The Future of Blogs Will Richardson Weblogg-ed.com

Blogs are no longer about the technology…

Its now about imagination.

July 12, 2005

The State of the Blogosphere

Blogs are blooming…

40+ million blogs

Doubles each 5.5 months

A new blog each second

Over 20 million active blogs 3 months later (55%)

1.2 million posts a day

Edublogging

But…

There are voices of transformation…

"A student came to me this morning carrying a globe and a look of complete amazement on his face. I know, sounds like the intro to a joke... but seriously, he pointed at the globe and said "Shanghai is in CHINA! Someone read my blog in CHINA!" As if this wasn't perfect enough a student looked up from his blog and said, "Mr. Showers already told you, we are world wide!" and then calmly went back to entering his blog."

Clarence Fisher

It is about communication. It is about the light it gives them into the lives of others and their ideas. This changes how we use technology with kids. The user friendliness of these tools has democratized who uses them, who has a voice, and who we get to hear. When computers were hard to use and the tools were complex, we heard from geeks and hackers, now we hear the voices of teenage girls. Wait until technology penetrates into places it isn't right now. When we hear from more African girls, and the voices of young boys in South East Asia, I'll know that we are getting somewhere. It will be their lives, their stories, and their hopes spilling into blogs, podcasts, and wikis. They are the next line of early adopters.

Anne Davis

It is empowering to students that they can voice their thoughts and immediately see them published on the web. Then the anticipation they feel when they open their own blogs and knowing that someone cared enough to comment and care about what they wrote. It really gives them ownership in a way we could never provide within our classroom walls.

Darren Kuroptawa

When a student is scribe they take particularly good class notes and think deeply about what they learned that day. The process of writing their scribe (we've created a new use for that noun) forces them to reflect on their learning and work to articulate the lesson as though they were teaching it. The paradigm in medical school is watch it, do it, teach it. My students have brought that paradigm into our classes.

Konrad Glogowski

When I think of blogs, I think primarily of what this technology enables my students to accomplish. When I look forward to reading their entries and comments I am really looking forward to thoughts made visible.

Blogging Benefits:

Motivation

Writing Skills

Reading Skills

Collaboration

Connective Learning

Learning by Network Building

Learning by Community Building

Examples

Math Blog

Class and Student Blog

Audio Blogs

Project Blog

Student video blog…

Staff Development blog

So…

Blogs are…

Archive

Communication Tool

Collaboration Space

Portfolio

Learning Space

But…

Is the blog future bright?

Obstacles

Fear (of Technology)

Solution: Better teacher training (new and old)

Fear (Safety)

MySpace would be the 15 th most populous country in the world.

Solution: Education specific tools

Blogmeister November Learning Communities 21Publish EduBlogs.org

Fear (of Change)

Solution: Small Steps (Read blogs)

Time

Solution: ??????

Lack of Research

Solution: Research

Lack of Support

Solution: Easy Tools Hosting

So, what is the future of blogs?

Web Publishing is not going away

We are at a turning point in the technology industry, and perhaps even in the history of the world. –Tim OReilly (May 14, 2006)

"We do not realize how significant the Read-Write internet could be." --Lawrence Lessig Author Free CultureLawrence Lessig

If you have access, you can take charge of your own learning.

Convergence of the tools

Audio Commenting Hyperlinked Radio

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs)

Elgg Moodle Others

Small Pieces Loosely Joined

Blogs might go away…

But in a world that is ubiquitously connected and pervasively proximate…

…the idea behind blogs will not