BLOGElaine Garcia & Mel Brown

Plymouth College of Art

BLOGWEB LOG WEBLOG WE BLOG BLOG

BLOGWEB 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 – everythingthat forms part of modern blogging was more or less inplace by the turn of the century.

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)

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)

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?

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

Main Types: Filter Blogs Notebook Blogs Personal Blogs

Reasons for blogging: Information Sharing Reputation Building Personal Expression Authentic audiences

WHAT ARE BLOGS?

BLOG SYSTEMSBlogger

MoveableType

Wordpress

Tumblr

Typepad

Live Journal

Squarespace

Open Salon

Xanga

Blog Software Review - Top Ten Reviews

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

THE BLOGOSPHERE

TECHNORATIhttp://technorati.com

State of the Blogosphere 2004 - 2011

Top 100 Blogs

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…..

THE LONG(ER) TAIL

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

USE OF BLOGS IN EDUCATION Learning Journals

Knowledge Logs

Portfolios

Collective Blogs

Assessment

Knowledge Sharing

Task Management Blogs

Information gathering

Social Interaction

Communication

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

BLOGS

BLOGS

haveamooch.blogspot.com

BLOGS

BLOGS

BLOGS

BLOGS

BLOGS

BLOGS

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

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

Students set up their PDP blogs early on within their YR1 work basedlearning module. They begin by considering what skills they are developing over thosefirst few months, posting images which, alongside talking about andreflecting 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.

We ask them to set up their blog through blogger.com – a verystraightforward process and one of the more user friendly sites.

PDP BLOGS

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

Some posts are directed/initiated by staff. For example, for

their first posts they post a favourite image they havecreated (could be from a previous course, produced overthe Summer, or work created in the first few weeks on

ourProgramme) and they are asked to answer the followingquestions:

What skills do you arrive with?Why did you choose Illustration?What area of illustration most inspires you?

PDP BLOGS

PDP BLOGS

PDP BLOGS

PDP BLOGS

PDP BLOGS

BLOGS

From PDP blogs…to professional blogging.

BLOGS

REFERENCESDownes, 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