27 Inspiring Women Edubloggers

27 Inspiring Women Edubloggers

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I'm humbled (in that "feeling like a fraud" sort of way) and also inspired to be included with some really great bloggers -- some known to me, and some brand new.

Thanks, Zaid!

Janet Clarey and Michele Martin helped start the conversation that led to Zaid's new list.

For more conversations on women in blogging check out these posts:

• Blogging the Personal
• An older post, Where Are All the Women Part II

Blogging the Personal

Janet Clarey's recent post On Growing Facial Hair is right up my alley of interest. But frankly, I have nothing interesting to add to the conversation.

In fact, I've had very little of interest to add to any conversation of late, mostly because I'm much more focused on my personal life and the many transitions I'm handling there. If I were to blog it all, we'd be WAY off the topic of instructional design.

If the women bloggers who make Zaid's next list are the ones who don't interject their personal lives into their blogs (ala Cathy Moore as reported to Michelle Martin), then I don't think I'll make that list. Which is fine. Really. Blogging's not a contest...

But personally, I like the personal. And yet, I also like my boundaries.

Of course, I do see some connections that bridge the gap between my personal and professional lives:

• My 3 and 5 year old kids are at the end of their first month of Montessori school. I'd love to apply Montessori principals to eLearning instructional design.
• My son is really into his Wii. We've had to find some more age-appropriate games than Super Smash Brothers and the like. Recently discovered Endless Ocean. You're a scuba diver exploring different dive spots in a fictional spot in the South Pacific. Awesome experiential game. Kind of like Second Life in how open the environment is, but there are challenges and a bit of a story woven into that keep it a game. Plus, swimming around with whales is really cool.

So. This is me trying to get my blogging energy back.

The Blogging Dinner Table

Brian Grenier did an interesting informal survey of the edublogosphere, the results of which are quite interesting.

I was really struck by the age graph with the most respondents falling in the 35-50 year old range. Perhaps because that's me, and I like being trendy (well, not really).

Brian asks, "Though I am curious as to why the 18-30 year old segment is not better represented?"

I think the answer is that they're all on FaceBook and MySpace.

I did a interview with a twentysomething the other day, and thought her online habits were somewhat revealing. Granted, this was one person. She has FaceBook up all day long and reads a few of her friends' blogs, so that she can keep in touch. I would say the main point of her Internet usage is to stay connected in her personal life.

I remember way back to my twenties and I was much more interested in my friends and meeting new people than in professional development. FaceBook would have been great.

Carolyn commented in my interview post,

I try to do an informal survey of students when I go to campuses to deliver orientations to our online courses. The big three for our students are Facebook (almost every student has an account), chat and text messaging on mobile phones. The big driver for our students seems to be the need to stay connected with friends.

As I've, ahem, matured and married and had children, my social needs are much less in the forefront. But my need and desire for professional connection and professional development have certainly grown. And blogging fits that need. Blogging fills a gap I didn't even know I had.

It's a web 2.0 professional maturity lifecycle model.

Come to Dinner -- Spreading the Word

So Who Exactly IS Coming to Dinner? (Take the Survey) : Bump on the Blog

Found this link via Christy Tucker who says it's a, "Discussion about the lack of diversity in the education technology blogosphere, including a survey to try to measure a snapshot of the population. Go take the survey and help him get a good set of data."

So I'm spreading the word and saying: go take the survey and add your own little self into the mix.

I think where the results will get tricky is in how one defines "edublogosphere". All of us e-Learning bloggers certainly promote educational technology. And then there are consultant-types who focus on performance improvement within organizations, of which learning and training is a key component -- and thus technology. It all blends together. Where does one blogosphere end and the next begin?

When I first started blogging, I too wondered out loud where all the women were. Since then, I've made a conscious effort to connect with women bloggers -- although women still make up less than half of my blog roll. Check out Janet Clarey's posts on the same subject: Women's Voices in the Edublogosphere.

Video Games & Retirees

Interesting article in today's New York Times by Seth Schiesel about the increasing acceptance of video games among retirees/baby booomers, especially older women. Some of this due to the introduction of the Wii. Think Nintendo bowling league for seniors.

I think NYTs links don't last too long, so I'll quote some key nuggets here in case you can't get to the article later:

...the women of St. Mary are actually part of a vast and growing community of video-game-playing baby boomers and their parents, especially women.

Anxious about the mental cost of aging, older people are turning to games that rely on quick thinking to stimulate brain activity.

It turns out that older users not only play video games more often than their younger counterparts but also spend more time playing per session.

“Women come for the games, but they stay for the community. Women like to chat, and these games online are a way to do that. It’s kind of a MySpace for seniors.”

How Does Gender Matter in the e-Learning Brain?

A post at the Eide Neurolearning blog on Gender Matters in the Learning Brain.

Studies of students show that boys and girls and men and women tend to differ in terms of intrinsic motivation, study strategies, and learning strategies - females tend to prefer cooperation, note-taking, and task mastery, whereas men are more likely to prefer competition and independent work, and challenge, and avoid note-taking as a study strategy.

Another important reason to understand your audience when developing e-Learning, even along gender lines.

I'm wondering if any e-Learning designers out there consider these differences when creating courses. I know I've asked the question about gender split, but I can honestly say I've never designed a course with a specific gender in mind.

I may have the opportunity soon to do some design for a strictly-female audience, and I'm just starting to think about different tactics to take....suggestions?

Where Are All the Women Part II

I wrote about this a few days ago in my post Where Are All the Women? where I was pointing out the general lack of women in the e-Learning blogosphere. But perhaps this is just a general business-blog issue. It seems this is old news.

For some backstory, see the Boston Globe article, "Women tap the power of the blog" July 17 2006.

Molly Holzschlag wrote way back in April 1 2005 Women Bloggers Just Ain't Good Enough

Barriers to entry are everywhere, if not in technical education and know-how, how about the self-esteem and identity issues that the individual faces trying to get out there? And then what about the vulnerability and pressure of being here? No one ever talks about that oft-challenging side of blogging.

I was googling this issue and came across a few resources or webrings:

BlogHer "Where the women bloggers are..."

Blogs by Women The blogs displayed today on the home page had titles such as "More Women Waiting to Tie the Knot", "Harvard Promotes its First Woman to Position of President", "Trends in Pregnancies..." -- marriage, pregnancy, health issues, parenting -- the Harvard story was the only business-related story. Now, as a woman, I'm definitely interested in those topics. But I guess this isn't where I'll find the female e-Learning bloggers.

So -- who else is out there in the e-Learning blogosphere of the female persuasion? Who are the credible female voices in this conversation?