How to Blog...In an effort to improve my blogging I joined a facebook group for bloggers where we share our triumphs, provide tips and ask for advice. Most of the blogs are pretty typical - beauty and fashion advice, travel tips, recipes, and what works to grow and monetize your blog. Expert on Tweens?One blog post that caught my eye was about stress in tweens - how to spot stress in your child and what can be done to help. The blog was well written, included good examples of things that a tween might find stressful and provided sensible solutions to helping the tween cope with stress. One source of stress noted by the blogger was a tween's lack of sleep - and a back link was provided to a site to purchase mattresses online. There was also a back link to a reliable site on identifying changes in puberty and another reliable site about bullying. The post ended with a list of links to purchase books on Amazon about child development and parenting teens and tweens. The "about" page described the author as a yoga instructor and mom to 3 beautiful daughters. Not a psychologist or psychiatrist or guidance counselor or social worker. Not a pediatrician or general practitioner, but a mom and yoga instructor. While the mom provided a blog post that is relevant to so many of us, and the advice appears sound, there were no reliable sources supporting the advice provided. The mom herself doesn't provide credentials leading the reader to believe she is an expert in the field and there aren't back links or a reference list verifying the effectiveness of the advice. Importance of Reliable Sources...As parents we often share stories about our children and what worked for us and those anecdotes may be helpful to others. But few of us are experts in the field of child development. We haven't earned degrees or performed scientific research and our friends who we share our tales with realize this. The problem is when something is written and then promoted online as information from an expert. Bloggers are told to write about what they know that will serve others. Provide information that will help others and they'll read your blog...leading to purchases of your products and of those advertised on your page! In today's world of alternative facts, those of us writing in the public domain have an obligation to use reliable resources and be transparent about what those resources are, especially if we aren't experts in the field we're writing about! How to Identify Reliable Sources of Information...
The Science Daily article is clearly a reliable source while the Natural News article is not. New parents are easily frightened by articles such as the one in Natural News. All of us need to learn how to identify sources of information that are reliable!
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Cindy BenedekSharing a little bit of science in our everyday world . Previous Posts
Email to Class Class Pics on Twitter Reliable Blogging Science of Hockey Prof's Boss Adjunct's Classroom Road Salt and Ice Blog Story - Science! Snow - Climate Change Flood in Ellicott City Reindeer, Moose, Musk-ox Oil, Gold, Power Midnight Sun APES Exam Squirrels Ecosphere-Photosynth/Resp Scientific Method/Vaccines Why I Blog View Meteor Shower Iron Age to Van Gogh - Native/Invasive species Forest to Spa Delaware to Germany/Grow Hedges Space-A Vacation/How Planes Fly Snake in my Yard Assasin Bugs/Japanese Beetles Fire Pit Venus Fly Trap Hummingbird Swallowtail Butterflies Classroom Technology Categories
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Photos used under Creative Commons from Hampshire Museums, shawncampbell, jfingas