What the Heck is a Blog and Do I Want One?

Mike Ribble

College of Education

Ben Ward, Swasati Mukherjee & Shalin Hai-Jew

Office of Mediated Education

What are Blogs• Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines a

blog as a “website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.

• Wikipedia goes on to talk about the range of blogs from “individual diaries to arms of political campaigns, media programs, and corporations”.

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents

Where Did It Begin?

• Term “weblog” coined in 1997 by Jorn Barger then shortened to “blog” by Peter Merholz in 1999.

• Its precursors were AP Wire, Ham radio “glogs”, Usenet, e-mail lists and bulletin boards.

Source - Wikipedia.com, accessed: 8/26/2005

http://www.httoday.blogspot.com/

How Did It Become So Popular?

• Political Influence - 2001-2002, fall of Trent Lott, rise of Howard Dean and Wesley Clark

• 2003, Iraq War - “Baghdad Blogger”

• 2004, “Rathergate” - bloggers exposed documents as forgeries

Source: Wikipedia.com, Accessed 8/26/2005

http://www.weblogg-ed.com

Blogs Today

• 27% of American Internet Users visited a blog in 2005, up 58% from 2004

• Blog readers tend to be young, male, well-educated, internet veterans

• 12% of American internet users have posted comments on others blogs up from 4% in 2003.

Source: pewinternet.org, The State of Blogging Report (January 2005)

http://powerlineblog.com

http://wizbangblog.com

So How Can They Be Used In Education?

• Instructors - posting content related information, networking or knowledge sharing, instructional tips, announcements, annotated links

• Students - reflective journals, assignment submission, dialog for groups, share resources

• University - recruiting tool, announcements

http://www.erau.edu/db/journals/st5.html

Issues/Problems in Blogging

• Students can write just about anything - and sometimes do

• Things written today may be held against you in the future

• Where is the boundary between freedom of speech and my rights

http://www.xanga.com

I have given you some ideas to think about - now go and try some of them out. Always remember, start

small and build on successes.

Now let's hear from Ben, Swasati and Shalin on how to create and maintain a blog. They will also discuss the Instructional Design Open Studio blog that they've all

started..found at

http://ome.ksu.edu/id/blog