What is a blog?
A blog (short for Web Log) is an online journal or diary where individual users post thoughts, personal news, comments on news events, graphics or video. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic.
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The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Updates are often frequent and done on a regular basis. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order.
The collective community of all blogs is known as the blogosphere. Discussions "in the blogosphere" have been used by the media as a gauge of public opinion on various issues.
Several blog search engines such as Bloglines, BlogScope, and Technorati have emerged in the last few years. Technorati, which is among the most popular blog search engines, provides current information on both popular searches and tags used to categorize blog postings.
Blogs are now considered mainstream as political consultants, news services, and candidates use them as tools for outreach and opinion forming. Educators are also using blogs to provide their students with broad audiences for their writing. View the CommonCraft Video: Blogs in Plain English, for a deeper understanding of BLOGS. Read David Warlick's Blog Rules to get an overview of teachers' uses of blogging in educational settings.
Additional definitions
Pitfalls, Perils and Potentials
Introduction
The fact that anyone can publish anything instantly to a blog can be both good news and bad news. Many schools and districts block all blog sites even though many of them contain good, reliable information mostly because of the potential for abuse. Unfortunately many schools and districts also prohibit teachers and students from creating blogs. There are, however, safe blogging sites and procedures, and in many schools and districts where blogs and blogging were once prohibited, they are now embraced because teachers have shown how they benefit students in so many ways.
Perils and Pitfalls
The emergence of blogging has brought a range of potential dangers and other often unforeseen consequences including, but not limited to:
- postings that reveal too much personal information that may endanger personal safety
- postings that may be considered defamation and result in liability
- inappropriate postings that result in endangering employment
- posting opinions about politically sensitive areas that result in personal liability
- blogging takes times and blogging can become a time consuming activity
Potentials
Blogs .....
- General benefits to using blogs:
- sharing ideas with others
- enhancing and focusing writing skills and other communication skills
- thinking deeply about ideas presented by other bloggers
- building relationships with other bloggers
- establishing thought leadership
- Educational uses for blogs with K-12 students (adapted from WebTools4U2Use):
- Sharing personal and professional reflections and opinions
- Sharing news and announcements for the school community
- Creating collections of links for specific topics or assignments
- Sharing book reviews
- Sharing photographic essays and/or collections
- Accessing podcasts
- Disseminating slideshows and videos
- Posting student assignments and inviting other students' comments
- Documenting a remodeling or construction project’s progress
- Showcasing information literacy tools
- Disseminating information specifically for students
- Disseminating information specifically for teachers
- Announcing and documenting special events
- Encouraging collaboration and cooperation
- Publishing links, directions, resources and follow-up for workshops
- Providing reading/writing experiences
- Teaching about blogs, web publishing, netiquette, webpage design
- Educational uses for blogs for teachers
- Participating in professional development
- Learning more about a topic of personal interest
- Honing your writing skills
- Communicating and collaborating with other educators across the glob
Blogging Tools Popular with Educators
- Blogger Ranked as the most popular by school library media specialists, you can create your own free blog with this hosted tool and be online today. A variety of settings, templates and features are available. You can even email your posts to the blog. Blogger is now part of the Google family of web applications.
- EduBlogger As the name implies, Edublogger was created for teachers and students. A free demo is available. There is a built in grading system, and a notification to the teacher when students do not complete there assignments in the blog. Pricing depends upon the number of users.
- Blogmeister Another full-featured hosted blogging system designed specifically for students and teachers. You can create a blog with individual student sub-blogs. Free, but you must request a school registration code. You can find class blogs by others on the site, too.
- LiveJournal A free, open-source hosted blogging system.
- GaggleBlogs From the people who provide Gaggle email services for students and teachers, Gaggle blogs provides teacher administered blogs. Words and URLs are scanned and blocked when necessary, and the teacher can control access by specific students. Both free and fee accounts are offered.
Educators' Blogs
Blogging Tutorials
- Atomic Learning A comprehensive workshop designed to acquaint you with blogs, how they can be used, and how to set up your own blog using Blogger. Some lessons are free.
- Blogging 101 A presentation about blogs and blogging from a journalist. Examples of different kinds of blogs are provided.
- Blogger Tour An overview of one of the oldest and most popular blogging tools and how to create your own blogs.
- Blogging Basics for the Classroom From TeachersFirst, a step-by-step guide to blogs, ideas for blogs in education, and help in creating your own blog. Charts are available for the major free educational blogging tools.
- Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts: Web 2.0 Tools You Can Use A slideshow answering the questions what, why and how to use these tools in a library setting.
- Edublogs - Video Tutorials A series of videos showing how to use Edublogs
- Edublogs Help Resources including some video tutorials and many other how-to's
- Fusion: Blogging Handouts, slideshows, screencasts, links and more
- Getting Started with Blogs A library media specialist shares "how-to's" on her wiki including ideas for using blogs, step-by-step instructions for starting a blog on EduBlogs, and a variety of good blogs including some for librarians and library media specialists.
- Library Clips: The many ways to post to your blog No excuses for not posting! This page gives a variety of ways and tools. You'll be sure to find one or two that will work for you!
- Screencast tutorials on using LL4Schools blogging tools.
- Moving Forward: Blogs Resources related to K-12 blogging, including articles on blogs by educators, good examples of blogs in classrooms, by teachers, by administrators and, of course, by library media specialists. Also, how to set up a blog using one of many different tools--most free.
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