Two Golden Blogs

This month’s theme from Paul Cornies’ Green Pen Society is:

Website Gold: to recommend an enriching web site.

I deliberated long over this topic. Choosing a favourite blog site might be seen to be verging on nepotism. Selecting a series of them could suggest there is a hierarchy to the list.To risk offending any of my many blogging friends and colleagues by collating such a list would be daft and show a lack of sensitivity.

I will post only once this month about Gold Rush blog sites. I've chosen not one but two, however, both of which have the same author.

I’m a Google Blogger. Edublogs.org and Blogger.com are rival providers. Both sites I write about here are Edublogs.org sites, so my choice is not about blog provider preference.

Two gold nuggets

The Edublogger and Sue Waters Blog are two sites I recommend to anyone who is a blogger – especially to those new to blogging.

When I consider what Sue Waters offers on her sites, there is no easy way to isolate one from the other. For as much as Sue has often joked about her split personality over her commitment to her sites, they are a complementary pair, much like right and left.

The Edublogger

The Edublogger is undoubtedly a professional blog – matchless, well authored, that shares a rich cornucopia of “tips, tricks, ideas that help the educational blogging community” – yet is has a captivating appeal to the ‘occasional blogger’. Sue hosts this site as part of her work with Edublogs.org.

My special interest in elearning is often stimulated by the content in The Edublogger. There are always fresh ideas, new technology innovations appropriate to a wide range of topics on elearning, community networking and blogging.

While much of the posts are specifically aimed at bloggers who use an edublogs.org site, there abounds useful material that has universal application to blogging. Just check out this post on Top Five Mistakes made by new bloggers.

The Edublogger has a friendly quality to it. It is written in a way that makes it appealing to most age-groups, with instructive, easy-to-follow diagrams and flow-charts that are interesting and attractive without being ornate. Sue puts a lot of thought into the layout of the site, planning that she shares openly with readers, a touch that contributes hugely to The Edublogger’s engaging appeal.

Sue Waters Blog

This site is a personal blog that compliments the professionalism of The Edubogger. Though Sue’s approach has a different slant, and that’s to be expected, there is a light-hearted wink to it that is comfortable and welcoming in Sue Waters Blog.

Who but a curmudgeon would not be entertained by homespun topics like The Great USA Coca Cola and Chocolate Scandal! or share a laugh at witty blog titles like Have your Blogs.mu cake – and eat it too! Sue carries her fondness of technology throughout this site in a way that whets the appetite for more Coke and Cadbury’s milk chocolate.

What I adore most about both of Sue’s blogs are the communities attracted to them. There’s always an opportunity to meet new bloggers and commenters, and comments are never ignored nor short-changed.

So if you are looking for nuggets of gold in a blog site, just visit either of Sue’s blogs. The Edublogger and Sue Waters Blog are each a blog prospector’s dream. But then, what would you expect from a scientist?


A Green Pen Society contribution