How Long Between Posts Should a Blog be Listed on International Education Blogs & News?

I've been wanting to edit and enhance my International Education Blogs & News site for some time.  I came up with the idea for this site on my flight home from the Forum on Education Abroad conference in Portland in 2009 and while a few modifications have been made over the years these have been limited.

One of my first tasks is to clean up the blog feed and to remove those blogs listed that are no longer contributing to the discussion in the field.  So, I created a brief poll below to elicit feedback from IHEC Blog readers (and hopefully International Education Blogs & News visitors) on how long do you think a blog can be inactive to be included on International Education Blogs & News.  As I look through the various international education blogs feeding to International Education Blogs & News there are several that have not posted in many months.  There are some that are great blogs but are not too active and some that are clearly dead and need to be removed.  My question is "How Long Between Posts Should a Blog be  International Education Blogs & News?  Please take a moment to vote below.  Thanks in advance!

How Long Between Posts Should a Blog be Listed on International Education Blogs and News?
	One Month
	Two Months
	Three Months
	Four Months
	Five or more Months
pollcode.com free polls

Changing types of posts here on IHEC Blog

If you have been following IHEC Blog for a while then you may have noticed changes in the way I have been posting.  IHEC Blog and my related activities are secondary to my family, employment and academic lives and things have gotten so busy over the past 6-12 months that I have had to change the way I post.  I still strive to post to IHEC Blog daily (Monday-Friday) but over the past several weeks I've managed only two to three posts per week.  What you will also notice is that I have been embedding much more video, documents and widgets into my posts with links to other resources than writing substantive pieces.  Of my last ten posts (not including this one) I have embedded five videos, one document and one twitter feed widget and the three other posts were short paragraph posts.  While these posts are less time intensive to prepare I do hope that they are informative and add some value to your work.  My current posting patterns will most likely continue for some time as I work to complete my dissertation.  About the dissertation...from July 18-29 I am taking off of work to focus on my dissertation and will probably not post anything (unless I write something this week and schedule to post or it is something I cut and discard from my dissertation that I think IHEC Blog readers may find of interest).  To that end, posts to IHEC Blog's Facebook page and to Twitter will also decrease substantially.


Thanks for coming along for the ride so far and I hope you continue!


Photo credit:  purpleslog (extra credit:  Do you know the name of or location of this clock?)

Vote in the Lexiophiles and bab.la Top 100 (International eXchange & eXperience 2011) blog competition

Lexiophiles and bab.la are again hosting their Top 100 International eXchange and eXperience (also known as IX) blog competition.  Voting will be open to anyone until January 26, winners will be announced on January 28.  You can vote for the best international exchange and experience blog here.

International Education Blogs & News is looking for new blog subscriptions

Do you manage a blog related to international education?  If so, I would love to add it to my International Education Blogs & News (IEB&N) site which you can visit at http://internationaleducationblogs.blogspot.com/. Please e-mail me at international.ed.consulting@gmail.com with the URL and I'll check it out to see if it is appropriate for IEB&N.

Sept. 1 Deadline – Call for Disability Blogs on International Experiences

This IHEC Blog post is a copy and paste job from a SECUSS-L post (reposted with permission).  

People with disabilities are invited to send in personal blogs about participation in international exchange programs by September 1, 2010.  Please share this paid opportunity with people with disabilities currently residing in the United States (all nationalities welcome).
Do you keep an international travel blog? Would you like to share it with other people with disabilities who are interested in going abroad? If you are a person with a disability and have either studied, interned or volunteered abroad, the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE) would like to hear from you. Qualifying authors will earn $50 and their blogs will be posted to NCDE's Stories and Blogs page <http://www.miusa.org/ncde/stories>! Visit <http://www.miusa.org/ncde/ncdenewsevents/storiescall>to learn whether you qualify.
National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE)
Mobility International USA
132 E. Broadway, Suite 343
Eugene, OR 97401
Tel./TTY (541) 343-1284
Fax (541) 343-6812
http://www.miusa.org/ncde
http://www.facebook.com/mobility.international
http://www.twitter.com/mobilityINTL

Nominate and then Vote in the Top 100 International Exchange and Experience Blogs Competition

Last year bab.la and their blog Lexiophiles launched the Top 100 International Exchange and Experience Blogs competition. International Higher Education Consulting Blog was nominated in that competition and was voted the #10 International Education and Experience Blog for 2009.

It’s now time for the Top 100 International Exchange and Experience Blogs 2010, also known as IX10. Lexiophiles and bab.la are looking for the top 100 blogs about life abroad and the nomination period remains open until January 31st. The voting period will be open from February 1st to 14th and the results will be announced on February 18th. I will be sure to post a reminder to vote for your favorite international exchange and experience blog before the end of the competition.

If you have a favorite international exchange and experience blog (or two or three!) please take a moment to send an e-mail with the blog(s) URL to priscila@bab.la.

Those of you interested in international education blogs and new media might find International Education Blogs & News (IEB&N) to be of interest. I started IEB&N about a year ago as I came up with the idea on the flight home from the Forum on Education Abroad's 2009 annual conference in Portland.

International Education Blogs & News Looking for Blog Submissions

International Education Blogs & News (IEB&N) is seeking blog URL submissions from international education professionals and organizations who are blogging about issues related international and intercultural education to be added to the site.

IEB&N is also seeking blog URL submissions from students, faculty and other academics (Fulbright grantees for example) who are blogging from abroad about their experiences. IEB&N is seeking blog URLs from anyone in the world who is studying and/or researching in a foreign country. Interesting blogs, for example, could be from German academics in Japan, Japanese academics in the U.S. or U.S. academics in Germany.

Please visit IEB&N here to see which blogs are already feeding great content to the site!

Please e-mail blog URLs to David Comp, International Higher Education Consulting, at international.ed.consulting@gmail.com

Please note that David Comp reserves the full right not to include any blog submitted for consideration to IEB&N as well as the full right to remove any blog currently feeding content to IEB&N at any time.

Climate Change - Blog Action Day 2009 is Today!

In a September 29th post I announced that IHEC Blog would be participating in Blog Action Day 2009 and I placed a call to various listservs and networks in the international education community asking for examples and information on what efforts were underway in organizations and programs that focused on climate change. Several people left comments or sent me e-mail messages (plus one I came across on Twitter) and it is these efforts that I pulled together into a post that will go up later today.

Additionally, I have a second Blog Action Day 2009 post scheduled (it will actually be the first post of the day and will go up in an hour or so) about a wonderful organization that you should know about.

As of this post 8,924 Blogs from 148 countries have registered as participating in Blog Action Day 2009 and they are reaching 12,591,007 readers (and these numbers are rapidly increasing). Also, I recommend following Blog Action Day on Twitter (http://twitter.com/blogactionday) to see what else is going on in the blogosphere for Blog Action Day.

IHEC Blog Call for Regular/Frequent/Guest Contributors

This post is a call for regular, frequent and guest contributors to International Higher Education Consulting Blog. As International Higher Education Consulting Blog is growing in popularity the demands for the upkeep are competing with family, my professional job and my dissertation obligations so I’ve decided to post this call for contributors. I’ve had several guest contributors in the past and these posts are sometimes the most popular posts for the week or even for the month.

I’m looking for colleagues in the international education and public/citizen diplomacy fields who are interested in highlighting new developments in the field(s) or who are interested in generating discussion/debate on topics that fit within the focus of International Higher Education Consulting Blog. Those who understand and appreciate the value of new media are especially sought after. Guest contributors to International Higher Education Consulting Blog receive no compensation for their submissions.

Following is the current description of International Higher Education Consulting Blog that is currently posted on the blog:

International Higher Education Consulting Blog provides timely news and informational pieces that are of interest to both the international education and public diplomacy[i] communities. From time to time, International Higher Education Consulting Blog will post thought provoking pieces to challenge readers and to encourage comments and professional dialogue.

This post is not a call for contributors whose posts would not relate to the focus of International Higher Education Consulting Blog. I reserve full right to not accept any requests to contribute to International Higher Education Consulting Blog as well as the right to decline any submissions.

If you are interested in becoming a regular, frequent or guest contributor to International Higher Education Consulting Blog I want to hear from you about your ideas about the types of posts you would be interested in preparing as well as the frequency of your contributions. Please e-mail me at international.ed.consulting@gmail.com

Thank you in advance.

David Comp
Editor & Publisher of International Higher Education Consulting Blog

[i] Please refer to this previous International Higher Education Consulting Blog post for clarification on public diplomacy talk on this blog: http://ihec-djc.blogspot.com/2009/09/point-of-clarification-on-public.html

Links of Interest for the Week of Sept. 26th to Oct. 2nd

Links of Interest for the Week of Sept. 26th to Oct. 2nd

The following are links of interest that I pulled from my Twitter posts and retweeted Twitter posts. I hope you find them of interest:

The ICC Network highlights IHEC Blog & IEB&N Blog on their network page

Sizing up the competition: the future of international postsecondary student enrollment in the US (via @IDPDRIE)

Internationalization Monitor of Education in the Netherlands 2008 (via @IDPDRIE)

I added more to IHEC Blog post "Is International Education an Agent of Democratization?"

List of Faith Based Exchange Programs (courtesy of The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy, @CitizenDiplomat)

Glamour, not strategy, drives students abroad (UK)

New, stricter rules for student visas in UK (via @IIEglobal)

More Diversity Sought Among U.S. Participants in Study Abroad Programs

"End the Travel Ban on Cuba" a campaign by the LAWG

UC Berkeley researchers say US needs "national strategy" to recruit foreign students up to 1.25 million (via @IIEglobal)

NAFSA.news: Promoting Education Abroad at Community Colleges (via @NAFSA)

American Diplomacy's Latest Issue (via @pdworldwide)

International students: a $100 billion business? (via @WESFans)

Monday Morning blog post now up on US Center for Citizen Diplomacy's site (via @CitizenDiplomat)

Sign the "Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy" petition! (via @CitizenDiplomat)

'The Chinese Are Coming'

"Talking with the Harvard Public Diplomacy Collaborative"

Earlier this week on was going through research notes and non-published manuscripts and went on a Twitter fest and sent several tweets relating to the history of international education. Following are a few of my Twitter posts:

- The United Kingdom reported that the number of non-European Union international students rose 23% during 2002-2003 over the previous year

- Enrollment figures for international students in the U.S. dropped 2.4% in 2003-2004

- By September 11, 2002 the US had a web based student data collection system known as the Interim Student & Exchange Authentication System

- On June 18 1999, British Prime Minister Tony Blair launched a new international education policy for the United Kingdom

- The National Security Education Act of 1991 established the Boren National Security Education Program Trust Fund

- The International Student Exchange Program was initially funded by a grant from the United States Information Agency (USIA) until 1996

- The National Defense Education Act of 1958 highlighted the critical importance of education to national defense

- It's estimated that approx. 350K German POWs participated in re-education programs & took what they learned back to Germany

- In 1948 the United States Congress passed The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act (also known as The Smith-Mundt Act)

- In 1947 the US Office of Military Government w/ US DoS initiated program to bring almost 10K Germans to U.S. to learn democratic principles

- The Fulbright Act of 1946 set in motion a great history of int'l education exchange between the United States and the rest of the world

- 1936 Buenos Aires Convention called for exchanges to strengthen intellectual cooperation & cultural relations between US & Latin America

Photo Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/utnapistim/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

IHEC Blog will Participate in Blog Action Day 2009 Focusing on Climate Change

October 15th will be Blog Action Day 2009 and IHEC Blog has registered and will participate. The theme of Blog Action Day 2009 is Climate Change and my plan is to highlight the various efforts and resources in the field of international education that focus on climate change. Examples of what might be included in my Blog Action Day post are:

- Social networks/listservs for international educators that focus on sustainability and greening the field

- study abroad/exchange programs with significant course content focused on the environment

- Standards of Good Practice

- Study Abroad Programs/Providers mission statements and/or efforts in this area

In order to produce a good resource I need your assistance! Please take a moment to leave a comment below with information (preferably links) on what your study abroad program, institution, or organization is doing in this area and I will gladly list and provide a link. Additionally, if you know of any resources I should list please leave a brief description with any links in the comment section. An example of what I'm looking for can be found in the great work of GlobaLinks Learning Abroad in their efforts to go Green which you can read about here.

Thank you in advance and I look forward to reading your suggestions in the comments section!

Additionally, you can follow Blog Action Day on Twitter here.

Interviewed about being an International Education Blogger

During the NAFSA: Association of International Educators conference in Washington D.C. (May 2009) I was interviewed on video by Ruth Marie Sylte of Manitou Heights (Conversations about Crossing Cultures and Bridging Divides in the Information Age) about being a blogger. Here is our conversation:



I want to thank Ruth Marie Sylte for making and posting my first and only video to YouTube! You can view Manitou Heights YouTube channel here.

IHEC Blog Voted #10 in Top 100 International Exchange & Experience Blogs 2009 Competition

I just received word from Erin Gallagher over at the bab.la and Lexiophiles team that my International Higher Education Consulting Blog was voted number 10 in their Top 100 International Exchange & Experience Blogs competition for 2009! This is exciting news and I want to thank everyone who took a moment out of your busy lives to vote for my blog in this competition. You can view the list of all of the nominated blogs and how they ranked in the voting here and if you want to read an article that explains more about the competition you can do so here.

A word of congratulations is due to all the nominated blogs and especially the top three blogs as the team from bab.la and Lexiophiles have made donations to UNICEF on their behalf and the top three bloggers will also receive updates from the community where their donation was directed!

I would like to encourage all IHEC Blog readers to join me in applauding the top three bloggers by also making a donation to UNICEF. You can support UNICEF in all of their great work here!

IHEC Blog nominated for Top 100 International Exchange and Experience Blogs competition for 2009

While I was in Los Angeles at the NAFSA: Association of International Educators conference I received word that my International Higher Education Consulting Blog was nominated for the 2009 Top 100 International Exchange and Experience Blogs competition which is hosted by Lexiophiles [http://www.lexiophiles.com/] and bab.la [http://bab.la/]. I encourage IHEC Blog readers to check out the top 100 blogs listed as there are some really good ones and to take a moment to vote in the competition (voting closes this coming Saturday, June 6th)



Thank you in advance for your consideration! David Comp

IHEC Blog Posts Will Resume After NAFSA Conference

As always before the NAFSA annual conference I’m trying to complete more work than I have hours in the day for so I will resume posting to IHEC Blog during the week of June 1st. Until then visit International Education News & Blogs to see what’s going on in the international education blogosphere and you may want to visit Twitter from time to time and search “study abroad” and see what some of the students are saying…sometimes funny and sometimes stunning. You can actually search Twitter for "study abroad" on International Education News & Blogs!

My Peanuts and I Fly Southwest

In honor of Mother’s Day, which is just around the corner, I wanted to quickly post about an interesting campaign that Southwest Airlines is launching. Southwest Airlines is celebrating the launch of their “My Peanut and I Fly Southwest” campaign and introducing their mommy blogger Jessica Turner. You can read Jessica's Southwest blog post here and her personal blog here.

Oh yea, Southwest flies internationally to Ontario, Canada!

Enhancements to International Education Blogs & News

Many people have discovered commented on my new blogging project International Education Blogs & News which I started a little under a month ago. Since the initial launch I’ve been making small enhancements to the site and I would like to highlight two here:

The first major enhancement to this site is a change in the name of the blog to International Education Blogs & News (IEB&N for short) as I felt this was more representative of what the blog provided to the field of international education. The second enhancement to the site are the Google news feeds on the left sidebar that cover the following topics:

Study Abroad
International Education
Educational Exchange
Peace Corps

Once on the International Education Blogs & News website you simply click the topic of interest and you'll be able to link to articles on the web found by Google on that topic. I will be adding more topics to this "Google News Roll" in the coming days and weeks but wanted to set up these initial news feeds as a pilot. Please provide comments on these enhancements to International Education Blogs & News and if you have or know of a blog that should be included please post a comment.

International Education Blogs ~ A New Blogging Project by David Comp

International Education Blogs is a new blogging project I started today as an effort to bring all of the blogs on the web that touch on international education issues into one central location. Essentially it will be a blog roll with a few postings. Please bear with me as I learn the technology. This initial launch will have two different blog lists for you to review.

The first list of blogs will be those of people who are blogging on the field/state of international education and related matters.

The second list of blogs will be those of students and others who are currently blogging from a foreign location.

If you have any ideas for blogs to be added to International Education Blogs please send me an e-mail at: international.ed.consulting@gmail.com

You can access International Education Blogs here: http://internationaleducationblogs.blogspot.com/