British Columbian Student Bloggers without Borders

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That time of year again

In response to Chris Kennedy‘s recent post of British Columbian edu-bloggers, and in the spirit of referring my fellow bloggers (and blog-readers) to the people that I read, I thought of putting together a short list of a few noteworthy local student-bloggers. I hope that their blogs can further become hubs of communication around their evolving educations, and that their voices might be lent to the rest of ours in a larger conversation about the future of education.

At the risk of highlighting the myriad astonishing aspects of the entire TALONS class set of blogs, I highlight these three student blogs as diverse examples of young learners continually creating the blogging medium in their own image. Arranged from oldest-to-youngest.

Live Life to Create

Olga is a TALONS alumnus – that ‘found’ blogging independently, after graduating from the program – who continues to document the life and trials of being a high school senior in the digital age as a prolific Twitterer, and frequent blogger on her Tumblr site (when they’re not down). As a peer tutor this year with the current morning class of TALONS, Olga has shared her insights on the nature of learning, meeting her heroes, and life at the doorstep of graduation, university, and the Future.

Frozen Tic Tacs

This is a group blog that began as a conversation following a Skype conference with some of Alec Couros’ student-teachers, and has followed eight Talons graduates into grade eleven and life beyond our gifted program in the months since. Originally conceived as a means of staying in touch while the girls travelled to Kenya, Quebec, and a number of points in between over summer vacation, the Tic Tacs have continued to share their hopes, fears, and works of art for the past many months.

Channels of Thought

Though I said I wouldn’t go to the lengths of presenting all of the TALONS blogging exploits, the burgeoning riot of freckles adorning Liam’s Clustermap speak to an inherent magnetism in writers who are discovering their voice, and seem capable of consistently delivering unique, and articulate ideas. Though his posts are often inspired by school assignments, the breadth of Liam’s historical knowledge, and ravenous appetite for news and political developments often combine with an effortless faculty of language to produce masterworks of student-blogging.

As I said, these are but three examples of young bloggers I have had the good fortune to meet and work with, and who challenge me to be a more prolific, progressive, and productive blogger with each new post. I’ve seen posts recently by Dean Shareski and Will Richardson asking about student bloggers pro-actively creating their own online brand, above and beyond what their class and student-blogs might ask of them, and heard Andrew B. Watt ask much this same question sometime last spring.

But I haven’t been referred to too many sources of student-blogging leadership (outside the international Student Blogging Challenge, and Comments4Kids program, which both tend toward the elementary, or middle school grades), and would appreciate (as would the Talons class, I assume) any leads and links you might be able to leave as a comment to this post.

Who are your most compelling student bloggers?