What is a weblog?
A Weblog through the eyes of the crowds (Wikipedia):
- A blog (short for web log) is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic.
- The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of most early blogs.
- Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.
- The term "blog" is a blend of the words web and log (Web log). "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Blogging in Higher Education: Ideas!
- Educators can blog:
- to communicate and exchange ideas on their research
Example of a research blog - to create a community or a network (of educators in or outside of an institution) around a shared interest (course, research topic)
Example of a theme-based blog, an educational blog, a teacher's blog
- to communicate and exchange ideas on their research
- Students can find the use a weblog interesting:
- to communicate and exchange ideas on a school task: paper, thesis, Ph.D. This can be done individually or in group (group task). It can also be used in the context of internships or student placements.
Example of a Thesis blog, a Ph.D blog, a Theme-based blog, an Internship blog
- to learn to search, find, analyse and synthesise information (is is useful, relevant, recent, to be trusted, etc.) (information skills)
- to learn to form an opinion to allow discussion and constructive critiscism (social skills)
- to learn to cope with feedback (peer review, peer pressure)
- to learn to write a concise and meaningfull post with a good argument
- to learn computer skills
- to communicate and exchange ideas on a school task: paper, thesis, Ph.D. This can be done individually or in group (group task). It can also be used in the context of internships or student placements.
- Institutions can find blogging interesting:
- as an alternative for a normal website: the typical categories of a weblog can be defined as menu buttons; the chronological posts give the necessary information
- as an event calendar: each new post announces news or events
- as a collection of posts by all co-workers of the institute on their specialism
Example of a weblog of a research institute
How to get started?
A weblog can be created through free or paid services.
- The most common free services are Blogger (a Google service) or Wordpress.
If you are a newbie Blogger is the easiest way to start blogging yourself. - More advanced, free systems are Content Management Systems with weblog functionality such as: Drupal, Nucleus or Joomla!
- A popular paid service is Typepad.
Many universities or High Schools also support weblogs through their Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Blackboard or WebCT. Please contact your ICT department if this support is available.
Let's try this out !