great resources! From helpful hints to usefuls sites. I like it, I am bookmarking it!
3. Suffern Middle School in Second Life: I love Second Life and this site looks really cool with a focus on 2nd Languages. I am interested in visiting the actual Second Life site.
-Alex
#1 http://goapes.wikispaces.com/
GoAPES Wiki Page is a beautifully designed webpage created for secondary and college level educators of Environmental Science.
Some cool things about this site are:
>Promotes research, discussions, and global awareness
>Its colaborative.
>Gives information on lessons, links, and movies.
>Readable layout using chunked text and tabs.
>Super fabulous side bar with tons of topics (activities, labs, presentations, and references).
#2 http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/
Second LIfe in Education Wiki created by Jo Kay and Sean FitzGerald.
Discusses how to use Second Life in education.
Some cool things are:
>Points out some good sites in SL.
>Tells about projects Kay and FitzGerald are working on.
>Nice look with readable text and SL images.
#3 http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/
The Tempered Radical by Bill Ferriter
It might be because the leadership at my school site is currently inept, but I loved the ideas expressed on this site. The topics interested me instead of the layout which was pretty simple.
>Discussed creating and maintaining vision statements within a school.
>Connected the vision statement to actual student, teacher, and curriculum goals.
>Also discussed the role technology should play in a learning network.
Here are my 3…
1: http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2007/01/gone_fischin.html
I read the post about being Technologically Illiterate. I was glad to read someone’s actual ‘hard’ opinion on something so prevalent in the world of education. I will be checking back in here…
2: http://tipline.blogspot.com/
A new tip or trick or tool each week or more…..can’t beat that for a quick hit-or-miss blog posting. Lots of ways to use the ‘puter for things I never thought about.
3: http://myfla.ws/
The title of the blog got my attention. This educational blog is from the perspective of THE STUDENT. That is refreshing. It is also refreshing to realize that there are, in fact, teenagers in America that defy the general stereotype of being lazy, illiterate, and only interested in consuming technology rather than producing with it. This young fellow impresses me with hi vocabulary skills, too!
GregJ
P.S. I hope my first post doesn’t show up now, because it was much better than this 2nd attempt. I would hate for all of you to see the considerable wimpiness of this post the second time around as compared to the first. I just can’t remember all the good stuff I typed the first time. C’est la blog!
Well, the top three that I thought were fabulous are:
A. Classroom 2.0
I was invited to join and did. I read through a lot of the posts and there are lot’s of cool ideas and posts that I had a thing or two to say something about. Cool educational networking site.
B. PlanetFesto.com
“Let’s Build a Ribbon Around the Whole Earth.”
Just got lost on it for about half hour! I love this use of video and images! The message is a good one and it’s so easy to use.
Love it! Go do it!!!!
C. El tinglado
Just liked it because it was the first blog I have read in Spanish. It also had a lot of useful tips on there.
#1- Classroom 2.0- This social networking site provides so much exposure to all of the different tools and techniques that you can use in the classroom. It’s an amazing way to share ideas with other teachers.
#2- Smartboard Lessons Podcast- A podcast site that offers tons of different ways you can use your SMARTBoard in the classroom. If you are like me, and are sometimes stuck for ideas than this is the site for you.
#3- Suffern Middle School in Second Life- A blog that details how this school district has used the Second Life program to interact with their foreign exchange students. It has given me so much inspiration and motivation to present this idea to the people who handle the foreign exchange program in my district.
1) Welker’s Wikinomics
I’m still unsure of exactly what a wiki is, though this is impressive! There is so much to this and so much information, which I like as I teach some Economics in one of my courses. I am just amazed at how great it looks overall
2) Classroom 2.0
I am very interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies. This page gives the medium for people to interact with one another on the topic, so I am going to join! There is a lot going on, on the page, though as I read down to past blogs every item on there I was interested in or wanted to know more about it.
3)EdTech Talk
This one was interesting to me as I had gone to the site before for my EDTEC 570 course and participated in on-line professional development. When I saw the different topics and clicked on the area where I had sat in on last time I heard the audio recording of the session I sat in on a few weeks back. Crazy!!
1. Best educational use of a social networking service
Voices of the World: http://onevoice.ning.com/
• Terrific evidence of collaboration form this Scotland based primary school to other schools around the world including Greece, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Lebanon, Pakistan, Australia.
• Fabulous video samples from each country for each month. This teacher used the theme “Voices of the World” for the whole school year. Each month there was a different task that each country’s school had to accomplish for each of the languages of the schools involved. For instance, May’s task was to say good-bye and each school produced a video saying “good-bye” in each country’s language. I can tell these students will remember this forever.
• Because there was one task/month, I could see how this could be really effective in a primary/elementary setting. The collaboration could be done without neglecting the tasks required of the teacher and students for the whole year. Finally, I think if I was a child, I would love the ability to communicate with students my age from all over the world and would remember this forever. This was by far my favorite blog, although it came in second in its category.
2. Best Resource sharing blog-
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites Of The Day For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/
• In his entry titled, The Best Sites To Introduce Environmental Issues Into The Classroom, he mentions websites that will introduce environmental issues in English learner-friendly format though he says there isn’t a site he could find that was comprehensive. He cleverly broke the websites down by category: Carbon Footprint Calculators, Personally Reduce Environmental Impact, Environmental Games, and The Environmental Big Picture.
• I also read this blog entry: Part Twenty-One Of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly. It contained many websites that are friendly to non-tech/ELL, ESL, EFL individuals. There is an underlying theme to his online content which is “Environmental Issues.” I went to Help The Honey Bees which was ideal for the students he is targeting.
• Larry also provided links for vocabulary quizzes—very helpful for non-proficient English learners.
• I thought this site had good resources, but it was an awful large amount of print for English Learners. Maybe his blog is only meant for educators?
3. Best educational use of video/visual
Mr. Smith’s WWII History Page: http://smithmel.edublogs.org/
• I really liked the look of the page—video entries were each contained their own box making the page look simple and “kid-friendly”
• Upon viewing several videos, I found them to be a bit dull. Several videos were contemporary for the time (c. 1945) and could be tolerated, however, the teacher produced video, “Changing Europe: 1919-1945” was extremely dull and non-engaging with many grammatical mistakes.
• On Mr. Smith’s blog, a Create a cartoon caption assignment was included which looked interesting. Students were asked to create up to a 3-frame story line about WWII. I just question the teacher’s judgement as the assignment requires students to create an account with the website and I am not sure of the legality of such a request by a teacher.
1. Voices of the World: http://onevoice.ning.com
Terrific…
The above was a test, so we can’t copy and paste–good to know.
1. Voices of the World: http://onevoice.ning.com
Terrific evidence of collaboration from this Scotland based primary school to other schools around the world including Greece, Germany, Sweden, Lebanon, Pakistan, Australia, USA. Fabulous video samples from each country for each month of the school year. This teacher used the theme “Voices of the World” for the whole school year. Each month there was a different task that each country’s school had to accomplish for each of the languages of teh schools involved. For instance, May’s task was to say good-bye in each country’s language. I can tell these students will remember this forever. Because there was one task/month, I could see how this could be really effective as collaboration could occur without neglecting the tasks required of the teacher and students for the whole year. The blog was very clear and simple to navigate without too much to click on.
2. Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of teh Day for Teaching ELL, ESL, and EFL: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org
In his entry titled, The Best Sites to Introduce Environmental Issues Into the Classroom, he mentions websites that will introduce environmental issues in English learner-friendly format though he says there isn’t a site he could find that was comprehensive. He cleverly broke the websites down by category: Carbon Footprint Calculators, Personally Reduce Environmental Impact, etc.
I also read his blog entry: Part Twenty-One of the Best Ways to Create Online Content Easily and Quickly. It contained many websites that are friendly to non-tech/non-English proficient individuals. I thought this site had terrific resources and links, but it was a large amount of print for his target audience. Maybe his blog is meant for educators, not the students?
3. Mr. Smith’s WWII History Page: http://smithmel.edublogs.org
I really liked the look of this page–video entries were each contained in their own box making the page look simple and “kid-friendly.” Upon viewing several videos, I found them to be a bit dull. Several videos were contemporary for the time (c. 1940s) and could be tolerated, however, the teacher produced videos were not engaging and contained grammatical mistakes. On Mr. Smith’s blog, I liked that there was an assignment where students were asked to create a cartoon caption summarizing what they learned from the WWII videos they viewed. Great idea! I just question the teacher’s judgment as the assignment requires students to create an account with the website and I am not sure of the legality of such a request by the teacher.