| BabbeySocBlog | The Blog advertises itself as "A Sociology site for AS and A2 Level students" and seems to have been set-up by a teacher for their classes (if it's origins and ultimate purpose seem a little vague then perhaps a brief perusal might explain why). It's not, by any means, a "traditional" form of Blog, but it does contain a range of useful ideas, resources, activities and notes. |
| Everyday Sociology | This Blog "features interesting, informative, and most of all entertaining commentary from sociologists around the United States". The articles / commentaries are split into a range of sub-categories (social problems, statistics and methods...) for easy access and the site generally has an easy-going feel to it that combines news items with sociological analysis. The only real downside for UK-based students is that it draws heavily on American issues, statistics and the like (which is hardly surprising) but there's enough going on here to make this a Blog that can be usefully dipped-into from time to time. |
| Keele University | Produced by the Sociology and Criminology School at Keele, this is a nice mix of articles (based on published research, media reports and so forth) and links to sociology sites, "sociology in the news" (in the main articles appearing on news sites, such as the BBC, that could be used as good classroom discussion pieces) and ESRC press releases (giving details of up-to-the-minute sociological research and analysis). The Blog articles, although generally short, are pitched at the right kind of level for (in the main) A2 students and the wry humour in some of the pieces makes a welcome change... |
| OSL Training |
 This
is one of the more...errm...philosophical types of Blog - taking a look at
different events "in the news", TV programmes and so forth and giving them a
sociological spin. Posts seem to be written by a variety of different people and
reflect, therefore, a range of different interests, preoccupations and
questions. It's different and worth a look although the "sociological content"
can be variable, to say the least (but maybe that just helps to open up the
discussion?). |
| Our Society Today |
The basic premise behind this blog set-up by the Economic and Social Research Council is to provide the opportunity for “young people” to write about the issues that concern, interest and affect them. To this end, “This blog welcomes comments, articles and opinions from young people on everyday issues. We want to encourage a discussion and get the different views that are out there”. In addition to articles and comments generated by users the blog also features articles added by various moderators on a range of topics – teachers and their students may find these particularly interesting because they use the basic blog format to introduce links, short video clips and so forth to wider areas of discussion (as well as pointing people towards the extensive range of resources on the main ERSC site). Sociology teachers and their students should find this blog helpful, both as a forum for their own thoughts and writing and as a way of exploring in more depth some of the sociological questions raised at A-level. |
| Ruth's Sociology Resources | Ruth Morton's site is a mixture of Blog (identifying interesting articles, for example, and putting them into a sociological context), Notes (divided into Specification areas like Family and Education), Revision help and Resources. The latter involves a variety of materials - such as Mind Maps, PowerPoints and Schemes of Work - for both teachers and students that are available to buy from the site (using PayPal). Some of the resources (such as the PowerPoint presentations) can be downloaded for free (as pdf files) if you want to have a look at the materials before you buy. Overall, a nice Blogging site that's well worth a visit. |
| Sociology Blog |
 Not
a conventional kind of Blog, by any means (and a small part of a much larger
social science site),
this contains a range of discussion pieces, web links, video clips and book
chapters that are all aimed at AS / A2 students. |
| The Sociology Blog |
 While
technically it's not a blog (there's no comment or discussion) this
is a minor quibble about what is a very useful and valuable site. What it
sets-out to do is identify stories in the news that illustrate sociological
concepts and preoccupations. It then offers a
brief indication of how the material can be interpreted sociologically. In other
words, it's a very good source of classroom discussion material that can be used
to stimulate a range of required A-level skills. |