edublog workshop slides - november 2005
DESCRIPTION
Slides from a workshop on blogging for educators, 2005TRANSCRIPT
edublogging
an introduction to weblogs and weblogging tools in
education
Josie Fraser17 November 2005
blogs!
• Websites – but not what we usually understand by that term
• Blogs are run by individuals, groups, spammers, institutions and corporations
• Examples in politics, commerce, professional and personal interest, and of course – education
names & dates
• ‘Weblog’ term first appeared 1997• ‘blog’ coined 1999• Oxford English dictionary included
weblog, weblogging and weblogger 2003
• edBlogger SF 2003 conference• …& here we are today
Technorati
• Technorati is an example of the international business infrastructure that has grown up around blogs
• Sunday 23rd October tracked 20 millionth blog
• Number doubles every 5.5 months• 80,000 new blogs created daily• Around 55% of all blogs are active
blog formats & tools
• Ease of use• Reverse chronological order• Permalinks• Categories & archives
Check these out at EdTechUK
more blog formats and tools
• Comments & trackbacks• Web feeds & feed readers• Public & ungated
Check these out at EdTechUK
blog practices
Non-technical blog conventions:• Short posts are fine• Developmental & explorative• Subjective and informal - • Enmeshed in distributed
conversations
community building
• People have always used the internet to socialise, network and form communities: message boards, chat
• Web 2.0: the web as a user-centred platform
• Stephen Downes: e-Learning 2.0
what is edublogging?
edublogs!
Learners, practitioners, researchers, edtechs, academics, policy makers using blogs to support teaching and learning
• At every level• Individual and group• Publicly and privately hosted• Multi-user and individual
Anne Davis's current inspirational school edublog project, The Write Weblog, commenting on how useful teachers are finding the student's PowerPoint, the Blooming Bloggers Show.
Adrieana, Alejandra, Alejandro, Ashley,Estefany, Jhonathan, Juan, Lacey, Marcos, Maria, Patrick, Paulina, Shelby and Yessenia from J. H. House Elementary School in Conyers, Georgia, US
Voice: from the BloomingBloggers show
• Is this interesting to me? • Did I give my opinion? • Did I say everything I wanted to? • What did I like the most? • Did my readers feel like they heard my
voice? • Do I like what I wrote? • Am I comfortable with what I wrote? • Does the story match my attitude? • How do I want my readers to feel?
• Check Check Check Check It! So if you don't make mistakes readers will think a grownup wrote it.
• Load your blog with hot topics! This will get the reader to stay and read like a dog in a swimming pool!
• Finish your posts with questions. That will make the reader think about what you wrote and you can think about what they write back.
Musselburgh Grammar School was the first school in the UK to use blogs to get pupils talking to each other. They use traditional web pages to present
'read-only' information and subject help to pupils from teachers, and weblogs to create interactional, cooperative projects with the community and other schools
abroad. Geoblog. Paris 2005 Krakow 2004 Paris 2004 Musselburgh-USA Pupil Council Online Head Teachers Letters
Musselburgh Grammar
researcher and edtech blogs
• International communities of practice
• Shared and collaborative research, writing and thinking
• Resources and practices• Knowledge work and management • Staff and organisational
development
James Farmer Lecturer in education design at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
Derek Morrison Director of Centre for the Development of New Technologies in Learning (CDNTL) at the University of Bath, UK
Stephen Downs Senior research officer with the National Research Council of Canada in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
edublog milestones
• Barbra Ganley – 5 years blogging in the classroom
• Gateshead Central Library weblog running since 2001
• James Farmer’s edublogs.org celebrated the services 1000th blog in just two months
20 millionth blog…
Les CE2/CM2 Anquetil, a blog from an elementary school in
Reims, France.
student blogs
• Setting and responding to tasks: using blogs to fulfil assessment criteria (curriculum centred)
• Discussion, reflection, community building (student centred)
• eLiteracy & finding a voice• ePortfolios
student blogs: questions
• Does blogging within an institutional framework/network limit the potential of the tool?
• How can the blogging that students prefer be best supported/exploited by institutions?
The most popular diagram in the e-learning world
Future VLE - The Visual Version Scott Wilson January 25, 2005
multi-user & individual blogs
• On the web or on your server• Groups, communities, teams,
individuals• Open Source • Multi-user blogging reviews:
• James Farmer• D’Arcy Norman
web-based blog services
• So we know the basic conventions by this point in terms of technologies, contexts & practices. How do I decide which blog is for me/my learners/my project?
• Web based blog comparison
web-based blogs• 20sixhttp://www.20six.co.uk/• ACLblogs.net http://www.aclblogs.net/• ACLearn weblogs toolkithttps://stagelogin.ngfl.gov.uk/login.php?camefrom=/• Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com
web-based blogs
• Elgg http://elgg.net• Typepad http://www.typepad.com• Yahoo http://360.yahoo.com/ • Xanga http://www.xanga.com/
workshop tasks
• Decide which of the services you will be exploring today. Think about the kind of community you want your blog to be a part of – or help create!
• Set up your own weblog. Choose a skin, fill out the profile page, make your first post (outline what the blog is going to be for, introduce yourself). Test out the areas outlined in the comparison chart.
feeds & readers
feeds & aggregators
• RSS or Atom XML: headlines, content and now adverts
• They come to you – desktop, webpage, aggregator
• You can make your own• Blogs, websites & news services
lets look at aggregators
• Bloglines
how do I find feeds?
• Look for the orange button• Google blog search• GMail RSS search• Bloglines• Edubloggers Frapper map
how do I find feeds?
• Technorati• Social bookmarks & tags • Make friends with bloggers• Find out your mum’s blog address
how can I mix my own feeds?
• Alan Levine (cogDogBlog) on RSS mixers
• ..part 2
what else might be cool?
• Feed to Java Script – Feed2JS
• Feedbook – Dave Cormier
• SuprGlu
Worldbridges
• Worldbridges.comDave Cormier and Jeff Lebow
weblogs:
• Easy to use, flexible and interactive
• Great for collaborative work, allowing bloggers to connect with others locally & internationally
• Ownership and online identity• Excellent source of information• Free!
feeds:
• The content you want…• …in one place• Effective knowledge management• Cutting edge debate & thought• Up to the minute news• Easy way to keep content fresh
your students (& staff!) are reading & writing blogs
Josie FraserILT Development Officer
Wyggeston & Queen Elizabeth I College, Leicester, [email protected]
November 2005