The Hows & Whys of blogging. A collection of articles, presentations and Workshop notes by Sylvia Guinan
Choices There are many choices we can make with regard to which blogging platform to use and how one wishes to utilise the blog in a professional manner as a teacher. One thing I'd like to emphasise from the start is that the blog should be an expressive venue for clarifying thoughts, bringing ideas to light and inspiring others who seek
guidance in their own teaching lives. Your blog should never be a source of stress or self-imposed chore. Blogging power resides in the fact that the blog is a tool for self-expression and a professional and ongoing diary of teaching and/or professional development. The blog is beyond academia. Academics themselves need to realise that not all written words need to be peer reviewed in the ivory towers. Ideas cannot have citations if they've never been born before. Blogs can also provide us with an avenue for action research and academic study. Quite a few forwardthinking academics in the field are bringing academia to the blogosphere in exciting ways. I featured one such academic on my own teaching blog here. The power of social academia online, featuring Achilleas Kostoulas. Another academic, Nick Sousanis, wrote his entire PhD thesis in comic form. It's so good to push back the boundaries of common experience and find your own professional voice online, regardless. Teachers can use blogging to define their own views, visions and experiences of education. More importantly, blogs are springboards for student creativity. As your read through more of my blogging articles, you'll find
much food for thought and inspiration to get your own blog going.
How to find and revise your teaching voice online Who are you? As teachers of the digital age we are no longer passive consumers of information. We still have things we want to learn, but most especially, we have things we want to say. In fact, these things are no longer mutually exclusive. Social learning occurs where voice and opportunity meet beyond time zones, culture, gender, politics, or isolation. You may be a teacher who feels isolated in a large school where your own ideologies are misunderstood, isolated because you work from home, or isolated because you are doing the ”done thing”; conforming to the status quo in ways that stifle your personal values or smother your true teaching instinct. You may want to find international colleagues who share your struggles and insights, entertain your ideas, challenge you, and support you when times are tough. Or you may be a teacher in love with your school, work, and students and you want to shout it from the rooftops and share your passions with the world. You may also wish to document and publish your work in meaningful ways, find likeminded colleagues who can inspire you, or simply answer a calling to share your message with the world. No, really, who are you? It can, however be a very noisy social world out there, and you may be put off by the apparent chaos of social media, and the relentless churning of thoughts being plastered onto your screen and onto your mind 24/7. The last thing you want to do is become part of the noise. You want to stand out, not for careerist reasons, but because communication has no meaning if you have nothing of value to communicate. You cannot make a difference if you’ve nothing different to say. You cannot reach the hearts and minds of your teaching networks if your own principles have become trapped in swamps of tasteless goulash.
Your core message is the spice, the missing ingredient. Who you are at the core of your professionalism must shine through authentically, brightly and unequivocally. The medium is the message. The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium – that is, of any extension of ourselves – result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology. Marshall McLuhan Digital footprints.
Social media has transformed the way we communicate, although our basic evolutionary make-up remains the same. That’s why the social principles that shaped social behaviour in pre-historic times and led to the survival of Homo Sapiens, are the same ones we now need to translate into the digital world. In some ways it’s easier, because we have multi-media and interactivity at our finger tips. However, it’s also harder
because too much choice can lead to paralysis of the mind, overkill and too much of a good thing. In many ways, we are now more accountable for our thoughts, words and actions, because we have the power to shape our own digital footprints for good or for ill. This also means that we no longer have to suffer the indignity of being ‘‘one of the masses“, herded into dominant culture-speak by the powers that be. How your message becomes associated with your digital footprint depends upon three things. 1) How well you can express the essence of your professionalism. 2) How skillfully you can choose and use the various platforms and types of multi-media available to you. 3) How good you are at stripping down complex issues into their core truths. A designer knows he has achieved perfection, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away Antoine de Saint-Exupery Be yourself .
Therefore it’s better to make an art of your daily tweets, or status updates, as long as your are ideas clear and authentic, than it is to spread yourself thinly all over different slices of publishing media if you are going to lose your voice in the process. In fact, I’d say that this is the first step in finding your true voice, and when you do, you will automatically find your message embedding itself into all kinds of other publishing arenas you never would have imagined possible.The principles I’ve highlighted in the image above can help us to focus, even in the most unruly of circumstances. They can also help us to remain constant as we find our voices online and, ultimately, fulfill our basic needs to share, learn and make a difference. These are social principles discovered by science through trial, error, research and experiments. My experience tells me that these principles ring true and they certainly help me to focus more as a professional.
The Six Principles: 1) Simplicity – makes your message both simple and profound. 2) Unexpectedness – a counter-intuitive twist in your message attracts attention. 3) Concrete imagery - abstraction dulls the mind. 4) Credibility – integrity, humility and honesty are your gold standard in social currency. 5) Emotions – feeling felt, mirror neurons, social intelligence, contagious synergy. 6) Stories – the proverbs of your mind in micro-bites. Bearing the above principles in mind, here are some insights into building up a powerful digital footprint and strong voice within your networks. The steps outlined below will help you to find your own teaching values by virtue of social journalling and interacting with other professionals. When your interests become clear, that’s when the fun really starts.
1) Social media Starting with Facebook and Twitter, follow professionals whom you find inspiring, even if you don’t know why they inspire you. 2) Sharing Respond to their posts and share or retweet them if they resonate with you. What you share often says more about you than you know about yourself. Sharing is also a great way to ”listen’‘ to conversations and get the feel of social media dynamics. 3) Community Join groups or like pages that mean something to you professionally, and contribute when you have something important to say – less is more. 4) Micro-chats Join passionate colleagues in their Twitter trenches – Two great communities for English teachers are #Edchat and #ELTChinwag. 5) Growth spurts After some time on Twitter and facebook, your online personality and teaching values will begin to redefine themsleves. This is an important stage in your development. We could call it the first milestone. Many teachers are very happy at this stage and turn social networking into its own fine art. There’s no need to go further if you are aready fulfilling your personal and professional mission. 6) Settling down However there may come a time when micro-blogging urges you into more focused publishing. You need your own online home. This happens when you realise that your status updates and comments are nuggets of wisdom being flushed down the everflowing newsfeed never to be seen again. It may be time to start your own blog. Here are some things you can do first if you’re still not ready or don’t have time. 7) The blogosphere The best way to get into blogging is to become active in the blogosphere. The blogosphere is a richer layer of the standard social media cake. It is beyond social media, yet an integral part of it via links, shares and social contagion.Commenting on blog posts and subscribing to blogs is also something that I would describe as a higher purpose in social media, similar to sharing, listening and appreciating great minds and great colleagues. This is what will elevate your own presence in the long run. 8) Collect & curate. The Scoopit curation tool is so professional and simple to use that it’s like publishing your own newspaper. Your Scoopit account has your brand name on it, you share interesting articles from those in your field or from the niche area you’re interested in. Your work spreads like a blog, your colleagues and those you follow are part of your publishing journey. It’s extremely educational and rewarding. It’s a wonderful preliminary step to blogging and it’s a complementary medium to blogging. If you are more visually inclined you may wish to use Pinterest instead of, or in conjunction with Scoopit. Pinterest is a social inspiration board where you pin your favourite collections of links from the web, based on images. This is a fun way to collect and share. Pinterest packs in a lot of clout indeed. If I were to compare Scoopit and Pinterest, I’d say that Pinterest is the glossy magazine and Scoopit is the newspaper. We could call this the second milestone. 9) Blogging By the time you are ready to blog you should be passionate about your newly-discovered teaching values. The title of your blog will become your core message to the world. 10) Challenges Apart from building up your own blog you can also take part in blog challenges within the blogosphere, start your own blog challenges, and write for
educational newletters. Two inspiring communities for taking part in blog challenges are 30Goals.com and The ELT Blog Carnival. 11) Multi-media After you’ve got comfortable with text and image, you may wish to start experimenting with video, podcasting and even livestreaming webinars or holding online professional development classes where you can share your ideas. These can be embedded onto your blog, creating a colourful multi-media vlog. This opens up another new world of teacher communities who may invite you to speak at their events and broadcast your voice to the world. 12) Web tools You can challenge yourself to learn one new multi-media tool per week. Then your blogs can turn into a platform for showcasing elearning materials that you have created. We could call this the third Milestone. 13) Publishing a book A time may come when your multiple blogs posts are developing into deeper themes. You find yourself writing beyond the scope of an article. You may even think you’ve become stricken with the curse of knowledge. Too many facts in your head, too many perspectives. This is when you have to revisit the six principles above once again and strip down your knowledge into it’s newly evolved core. This may be an evolution of your first insights or it may be a metamorphosis. Whatever it is, it means you’re ready to publish a book. You can easily self-publish on sites such as Issuu or Scribd. You can also try publishing with The Round and learn more about publishing with ELT Teacher2Writer. Last but not least, no matter how strong your voice gets, never stop listening. “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said” –Peter Drucker ( This was a minimalist look at the main tools and stages in growing as a professional online) My core message is …..
Crowd-source blogging via blog carnivals
YES!!! We ARE Ready!! The 40th ELT Blog Carnival. Today is the day for publishing a host of ultra- creative articles on using technology for teaching. a) Integrate technology by How I see it now Chosen tool: Mobile phones in the classroom. Ideas: Photos, videos, professional development/reflection, story cubes, virtual immortality. Inspiring virtual immortality and amazing ideas for class Thank you Hana Ticha b) Speaking and embedding- by Anna@Edu What a pleasure to read this beautiful post with gorgeous embedded videos and lesson plans. Chosen tools: Educanon, sparkol videoscribe, canva. Three ideas: Talks/speeches/embedding questions When visual gets visual Posters, graphics, presentations, flyers. Thank you Anna. c) Encouraging play with a digital sandbox by Teacher Reboot Camp Simple, sophisticated, rich, playful, full of edtech goodies!! Chosen tool(s): A digital sandbox that stores multiple tools and apps all in one place. Peer to peer learning where students get to play with tools of their choice and then share them online with each other. This is fantastic as students take over their own learning environment and get fully creative. Shelly Terrell D) Google docs by Martha
A very unique idea. students make presentation about class vocabulary on a shared presentation. A fantastic way to make language learning memorable and creative, while nurturing self-esteem as students get to present/perform. Google docs Idea: Collaborative google presentation for vocabulary revision. “students create a GP slide for a class set after each is assigned one of the chapter vocabulary words. their rules: word, part of speech , short def. and a sentence containing the word and an appropriate image to match it . they then have to present it the class. the class can copy the slides into a page and use it to study for an exam later.” Martha e) Four steps to learning a language by Fluent Language She’s using one of my favourite social sharing sites for lessons!! Pinterest. Four steps to learning a language with Pinterest. This is visual, social, creative, real language in use. This is a lover, keeper, a gem for language learners and teachers!! Thank you Kerstin Hammes f) Paperless possibilities for deep learning by Teaching History Tech. A unique kind of webquest. Adding excitement to months of civil war history!! An idea to help students remember, learn and showcase intensive history project assignments. g) Literacy Assignment Soundtrack by mElting Activities Multi-sensory, emotional intelligence, making associations. Fantastic!! Book track Students add music soundtracks to their books. Thank you Carissa Peck h) Create doodle Videos by LearnOutLive. Step by step instructions, videos and reasons for doodling.
Videoscribe.tv Multi-sensory immersion Clear, intelligent instructions and ideas for using a really cool video tool for language learning the visual way. Andre Klein I) Reflections and classroom implementation by TeachingWithEdTech Favourite tool: Geddit Idea(s): Know how every student is doing at any moment. This seems like an intuitive learning management system if I’m not mistaken. Reading text, mobile phones, webquest, videos, multiple choice – it seems like a super slimmed down version of a bulky moodle – fast, efficient – no bugs, no headaches?? Okan Balukbas J) Using cellphones in class by ALL4EFL&ELT Award-winning article about using cell phones in class How cell phones can be a natural part of the classroom experience – seamless, communicative, creative and using the target language. K) Online, offline by It’s ON Chosen tool: The cloud as a learning environment Perspectives on what it means and what you can do. An experienced, expert look at the online environment as a learning arena. Mau Buchler L) Open platforms by ELTjam Chosen tool(s): Platforms and their functions. “ letting a machine do what it can do best, and letting humans do what humans do best. “ A very detailed analysis of learning management systems and what open/closed really means. By Clive Miller Suggested by Robert McCall M) Using google hangouts by teachingeslonline.com Google hangouts on air
For presentations and lessons; “It was perfect for what I wanted to do this week: host a free lesson/presentation on my website as a way to introduce a new course that I’m going to teach in April.” Extremely informative, clear instructions about being visible, dynamic and creative through hanging out professionally online. Jack Askew n) 50 tech-task by eflclassroom 2.0 A very eclectic mix of the best on the web. Idea(s): 50 simple to follow creative tasks for learners. Very inspiring part of the legendary 50s lists. David Deubelbeiss O) Animate a character by Theodora’s blog Toontastic Draw your own characters, make them move and record your voice. Excellent resource that combines freehand drawing with multi-media – love combining art with language learning. Theodora Papanagiotou P) Encourage me to e-read by MJGsm’s students @book Me library Story jumper Writing and reading to master a language. Excellent work by university students Thank you MJgsm Q) Creating social phrasebooks by Nik’s learning Technology Blog Phraseum Collect words, phrases and sentences from anywhere on the web while you you browse and organise them into social phrasebooks. Excellent guidelines and ideas. Nik Peachey R) The Webinar Effect by Sylviasenglishonline Chosen tool(s): Virtual classrooms, google hangouts, live online collaborative venues.
Ideas(s): Professional development through sharing knowledge, experience and even more edtech tools. Thanks to everyone who shares, inspires, networks and works with me.
3) 30 Reasons why your blog can make a difference I’ll start off with my bottom line. The be all and end all of everything. This is a list of thirty practical reasons why your blog can become a powerful vehicle for self-expression, self-realisation, professional success, and socially-intelligent community-building. I have reflected, experienced, experimented and questioned myself deeply in order to come up with these powerful results-oriented concepts on how we live and work the way we do, and why we live and work the way we do. Our blogs and what we do with them may have much deeper implications than we realise and may serve as extensions of ourselves and who we are becoming from day to day. What’s it all about? The bottom line is CREATIVITY. “Creativity is not a talent. It’s a way of operating” John Cleese When you start your first blog and publish your first article, you are putting yourself out there beyond the comfort zone. You are acting, exercising, and setting your difficult, quirky, off-beat thoughts and feelings free. This is dangerous and exhilarating. Only dangerous if you refuse to recognise the new you typing itself onto the page, saying things you’d never have said otherwise. It’s exhilarating when you realise that you are making a great difference…….. To yourself: 1) When you set up your blog, you think of a title, which forces to to define your niche area of interest. 2) As you define your niche area of interest, you come face-to-face with your underlying teaching values, the raison d’etre of your life as a teacher. 3) Your niche and purpose will mesh intrinsically & extrinsically to prepare you for sharing your message with the world.
4) Your classroom practice and experiences will take on new significance because now you can view your own work through fresh prisms of insight, your perspectives will have shifted beyond your moment -to -moment preoccupations, and you’ll be able to see yourself from a distance and question how you measure up to your own ideals. 5) Your professional radar for excellence will light up with every new opportunity to experiment, notice or engage in action-research, and these ideas and experiences will be published in your blog. 6) Beyond your ideas and experiences, a new approach will evolve. This approach will be your trademark, niche, personality, inspiration, and it will introduce fresh winds of change into the classroom. 7) You will be energised and strengthened by these new feelings, insights and results which will become the source of newer insights and a new educational series to be published on your blog. 8) Your energy and integrity will strike a chord in the blogosphere and others will want to do what you do, know what you know, and answer your call , the call to connect. This happens unknown to yourself. 9) You will be noticed and introduced to people you’ve always admired from a distance, you will network in exciting places, you will move beyond the blog – onto video, into webinars, conferences, and eventually books and publishing. 10) You will be empowered to set up online classrooms, courses, or professional development initiatives if you so wish, and, basically, move beyond yourself to ……. Make a difference….. To others:
11) By providing informative, entertaining content for others to read, reflect upon and comment on. 12) By becoming a magnet to like-minded professionals who can resonate with you and your work and finally feel understood, inspired and connected. 13) By providing challenges (intrinsic and extrinsic) to those in your personal learning network through thought-provoking prompts, or step by step professional development initiatives. 14) By ‘forcing‘ people to respond because they can’t resist responding. 15) By pitching ideas, introducing controversy, igniting debate, fine-tuning your highest degrees of social intelligence, unleashing powerful, new community-building skills, and creating hubs of connectivity that will inevitably lead to exciting collaborations such as……
16) Reaching out to others through guest-blogging, community blogging, blog challenges, video blogging, interviewing, webinars, conferences, massive open online courses, collaborative school projects all over the world, and writing books with others. 17) By coming across rough patches, dry patches, temporary failures and dark moments in public, showing your human side, and showing others you won’t give up. 18) By getting up, by prevailing, and in doing so, inspiring others even more than you did in the ‘spotlight of perfectionism’ 19) By helping those who lose their way because you, too, have been lost before. 20) By inspiring others to find their own unique voices, to trust in their own values and to contribute towards the greater good, in order to……. To the future of education:
Image credit: mani babbar photography (Top down & bottom up) 21) Academic bloggers can free themselves from stifling intellectual constraints by sharing their research and thought processes throughout the blogosphere. This will revolutionise the experience of academia and break down barriers across the educational divide.
22) Academic bloggers can remain creative and socially relevant by expressing themselves boldly on blogs, away from the restrictions of academic writing styles. 23) Academic bloggers can become known as experts in their fields and build up followings before they ever graduate. 24) Academic bloggers build up the kinds of socially intelligent and culturally sensitive skills that are often repressed in the stern halls of dark intellectualism. 25) New spectrums of learning will open up throughout global communities beyond ivory towers and socio-economic inequalities. 26) Grassroots teachers who have practical insights into classroom realities can share ideas through their blogs around the world and help each other. This is already happening at a massive rate, especially through the British Council Teaching English page on facebook. 27) Schools can set up class blogs and and inter-school blog challenges through school collaborations. This is also quite well-established and a wonderful platform which specialises in bringing schools together for blogging is ClubEFL. Here’s an example of a blog set up by an 11 year old child in Greece. Here’s another one. These were shared with me by Dimitris Aivazoglou, the creator of ClubEFL. 28) Governments will have to loosen their vice-like grip on outdated curricula impositions as teachers and students learn to bend local laws in the name of creativity and deep learning. They will be inspired and empowered to do this through creative ideas that are shared throughout the educational blogosphere. They will be able to teach with the coursebook and beyond the coursebook but not from the coursebook in ways that are unstoppable and untraceable by government agencies. 29) More and more teachers will become content creators, curate cutting-edge information online and work through online spaces accommodated by blogs. Schools, by default, will become more creative and adopt more flexible policies from the bottom up. 30) More stories will be told; teacher stories and student stories. More hearts will be reached, more breaking news scandals will be revealed by citizen journalist teachers and students, and learning through blogging will be a new way of life for all. This will inevitably make a difference in lives, homes, families, schools, societies, policies…and more. I’ll leave you with this presentation and webinar link from the Fall Blog Festival which inspired today’s post. The slideshow is full of blog links and multi-media links to show you the philosophy and process of blogging and sharing to make a difference. To fully get into my train of thought and experiences, you can watch the webinar through the link on the last slide. Inspiring Ecologies Of Talent On The Blogosphere from Sylvia’s English OnlineFurther notes: My points about academic blogging and the future of education were inspired by PhD bloggers who share the process of their work through their blogs.Two of these fascinating thinkers, Achilleas Kostoulas and Nick Sousanis have agreed to guest blogs and interviews with me in the near future – stay posted for some truly inspiring winds of change from our new generations of academics online;)
At the other end of the spectrum, I’m also hoping to interview some child bloggers in the coming months.Indeed, let’s keep writing out loud, and building new spectrums of communication where none existed before. Finally, I truly believe that this list of 30 could be expanded upon and built upon by other teachers and bloggers out there, or that on a different day, in a different mood I could come up with 30 different ones. I’d love it if other teachers added to my ideas in the comments below or in a new blog article – a kind of challenge?
50 Ways To Use Beautiful Interactive Pages for Teaching & Sharing Online
Featuring Tackk as a simple way to create beautiful pages on the web. It’s your very own page, flyer, blog post, or poster for educational use online and in blended learning situations. One of its most exciting features is the social stream which I’ll talk about below. As seen live online at MOODLE MOOC4 during my presentation called: MM4: How to Create aSimply Beautiful Visual Libraryonline. As an online teacher I’m always exploring new environments for our learners, new ways to create content, and new ways to promote social learning in collaborative, brainfriendly ways. I must say that my two main criteria in this search is that the environment
or tool (perhaps in this case, environmental tool) MUST be user-friendly and must be very adaptable for student ownership and creativity. I came across Tackk on Scoopit through following Nik Peachey’s Edtech scoops and was immediately blown away by its simplicity and novel design concepts. The Tackk environment has been created as a blank canvas, shape-shifter, class assignment template, materials design board, website, collaboration tool, blended learning tool, social learning agent, viral learning poster – I’m probably cutting my options off by only mentioning 50 ways to use it – there are endless ways to use it but I’ll define my ideas within five broad categories, and then the reader can branch off and brainstorm new ideas from aspects of my main ideas. When I was invited by Dr. Nellie Deutsch to present at MM4 I was exploring the Tackk environment for my own uses, so I thought it would be exciting to share my ideas about it live online. You can see my class recording Here: Here is the slideshow: I also set a Tackk activity for course participants for Jason R. Levine’s TTO Teachers Training Online, where I presented on Managing Group dynamics Online. See the class recording here. Participants were invited to share their stories in the social stream beneath the Tackk assignment. The beauty of the social stream is that participants can not only comment, but they can share their answers through all kinds of multi-media and embeddable files. Some participants answered my simple questions with Prezi presentations or with more storytelling Tackk designs- the power of this feature is amazing and I hope I can begin to touch upon it here today. See my Tackk assignment for TTO here with the active social stream contributions from teachers all over the world here. So, without further ado, here are my 50 ways to Use Tackk:
10 ways to use Tackk as a content or Learning Management System. 1) Use customizable link buttons to add multi-media websites to your Tackk class page. 2) Create a linguistic juke box by linking to a famous educational You Tube channel such as ColloTunes. 3) Design class assignments, courses description, or even the full course curriculum on your Tackk board with special imagery or even mindmaps. 4) Create discussions around content using the social streaming features. 5) Design webquests and collaborative projects for students and get them to create collaborative Tackkboard libraries. 6) Embed link buttons to online literature, storytelling and comic websites. 7) Have students create their own personalised Tackk learning environments so that they can ‘own’ their personal learning environments and link it to the main site you created. 8) Have a button which links to the ‘Google universe’ for google drive, docs, communities and educational google apps. 9) Embed your Tackk course page into existing LMS platforms you may be operating from, such a WiziQ, Moodle, Edmodo, ClubEFL, Google open class etc. 10) Use your class Tackk LMS to link with other international schools for exchange programmes, sister-school projects etc.
10 Ideas For Using Tackk for class assignments. 1) Create assignments where student should discuss world problems and find solutions to global issues through the social streams you set up for the purpose. 2) Use Tackk for creating language learning assignments through citizen journalism projects. Students use Tackk to create multi-media news stories. 3) Create speaking practice assignments for exam English. Often students are uninspired by photos in course books and typical speaking questions and prompts. Tackk can visualize and energise the whole experience. For example, let’s say students have to describe a favourite recipe. Imagine adding delicious looking visuals to a Tackk poster and making the questions and speaking topics come to life. Imagine getting students to video themselves demonstrating recipes and cooking on their own homemade ‘cookery shows’. 4) Use Tackk for creating assignments based on English language jokes or funny videos. 5) Use Tackk for creating assignments based on inspiring videos, such as these. 6) Post a controversial topic discussion from You Tube or Teacher Tube on Tackk. Then tell students that they are also guests on the chat show and they have to add commentary in the social stream. This would be fantastic preparation for essay exams, as the topics could be based on exam topics such as family, the environment, socializing, friendship etc. 7) Create a collaborative, multi-media blog post assignment where all students must add their piece to the social stream with their chosen multi-media. 8) Challenge advanced and proficiency students with Ted talk videos linked to challenges and communicative missions to do with speaking, presenting, agreeing , disagreeing, summmarising, converting to other forms of multi-media etc. 9) Create powerful business English multi-media assignments and utilize the social stream for business dialogues, simulation and business roleplay and adding practice presentations through diverse multi-media chosen by your business students. 10) Create collaborative inter-school assignments with other schools around the world. Stage educational events, virtual field trips, and multi-media pen friend streams. 10 Ideas for Materials design using Tackk 1) Use Tackk as a language learning music poster. Create imagery, tasks and links round a theme song or song demonstrating specific words, grammar or concepts. I have a collection like this also using Eduglogster which could be linked into Tackk as a music library for language learning. 2) Create a recipe book o f lesson plans and advice pages for study skills or social/emotional issues similar to those you find on teen magazines etc. 3) Create magazines for teaching language. Appoint students to work on the magazine or newsletter and assign roles; as in real-life news and magazine businesses. 4) Create topic-based mini-websites based on topics you are covering in course books. 5) Create mini, multi-media lesson bytes based on topics students have chosen that are never covered in course books.
6) Create multi-media grammar archives. 7) Create comic-style infographics. 8) Recreate exam-style rubrics in more attractive, user-friendly formats to inspire students. 9) Create collaborative poetry reading and writing learning spaces for students. 10) Create fun multi-media test pages, mission pages, or blank canvases for your students to fill in based on what they have learnt in a unit using their own chosen multimedia. 10 Ideas For Professional Development Activities using Tackk 1) Use Tackk for dividing course participants into teams for peer-to-peer multimedia collaboration. This is a very easy way to keep track of group work on separate Tackk boards. 2) Use Tackk boards for peer-to-peer feedback on assignments. 3) Use tack boards for telling collaborative professional development stories. 4) Use Tackk boards for framing debates and arguments regarding education and orchestrating deep discussion through the social streams. These debates can be hosted visually as hot debate library archives. 4) Use Tackk boards for professional developing brain-storming. 5) Use Tackk for brainstorming ideas collaboratively. 6) Use Tackk boards for asynchronous video demonstrations. Course participants use video or multi-media to share their ideas and experiences on certain topics. 7) Use Tackk as a user-friendly way to introduce multi-media technology to teachers. 8) Use Tackk to create very simple assignments for teachers who are not used to educational technology. 9) Create blank canvas projects to help teachers develop their creativity. 10) Use Tackks for teacher reflection and professional development diaries and feedback systems which have inbuilt peer-to –peer support enabled through the social stream. 10 ways to promote Educational Campaigns using Tackk. 1) Design a powerful message with Tackk’s multi-media features and utilize Tackk’s viral capabilities across educational networks through social sharing. 2) Promote your school through sharing details ,images and videos of your projects and initiatives. 3) Promote your educational leadership skills through encouraging teachers to contribute their intellectual & inspirational ideas to your Tackks through social streaming. 4) Dare educators to stand up and be counted on various educational topics through designing irresistible flyers that reach the heart and demand action.
5) Initiate global brainstorming campaigns and build social movements that surpass political gridlocks in education. 6) Brighten up your PLN networks by sharing jokes and stories through Tackks that fly around the networks and lighten up a teacher’s day. 7) Brighten up your newsletters or online course marketing work with Tackk’s attractive multi-media designs. 8) Use Tackk as a marketing storyteller. Humanistic marketing is all about generating word of mouth inspiration through stories that tap into deep human needs. 9) Highlight your teaching niche by designing stunning lesson plans with Tackk and embedding them onto your teaching website. 10) Teach your students how to enhance their own digital and social /inter-cultural group dynamics by starting student movements through social clubs, school newsletters, school. Here is the Tackk Flyer I designed to go with this article: I’ll leave you to ponder the question below: Have fun;)
……and remember:
“We are all creative. Creativity is the hallmark human capacity that has allowed us to survive thus far. Our brains are wired to be creative, and the only thing stopping you from expressing the creativity that is your birthright is your belief that there are creative people and uncreative people and that you fall in that second category.” Shelley Carson, Your Creative Brain If you want to learn more about being creative find my list of must-read books here: 5 Inspiring books for teachers to read this summer: More related links: How attractive is your online learning environment? The importance of imagery in ebook and materials design. Thoughts on visual design inspired by global educators. Finally, a little advice on dealing with external sites and multi-media. Although I’m featuring Tackk here, you can learn a lot from the ideas presented for all kinds of learning situations with various multi-media tools – it’s up to you to experiment, design and create whatever suits your learning situation in whatever environment works for you. Also, a nice reminder from colleague and mentor David Deubelbeiss is that we should keep back-up of materials we create on external sites. “Can what you export be presented and used in a standard format offline?” David Therefore, we can use these tools wisely if we remember to save our work offline too. Who knows? You may even collect up enough material to publish them in book form;)
5) What makes a blog sticky?
Is your blog the vehicle through which you share your message with the world? Is this vehicle sharp, shiny, colourful and sticky or it it kind of rusty and awkward? In other words, what are the characteristics of a sticky blog? What do we mean by sticky anyway?
In social media terms sticky really means attracting readers to your blog like bees to honey. How sweet is your blog? Do you really need honey? Who wins the race for 'likes', Tweets, shares, mentions, conversations and conversions?
This is simply an exploration of how we judge the value of a blog article. Some of our articles take off virally and strike a chord in the human experience, while others are ignored and just float around cyber space lost and left out.... .....contributing to 'cyber litter' through no fault of their own - lost gems in a sea of
mediocrity? When we think about it like this it might seem that blogs are like people - some are popular, some are ignored. When we think about it even more we may ask ourselves what this popularity is actually based on. I notice that when we take the time and brain power to entertain the even vaguest of notions on what popularity might entail and when we share these notions with our friends or colleagues, we often find ourselves in danger of joining one of two camps. The content camp versus the people camp:
At one end of the spectrum people might say that overly 'popular' blogs have less substance, their owners delight in the reflected glory of 'looking-glass likes', their bloggers write manically to stay visible to potential clients or colleagues, or they know something that 'we' don't. The other train of thought says that blogs are for people and of the people. Blogs have personalities, they grow, change, evolve and share. The owners do not claim to be experts in their fields (most of the time), but they are emotionally involved with their experiences and their words. They also write with their readers in mind - there is a sense of empathy across the virtual divide. Human Nature: Both camps are right and wrong. We are all a little narcissistic at times, it feeds ambition. Yet, it's also normal to be proud of ourselves when work goes well.
We can be workaholics at times, it pays the bills. Yet, we can also be guilty of just loving what we do. Despite being a little bit of this and a little bit of that, we are ultimately resourceful. I personally feel that blogging brings out one's better nature & and enhances connectivity as long as we keep our less attractive idiosyncracies in check.
Having dwelt on this topic lately and after reading two books related to the topic at hand, I've now found new ways to express the ephemeral quality of popularity and what blogging is really all about. The first book, called 'Happiness by design' by Paul Dolan is inspired by the concept of pleasure & purpose. The author combines insights from economics and psychology with inspiring and practical results.
Pleasure & purpose:
Pleasure: I believe that most people blog because they love blogging. There are many benefits to blogging which I can cover in another article. I can also link to another few I wrote in the past. For example, 30 reasons why your blog can make a difference. It's the pleasure that can bring out flow or wit and the mood or feeling that can strike a reader. Purpose: Yet, we may sometimes be so in love with our journalling therapy that our keyboards take over and the substance & purpose gets lost. This happens because we are being very introspective in a subconscious way - the flow of consciousness
is riding high. While this is the ultimate state for unfolding creativity, we still need to ask who is going to read this, what do they want to know and will they care about my stream of consciousness. Therefore, it's important to let it flow but re-write, edit and improve later from the readers mindset. Conversely, we can also lose purpose when we want to get to the point too fast, meet a deadline and fill the page. Urgency can kill purpose. Pleasure is the magic ingredient in blogging but purpose helps us share this pleasure sanely and meaningfully. Life, happiness and work is about striking the right balance.
Content oriented readers seek substance above and beyond all else. Yet there can be deep intellectual substance without emotional engagement. This reader may be fully satisfied with the ideas imparted and not realise that something is missing. Other readers will feel a gaping hole in the heart of the blog.
Yet, on the whole, the writer may have sweat blood and tears to impart an amazing idea that few readers can connect with. That's what we call a lost gem.
Too much purpose but not enough pleasure means that too many brilliant concepts get lost in the blogosphere. People oriented readers are looking for fun, entertainment and a little intellectual stimulation, but not too much. They are intuitive readers. They allow themselves to be hooked by an image, a quote and quirky twist on an old idea. They feel what they read, are easily inspired and may share, comment and become lifelong fans. Yet, if the said article is based solely on the pleasure principle, the substance will be lost. Is there any substantial or original meaning behind the funny image, or the borrowed quote? On the whole, this writer may have a lot of fun and attract a certain number of fans or even banter on the blog and that's wonderful. Yet, if there is little substance in the form of ideas or information there will be little growth for the writer or readers. I've always felt this but didn't know how to articulate the metaphor as such until I found this concept in this book called 'happiness by design'. In a nutshell: Our blogs need people, feelings, emotions, images, multi-media, soundbites, jokes & quotes; but the pleasure will be fleeting without our deeper purpose, while purpose itself deepens the pleasure. That's what I call a healthy work ethic. In the past I've referred to this as 'serious fun' - as I can derive great fun out of reading intelligent articles. We all have different tastes and different definitions of
fun, but once the balance is right within your own topic/niche and work objectives, then you'll be sticky and find your own unique audience. What else? The other book I read was 'Problogger' by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. There is also a problogger community. Here's how they describe it on Amazon.com "Problogger.net is where bloggers worldwide go for advice and information on enhancing their blog's presence."
I've never really felt the need to read books about blogging in the past as it seemed intuitive. (oops - too much pleasure?) Seriously, the fact that I'm going to present about blogging in my upcoming webinar for the Build Your Teaching Business Online Course, and because I've been challenged by deep questions on the topic in recent conversations, I wanted to go the extra mile, not just for the course participants but also for myself - to learn more about the science of influence and especially, 'sticky influence'. I'm going to summarise some ideas from my experiences and some inspired by the Problogger book regarding sticky blogs. 1) Build a community: One tip is to build up a community around your blog. I wish I'd been a blogger in the earlier days before Facebook. I feel that now people comment on our blogs but do it through Facebook feeds instead of inside the blog. They really like the blog, but they prefer to comment through the Facebook social stream. Yet, I also notice that if there is a strong 'need to know' or 'need to communicate' reaction, then
serious readers will comment directly on the blog. There is also the Disqus tool which enables better community-building within the blog and that's something I'll cover in detail during my presentation. 2) Let community be your social proof: Whether your community is on Facebook, Google plus, Linkedin or Twitter - the community will build you up, support you, contribute towards guest blogging and share your work. This is magic and this is also why the pleasure principle in blogging is crucial social intelligence and connectivity is the life-blood of your blog.
3) Spend time on your home page: If we want our social proof to build up within the home page itself we should spend more time on our blogs and websites. Perhaps our readers follow us wherever we go. If we work from social media, they'll follow us on social media. If we give our home pages some tender loving care our networks may be more likely to come to us. 4) Use social sharing tools and plugins: We can learn to master the art of spanning social media and the blog - bringing diverse communities together through tech-savvy use of dedicated plugins, the right focus and a bit of experimenting. 5) Visit other blogs:
One of the best things you can do is visit other blogs and comment. Only do this if you really care about the blogs and topics. Remember the balance - pleasure and purpose. This is something I haven't done enough in the past with timeconstraints as the excuse - but it's really worth it. The blogs I have visited and commented upon were definitely worth it - pleasure and purpose intact. When you care about other blogs, your field and the bloggers who reach out and share ideas, then they will care about your blogs. The blogosphere can be a very, very inspiring place to hang out in as a professional. 6) Create reader-centred posts This point is straight from the book. I've always been aware of the fact that we must speak to our readers, and we must make it all about them, (you). Sometimes this happens naturally if you have any inkling whatsoever about who you think may want to read it. At other times it may be selfish self-reflection - and that's okay - sometimes that speaks to readers even more - because they resonate with your being 'human'. However, I like the way this concept seems more scientific in the book. I hope that this article I'm writing now is reader-centred. The tip is to answer questions from readers in your posts. Last week I had colleagues asking my opinion. For example ‘I was discussing these things with Nick Michelioudakis (he is very much pro-content) and he sent me this story by B. Brecht. To quote Nick: FORM AND CONTENT [Mr Keuner said: ‌.] I once used to work for a gardener. He handed me a pair of shears and told me to trim a laurel tree.
The tree was in a pot which was hired out for celebrations, and the laurel had to be in the shape of a sphere. So I immediately began to trim the wild shoots, but no matter how hard I tried I never seemed to be able to get the shape right. When I did manage at last, the sphere had become tiny. The gardener looked at the result disappointed and said: ‘Good, that’s the sphere – but where is the laurel?’ This article is for teachers like Nick who are pro-content and others who are propeople, but I say let's embrace the Pro-Pleasure-Purpose-Principle (P to the power of four). Substance and social impact combined. It's also for our upcoming webinar and future blogging community. The blogging community is already building up through our guest blogging initiative.
7) Join a dedicated blogging community One powerful blogging community that I'm proud to be a part of is that of theEdugoals. We support each other in achieving community career goals. Other great blogging communities are EFL classroom 2.0, the iTDi blog and Teaching Village. 8) Connect with peers in tangible ways.... Through interviewing, guest blogging, reviewing and highlighting the work of other people. I do this a lot. It was never a policy - just something I enjoyed as part of my professional development - the pleasure /purpose principle again. Finally.... There is so much more to share. The rest will be in my webinar and on my
slideshow. Till then I hope you enjoyed my article and will ponder upon your own blogging life too.
How to make blogging part of your online teaching presence A (wo)man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence ‘the’ heart first opened. Albert Camus How do you reach out to the world of education and discover yourself at the same time? To be a positive force in education you’ve got to open yourself up to the global community of teachers and learners online. Gone are the days of advertisements, neat suits and polished curriculum vitaes. You are no longer a number or a statistic in education. You are a unique personality with a presence. I can think of no better way to build up your online presence than to blog and show the educational world who you really are. This article will show you how to make your presence shine, both through the detours of your own self-discovery, and through dynamic networks of challenge and change. It’s all about building trust from the inside out. That is your purpose. The blog is your medium. My job is to give you the facts dressed up in a little philosophy. 1) First of all, set up a blog. I recommend wordpress for this. If you don’t know how to set up a blog or website I recommend theLearnOutLive publishing website by Andre Klein as the place to go to find out more. He has also written a very useful book called ‘How to blog’. 2) You’ve got the look – do you know how to use it?
Think about the look and feel of your blog. Your blog is not an encyclopedia of quickdrying cement, nor a curriculum vitae of dry facts. The blog is your teaching personality where you share exciting knowledge, thoughts and feelings. Don’t worry about showing off. When your blog is already full of good content and substance, a little extra flair will make your presence sing. You may be of a shy disposition but don’t hide your true charm on a bland blog. ‘Showing off’ is not only acceptable in blogging, I’d say it’s a requirement. In fact, I’d say that a big secret to building up your presence through blogging is the irresistible force of intelligence mixed with boldness. Blogging is the new medium for popularising the ‘nerd’ effect. I get away with sharing nerdy thoughts by presenting them in fun, visual ways – we could say that blogging is an avant garde style of decorating intelligence through sticky text and multimedia. Bearing all that in mind, you now know that you’ve got to design your own look. Blogging is a personalized art, and first impressions count. It’s a good idea to look at different
interfaces before you decide on something for yourself. Sometimes simple is best, but a little out-of-the-box, quirky charm will help it to become its own brand online. 3) What kind of a teacher are you?
What do you want to share on your blog? Are you attracting students or teachers? Are you sharing materials, advice, or both? There are many, many different types of educational blogs, which is why a first step in building up your own presence is to read other blogs, make connections on Twitter and Facebook, and through learning from others on the blogosphere, carve out your own niche. It’s a good idea to curate and collect blog links on Pinterest and Scoopit. That way you keep your favourite sources of inspiration in one place, follow leading thinkers in ELT, develop your niche interests, and when people start to follow your scoops etc., that’s when your blog presence will fly through cyberspace. Three major different types of educational blogs are the information based ones, ‘stickier’ types that can sometimes be a bit more commercial but very attractive, and personal ones that are kind of like ‘hobby’ blogs. I try to combine all three elements into my blog. Well, ‘try’ is the wrong word. It just evolved that way. Although it’s important to shape and plan the look of your blog, it’s also good to let the content develop naturally as you change your interests and activities. A ‘sticky’ blog is one that attracts people for several reasons. One reason is colour and attractive layout when it’s matched with unique content. Another reason is the
authenticity and connection that readers can feel when reading your blog. That’s why the personal touch is a must. 4) When great images become great concepts. I feel like basing this article on the quote by Albert Camus above. I’m going to discuss the ‘how-to’s’ of building online presence through the concept of three images representing three of my ‘golden rules’ in the art of engagement. Here are my three images.
They stand for reflect, create, share. My heart opens in the presence of thought, day dreams, poetry, psychology and wild reflections. Creating and sharing is what makes blogging a worthwhile pursuit for me and that’s why it’s powerful for my online presence. If you reflect upon my ‘quote theme’ above, you may come up with three different images and concepts. The important thing is for these concepts to make your work special, your blog special and your online presence dynamic. Reflect. People want compelling content, but not empty content. This doesn’t mean that you need to be intellectual, but it does mean that you share and write intelligently. What constitutes intelligent blogging? Intellectual blogging can be unintelligent if people find it unintelligible. Be yourself and don’t try to follow ‘popular’ trends or show a high-brow side that doesn’t suit who you really are. Intelligent blogging is all about expressing authenticity and personality. Here are two examples of reflective and personal articles. Groping for trout by David Deubelbeiss Making history: A thank you letter to my students by Shawn Storm Create Creating is about making something of your thoughts. Many bloggers create lesson plans and share them online. They are immensely popular and welcomed by innovative educational communities such as the thriving Teaching English/British Council page on Facebook which is run by Ann Foreman. More about that later. Here are examples of two creative, ‘how-to’ blogs. Nik’s Learning Technology Blog by Nik Peachey. Russell Stannard’s blog with a nice personalised header image too.
Share This part is huge for me. My personal learning network is expanding exponentially. I need to show you the amazing sharing communities online who elevate blogging to massive networks of inspiration that really make a difference. I hesitate to use the words ‘inspire’ and ‘make a difference’ as they can be over-used or even cliched and cynical. Yet, what I’m about to show you here are the most authentic and touching communities of teachers I’ve met online. This is not emotional feel-good stuff. This is practical for your online presence because the more authentic you are and the more you care about your work – the bigger the impact you will have. I also hasten to add that if you don’t have an extra zing of passion about your work, you won’t be able to blog in the first place. As you write your first articles, share them on social networks, build up a personal learning networkand join communities, your blog will become bigger than yourself, and your presence will climb and shine. Sharing communities:
The 30 goal challenges by Shelly Terrell created a global movement of teachers making a difference and blogging about it. I joined this movement last year. It became a beautiful challenge, it became a whole new personal learning network, and I had many more amazing articles to read, such as this one on the topic of blogging by Vicky Loras. The Edugoal movement also led to many collaborative projects with Shelly herself, who epitomises my definition of authenticity and caring in a teacher. One example of such projects is the current #ebookevo course. Led by Shelly, we are moderating over 500 teachers in a global coming together of writers who want to create the ‘eperfect textbook.’ The Reform symposium goes beyond blogging into online webinars and training, yet it’s still powered by blogging and sharing. That’s what keeps the community together. Here’s an example of the RSCON magazine filled with blogs from global leaders in education. Here’s one I wrote.
David Deubelbeiss of eflclassroom 2.0 and English Central, the multimedia platform holds an annual blog carnival based on certain themes suggested by member bloggers. Teaching English /British Council is one of the most popular, creative and innovative pages on Facebook for educators. Ann Foreman and Paul Braddock work together helping teachers around the world. They help new bloggers to shine and welcome all kinds of creative ideas from grassroots ELT. To even begin to imagine how many teachers have been encouraged by Ann foreman, I’ve only to remember when my website was first set up and my first articles were shared by Ann with whom I had connected on Twitter. Since then I’ve seen teachers in my network set up new blogs and become ‘blogging stars’ almost overnight through Ann’s page. You can see frequently featured bloggers by following Ann’s Scoopit profile. Ann and Paul also organise blogging competitions through voting. WizIQ was awarded in 2013 for my article about top ten tools to use online and I’ll be presenting at a British Council Webinar on January 28th. ELT-Techniques MOOC on WizIQ. We are planning to add a new blogging element leading up to and during the March sessions of Jason R. Levine’s ELT- Techniques MOOC. Spring Blog Festival by Nellie Deutsch. I’ll be helping Dr. Nellie to run the Spring Blog Festival on WizIQ with Shelly Terrell.
Please join us in our Spring Blogging Festival if you’d like to start blogging or build your network. This article is dedicated to all blogger and teachers – may the fun continue.
Spring Blog Festival 2014: 32 Bloggers Bring a Melting Pot of Ideas I think it is in collaboration that the nature of art is revealed. Steve Lacy It would be impossible to end the Spring Blog Festival without thanking our wonderful presenters who worked very hard behind the scenes to bring us their unique, creative perspectives on one of those most idiosyncratic occupations in ELT – that of blogging.
Of course, the whole beauty of blogging lies in it’s idiosyncracy and how it opens up news doors into awareness. This article is a visual summary of what was discussed, a bird’s eye view of talent and commitment to collaboration online and, mostly, a token of appreciation to those who worked so hard at making the festival work. The simple truth is that all of our festival bloggers are passionate about their work and that’s why there was so much energy and excitement in the sharing of original ideas and experiences. It’s only at time like this, when people get together to share ideas that we realise the depth and breath of what’s going on in our profession. I mean what’s going on individually, personally, from the ground, collectively, how this is spreading to new communities and how bloggers are creating ‘ideas worth sharing‘.
I cannot review all of the presentations here today, but we have lovely images, You Tube recordingsand power point presentations that we are collecting on Pinterest for your enjoyment. I want to showcase each individual presenter by using Pinterest and by featuring one blogger per day on facebook, Twitter & google plus. This way, we will make sure that the ideas worth sharing actually get to be shared. Stay tuned!!
In the meantime, everything is stored on the course pages: Here’s the link to the webinars and recordings: Here’s where you can find the powerpoint collection: I’d particularly like to emphasise the fact that we are impatiently waiting for our new Video features which have been promised by the WiziQ team. This will enable ALL class recordings to be automatically sharable on You Tube through MP4 formats….That will save us HOURS of work and enable us to create more beautiful videos. We will no longer have to record everything on Camtasia and then laboriously upload each and every video to You Tube. Video quality will then be more professional and TV like – yet, there is much to be done. Currently, The You Tube recordings are created by Dr. Nellie Deutsch, and this is one example of many things that get done behind the scenes in order for the show to go on. We believe that teachers who volunteer their time and talent should be showcased and represented on all major social media and educational networks. We teachers working in the trenches and organising collaborative projects online are advising the WiziQ team and management as to our technology requirements and preferred policies on a daily basis. Who were these amazing presenters and what did they talk about? Here’s a quick look at the Friday line-up:
To see the full weekend line-up please browse through the slideshow: The quality of presentations and power points were truly amazing. I know exactly how much work some of our presenters put in and I must say that the professionalism is aweinspiring. You can also check out what one of our presenters had to say on her own blog: Stop and Learn English by Ma Jesus Garcia San Martin You are guaranteed to be impressed by different combinations of visual design and brain-friendly concepts which were shared so generously throughout the festival. We also shared an endless stream of ideas for using technology to enhance blogging, social learning and all kinds of creativity. Enjoy:)
Top 10 EduBlogs All Online Teachers Must Follow
Never worry about information overload again! Choose your blogs wisely!! Blogs are the heart and soul of online teaching. Without blogs we would be isolated as educators. What good would social networks be if we didn’t have insights, inspiration, stories and experiences to share with our fellow teachers? Here’s a list of blogs that feed my teaching soul, hunger for knowledge, and need for deeper insights into teaching, learning and writing. There are so many wonderful blogs that it’s impossible to list them all here, so I’m listing the ones that have been most relevant to my own professional development. As such, they should be relevant to any teacher who wants to turn online teaching and/or publishing into a fully-fledged career. 1) Nik Peachey Edtech blogs
Nik Peachey has a number of online blogs. I’m sharing three that span his blogging presence online because they complement each other and give you the big picture of online teaching, technology, ideas, and methodologies. a)Nik’s Learning Technology Blog gives expert information for online teachers. He covers topics ranging from manipulating tools and resources to engaging students online. The quality of this website keeps you coming back for more professional development. b) Nik’s Quick Shout is full of creative ideas for teachers. Nik finds authentic websites and finds ways to apply them to language teaching. He shares lesson plan ideas, the reasoning behind them and what he thinks will or won’t work. When you get used to reading his articles you will find that your own creativity increases and that you will start approaching lesson planning from even more unique angles. Despite the fact that there are many blogs covering Educational Technology online, I find that Nik Peachey’s writing, thinking and sharing style is the richest and most educational for teachers. c) Nik’s Daily English Activities is a huge favorite of mine. It’s full of creative learning ideas for independent language learners. He finds amazing websites and plans for learning tasks using the interactive technology of each site. My favorite thing about checking out these articles is the surprise and fresh ‘aha’ moments when he passes on yet another cool idea for teaching or learning. In a nutshell, these blogs stand out for me, not just because of the websites or technology shared, but because of the creative thinking demonstrated and shared so generously.. 2) LearnOutLive A blog for writers by a WRITER LearnOutLive , a blog by Andre Klein gives information on social media, online teaching trends, language learning and publishing. However, to think of LearnOutLive as just an information sharing blog would not do it a fraction of the justice it deserves. The writer is a most important element in transmitting spirit, character and inspiration into all kinds of facts and experiences. Although one could find information from these categories on other blog sites, the unique perspectives of Andre Klein would be missing.
Apart from learning and knowledge, I read this blog just to enjoy the writing style and to read for pleasure. I also read it for the psychological insights that invariably run through each article so naturally as to be almost hidden, and yet clear as a bell. I would paradoxically describe this blog as cutting-edge with regard to subject matter and information, yet old-fashioned in the sense of timeless story-telling talent and holistic artistry. A unique aspect of this blog is the publishing advice which ranges from manipulating WordPress to writing eBooks. The articles are generous in ways you’d never expect – sharing knowledge that Andre, himself has built up over the years, and, I imagine, learnt the hard way. 3) Fair Languages
Fair Languages is a blog very close to my heart. It was the brain-child of the legendary Kirsten Winkler, and the wonderful thing about it is that it’s an Edupreneuring collaboration of the highest order. Kirsten planned and organized the website in such a way that online teachers from different niches who wish to blog online can contribute there. This blog is also special in that it celebrates multilingualism, so it’s not just focused on English. In that sense, it has something in common with WizIQ, as WizIQ is about sharing knowledge and teaching multicultural languages. On this blog you can find tips & ‘How to s’, product reviews, language guides, podcasts, videos, and brain-friendly columns. Kirsten Winkler has always done much to encourage communities of online teachers to learn and grow, and this website is an expression of the Edupreneuring spirit. Here you will find the creativity, intelligent analysis and professionalism that will enrich your online teaching experience. 4) TEFLTASTIC
Tefltastic was one of the first blogs I subscribed to when I started teaching online. It’s full of wonderful lesson plans, resources, and brain-friendly, fun ideas. I feel very in tune with Alex Case and his approach to education, and his blogs seems to cover almost any kind of lesson plan you can imagine. He covers the whole ELT area from business English to Exam English. There are many ideas and/or links to pdfs or other files you can use in the virtual classroom. 5) EFL Classroom 2.0 This is actually a NING with a huge global network created by David Ddeubelbeiss. It hosts multiple blogs and anyone who joins EFL classroom 2.0 gets their own blog. The blogs also have privacy settings, so you can use them for class blogs, etc. I will share the link to David’s blog here as he is the giant behind a thousand initiatives online, including English Central. How this leading entrepreneur finds time to manage his multiple blogs and communities on LinkedIn is beyond me, but he seems to care deeply about grass-roots, teachers, and education in general. He is a great poet and author, which definitely adds to my attraction to his blogs. In fact, most blogs or educational professionals that I follow have that poetic spirit. His blog is about the essence of teaching as it should be. The resources on the NING itself would keep teachers happy in resources for a few lifetimes, and he is also famous for his monster posts such as ’50 ways to use song and music in the classroom’. 6) Edutopia
This is a big favourite of mine as I am deeply interested in social and emotional learning. That’s what lies behind all of my brain-friendly endeavors. There are about ten categories overall, another one being about ‘brain-based learning’. It has a technology section too, and all kinds of fascinating articles. It’s the perfect blog for those who wish to implement blended learning and integrate classroom activities with online work, as there are many articles covering this topic. 7) E-moderation station blog
The e-moderation station blog by Nicky Hockly is full of things that online teachers need to know. Nicky is a true leader in online teaching, the author of ‘Webinars – A Cookbook for Educators, and co-author of ‘Teaching Online’. Her blog is an inspiration for online Edupreneuring. She covers educational technology issues, webinars, and much, much more. 8 ) The Rapid e-Learning Blog
A crucial blog for anyone who wants to learn more about course design, managing elearning projects, or the art of content creation. The knowledge on this blog is amazing, the expertise is cutting-edge and I want to learn everything that Tom Kuhlmann has to tell us about becoming a rapid e-learning pro. 9) Edudemic
Edudemic covers everything I’m interested in (or any teacher is interested in for that matter). I would call it the glossy magazine of ELT blogs, except that it’s also intelligent. It combines cutting-edge news with beautiful visuals and many lists of top things teachers should do, try or know. It appeals to all spectra and niches of education , and does great work in promoting blended learning. A great feature is the ‘teacher guides’ , which is kind of like our WiZiQ resources section on the main WizIQ website. 10) Free technology For Teachers
Last but not the least, this classic site has got to be on your list. I have made many exciting discoveries here. This blog offers many free guides and tutorials as well as wonderful ideas for blended or online learning. The author, Richard Byrne, curates an enormous amount of resources and describes how to use educational tools in the classroom. It’s especially useful for teachers who are new on the internet, as it takes you through many basic tools and resources that you should not be without.
What Blogs Mean to me. My final thoughts are that I have learnt so much from reading educational blogs that it feels wrong in not being able to mention all of them here. Blogging is a special pursuit. Blogging is about giving back to the educational community and society at large. In our case, as a global platform on the internet, it is giving back to the world at large. I thank all educational bloggers from the bottom of my heart for everything I have learnt, and for inspiring me to start my own blogging. For more articles and presentations about blogging and educational technology, check out these collections on Pearl Trees.