Read These Blogs

It can be some work keeping up with the ever-expanding universe of bloggers, thinkers, confabulists and furturists writing about education, technology, new methods and the 21st century. Here are some blogs that I recommend or at least encourage you to look at to determine if what they're offering is what you're needing. In no particular order...

Nottingham, England's Tom Barrett writes the wise, thoughtful and provocative edte.ch blog. With interests in school design, design-inspired curricula and technology there's a lot that Tom offers. In the past month, I have read blog entries about designing learning spaces for the needs of learners, great suggestions about iPad apps that really work in classroom settings and a thoughtful piece about the notion of co-designing curriculum with your students.

Another inestimable resource in the world of 21st century educational thought is Dean Groom. "Design for Living" is a sometimes cantankerous, always provocative look at education, curriculum design and digital life. He cares about game-based learning and play, as I do, but is also interested in how we use and interact with digital spaces generally.

Subscribe to Pekka Puhakka's twitter feed for one of the best aggregations of social media and gamification news. 

Ben Rimes is doing very helpful work at techsavvyed.net. Concerned about practical questions that can vex the classroom teacher in integrating technology into the classroom as well as theoretical questions about 21st century education and skills. His post on recursive teaching and learning practices was very helpful for me.

Germany-based Ilona Buchem writes about gamification in education, game-based learning and digitial culture and identity. Don't miss her March 6 post on digital identity in particular. Excellent!

And the work of two colleagues who are learning and leading in the craft of 21st century method development. Nick Holton works at Milken Community High School in Los Angeles where he is a mentor teacher in the area of education technology.  Mike Irwin, a middle schol teacher at Henry Ford Academy in Detroit, has been exploring deeply powerful game-based learning techniques with his students and classmates. He blogs about these matters on his tumblr site. Check him out!

And of course you should be reading the Gamification blog and Bill Ferriter's Tempered Radical.

I'm personally and professionally grateful that these educators, philosophers, thinkers and dreamers have shared their work with the rest of us. Education is the better because of it.