Blog School Communitiesby Odvard Egil Dyrli Using Weblogs to share personal thoughts, opinions and information across the Internet is exploding in every area of society, and capturing the interest of educators and students around the world. A new blog comes online every second, and the Technorati.com directory lists 57 million examples on every conceivable topic. Blogs are also becoming one of the greatest communications vehicles for teaching, learning and professional development in K-12 schools. Popular school-related blogs include EduBlog Insights (anne.teachesme.com), Dangerously Irrelevant (www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org), and Weblogg-ed (www.weblogg-ed.com). The enormous grassroots power of blogs shifts Web users from being passive consumers of information to active participants in creating collaborative content. A major new example of an education community built around blogging is The Pulse, from District Administration magazine (www.districtadministration.com), where you can discuss and debate the biggest ideas in education with today's top leaders including Susan Ohanian, W. James Popham, David Thornburg and many more. As The Pulse Editor Gary Stager describes it, "The Pulse features exclusive articles by leading educators, authors, scholars and policy-makers, along with news related to education. Best of all, you can talk back and add your voice to the conversation. Please do!" For example, Roger Schank's recent comment "We have got to get rid of the library metaphor or school will always be an experience to be endured rather than relished," unleashed a firestorm of controversy about schools and libraries. Similarly, Alfie Kohn raised questions on why kids are required to do homework in spite of "a stunning lack of evidence that it's beneficial." Participants may agree, disagree or take offense, but The Pulse is always interesting, and truly is "Education's Place for Debate!" Join us!
Odvard Egil Dyrli is Editor-in-Chief of District Administration magazine. | ||