Readers' Survey 2006: Best Way to Stay Current on New Education Ideas

Credit: Edutopia

Edutopia

Oh, no, really, this is just too embarrassing. But maybe -- and we hate to be suspicious -- some people out there are just trying to be polite. So, to be fair, we'll divert your attention from our blushing faces and mention some other information sources readers cited. Blogs of many kinds (clearly not the meaningless barking ones) came in second, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development's newsletters and Education Week tied for the bronze, and other readers suggested guest speakers, conferences, podcasts, regional publications such as New York Teacher, and even talking to other teachers at lunch. One respondent had an unimpeachable mantra: "Read, read, read!"

Our Take

Technorati

If navigating the blogosphere sounds to many of you about as enticing as charting a course through the IRS tax code, fear no more: You can have a free compass. Technorati [1] is our favorite. Users can run general searches by keyword or can browse blogs using one of the site's many categories (called "Tags"), which include topics such as education, teachers, books, technology, and the No Child Left Behind Act. The blogging faithful also can create "Watchlists" to track their own subjects of interest and receive notices in real time when new posts are created. Several other sites, such as Delicious [2], perform similar searches, though we find them a bit less intuitive. To learn about creating your own blog or using blogs in the classroom, try www.edublogs.org [3] or www.weblogg-ed.com [4].

Readers' Survey Home [5] > Hottest topic in the teachers' lounge [6]