This presentation discusses the use of Blogs in education

1. BLOG
Elaine Garcia & Mel Brown
Plymouth College of Art

2. BLOG
WEB LOG WEBLOG WE BLOG BLOG

3. BLOG
WEB LOG WEBLOG WE BLOG BLOG
Existed in basic form since the mid-90s, from travel
diaries to a log of URLs you want to save or share.
By the end of the decade this soon extended to news
and reference blogs, audio and video blogs – everything
that forms part of modern blogging was more or less in
place by the turn of the century.

4. WHAT ARE BLOGS?
blog
Pronunciation: /blɒɡ/
noun
“A personal website or web page on which an individual
records opinions, links to other sites, etc. on a regular
basis”
Oxford Dictionaries (2011)

5. WHAT ARE BLOGS?
“A blog is a collection of digital content that, when examined
over a period of time, exposes the intellectual soul of its
author or authors. Blogging is the act of creating,
composing, and publishing this content; and a blogger is the
person behind the curtain.”
(Stone, 2004)

6. Online diary/archive/portfolio, where each
‘post’ is titled and dated.
Posts can include text, image
& film, and you can tag each post with
keywords.
People can make comments.
They can be customised.
Blog Etiquette - hyperlinks to other web
sources.
There are permalinks for every single post
that never change.
WHAT ARE BLOGS?

7. WHAT ARE BLOGS?
Main Benefits:
• Allow de-centralised, distributed and yet interrelated
publication
• Any time, any place
• Multiple audiences
• Socially-transformative and democratizing potential (Herring et al,
2004)
• Promote Social Interaction
• Innovative Knowledge Sharing
• Flexible Media (mobile, tablets, web, etc)
• No knowledge of HTML required
• Content Management System

8. Main Types:
 Filter Blogs
 Notebook Blogs
 Personal Blogs
Reasons for blogging:
 Information Sharing
 Reputation Building
 Personal Expression
 Authentic audiences
WHAT ARE BLOGS?

9. BLOG SYSTEMS
Blogger
MoveableType
Wordpress
Tumblr
Typepad
Live Journal
Squarespace
Open Salon
Xanga
Blog Software Review - Top Ten Reviews

10. TWITTER
Micro blogging site
140 characters
300 million users (June 2011)
300 million tweets (June 2011)
1.6 billion searches (June 2011)
Reportedly key in events such as the Arab Spring, events in
Pakistan and UK privacy injunctions scandals

11. THE BLOGOSPHERE
TECHNORATI
http://technorati.com
State of the Blogosphere 2004 - 2011
Top 100 Blogs

12. THE LONG(ER) TAIL – CHRIS ANDERSON
 Before Digital Economy there were “hits” and “misses”
 Within the Digital Economy there are millions of niche
markets
 Rather than the 80/20 rule we now have the 98% Rule
 Reveals the hidden majority
 Moved away from the “tyranny of the local audience”
 The distribution chart now looks very different…..

13. THE LONG(ER) TAIL

14. BLOGGING ENGAGEMENT
 Writing
 Reading
 Commenting
1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/aepoc/1526778702/sizes/s/in/photostream/
2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/elrogos/4697925308/sizes/m/in/photostream/
3. ttp://www.flickr.com/photos/dharmasphere/20993325/sizes/s/in/photostream/
2
3
1

15. USE OF BLOGS IN EDUCATION
 Learning Journals
 Knowledge Logs
 Portfolios
 Collective Blogs
 Assessment
 Knowledge Sharing
 Task Management Blogs
 Information gathering
 Social Interaction
 Communication

16. SKILLS DEVELOPED IN BLOGS
 Improved reading and writing
 Reflective reading and writing
 Creative thinking
 Information and Knowledge collection skills
 Validity and reliability testing
 Using new technologies
 Critical thinking
 Ability to develop knowledge communities
 Working collaboratively
 Peer facilitated learning
 Giving and receiving feedback
 Value of and respect of others points of view
 Developing a writing style

17. BLOGS

18. BLOGS

19. haveamooch.blogspot.com
BLOGS

20. BLOGS

21. BLOGS

22. BLOGS

23. BLOGS

24. BLOGS

25. PDP BLOGS
PDPs are HE students’ Personal
Development Plans - an opportunity
for them to reflect upon the skills and
experience in development throughout
the Programme.

26. PDP BLOGS
PDPs are HE students’ Personal
Development Plans - an opportunity
for them to reflect upon the skills and
experience in development throughout
the Programme.

27. Students set up their PDP blogs early on within their YR1 work
based
learning module.
They begin by considering what skills they are developing over
those
first few months, posting images which, alongside talking about
and
reflecting upon their work, will also visually reveal their
development.
They will also use the blog to track any activities that they
undertake to
secure and engage with work based learning activities and
experiences.
PDP BLOGS

28. We ask them to name their blog: ‘pdp-firstnamelastname’
(eg. pdp-melbrown.blogspot.com)
The first thing most students do is spend time customising
their blog to make it their own. Once it has been set up
they
email us a link (or send an invite if they want it to remain a
closed or private blog where only certain readers have
‘permission’ to access it)
Blog Etiquette and we remind them to be professional &
sensible (this is for others to view – whether that’s staff,
peers,
family, friends or a wider public.
PDP BLOGS

29. Some posts are directed/initiated by staff. For
example, for
their first posts they post a favourite image they have
created (could be from a previous course, produced
over
the Summer, or work created in the first few weeks on
our
Programme) and they are asked to answer the
following
questions:
What skills do you arrive with?
PDP BLOGS

30. PDP BLOGS

31. PDP BLOGS

32. PDP BLOGS

33. PDP BLOGS

34. BLOGS
From PDP blogs…
to professional blogging.

35. BLOGS

37. REFERENCES
Downes, S (2004) Educational Blogging. EDUCAUSE, 2004 (Sept/Oct). pp14-26
Herring, S., Scheidt, L., Bonus, S. & Wright E. (2004) Briding the Gap: A Genre Analysis of Weblogs,
37th Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences. Hawaii IEEE
Oxford Dictionary (2011) Definition of Blog available at http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/blog.
Accessed 13/01/12
Rettberg, J.W. (2008) Blogging. Digital media and society series. Cambridge: Polity
Stone, B (2004) Who let the blogs out? : a hyperconnected peek at the world ofWeblogs. 1st edn:
New York: St. Martin’s Griffrn
Technorati (2011) The State of the Blogosphere Available at http://technorati.com. Accessed 13/01/12
Top Ten Review (2011) Blog Software Review available at http://blog-software-
review.toptenreviews.com/. Accessed 13/01/12