Blogs
See our guide for information about Twitter
A blog is a website normally maintained by an individual (but occasionally more) with regular entries of commentary, descriptions, ideas, arguments, and possibly graphics, audio, and video. There are currently more than 112 million in existence.
Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order and allow for the other readers to interact and leave comments at the end of each posting.
Blogs range from dedication to a single subject to a wider range of interests to personal diary observations on anything and everything. Blogs often link to other pages and other blogs - creating a virtual 'Blogging Community'.
While most are text-based, some blogs take the form of audio (podcasting) or video (vodcasting).
A blog allows a user to easily and quickly upload information (including text, graphics, and video) to a specially set-up site.
Bloggers often provide regularly updated entries that range from commentary, project progress, to personal diaries, etc.
Readers are able to add 'comments' on the bottom of each entry. These comments can be moderated by the blogger themselves if they wish. This way a conversation can develop between blogger and audience (and between other readers).
Microblogging takes place when someone creates very short posts using applications such as Twitter.
Use in education
Blogs are able to:
- Help create connections between students, teachers, and other audience members.
- Promote reading and writing habits. They might be able to improve writing style, reflective writing, turn taking, time to read, opportunity to comment etc
- Students are able to create their own content based on their personal learning experiences. They're also able to critique and/or help others by leaving 'comments' at the bottom of a blog posting.
- Blogs can reach huge audiences. Students and educators can have their content read by people from all around the world.
- Bloggers often find it easy and desirable to make sure they produce regular content for their blog.
- Users of Microblogs (e.g. Twitter) can quickly generate streams of posts that replicate conversations and allow for the quick dissemination of information (e.g. Twitter streams)
- Various microblogs can be collated by users who wish to follow a news event etc. (E.g. by 'following Tweets' from people on both sides of an argument a user can follow an argument in real-time)
Real uses of blogs
in education
Advice on creating meaningful online discussions.
A website about how to use blogs including a section on using blogs in education.
How do I do that?
How to setup a blog
Blogging sites are usually free and have their own help and support sections to get you started. Simply choose a style, look, and set of functions that appeal by looking through the various Blogging sites available (see our list of Blogging sites on the right)
Micro blogs
Microblogs allow shorter posts to be used. In the case of Twitter you're allowed a maximum of 140 characters.
See our guide for information about Twitter
Some Blogging applications
Some Microblogging applications
Examples of existing Blogs
These are some different styles of Blogs. (They just happen to be Blogs about E-Learning)
- Second Life at UWE
- Clive on Learning
- Connectivism
- Digital Chalkie
- Internet Time Blog
- elearnspace
- E-Learning Queen
- Learning and Technology
- Moving at the Speed of Creativity
- Stephen's Web
- The Knowledge Tree
- XplanaZine
Blogging subjects
Educators generally blog about school news, philosophies, and class activities. On the other hand, students tend to write about current events, personal beliefs, and topics related to their education.
The trick is to decide what you want to blog about to meet your goals. For example, do you want to present lecture notes so that students can comment on them? Do you want to create an online 'diary' for a project? Or do you want to start a conversation between students - making them think about a topic?
RSS feeds
RSS (most commonly translated as 'Really Simple Syndication' but sometimes 'Rich Site Summary') are web formats used to publish frequently updated works (such as podcasts, vodcasts, blog entries, news headlines) in a standardized format.
An RSS document (which is called a feed, web feed, or channel) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.
Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. Users can then subscribe to these feeds and download content automatically (e.g. subscribing to a podcast of a popular radio programme will result in your internet-connected computer automatically downloading that show every time it is podcasted).
Page last updated 23 April 2012