1. Blog: Technical features, affordances and pedagogy – analysis of technology
Features of the technology Affordances (activities and practice) Affordances (examples of pedagogy and designs)
Author
Single author  Generally single author setup
 Chronological entries
 A health professional is able to detail their treatment and support
approach for a de-identified patient over time enhancing
constructivist learning outcomes for both author and followers
 Personal or organisational visual feel created to suit author
expressive freedom and/or proposed audience engagement
 Settings use enables variation of learning space size to
accommodate a cognitive learner-coach relationship through to
true constructivist peer interaction and learning collaboration
 Health professional can embed image and or video of best
practice evidence-based technique to support text for either/or
colleagues or community members
 Links within a post draw community reader to earlier blog
entries; Situated links act as recommendations to external
(outside blog) content of perceived expert collaborative value
 Ease of use in line with common workplace/domestic software
tools
 Advanced authoring features allow expansion of design options
 Labelling (tags) ease content categorisation and thus assist the
community user searching for valid health information
 Ease of access via browser across operating platforms generally
suits both workplace and community level interaction
 Not restricted to desktop use – mobile compatibility high
 Compare to a news feed in order to access both emerging
published research content and associated comments
 Possible to both follow experts in a field (eg. Respiratory
Specialist) and be aware of the active community health voice
 Allows constructive learning approaches for both user and in
turn, author; Expert clarification realised on issues of concern
Design elements  Templates enable personalisation of visual
 Options for font/s
 Post-entry edit possible
 Privacy settings actionable – public v private
Embed multimedia  Options to include a range of multimedia
(image, video)
 Link to both internal (within blog) and
external content - collaborative
 Widget addition
Authoring methods/options  Visual (WYSIWYG) and/or html options
 Ease of use
Labelling  Enables categorisation and focus
User
Multi-platform/device access  Access independent of platform
 Multi-device compatibility
Lists  Reading lists to access new/updated content
 Current thoughts and practice – expert
opinion
Commenting  Post comment/s – collaborative; recommend
 Feedback - queries and clarification