Writing the Web - blog

Writing the Web - the blog

• Memes: addressable content chunks, distributed conversations
• Size: 50 million blogs tracked by Technorati (summer 2006)

Platforms:

• Blogger http://blogger.com/
• LiveJournal http://www.livejournal.com/
• TypePad https://www.typepad.com/
• Moveable Type http://www.movabletype.org/
• WordPress http://wordpress.org/

Community-based

• Regional http://www.erieblogs.com/
• Urban
  • New York City http://www.nycbloggers.com/
  • Baghdad http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
  • San Francisco http://sf.metblogs.com/

Diversity

• Warblogs (http://www.command-post.org/, http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/ )
• Diaries http://www.opendiary.com/
• Carnivals (http://blogcarnival.com/bc/, http://educationwonk.blogspot.com/2005/02/carnival-of-education-info-and-extra.html, http://historycarnival.blogsome.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_Carnival )
• Knitters http://wendyknits.net/
• Moblogs http://joi.ito.com/moblog/
• One area of users: 12 million using Moveable Type, LiveJournal, Typepad
  • the majority are women (Anil Dash, MeshForum 2006)

Education

• Syllabus http://ssad.bowdoin.edu:9780/courses/f03/eng015/
• Classblog http://religious-studies.blogspot.com/, http://pc30sf06.blogspot.com/, http://bobsprankle.com/blog/ (archived)
• Student co-authoring http://ssad.bowdoin.edu:9780/courses/f03/eng104/
• Student blogs http://www.centenary.edu/blogs
• Library-based blogs http://blog.lib.umn.edu/
• Information fluency http://joycevalenza.edublogs.org/
• Students abroad http://mt.middlebury.edu/middblogs/cchilds/carrie/2006/02/
• Weblog edutrip: http://edutrip2006.blogspot.com/

Research - public intellectuals on the right and left

• Eugene Volokh, law http://volokh.com/
• Juan Cole, Middle Eastern studies http://www.juancole.com/
• Paul Myers, biology http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/
• Jean-Claude Bradley, Chemistry, http://usefulchem.blogspot.com/

New .edu forms

• blogging content http://www.pepysdiary.com/
• mixed blogs http://joe.english.purdue.edu/blog/
• world blogging http://mt.middlebury.edu/middblogs/ganley/bloggingtheworld/
• blog seminar http://www.long-sunday.net/spivak/
• the blog book http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590280555/

Barbara on pedagogy with blogs

• Pierre Levy, collective intelligence
• one course blog: http://mt.middlebury.edu/middblogs/ganley/el170b/
• another course blog: http://mt.middlebury.edu/middblogs/ganley/bgblogging/artswriting_blog/
• Student blogs
  • Self-organizing
  • Linking to targets of reflection, to community
  • As e-portfolio
  • As models over time, archived
• Requirement to blog post, blog comment?  Group can reinforce (a la "wisdom of crowds")
• What about mistakes, errors archived?
  • Learning on the edge of chaos
  • Discuss the issues involved
• What about reading everything students produce?
  • One answer: selectivity (letting go of control)
• Quality control
  • Model good writing, posting, commenting
  • Instructor not replying to a post first - let peers do it, to build peer learning
• Multimedia blogging, embedding other media into blogs (images, sound, video)
  • Can use a multimedia document to change campus environment
• Open versus closed
  • open: engage the world, engage discourse (guest spots, comments from experts)
  • closed: vulnerability in learning
  • inappropriate posting? monitor (take the garbage out!) - teaching, learning moments
  • FERPA angle: sign-ups?
  • Turn off comments over time? Yes, but students sometimes persist anyway
  • Comments as challenge, review, stimuli

Exercise: design a blog-based lesson, table by table.  How to engage learning community by showing what a blog-activity would look like, that makes sense based on local objective?

•  Pharmacy learning objective: becoming informed about contemporary policy issues - blog fits well for news, current events, real issues (class size  130)
  • Each group blogs (circa 15 apiece)
  • catalyst: argumentative editorial
  • why not discussion board: linking, discovery, archiving
  • guest speakers and commentators
  • is the academic community naive about the benefits o using blogs?

Best practice summary attempts* Get blog participation going by posting, reacting to posts* Make blog activity, content important for participants* Community practice comes from communities* Blogs as student space* Guest speakers* Blogs as eportfolio feeder and/or containerProblem of correct answerCardinal of Boston blogs: http://www.cardinalseansblog.org/

Using bloggs for research, after universities are reserach and educational organizations?

Back to Seminar 02F - Social Software, Teaching, and Learning