It's been an exciting and wild year in writing for me. ASCD published two of my books, Role Reversal and The 5-Minute Teacher. I wrote articles for Teacher Librarian, Learning and Leading with Technology, SmartBlog on Education and eSchool News, to name a few.
Because of my love of blogging and the popularity of my work, thanks to you, I decided to post daily content here at the newly-named Brilliant or Insane Blog.
via: nobelprize.org
Here are the most popular posts of 2013
KidBlog is no longer completely free -- When I realized that the popular education blog host moved to a paid upgrade platform, I wasn't happy. This post prompted a social media uproar and a mix of upset users and KidBlog defenders.
Dear Parents: I want to stop grading your children -- With a promise to redouble my efforts to end traditional grading, I started by giving teachers a letter that explains the reasons for ending grades.
Top 5 reasons homework fails children-- This post originated earlier at ASCDEDge but was hugely popular here, when I posted it this year. Homework is always a hot-button issue among educators.
Top 5 reasons to eliminate guided reading -- What can I say, teachers are passionate about what they teach and Top 5 posts typically generate a lot of views. This one was no different.
Hey Major League Baseball, I'm breaking up with you -- I began my journalism career as a sports writer, so I enjoy the occasional post about sports. I'm not completely sure why, but this one got plenty of run here at Brilliant or Insane?
KidBlog CEO defends move to pay platform -- After many shares of my original post revealing KidBlog's move to a freemium model, co-founder and CEO Matt Hardy commented, sparking even more dialogue from the blog's users.
We must teach our kids about Nelson Mandela -- The death of the former South Africa president inspired this post. Hopefully, it will encourage teachers to keep Mandela's memory alive.
So, what do you think? Are any of these blog posts brilliant? Are any insane?
Please comment. There's much more to come in 2014.
When the news that Kidblog is no longer completely free hit cyberspace, reactions poured in on this blog and on social media sites, like Twitter and Facebook.
Kidblog CEO Matt Hardy
Kidblog, arguably the most popular education blogging platform, recently, and rather covertly, rolled out a three-tier pricing program, which includes a premium option that costs $2.00 per student per year.
Granted, there is a middle tier that is just $60 per year (reasonable for a quality program like Kidblog), but even this is too much for many teachers, already bogged down with expenses that paltry budgets won't cover.
With traffic to the original news-breaking post increasing exponentially, Kidblog CEO, Matt Hardy, decided to weigh in on the discussion. Here are excerpts of his comments, posted here.
"Making these adjustments involved tough decision-making. . . As I'm sure you can also understand, it costs a lot to provide a great free service like Kidblog. To ensure that we can continue to provide long term value for teachers and students, we rolled out premium features for those users who need extra resources. This will allow us to maintain a sustainable business that can grow and respond to our users' needs."
In his comment, Hardy also claims that Kidblog has received "overwhelmingly positive reactions to the premium plans," although it's not clear what this means. While I appreciate Hardy making his way to this blog to respond to upset users, and I understand that there may be a need to generate company-sustaining revenue, I'm still not happy that one minute all my Kidblog features were free, and the next minute some came with a fee. I think an email or a post on Kidblog's own blog page, explaining the move would have been appropriate. What about asking longterm loyal users which features were most important to them, so perhaps those could have remained free -- like student choice of themes? I have championed Kidblog as the hands-down best education blogging platform for years on my how-to video site, Learn it in 5, and at workshops. I'll continue to do this, I'm sure. Sadly, now I have to add a footnote. Kidblog is free. . . well, sort of.
Sad news for educators, using KidBlog. The education blog host, designed by teachers for teachers, is no longer completely free.
I recently noticed an "upgrade" button on my dashboard. I can't find any news of this change, and in August, Examiner.com reported that KidBlog was indeed still free. Unfortunately, now the "upgrade" button on the KidBlog site brings up the page below.
Last year, I had 120 users and unlimited teachers. My students could select their own themes, which was a critical part of creating the autonomy that kids love so much. Now, these are paid features.
