Related Links
- Readers' Survey 2008 Home
- Best Blog for Educators
- Best Educational Podcast
- Best Virtual Field Trip
- Best Site from Which You Can Download Free Lessons and Materials
- Best Site for Grant Information
- Best Technology Product for Less Than $100
- Best Technology Tool for Students
- Best Education Software
- Amount You Spend Out of Pocket Each Year on Classroom Supplies
- Best Way to Get What You Need for the Classroom
- Best Public Advocate or Role Model for Educators
- Best New Book About Education
- Top Concern of Parents
- Top Concern of Teachers
- What's Missing from Education Degree or Certification Programs
- Who, from the Past or Present, You'd Like to Teach Your Class for a Day
- Subject That Typically Isn't Taught in Schools That Should Be
- Best Way for Schools to Keep New Teachers from Burning Out
- Best Way to Find Inspiration
- Best Way to Create an Educational Community
- The 2008 Readers' Survey was conducted at Edutopia.org March 26-April 30, 2008. Participants responded to questions in their own words, and their answers were tabulated to yield the top three to five vote getters in each category. The top responses for each question appear with voting buttons to encourage our visitors to participate further.
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Readers' Survey 2008: Best Blog for Educators
Credit: iStockphoto
Aside from the fact that the word blog is one of the most unfortunate neologisms of the past decade or so, the online diary form has come of age and simply can't be ignored. This, however, has not discouraged some -- well, many -- of our readers from doing just that. The big winner in this category -- if winner is the right word -- is "I don't blog," or variations such as "No time to read blogs." One respondent also typed in: "dangerously irrelevant." We assume they meant the popular site, rather than the concept of blogging.
You raving anti-blogites out there know who you are, but do you know what you're missing? Even we at Edutopia, convinced that the Internet is a great and growing education medium, will admit that blog is too often synonymous with blah, but the top sites our readers chose -- including David Warlick's 2 Cents Worth and Cool Cat Teacher -- almost always offer something to think about. We also received many votes for Edublogs, a blog creation platform which also offers lively forums where educators at all levels of tech acuity swap tips.
What do you think? Weigh in on the results.
Best blog for educators
I'll bet you a wallaby that your reference to "Edublogs" was really supposed to be to Sue Waters' excellent The Edublogger.
Edublogs is a company that hosts blogs, not a blog itself.
Hey, maybe they were voting for my blog!
Dangerously Irrelevant
(you know, one of your 'Edublogs We Love' from 2007!)
Also, did you mean http://edu.blogs.com rather than Edublogs (the blogging service)?
Dr. Scott McLeod
Associate Professor, Iowa State University
Coordinator, Educational Administration Program
Director, CASTLE
I have learned a great deal from coolcatteacher's blog. The other two are good also, but I like coolcat because she shares what her students are doing.
Categories for voting on best educator blog
How can you choose only 3 blogs for us to consider, from the hundreds of outstanding possibilities?
Couldn't we at least have some sub-genres: Best Teacher Blog, Best Tech in the Classroom Blog, Best School Administrator or Librarian or IT Blog?
What's the best blog for educators?
Clarification -- Two of these are individual blogs, but Edublogs is a blogging platform. It doesn't really seem like a fair vote. Perhaps the original question could have been written more clearly so people knew what you were asking.
If the responses had been collected by someone who actually reads educational blogs, I'm sure you would have realized that Dangerously Irrelevant isn't a comment but the name of an excellent blog by Scott McLeod.
In the future, I hope you'll learn from these errors and have someone who actively participates in the edublogging community help you both write and code your survey questions. I'm sure you would have no problem finding volunteers to help you.
Educational v. Educator Blogs
I would like to see choices from real certified classroom teachers (people on the front line)at various levels, elem, middle and hs. I enjoy the two personal blogs mentioned but feel they only scratch the surface. Who can take me inside their public school classroom?
Best blog for educators
Sorry -- but though I respect educational bloggers as a whole -- I think Edutopia missed a great opportunity to showcase a great many EXCELLENT educational bloggers when you limited it to just 3 choices.
It would be interesting to see your disclosure on how you came up with these 3 options? What was the criteria? How many did you start with -- and how did you narrow it down?
And not just this section -- but all the other voting areas as well.
Again, I respect all the educational bloggers -- I think you missed the mark BIG TIME on this one.
I wished you had expanded the list.
JW
What is "The Best"?
I agree with Diane. How can the choices for "Best Blog for Educators" be narrowed down to three, one of which, as others have pointed out, is a blogging platform?
As much as I admire Vicki's and David's work, there are many other excellent blogs being written by and for educators that should be considered among the "best".
Editor's Note
Staff comment:
There are dozens of excellent educational blogs. The choices listed here were simply the top vote getters in our annual Readers' Survey.
Link to Survey
May I ask when you had the Annual Readers' Survey -- and is this available only through the subscription to the magazine.