Blogging for Educators 101Laura Turner – Computer Technology Instructor

College of Education at BHSU

What is a blogg?

A blog according to Wikiepdia, is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

What do blogs contain?

Blogs usually deal with news on a particular subject

The typical blog has text, images and web links to other web sites or other blogs

Where did the term Blog originate from?

A blog is short for a web log and was started in 1997 when the term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger.

The short form, "blog," was coined in 1999 by Peter Merholz, who shortened the word weblog into blog.

This term eventually became known as both a noun and verb

When did blogging start?

Blogging rapidly gained in popularity in the early 1990s.

The site Xanga, which was started in 1996-1997 with about 100 diaries, grew to over 20 million by 2005.

Blogging history

Blogs became even more popular beginning in 2000 with arrival of the first blog creation tools.

Previous to this, early weblogs were simply manually updated components of common websites.

Blogging history

By 2001, blogging how-to manuals began to appear

In 2002, Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga began DailyKos

It has now become one of the Internet's most trafficked blogs with 1 million hits each day

Blogging history

Since 2002, blogs have gained increasing notice for their role in shaping and spinning news stories.

Trent Lott Iraq war 2004 Tsunami Katrina

Blogging history

In 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream with use by:

Candidates Political consultants New services

Gartner Group Forecasts

Gartner Group forecasts that blogging will peak in 2007, leveling off when the number of writers who maintain a personal website reaches 100 million.

Garner Group Forecasts

This firm also estimates that there are now approximately 200 million former bloggers who have stopped maintaining their online diaries which in turn has created a huge rise in the amount of dotsam and netsam (unwanted data) on the Web.

What is a edublog?

An edublog is a blog written by someone within the educational community usually teachers

The collection of these blogs is called the edublogosphere

Major eduboggers are

Stephen Downeshttp://www.downes.ca

Michael Feldstein http://mfeldstein.com

Will Richardson http://www.weblogg-ed.com/book

Edublogging ideas

Use your blog as a website list assignments list web links list school/class related information

for your students

Use your blog for interactive writing assignments (pg 13)

More edublogging ideas

Use your blog as a reading tool Students may be more excited to

read information on the web, than in paper or blackboard form.

Post questions for your students to answer or think about

Post actual reading assignments for your students to read

More edublogging ideas Have your students create their own

blogs – at a pre-reviewed site by you

Students could blog on a specific topic as an assignment

Student could post an assignment on their blog

Students could post comments on another student’s blog as an assignment

These ideas would require more work on the teacher’s part as far as correcting these types of an assignments.

Free webblog sites and related blog informational

sites

http://teacherlingo.com Teacher Lingo A growing teacher community that connects teachers and educators

from every level.

http://www.classblogmeister.com Class Blogmeister This online blogging tool is explicitly designed with teachers and students in mind, where the teacher can evaluate, comment on, and finally publish students' blog articles in a controlled environment.

http://supportblogging.wikispaces.com Support Blogging This site has been set up to provide an opportunity for students, teachers, administrators, parents, and others to help promote an understanding of the benefits of educational blogging.

More free webblog sites and related blog informational sites

www.blogger.com Blogger – easily create a blog in 3 steps

http://buzz.blogger.com/bloggerforword.html Blogger with Word Information

http://supportblogging.wikispaces.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers Blogs on Educational Blogging

More free webblog sites and related blog informational sites

www.teacherhosting.com Teacher Hosting This site is designed for and supported by teachers and educators who share an interest in technology and a dedication to the art of education. We understand that educators face an ever-expanding and bewildering set of options every day.

http://www.esu5.org/techteacher/interactivelearning.htm#blogs Tech Connected Teacher’s Blogging Information

www.21publish.com Get Your People Blogging. Multi-User blogging made easy.Hosted, private-labeled, free

More free webblog sites and related blog informational sites

http://www.edspresso.com Education News Blog

http://gaggle.net/gen?_template=/templates/gaggle/html/blog/index.jsp

Gaggle Student Blogging http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/

archives/TL/2003/02/blogs.php Writing with Web Logs from Tech Learning

More free webblog sites and related blog informational sites

http://www.tltgroup.org/blogs.htm Exploration Guide: Educational Uses of Blogs, Wikis, RSS Feeds, etc

http://www.eschoolnews.com/BlogReport.pdf Best of the Education Blog’ Awards

Educator’s blogs to read

http://mt.middlebury.edu/middblogs/ganley/bgblogging Barbara Ganley

http://anne.teachesme.com Anne Davis http://davidwarlick.com/2cents David

Warlick http://tim.lauer.name/ Tim Lauer www.mchron.net/site/edublog.php Ken

Smith

More educator’s blogs to read

www.theshiftedlibrarian.com Jenny Levine

www.teachandlearn.ca/blog Konrad Glogowski http://technosavvy.org/ Tom Hoffman

www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.htm Stephen Downes

Now lets create and edit a blog

with eBlogger

lauraturner@bhsu.edu Educational Web Portal

http://www.bhsu.edu/education/edfaculty/lturner/index.html