I have been blogging for over 4 years now. In my very first bog post (February 20, 2006), I wrote :

This Blog is an experiment. I am fascinated by the possibilities of blogging in the foreign language classroom. I will document what I have learned and hopefully inspire other language teacher to try their own blogs.

By my second and third post (February 26, 2006), I was already wondering how to get my students into blogging:

How will I set up a Blogs for my upcoming Technology Summer Camp?
Here are a few things I am concerned about and need to find out before I decide with which Blogging Software to use.
I will need to be able to set up passwords, that only my students are able to edit and read our blogs. As the teacher, I need administrative control over all my students’ individual blogs.
They will need to be able to write in their own blogs, but need to be able to comment on each other’s blog.

In 2008, I wrote a series of  “How To- Posts :Blogging for Teachers”:

• 1. Blogging with Elementary School Students
• 2. Outline Blogging Lessons
• 3. Introduction to Blogging
• 4. Online Safety
• 5. Commenting
• 6. Writing
• 7. Setting up the Blog
• 8. Logistics of Formatting Post

Since I have never been a classroom teacher, I had/have to rely on After-School/Summer clubs, work with the classroom teacher as the guide on the side or as the presenter at Professional Development opportunities. I have learned from being in these roles, that I have little control over to what level the students will actually rise to. I have learned that it is up to the teacher to set the bar to what the classroom or student blog can be.

My goal has been to see students become members of a classroom learning community with the blog as the virtual hub of conversation, collaboration and dissemination for their work.

Many benefits of blogging seem to become apparent over time. That has happened in my own learning journey as a blogger as well.  It is the reflective nature and the timeline of a blog, as well as the growing connections with readers that will reveal growth as a writer, the benefits of being a member of a network and a contributor to a global community. I fear that teachers might give up too early on classroom or student blogs before the initial learning curve for teachers AND students has been overcome.  I worry that teachers might get stuck at the stage when the blog platform is merely a static website.

How can we support teachers and facilitate that a blog becomes “something more”?

• How can we prepare classroom teachers to not get hung up on the initial [technology] learning curve of setting up, maintaining and administering the blog?
• How can we help teachers transfer their teaching/learning objectives, skills to a blogging platform.
• How do we get over the hurdle of making a classroom blog just another writing assignment for students to complete?
• How can we use a blog as a tool to deepen learning?
• How do we awaken curiosity to read about a variety of subjects and topics?
• How do we help students understand that their thoughts, work and contributions matter in the big scheme of the world and/or bloggersphere?

On Wikipedia, you can read about the Information Age:

The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Information Era, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously. The idea is linked to the concept of a Digital Age or Digital Revolution, and carries the ramifications of a shift from traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based around the manipulation of information

We have to realize that we are one decade into the 21st Century and that we have moved on from the Industrial age our schools are set up for to an Information Age. I am reading frequently (Ex. Daniel Pink’s “The Whole New Mind”, Thomas Friedman’s “The World is Flat”, Heidi Hayes Jacobs’ “Curriculum 21″) that what matters in our age is not the the ability to know all the information, but to be able to locate, evaluate and to CONNECT the easily available information .

I believe that we, as educators, can use a blogging platform with our students to

• expose
• show
• practice
• become skilled

at exactly that.

• How do we make sense of information
• How do we reflect on information?
• How do we connect information?

A blog is a tool. A TOOL!!! It is NOT about teaching the tool. It is about allowing teachers to integrate all subject areas (if desired) by addressing multiple skills and literacies.

A teacher from Bangkok writes on her blog Shine On a post titled The Reluctant Blogger:

I now have 21 students with blogs, they have another 100 counterparts in our grade at our school alone, and it’s just really hard to get them (okay, myself, too) motivated to comment thoughtfully and in a way that constructs learning.  They (we?) might be happier to comment on and play with the digital pets they like to put up, but what about the big ideas we were hoping to see growing on our blogs?  The inspired writing?  The organic learning?

And yet I persevere.  I am curious to see if my students will respond to the questions I am starting to leave in my comments to them.  I am trying even harder to have blogging replace, rather than add on to existing activities.

What stands out for me are the three questions she asks:

1. What about the big ideas we were hoping to see growing on our blogs?
2. The inspired writing?
3. The organic learning?

I am venturing out to say that I have found the answers to her questions in the Middle School Blog of Mrs. K., the Language Arts teacher at the school I teach at. The blog is very young (less than a month old), but I am seeing unfold exactly what I was hoping a blog could be.

The class started by looking at other classroom blogs and to think about what writing and commenting etiquette was. Mrs. K. made it very clear what she was expecting regarding the quality of student comments.

• Acknowledge the author of the blog post.
• Let the author know if you agree with him/her and why.
• It is also ok to disagree with something, just let the author know why you feel that way.
• One word comments are not very useful. Writing just “cool” or “nice” are not very helpful and don’t let the author of the blog post really know what you are thinking.
• Always make sure you follow “netiquette”. Think if it is appropriate BEFORE you hit the submit button.
• Always be polite . It does not matter if you agree or disagree with what you are reading in a blog. Don’t write anything you would be ashamed of saying to someone’s face. Don’t hurt somebody’s feelings.

Make sure you check out some of students’ thoughts in the comment section of that post.

The teacher then guided students’ curiosity and writing with an editorial blog post titled “Do Killer Whales Belong in Captivity?” The students’ comments are well thought through (there has been a class discussion about this topic previously) and well written (teacher had established her writing expectations, such as no text language, proper grammar, spelling and coherent thoughts). After the initial comments of all students, they are reminded to make sure to read previous comments first in order to avoid duplication or a simple “dump” of a statement. Blogs are about a conversation, students need to take other thoughts into account. As you scroll down further in the comment section, you will start seeing students responding to other commenters by using “@” in front of the username. Mrs. K. had shared with them a list of “Comment Starters”

Comment Starters
( from Youth Radio blog Netiquette-  which in turn was adapted from  Excellence and Imagination )

• This made me think about…….
• I wonder why…….
• Your writing made me form an opinion about…….
• This post is relevant because…….
• Your writing made me think that we should…….
• I wish I understood why…….
• This is important because…….
• Another thing to consider is…….
• I can relate to this…….
• This makes me think of…….
• I discovered…….
• I don’t understand…….
• I was reminded that…….
• I found myself wondering…….

Do Killer Whales belong in Captivity?

Students produced incredible responses. It was evident that they read each others’ comments, thought about their response and invested time in their writing.

Student Comments

When they received comments from outside of our school community (Thank you @Mjmontagne and @sciencelabman and Beth!) a new dimension opened up for them. What they are writing matters! Other people are taking the time to read it and even respond. It came with the awareness, that we can reach out beyond our classroom walls and request AND receive new perspectives. We have entered a new era, where school papers do not get turned in to the teacher, graded, handed back, stuffed into a backpack to then end up in the trash at home. We are at a point, where (even young) students can reach an authentic  audience, that gives feedback and contributes new (not thought of) perspectives and be part of a world wide community.

Comments from a larger world...

So what now? What is next?

• We need to continue modeling and guiding good writing practices (old and new writing genres).
• Start connecting ideas/thoughts and previous blog posts as well as to other writing.
• Bring resources/links as well as embedded media into their posts.
• Pursue larger circles of connections with other students/classes/schools.

Please add your experiences in taking student blogging to the next level. Leave links to good examples for educators, who are just starting out and need models to be able to construct their own understanding of what levels of blogging/writing they could take their students to.

Many times, I see eyes glazing over, when I excitedly speak with parents or administrators about blogging, skyping or podcasting with students. Many of them, unfamiliar with the tools, will immediately feel uncomfortable. Some will automatically and immediately steer the conversation back to what they know:

What about learning the basics, like reading, writing, math and science?

I usually try to explain and emphasize, that these skills are precisely what are being taught. We are not podcasting in order to teach Audacity nor Garageband. We are not recording students for the fun of using microphone, we are not blogging, so we can practice typing, we are not skyping for the purpose of using a webcam.

Parents and administrators, unfamiliar with the tools, also seem worried that “important” academic time is being lost and wasted!

In an attempt to explain that there is so much more involved when using technology tools, I blogged a few months ago, We Podcasted Today So, did you learn anything?

It is important that we explain to parents and administrators that we are using the tools to practice the above mentioned basic literacy skills, engage and motivate students, but also address, integrate and embed so many more skills and literacies.

Take a look at the visuals below:

• Podcasting Skill
• Video Conferencing Skills
• Blogging Skills
• Wiki Skills
• Digital Storytelling

What are some other technology tools you are using in the classroom? What are the skills and literacies that you are addressing? How can we educate parents and administrators that blogging, podcasting and skyping, etc. are simply a vehicle to preparing students for many skills and literacies, including the 3Rs they are accustomed to and familiar with.

Disclaimer:

All images were created by me with photographs obtained at Stockxchnge. The resulting visuals are available for you to use, remix and build upon under the Creative Commons license. This means, that you are free to copy, embed, print, or distribute the images as long as it is not for commercial purposes and you give credit to me, as the original creator.

This work by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

You might want to grab the images with higher resolution from their Flickr Page:

• Podcasting Skills
• Blogging Skills
• Video Conferencing Skills
• Wiki Skills
• Digital Storytelling Skills

Podcasting Skills

Video Conferencing Skills

Blogging Skills

Wiki Skills

Digital Storytelling Skills

The Year: 2010

The Challenge: Take one photograph every day for 365 days.

Display them on my 365/2010 Challenge blog and on my Flickr 365/2010 set.

Joined the EdTech 365/2010 Flickr Group

Purpose: Digital storytelling through photo blogging and to grow as a photographer

Equipment: iPhone and Canon Rebel XS

If you are participating yourself in a 365 Photo Challenge, leave a link to your Flickr set or photo blog to be added to the link list.

Every once in a while, I go hunting…

Gone hunting...

… hunting for plugins for my blog which is using WordPress as its platform.

Plugins are defined according to Wikipedia as:

a computer program that interacts with a host application to provide a certain, usually very specific, function “on demand”

Sometimes, I find a “cool” feature on someone else’s blog and I want to add the same functionality to Langwitches. I then search Wordpress’ plugin directory or directly google for “WordPress or WP plugin and what I want the plugin to do”.

Here is the list of plugins I have currently installed AND activated in my WordPress blog. Check them out and see if you might find them useful for your blog.

Akismet

Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not.

Akismet

Audio player

Audio Player is a highly configurable but simple mp3 player for all your audio needs. You can customise the player’s colour scheme to match your blog theme, have it automatically show track information from the encoded ID3 tags and more.

Once the pluginn is activate, you only have to upload your MP3 file and add this code to your post:

Audio Player

cforms

cformsII offers unparalleled flexibility in deploying contact forms across your blog. Features include: comprehensive SPAM protection, Ajax support, Backup & Restore, Multi-Recipients, Role Manager support, Database tracking and many more.

cForm

CommentLuv

Plugin to show a link to the last post from the commenters blog by parsing the feed at their given URL when they leave a comment. Rewards your readers and encourage more comments.

CommentLuv

LinkWithin

Displays recommended stories and associated thumbnails from your blog

LinkWithin

Most Popular Posts

Display a link to the most popular posts on your blog according to the number of comments.

Page Links To

Allows you to point WordPress pages or posts to a URL of your choosing. Good for setting up navigational links to non-WP sections of your site or to off-site resources.

PollDaddy Polls

Create and manage PollDaddy polls in WordPress

Polls

PostRank

Showcase your Top Posts with the PostRank widget, track social media analytics, and engage with your readers from the WP dashboard.

PostRank

Stray Random Quotes

Display and rotate random quotes and words everywhere on your blog. Easy to custom and manage. Ajax enabled.

Collect significant posts to you directly in your Dashboard. Widget will randomly display your quotes in a sidebar for you.

Subscribe2

Notifies an email list when new entries are posted.

Subscribe to blog updates via e-mail

Subscribe To Comments

Allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.

Subscribe to updates of comments on individual posts via e-mail

TweetMeme Retweet Button

Adds a button which easily lets you retweet your blog posts.

Allow readers to retweet easily from within you blog

Wickett Twitter Widget

Display Tweets in the sidebar of your blog

Display your own tweets on your blog

WordPress.com Stats

Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks.

Statistics

WordPress Database Backup

On-demand backup of your WordPress database.

WP-EMail

Allows people to recommand/send your WordPress blog’s post/page to a friend.

E-mail the posts

WP-Print

Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog’s post/page.

Print version of blog post

WP tags to Technorati

Simple plugin to convert Wordpress 2.3’s tags to Technorati (‘http://technorati.com’) links.

WPtouch iPhone Theme

A plugin which formats your site with a mobile theme for the Apple iPhone / iPod touch, Google Android and other touch-based smartphones.

What are your favorite WordPress plugins? Which ones help you and your blog readers get the most out of? Which plugins are activated? Take the poll in the right sidebar or share in the comment section.

Just a few days ago, Andrea Hernandez (edtechworkshop) and I had a  conversation about our Personal Learning Network.

A “working definition” by David Warlick says that a Personal or Professional Learning Network:

involves an individual’s topic oriented goal, a set of practices or techniques aimed at attracting or organizing a variety of relevant content sources, selected for their value, to help the owner accomplish a professional goal or personal interest.

As I am working on various projects at school (A Worldwide Audience for Six Year Olds? and Jewish History Fair), where the presence of my PLN played a mayor role, I can’t help but wonder, if using and “showing off” these connections to students and other teachers, does not shed a “false” light on “reality”.

In order to disseminate student work, like

• the 1st grade podcast or
• the 8th grade Current Events Google Map

and get them an audience for

• global awareness
• increased motivation
• and the value a network can have as a source of information & resources

you have to have an active PLN to work for and with you.

As Steve Dembo (Teach42) points out in one of his recent posts If you tweet, will anybody hear?

In the effort of attempting to demonstrate how wonderful, simple, powerful and dynamic it is, we make it seem much more effortless than it really is.
[...]
the fact that it takes TIME and EFFORT to gain a few hundred followers. And without having a critical mass of people to message out to, your odds of getting a response from a general tweet are VERY small.

Steve is absolutely right. It takes time and effort to blog, tweet, share and disseminate. Are we making newbies or others who we want to introduce to the value of a PLN look through rose colored glasses?

Seeing the World through Rose Colored Glasses

Some of us are expanding and growing our PLN through blogging, twittering, skyping and speaking at local, state, national and international conferences. In consequence, we are able to create projects, collaborate with global participants solicited through PLN contacts and disseminate results to get feedback through our globally read blogs. I would not be able to do a lot of these above mentioned projects, at least not to the same extend nor with such a far reaching response/audience), without the always willing participant of my PLN.

Will Richardson even compares creating, maintaining, growing and working with and through Personal Learning Networks to a literacy.

… the literacy becomes how do you build these [Personal Learning] Networks?  How do you flourish within these networks? How do you find trusted sources within that context?

[...]

You have to be able to engage in those conversations. You have to be able to find those other people who are producing content or who are engaging in their own kind of conversations that you are interested in.

It takes time… it takes dedication to build a network… it takes perseverance to not give up when no one responds to your  first (second or third) shoutout.

Building and Maintaining a Personal Learning Network

The conversation, Andrea and I had started, about PLNs took a turn by asking, if we could expect every educator to dedicate that time and effort into building  AND maintaining such a PLN?

Is it realistic to expect every teacher to create, be part of AND nourish a PLN? A network that consists of contacts that would allow them to expose their students and their work to a global audience, experts and collaborators? A network that models for students the possibilities of connected and collaborative learning?

I wonder if every school should have a a position that is dedicated to search for, find, grow, nurture and provide a far reaching network of contacts to bridge that gap? The person in that position would be connecting teachers,   scout curriculum related projects from around the world to get involved in, find communication and collaboration partners  and put them in contact with their colleagues and students.

A Learning Network- A Give and Take

That person would be responsible for creating a SLN (School Learning Network). I don’t mean a Learning Network among people who work at the same school. I am thinking of someone in charge of nourishing a Learning Network  for all classes, teachers and students at a school, with their interests in mind.

Such a person could be in charge of sharing resources, growing potential collaboration partners, being available to help others via video conferencing, survey participation or collaborative assessment and in return be able to solicit expert advice, receive authentic feedback and harvest resources to distribute among colleagues and students.

A Learning Network is built on a give and take. You get out of it what you put in. What if that becomes the responsibility of one person or a small group of people at one school in order to benefit the learning experience of everyone?

The Edublog Awards is a wonderful way of getting an incredible list of educational blog list to explore, update your RSS feed with and learn from.

I was honored to be nominated in two categories and humbled to have been voted  Runner Up for “Best Educational Tech Support Blog. It is good to know that others are viewing my work as a support for their own work in teaching.

Congratulations to all winners, runner ups, AND nominees.

The Edublog Awards via kwout

Recognition such as the one from Scott Meech on this occasion REALLY meant a lot to me.

Langwitches blog is required reading for me as she is a major inspiration for my work. She has more “foundational” understanding of how to utilize technology with kids than almost anyone that I have followed.  While too many of us get caught up in the theoretical, she is in the trenches making things happen.  Regardless of your vote, if you work with kids on a daily basis, her entries should be on the “must read” list every day!

Vicki Davis’ recent tweet also expresses what I feel:

We are teachers after all and helping and supporting others in their learning is WHAT WE DO.

I don’t blog or share for recognition or awards. My blog is my outlet to:

• document my work
• see the progress of my own professional development and growth
• help me reflect
• get feedback and advice if I am on the right track or haven’t considered one perspective or another
• connect to my PLN
• disseminate my students’ work to reach a global audience
• share my own learning and teaching, so someone else can reach students, I will never see or meet.

I am honored that this blog has been nominated for the Edublog Awards 2009 in the following two categories:

• Best Teacher Blog
• Best Educational Tech and Support Blog

Thank you to all who nominated Langwitches Blog.

If you haven’t voted yet, click on the above links and cast your votes.

If you are not into the “voting” thing, follow the links anyway and you might discover some incredible resources from amazing teachers and educators around the world.

Thank you to all who nominated Langwitches Blog.

Best individual blog

1. 2 Cents Worth
2. Always Learning Blog
3. Betchablog
4. Blogush
5. Blue Skunk Blog
6. Dangerously Irrelevant
7. dy/dan
8. edte.ch
9. Education Innovation
10. elearnspace
11. Free Technology for Teachers
12. Ideas and Thoughts
13. Informal Learning Blog
14. Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom
15. Jane’s eLearning Pick of the Day
16. Joanne Jacobs
17. Kalinago English
18. Kathy Schrock’s Kaffeeklatsch
19. Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites Of The Day For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
20. Learning Is Messy
21. Learning Vision
22. Learning with ‘e’s
23. Making Change
24. Moving At The Speed Of Creativity
25. Open Thinking
26. Pair-a-Dimes for Your Thoughts
27. ProfBlog
28. Scholastic Scribe
29. Six Things
30. Social Media in Learning
31. Stephen Downes OLDaily
32. Sue Waters Blog
33. Teacher Reboot Camp
34. The Ed Techie
35. The Innovator Educator
36. The Neverending Search Blog
37. Weblogg-ed

2. Best individual tweeter

1. AngelaMaiers
2. BudTheTeacher
3. butwait
4. steve_collis
5. courosa
6. Darcy1968
7. hjarche
8. JaneBozarth
9. jdeyenberg
10. jenwagner
11. joevans
12. josiefraser
13. KarenJan
14. karynromeis
15. Larryferlazzo
16. Marisa_C
17. msgregson
18. msjweir
19. moehlert
20. mtechman
21. olliebray
22. psychemedia
23. rliberni
24. russeltarr
25. shareski
26. ShellTerrell
27. sidneyeve
28. thecleversheep
29. tombarrett
30. Tomwhitby
31. web20classroom

3.  Best group blog

1. 360
2. Afgahn Women’s Writing Project
3. A Year of Reading
4. Blogging Pedagogy
5. Committed Sardine
6. Ed Tech RoundUp
7. Ed Tech Talk
8. I.N.K. Interesting Nonfiction for Kids
9. Infinite Thinking Machine
10. In Practice
11. Jay P Greene’s Blog
12. LeaderTalk
13. Library Garden
14. MacMillian Dictionary Blog
15. Pontydysgu – Bridge to Learning
16. ProfHacker.com
17. Redbridge Games Network
18. SCC English
19. Sup Teach
20. Teacher Voices
21. Tech & Learning Advisor Blog
22. The Adams 14 Global Learner Blog
23. The Educators’ Royal Treatment
24. Traditions Across Europe
25. WorkPlace Learning Today
26. Yalsa Blog

4. Best new blog

1. Agnostic, Maybe
2. Chris Leach
3. Classroom Book of the Week
4. David Cox’s Questions?
5. Dr Brown’s Blog
6. East Dragon Den
7. Edgalaxy
8. edVisioned.ca
9. EFT Musings and other Tidbits
10. I’m A Dreamer
11. In the pICTure
12. JonBischke.com
13. Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
14. Ken Wilson’s Blog
15. Kristen Winkler
16. Learning to Speak ‘Merican
17. Look At My Happy Rainbow
18. Marisa Constantinides – TEFL Matters
19. Mr. Wiemers’ Shop
20. Ozge Karaoglu’s blog
21. performance.learning. productivity
22. Read…Write…Talk
23. Reality 101: CEC’s Blog for New Teachers
24. School Food Matters
25. Sweeney Math
26. TAGMirror
27. The Educators’ Royal Treatment
28. Teaching Village
29. Teach Paperless
30. Teacher Reboot Camp
31. Technology Tidbits
32. Thinking in Mind
33. This Week’s Education Humor
34. The Web 2.0 Optimist
35. Trails Optional
36. Webmaths
37. West Coast Left
38. Why Did the Chickenman Cross the Road?
39. Zarcoenglish – Tools of the Day

5. Best class blog

1. Alice Project
2. All Saints Languages Blog
3. Billings Middle School Tech Class Blog
4. Borman Blogging
5. Class 4OQ’s Blog
6. Creative Voice
7. East Dragon Den
8. English With Rosa
9. Extreme Biology
10. Fab4@Work
11. Forrester High School Int 2 Info Systems
12. Gelincik Grubu
13. Griffin Science – 8th Grade
14. Huzzah!
15. Intermediate English class blog
16. Luce Semester 2009
17. Ka Tangi Hoki Ko Au Room 15 Blog
18. Law Primary School East Lothian Primary 6 Blog
19. MrCs Class Blog
20. Mr McClung’s World
21. Mrs. Yollis’ Classroom Blog
22. Ms Mourad’s Absolutely Sensational Learners
23. Mrs Goerend’s Blog
24. Planet Infinity
25. Room 10 Grey Lynn School
26. Room 18’s Learning Journey blog
27. Room 231
28. Rumford Writers
29. Saint Exupery 6
30. South Paris Collaborative Chat
31. Tamaki Tales
32. Tamaki Primary Blockbusters
33. Technology in the Classroom
34. The Greatest Middle School Blog in the World
35. The Overlakes 6th Grade Blog
36. The Skinny
37. Think in English
38. Watch Out!

6. Best student blog

1. Adora’s Blog
2. Allison’s blog
3. Civil War Sallie
4. Eric’s Blog
5. Gamer’s Spot
6. Jess
7. Josh Halliday.com
8. Moo
9. Nicola’s ePortfolio
10. Rachel e-learning
11. Suzanne Yada
12. TanNuj’s Weblog
13. Tiffany
14. Toreka Pt England School
15. Universo

7. Best resource sharing blog

1. Around the Corner – MGulin.org
2. Aula de Física
3. Don’t Waste Your Time
4. Doug Off The Record
5. edGalaxy
6. Edte.ch
7. Educational Origami
8. Elearning Technologies
9. Emerging Internet Technologies for Education
10. Free English Lessons Online
11. Free Resources for education
12. Free Technology for Teachers
13. Free Resources from the Net for EVERY Learner
14. f(t)
15. Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day
16. Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day
17. My English printable worksheets
18. Nik’s Learning Technology Blog
19. Open Culture
20. Ozge Karaoglu’s Blog
21. Sharing the Addiction
22. Stephen Downes’s OLDaily
23. Steve Spangler Blog
24. Teaching the Civil War with Technology
25. TeachPaperless
26. Technology Tidbits:  Thoughts of a Cyber Hero
27. The Exponential Curve
28. Tim Rylands’ Web Log
29. TipLine
30. Welcome to NCS-Tech

8.  Most influential blog post

1. Ann Marie Cunningham’s Tech addiction ‘harms learning’ …..really??? $24.99 and I am no wiser
2. Anseo.net’s Head in the Clouds
3. Danah Boyd’s Spectacle at Web2.0 Expo… from my perspective
4. Dan Maas’s Writing with Laptops
5. Burcu Akyol’s Spread Your Knowledge series
6. Bud Hunt’s Would You Please Block?
7. Dan Myer’s A Fifth Year Teacher’s Creed
8. Dan Meyer’s What I Would Do With This: Groceries
9. David Wiley’s A few notes about openness (and a request)
10. Dean Shareski’s Student and Teacher blogging that succeeds
11. Doug Johnson’s Where are the others?
12. Intrepid Flame’s This, This, That
13. James Clay’s The VLE is Dead – The Movie
14. Jon’s A Manifesto for EduChange in the Eve of Hacking Education
15. Joyce Valenca’s My 2.0 day and the response/rant about our cover argument
16. Joyce Valenza & Doug Johnson Things That Keep Us Up at Night
17. Liz B. Davis’s 10 Tips for Teaching Technology to Teachers
18. Marisa Constantinides on  How to become an ELT Teacher Educator
19. Martin Weller’s Using learning environments as a metaphor for educational change
20. Michael Fienen’s The Great Keynote Meltdown of 2009
21. Michael Smith’s Germ X Generation
22. Scott McCleod’s Calling all bloggers! – Leadership Day 2009
23. Sean Nash’s The Four Pillars of Technology Integration
24. Shelly Terrell’s EdChat’s “Join the Conversation”
25. Stephen Downes’s An Operating System for the Mind
26. Steve Wheeler’s Another nail in the coffin?
27. TeachPaperless’s Top Eleven Things All Teachers Must Know About Technology (or I promised Dean Groom I wouldn’t write a top ten list; so this one goes up to eleven.)
28. Wes Fryer’s Debating the propriety of blanket censorship by school IT departments
29. Will Richardson’s The Obama Speech
30. Will Richardson’s Don’t, Don’t, Don’t vs. Do, Do, Do

9.  Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion

1. Blogworthy Tweets
2. #edchat
3. #edayz09
4. #geekpoll
5. #lrnchat – #lrnchat blog
6. #movemeon
7. #ontarioplp
8. #teachertuesday

10. Best teacher blog

1. Always Learning
2. Andrew B. Watt’s Blog
3. Blogging About the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom
4. Blogger in Middle-earth
5. Blogush
6. Box Of Tricks
7. Cool Cat Teacher
8. Continuous Everywhere but Differentiable Nowhere
9. Darcy Moore’s Blog
10. David Truss: Pair-a-dimes for your thoughts
11. Division By Zero
12. dy/dan
13. edTe.ch
14. f(t)
15. iTeach
16. Langwitches Blog
17. Learn Me Good
18. Life Feast
19. Kelli’s Blog
20. Mr Robbo – The P.E Geek
21. Music is Not For Insects
22. Musings from a Not-So-Master Teacher
23. Nashworld
24. Philly Teacher
25. Pissed Off Teacher
26. Practical Theory
27. Science Teacher
28. The Scholastic Scribe
29. Tip of The Iceberg
30. Tween Teacher
31. Two Writing Teachers
32. Welcome to NCS Tech

11. Best librarian / library blog

1. A Fuse #8 Productions
2. Bloggit
3. Bright Ideas
4. Blue Skunk
5. Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts
6. Hey Jude
7. LCS ES Media Blog
8. Librarian by Day Blog
9. Library Tech Musings
10. Lucacept
11. My Mind Gap
12. Never Ending Search
13. Not So Distant Future
14. The Unquiet Librarian
15. The Unquiet Library
16. The Waki Librarian
17. The Web Footed Book Lady
18. Wired Librarian
19. World’s Strongest Librarian

12.  Best educational tech support blog

1. Assorted Stuff
2. Blogging About the Web 2.0 Connected Classroom
3. Box of Tricks
4. Creating Lifelong Learners
5. e4Africa
6. Edte.ch
7. Human
8. iLearn Technology
9. Langwitches
10. Life Feast
11. Nik’s Learning Technology Blog
12. Open Thinking
13. Ozge Karaoglu’s Blog
14. Pipweks
15. Rapid Elearning Blog
16. Simulações e Animações Conceptuais no Ensino da Física e da Química
17. Sue Waters Blog
18. Teach 42
19. Teachers Love Smartboards
20. The Power Of Educational Technology
21. Thumann Resources
22. TechTicker
23. The Edublogger
24. The Innovator Educator
25. The Whiteboard Blog
26. Using ICT in Further Education

13. Best elearning / corporate education blog

1. Adventures in Corporate Education
2. Angela Maiers
3. Assistive Technology
4. El Camarote
5. e-learning, conocimiento en red y web colectiva
6. eLearning Technology
7. elearnspace
8. Janet Clarey
9. Learning with ‘e’s
10. Life Feast
11. MPB Reflections — 21st Century Teaching and Learning
12. Rapid Elearning blog
13. Teaching Ideas and Resources
14. Workplace Learning Today

14.  Best educational use of audio

1. Aussiekids
2. Bit by Bit
3. Breaking News English
4. Diane’s ESL Podcast
5. EdTechTalk
6. Gator Radio Experience
7. Get Smart podcasts
8. Kerry J’s Conference Coverage
9. Kidcast
10. Latin Poetry Podcast
11. LearnTrends
12. MediaSnackers
13. MP Radio
14. Musical Blogies
15. My Audio School
16. Podkids
17. Seedlings
18. SLF Talk
19. Teacher 2.0 podcasts
20. Teachers Teaching Teachers
21. The A.T.Tipscast
22. The Virtual Staffroom
23. Tech Chicks Podcast
24. Wesley Fryer
25. Wicked Decent Learning
26. Xyleme Voices features

15.  Best educational use of video / visual

1. Angela Maiers
2. Common Craft Plain English Series
3. Bitacora de Ánibal de la Torre
4. Brent Coley’s Study Cast & iPod Flash Cards
5. Dan Meyer’s What Can You Do With This?
6. Darren Elliot’s Lives of Teachers
7. Dave Cormier’s “Presenting With Live Slides”
8. Edit Foundry
9. Hatak’s AP Chemistry Podcast
10. Inanimate Alice
11. ISTE Eduverse Talk
12. Leon Cych’s conference recordings
13. MediaSnackers
14. Michael Wesch’s videos showcase
15. Musical Blogies
16. Rhett Allain’s Dot Physics
17. Russell Stannard
18. Saint Joseph Digital Express
19. Smart History: The Blog
20. Steve Spangler’s blog
21. TEFLclips
22. The Longfellow Ten
23. Torley Linden
24. Tom Barrett – interesting ways
25. viz.: Visual Rhetoric — visual culture — pedagogy

16.  Best educational wiki

1. Benson Bobcat Wiki
2. Business English Online
3. CDSPD
4. Web 2.0 Cool tools for School
5. Digitally Speaking
6. East Dragon Den wiki
7. EdOrigami
8. Ed Tech Round Up
9. Ed Tech Wiki
10. EduWiki.us
11. Greetings From The World
12. Getting Tricky With Wikis
13. HUMS3001: Censorship and Responsibility
14. Indispensible Tools
15. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
16. Joykaydia
17. King/Chavez 3rd Grade
18. Ktitraci
19. Kohner wiki
20. Learning For Content
21. Learning Telecollaborative
22. NDSL wiki
23. Moving Forward
24. One World Project Wiki!
25. Open Education 09 wiki
26. Open Thinking
27. Ozge Karaoglu’s wiki
28. PLN Yourself!
29. Second Life Wiki
30. Soar 2 New Heights
31. Springfield Township Virtual Library
32. Teaching with Thinking and Technology
33. Teachmeet Wiki
34. The File Cabinet
35. The UDLTechToolKit
36. Web 2.0 Guru
37. WebTools4U2Use
38. Wikieducator
39. WSD’s eToolbox

17.  Best educational use of a social networking service

1. Beth Still ISTE/ NECC Newbie Project
2. Classroom 2.0
3. Country Day School Ning
4. Digiteen Ning
5. Educator PLN ning
6. EFL Classroom 2.0
7. eLearning Professionals on Facebook
8. Elementary Tech Teachers ning
9. English Companion Ning
10. Fireside Learning: Conversations about Education
11. Independent School Educators Network
12. LearnTrends Online Conference
13. Mathematics24×7
14. MSP2 Maths & Science Pathways Online Social Network
15. OnlineProjects4Teachers
16. Principles of Biology
17. RSC Access and Inclusion Ning
18. Saltashrainbow
19. Second Classroom
20. talk.ed
21. Technology Integration in Education
22. The Assistive Technology Ning

18.  Best educational use of a virtual world

1. CANVAS (Children’s Art in the Virtual Arena of Scotland)
2. DEN SL Blog
3. Edunation
4. ISTE’s Second Life island
5. Reaction Grid
6. SecondLife Education New Zealand
7. School of Nursing, University of Kansas
8. SIGMS in Second Life
9. Sloodle
10. The International Schools Island (isi)
11. The UC Davis Virtual Hallucination simulation
12. Virtual Graduation at the University of Edinburgh
13. Virtual Macbeth – Angela Thomas
14. Virtual Round Table Conference

19.  Lifetime achievement

1. David Warlick
2. Doug Johnson
3. Jane Hart
4. Jay Cross
5. John Davitt
6. Jo Kay
7. Josie Fraser
8. Judy O’Connell
9. Karl Fisch
10. Kevin Jarrett
11. Larry Ferlazzo
12. Peggy Sheehy
13. Richard Bryne
14. Scott McLeod
15. Stephen Downes
16. Steve Hargadon
17. Sue Waters
18. Vicki Davis
19. Wes Fryer
20. Will Richardson

The Edublog Awards 2009 are open for nomination!

This is our chance to nominate and celebrate

the achievements of edubloggers, twitterers, podcasters, video makers, online communities, wiki hosts and other web based users of educational technology.

Here are the categories, I would like to nominate the following individuals:

• Best individual blog- Kim Cofino- Always Learning Blog  http://mscofino.edublogs.org/
• Best individual tweeter- Steven W. Anderson @web20classroom
• Best group blog- LeaderTalk- http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/LeaderTalk/
• Best new blog- Kerri Lee Beasley- Tip of the Iceberg – http://kerileebeasley.com/
• Best resource sharing blog- Tom Barrett- ICT in My Classroom- http://edte.ch
• Best teacher blog- Kevin Jarrett- NCS- Tech- http://www.ncs-tech.org/
• Best librarian / library blog – Karen Kliegman- Wired Librarian http://wlteam.blogspot.com/
• Best educational tech support blog- Sue Waters Blog – http://suewaters.com/
• Lifetime achievement- Wes Fryer- Moving at the Speed of Creativity- http://www.speedofcreativity.org/

Thank you to all  for you hard work, sharing what you do and for being part of my learning network!

You can nominate your own favorites. Simply follow the directions from

Step 1: Write a post on your blog linking to:

1. The Edublog Awards Homepage
2. The blogs & sites that you want to nominate (must be linked to!)
   

You can nominate for as many categories as you like, but only one nomination per category, and not yourself You can nominate a blog (or site) for more than one category)

Step 2: Email us the link to your nomination post

Use the form on The Edublog Awards Homepage to contact us, please include a genuine email address (spam free, just in case we need to confirm identity) and the link to your nominations post.

I’ll be joining bloggers around the Web for the 2009 Geography Awareness Week Blog-a-thon, hosted by National Geographic’s My Wonderful World Campaign.

Tune in to the My Wonderful World Blog November 15-21 for a daily dose of geographic news and jottings, photos, calls to action, a mystery location quiz, and more…

Langwitches blog was nominated and placed in the

Top 100 Language Blogs 2009!

The Top 100 Language Blogs 2009 is the largest language blog competition and is hosted annually by bab.la and Lexiophiles. It is aimed at finding the best blogs related to languages and awarding language-loving bloggers. This year there were 473 nominated blogs from 26 different countries in four categories.