Techknowlogy… The T is for Knowledge
Morning/Afternoon/Evening folks,
In my grad class tonight, I have to give a quick presentation on new technology that’s being used. It doesn’t necessarily even have to be school-based, so guess what? I’m going to give a short diatribe on the wonders of blogs/blogging. Things I’ll mention include:
1) How Easy Blogging (Ebjournalling) Is…
2) Designing your own vs. using someone else’s stuff vs. hosting your own and using someone else’s stuff.
3) Types of Blogs (Forum/Politics/Photo/Web Clippings) –I thought I would point out a few sites that I visit, depending on time.
4) Why Blogs are Important ( or are they?!)
What I need from you, loyal 12.4 readers, is suggestions. Anything you think I should use to introduce to the class. They (Hello, ladies!) know what blogs are, but haven’t had the opportunity to see what/why it’s out there, and why they’re such a big deal. (or over-hyped, as the case may be on this site 
) In other words, what’s important to know about blogs/blogging?
Suggest away… and thanks!
RSS Trackback URL 16. November 2005 (07:05)Filed under: General, School Daze, Techie, not Geekie, Site-Based Management
3 Comments»
Cindy
16. November 2005 | 10:55 hWhether or not blogs are important is a question only time will answer… we’ll leave that one for the ages.
I will say that I think it could have some cool implications for teachers.
#1 - if you require your kids to keep journals, why not make them electronic and reduce the amount of paper by having the students create blogs???
#2 - If you want to create a message board to discuss issues in class or share ideas, blogs are free and easy to use - for an example of this go to www.read301-33.blogspot.com to see how my reading class is using it.
#3 - blogs are a great place to post homework assignments, etc. and also resources, websites, etc. for your students to check from home… it’s a heck of a lot easier than learning HTML and having to find a host for a website.
#4 - it’s a nice forum for kids to use to create published work - when kids know there’s an audience actually out there, they take a lot more pride in their work/writing than they do when it’s just for you.
So there are some thoughts for you to share about blogging. See ya!
Rich
16. November 2005 | 12:53 hI think that one of the “big deals” about blogs is that they make website publishing more accessible. One could create their own website where they post their thoughts and allow others to comment, but that requires a certain technical ability that most people don’t have. Blog software allows anyone familiar with a web browser (and who isn’t these days) to be their own interactive website. No worries about hosting or HTML or databases. The importance of blogs comes from the fact that they enable a much larger population to take part in the internet. Once a user has their own blog, they might feel more comfortable editing a wiki or posting on a news group. This increased use of all the internet has to offer adds to everyone’s experience. We all benefit.
Dave
16. November 2005 | 13:34 hThis was a reading for my class this semester:
http://www.ics.uci.edu/%7Ejpd/classes/ics234cw04/nardi.pdf
I don’t agree with all of its points, or how it got to them, but it’s a sample of views on blogs and their usages.
It’s probably worth distinguishing between RSS and blogs, although blogging implies RSS these days. You can use tools like http://bloglines.com and http://www.technorati.com/ to track popular and active news sites (some of which are blogs,) if they’re looking for more content.
As Rich and Cindy pointed out, and the paper does to some degree, is that blogs are really lowering the must-be-this-tall-or-smart bar to get content online easily in a way that’s easily found. Most blogs allow for an interactive experience (like leaving a comment,) and that’s turning the webspace umop apisdn. No more worring about HTML, or how to get feedback from your readers. Blogs make this easy.