Recap: Women in the edublogosphere 2007

by Janet Clarey on January 10, 2008

this cup says 'smart women thirst for knowledge'This could be a post about Canadian bloggers, or Australian bloggers, or male bloggers, or under-30 bloggers or bloggers with webbed feet…whatever. But it’s not. It’s a post about women bloggers (mostly in the education space), a topic I wrote about several times last year. So hear me roar already (or is that al-’reddy’).

When I first started blogging early in ‘07 I felt there weren’t that many female bloggers. I thought it was just like the conference thing. In case you haven’t noticed, womens’ voices at industry conferences are disproportionately small, especially as conference keynoters, with the exception of Blogher of course. I don’t really have a take on this that won’t sound soap boxy and don’t really want to go down diversity lane if ya’ know what I mean… (if you’re struggling to find women speakers for your conference, go here or select from the fine list below : ) Return from digression…

I think my perception that there weren’t a lot of women blogging about education was because we don’t link up that well. Maybe we don’t do the blogroll thing as much. Or maybe we don’t name our blogs with our own name that often. Maybe I’m just full of crap.

Anyway, I was thrilled to have found some great reads from fellow women throughout the year. Here’s a wrap-up of those blogs featured in 2007 and some new ones…enjoy.

New (to me) reads…

Jessica Hagy
Indexed
Life on index cards. Not an edublogger (Jessica’s site says she’s in advertising) but good example of illustrating concepts simply and with humor.

Cathy Nelson
Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts
Helpful hints, tips, and tricks for teachers who are integrating technology in an authentic manner. Cathy’s content is driven by questions she is asked or by her own current technology interests.

Christine Martell
VisualsSpeak Blog
Not strictly an edublogger, Christine focuses on visualization.

Anne Fox
Anne Fox: Blog
TEFL teacher and project developer in the areas of e-learning, EU projects, teacher training, mentoring, inter-cultural competence, language learning, m-learning, Nordic languages, online meeting moderation

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
21st Century Collaborative
Doctoral student, adjunct instructor of educational technology at the College of William and Mary, educational consultant, and frequent speaker/presenter.

Barbara Ganley
bgblogging
Reflections on teaching-with-technology journey and evolution as a user of New Media in the writing classroom.

Linda Naiman
Creativity at Work
A new blogger (2007), the purpose of Linda’s blog is to “create, with your help, a learning community for people who live or work at the intersections of art, business, science and design.”

Helen Keegan
Helen Keegan: Blog
Researcher/learning technologist/part-time lecturer.

Ellyssa Kroski
iLibrarian
Author and Reference Librarian at Columbia University’s Butler Library. She also works as an Information Consultant providing services in Web strategy, project management, information architecture, social marketing, content development, and production in both the library and corporate sectors. She has been appointed adjunct faculty at her alma mater Long Island University’s Palmer School of Library Science where she teaches LIS students about Web 2.0 technologies.

Glenda Morgan
Accidental Pedagogy
Research and practice in academic technology in higher education.

Jane McGonigal
Avant Game
Game designer, a games researcher, and a future forecaster. Teacher and lecturer.

Liz Davis
The Power of Educational Technology
Instructional Technology Specialist in a Massachusetts High School

Featured here in 2007…

Alja Sulčič
iAlja
Writes about virtual communities, and is an avid twitterer

Wendy Wickham
In the Middle of the Curve
Real stuff from a real practitioner…one of my favorites.

Michelle Martin
The Bamboo Project blog
Blog about ‘new technologies to learn and work more productively, running organizations more effectively in a new economy, and taking charge of your own professional development through personal learning and effective career management skills.”

Jane Hart
Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day
An e-learning application or tool highlighted EVERYDAY (do you know how hard that must be?)

Anne Bartlett-Bragg
Learning Technologies
Anne describes her area of interest as, “…digital dialogues or communication and the social aspects of learning with technologies and how this can be used to enhance learning.” Always a good read.

Nancy White
Full Circle
Weblog and business site and the place to start if you want great information on online community and collaboration.

Angela Thomas
Angela A Thomas
English Education teacher who teaches in Second Life as Anya Ixchel and conducts auto-ethnographic research.

Danah Boyd
apophenia
Expert on social networks specifically on how youth engage within them.

Cathy Moore
Making Change
I love this blog! If you are an instructional designer and/or write content for online courses, you MUST read this blog. Very real, applicable resources and advice.

Sue Waters
Mobile Technology in TAFE is from Perth, Australia and is the person behind Mobile Technology in TAFE web sites. TAFE is the acronym for Technical and Further Education. Sue is an aquaculture lecturer, cool huh?

Emma King
Emma King is a Brandon Hall Research blogger. YAY!!! That’s all I have to say…of course you should read all Brandon Hall Research blogs : )

Kate Britt
What’s New in PinkFlamingo’s Resource Lists?
A teacher from Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Pam Hook (a/k/a/ Artichoke)
Artichoke
If the deep web had a subset called deep blogs, this would be on it. Thoughtful, well-articulated, challenging posts. Love this blog!

Beth Ritter-Guth
Beth’s Second Life
A blog about teaching English and Women’s Studies using Second Life.

Kathy Sierra
Creating Passionate Users
Kathy Sierra dropped off the grid because of threats by trolls. If you hate the whole woman thing (if you did you probably wouldn’t have read this far…) read I am not a woman blogger. To which I say touché while enjoying the irony of a black lace bra photo that probably led to more hits (as mine did). Hmmm…

Josie Fraser
Josie blogs at SocialTech and heads up the Eddies! a/k/a the Edublog Awards. She’s a UK-based educational technologist.

Karyn Romeis
Karyn’s erratic learning journey
Karyn’s blog is one I read even when I get behind on my reading. There are times when I get behind and have 2000 posts in my reader and before I hit “mark all read” I’ll read Karyn’s blog and several others. Outspoken, straight shooter, with thoughtful posts that make you see things (at least me) in new ways. I learn there!

Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins
Ãœbernoggin
UberNoggin is about “social networking, new media marketing, web 2.0 (whatever that really means nowadays) and participatory media.”

Vicki Davis
Cool Cat Teacher Blog
Teaching content with new tools, enthusiasm, and the belief that teaching is a noble calling. Co-founder of Women of the Web 2.0

Cammy Bean
Learning Visions
As described on her site…”Musings on e-Learning, instructional design, rapid e-Learning, templates, the brain and other learning tidbits. As seen from the vendor side of the e-Learning aisle….” I’ve had a lot of great conversations with Cammy this year. One of my favorite bloggers.

Silke Fleischer
Adobe Corporate Blog- Silke Fleischer .
Silke is responsible for product management and marketing for Adobe Captivate. Lots of great tips.

Judy O’Connell
HeyJude
Reflections, learning and social networking through the eyes of an educator and information professional. Judy’s blog says she’s taking up a new challenge as Head of Library and Information Services at St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill in 2008 where her role will be to reshape virtual and physical learning services for the school. Congrats!

Susan Smith Nash
E-Learning Queen
The E-Learning Queen explores all manner of online and distributed training and education, from instructional design to the construction and implementation of entire e-learning solutions. She finds real-world e-learning issues and applications particularly intriguing; in higher education, military, K-12, and corporate and humanitarian / not-for-profit realms.

Marcia Conner
Live Laugh Learn Lead is Marcia’s new home after merging the Ageless Learner blog. Now encompassing many aspects of life including learning.

Kristin Hokanson
The Connected Classroom
Thoughts of an emerging edu-blogger committed to creating constructivist learning experiences for students.

Lisa Reichelt
Disambiguity
Contextual research and user centred design.

Lynn Wernham
Learning
Lynn blogs to develop a social network for mutual reflection & learning. I’ve had several great conversations with Lynn this year.

Tracy Hamilton
Discovery through elearning
Another practitioner who blogs about daily challenges and blogs for professional development.

Lynn V. Marentette
Interactive Multimedia Technology
Lynn is a School Psychologist, Computer/Technology Student, Consultant who blogs about interactive touch screen applications, ubiquitous computing, human-computer interaction, universal usability and accessibility, Universal Design for Learning, serious games, and technology innovations.

Christy Tucker
Experiencing E-Learning
One of my favorites. Be sure to check out the Technology Skills for Instructional Designers series!

Cynthia Russell
Technology Escapades
Current projects and interests center around the proper use of technology in enhancing teaching and learning in the health sciences.

Joan Vinall-Cox
Joan Vinall-Cox: Blog
Joan writes about her fascination with the Web as it affects learning. Joan is one of the few bloggers I have met face-to-face. Joan and I connected through blogging and arranged to get together in Toronto where I was leading a workshop. Great conversation. Make me think about how nice it would be to get together with other bloggers.

Speaking of getting together…we will be announcing our 2008 conference details shortly. I’d be interested to hear from fellow women bloggers interested in meeting up face-to-face or participating virtually in a women-in-education blogger’s panel.

I’m also happy to set up the webbed feet blogger’s panel…

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Tagged as: Blogs, Women

  • I would be happy to participate. Let me know when you are ready and we can set up some time to chat.

    It’s actually quite an interesting topic. I did some very limited research and found some interesting areas for additional research/action:
    • The issue of genre (as many women as men blog, more women than men write journal blogs, more men than women write filter blogs…yet filter blogs tend to be “A” listers perhaps because of the value society places on commentary, opinion, and discourse vs. observation and reflection.
    • The need to change the way blogs are ranked by services that specialize in such measures. “A” listers (and filter blogs) tend to have more incoming/outgoing links, like links to like.
    • The democratization claim regarding the Internet = bunk. The Internet simply reflects society (misogyny magnified). I found a couple of examples of women bloggers who wrote controversial topics and men actually shut down the conversation (lack of interest in discourse).
    • Some women blog anonymously due to fear of threats and stalking (especially on controversial topics).

    I wonder sometimes what this means for women looking for opportunities to speak at conferences, get quoted in publications, and basically get recognized as an expert in their area of expertise.

    Ugh…getting off soapbox.
  • Hello Janet,

    You said, "I think my perception that there weren’t a lot of women blogging about education was because we don’t link up that well. Maybe we don’t do the blogroll thing as much. Or maybe we don’t name our blogs with our own name that often. Maybe I’m just full of crap".


    I've been thinking that I might be "full of crap" too, but know from my blogging work over the past year that I am not. In my experience,it is that we do not do the blogroll as much and that we don't (for the most part) name our blogs after ourselves. I believe that we also do not comment on and bandy each others name's and blog postings in the blogosphere in the same manner as men blogger's on topics of same.

    I am planning a series of interviews on this topic over the next 12 months and would like to extend my first invitation to you. Have not formally developed my questions yet, but am planning to use VoiceThread and to engage other women bloggers and readers in the interviews.

    Let me know if you are interested and I will follow-up with additional information. The interviews will be focused and will not take up much time for those interviewed or those reading/listening. I enjoy and follow your blog.

    Sincerely,

    Dr. Deborah Proctor
    deborah.proctor@so.mnscu.edu
    http://deborahproctor.efoliomn2.com/
  • Hi Helen!
    I'll add you to my blog roll! Great to have found you.
  • Hi Janet (waves)
    Thanks for bringing all these women edubloggers to my attention. I've been blogging away since 2003 with barely a reader in sight - I must be the exception that proves the rule! - and my blog is about e-learning, education, digital creativity and Web 2.0. I shall be looking through all these blogs and adding to my feeds :)
  • Hi Janet,
    Thanks SO much for the inclusion in the list, it's really motivating and very much appreciated! I read yours regularly as a lurker, but am going to be more pro-active in the blogosphere from now on... and i reckon your list of women edubloggers is a great place to start!
    Helen

    http://eduspaces.net/holla/weblog/253966.html
  • Glad to have many of these women in my learning network and can see more I need to consider.
  • Hi Carol- thanks for pointing me to your blog. And Mike, thanks too for pointing me to Angela Maiers.
  • Thanks for the list Sheryl! Congrats for being on it! A lot to check out...and I will. I find my creativity increases when I expose myself to things outside the education space.
  • Wonderful list -- great post. I really appreciate the mention... and appreciate having lots of new blogs to read. This is a great service.
  • Janet,
    Thanks so much for including me on your list. I feel honored! I'm coming up the 1 year anniversary of my first blog entry. I never would have believed how much I could learn through this medium - through both reading and writing. One of the rewards of blogging is knowing that someone else is reading what you have written. My Technorati rating is now up to a whopping 16!
  • Thank you for including me on this list, and yes, Karyn, I miss Kathy's writing as well. She is great and I hate to see a precedent for women being able to be "scared" away from blogging by obnoxious people.

    It is important to point out the women bloggers and to realize that we are part of the edublogosphere. We should be confident in who we are and our perspective!

    Thank you for including me here.
  • I'd like to add my voice to those who miss Kathy. If you're still checking tags on yourself, Kathy - you've left a hole, girl!
  • I was just thinking about Kathy Sierra yesterday and how much I miss her writing. A great list here...on you might watch is Angela Maiers (http://www.angelamaiers.com)
  • Hi Janet, Add mine to your list. I have been posting since May 2004 - "BBC - Blog By Carol:
    Carol Cooper-Taylor's Eclectic musings on teaching and Learning (particularly eLearning), and other things catching her attention."
  • Have you seen this list? Not all education- but all women bloggers.

    http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_m...
  • Beth - welcome to the edusphere! Thanks for the link. I'll touch base re: the blogging forum for women. Should be fun!
  • My bad...
    Sorry Kathy. Unintentional...I hadn't yet found you! I like your archive - 12/31/69. I think I can put you in wikipedia as the earliest known blogger : )
    Nice posts on wii and xo. I'll get you on my reader and stay in touch.
  • Kathy Schrock
    Hum...left out two years in a row! Guess I have to ramp it up, eh?

    Blogs:
    Kathy Schrock's Kaffeeklatsch
    http://kathyschrock.net/blog/

    Lighthouse Learning Island
    http://nausetschools.org/lighthouselearning/
  • Janet

    Thanks for including me on your site. It's not THAT hard to include a new tool every day; but I enjoy the challenge!

    Jane
  • Thanks for posting this list - I found some great new blogs to read! I'm new this year to blogging at Fueling the Learning Revolution (http://blog.mindleaders.com/); I'd love to be involved with opportunities to share thoughts with other women in education blogging.
  • Thanks for the mention, really enjoyed conversations with you. How about you put yourself on the list?

    Karyn, go for it!!
  • Wow! Thanks for the shout-out. I don't feel like a "real practitioner" (See - I always thought YOU were a real practitioner 'cause you work for an actual education outfit), more like some poor sap who's winging it. But if my fumblings help others - so much the better.

    And maybe that's the point of this exercise for many of us - self-reflection and sharing.

    I LUV the idea of having a virtual get-together of edubloggers during your conference. Maybe as a combination Live and Panel discussion?

    Could be educational and maybe encourage some of the more reticent among us to become more involved in conferences as an actual participant rather than an attendee.
  • Thanks Lesley! Adding both of you to my reader...
  • Have a look at Jeri Hurd's blog Bib2.0:
    http://bib20.blogspot.com/

    She writes with incite and passion.
  • Thanks for the nods, Janet. You're one of my favorite bloggers, too. And it's not just because you're willing to write the word crap in a post!
  • Wonderful list! Thanks for giving me lots of new bloggers to read.

    In terms of female keynoters and presenters- I am frequently asked to keynote local, state, national, and international conferences. I speak on topics related to teacher leadership, 21st Century literacies, homelessness, Web 2.0, and virtual community building.
  • Thanks for the vote of confidence, Janet - I guess I really to pull my finger out and just DO it!
  • Thanks Dave for your kind comments. When I find a blog I really like, I'll look to their blogroll (if they have one) and often find a gem or two. I hope you find that here.

    “Here’s what I’ve found” sounds like a great starter. Thanks for passing that along. Nice ideas for a virtual conference too.
  • Karyn-

    You certainly have something to say, you say it well, and I am certain people want to hear what you have to say. Have you ever been at a presentation and thought, 'that speaker better know every single thing about this topic'...probably not. How can you? Why should you?

    I like Dave's starting point..."Here's what I've found..." I like it because it puts you in the "I'm not the expert but I know this..." It invites conversation - kind of like blogging.

    Regrettably, my self-talk backchannel is the same..."I don't know enough, I'm not good enough, I need to know everything about this..." . And I wonder why I stress out and over (or worse under) prepare for presentations. It's self-inflicted sabotage.

    That's probably because I don't take thee 'here's what I found for/here's what I bring for discussion' approach and end up speaking from some 'here's what is known (I hope I've got it all) about this/here's what (I think) you will want to know about this.' It's not a conversation starter. It's almost apologetic.

    Probably time to ditch the big pink bow and add your much needed voice out there. As for me ditto and work on the rest...
  • Janet,

    Glad it was helpful! I am looking forward to exploring many of the blogs you listed!

    And here's thanks for jumpstarting my thinking about a women's blogger forum and keynotes!
  • I'm always glad to see someone whose writing I look forward to reading passing along writing he or she looks forward to reading.

    Maybe there's an opportunity for a relatively informal virtual conference with equivalents to one-ways and poster sessions (pre-done stuff), synchronous exchanges, and even unstructured time (as in, here's a list of who's attending and who's around right now in case you want to talk one-to-one or in small groups).

    Karyn's comment ("...I said I didn’t feel that I knew enough about anything to stand up and tell other people about it...") struck me; I often feel that way. Maybe one way to reframe that is: what have you learned and what insights have you come to that might be useful to others? "Here's what I've found" is for me both more reflective and less daunting as a starting point.
  • Thanks for this list - lots of names I haven't encountered before. Thanks, too, for the glowing praise!

    As to why women don't speak at conferences... I am attending TeachMeet08 later today as a lurker. The organiser (Ewan McIntosh) asked why I wasn't taking one of the 7 minute micropresentation or 2 minute nanopresentation slots, and I said I didn't feel that I knew enough about anything to stand up and tell other people about it. However, when I get there, I'll bet you that I'll find that at least half of the presenters know less about their topic than I do.

    Isn't it odd that, while I am promoting the idea of the permanently beta, ever-morphing learning resource, I still feel the need to have the big pink bow on a subject before I'll present on it?

    I'm going to have to get over that - it's one of my goals to finally accept an invitation to present a seminar at a conference during 2008!
  • Carolyn. Thanks for the comment. I'm so glad you stopped by and pointed me to your blog...I especially liked this post because I've been struggling with my 14 year old son this week and his research paper. Very timely and excellent advice. Thanks.
  • BTW Helen, just checking out yours and Anna's blog. Very cool. Love the forum, podcasts...

    Thanks for stopping by this blog - glad to have 'found' you.

    Tech Chick Tips
  • Thanks for the comment Cathy. I would love (and I'm sure others would too) to see what you find on your quest. Funny, I just got a call last week from a conference organizer asking me to lead a small session (nothing like a key note). The deadline for the call for proposals to present had passed. I couldn't help but think the conference organizers were looking for women to balance things up.

    Blogher will have a ton of women speakers listed but from all over the blogosphere (mom blogs, naughty blogs, political, etc). Not sure how many focused on education. I know Nancy White is and frequently speaks. I believe Jane McGonigal has been a keynoter as well as Danah Boyd.

    I'm sure this issue has been the topic of conversation out there before - especially in the tech field. It would be interesting to research.
  • Helen - do you know Judy O'Connell? She's going to NECC too.
  • Wow you have listed me in some GREAT company, and I truly feel honored. You've also asked an excellent question--where are the women keynotes? I did not see Joyce Valenza make the list, and I know she has keynoted some. This is a good topic, and now I'm on a quet to see where the female keynotes are presenting.
  • I love that you compiled this list--many of my faves and many new ones to explore! I too will be at NECC '08 and would love to meet up with other bloggers f2f. Let me know if something gets planned. Thanks again!
  • Thanks for this excellent list!

    And great to see a few names I know from twitter or the blogosphere here!

    Maybe at NECC there should be a "women's blogger" forum!
  • Christine - I hope we can meet up at IIL08 too!
  • Great list. Thanks for including me, and I hope you return to Toronto for more great conversation sometime soon.

    I've added indexed - Jennifer Hagy’s blog to my Bloglines, which I can keep up with now!!! - as I'm not teaching this term.
  • Hi Janet, no I haven't been to NECC before..first edTech conference in the States for me. Looking forward to it!
  • Janet,
    What a great list. Thanks for including me. Not only have you listed many of my favorites, but lots of new blogs to discover. I too have noticed the lack of women conference speakers, which is strange in a space where we are in greater numbers.

    I'd love to participate/meet at Innovations in Learning again. It was a great conference last year, and it would be wonderful to see more on blogging.
  • Judy - thanks for your kind comment. I'll put you down as a panelist...virtual for now...

    Have you been to NECC before?
  • Nancy - thanks for the link to northenvoice.ca. Looks like a great time filled with networking opportunities. I like the idea of their 'internet boot camp' a/k/a social media bootcamp.

    It appears it would only take 1 day and 19 hours to drive the Vancouver. Makes Saskatchewan look doable. ; )

    I'd love to go though...you never know. Have fun!
  • Janet, thanks for this fabulous roundup and super nice to be mentioned as well. But honestly, there are so many great things happening in the world of women and web 2, that it's great when a blogger does a personal summary of goodness! Now, I also love doing conference presentations - wouldn't it be nice to have an invite from so far away :-) Reality tells me that won't happen, so I would be delighted to participate in a virtual panel of bloggers. Perhaps I will meet some more bloggers f2f at the NECC conference in San Antonio. That will be a real buzz.
  • Great round up... fun to see. I should go back and see who I linked to - women in particular - last year.

    Check out http://www.northernvoice.ca - I'm always pleased at the number and really INTERESTING women who show up there. I'll be there again this year. How long of a drive is that?
  • I know Cathy, isn't it great reading? I've started to venture out of the education space a bit and have been finding some inspiration. Glad to have linked to one you find valuable. You actually turned me on to indexed - Jennifer Hagy's blog. I adore that one.
  • Heather - Were the heck is Saskatoon was my first thought. Saskatchewan. Although I wouldn't drive there, Google tells me I could get there in 1 day and 9 hours. The conference looks excellent! Thanks for passing the link along.
  • Janet, thanks for including me in this list and for pointing out the "Creativity at Work" blog by Linda Naiman. I've ready only 3 of her posts so far and am already inspired!
  • Come to the TLt conference in May in Saskatoon and I'll show you around town. By May the roof top decks are open and drinks are flowing. Oh, and it'll be a great conference too. http://www.tltsummit.ca/

    By the way, what does the mug say at the bottom?
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