teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk

WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...

My son Ben is now 6 months old. Immediately after his birth, my reading of other education-related blogs (understandably) plummeted, but is now again on the rise. Prompted by Karyn Romeis listing the bloggers she reads regularly, I thought I’d take the opportunity to both prune my RSS reader and share the things I read as a matter of course…

Things I read every day

• popurls (aggregates the RSS feeds from tech and news-related blogs like Digg, Yahoo! News, Slashdot, etc. - this is my home page)
• BBC News (trustworthy, relevant and easily-accessible information source)
• What my Twitter friends are up to!
• Posts on the History Teachers Discussion Forum - a hotbed of innovation populated by friendly people.
• Tech blogs - TechCrunch, TechMeme, Mashable!, Read/Write Web, Engadget, Gizmodo UK (via Firefox Live Bookmarks)
• Lifehacker (practical tips, mainly computer-related, but some very practical ones too!)

Things I read every week

• BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time (actually a podcast, but it feels like reading! Torrents of previous shows available here)
• OLWeekly (a weekly version of Stephen Downes’ OLDaily which serves up education-related news - it’s emailed to me)
• Sunday Times Culture section (to keep up with the middle-class zeitgeist)
• TIME magazine (a gift subscription last Christmas)

Things I read every month

• The Word magazine (has changed recently, but still a cracking, fairly high-brow read. I’ve subscribed to this since buying the first issue a few years ago)

And now we come onto blog reading via RSS…

The good thing about not having read some blogs for a while is that I get to read ideas as they develop and come to fruition. On the other hand, I also get to remove blogs which I no longer feel are relevant or interesting. After this afternoon’s pruning session, here’s what I was left with (sorted alphabetically by blog name):

Edublogs - must reads (11)

• Borderland - Doug Noon not only shares my first name, but posts thoughtfully on educational change.
• Christopher D. Sessums :: Blog - Chris was (deservedly) won the 2006 EduBlog awards ‘Best Individual Blog’. His posts are fascinating and he uses images to very good effect. He’s an academic and his posts are rigorous yet entertaining and informative.
• elearnspace - George Siemens is someone who I find myself wanting to quote a lot when I’m writing anything for my Ed.D. On this blog he discusses things relating to the theory of connectivism - i.e. ‘learning, networks, knowledge, technology, community’.
• The Fischbowl - Karl Fisch is perhaps best known for his Did You Know? video which has been watched millions of times on YouTube. It was even shown by the Head at a staff meeting at our school without my prompting. Karl blogs for the benefit of those at his school and the wider educational community.
• Flux - a team blog by the folks at Futurelab about their research and the uses of educational technology. I really would like to work for them.
• Karyn’s erratic learning journey - I’ve recently promoted Karyn Romeis’ blog from my ‘also interesting’ category to my ‘must reads’. Perhaps it’s because she’s a frequent commenter on this blog; most likely it’s because her posts about education are interesting and thought-provoking.
• NextGenTeachers - aggregates posts from a number of blogs of people involved in NextGenTeachers. Check out the social network, too.
• Remote Access - Clarence Fisher is an award-winning teacher and a person I’d love to meet. In fact, no, I’d like to be one of his students. Mainly short posts, but they tend to shake-up your thinking.
• Speedofcreativity.org - Wes Fryer’s blog is one of the reasons I started blogging myself. I can’t keep up with all of his posts, but he is an absolute pillar of the edublogosphere. He podcasts too!
• The Thinking Stick - Jeff Utecht, based in Shanghai, discusses educational technology mainly, but also - more importantly - the pedagogy behind using ‘2.0′ tools.
• Weblogg-ed - Will Richardson’s blog is one of the oldest edublogs on the Internet. Along with Wes’ blog, it’s also a reason why I started blogging. I was inspired when he quit teaching to edtech evangelise full-time. It’s a step I may take as well…

Edublogs - also interesting (37)

• A Difference - Darren Kuropatwa discusses his teaching experiences and educational technology. He also helps organize the K12onlineconference.
• Artichoke - An anonymous blogger, a concept I find irritating, and he/she also uses some quite high-falutin language used. But I can forgive this as posts are always original and extremely thought-provoking.
• Beyond School - Clay Burell walks the walk - he’s using Web 2.0 tools with his students whilst thinking aloud whether schools are the best places for these students. A bit like me then…
• Blog of Proximal Development - Konrad Glogowski, like many teachers in the edublogosphere, uses Web 2.0 tools with his students. His blog is invaluable for the work he does on creating new forms of assessment around ‘conversations’.
• Change Agency - Stephanie Sandifer’s blog is about exploring ‘new concepts in reinventing education for the 21st century.’
• Cool Cat Teacher Blog - Vicki Davis is a whirlwhind! She not only collaborates with teachers worldwide but blogs often - in fact, probably too often for me to keep up with…
• Dangerously Irrelevant - Scott McLeod blogs about recent trends and the uses of educational technology.
• Digital Passports - Steve Dembo blogs about cool things that can be used by educators in the edtech realm.
• Digital Signposts - Theo posts about educational technology. He’s also from the UK (which is a major plus).
• dy/dan - Dan Meyer is a young teacher who’s hot property at the moment. He’s got a unique love-it-or-hate-it style which sometimes grates. But you can’t fault the guy’s efforts. Oh, and I like the photos he uses to illustrate his blog posts…
• edu.blogs.org - Ewan McIntosh blogs very frequently about things relating to the future of schools and educational technology.
• EdTechLife - Mark Wagner is a teacher turned educational consultant (which is what I one day hope to become). He blogs about the latest news, what he’s up to, what works, and what doesn’t.
• Education/Technology - Tim Lauer on developments in educational technology.
• EdVentures in Technology - John Martin on educational technology, its uses and implications.
• Harold Jarche - an independent consultant in Canada who reflects upon what he sees in schools and the tools that can be used to improve pedagogy.
• heyjude - Judy O’Connell is a very forward-thinking librarian in Australia who discusses education-related things in general. Always relevant and clear, Judy was awarded Best Librarian Blog at the 2006 EduBlog Awards.
• ICT in my Classroom - Tom Barrett is Assistant Head and teacher of Year 6 in a primary school not too far away from me in Nottinghamshire. He posts about tools he uses with his students to facilitate learning. I’m forever passing on tips and links from his blog to my wife, who’s also a primary school teacher!
• ijohnpederson.com - John has actually just moved his blog after 4 years. He previously blogged at pedersondesigns. He blogs about educational technology, mainly…
• Infinite Thinking Machine - a Google-sponsored team blog which opines mainly about Google-related things. But as Google are innovative and educator-friendly, that’s no bad thing…
• it4L - various people update this blog, but it’s mainly a guy called Steve. It’s a great place for up-to-date and practical links to useful stuff - I seem to remember it’s got something to do with Shropshire Local Authority…
• John Connell :: the blog - After a stint in the classroom, John works for Cisco Systems as an Education Business Development Manager. This means he posts about education some of the time but, being an intelligent chap, also posts about things tangentially related. Which can be refreshing.
• Knowing Knowledge - this blog is specifically for George Siemens’ excellent (wiki)book Knowing Knowledge (which I helped peer review. It’s not updated that often, but when it is it includes fantastic diagrams such as this one about networked knowledge.
• Learn Online - Leigh Blackall blogs about Web 2.0 in relation to education, and also about the nature of knowledge.
• learninginhand - Tony Vincent’s blog about mobile educational technology and its uses.
• Learning Is Messy - I just love the name of Brian Crosby’s blog; he’s absolutely right, learning is a messy business! Brian reflects on the nature of learning, especially relating to new media.
• Mr W’s Blogging Great Thing - Mr W is a teacher, I presume in Scotland, who blogs about getting his classes using Web 2.0 tools.
• OllieBray.com - Ollie is a subject support co-ordinator for Geography in Scotland. He blogs about the progress being made in Scotland in educational technology, which tends to leave the rest of the world standing, to be honest.
• Practical Theory - Chris Lehmann is Principal of the Science Leadership Academy, a fairly radically-different school that opened its doors in 2006. He blogs about what’s going on at the academy and education in the 21st century.
• Primary Teacher UK - this team blog is, unsurprisingly, about primary school teaching in the UK. It’s doubly useful for me as not only does it give me a glimpse into the world of the my students before they come to me, but I can pass on links to my wife (who’s a Year 4 teacher!)
• Teach42 - Steve Dembo’s blog is about education and technology and the point where the two meet.
• Teaching Hacks - Quentin D’Souza’s blog is invaluable as he aggregates and puts together ideas, examples, and resources in one place - saving educators a lot of time.
• Teaching in the Digitial Age - Louise Starkey (New Zealand) blogs about the future of education and the impact of educational technology.
• teaching.mrstacey.org.uk - Dave Stacey is a fellow History teacher and a top bloke to boot. He’s interested in mainly the same areas as I am regarding educational technology and his blog is certainly worth a read.
• The Learning Circuits Blog - a team blog about various things to do with education and technology.
• The Shifted Librarian - Jenny blogs about literacy in the 21st century, which is the area of my Ed.D. thesis.
• Thinking 2.0 - Cindy Barnsley’s relatively new blog focuses on ‘efforts to effectively use technology to enhance students’ learning, with a focus on blogs, wikis, digital storytelling and whatever else comes [her] way.’ (I hope she keeps up her great start of using large, relevant images - they’re great!)
• U Tech Tips - educational technology links and advice from Jeff Utecht (of The Thinking Stick). Rather garish colour scheme…

Yes, there’s other great blogs out there, but I have to be selective: I can’t read everything! I’ve learned a lot by updating my list of blogs. The above blogs, and any future ones to which I subscribe for any length of time shall be added to the Directory.

What’s your reading habitat? Which publications/blogs am I missing out on?

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