Friday, January 16, 2009

The Power of Blogs

Woohoo, we're 27th! Now, I know this is not close to number 1. And everyone wants to be in first place. That honor goes to Joann Jacobs. Usually when someone celebrates, it is for being first, not 27th. In fact, the Cleveland Browns were close to 27th place this year in the NFL, and nobody celebrated their season. But when you consider the thousands of educational blogs, this is significant.

Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer listed the top 50 educational blogs worldwide based on user engagement. He researched using input from several sources including Google searches, Alltop, and Technorati and then used Postrank to rank them. He did this project for a client, and approached it objectively, without any preconceived notions about who or which blogs would be on his list.

This ranking is not so much about the success of this blog, but rather, it points out the value of blogs for teachers. Blogs allow writers from everywhere to share their thoughts, ideas, and opinions. A teacher from Laurelville can converse with Dan Froelich, a technology coordinator/professor from the North Carolina Teacher Academy and learn from Doug Johnson, a Director of Media and Technology from Minnesota. Teachers from classes from around the world like Chrissy Hellyer from the International School of Bangkok Thailand, or Tracey Bowes from Canada can share their ideas and work together to better help students.

This ranking is also a significant success for the Reading Workshop students. It shows that this blog provides them with a worldwide audience. Their thoughts expressed as comments proved valuable to readers. Their experiences in Reading Workshop served as models for teachers and students.


Being number 1 is great, but sometimes being number 27 is okay too.

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6 comments:

Teaching Sagittarian said...

Thanks for the mention Mr McGuire! We think that it's pretty cool you and your students are 27th on the list. Sharing your experiences and your student's experiences in Reading Workshop are inspirational to the learning that goes on in our classroom in Bangkok. How cool is that?
Ms H and the students of Room 202 ISB Bangkok

doug0077 said...

Hi Jim,

Don't let the fame and all the money derived from it go to your head ;-)

Like me, I am guessing one thoughtful comment from a reader is more appreciated than any "ranking."

All the best and keep up the good work,

Doug

Mr. McGuire said...

When I first heard about it, and bragged to my wife, she asked, "how much does that pay?" And then she just laughed.

You are right. Nothing beats a reader that is interested enough, or cares enough to comment.

Anonymous said...

27th place is a really good place when there is like didn't you say there about 1,000 other blogs out there. I'm suprised that we made or you made 27th place I thought most of the time it was just a waste of time Mr. Mcguire

Anonymous said...

I think it's really cool that we are number 27 out of a hundred thousand blogs. That's really cool though that we are number 27. Now I can see why Mr. McGuire always tells us to fix all of our mistakes.

Anonymous said...

I think number 27 is really good out of 100,000 other blogs. Now I understand why Mr. McGuire always says no mistakes. If you think about it 27th place is really good.