introduction to blogging

The Mind Lab by Unitec | Introduction to Blogging | 2015 1

Introduction to BloggingDr David Parsons, National Postgraduate

DirectorThe Mind Lab by Unitec, Auckland, New

Zealand


What is a Blog?

★ Short for ‘weblog’★ Consists of a series of ‘posts’ / ‘entries’★ May be by a single author or several★ May be personal or organisational


Why Blog?

➔ To share news➔ To share your expertise➔ To share your views➔ To share your interests and enthusiasms➔ To support a community


When Did it Start?

➔ Prior to the Web, the Internet provided Usenet◆ Mostly used for discussion, but also for some news-

style postings➔ When the Web arrived in the 1990s, Justin Hall became

one of the first bloggers with his web-based diary➔ Slashdot, a still popular blog, started in 1997➔ Merriam-Webster's Dictionary declared ‘blog’ as the

word of the year in 2004


Blogging Terminology

★ Jorn Barger first used the term ‘weblog’ (logging the web) with his Robot Wisdom Weblog in 1997

★ Peter Merholz (peterme.com) used the term ‘we blog’ on his weblog site in 1999, leading others to use the term ‘blog’ (as both a noun and a verb)

★ ‘Blogger’ (now owned by Google) created in 1999, popularising the term ‘blogger’ as one who blogs

★ The interlinked world of blogging is the ‘blogosphere’

http://www.peterme.com/


Blog Features

➔ Main content◆ articles listed chronologically

➔ Categories➔ Comments from readers➔ Links to other related blogs (blogroll)➔ Feeds (e.g. RSS) / posts to other social media➔ Link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks /

trackbacks)

)


Where Can I Blog?

❏ There are many blogging tools and web sites. Some of the more well known ones include:

❏ Blogger❏ Tumblr❏ Wordpress❏ Weebly


Some Popular Blogs

● The Huffington Post (news aggregator)● TMZ (celebrity gossip)● Business Insider (business news)● Mashable (media)● Lifehacker (personal productivity)● Gothamist (news, food, arts, events)


Blogging Advice1. Post regularly, but don't do it just for the sake of it

2. Have some kind of focus

3. Think about why anyone would want to read your blog

(is it useful? funny? well-informed? unique?)

4. Link to other resources (including other blogs)


Some New Zealand Education Blogs

The Mind Lab by Unitec Bloghttp://themindlabbyunitec.blogspot.co.nz/

NZCER Blogshttp://www.nzcer.org.nz/blogs/

CORE Education Bloghttp://blog.core-ed.org/

Learning & iPads (Richard Wells)http://ipad4schools.org/latest/

MarkMcguire.net - education / media / design http://markmcguire.net/

http://themindlabbyunitec.blogspot.co.nz/

http://www.nzcer.org.nz/blogs/

http://blog.core-ed.org/

http://ipad4schools.org/latest/

http://markmcguire.net/


Some Research into Blogs in Education

Blogs promote creative, critical, communicative, and collaborative skills (Duffy & Bruns, 2006.)

Blogging associated with exposure to more diverse viewpoints and increased commitment to writing and thinking (Ellison & Wu, 2008.)

Properly designed blog activities can help students to achieve higher cognitive levels through enhancing their collaboration skills and critical thinking (Angelaina & Jimoyiannis, 2012.)

Blogs can encourage computer supported collaboration through support for interaction, but shared blogs are demotivating (Kim, 2008.)


ReferencesAngelaina, S. & Jimoyiannis, A. (2012). Analysing students’ engagement and learning presence in an educational blog community. Educational Media International, 49(3), 183–200.

Duffy, P. & Bruns, A. (2006). The Use of Blogs, Wikis and RSS in Education: A Conversation of Possibilities. In Proceedings Online Learning and Teaching Conference 2006, 31-38. QUT ePrints.

Ellison, N. & Wu, Y. (2008). Blogging in the Classroom: A Preliminary Exploration of Student Attitudes and Impact on Comprehension. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 17(1), 99-122.

Kim, H-N. (2008). The Phenomenon of Blogs and Theoretical Model of Blog Use in Educational Contexts. Computers & Education, 51(3) 1342–1352.