My Picks of the Week!

There are many useful blog sources to refer to that will help with the instructional design and teaching professions. I chose my picks based on several criteria including ease of use in navigating, relevancy to my particular profession and frequency of updates. According to “Blogs in Plain English”, blogs are great because they allow for professionals to find common interests and link up with one another during the techno conversations, so I also chose blogs based on my interests. One such example is The English Companion Ning found at http://englishcompanion.ning.com/. This Ning seems like an excellent space for English teachers who seek a collaborative type of environment for improvement. The Ning allows for discussions on topics such as: “Teaching with Blogs and Wikis” and “Teaching with Technology”. I can see myself using this weekly to get advice on lesson plan ideas and also share my own. Today, I used this source to find out how other high school teachers were using technology within The Odyssey Unit. Another great resource is Classroom 2.0 found at http://www.classroom20.com/video/invisible-technology-visible. This is a great space because it is not only a social networking site for teachers and instructional designers, it also has webinars, recordings, photos and videos, all things I can use to learn better on my own. Like the Ning, this blog allows you to join groups based on your own interests and specialties. Often times within each group, you may meet educators from all over the country and world. Finally, I chose Class Blogmeister found at, http://classblogmeister.com/ because it is affiliated with the Landmark Project, which I have heard is a tremendous global conversation amongst education professionals. It also has podcasting tools and allows you to see other teacher’s classroom blogs. I also enjoyed Emily’s Blog (Winner of 2010 Edublog Student Award) found at http://emilysblog3s.edublogs.org/tag/edublog-awards/ because it is always good to follow students’ blogs to see how well they are keeping abreast with all of the new expressions of technology.