Teach Effectively!

On his self-named blog, Mathew K. Tabor posted his response to a quotation by David Warlick. Mr. Warlick suggested that administrators might ask prospective teachers what blogs they read and students in schools of education might ask their instructors a like question. In his post—Don’t Ask This Question, Part I (18 August 2007)—Mr. Tabor took exception to this question and argued that too many blogs about education are untrustworthy and he’d rather have educators who promote mastery of content.

There are two issues here - I’ll address in this article the insignificance of the blog medium given this context and in Part II the reasons why asking this question in this way is inappropriate.

Warlick’s question rests on the assumption that education blogs are a necessary and irreplaceable part of education curricula. Simply put, they aren’t.

I agree that there are too few good blogs related to education, but there are some. I think many are represented in the blogroll for Teach Effectively! I also agree with Mr. Tabor that instructors can (and should) teach to mastery; this is true whether the instructors read or write blogs.

Educators’ blogs can—and do—provide valuable content. To the extent that blogs are based on empirical data, go beyond case studies and personal opinion, they provide a valuable service. To the extent that blogs communicate news and other current developments in education, they can help readers be informed.

link to Mr. Tabor’s post and a link to Mr. Warlick’s original article that started Mr. Tabor on his response. Of course, I hope teachers (practicing and prospective), administrators, and others will find useful information on Teach Effectively!