Via Stephen Downes, I noticed this link of 25 Great Edublogs. It is an excellent list. Coming off of a women’s blogging jam here at IiL08 (which went over two hours) I just have to sigh when I see that 22 of the 25 listed are men. Mostly older men. Mostly white. We had some discussion on this.

I realize that this is just a listing based on Zaid’s preferences and applaud him for featuring great edubloggers (I have done so here – in past posts – with women edubloggers). But Zaid’s post (in conjunction with the conference session) leaves me wondering if the Internet is the great equailizer it was supposed to be or just another reflection of society? There are similar numbers of men and women blogging and certainly women are not underrepresented in our field.

Any thoughts on this consistent issue? Genre? Style? Biology? Content? What would you’re list look like and why? And more importantly, is this important?

It is not:

• A sweet fruit condiment favored by blogging women and often spread on toast
• Women slam dunking a basketball while blogging
• Women blogging about covering the Michael Jackson song, “Jam”
• Women rockers who blog about jam sessions

One familiar definition of a jam is a simple social gathering and communal practice session [for music]. “Jams can range from very loose gatherings of amateurs to sophisticated improvised sessions intended to be edited and released to the public.”

A Women’s Blog Jam then is an simple gathering for those who read, write, or want to write blogs. It’s a group session for sharing best practices on the art of writing (and other forms of communication like video, audio, etc.) and publishing your content on a blog. Although open to all, the focus is on the unique voice of women and the education/training/learning niche. We’ll loosely focus on e-learning, technology, professional development, and how people take different approaches to blogging. Some possible conversations…

• You: professional advancement and personal identity
• Customs: blogiquette (the edublogosphere community)
• The craft: finding your blogging voice and niche
• Technical information: readers, widgets, blogrolls, Technorati advertising,…what they’re all about

Come and jam with us!

Where?

• The Innovations in Learning Conference
  
• Open to all conference attendees (men too)
• Featuring Michele Martin, Christine Martell, Cathy Moore, and others (including me)

If you are attending the conference and want to participate in the jam, please contact me at JanetATbrandon-hallDOTcom. Lurkers, as always, are welcome. I’m also working on ways to get virtual attendees involved.

Ideas welcome.

Implosion is a process in which objects are destroyed by collapsing in on themselves. The opposite of explosion, implosion concentrates matter and energy. An example of implosion is a submarine being crushed from the outside by the hydrostatic pressure of the surrounding water.

Another is my self-inflicted implosion (or self-inflicted implosion syndrome…because I’m sure there is a prescription drug in the US for it) of being crushed from the outside by the pressure of a perfect storm – moving a family, working full-time, and taking two graduate classes.

Um, hello? What were you thinking? (I know, I know, it’s all fully within my control). Big crybaby. Can you imagine living with this? My husband is a saint. Or insane. One of the two.

I recall my last “professional” perfect storm back when I was working in a training department. It involved a three-phase LMS implementation. While the LMS phase went off perfectly, I simply wasn’t ready for the LCMS (the second phase). It came along too quickly. When I was being trained on how to use the LCMS I was totally saturated with the stuff you think about when implementing an LMS – I could hear nothing, see nothing, understand nothing.

I am reminded of two things – Ruth Clark’s books on e-learning and building expertise (based on her cognitive research) and Karyn Romeis’ post How Does She Do It?. I have found Ruth’s strategies for avoiding overload as applied to instructional design valuable. (I grabbed these from Wikibooks since my books are packed somewhere in a sea of boxes).

• talk less and turn key learning points into brief reference notes
• do less and make learners do more
• chunk training appropriately and dispense it over time
• design workbook pages and computer-training screens so that they aid memory during practice
• design job aids to aid memory and transfer after training
• build automaticity
• provide “training wheels” for new learners
• detect and remedy while the training process is in session

Ruth Clark has also done work in the e-learning field. This is her DVEP model (Define, Visualize, Engage, and Package):

• Define – articulate business goals and the knowledge skills needed to achieve them, choose the instructional methods needed to achieve the stated learning objectives, and select the delivery media that best delivers the instructional methods identified.
• Visualize- select and/or design the various types of visuals that will best promote learning. (i.e., designers select visuals for learning functions, and not just because they look good).
• Engage – Design frequent, meaningful learner interactions with the content with frequent, job-related interactions.
• Package – Deal with technical issues, state any course objectives and assignments, establish a social presence, design working aids for handouts. (Done during the planning phases of design and linked to content, i.e. made relevant).

I recommend her books.

I have found KarynRomeis’ strategies for getting a lot accomplished in work and life equally valuable. (Karyn is a learning professional, wife, mother, blogger, and student). I am not nearly as together as she is but I think I’ll implement some of her strategies and a few more like hiring professional movers even though I’m only moving across town (the cartoon below reminds me of what I felt like moving my own stuff during our last move several weeks ago…).

Many of Karyn’s strategies can be applied to the workplace…I probably would’ve gotten more out of LCMS training I had delegated more, took advantage of conveniences, and taken a superficial approach to the LMS stuff that didn’t matter right then and saved it for a later time. And it would’ve been good if there had been a greater time lapse between system.

So it is possible to avoid personal and professional implosion. And, it’s possible to avoid putting your target audience in a state of information overload when designing instruction.

l

Pink. I hate it. I hate pink. I don’t even know anyone who buys pink stuff. Who is this marketed to? What is it with pink? Would you ever create pink e-learning? Give out pink pencils in the classroom? Use Pinkboards? Pink chalk? Use only pink Mr. Sketch markers on the pink flipchart paper? Ben Goldacre exposes some bad science about pink. Don’t get me wrong. I love a guy in a pink shirt but not because I like pink. Check these little  gems out…I mean really a pink taser?

I guess one of the reasons I dislike pink is that it is associated with cultural expectations. I’m supposed to like pink. Pink is feminine. Ben pointed out the Bem Sex Role Inventory. I took it to see if my personality was masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated. The BSRI is based on gender stereotypes, so what it’s actually measuring is how well you fit into your traditional sex role. No wonder I don’t like pink. I’m barely feminine by society’s standards.
Regardless of where you might be on the BSRI, I hope you’ll like Chip Chick. While they do feature a lot of pink stuff (gag) their blog focuses on technology for women.

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
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 touch 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
Ubernoggin
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…

If only we could all be so…so…well, honest.
Bio page from the blog of the ginormously popular Ana Marie Cox. If only.

When I first started blogging several months ago, I kind of looked around and said, ‘hey, where’s all the women?’ Since then, I’ve been introduced to many fellow women edubloggers and have featured them here, here, here, and here. I’ve come across a few more that I wanted to pass along…

I had wanted to list Cathy Moore on the last go-around but ran into some difficulty because her sight had mistakenly been tagged as some sort of hate/violence site and was blocked. I alerted her and she’s got it cleared up so it’d be great if you wandered over to her site. While you’re there YOU MUST check out her incredible graphics. I love them!

Sue Waters is from Perth, Australia and is the person behind Mobile Technology in TAFE web sites. What’s TAFE? I’m so glad you asked! TAFE is the acronym for Technical and Further Education. Sue is an aquaculture lecturer so gets my vote (this week anyway) for the coolest job title.

Emma King is a Brandon Hall Research blogger. YAY!!! She’s just put up her first post and seems up for figuring out this blogging thing.

Kate Britt a.k.a. Pink Flamingo seems to have been blogging since 2003. Like many of you that might be reading this, that puts her in the blog-o-saur category. Thanks for paving the way Kate! She’s a  teacher from Vancouver, BC, Canada.

I think it’d be cool if Kate used the image below on her site. Why? I’m glad you asked! You see, the famed plastic lawn ornament’s manufacturer stopped production 11/1/06 and will be resuming in Westmoreland NY… just down the road from me. I believe I will be bringing several pink flamingos to the Innovations in Learning Conference next month if they are available. If you were sitting on the fence about going, surely that’ll help make the decision : )

Sorry to digress Kate. I would’ve never found an appropriate tie-in to celebrate our community’s great news if not for the discovery of your blog. See the full pink flamingo story here.Â

(Lawn ornament’s natural habitat)

In my continuing quest to find and share links to fellow women edubloggers, I’m happy to share the following…have a read!

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
Corporate Blogger

Tracy Hamilton
Discovery through elearning

Lynn V. Marentette
Interactive Multimedia Technology

Christy Tucker
Experiencing E-Learning
Be sure to check out the Technology Skills for Instructional Designers series!

Cynthia Russell
Technology Escapades

Michele Martin
The Bamboo Project Blog

Update: Lynn Wernham sent me a photo…she is much more realistic now that she’s not a WordPress logo! And, how could I have forgotten Heather Ross, a really cool US >> (now) cool Canadian!

Heather Ross
McToonish

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. The E-Learning Queen relies on her instructionally designing cats and Susan Smith Nash for inspiration and meowing around the water bowl.

Joan Vinall-Cox
writes about her fascination with the Web as it affects learning. This is an older post that reflects the theme of the blog. I found Joan’s blog via Explode.

Marcia’s Ageless Learner blog and Ageless Learner site focus on how learning and curiosity influence everything you do in life, no matter your age, education, or occupation.

Also check out Women of the Web 2.0 (WOW2). It’s brought to you by Cheryl Oakes, Jennifer Wagner, Sharon Peters, & Vicki Davis, four women who not only love using the tools of the Internet but also love sharing the tools with others. They have a Bulletin Board for questions and answers and Tuesday night chat. See their archived podcasts – an impressive list of guests.

As a follow-up to a post last week about my perception of women’s voices in the edublogger space (lacking?) I wanted to post some more I read and several others I received from various commenters (thanks everybody!)…a lot of these voice are trailblazers and certainly appreciated by this newbie. Not all are strictly edubloggers but each provide valuable insight for those in the education/training/learning industry.

Angela A Thomas
English Education teacher with research interests including digital cultures, new media literacies, and digital narratives. Also a teacher in Second Life where she is known as Anya Ixchel.

apophenia: Danah Boyd
making connections where none previously existed…not entirely an edublog but one you should consider reading.

Artichoke
“A ‘place’ where I can wrestle with ideas, argue, challenge, think, and rethink. A “space” where I expose my raw and flawed thinking about information communication technology, teaching, and learning for critique.”

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

Creating Passionate Users
Kathy Sierra – not blogging much right now but read past posts – excellent

EdTechUK: Josie Fraser
Information Learning Technology

Karyn’s erratic learning journey: Karyn Romeis
Karen works full time as a learning solutions designer after 17 years as a jill-of-all-trades trainer. She’s also a part-time post-grad student, wife and Mom.

Second Life Education Research: Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins
This blog is a record of some of the thoughts Sarah has had about using SecondLife as a research and education tool

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Vicki Davis
Teaching content with new tools, enthusiasm, and the belief that teaching is a noble calling

Learning Visions: Cammy Bean
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….

Silke Fleischer
Silke is responsible for product management and marketing for Adobe Captivate

HeyJude: Judy O’Connell
Reflections, learning and social networking through the eyes of an educator and information professional