Education Blogs Provide Platform for New Voices in National Education
Debate
Top 10 Education Blogs Identified in New Education Next
Analysis
STANFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Internet is evening out the playing field for education commentators
and analysts by making the traditional trappings of power and influence
obsolete, writes Michael J. Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
in his new analysis of education web logs (blogs) published in Education
Next.
Currently, there are as many as 30,000 education blogs on the Internet.
Some focus on policy, others on practice; many link and comment on daily
newspaper articles and other blog posts and provide a forum for other
users to do the same. The bloggers come from a variety of backgrounds
and the influence of their blogs does not seem tied to any particular
set of credentials. For example, the nation’s top education policy
blogger, Eduwonkette, was, until recently, anonymous: Jennifer Jennings,
a graduate student in sociology at Columbia University, managed to
overtake Eduwonk’s Andrew Rotherham in the top spot, even though her
competitor is a former Clinton White House aide and cofounder of a major
Washington education think tank.
In his analysis for Education Next, Petrilli ranked the top ten
education blogs and the top ten education policy blogs by their
technorati score as of August 2008, which provides an indicator of the
“authority” given to a site by other bloggers by identifying the number
of unique blogs that have linked to that blog within the past 180 days
as measured by technorati.com.
In terms of political leaning, education policy blogs are balanced
between Left and Right, Petrilli says. Eduwonk and the Quick and the Ed
write from the center-left; Intercepts, Flypaper, and Jay P. Greene come
from the center-right. None of the major education interest groups have
broken into the upper ranks of the education blogosphere: The United
Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of Teachers, and the
National School Boards Association all have active blogs, but none makes
the top 10 lists.
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Top 10 Education Blogs
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Author(s)
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Technorati Score
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1. Weblogg-ed
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Will Richardson, author, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts
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850
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2. Joanne Jacobs
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Joanne Jacobs, former reporter & columnist
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788
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3. Cool Cat Teacher
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Vicki Davis, teacher, Westwood Schools, Georgia
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531
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4. 2¢ Worth
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David Warlick, The Landmark Project, former teacher
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529
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5. Speed of Creativity
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Wesley Fryer, Oklahoma Heritage Association
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462
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6. Dangerously Irrelevant
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Dr. Scott McLeod, Iowa State University
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443
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7. Edu.blogs
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Ewan McIntosh, teacher, Edinburgh, Scotland
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406
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8. Fischbowl
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Karl Fisch, teacher, Arapahoe High School, Colorado
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323
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9. Students 2.0
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K–12 students from around the world
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266
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10. The Thinking Stick
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Jeff Utecht, tech specialist, Shanghai American School
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243
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Top 10 Education Policy Blogs
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Author(s)
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Technorati Score
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1. Eduwonkette
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Jennifer Jennings, doctoral student, Columbia University
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179
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2. Eduwonk
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Andrew Rotherham, Education Sector
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165
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3. The Education Wonks
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Anonymous (EdWonk, TeacherWonk, and TeenWonk)
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129
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4. The Quick and the Ed
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Kevin Carey and others, Education Sector
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103
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5. Intercepts
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Mike Antonucci, Education Intelligence Agency
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89
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6. Matthew Tabor
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Matthew Tabor, college admissions counselor
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82
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7. Schools Matter
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Jim Horn, PhD (affiliation unknown)
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82
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8. This Week In Education
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Alexander Russo, former Capitol Hill staffer
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82
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9. Flypaper
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Education Gadfly team, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
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79
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10. Jay P. Greene
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Jay P. Greene, University of Arkansas
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76
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For more about the wild world of education blogging, read “Linky
Love, Snark Attacks, and Fierce Debates about Teacher Quality: A Peek
Inside the Education Blogosphere” online at www.EducationNext.org.
Michael J. Petrilli is vice president for national programs and policy
at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, and an executive editor of Education
Next.
Education Next is a scholarly journal published by the Hoover
Institution that is committed to looking at hard facts about school
reform. Other sponsoring institutions are the Harvard Program on
Education Policy and Governance and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.
Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Michael J. Petrilli, 202-223-5452
or
Hoover
Institution, Stanford University
Caleb Offley, 585-319-4541
www.hoover.org
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