I enjoy reading edubloggers. From my experience, conversations now occurring with edubloggers is several years ahead of what happens in journals and conferences. I can’t think of a more innovative, intellectually fertile space. Over the last several months, however, I’ve been evaluating the diversity of my reading. Almost overwhelmingly, I read blogs with a left-leaning slant. Now, there could be various reasons for this: progressives are more likely to adopt new technology, educators are generally left-leaning, or, the left-view of education is the more sensible one to take. I’m not interested in defending or condemning the proliferation of certain political and societal views among edubloggers. I greatly respect and value the discussions and innovative ideas produced with this network. It does, however, point a weakness in my network: I lack needed diversity in my reading about education. During the recent US election, I made a habit of reading blogs and writers from both parties and broad range of political perspectives. The key, after all, is to understand other people’s views, not necessarily to condemn them.
Which leads me to my question: any suggestions on quality blogs within education that espouse a conservative view?
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14 Comments
My blog is edtech, and I would classify myself as conservative. But I only ever talk politics incidentally.
The conservative edublogs I read most are Joanne Jacobs and Matthew K. Tabor.
Hello George and all –
Greetings from Grand Rapids, MI (USA). I have a personal website at Calvin College — http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/ — and would generally see myself more on the conservative side of things. However, I have voted for members of both major parties, depending upon whom I think is the better candidate. But I don’t talk politics too much on my site. However, I will throw in some philosophical thoughts and will mention a prayer at times.
But mainly, I am a major fan of multimedia as well as various technologies. I come from a corporate background of 15 years, and a higher ed background of 7 years. At this point I am following the following items:
– The forthcoming Walmart of Education (online; 50% of the normal cost; student selects content that works best for him/her; might be the Federal Government, most likely, a new, for-profit player who operates like a corporation)
— Legislation requiring students take at least one 100%-online class to graduate (first from high school, then from college)
– 1:1 computing, PLE’s, EPT’s
– Learning Agents
– Open/collaborative teaching & learning
– Rising student expectations
– Keeping students engaged & motivated
– The move towards using teams
– The move towards developing consortiums & pooling resources
– Mobile learning
– Global learning
– Lifelong learning
– Digital storytelling
– Cloud computing
– Nanotechnology
– Cross-disciplinary assignments & learning
– Convergence
– Multimedia
– Educational gaming
– Social networking/Web 2.0
– Virtual worlds / 3D
– The semantic web
– Multi-touch interfaces
– The developing WebOS
Thanks all for your work out there!
Dan Christian
http://www.calvin.edu/~dsc8/
My blog is … I don’t know. I think it’s progressive in terms of promoting contemporary technology-based learning approaches – but conservative where I feel that fads are driving the learning agenda. Maybe it’s just … undisciplined?
I think you might want to look to the Southern U.S. where almost everyone is conservative (Notice that almost all the southern states were red). I must agree that you might have some problems finding these conservative people but I know they exist. I just don’t know if they are blogging. Good luck.
Wouldn’t a more diverse selection of education blogs include one that questions the value of technology and social media in the classroom vs. one that evangelizes it? I don’t know of one offhand, but it’s another aspect to consider.
George,
I’m not sure how political viewpoints conform with the various visions for new learning. I come at it as a political conservative but my aspirations for change are as radical as anyone I know. I strongly believe that our traditional approach to learning needs to change deeply and radically.
I read/appreciate the edublogs but there is at times an open hostility towards conservative veiwpoints that is somewhat dismaying and not very productive. I understand the gap in values between those in business and those in education, but neither side is right or wrong – there are only perspectives. No-one could deny that both sides can learn from each other, and I hope my two cents’ worth adds a different voice amongst all my left-leaning confreres.
I’m actually planning to write 2 posts that relate connectivism to business in the next few days so feel free to drop by.
A strong and well-written blog that regularly questions the ‘techno-zealotry’ of much of the content found in the edublogosphere is that of Joe Nutt:
http://joenutt.squarespace.com/educational-research-and-news/
Hi George. If you go to the page on workplace learning today that says blogroll, you’ll see a listing of corporate blogs. many of them are a bit more conservative – talk of designing courses, learning management systems, etc. Link to blogroll
Hi all – thanks for the suggestions. My google reader subscriptions continue to grow
.
It’s great that people recognise that intelligent minds disagree – I’m sick and tired of hearing, “If you only knew what I did, you’d believe as I do.” Both sides of the political spectrum are equally guilty of this, and unfortunately, it becomes easier to ignore your opponent if you believe they are ignorant or stupid.
When I began writing my blog, I was pretty left-wing (voted for Canada’s NDP, if that means anything to you). Over time, my approach has become more tempered, so while I still believe in progressive ideas regarding education, I’m more on board with the group that would prefer to curtail the size of government. I suppose that makes me politically conservative, but I hope I’m open to both points of view.
I am not a “conservative” blogger, but I am an education technology business blogger.
http://ssik12.com/category/blog
The other one I would highly recommend in this mold is Lee Wilson’s blog: http://www.educationbusinessblog.com/
His latest post was phenomenal.
Some of the above comments seem to be focusing on the conservative/progressive spectrum in political terms, whereas I took it (as some others did) to be about approach to education. It is perfectly feasible to be politically conservative and educationally progressive and vice versa, I think. One interesting aspect for me of #CCK08 was that many of us who might broadly be considered progressive in our approach to education were cast into somewhat conservative positions on certain issues. LisaMLane discussed this a few times, and her blogs are definitely worth following. Other CCK08 people you should probably keep an eye on, if you are not already, include Gina Minks and Frances Bell.E
Just a suggestion. Not so much an educator but that of a conservative blogger from the states with a science background. We crossed paths briefly when we considered the odd push to introduce intelligent design into Australian schools
http://level-head.livejournal.com
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