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38 ways to find great edublogs

February 20th, 2009 | Author:

At the beginning of Feb I wrote about “8 Ways to find great edublogs“. Since then I’ve come across many more useful links so I thought I’d reorganize my original post a little to make it more user friendly for those starting to look at Edublogs. One things I forgot to say in the original is “what is an Edublog?” Well wikipedia describes an edublog as, “a blog written by someone with a stake in education.”

Wikipedia goes on to say, “Examples might include blogs written by or for teachers, blogs maintained for the purpose of classroom instruction, or blogs written about educational policy. The collection of these blogs is called the edublogosphere by some, in keeping with the larger blogosphere, although that label is not necessarily universally agreed upon. Others refer to the community or collection of blogs and bloggers as the edusphere.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edublog)

OK, so here are some ways to find great edublogs:

A Starting Place

1) Ask friends/colleagues with an interest in education if they blog, and if they do read their blogs.

2) Ask friends/colleagues which edublogs they recommend, and read those.

3) Look on the blog rolls of edublogs you already read to see which blogs they suggest. If you like they stuff they write, chances are they also read blogs you’ll like.

4) Note other edublogs mentioned in those you already read. You might find an edublogger you would never have found otherwise.

The Great and the Good
Here are some sites listing top edubloggers:

5) The Edublogs awards have been awarded since 2004. It was an honour to be nominated in 2005 for some research I did with my colleague Lyn Boddington at Lincoln University.

6) Dangerously Irrelevant did a posting on the Top 50 P-12 Edublogs? – June 2008 using Technorati’s Authority and Ranking data.

7) OEDB did a list of the top 100 edublogs at the end of 2006. A little old now but I recognise many of the blogs as still being current and great blogs.

8 ) Edutopia did a Top 10 in 2007, not scientifically drawn up but still some good edublogs there.

9) Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer did a list in Jan 2009 of the 50 Top Education Blogs based on their engagement over the past 30 days.

10) 25 EduBlogs You Simply Don’t Want to Miss! by ZaidLearn, is in a different format on Slideshare

11) Outstanding Edublogs is another personal collection with some blogs I follow in the list. This one is presented via Clipmarks

12) Yearly Roundup – The 20 best edublog posts of 2006 is a slightly different approach listing top posts rather than top blogs, but it will still point you to some great edublogs.

Edublog Directories
These provide a list of edublogs, often self nominated, but still worthy of a look. You could add your own blog perhaps?

13) Australian Edubloggers

14) Kiwiedubloggers

15) International Edubloggers Directory

16) UK & Ireland EduBloggers Directory

17) India Edubloggers

18) Teacher Lingo

Search Engines & Indices

19) Edublogs is a Google Beta Custom Search created by Stephen Downs, whose edublog you probably want to add to your list.

The following are blog search engines rather than edublog search engines but you will still find edublogs listed just add edublog or education or school or K12 (you get the idea) to you search term(s)

20) Blogarama

21) Blogdigger

22) Bloglines

23) Blogsearchengine

24) Eatonweb

25) Feedster

26) Globe of blogs

27) Search4blogs

28) Syndic8

29) Technorati

Tools of the Trade
You’ll need some tools to help you, so here are some to get you started.

30) Jane Hart of Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (C4LPT) has a great list of Top Blogging Tools

Once you have a list of 10 or more sites you are going to need a feed reader. This picks up the RSS feed (really simple syndication) from each blog and enables you to read them all in one place. A great time saver, plus you don’t have to go the the blog’s URI only to find there is nothing new posted. Here are some suggestions:

31) Feedreader I started with this one. It is downloaded on to your PC and is great if you only use one machine.

32) Bloglines I moved to this service as it is web based (for Mac and PC) so I could read blogs at work and at home and Bloglines knew what I had read no matter which machine I was on.

33) Google Reader I use this currently as part of my iGoogle page. Also web based.

34) Mac users can find a list of feed readers here

Create your own Edublog
After reading some edublogs perhaps you want to start your own, here are some places to get hosted for free

35) My post back in November – Slides – Blogging. What is it? How do you do it? What does it have to do with learning & teaching? lists some free blog hosts on slide 11. My top three suggestions are:

36) Edublogs – teacher and student blogs service specifically for education

37) Blogger very easy service to start with, I started here before moving to my own WordPress blog on my own domain

38) WordPress‘s hosted service

So what would you add??????

Image: Bluff Sign Post by Rob Young

Posted in (e)Learning & (e)Teaching, Web 2.0 Applications | Tags: , ,
  • http://www.kapilbhatia.com kapil

    social bookmarking engines like delicious and diigo are great way to explore edublogs.
    I usually find great blogs listening to lot of education podcasts also.

  • http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/02/22/looking-for-good-education-blogs/ Looking For Good Education Blogs? | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

    [...] Carol Cooper Taylor has posted a list of 38 ways to find great edublogs. [...]

  • http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/02/23/the-best-places-to-find-good-education-blogs/ The Best Places To Find Good Education Blogs | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

    [...] I posted about two excellent sources sharing sources to find education-related blogs to read.  They are both very good posts, and I’m still working through their [...]

  • http://ltsg.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/a%c2%a0-38-ways-to-find-great-edublogsa%c2%a0bya%c2%a0blog-by-carol/   38 ways to find great edublogs by Blog By Carol « LTSG

    [...]   38 ways to find great edublogs by Blog By Carol By mgvh@ltsg   38 ways to find great edublogs by Blog By Carol [...]

  • http://blogs.learnnc.org/instructify/2009/03/02/monday-by-the-numbers-39/ Instructify » Blog Archive » Monday by the numbers

    [...] 38 ways to find great edublogs With so many educators out there who blog, how do you find the good stuff? Blog by Carol presents this list of 38 ways to find great edublogs, such as checking the Edublogs awards, using Technorati authority, and the time-honored method of asking people you already trust which blogs they read. Of course, if you need a place to start, Instructify isn’t too bad. [...]

  • http://thecornerstoneforteachers.blogspot.com Angela

    Thanks for sharing such a useful post. I’ve featured it on my blog as one of The Cornerstone Accolades for February 2009.

    http://tinyurl.com/bcazmp

  • http://pluke.edublogs.org/2009/03/07/edugroupie-learning-from-others/ Edugroupie – learning from others | Flat Chat Learning

    [...] have especially enjoyed reading through Carol Cooper Taylor’s post of 38 ways to find great edublogs  and found her link to ‘Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer’ particularly [...]

  • http://blog.ticat.info/2009/03/15/oldaily-s-downes-9-03-09/ » OLDaily per Stephen Downes, 9 de març de 2009 TIC, E/A, REF / PER…:

    [...] xat), que introdueix el concepte de colla educativa (edugroupie) i parla d’una entrada al Blog by Carol (blog de Carol) que diu a la gent on poden trobar nous edublogs. Introducing The EduGroupie [...]

  • http://murraygirl.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/links-for-2009-03-30/ links for 2009-03-30 « Donna Murray

    [...]   38 ways to find great edublogs by Blog By Carol (tags: blogpost links blogs exampleined professionaldevelopment) [...]

  • http://www.logodesignnewzealand.co.nz/ Rajita- Logo Design

    Thanks for these excellent education blogs.That is a very helpful list

  • jack black

    Thanks for the tips to find out my correct edu blogs..I will follow these thirty eight steps and will be back here to comment about it..
    GED test

  • tulip

    Nice tips for find out edu blogs as we know a free link from .edu blogs has an immense power to get a site at top in Google. thanks for sharing.

    SEO

  • http://www.otssolutions.com/ Rohit

    thnaks for the tips

  • http://sbssinavi2009.blogspot.com/ sbs

    I really like this post. Thanks for this article, Anyone got any more info about it? I am now your blog' s rss follower. you are now in my bookmarks.

  • http://gadgettechblog.com/ Gadget_Blog

    This is quite impressive, I am pleased to read this post, keep posts like this coming, you totally rock!
    Cheers,
    gadgettechblog.com

  • http://www.edublogfinder.com/ Edu Blog Finder

    I've found the best edu blogs to relevant sites from the sigfiles of people on college message boards devoted to that topic. Look for people who post a great deal of meaninful posts. This way you know if they're going to place edu blogs urls in their signatures that they stand by it.

  • usedtrucks

    Great stuff. I found a few blogs on there that I hadn't heard of before, so it's always nice to learn of new ones.

  • http://www.cnatrainingclasses.net/ CNA Classes

    Thanks for this. I've been looking for some .edu blogs as I'm aware of their importance in Google's eyes.

  • thusawan

    Thanks for these excellent education blogs.That is a very helpful list

  • http://www.cnatrainingclasses.net/ CNA Classes

    Hi all, just dropped by to tell you all of another way to get Edu blogs:
    site:.edu inurl:blog “keyword″

    The keyword bit is obviously where you enter your keyword!

  • http://www.cnatrainingclasses.net/ CNA Classes

    Hi all, just dropped by to tell you all of another way to get Edu blogs:
    site:.edu inurl:blog “keyword″

    The keyword bit is obviously where you enter your keyword!

  • http://www.hedefsbs.com/ sbs

    I really like this post. Thanks for this article, I am now your blog' s rss follower. you are now in my bookmarks.

  • http://www.jobjobhealth.com/ Healthcare Jobs

    are they really so much important? do they have any special weight in Google or any other search engine eyes? whats your thoughts Carol?

  • http://cooper-taylor.com Carol Cooper-Taylor

    Search engines love blogs, as they get updated content on a regular basis. Search engine optimisation folk will tell you that if you are going to sell something do it via a blog rather than web pages, so at the moment it seems blogs have greater weight for search engines.

  • http://gadgetgoat.net/home/ Tech Gadget

    Nice tips for find out edu blogs as we know a free link from .edu blogs has an immense power to get a site at top in Google. thanks for sharing.

  • tonynoel

    Very interesting it looks like I might have an edublog without actually realizing it, I came across your site while looking for something else. I think I might do something about linking to you from my blog or website (http://shamuschool.blogspot.com) or ( http://www.shamu.megabyet.net) thanks Tony

  • http://cooper-taylor.com Carol Cooper-Taylor

    Thanks Tony, always appreciate links :)
    I corrected the typos in your links BTW, so they work :)
    Cheers Carol

  • Anonymous

    Going through this blog post I am clear about what it is actually doing. Nice post. Thanks for sharing.

  • languageschoolabroad

    After reading this blog post I am clear about what it is actually doing. Nice post. Thanks for sharing.

  • http://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/2009/03/cornerstone-accolades-february-2009.html The Cornerstone Accolades: February 2009

    [...] Blog Resource:38 Great Ways to Find Edublogs at Blog by Carol (hat tip to Instructify). If you’re tired of sorting through outdated [...]

  • http://www.aabtraining.co.uk/trainercourses/ptlls_train_the_trainer.php PTLLS

    thanks, we have been looking for edu links for a long time

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    Excellent articles i enjoyed while reading this particular post.

  • http://twitter.com/ligawebdesign Liga Web

    great collection

  • http://www.searchengineoptimisationwales.com/ seo wales

    Lovely list. Just bookmarked it. This is going to come in as a handy resource for the future. Like the tools of the trade list. This is a staple for me. :)

  • Adam

    thanks for putting so many resources in an organized source!

  • http://www.sandfordhighschool.com High School Diploma

    Keep inspiring your readers, Help full for lots of peoples. thank you!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FSIIXP6HETKCYH22OVCYDLIWBY i am the boos

     it gr8



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