Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

As many educators are either on their summer break or about to enter it, I know many are looking for great books to read.  This is great, but as we hope for our students, consumption should not be the only focus, but creation as well.  If you are looking to read, how will you connect the information you consume and dig deeper?

For this, blogging is a great tool not only to synthesize your learning but to also catalog it into a type of library.  Going through the process of writing “The Innovator’s Mindset” and finishing my second book, my blog was invaluable in finding great information from others that I had placed into my blog that I could reshare in a book.

For Gwyneth Jones, one of the best parts about blogging is having an ongoing record of all of the cool things she’s doing as an educator.

“I’m very forgetful!” admits the woman behind “The Daring Librarian,” an award-winning technology and library science blog Jones launched more than 10 years ago. “Now I can remember what the heck I did from one year to the next.”

But beyond offering personal documentation of the goings on in her library and school, it’s also a way for Jones to work through ideas, share them with colleagues, and get valuable feedback from her readers.

The language used when talking about social media in business can often seem unrelated to the way we relate to using it in a social context, however there are some useful pointers to gain from.  Lilach Bullock is an online business expert and created the infographic below to highlight the steps business owners can take to gain social influence and become a go-to source in their particular niche. There are a number of points that can be applied as educators using social media to develop personal learning networks; to signpost useful information created by ourselves and also by other educators; and to signal that we are open to providing help to others. Portrayed as wanted to grow influence may make you feel uncomfortable, however if you are using social media, for example a blog to share information as an educator and wish to engage in meaningful dialogues, then there is little point being a ‘shrinking violet’. It is important therefore to find and develop your voice on social media.

Dear blogger,

You have such wonderful ideas to share!

Your content is excellent; it’s just that I find myself skimming your posts, because, to be frank, your posts are … kind of hard to read.

It’s not that your writing isn’t “correct”, it’s just that things have changed since you learned to write.

In fact, it might be time to forget a lot of what you learned about writing at school.

Can we chat about making your blog posts easier to read?

With thanks,
A hopeful reader

Are you thinking about starting a blog in 2018? If you are, here are my recommendations based on more than a decade of daily blogging.

This page is where you can find resources related to my presentations about creating effective blogs and websites to complement instruction.

You’ve just published a research article – why should you bother writing a blog post about it? Patrick Dunleavy argues that if you’ve devoted months to writing the paper, dealing with c…

With respect, I must disagree with Mr. Zinsser. We all know the most important part of any article is the title. Without a compelling title, your reader won’t even get to the first sentence. After the title, however, the first few sentences of your article are certainly the most important part.

Journalists call this critical, introductory section the “lede,” and when properly executed, it’s the bridge that carries your reader from an attention-grabbing headline to the body of your blog post.

…and for any kind of persuasive writing.

Sure, great writing may take talent and innate creativity. And hey, you’ve got something to say, right? No matter your current level of experience or skills. With a little gusto in your writing step, you can make the reader feel something, take an action, or be more informed than before.

A few tips below to show you how.

When you start to blog your focus is understandably on the post you are writing. However if you don’t then think about about how you will share this post to an audience that will appreciate it and potentially share with others, then you run the risk of ‘talking’ to the ether…

My post on Monday about plagiarism kicked off a wave of comments and questions. To address some of those questions I published this list of resources for teaching and learning about copyright. Then yesterday afternoon I went live on my YouTube channel to address some questions too.

In 2015 I was attending a training program called Women in Leadership. The series went over several days and before courses began one day, I was reading the agenda and noticed a session entitled, “Joys of Journaling and Benefits of Blogging.” The joys of journaling made sense, most of us have heard about the importance of journaling.