I checked out the website At the Teachers Desk and I love it. It is a great example of a collaborative professional blog. It has all of the requirements of a professional blog: A title and subtitle explaining the purpose of the blog, informative resources such as a map of worldwide visitors allowing viewers to see where other viewers are coming from, contributors to the blog and a link to their pages, other related blogs, a rating of the most active commenter's, a live feed of who is currently viewing the page, a list of followers, Comments4kids, and several labels including the names of each post.
What I find the most interesting about this blog is that it does not have the name and picture of the author at the top or anywhere, it focuses on topics to be discussed. I like this because you get straight to the point when navigating the page. I read several of the posts and each were so interesting. Some of my favorites were Using Technology for Effective Communication, discussing how we (as teachers) can use our current technology to keep parents and students more tuned into the classroom. Examples were using mobile devices at all times, and Facebook regularly. I also liked the posts, How do I Know I'm Not Being Selfish, It Is Imperative We Help our Students Create a Positive Digital Portfolio, Teachers Need to Become Social Networking Experts, and How to Get (and Keep) More Visitors. This last blog sets up a great foundation for adapting your blog to becoming more efficient and popular.
I added this site to my PLN, because I think this is a great way to keep oneself updated with -what we need to keep ourselves updated with! It is a wonderful tool for collaboration because not only do the posts touch on extremely important and current topics, but anyone can comment and several conversations/debates are recorded. On top of that, if you are really moved by a topic, you can comment and create a discussion via comments while gaining more inside information on the subject once the responses begin to post. Overall, I think this is a great site not only for collaboration, but also for personal growth as a technologically literate teacher.
I, like you, really like the At the Teacher's Desk blog. I can see how not having a name and photo of the site's owner can place greater emphasis on the content, but I like putting a name and face with blogs. I think it adds to their credibility. But, that being said, did you notice the especially cool background to the blog? It sure looks a lot like somebody's I know. Let's see. Whose is it? Oh yes, it's mine! Ha ha. Thanks for the insightful post.
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