EdBlogs and Making Reading Easier

As a high school business education teacher, I have a love-hate relationship with education blogs. In the past, it seemed like the blogs were focused on elementary or core classes or the technologies weren’t feasible in my district. There were a few that I found that I enjoyed reading, but I would forget or get too busy to visit them for new content.

Enter Feedly.

This is one of the tools that we learned about this week, and so far, I like it! It has a very simple user interface and connects with my Google account. Feedly became popular as a replacement for Google Reader, and today there are roughly 15 million users and 40 million sources. Set up is very easy, but if you’re looking for a short video, here is one for you!

Feedly also has a mobile app for Android, iOS, and Kindle. I’ve downloaded the app for my Android and it seems very smooth - they also have a widget for those who don’t like to open the app every time.

I’m looking forward to discovering (and actually reading) more education blogs and I think that Feedly will help this.  One of the blogs that I found today, and look forward to reading, is Ideas and Thoughts. The writing style of the author, Dean Shareski, is very easy to read. Shareski focuses on using technology in the classroom, but I feel his approach is much more realistic than some other technology blogs on the Internet.

Speaking of technology, this week I was introduced to VideoNot.es today. I’ve taken several classes about technology and sat through numerous PD sessions, but this tool may be one of the coolest (and most useful) that I’ve seen so far. One of my biggest internal dilemmas as a teacher is the concept of guided notes. I have this monologue going on in my head that if I don’t give students guided notes they won’t take any, but students aren’t given guided notes in college. What intrigues me about VideoNot.es is that there is a video that is embedded on the left side of the screen and then there is a note taking space on the right side of the screen, but a timestamp is noted as users key their notes. The videos and notes are saved in a Google Drive folder and can be shared with other users. With the increased emphasis on flipped learning, this could be fantastic! I can also see students recording presentations or responses to assignments and then using the tool as a way to reflect on their own work or provide constructive criticism to classmates.

What are some of your favorite education blogs or technology tools?