Earlier this year I profiled some 'new voices' in the edublogosphere that I thought deserved more attention.
I am going to try and revive (and rebrand) that idea in 2008. In the coming year, I will attempt each Friday to highlight a blog that I believe deserves a bigger audience (DABA). I will be picking blogs that:
- have new content fairly frequently (i.e., at least a few times a month);
- have a Technorati authority of less than 100 (I'll probably make exceptions to this now and then); and
- I think are interesting, provocative, relevant, and/or important to K-12 educators.
Most of my picks will be education blogs, although I also will throw in other blogs now and then.
In order to make these blogs as accessible and visible as possible, I have created a Google Notebook page that will list all DABA blogs to date (I've included my previous 'new voices' blogs too):
I also have created a feed that will allow you to read and/or subscribe to all of the DABA blogs in one place:
Here's the code if you want to add the DABA blogs as a clip on your web site or a blogroll:
And, finally, I have created a graphic for anyone who wants to post my recognition of their blog (again, this includes my previous 'new voices' blogs):
Like the Weblog Awards, Edublog Awards, and Bloggies, the goal of the DABA initiative is to help publicize some great blogs that have the potential to make bigger contributions (in this case, to K-12 education). Some might call these blogs the 'Z list' or the 'F list.' Whatever you call them, they deserve to be more visible.
Contact me if you know of a blog that might be a good candidate for the DABA list. As always, any other suggestions you have for me are welcome as well. I'll begin next Friday!
Notes
Hopefully this blog post also is a good model of how educators can take a group of blogs and make them accessible in different ways by using Google Notebook, Google Reader, and/or Feedburner.
Thanks for sharing, Scott. Everytime I read my blog stats, I figure I'm one of the blogs that falls into the "DASA" group--Deserves a Smaller Audience. (smile)
Pete (Ed Tech Journeys) did a nice round-up of blogs as well.
http://preilly.wordpress.com/2007/12/27/one-year/
Over the last month, I have had a definite feeling that something is missing from the blogosphere. I'm not sure what it is, only that it's not achieving the same level of depth I grew accustomed to. Maybe it's my own changing perspective, or there's something to the argument that blogs are fluff. This may explain why some edu-blogs are digging deeper to try and change the world with their writing.
To be honest, I'd rather see individual bloggers change...that goes for me, too. That authenticity just isn't coming across. Again, that may also be a reflection of my perspective.
I'll go read some books and maybe the feeling will go away. (smile)
With appreciation for you,
Miguel
Around the Corner
http://mguhlin.net
Posted by: Miguel Guhlin | December 28, 2007 at 09:33 AM
This is a great idea to aggregate all of this content into one feed. Thanks for sharing. And thanks for including my blog.
Posted by: Scott Elias | December 28, 2007 at 10:50 AM
Sounds like a great idea. I look forward to discovering new blogs.
Posted by: Mathew | December 28, 2007 at 11:09 AM
Scott, You are "ACE" --
A Change-agent Extraordinaire.
Thank you.
Posted by: A grateful teacher | December 28, 2007 at 02:27 PM
Barry Bachenheimer in NJ's "A Plethora of Technology" at http://plethoratech.blogspot.com/
and Sean Law's "Slam Teaching" at
http://slamteaching.wordpress.com/
You've already got Scott Schwister - to me as refreshing as they come, because he rarely talks about tech stuff, and he's a fantastic writer (and person). http://higheredison.typepad.com/higheredison/
Posted by: Clay Burell | December 29, 2007 at 09:54 AM
Many thanks, Scott. As always, you have your eyes on the bigger prize and model a fresh approach for the rest of us. DABA humbly accepted.
By the way, very cool way to organize feeds. I can see immediate application possibilities for professional development---for instance, setting up a group of feeds around a PLC theme. Reminds me of the process a WebQuest designer goes through to preview and organize rich resources suitable to the task at hand.
Hey, you could market this as a fragrance. DABA little on the wrists and behind the ears. . . .
Maybe not.
Posted by: Scott Schwister | December 30, 2007 at 12:49 AM
Scott, thanks for the reference to the F-List. I hope that together we can give venue and audience to these great voices. I love the idea of streamlining the feeds. I learn so much from your blog;I am inspired by your leadership. I look forward to the great learning and conversations in 2008!
Posted by: Angela Maiers | December 30, 2007 at 08:02 AM
Thank you! I really think if we want more new voices, more diversity, we need to be deliberate in our efforts. This should definitely help. I know you want to see more administrators blogging/being read, but are you going to have some teacher blogs too?
Posted by: A. Mercer | January 03, 2008 at 08:20 PM
Scott, thanks for the reference to the List, really very cool way to organize feeds.....
http://www.perfumesofparis.net/
Posted by: Perfume | July 14, 2008 at 05:10 AM