Top 25: The Best of Belshaw 2008

Version 2.0 of this blog (dougbelshaw.com) is now pretty much exactly a year old. It was a year ago that I decided to retire teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk and concentrate my energies here. During that time I’ve written some blog posts that have hit home with some people and some that haven’t. Here, in ranked order according to AideRSS, are the ones with the highest ‘PostRank’ – a ranking system that takes into account inbound links, tweets, delicious links, comments, etc. 🙂

1. My Ed.D. thesis proposal: What does it mean to be ‘digitally literate’? (17 May 2008)
2. The Map Is Not The Territory: the changing face of the edublogosphere (28 March 2008)
   
3. Animoto rocks! Here’s proof… (5 February 2008)
   
4. 5 productivity tips/hacks I’ve come across recently. (14 July 2008)
5. 3 reasons the majority of students are NOT ‘digitally literate’ (2 February 2008)
   
6. 3 reasons I’m against the Edublog Awards (3 December 2008)
7. Why ‘high culture’ for pupils is highly wrong-headed (13 February 2008)
   
8. Recommend me 3 (20 March 2008)
   
9. 90% digital, or 12 ways my teaching ecosystem is evolving. (21 August 2008)
10. Censorship and the Personal/Professional divide (17 June 2008)
11. Is Twitter bad for you? (29 March 2008)
    
12. AUP 2.0 (3 June 2008)
13. Are you an ‘Edupunk’? I’m not. (31 May 2008)
    
14. Help me write my job spec. for next year! (3 June 2008)
15. 5 things School of Rock can teach us about real education (27 January 2008)
    
16. Creating an Interactive Whiteboard using a Nintendo WiiMote (14 May 2008)
17. Things I’ve been reading online recently (12 April 2008)
18. THIS is how technology can enhance learning (22 February 2008)
19. Hi, my name’s Doug Belshaw… (9 January 2008)
    
20. Interesting Ways to use Netbooks in the Classroom (29 November 2008)
21. Reflections on BETT 2008 (13 January 2008)
    
22. My response to the GTC’s proposed ‘code of conduct’ for teachers in England. (21 December 2008)
23. Ken Robinson on creativity v2 (17 February 2008)
24. Page Peel Script (26 January 2008)
    
25. Politics: the biggest problem in education (1 October 2008)

As you can see, it would appear that if one’s aim was to write posts to get the widest audience and largest amount of influence, one should:

• Write ‘list’ posts – e.g. ‘3 ways to…’ or ‘5 things that…’
• Be ‘anti-‘ something
• Provide something unique (e.g. Page Peel Script, Wiimote Whiteboard guide)
• Ask for collaboration/help

But that’s not my aim. I write about the things that interest or concern me, and that shall continue in 2009. I’m thinking of changing the layout of dougbelshaw.com a bit for the sake of my ‘online presence’, but I’ll still be blogging about the same things and ‘keeping it real’… :-p