Staying abreast of the constant changes in education is almost a full-time job on it’s on! That’s why subscribing to a few good education blogs is a convenient and time-saving way to remain knowledgeable about this constantly evolving landscape.
Click here to access all of the articles in this series.
Education blogs exist for almost every purpose you can imagine. There are blogs dedicated to edtech, higher education, early childhood education, the teaching of math, reading, science and virtually any other discipline that you can think of. There are blogs about coding and blogs about blogging, geared towards every grade level from kindergarten all the way up through the terminal and professional degree levels.
But how do you know which of these are worth your time? We decided to do this work for you. In this multi-part series, I will profile the best of the best blogs in education, in alphabetical order.
Although we did not rank the blogs, we did evaluate them using the following categories as a rubric:
Activity (25%). Information should be updated regularly to reflect the very latest trends.
Originality (25%). It should add value with content that’s different from all the other blogs out there.
Helpfulness (25%). A good education blog should teach you a new skill, direct you to a useful resource, or at least get you to think in a new way about something.
Authority (25%). The author/authors have the authority and credentials to blog about the topic.
Each category was assigned an equal weight in our evaluation. They were averaged together to determine the final score. This score is meant to provide you with information about the overall quality of each blog. Let’s begin by tackling letters A-B.
A Millennial Professor’s View of Higher Education
The blog focuses on many of the different aspects of higher education administration and staffing, from finding a job to creating and maintaining long-term relationships in the academic world. If you are an administrator, this is definitely a blog you should be checking out regularly.
Score: Active 18.3, Original 22, Helpfulness 23, Authority 22
Total: 85.3
Twitter: @drjtedwards
Eric Sheninger reflects on digital leadership and how it affects parental communication and student and faculty engagement. He connects trends in technology with changes in the larger culture.
Score: Activity 25, Originality 23, Helpfulness 23, Authority 25
Total Score: 96
Twitter: @E_sheninger
A new blog posts about every other month, but it well worth the wait. The focus is on coding in higher education and new technology. It also touches on topics that matter to professors and students who would like to keep up with the way colleges are teaching computer basics and coding.
Score: Active 10, Original 25, Help 20, Authority 25
Total: 80
Twitter: @neilccbrown
This blog takes a look at the newest tools and trends that professors and administrators can use in schools. It also provides some help on common tools and how to get the most out of them.
Score: Active 23, Original 19, Help 20, Authority 17
Total: 79
Email: helpdesk@luc.edu
The blogs focus on things that matter to both librarians and academics. It takes a look at how best to reach students through the library setup, how to manage events and a host of other items that you may not think about when you talk about libraries. It is a niche subject, but it is incredibly helpful to those who need their libraries or who are interested in seeing how best to utilize them in a higher education setting.
Score: Active 23, Original 25, Helpfulness 19, Authority 22
Total: 89.
Email: ala@ala.org
A.J. Juliani is the Director of Technology & Innovation for Centennial School District and blogs about anything and everything related to innovation. Not unlike other blogs on this list a lot of the posts focus on project based learning, edtech, implementing design thinking in the K-12 classroom and designing the future of education. However, there are also plenty of other topics covered and the blog offers interesting thoughts to ponder and ideas to implement.
Score: Activity 21, Originality 21, Helpfulness 19, Authority 22.5
Total Score: 83.5
Email: ajjuliani@gmail.com
Twitter: @ajjuliani
Technology teacher Jacqui Murray provides lesson plans for technology integration and tips on practical matters such as backing up files and speeding up your computer. She also curates a variety of helpful resources.
Score: Activity 22, Originality 18, Helpfulness 17, Authority 17
Total Score: 74
Email: askatechteacher@gmail.com
Twitter: @AskATechTeacher
Educational Technology Specialist Tim Stahmer reflects on the need for change and reform in public schools and suggests relevant literature.
Score: Activity 16, Originality 19, Helpfulness 20, Authority 18.5
Total Score: 72.5
Twitter: @timstahmer
Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension
This blog, by Pernille Ripp, offers a lot of ideas as to how to tackle different things within the classroom and offers teachers a plethora of resources, from ideas for bookclubs, to lesson plans. Pernille is an educational influencer, and the’s creator of the Global Read Aloud Project, a global literacy initiative that has connected more than 500,000 students and Co-founder of EdCamp MadWI.
Score: Activity 24, Originality 21.5, Helpfulness 21, Authority 22
Total Score: 88.5
Twitter: @pernilleripp
Blog High Ed pulls blogs on higher education and puts them in a single space. The topics cover the gamut of what you need to know in higher education, from Google Analytics and teaching in the classroom to graduation to the latest news. Anyone attending, teaching, or attached to a college or university should bookmark the site and check back regularly for new information.
Score: Active 25, Original 10, Help 20, Authority 18.5
Total: 73.5
Twitter: @mherzber
Email: mherzberger@gmail.com
Their tag line is “education on the edge” which is a good sum up as to what’s posted on this blog. The blog mainly offers tips and tricks to implement in the classroom (from classroom cleaning hacks to how to implement PBL), as well as a few articles surrounding research in the educational field. They also publish up to date teaching hacks books.
Score: Activity 22.5, Originality 24, Helpfulness 25, Authority 25
Total Score: 96.5
Email: mark@thepaperlessclassroom.com
Twitter: @markbarnes19
One of the best-known authorities for technology in higher education, this blog covers a wide range of tech-related topics that can be inspirational and informative. From finances to international higher education to the latest news in the US, it is always worth a look to see what he has to say on a weekly basis.
Score: Active 22, Original 23, Helpfulness 21, Authority 25
Total: 91
Twitter: @BryanAlexander
This site offers articles, lesson plans, creative writing prompts and worksheets centered around teaching English. The content is varied age wise – some is suitable for the little ones, some for high school students and beyond. There are also helpful articles about classroom management, which applies to any teacher. It’s definitively a blog worth visiting due to all the different resources available.
Score: Activity 17.5, Originality 18, Helpfulness 18, Authority 18
Total Score: 71.5
Email: busyteacher.admin@gmail.com
Well, that does it for letters A-B. Did we miss any?
Excellent links with clear introductory comments. Helpful and well done. Thanks