Month: December 2010

We couldn’t be more excited to announce the start of a new series of free professional development for educators – something we are calling ‘Teacher Challenges’.

The online trainings will be open and public to anyone that would like to participate. While we will provide a suggested time line and set of activities, you can participate however you like, and once the courses are complete, they will remain live for future reference.

One of our main goals is to model how blogs can be used as effective and collaborative learning tools.

The first topic will be “30 days to kickstart your blogging” and will cover topics such as writing effective blogs posts, embedding media, and building readership.

Future topics will include building a Personal Learning Network (PLN), online student safety, and using the best of the free resources on the web.

Visit the Teacher Challenge homepage and subscribe to the blog there to stay up-to-date as we gear up to start the first challenge on January 10th!

This week in the Edublog world

Want to share a post, ask others to visit a blog for comments, or show off cool student work?

Use the hashtag #ebshare to let us know so we can re-tweet it for you!

Posts you might have missed

• The Edubloggers Introduction to Blogging
• And the winners of the Edublogger’s “Share your blogging experience” are…
• The Winners of the 2010 Edublog Awards!

Featured Edublog of the Week

The Edublog Awards Site Find hundreds of excellent resources for social media in education

Find more great blogs like this one in our International Edublogs Directory.

Summing it up

We hope that you will join us in the upcoming professional development series.

As 2010 comes to a close, we wish you the best to you and yours.

Happy holidays!

There are only a few days left to vote in the 2010 Edublog Awards, and we wanted to take this opportunity to let you know why you should both vote and visit the Edublog Award site:

1. Find out who the edublogosphere thinks are the top blogs to follow
2. Discover 42 of the top tweeters to instantly create or grow your PLN
3. Learn from an excellent group of class blogs from around the globe
4. See how students are using blogs in the classroom to enhance their learning
5. Get ideas on how best to use audio and video in an educational setting

Plus much more!

This week in the Edublog world

Want to share a post, ask others to visit a blog for comments, or show off cool student work?

Use the hashtag #ebshare to let us know so we can re-tweet it for you!

Featured Edublog of the Week

Inter.Connect.Ed reflections on teaching and learning through technology

Find more great blogs like this one in our International Edublogs Directory.

Upcoming Webinars & Live Events

Join us for next week’s live events!

Wednesday the 15th @ 9:30am PST – What can you do with your Edublog!?

An informal chat where any of your blogging questions can be answered by our staff.

Thursday the 16th @ 4pm PST – Edublogs Fine Focus

Join us for our fortnightly “Fine Focus” sessions each week. In these sessions we range across a variety of topics and include discussion (“Talk Time”), how to use various applications (“Techie How To”), and using technology in the classroom (“Tools and Strategies”). In fact anything “e-” that is of interest to educators!

Learn more about our live events here!

Summing it up

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite nominees and come listen to the award ceremony – LIVE!

Winners will be announced at the live awards ceremony on Wednesday the 15th of December at 7pm EST USA!

I’ll be the first to admit that several years ago when I heard about twitter I was more than skeptical. I would occasionally check it out and just not really get it.

Today, while I don’t tweet as often as I’d like, I can’t imagine a day without checking the stream to see what my favorite educators, bloggers, and organizations are up to!

And if you are new to twitter, or just haven’t experienced one before, one of the best ways to understand the power of twitter to is participate in an #edchat. These open conversations discuss a wide range of relevant topics and are fast paced discussions with many excellent ideas and resources shared.

#edchats are held each Tuesday at 12pm EST/ 5pm GMT and 7pm EST/ 12pm GMT, and you can learn more about how to participate and what it is all about here.

In fact, this Tuesday the topic was the educational value of student blogging!

There are just a few examples of the hundreds of tweets about the topic in the widget below and you can see the entire discussion on the #edchat wiki here.

This week in the Edublog world

Want to share a post, ask others to visit a blog for comments, or show off cool student work?

Use the hashtag #ebshare to let us know so we can re-tweet it for you!

Featured Edublog of the Week

The Brainy Bunch’s Blog Berwick, Australia A grade 3/4 class blog – check out that personalized menu! This blog is on one of our Edublogs Campus sites.

Find more great blogs like this one in our International Edublogs Directory.

Upcoming Webinars & Live Events

Join us for next week’s live events!

Wednesday the 8th @ 9:30am PST – All About Edublogs Campus

For new Campus site-admins or for those interested in learning more about Edublogs Campus.

Thursday the 9th @ 4pm PST – Edublogs Serendipity – PD Out Of A Blue Sky

Join us in our fortnightly unconference sessions. Bring along the burning issues and hot topics YOU would like to discuss. The topic is chosen by poll at the start of the session.

Learn more about our live events here!

Recent Posts You Might Have Missed

• We should talk – what are you doing to ensure student safety online?
• Befunky, Photopeach, and Sketchfu – it’s what students want to do!
• Is your blog read for first time visitors?

Summing it up

Twitter is fast becoming the best tool for professional learning and sharing – but I warn, it can be addicting!

This might be a good time to remind you to follow @edublogs too :)

Have a great week!