Blog

Definition

• A blog or weblog is a web-based application where authors write regularly some articles such as in a journal or diary. Entries are displayed in reverse chronological order.

• "Weblogs provide a format for critiques of other Web materials along with various personal touches. They are structured like journals, with their segments identified by time and date. . . . The weblog format allows developers (often known as "bloggers") to work either alone or in teams. It supports a wide range of personal expression and interaction as individuals access and comment on one another's weblogs.. . . Along with critiques of various articles and web sites, weblog development can also incorporate "day-in-the-life" narratives and other forms of personal information." (Jo An Oravec)

Types of blogs

• Typical single user blogs (see below)
• Embedded blogs in portals (e.g. in C3MS, LMS or CMS systems
• Collective blogs, e.g. news engines or the default module displayed in a C3MS

Architecture of a typical single-user blog

Generally a weblog is composed by different elements:

Articles

A weblog engine enables the possibility to enter a new article via a web form. User can write a title, an excerpt and the body of the article. He can also choose the categories in wich he will fill the new article. The user can always modify or edit the previous articles. The visitors can post comments to articles.

Each article (or post) is generally composed by different elements:

• Title
• Date of writing/posting
• Author
• Content
• Permalink of the article, i.e. the URL of the full article.

Most better blogs also include:

• Categorie(s)
• Number of comments plus a links to open them. Note however, that due to spamming problems, many bloggers have commenting disabled.
• Trackback (and/or number of trackbacks), i.e. links to other sites that refer to this entry

TrackBack “is a mechanism for communication between blogs: if a blogger writes a new entry commenting on, or referring to, an entry found at another blog, and both blogging tools support the TrackBack protocol, then the commenting blogger can notify the other blog with a "TrackBack ping"; the receiving blog will typically display summaries of, and links to, all the commenting entries below the original entry. This allows for conversations spanning several blogs that readers can easily follow.” ([1])

Main page

Recent Articles (main block)

The main page displays the most recent articles sorted into a reverse chronological order. A variant or similar application are news engines where only the trailers of articles are displayed.

Sidemenu

Generally, depending on the layout choosen, we can find several navigational links:

• monthly archives
• category archives
• search form
• blogroll (a list of blogs that the author reads)
• Sometimes RSS feeds from other blogs (usually just the title)
• An "RSS" button that provides the URL of the blog's RSS export(s).
• A button that lists blogs that link to this blog (e.g. via Technorati search)

How To / Installation

If you have a hosting, you can install a standalone plateform (we have dressed a small list of the most important Open Source blogging tools). You can also open a blog without any installation. You can find a lot of commercial solutions (Google is your friend).

Popular open source softwares

1. WordPress: based on PHP/MySQL is one of the best blog engines. The new version of WordPress integrates a small CMS
2. MU WordPress: based on WordPress this version enhance some functionalities. The administrators can create more blogs with one installation. WordPress permits to have only one blog at time
3. TextPattern: based on PHP/MySQL
4. DotClear: french blog engine
5. b2evolution: like MU WordPress
6. Nucleus: multi-blog-CMS like MU WordPress (PHP/MySQL)
7. Roller Weblogger: like MU WordPress but based on Java

Search engines

• Traditional search engines like Google web search rather do a bad job with blogs (since blogs are focused on what is new and not contents that are referred to by many sites over a very long times). Therefore rather use specialized services like:
• Technorati, see Wikipedia:Technorati
• Feedster, see Wikipedia:Feedster
• Goggle Blog Search

Educational Usages

Draft

• Technically speaking, there is a difference between using a blog among other tools within a design, or wether it is the "center stage" medium. DSchneider uses blogs in his own teaching just as little reflection tool within his C3MS project-based learning model.

• A blog can be given to individual students, to groups or to the class as a whole. Note: if students use multiple blogs, make sure to understand how the "blogsphere works" (i.e. learn about how blogs connect with RSS and trackback mechanisms, e.g. see the [Wikipedia article] for technical details.

Typical educational use includes, for example:

• as a note taking tool in classes
• to collect resources and ideas (with small comments and reflections). That is actually what most "academic" blogs do. E.g. a very fine "world class" example is Pasta & Vinegar.
• as note taking tools for (before/during/after) field trips, e.g. to write down questions, observations, reflections, etc. See inquiry learning
• as a (class or project) management tool (instead of a forum or any other writing tool).
• as a collaborative tool {{comment | this is too vague ..}
• as a news tool for a school or even a class
• as a website (instead of a CMS tool or HTML pages)
• as reflection tool
• as discussion tool (either via the comment tool or within a multi-blog setup with trackbacks)

Teachers’ and students' approach in educational blogs

Teachers' approach

Nowadays teachers are introducing in the classroom new kinds of technologies. This fact involves an improvement in the means of learning but also a change in people's attitude when teaching or learning. Here we are going to understand teachers’ attitude when they meet their students in blogs.

Blogs, as means of teaching and learning, can be a useful tool for both, students and learners. Thanks to this technology they get in touch on line; this fact provides a way to communicate openly, without finding each other face to face. Education blogs create a new kind of classroom: there, students and teachers meet beyond the boundaries of the school yard and they can improve their skills through a continuous communication between them.

An English teacher, Will Richardson, (see Washington Post), has written a book on web tools for classrooms. In his book he says that in 2002 he created a blog for his students about the literature course; the result was that this fact stimulated the conversation outside class and this fact permitted him to understand his students’ real interest about that course. He concluded that blogs as teaching tools provided transparency in the contact between him and his students.

Learners are trying to face this change: someone agree with the use of educational blogs, others refuse them. I think that in this case what interests us is the first position. In a blog entitled “The question of teacher roles in Blogging –yet- traditional classrooms” , Barbara Ganley, explores the teacher’s best attitude in front of this technological tool. Her opinion might be summarized in at least eight rules:

• The teacher has to be a consultant, a guide.
• He does not have to dominate the classroom.
• He has to participate on the blog alongside the students.
• He has to help students in working together.
• The teacher’s presence is necessary to set climate and select content.
• All members of educational blog need to have a strong presence.
• The teacher never has to use grades.
• He has to stay off the center of the blog.

Students, in this way, can have the chance to explore and complete their [e-tivities] without the anxiety for the final mark. However the presence of the teacher is necessary to give them some feedback about the result of their work; then teachers stay alongside the blog, keeping on setting the tone and the mood but without imposing judgements or rules.

Students’ approach

Nowadays blogging is getting more and more used as a new learning technology and many studies, which have been carried out in the last few years on the use of this new learning tool demonstrate that it can be very useful for students and for their learning process.

In my opinion this new technology can be very useful for students for several reasons; first of all, writing on blogs students express ands exchange their interests, opinions and thoughts feeling themselves free from the teacher’s judgment; for this reason they carry out their activities enjoying themselves and they don’t get bored as it often happens with traditional activities taking place in the classroom. Moreover, thanks to blogging students can reflect on course material in a public way that encourages feedback on the activity carried out and this seems to have the potential to motivate students’ learning and writing.

When students write on blogs they don’t come face to face with each other; I think that this thing can spur them on to communicate between each other, especially those students who never intervene in discussion taking place in the classroom because of their shyness or because they are afraid of making mistakes. After having carried out an activity students are supposed to provide feedback on the post of their schoolfriends; they analyse it from the point of view of grammar, content and finally, they express their opinion. This response is very useful for students as it helps them to learn from each other, to correct their mistakes and to avoid repeating them in the future.

Eric Wiltse , a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wyoming, in his study “Blog, Blog, Blog: Experiences with web logs in journalism classes” describes his students’ impressions on their new experience: an online journalism class project on writing web logs or blogs. He writes: “One student commented that he liked being able to read classmates' blogs. Another said that she has received instructor feedback on journals for other classes, and would have liked me to provide more feedback on her blog. Several mentioned that the blogs were easier to create and change and more useful than journals they had written. […] At the end of the semester, I set up a blog to gather student reaction to the filter blog project. I wanted to know about their general reaction to blogging, whether the project helped them learn about web design, and, if so, what they learned by doing the filter blog. The class' reaction was generally positive, although it was the first attempt at blogging for everyone in the class. Several students said they enjoyed the interaction with other people that is possible on blogs. James commented, ‘The blog project is interesting. It is really neat to interact with other people in the class and to analyze websites it has given me ideas on what to do and what not to do.’ Melvin added, ‘It is a very new and creative way to communicate with others and to read other group member's comments on the blogs.’ Other students noted that, even though they had never blogged before, they enjoyed the project. For instance, Arnold said, ‘This is my first Blog, and I have to say its pretty fun. I don't know much about them, but they appear to be easy enough to use’. […] I think blog assignments could be adopted for any class that involves a writing component. The immediacy of publishing one's writing and the possibility of a reader anywhere in the world commenting on that writing make blogs powerful learning tools”.

Reading this study and basing on my personal experience (I am using blogging in my English course) I can state that thanks to this learning tool students can really improve they writing skills; moreover, it is very useful for them because thanks to it students can really learn from each other.

Links

• Walker, J. Various entries in the "Blogs and teaching category" from jill/txt. HTML

• Blogging? It's Elementary, My Dear Watson!, Education world article.

• Selingo, Jeffrey (2004), In the Classroom, Web Logs Are the New Bulletin Boards, The New York Times, Aug 19, 2004. HTML

• Educational blogging as a research tool

• Creating Community, On-line and Off

• Bloggers Need Not Apply ....

• O Baoill, Andrew, Conceptualizing the Weblog: Understanding what it is in order to imagine what it can be, University of Illionois at Urbana-Champaign. PDF

• Washington Post,Teacher Makes Blogs A Staple at High School

• Ganley, Barbara,The Question of Teacher Roles in BLogging -yet- traditional Classrooms

• Wiltse, Eric, Blog, Blog, Blog: Experiences with Web logs in journalism classes

References

• Baumgartner, P. & Kalz, M. (2004). Content Management Systeme aus bildungstechnologischer Sicht in Baumgartner, Peter; Häfele, Hartmut & Maier-Häfele, Kornelia: Content Management Systeme für e-Education. Auswahl, Potenziale und Einsatzmöglichkeiten, Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2004.

• Baumgartner, P., I. Bergner und L. Pullich (2004). Weblogs in Education - A Means for Organisational Change. In: Multimedia Applications in Education Conference (MApEC) Proceedings 2004. L. Zimmermann. Graz: 155-166. PDF

• Baumgartner, P. (2004). The Zen Art of Teaching - Communication and Interactions in eEducation. Proceedings of the International Workshop ICL2004, Villach / Austria 29 September-1 October 2004, Villach, Kassel University Press. CD-ROM, ISBN: 3-89958-089-3. PDF

• Downes, Stephen, Educational Blogging, DUCAUSE Review, vol. 39, no. 5 (September/October 2004): 14-26. HTML (also as PDF)

• Farmer, J. (2004). Communication dynamics: Discussion boards, weblogs and the development of communities of inquiry in online learning environments. In R. Atkinson, C. McBeath, D. Jonas-Dwyer & R. Phillips (Eds), Beyond the comfort zone: Proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE Conference (pp. 274-283). Perth, 5-8 December. HTML - PDF

• Fiedler, S. (2003). Personal webpublishing as a refective conversational tool for self-organized learning. In T. D. Burg, BlogTalks. (pp. 190-216). Vienna, Austria. PDF

• Ganely, Barbara, Blogging as a Dynamic, Transformative Medium in an American Liberal Arts Classroom, WORD

• Kevin Brooks, Cindy Nichols, and Sybil Priebe (2004) Remediation, Genre, and Motivation: Key Concepts for Teaching with Weblogs, Into the Blogosphere, HTML

• Godwin-Jones, Bob (2003) Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-line Collaboration, Language Learning & Technology, Vol. 7, No. 2, May 2003, pp. 12-16. (pdf) (html)

• Laurie Mcneill (2003). Teaching an Old Genre New Tricks: The Diary on the Internet, Biography, Volume: 26. Issue: 1.

• Oravec, Jo Ann, (2002), Bookmarking the World: Weblog Applications in Education - Weblogs Can Be Used in Classrooms to Enhance Literacy and Critical Thinking SkillsJournal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, v45 n7 p616-21 Apr 2002

• Oravec, Jo Ann (2003) Blending by Blogging: weblogs in blended learning initiatives, Journal of Educational Media, Volume 28, Numbers 2-3 / October 2003, 225 - 233

• Oravec, J. (2003). Weblogs as an emerging genre in higher education, Journal of Computing in Higher Education. 14(2), 21-44.

• Oravec, Jo ann (????). the "Transparent" Knowledge Worker and Locational Privacy. PDF (deals with KM-related issues).

• Philleo, Thomas & Gary M. Stiler (2003), Blogging and Blogspots: An Alternative Format for Encouraging Reflective Practice among Preservice Teachers. Education. Volume: 123. Issue: 4.