OPENGIGA — Social Networking Weblogs

James Farmer announced 100,000 Edublogs on his popular Edublogs.org, the online education tools and community of blogging educators. Edublogs was the first WordPressMU run site, with WordPress.com following soon after.I’ve long been a huge fan of Edublogs and the work that James Farmer has been doing to make blogs free to educators and students.

Are you a teacher, student teacher, or educator? Do you feel frustrated and weary with the sense of isolation, not getting cooperation of other teachers, stuff, administration, and sometimes even parents – let alone, students? Wouldn’t it be exciting to communicate with teachers from around the world, learning about their struggles and triumphs in teaching the world’s future?

Many are using their free Edublogs to communicate with their students and the families, giving assignments, reminders, to do lists, and more. Some offer extra credit work via their blogs, and tutorials to help their students beyond the classroom. E-learning and online education become more important as teachers reach beyond the school building to help students learn and grow.

Edublogs.org offers that community. It’s a chance, for no money or requirements, for you to express yourself, share your knowledge, experiences, and wisdom with others, to ask questions, and learn about how the international educational community.

Here are a few blogs I found while randomly hunting through Edublogs.

OTN @ CIT is “Sharing ideas about online teaching and learning at the Canberra Institute of Technology”. Recent posts include:

• Getting your message across to your audience…visually!
• Series 10 Flexible Learning Toolboxes available for partial preview
• The Web: inspiring great online teaching
• Art is research! Re-scripting spaces for learning
• CIT Copyright all around Australia

Haugen’s Tech Tips Blog offers a variety of educational tips and online references and resources to help teachers and students alike. Examples include:

• Haugen’s Tech Tips Blog
• Paul Hamilton’s Excellent Free Resources List
• FossWeb Science for K-2, 3-6 or Middle School
• Draw (splatter!) like Jackson Pollock
• Combining Cool Tools
• Free Technology Toolkit for UDL in All Classrooms – Spread the Word!
• Library 2 Go – download your library’s audio (PC only)
• Give One, Get One – One Laptop Per Child Promo
• Q-Charm – AAC on your wrist!

Streaming Thoughts from Brian C. Smith, an “Instructional Technology Specialist”, has been writing on Edublogs for a while and covers a wide variety of educational topics on being an educator:

• Seeing 20/20
• K-12 Online Conference -3 Reasons to Participate Meme
• Would you like Docs & Sheets with that?
• What Should Students Experience Each Year?
• Intelligent Classroom – The List

Dicas de Ciências – Professor is by Andréa Barreto M. da Poça, professor of sciences in Rio De Janeiro, and blogs about science and technology, and a few other things thrown in. Recent blog posts in Portuguese include:

• Para Pensar !
• Mérito Escolar : Suborno ?
• Usando Parábolas…
• Resumos para aulas
• Alimentos – Transformações Químicas e Físicas
• Aquecimento Global
• Informática Educativa – Para Professores

Hörbuch- und Podcast-Blog is a “hearing book and Podcast blog” in German, introducing readers to web resources for audio books and podcasts that deal with educational material and otherwise. Recent posts in German include:

• Zwei neue Romancasts
• Hörbücher auf Flash-Speicherkarten – Innovativ?
• Jeffrey Eugenides, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt & Co. – Die 19. Staffel der Reihe Interaktives Hörbuch
• Hörtipp: Roth/Well – Stoibers Vermächtnis
• Podcast zur Frankfurter Buchmesse von Earpaper
• Hörtipp: Astrid Fritz – Die Hexe von Freiburg

The Digital Classroom is a great resource with information on training programs for teachers, online education, and the rise in digital learning, often called “e-learning”. Recent posts include:

• Discovery Webinar Series
• Google launches Sky for Google Earth
• Women of the Web 2.0 Back to School
• ACTEM Conference
• Listen and Learn
• Schoolboards: net dangers over-rated; bring social networks to school
• Teachers Teaching Teachers
• Consumer Reports: recommendations for internet safety

As you can tell, Edublogs covers a wide spectrum of bloggers and topics, all dealing with educational issues.

Congrats to Edublogs, James Farmer, and the wonderful staff, volunteers, and bloggers at Edublogs and the other student blog networks.

[source: http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/100000-edublogs/]