Women’s Voices in the Edublogosphere

Heh, I learn by making bloggy mistakes too. I actually did a 5 minute presentation on all the mistakes I made when I started blogging and it was funny how many people in the room were nodding in recognition, so I think it is a common path.

Of the women edubloggers I read and love, you should check out

Barbara Ganley http://mt.middlebury.edu/middblogs/ganley/bgblogging/, Hey Jude http://heyjude.wordpress.com/, Artichoke (http://www.artichoke.typepad.com/ New Zealand), oh, and so many more. There are some great women edubloggers out there. So many blogs, so little time!

Thanks for the links Nancy. I’ll check them out. I find real value in your blog and am glad to hear of your mistakes : ) It’s hard to jump into things kind of late…thanks for making a trail.

You missed Kathy Sierra – possibly the best blogger of all. I’m truly hoping she will resume after the recent issue.

But this is an interesting point you are making that while eLearning as an industry would seem to have a high percentage female population, the population of bloggers are decidedly higher percentage male. And, it’s been interesting to me that someone like Allison Rossett doesn’t blog. Or Ann Kwinn. Or Ruth Clark. Makes you go hmmm ….

While I’m at it, I remember this coming up before in someone’s reasons not to blog:

Blogs vs Discussion Groups

Someone said that blogs – “felt so … old white guys club” …

Tony-
Yes – I’ll make sure I add Kathy Sierra’s blog in a future post…it’s a good one for sure. I’m getting several other links which is wonderful – I love new voices (even if they’re only new to me). I was quite disturbed when I read about Kathy’s situtation last month. Then I ran across this from Michelle Malkin, a political commentator described as a ‘firecracker’, and just said hmmm…it’s harsh, and not workplace friendly but if you’ve got time, give it a read http://www.michellemalkin.com/archives/007191.htm. She said, “I sympathize and empathize greatly with Sierra. Death threats and misogynistic epithets and comments suck. But I find the response of the tech blogging elite rather underwhelming and unbecoming.”

Hi Janet, thanks for the mention

Well in a sense you’re right, many “important” blogs in our fields are written by men, but there are also some really great female edu bloggers “in the game”. Here are some female bloggers I like to follow: Vicki A. Davis (http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/), Angela A. Thomas (http://angelaathomas.com/), and two exceptional women and bloggers that focus on education in Second Life: Beth Ritter-Guth (http://bethssecondlife.blogspot.com/), and Sarah Robbins (http://www.secondlife.intellagirl.com/).

So, maybe blogs are an old white guys club, but not exclusively. Our numbers are growing – and not just the numbers, but also the quality of our blogs Keep up the good work Janet, I also enjoy reading your blog!

I’ve just had a look at my blogroll, and there are very few women listed: 6:26, in fact. Mind you, I had never noticed it before – I just don’t think about things like that. I’ve managed to bring down upon myself the ire of some of the prominent women of the community by vocally refusing to husband (hmm… interesting word!) any of the women-only initiatives, which I find patronising (hmm… another interesting word!).

One of those women is someone you should perhaps feature at some point: Josie Fraser http://fraser.typepad.com/edtechuk/ although it has to be said that she doesn’t “come around here much any more”.

Hi Karyn-
Thanks for the link. What is the purpose blogrolls do you think? Do readers really link to the sites or is it more a Google element – how many links, etc. or a ‘prestige’ element (gag)…I’m good enough to be on this person’s blog or that..like the cool kids at school? I just put my blogroll away (couldn’t really figure out what I wanted to do with it) and in its place put up a ‘what I’m reading’ which allows me to share my reader and blog entries that I’m interested in reading and sharing (including my co-workers). I think that says more about…here’s some good content. The women-only initiatives to me can be a slippery slope. Inevitably, I end up a hypocrite.

Hi Janet
My blogroll doesn’t appear anywhere on my blog, so when I refer to it, I mean the list of feeds in my aggregator. When I discover a new blogger whose posts resonate with me, I might look at their blogroll (if they have one) to see if we read the same people, or to explore the people they read that I haven’t encountered before. Alternatively, when CoComment works properly (less and less often these days!) I might track the conversations of other people who have commented on the same post as I have, to see if there’s anything there of enduring interest. But usually, I rely on my technorati watchlists to highlight potential additions to my feedlist.

Of the people I already subscribe to, I don’t tend to look at their blogrolls very often – perhaps I should! I confess, I do find it quite affirming if I spot my name on the blogroll of someone I admire, but I don’t really chase the numbers. I don’t have a read counter or any of those things, and I only know about the people who subscribe to my blog using Bloglines (my current aggregator). One of my firm blogfriends, Vicki Davis, tells me that I am underrated – maybe she’s right, maybe not, but I have nevertheless gained enormous benefit from being a member of this community, even a minor one, and that has got to be the point, huh?

On blog rolls – they help readers find other interesting blogs and give a sense of community. Karyn – normally a blog roll is public (as opposed to your subscriptions which are private).

I often scan down blog rolls to find other interesting blogs.

Chasing the numbers, etc., I don’t know that blog rolls help that much with that one. Mine’s a script so doubtful that you get points with Google, but maybe you do – it’s just that’s not the important part.

I had the same sense of wonder — hey, where are all the women? — when I first started blogging a few months ago and wrote about it as well. As I’ve stuck with it, I find more and more women are partaking and am encouraged. I’m glad you’ve joined in!

From my participation in http://www.blogher.org my experience of the blogosphere is that there are MANY very brilliant women blogging. The thing to notice is how they are or are not hyperlinked elsewhere, and thus are easier to find via search, blogrolls, etc.

Women came later to the blogosphere, so many of us did not have early mover advantage. But Kathy Sierra is a great example of a late arrival (blogging just over a year I think) who shot to the top 100 quickly. Partly because she had great relationships with people in the blogosphere. I found my friends made my blog visible far faster than if I did not have those friends. So the network effect is also in play. If you are part of a network of colleagues and friends who are established bloggers, your blog cred will have the chance of rising faster. IF people like what you write!

Circling back ’round to my BlogHer reference, I do think there is value in women only efforts, as long as they are not the only thing we are doing to stimulate participation.

Uh oh, I’m preaching. Time to get back to work!