10 Brilliant and Inspiring Education and Technology Experts I Follow, and Why

Who are Your Favorite Education and Technology Bloggers and Writers?

Like many of you, there are certain educators that I find frequently impact my thinking and teach me new things through their published works. Here I offer 10 of my favorites. Some of these passionate and informed minds have inspired me for years, and others I have become aware of more recently. Of course, there are plenty of other wonderful educators writing and sharing great ideas across the Web and in conferences and schools around the world every day, so I hope you — the reader — will share some of your favorites too!

Terry Heick of TeachThought

I first met Terry at the 2013 TLIPAD conference, but I had already been very aware of his excellent work on TeachThought for some time. Readers who regularly dip into our “Tweet Wrap” posts will note that TeachThought is probably the most used source for quality content that makes it to that end-of-week summary. Terry and his staff produce a constant stream of top notch articles that get us all thinking about how teaching can and should be evolving in this modern age. Check out our 2014 interview with Terry here.

Vicki ‘Cool Cat Teacher' Davis

Teachers all over the world love the Cool Cat Teacher, and for good reason! Vicki's contributions to teaching and education technology are consistently inspiring and informative. She has been awarded Edublog’s “Best Teacher Blog” award, and has received numerous other accolades for her teaching and education technology thought leadership. Check out Vicki's Every Classroom Matters podcast, or read about her newest book, Reinventing Writing: The 9 Tools That Are Changing Writing, Teaching, and Learning Forever. We also interviewed Vicki last year here on EmergingEdTech.

Richard Byrne (FreeTech4Teachers)

Richard's site has a HUGE following, as if that's a surprise – teachers need free stuff! Frankly, I'm a tad jealous of his brilliant, simple approach with the multi-award-winning FreeTech4Teachers – a fun site name and an outstanding concept. Who doesn't love free! Of course, there's much more to what he does than just share free stuff, he helps teachers learn how they can use these tools, and he offers a variety of other professional development opportunities and sites. I don't think a week goes by that I don't learn about another free tool I was unaware of, thanks to Richard's work.

Kathy Schrock

Kathy was our keynote speaker at last year's TLIPAD conference, and she was such a pleasure to meet. She's knows so much! Her keynote opened my eyes to the power of Digital Storytelling, and I've been tapping into what that vein of thought and those resources regularly since. Her different sites offer a wealth of tools, tips, and techniques that any teacher could spend endless hours learning from. We interviewed Kathy here on the site last year too!

Larry Ferlazzo

If you've been paying any attention to education technology over the last few years, you've probably come across Larry's name more than once. His blog has received numerous Edublog Awards, and he's become a rather prolific author. His work on student motivation has really caught my eye, and I look forward to reading his newest book, Building A Community Of Self-Motivated Learners, which will be available in a few days.

Sal Khan (Khan Academy)

Sal Khan has certainly evolved into somewhat of a celebrity in the world of teaching and technology. The Khan Academy is at the forefront of much of what technology can do enhance instructional processes. While Sal Khan himself does not seem to have a direct channel where he is sharing insights on a regular basis, his work in books like The One World School House: Education Reimagined and published interviews and talks, and the occasional article, have provided plenty of opportunities to learn and be inspired by his ideas.

Jackie Gerstein

Jackie publishes the wonderful blog User Generated Education, where she writes regularly about “Education as it should be – passion-based”. I first got familiar with her work several years ago through outstanding articles she wrote about the Flipped Classroom. She's also written a great ebook, The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture, which I highly recommend, and The Internet and Social Networking for Social Emotional Learning (which I just downloaded, I've been meaning to read it for a while and this reminded me to do so!). Her passion comes across clearly in her interview on this site here last year, and articles like, “Schools are still killing creativity“.

Audrey Watters

Audrey and her HackEducation web site are widely known in ed tech circles, and she is one of the most powerful and outspoken ed tech writers and speakers you will come across. She is not afraid to speak her mind, and she is absolutely worth listening to! Her site's tagline, “The History of the Future of Education Technology” reflects her genius (IMHO). The self-professed “trouble maker” regularly delivers impassioned talks, has several books in the works, and if you really want to stay up on what's going on in education and instructional technology news, here is her in-depth Weekly News page.

Jon Bergmann

I can honestly say that Jon Bergmann and co-conspirator Aaron Sams changed my life. I am not alone in that sentiment, as no one has done more to propel the grassroots Flipped Classroom movement forward than these two gentleman. I've written about their work many times, and had the pleasure of meeting them both at last year's FlipCon14 conference. I focus on Jon here because he writes and shares a wide variety of content more regularly than Aaron, but they both have much too offer. Learn about their hallmark book, Flip Your Classroom, in this article.

Robert Talbert

I recently started following Talbert on his Huffington Post blog Casting out Nines after reading a few of his articles, such as “Flipped learning skepticism: Can students really learn on their own?” I think he speaks very effectively to the challenges and objections that flipped instruction can encounter, and he does so from a very experienced perspective. Additionally, his writings on a wide variety of education related topics, from “GTD” (Getting Things Done) to the wastefulness of unsolicited copies of textbooks speak well to efficiency, effectiveness, and other objectives that hit home for me.

Follow these amazing educators on Twitter:

In addition to the blogs, websites, and other sources cited above, most of these educators post on Twitter pretty regularly. Here are their Twitter User Names:

• @TerryHeick, @TeachThought
• @coolcatteacher
• @rmbyrne
• @kathyschrock
• @Larryferlazzo
• @khanacademy
• @jackiegerstein
• @jonbergmann
• @audreywatters
• @RobertTalbert

So how about you? Who do you follow? There are so many amazing bloggers, writers, speakers, and authors focused on education and technology! I'm always excited to come across another new teacher, technologist, or other individual who educates and inspires me regularly with their content, so, please, go ahead, drop a comment and share a favorite!