Educator blogs

I took a peak at all of the educator blogs that Kristin offered to us. Like everything else in life, there are strengths and weaknesses to all of them...the one common factor is that every one of them offers somethings useful to educators.

The two blogs that I chose to focus on were Will Richardson's and Brian Crosby's. Starting with Will's, I found it to be very professional and creditable. Using Google BlogSearch, and by studying the links and comments found on his site, it was easy to see that Will Richardson is a professional and leader in the world of education. The biggest strength that I found with this site is all of the other sites you can link to...all having to do with education, particularly 21st century learning, however most definitely not limited to this subject matter. Will's blog provides motivation and research supporting current education theory. Some of items found on his blog do give ideas for your classroom, however I feel his blog and blog links would be most helpful for educators gathering information to use in an inservice, a paper or to provide answers to some of the questions about current topics in the field of education. It is a solid source of information that is well organized and understood.

I chose to compare and contrast Brian Crosby's and Will Richardson's blogs because I feel they are equally useful but in different ways using different formats. When reading comments to Brian's blogs, searching him using google and his blog using google blogsearch you could tell that Brain was an active member in the world of education. As compared to my search on Richardson, I didn't find as much information to convince me of his credibility. Clearly I found he is a teacher, which of course makes him somewhat of a credible source, Richardson's resume seemed to have much more depth. The big difference between these two the how I would use their blogs. I found Crosby's blog to to provide more information and opportunities to use for my classroom. I found wonderful ideas to use with students in my own classroom or to encourage other teachers in our building to use with their students. Most of the information and ideas found on the blog support the use of web 2.o and 21st century skills in our schools. Like Richardson's blog, Crosby's is well organized and clearly defined.

This assignment has shown me how to use blogs to enhance and support my career. I am excited to continue to follow these blogs for my own professional use. I am planning on doing an inservice to show fellow teachers how to use blogging with their students and how to use it as a tool for their own professional growth.