Blogs that teach?

June 30, 2008 4:59 PM

Blogs that teach?

Most of the daily blogs that I read, even the "scholarly" ones or those dealing with a particular subject, are focused on links to topics of interest, or the blog writer's analysis of a particular topic. For instance, the volokh conspiracy is an excellent law blog, but it doesn't "teach" the fundamentals of law to the reader; rather, it addresses specific rulings, usually with the author's analysis of the issue.

I am interested in finding blogs that teach the reader about the subject of the blog. To continue with the subject of law, I want to find blogs that say, for example, "Today we are going to learn about contract law (or one particular aspect of contract law)", and then go over the basics of contract law. Kind of like that email service that emails you a few pages of a book every day. It seems like there are plenty of podcasts online that do this (I've used MIT courseware in the past and it's great), but I learn much better with the written word format. Plus, an RSS feed breaks things up so that you don't have to set aside an hour to watch a lecture.

I'm not interested only in "academic" blogs; any feed that teaches a subject or skill in a stepwise manner via RSS. I'm thinking bird-watching, or juggling, playing the guitar...

posted by btkuhn to education (11 answers total)

John Kricfalusi's blog on animation springs to mind. He has given over a huge chunk of his life to talking and walking his readers through every aspect of watching, appreciating and creating classic animation. It is a little messy in it's approach, but the content is incredible.
posted by fire&wings at 5:08 PM on June 30, 2008

Well, in the law dpt., Larry Solum's Legal Theory Blog has a FABULOUS serious called Legal Theory Lexicon designed to teach some of the fundamental concepts in... surprise... legal theory.
posted by paultopia at 5:12 PM on June 30, 2008

Home recording? (Recording in general, really, but aimed at a home recording audience.)
posted by Sys Rq at 5:21 PM on June 30, 2008 [3 favorites]

There are lots of blogs with tutorials for software skills (in particular loads of Photoshop tutorial site), for example: PSDTUTS and its sister sites NETTUTS and VECTORTUTS. Not sure if the tutorials are too specific for what you're talking about, since they talk more about getting particular effects rather than fundamental concepts/practices.
posted by camcgee at 5:40 PM on June 30, 2008 [3 favorites]

Possible bias filter because I'm a moderator at the fora over here, but Digital Photography School teaches about digital photography.
posted by theichibun at 6:36 PM on June 30, 2008 [2 favorites]

Strobist goes out on photoshoots, shows examples of his work, and then gives you all the technical goodness in great detail on how to create the same lighting.
posted by pieoverdone at 6:50 PM on June 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

I really like What I Learned Today. While not scholarly by any stretch and written about a variety of topics by a non-expert, I find it very interesting.
posted by saraswati at 9:09 PM on June 30, 2008

Hacketyhack should fit the bill.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 12:54 AM on July 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

Well, this one's a bit obscure, but the Daily Dongle is a must for any Flow Cytometrists.
posted by kisch mokusch at 3:41 AM on July 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

Flow shizzle with double nozzle drizzle. This is really making me want to be a flow cytometrist.
posted by lukemeister at 9:58 AM on July 1, 2008

Python Module of the Week covers one module from the Python standard library every week.
posted by whir at 10:40 AM on July 3, 2008