Saturday, November 3, 2007

Welcome

Hi and welcome to blog lift-off.

This blog is aimed at providing some underpinning knowledge, and assitance to those launching into the world of weblogs.

I have set up my blog using key headings relating to the various issues about blogs, and invite you to comment, question, and add additonal information and links.

Good luck and enjoy the journey!

Content:
1. What is a blog
2. Case Studies
3. Key Players
4. Technical Barriers
5. Blogging tools
6. Tips for Getting Started
7. Social and Educational Implications



8. Issues and risks

  • Learning and etequacies

  • Privacy

  • Codes of Conduct

  • Plagiarism

  • Policies and procedures

  • Facilitation

  • Monitoring

  • Overload


9. Predictions

  • Connections

  • Best Practice

  • Innovation

Conclusion

I hope this information will provide some catalyst to motivate you to visit a blog and read, comment, or add your own thoughts, information or links. Yes, you are now ready to create your own weblog.

So come on board for this exciting journey, and lift-off into the new world of social communication.

Predictions

Weblogs used as an emerging technology for teaching and learning, have a positive future. They have an exploding presence on the world wide web, providing an effective means of social communication. However there is much that can still occur in the educational sector to utilise this tool. It is in this area I am particularly interested, and I predict that there will be growth in the use of blogs over the next few years in educational institutions. Blogs will have a major impact on increasing connections, and provide an incentive to achieve best practice, opportunities for innovation, and development of original ideas.

1. Connections
The internet provides everyone with the ability to connect with others of common interest, background, skills, experiences, and to provide readily accessible information on any topic. Blogs are one tool that facilitates these connections, and I beleive will continue to grow in their use and versatility. Tertiary education, particularly Registerd Training Organisations (RTO), are yet to utilize the potential that blogs offer for teaching and learning. Mobile phones is also another important technologhy that will eanble teachers and learners to connect with each other and use blogs as part of this m-learning process.

Predictions for tertiary RTO institutes:
a
) Increased connections within the institute using blogs as a means of communication and sharing of information.
b) The value of using blogs as a teaching tool will increase as teachers begin to understand how theses can be used, and develop their confidence and skill in using this tool.
c) The potential to connect with other institutes, within the state, country and world will open up opportunities for collaborating on issues of common interest. Blogs will assist with this communication and sharing of ideas and information.
d) Mobile learning technology will provide opportunities for easy means to communicate via blogs, and make connections more timely and relevant to the context of learning.

2. Best Practice
Blogs will provide students and teachers with an incentive to continue to build on their skills and knowledge. Rather than continuing to ‘re-invent the wheel’, teachers will learn from each other, utilise others resources, and hopefully be inspired to reach the demonstrated level of best practice. Blogs will make access to this information more readily available, and encourage teachers share and learn from each other.

Students on the other hand will become more self directed in their learning through being encouraged to access information available on the internet such as hyperlinks and RSS feeds. They will also become more reflective in their thinking through their use of blogs, and demonstrate some connections to their learning, and creative thought or new ideas of their own. Through the use of blogs, students will work more collaboratively with others, and see the role of the teacher more as a facilitator and mentor.

Predictions for tertiary RTO institutes:
a) Increased emphasis on inquiry based learning, and cognitive thinking, rather than just doing what is needed to pass assessment.
b) Blogs will provide teachers and students with a presence on the internet that will increase their reputation and visibility in the profession.
c) There will be an increase in sharing information and promoting discussion.
d) A focus on collaboration, working in teams or pairs, and learning from each other.
e) Increase in the standard of skill and knowledge of the industry sector.
f) Increase in engagement and interest in learning through the use of blogs.

3. Innovation
As the skills and knowledge increase, the potential to become more innovative in our work will increase. By learning from each other we will discover new ways to build on current practice, rather than continue to reproduce current thinking. Continuous improvement will be evident in our work as people collaborate with others outside the institute, and may potentially lead the world in producing innovative ideas and methods.

Prediction for Tertiary RTO Institutes:
a) Staff in all departments to seek out opportunities to link in with discussion forums to contribute and learn from others.
b) Easy access to RSS Feeds, current research, and best practice occurring in the public and private sector.
c) Mobile phones to be used as a means to blogging information, demonstration of skills and learning relevant to workplace.

Teachers and students will begin to move out of the classroom and back into context within the industry, work together, share ideas, think original thoughts and enjoy their learning experience.

Issues and Risks

Teachers and users alike all have a responsibility to have some understanding of issues related to privacy, plagiarism, codes of conduct and responsible public publishing. Other factors to consider include moderation, facilitation, and information or time overload.
After careful consideration of these issues such as moderation facilitation and information or time overload, the use of blogs as a learning tool should provide a positive experience.

a) Learning social eteqacies.
There are inevitably people who will use blogs inapproriately. Blogs provide a space for sharing ideas and opinions so when commenting on these one should disagree or agree with the idea not the person, generalisations should be avoided, and all information in the links should be read to ensure it is appropriate.[1] The use of written language should be appropriate to society and exclude personal attacks, swearing, racist or sexual comments. Developing guidelies for the use of blogs will provide a framework by which users can ensure they are communicating responsibly.

b) Privacy
Weblog users need to have some understanding of issues related to privacy to ensure that their site does not breach any policies or laws. Blog entries should avoid publishing personal information such as address, date of birth, and phone numbers to protect privacy. Dahna Boyd believes that “privacy is dead’ and we need to learn how to ‘negotiate this heightened state of public-ness that we have created, and how to manage invisible potential audiences’. According to Boyd many of the problems presented by blogs are not new but simply a bigger and more visible social information issues, not a technological one[2]. Teachers and users generally can become more net savy through discussion on issues of privacy and general experience in using the internet.

Using blogs with learners under 18 years of age also presents its own risks. Teachers must ensure that they maintain their duty of care in regard to privacy and child protection. By establishing semi-open community, restrictions can be placed on people who can get access to blog sites.

c) Codes of Conduct
Public access to blogs exposes everyone to the potential to be subjected to inappropriate comments or information, abuse or personal attacks. This Code of Ethics has been developed to assist teachers using blogs as an educational tool and can be summarise as [3]:
a. I will tell the truth.
b. I will write deliberately and with accuracy.
c. I will acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly.
d. I will preserve the original post, using notations to show where I have made changes so as to maintain the integrity of my publishing.
e. I will never delete a post.
f. I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic.
g. I will reply to emails and comments when appropriate and do so promptly.
h. I will strive for high quality with every post – including basic spellchecking.
i. I will stay on topic
j. I will disagree with other opinions respectfully.
k. I will link to online references and original source materials directly.
l. I will disclose conflicts of interest.
m. I will keep private issues and topics private, since discussing private issues would jeopardise my personal and work relationships. [4]

Links:
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/04/draft_bloggers_1.html

Bloggers code of conduct

Protecting Australian families online:
http://www.netalert.net.au/01624-What-are-Mobile-Internet-Technologies.asp


d) Plagiarism
With so much access to information its is very easy and tempting to cut, copy and paste information from the web. However to maintain our ethical standards it is important to respect intellecutal property and avoiding plagiarism. Hyperlinks and feeds provide easier referencing to the source of information when using blog.

Blog users also need to be mindful that not all information is truthful, or can be validated to be accurate. The importance of checking all information when adding links to a blog ensures that we are forwarding on reliable and reputable information.

Reference:
Oblinger, D., Becoming Net Savvy, Educase Quarterly No 3. 2007.
Issues in Plagiarism for the New Millennium: http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au/Articles/dec98/gajad1.htm

e) Policies & Procedures
There appears no explicit policies for use of blogs to support educational delivery, however TAFE NSW Northern Sydney Instititue provide a list of documents that provide guidelines effecting the use of blogs by teachers and learners. [5]

Student Discipline Policy
Code of Conduct (for staff)
Management of Conduct and Performance (for staff)
Internet and Email Services: Acceptable Usage for Schools
Use by Staff of Employer Communication Devices
Policy for Protecting Children and Young People
Release of Student Information Policy
Anti-Bullying Plan for Schools
Anti-Racism Policy
People With Disabilities - Statement of Commitment
Web Publishing Guidelines (Intranet only)
Privacy Code of Practice (Intranet only)
Intellectual Property Policy - TAFE NSW
Copyright Amendment (Digital Act) 2000
Cybercrime Act 2001
Policy Guidelines for Mobile Communication Devices and Associated Services


e) Facilitation
Initially students ‘don’t get blogging on their own without considerable assistance from teachers.’[6] The teacher therefore has an important role in facilitating the use of blogs through posting questions, links, making suggestions or comments to further extend conversations. However there is a tendency to want to use new technology is old ways rather than rethinking our practice and adapting it accordingly. [7] Therefore teachers need to be mindful of utilising this tool in ways to facilitate collaboration, and reflective learning practice rather than teacher directed learning.

It is easy to set a blog is relatively easy, rememebering that it is waiting for the next post is easy to forget. Prompt such as adding ScribeFire as a firefox addon, to the blog helps remind bloggers to visit their blog on a regular basis. One way to keep blogs active may be to incorporate this to students assessment requirements, but this will influence the nature of the blogging that takes place.

f) Moderating
If blogs are being used as a teaching tools, teachers have a responsibility to ensure that students are using these in an appropriate way. This can be done by teachers constantly monitoring behaviour, and providing the support and feedback that will help students learn
how to moderate their own behaviour [8] Through making blogs public, students will hopefully be inclined to think more carefully about what the say or post on their blog.


g) Overload
Information overload can be a negative result of blogging when so much information suddenly becomes available. This may occur through seeking out contact with blogs or through RSS feeds which automatically provided updated information as it becomes available. Time overload is also of major concern and requires an appropriate amount of discipline and self monitoring to know when to limit time spent blogging.

Part 5: Collaboration

Weblogs provide the opportunity for collaboration through discussing issues; sharing information, links and RSS feeds; and facilitating people to connect with each other anywhere in the world . Opportunities for continuous improvement in our teaching and learning practices will also occur through the use of blogs as teachers learn from each other, and are kept up to date with current thinking and practice.

Within the TAFE sector, teachers are slow to embrace the notion of sharing information, and engaging with others outside of their direct area of education. Blogs will provide the opportunities to collaborate with others from within the institute to discuss issues of common interest. At NMIT the Teaching and Learning forum could widen its network to include all teachers to set up a discussion forum on topics such as employability skills, or teaching international students. The use of Blogs as a collaborative tool connects people to the wider educational community within the state, nation, or formalise collaborative networks worldwide.

Collaborative learning can involve students working in pairs, small or larger groups where they share their learning experience. Blogs provide a means by which students may work together even if they cannot connect together at the same time or the same place, and provides additional motivation to engage in their learning when working together with others. (1) . It is also a useful tool to place learning in context, rather than in the educational institution. This would be very useful for students working in the industry who can draw on relevant authentic experiences.

The opportunities blogs provide for collaborative learning and engaging with others, will enable all students and teachers to continually improve their knowledge and practice.

Reference:
(1) Jones & Issroff Learning Technologies in Conole G., & Oliver M., Contemporary Perspectives in E-Learning Research.Routledge, 2007.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Part 4: Reflective Learning

There currently appears to be much interest in the role of reflection in learning with a focus on contextualising learning to help students make more meanigful links between theory and practive. Through reflective thinking learning becomes more meaningful, and leads to deeper learning. [1]

Research conducted at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, discovered that the students found the best feature of blogs was writing that encouraged students to review and revise their learning. Use of blogs provides an incentive to write summaries of information received during class, comment on what they view as important or relevant to them, or information they wanted to recall at a later date. It was a great way to store and organise information which was easy to locate, manage, and impossible to loose. Students like being able to watch their knowledge grow and the ability to review their learning [2]

The repeated, regular journal entries makes blogs and ideal refelctive learning process. [3] Blogs encourage them to think about what they are writing, to continue writing over an extended period of time, to engage with others in conversations that further extend thinking and writing skills. [4] It helps the student make connections between what they know and what they do and seems more relevant to experiential learning.

Part 3: Knowledge & Learning

Socialist contructivist thinking believes that ‘knowledge creation is a shared rather than individual experience’ [1] Based on Vygotsky’s educational theory (1978) “meaning making develops through the social process of language use over time”[2] Through the use of Blogs students construct their knowledge though publishing, reflection, providing feedback which all lead to the potential to scaffold their learning and ideas.

Blogs can be seen as a way for action learning to occur where written journals form part of the” interactive action research learning loop”.[3] Through documenting personal thoughts and learning, students are articulating the connection between new information and what they already know, and trying to make sense of this. Although blogs need a clear purpose they still need to remain unscontrained to be effective. Teachers need to see that blogs are “diverse as the writers themselves” therefore should not be prescribed how they must be use and need to remain unconstrained to be effective. [4]

The use of blogs enables users to obtain up to date information that is easily accessible from anwhere with a web connection. The hyperlinks that are often featured in a blog, also have an important role in helping bring new material into a learning environment extending the connection to resources available, and often assists in linking to other useful sources. More and more webpages are providing RSS feeds providing notification of current blog posts, podcasts, products, articles, just by adding RSS feeds to an aggregator. Through the use of feeds information is linked directly to the reader, rather than having to go out and look for this. Technorati and Google Bog Search provide a way to locate RSS feeds related to a topic or webpage of interest. The challenge now is not how to access this information but how to use it.

The relationship between the teacher and student is altered when using blogs. The teacher is no longer the imparter of knowledge, or in control of the learning but is being taught along with the students. Each person is encouraged to share information and learn from each other. Everyone has the potential to be the mentor who can offering suggestions, questions, or gudiance, which creates a more dynamic and equitable learning environemnt..

However it appears that blog users need time and control over when and how they use blogs. A study on the use of blogs in a learning environment conducted at Brisbane Graduate school of Business, provides an insight into the views of blog users:

  • Vistors participate by reading a blog or using links , and learn from what others have to say
  • Develop confidence and overcome fears, develop a sence of belonging and increase understanding by ‘lurking’in a blog.
  • May choose not to contribute as they are unsure if they have anything valuable to contribute.
  • Active particpants or contributors, develop skills in critical thinking and argument creation by assuming that a 'lurking audience' is present.

    Additional comments by students.
    Even though at first people were afraid to take the risk and blog, I found it a good way to discuss concepts and participate in further discussion. It also allowed the sharing of up-to-date information that would not have been possible in lecture time’.

    I spent time prior to each blog constructing and entry. To do that I did need to have a good understanding of what I wanted to blog about. I also spent time reading and considering the blogs of other students and found their comments and perspectives thought provoking’. [5]

    As Downes suggests, good conversations start with listening before contibuting to a conversation. Thus before knowledge sharing can occur the blog visitor needs to feel comfortable with the topic of conversation before sharing an opinion on a blog. [6] I have found this when 'lurking' in the discussion forums through the edna groups, and have taken many weeks or reading views and opinions before contributing myself to the discussion.

    The use of blogs as a learning tool appears to be an evolving process. Initially the amount of information accessible can be overwhelming. Learing how to cull this information and validate the blogs that are useful, reliable and relevant to the users needs takes time. Blogs can be identified as providing useful links, interesting converstaion, identified connection between the writer and reader.

    It is through the use of blogs that the learner can apply their knowledge as they interact with others thus providing a useful tool for learning. They can have a greater control of their learning as they they can seek out information, gain access to suggested links, and publish authentic artifacts containing their thoughts and understandings.

Part 2: Communication & Connection

The social networking technology of blogs, provide an exciting opportunity to keep in contact with friends, family or teachers, and make connections with people you don’t know. Blogs provide an opportunity to “shake hands digitally”[1] with people anywhere in the world, and at any time, not just in our immediate environment. It helps to reduce the distance between people physically, and create connections that were previously very difficult or impossible to achieve.[2] Blogs also have particular appeal for students and teaches as they enable them to create personal and community connections through forums like those that have been developed at the University of Leeds Elgg[3]

The nature of blogs facilitates this social interactivity and sharing. Whether it is through entering into conversations about what is written, viewing what has been posted through video photos and audio or linking to webpages or useful resources, connections are enhanced between blog users. However ‘if the words are dull, nobody will read them, and nobody will come back . If the words are wrong, people will be misled, disappointed and infuriated,. If the words aren’t there, people will shake their heads and lament your untimely demise’. [4] Thus to make connection you need to have something of interest for others to read. Walker suggests that by having an awareness that others may be reading what she had written she ‘took far greater care in my writing than I did whern scribbling notes in a notebook for my eyes only’.[5]
The standard of written communication therefore increases.

The appeal of Blogs as an asynchronous communication tool enables the user to respond any time day or night, and take as much time as needed to think and respond. They provide access to experts and other professionals beyound the boundaries of the home or classroom.

Blogs enable a user to identify that others are visiting your webpage which offers validation that people are interested in what they have to say, and increases their connection to others even if through cyberspace.

As more and more teachers begin to see the value of blogs, the e-networks will be enhanced, and resources for teachers, students and the community will expand. Blogs will provide the means to discover, extend, manage and enable communication and reach new social networks that would otherwise not be possible. Whether it is through sharing photos, comments or RSS feeds, blogs encourage a culture of sharing and connecting with each other which is most likely to increase as we become more net savey.

Part I: Identity and Voice

Blogs provide a forum for everyone to have a voice. It can be a personal place where they can easily express their opinions, enter into debates, have conversations, seek responses and gain feedback. Everyone can have access to this on-line forum, where views and expertise can be shared on any topic for any purpose. Blogs can be used to make a statement about themselves, used as an ‘on-line soapbox’ (21) or just an opportunity to “let off steam” about an issue. The confident vocal student and quiet timid student both have equal opportunity to express their opinion.[1]

Blogs can provide a means by which a person can document their life while living it, such as a travel blog which records experiences, photographs etc. Blogs can document information over any period of time, provide an opportunity to revist experiences, and monitor changes in views over time. Blogs can also provide a forum for creative expression through the design of their own webpage. Through the look and feel of the page a person can express elements of their individual personality.

According to Danah Boyd, blogs can also become a “virtual space to try our new concepts that do not fit within a hierachical or topic-based discussion forum”.[2] They are therefore more fluid, without restraint, and conversations and information is driven by the users. Current and instant information is easily accessible as soon as it is posted on a blog, without the time delay of editorial or technical restraints of print based materials. It gives the blogger full control and ownership over their on-line posts.

But what is the attraction of blogs and why would people want to share their sometimes very private thoughts publicly? According to Dana Boyd, people like to perform in public to try out ideas, to gain a reaction from others, figure out the barriers, and work out what is acceptable. It is a part of developing their personal identity, a way for finding out who they are, and whom they may have something in common with[3].

However as the Internet increases our public identity we become more visible. This could have negative consequences, for example when potential employers decision to hire a person may be influenced by information found on the web, “The successful will become more successful, and the unsuccessful will have fewer second chances.” [4] This easily accessible public domain has the potential for social humiliation and negative consequences if inappropriate material is made available through the use of blogs. It is important therefore to be careful to not publish anything that is inappropriate for viewing by friends, parents, teachers or future employers.

Social and Educational Implications

Blogs can be found everywhere when searching for information on the Internet, and it appears to be having a major influence on the way we interact with each other or access information. There have been major social and educational implications that have impacted on our society since the introduction of blogs in relation to the following:
Part 1 Identity and Voice
Part 2 Communication and connection
Part 3 Knowledge sharing and control over learning
Part 4 Reflective learning
Part 5 Collaboration

Tips for getting started

1. Instruction
Undertake some on-line instruction into how to use blogs, or enrol in a workshop to on how to use this tool, providing step by step instructions, guidelines and examples. University of Leeds provides some useful online resources http://www.sddu.leeds.ac.uk/online_resources/blogging/index.php

2. Create your own blog
To commence your new blog visit Create a blog and sign up for a free account. To help get started visit youtube video on how to start a blog http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU4gXHkejMo

There are many resources available to assist with developing your own personal blog or selecting other blogs to visit. The main points to ensure that the blog provides a focul point, is easy to navigate, loads quickly, stands out from the rest, not overrun with adds, easy to read, good use of colour and draw attention to important features.

How to start blogging: http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog/a_newbie_guide_to_the_bam.html

Tips for effecive writing for the web:
http://www.vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/effective-writing-for-the-web/

Characteristics of successful bloggers:
http://www.icvet.tafensw.edu.au/ezine/year_2007/jan_feb/documents/guidelines_blogs_wikis.doc

Evaluating blogs: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Weblogs:An_Introduction#Evaluating_blogs

3. Features and tools
After investigating the type of blogs being used there are a number of features and tools that can be used.

How to design your blog page:
http://www.vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/what-makes-good-blog-design/

How to use blogs to communicate:
http://edublogs.org/how-you-can-use-your-edublog-to-communicate

Creating an open or closed community
For example in a educational environment teachers and students can control who views or can contribute to their weblog. The following options are available:
a. Closed – only users approved by the owner can read
b. Semi-closed – only users approved by the owner can read and/or post
c. Semi-open – anyone can read, but only approved users can post
d. Open – anyone can read and/or post (including the general public)[1]

4. Policies and procedures
It is important to be familiar with the guideslines for using blogs including code of conduct, privacy, copyright, cybercrime, anti discrimination. etc. Users may also create their own rules for their particular blog.

5. Connecting with others
Blogs can provide a link to other feeds or you can use your own providers to be notified of updated posts. Eg.
RSS/Atom Feeds
Add to My MSN
Add to My Yahoo
Subscribe on NewsGator
Subscribe on Bloglines

5. Coaching & technical support
It is useful to establish a support network with people who can provide coaching or the necessary technical support and guidance that may be needed to help with building skills and confidence while learning to use and create blogs.

6. Suggestions for use of blogs
Students Use
:
a) Personal development portfolios
b) Project logs.
c) Placement journals(feedback and support can be provided via the post comments facility).
d) Group blogs can be used to organise regular seminar sessions for students to share summaries of readings (see Farrell 2003 example applications 3 & 4)
d) Gathering open and honest feedback from students through reviewing their posts.
d) Building an Alumni community through hosting blogs for graduates
e) Peer assessment and review
f) Support and reflection for students during placement or working on projects.
g) Group blogs

Teachers use:
a) Post course notices and course information or news.
b) Organise seminars and in-class discussion.
c) Provide records of own research activity as reference material for students.
d) Provide opinions on published research in your fielf as a continually updated reading list.
e) Provide discussion of course relatd topics linking to real world implications.
f) Building a resource for frequently asked questions. Students can use the comment facility to publicly ask questions of the staff member. The staff member can also use the comments facility to answer so providing the answer to the whole class of students. [2]

Blogging Tools

There are many free systems on the web dedicated to developing your own blog. Suggestions for what to look for in using and designing blogs can be found on
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Weblogs:An_Introduction#Evaluating_blogs

The following are examples of hosting systems:

Blogger

Blogger launched in 1999 is owned by Google provides some easy to follow step, a range of templates and additional features such as Audioblogger for posting audio recordings.


Moveabletype

This is free to schools and needs more server space and technical support on site. It has a number of plug-ins and extra features that are appealing to teachers and students.


WordPress

Wordpress is an alternative free system, where comments or links can be filtered, or moderated before publishing


Edublogs

Edublogs largest education free community on the internet designed in Australia in 2005 for teachers with a focus on teaching and learning, powered by WordPress, It is safe, secure and provides an opportunity to embed video, create podcasts and customise your space.


Bloglines

Bloglines is a free aggregator that offers blogging along with search and personalised subscriptions to blogs and news sources that you can access from any Internet connection


TypePad

TypePad is a hosted subscription based blogging service provided by Six Apart, targeting commercial uses

Ellg

Ellg is a non-commercial service used atLeeds university to host a community of blogs for the purpose of providing social networking

RSS Feeds

RSS otherwise known as Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication, is another tool built into most blogging software. This useful tool provides a link or feed from a website that can be viewed regularly. By subscribing to an aggregator, or news feeder collector, the website subscribed to can be collected and stored in a folder ready to view.

Technical barriers or issues.

Everyone has the potential to create and maintain a blogs, with the only requirement being that you need access to a computer and internet. There is now no need to have programming knowledge or skills, as was the case with the first blogs in 1992. There are some excellent resources available on-line to assist in the creation of a blog, and provide step by step guides for the novice.

There are some negative aspects to using blogs as an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tool for teaching and learning. Firstly users need to learn how to use the tool and develop confidence in using the technology. Many teachers still use computers for the basics, and may benefit form professional development, and access to a mentor to encourage them to use these tools on a daily basis.

Once blogs are set up there is still the problem of identifying and establishing networks to enable the user to connect with others, share information or make comments to others blogs. There is also the uncertainty of knowing how much information users will be prepared to make public, and whether they have the confidence to do this.

Key Players

Bloggers, or people who blog, can potentially be anyone who has something that they want to say on the Internet. This includes students, teachers, politicians, employees, companies, customers, and journalists. With over 50,000 created every day just about everyone can use a blog. Blog users can generally be categorised as primary users or creators of the web page; and secondary users including people visiting to read or commenting on the blog.

Search Engines specialise in searching for weblogs and help locate blogs on topics of interest including my favourites:

http://blogsearch.google.com/

http://portal.eatonweb.com/

http://deepblog.com/index.html

This blog lists all the searchs for weblogs. http://www.aripaparo.com/archive/000632.html

Case Studies

Blogs can be used in a variety of ways and the following provide some excellent examples of how they can be used and what they can look like in their design
Personal diaries: Over 7000 personal journals can be found on http://www.diarist.net/registry/

CASE STUDY 1

URL: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/bestof.html

Title of Weblog: Apophenia: making connections where none previously existed.

Description: Danah Boyd’s is a prolific blogger and has used this blog to organise all her blogs topics. They include recent essays and blog posts that deal with particular issues in depth.

Content: Photographs and details, calendar, categories of blog topics, titles and dates, academic papers titles.

Comments: This blog combines the personal comments and views with her professional papers, presentations, thus using it as a means of sharing information and inviting comments. This provides an example of how an academic or educator can collate and comment on issues related to their area of interest.

Other examples:
Technology Twitter: http://www.technologytwitter.typepad.com/

CASE STUDY 2

URL: http://belindasboulesbowlsnballs.blogspot.com/

Title of Weblog: Belindas Boules Bowls n Balls

Description: A personal blog to keep in touch while competing overseas.

Content: Photo, personal details, topic categories, photographs, comments for readers, subscribe feeds.

Comments: This is a great example of how to keep in touch with people through travel or competing overseas.


CASE STUDY 3

URL: http://mlearning.edublogs.org/2007/10/24/online-mlearn-2007-review-tomorrow/

Title of Weblog: Mobile Learning – an online reflective journal on mobile learning practices.

Source: Mlearn 2007 post conference discussion

Author: Leonard Low – Educational Technology Strategist at Canberra Institute of Technology, Departiment of Flexible Learning Solutions.

Content: This blog provids a forum for delegates and m-learning enthusiasts to participate in conversation as part of the Flexible Learning Networks Community.
IT also provides links to wiki site, resources, and other feeds.

CASE STUDY 4

URL: http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/beesbook/about

Title of Weblog: The Secret Life of Bees

Industry: Primary school

Content: This example demonstrates how a class used a blog to carry out a conversation about a book being studied and collaborate with a broad network of participants. The blog obtained 2,300 word responses from the world wide web, as well as creating a weblog for parents interested in reading the book.

What is a Blog

A blog otherwise known as web log is similar to a diary or personal journal which is the most common website on the internet[1]. It provides a mechanism of unedited on-line publication of personal thoughts and commentaries, including “experiences, observations, advice, impressions, analysis, notes, and comments”[2].

About.com suggests that blogs can be divided up into the following categories and gives examples of each for personal, art, political, news and current events, hobby, technology and computer, photo, sports, travel, commentary, business or professional, and education blogs.
An individual blog can be restricted to invited individuals and groups, or open to anyone on the world wide web to view and contribute their thoughts or comments. These ‘posts’ display the most recent entry first, and past entries are archieved in links displayed on the page. According to ICVET, blogs have “reshaped the web, impacted on politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others[3].

Blogs are an example of using Web2.0 social software, where connections with the wider social networks occur through using not only written text, but also photographs, video (videocasting), audio (podcasting), links and feeds to and from other web pages.
According to Technorati over 66 million websites are now found on the Internet (Feb 2007) with 100,000 blogs alone on Edublogs in October 2007[4]. This does not include those who do not make their blog public, or are created within learning management systems or intranets within institutes etc.

Additional blogging terms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_blogging_terms