So what is a blog?
blog = weblog the act of posting a new entry is blogging, doing this using mobile technology such as mobile phone is moblogging, using photos as your main content is photoblogging
Setting up a Blog
Two suggested blogging services are Blogger and MoTime, as they are both free services. These services both provide you with a space on the net to keep your blog as well as supporting you with help and user manuals.
What options are there for setting up a blog?
They can be hosted by someone else, eg MoTime, Blogger, LiveJournal
Pro: someone else has tech headaches, quick & easy to set up
Con: limited control and features depending on how complicated you want to be
Remotely installed on your webserver space, eg Drupal, Word Press, Movable Type
Pro: total control over system, can add in extras or plugins for extra features
Con: you need webserver space, need admin rights to install, if it breaks, you
have to fix
As a desktop application that uploads to your weblog, eg Radio Userland
Pro and Con: I haven't used these so can't comment...
To Set up a Blog
First you will need to decide which tool you want to use. Do you want:
- pictures - photos or other images
- categories - so you can organise your information
- other file types eg doc, pdf
I recommend that you check out the online manuals or help files for some of the blogging tools above to help you make a choice. Many blogging tools have an active user community that will be very informative as well. If you are prepared to search about and use a little technical knowledge, much can be achieved for free. The reason why most free blogging services don't have an integrated photo adding feature it increases the storage space needed. See below for information about Flickr if you are interested in including photos.
Start for free
It is best to start with a free service, such as Motime or Blogger. If you want to be able to categorise posts into topics, go with Motime. Typepad offers a 30 - day free trial and can do both images and categories, but is a paid service in the long term. Many people will use the free services and find they meet all their needs.
Want to include photos?
Flickr is a great tool that allows you to upload photos to a website, and you can also set it up so the photos also appear in your blog. The basic service is free but if you want to use lots of photos then a paid account gives you more storage space and extra features. You can find out more information in the user guide here. There are a number of cool tools that people have made for Flickr, some official, some unofficial many listed here.
Different ways of thinking about Blogging
James Farmer writes about "Edublogging" - blogging about Education and provides some pointers in a post called 'How to get started edublogging' . He writes that "Personal Publishing (PP) works… in a ton of ways:
- For sharing
- For expression
- For collaboration
- For, well, publishing in the traditional sense
- For discussion
- For all of the above both integrated and apart
- And a fair bit more"
Scott Leslie developed a matrix of some of the possible uses of blogs in education, which is available here. As he writes "a big caveat here - this matrix very much approaches the topic in the context of 'formal' education, and only really considers students, instructors and 'the rest of the net' as actors." James Farmer also provides access to workshop slides and audio about Use of Weblogs in Education here which also gives a real example of how you can use blogs as an alternative instruction mechanism which is not wholly text based.
The Art of Blogging
In this multi-page article, George Siemens of elearnspace writes about blogging in the context of information flow, access and sharing. I found his diagrams in particular interesting. George Siemens also produces a twice weekly email newsletter which I recommend - the subscription link is in the top right hand corner of his site.
How should I write?
Pattie Bell Hastings at Quinnipiac University has compiled some resources about Writing for Weblogs here. You will also find some ideas about using Blogger and the support that is available to users.
Amy Gahran suggests a continuum of style of blog post writing:
1. Link-only
2. Link blurb
3. Brief remark
4. List
5. Short article
6. Long article
7. Series postings
Have a read through her articles if you'd like to explore this - or alternatively, surf the net, find some blogs and create your own style.
How can I use blogs in education
From Maricopa Community College this website is a fantastic resource of ideas and tips on blogging aimed at educators. There's also a useful section on using Movable Type. Start with the home page, and investigate the links on the right hand side of the screen.
Anne Bartlett Bragg wrote an article (pdf 103kb) for the Knowledge Tree Journal of the Australian Flexible Learning Community. From the website "Anne provides a “5 Stage Blogging Process” and explains how blogs can be incorporated into pedagogical practice."
Michael Chalk 'reflects on the opportunities for using Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication (RSS), web logging (Blogging) and repositories in flexible facilitation, teaching and learning' in these pages for the Knowledge Tree Journal (Edition 5) of the Australian Flexible Learning Community.
Richard Ferdig and Kaye Trammell write about 'Content Delivery in the 'Blogosphere', including some 'Practical Suggestions for Implementing Blogs'
on the third and fourth pages of the article.
Where did all this information come from?
Each time I find an interesting and useful resource on the web, I'll add it to my Toolkit weblog. Information is sorted into categories, and is also searchable. This is what could be termed a knowledge log or k-log. So when I was preparing this resource I searched on a few key terms, checked the links were still live and copy and pasted into a new web page, and with a little bit of copy editing, here we are!
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