If you’re studying for a degree online, it might help to know what educators know about online learning — the news, policies, processes, technology, culture and resources that are pushing online education into the future. The following 50 educational blogs you should know about as an online university student are just a smattering of all the blogs available on the Web. These particular blogs are updated, and many have been online since the advent of online learning.
News and Commentary
- Blog Scholar: This academic blogging portal is a project of Chris Brauer, PhD student in sociology/computing, Goldsmiths College, University of London.
- ELearning Post: Explore news, views and stories around corporate learning, community building, instructional design, knowledge management and other topics.
- Helge Scherlund’s eLearning News: Keep up-to-date on the latest news and information about flexible, net-based learning and teaching, eLearning, blended learning, online learning, distance learning, m-learning and adult learning.
- Online Education Blog: This is a general blog about online education, careers and related topics.
- Online Learning Update: This blog has been published daily since early in 2001, and it is intended to provide a scholarly chronicle of the development of the technology, pedagogy and practice of online learning at all levels of education in the U.S. and elsewhere.
- Paul Reid: This blog offers commentary on developments in our increasingly networked world, and how it is coming to affect education.
- The eLearners News Blog: Get your fix of the latest news and commentary, insight and advice about online education, careers, technology and learning, and much more from this blog.
- This Week in Education: Alexander Russo brings updates to readers concerning all policies that affect the educational process.
Policy and Politics
- Change Agency: The mission of Change Agency is to explore new concepts in reinventing education for the 21st century.
- Edu.Blogs: Ewan McIntosh is a teacher, speaker and investor, regarded as one of Europe’s foremost experts in digital media for public services.
- Eduwonk: Andrew Rotherham, co-founder and partner at Bellwether Education Partners, writes Eduwonk, a blog focused mostly on education policy and politics.
- Intercepts: Mike Antonucci writes about public education and teachers’ unions.
- Practical Theory: Chris Lehmann, principal of the Science Leadership Academy, offers his perspectives from the classroom.
- Schools Matter: This space explores issues in public education policy, and it advocates for a commitment to and a re-examination of the democratic purposes of schools.
eLearning
- Adventures in Educational Blogging: Susan Sedro conducts explorations on using tech to make learning more engaging and meaningful.
- Clive on Learning: Clive Shepherd has spent the past 25 years working with computers trying to make learning things happen electronically.
- Connectivism: A deeper blog about networked and social learning from George Siemens, author of elearnspace.
- Digital Writing, Digital Teaching: Troy Hicks, an assistant professor of English at Central Michigan University, explores the variety of issues related to teaching writing with new media for K-16 teachers and teacher educators.
- E-Learning Queen: This blog is all about distance training and education, from instructional design to e-learning and mobile solutions, and pays attention to psychological, social, and cultural factors.
- Langwitches Blog: Silvia Tolisano’s passions include globally connected learning, technology integration, 21st Century skills and literacies as well as digital storytelling.
- Moving at the Speed of Creativity: Wesley Fryer uses this site to digitally document his learning journey and to collaborate with other educators and lifelong learners around the globe.
- Prof Stephen Heppell: Writings: Online education, eLearning, 21st-century learning and future learning, among other topics, find a home at this blog.
- Stephen’s Web: Founded in 1995, Stephen’s Web is best described as a digital research laboratory for innovation in the use of online media in education.
- The Knowledge Tree: This blog is an e-journal generated by members of the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system to enable the sharing of research and learning innovation in national and global e-learning practice.
Productivity and Technology
- 2¢ Worth: A non-traditional educator grapples with teaching and learning in the new information landscape.
- Cogdogblog: This is Alan Levine’s space for “barking about and playing with technology.”
- EdTech Innovations: A place for innovative educators to discuss and share how they integrate technology.
- EdTech Talk: This blog is a collaborative open Webcasting community meeting place to discuss education, technology, practice and contexts.
- EdTechPost: Scott Leslie is an educational technologist, hacker, researcher and open content/open network activist.
- eSchool News: News, ideas and research offered on technology for today’s K-20 educator.
- Ideas and Thoughts: Dean Shareski is a digital learning consultant with the Prairie South School Division in Moose Jaw, SK, Canada. He specializes in the use of technology in the classroom.
- Infinite Thinking Machine: Through an active blog, an Internet TV show, and other media resources, the ITM shares a “bazillion practical ideas” for turning the infinite universe of information into knowledge.
- Internet Time Blog: Jay Cross writes books, blogs, and articles on business effectiveness, especially online.
- Tech and Learning: A broad collection of blogs that focus on technology and learning, both in the classroom and distance learning.
- Weblogg-ed: Will Richardson is “Learner in Chief” at Connective Learning and the author of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, now in its 2nd Edition.
Online Educational Culture
- Dramatech Space: Explore drama, education and technology with Kim Flintoff, a mentor to teachers transitioning to Flexible Learning strategies.
- Easily Distracted: An academic blog about culture, politics, academia and “other shiny objects.”
- Networked Performance: Networked performance is real-time, embodied practice within digital environments and networks; “it is, embodied transmission.”
- Oh! Virtual Learning! Scott Merrick focuses on virtual learning environments and their possibilities.
- Snurblog: Dr. Axel Bruns’s research interests are in “produsage” (or collaborative user-led content development), social media mapping, blogging, citizen journalism, online publishing, virtual communities, creative industries, creative hypertext writing, and popular music studies.
- Terra Nova: Terra Nova is a Weblog about virtual worlds, also known as synthetics worlds, MMOs, MMORPGs, Social Worlds, MUDs, MOOs, and MUSHes.
- Virtual Learning Worlds: Barton is responsible for data mining a vast array of institutional data tied to undergraduate education at Pennsylvania State University, helping to identify trends and inform high-level administrators and decision-makers.
Research
- David Lee King: King creates, writes, thinks, and speaks about library Web sites and emerging digital technology.
- Dissertation Research: If you want support for research, resources, reference, online expertise, writing and skill goals, this site is imperative.
- Free Range Librarian: This is K.G. Schneider”s blog on “librarianship, writing, and everything else.”
- Hey Jude: If you’re learning online, Judy O’Connell can help with her information about emerging technologies, innovation with Web 2.0, and what this all means for schools and school libraries.
- Information Wants To Be Free: A librarian, writer and educator reflects on the profession and the tools librarians use to serve patrons.
- Panlibus Blog: Panlibus is based on a heritage and experience with over 40 years of serving the library domain, combined with knowledge of leading edge technology.
- Research Buzz: Get news about search engines, digital archives, online museums, databases and other Internet resources and collections since 1998.
- Resource Shelf Blog: Learn about how dedicated librarians and researchers share the results of their “directed (and occasionally quirky) Web searches” for resources and information.